The Sociology Research Seminar is the main venue for scholars from around the world to present work in progress at the Department. It is open to all, and strives to feature innovative sociological research from a variety of perspectives. The seminar meets every other week in the Michaelmas and Lent terms.

All talks are held in the Robert McKenzie Room
St Clement's Building - Room S219
12.30 - 14.00

The 2020 schedule can be found here: Research Seminar Series

The Human in Human Rights

Co-hosted with LSE Human Rights

Monday 19 October 2020

Speaker: Professor Craig Calhoun (Arizona State University and LSE)
Chair: Dr Monika Krause (LSE)

Find out more about the event

The New U.S. Climate Battleground: Actors and Coalitions in the States

Part of the Social Life of Climate Change seminar series

Tuesday 13 October 2020

Speaker: Professor J. Timmons Roberts (Department of Sociology and Institute at Brown for Environment & Society, Brown University)

Book Launch: Anticolonial Afterlives

Monday 12 October 2020

Speakers: Dr Adam Elliott-Cooper is (University of Greenwich), Dr Dina Makram-Ebeid (American University in Cairo), Dr Adam Hanieh (SOAS), Professor Laleh Khalili (Queen Mary, University of London), Dr Sara Salem (LSE)
Chair: Professor John Chalcraft (LSE)

Watch the recording here

American Resistance

Thursday 8 October 2020

Speakers: Professor Dana Fisher (University of Maryland)
Chair: Dr David Madden (LSE)

Watch the recording here

Time to fire the canon? Sociology and the coloniality of knowledge

Wednesday 22 July 2020

Speaker: Dr Ali Meghji (University of Cambridge)
Chair: Dr Clive James Nwonka (LSE)

Find out more about the event

Humankind: a hopeful history

Co-hosted with the International Inequalities Institute

Wednesday 1 July 2020

Speaker: Rutger Bregman (Historian and author)
Chair: Dr Poornima Paidipaty (LSE)

Watch the recording here

Set the Night on Fire: LA in the sixties

Monday 8 June

Speakers: Professor Mike Davis (University of California), Professor Jon Wiener (UC Irvine)
Discussant: Professor Robin D G Kelley (UCLA)
Chair: Dr Glyn Robbins (LSE) 

Watch the recording here

The Fate of Internationalism: talking solidarity in a pandemic

Thursday 7 May

Speakers: Dr Anthony Alessanddrini (The City University of New York), Dr Noura Erakat (Rutgers University), Dr Christina Heatherton (Barnard College, Columbia University)
Chair: Dr Ayça Çubukçu (LSE) 

Watch the recording here

Radiographies of the Human and the Inhuman: victims and perpetrators of Mexico's drugs wars

Wednesday 19 February 

Speaker: Dr Ernesto Schwartz-Marin (University of Exeter)
Chair: Dr Claire Moon (LSE)

Find out more about the event
Listen to the podcast here

Conceptualizing Declining Reproduction: exploring old and new fertilities within assisted reproduction in India

Monday 9 December

Speaker: Dr Anindita Majumdar ( Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad)

Find out more about the event

The Rights of Aliens Under International Law: towards a critical history
Annual Human Rights Day Lecture

Monday 2 December

Speaker: Professor Antony Anghie (University of Utah)
Chair: Dr Ayça Cubucku (LSE) 

Find out more about the event

The Icon Project: a book launch

Thursday 28 November

Speaker: Professor Leslie Sklair (LSE), Discussant: Professor Ricky Burdett (LSE)
Chair: Professor Fran Tonkiss (LSE) 

Find out more about this event

Coloniality, Whiteness and Curricula: theorising with students on LSE’s racial attainment gaps

This Seminar is part of our Decolonise! Seminar Series

Wednesday 27 November

Speaker: Dr Sara Camacho-Felix (LSE)

Ruined Skylines: a book launch

Wednesday 20 November

Speaker: Dr Günter Gassner (Cardiff University),  Professor Esther Leslie (Birkbeck), Professor Christoph Lindner (The Bartlett, UCL)
Chair: Dr David Madden (LSE) 

Find out more about the event

The End of Working-Class Solidarity? The Chinese Workers and Students in Struggle

Thursday 14 November

Speaker: Professor Pun Ngai (University of Hong Kong)
Chair: Dr Robin Archer (LSE)

Find out more about the event

Ordinal Citizenship
Annual British Journal of Sociology Lecture

Friday 25 October 

Speaker: Professor Marion Fourcade (University of California-Berkeley)
Chair: Professor Nigel Dodd (LSE)

Listen to the podcast

Decolonising the University: Thinking Through a Collective Project

This event forms part of our Decolonise! Seminar Series

Wednesday 23 October

Speaker: Dr Meera Sabaratnam (SOAS)

Black and Postcolonial Feminist Connections

Wednesday 16 October

Speakers: Professor Saidiya Hartman (Columbia) Dr Rafeef Ziadah (SOAS) Dr Gail Lewis (Birkbeck), Dr Suki Ali (LSE)
Chair: Dr Sara Salem (LSE)

Find out more about the event 

Veiled Threats: prevent, populism and patriarchy

Tuesday 15 October

Speaker: Dr Naaz Rashid (Sussex), Fatima Ahdash (LSE), Samayya Afza (Muslim Council of Britain)
Chair: Dr Suzi Ali (LSE)

Find out more about the event

Racism, Gender Relations and Miscegenation: rethinking Flame in the Streets

Co-hosted with the Department of Gender Studies

Tuesday 8 October

Speakers: Dr Clive James Nwonka (LSE), Professor Laura Mulvey (Birkbeck)
Chair: Dr Sadie Wearing (LSE)

Black Pedagogy: Teaching Race in Higher Education

Hosted with LSE EmbRace

Tuesday 1 October

Speakers: Dr Abenaa Owusu-Bempah (LSE), Dr Coretta Philips (LSE), Dr Clive James Nwonka (LSE), Dr Suki Ali (LSE)

Decolonise! A Long Table Seminar Series

Wednesday 12th June

Speaker: Dr Adam Elliott-Cooper (Kings College London)

Rethinking Human Rights: a southern response to western critics

Hosted by LSE Human Rights

Wednesday 22 May

Speaker: Muthoni Wanyeki (Open Society Foundations)
Chair: Dr Bronwen Manby (LSE)

Listen to the Podcast

Internationale Blues: revolutionary pessimism and the politics of solidarity

Hosted by LSE Human Rights

Friday 17 May

Speaker: Professor Robin D G Kelley (UCLA)
Chair: Dr Ayça Çubukçu (LSE)

Listen to the Podcast

Raquel Rolnik: Urban Warfare - housing under the empire of finance

Monday 25 March

Speaker: Professor Raquel Rolnik (University of São Paulo)
Discussants: Dr Glyn Robbins (Defend Council Housing) and Dr David Madden (LSE)
Chair: Dr Suzanne Hall (LSE)

Listen to the podcast

Workshop: The Knowledge of Human Rights

Hosted by LSE Human Rights

Friday 22 March

Find out more about the event

Human Rights Knowledges: a pluralist and legal realist view

Hosted by LSE Human Rights

Thursday 21st March

Speakers: Professor Richard A. Wilson (UConn Law)
Chair: Dr Monika Krause (LSE)

Find out more about the event

White Screens/Black Images: James Snead and Black America in Film

Tuesday 12 March

Speakers: Professor Colin MacCabe (University of Pittsburgh)
Chair: Dr Clive Nwonka (LSE)

Find out more about the event

Law in a World of Struggle

Hosted by LSE Human Rights and the Department of Law

Thursday 7 March

Speaker: Professor David Kennedy (Harvard Law School)
Chair: Professor Gerry Simpson (LSE)

Find out more about the event

Racial Inequality in Britain: the Macpherson Report 20 years on

Thursday 7 February

Speakers: Professor Kalwant Bhopal (University of Birmingham), David Lammy MP (Labour Party), Dr Clive James Nwonka (LSE), Dr Faiza Shaheen (Centre for Labour and Social Studies)
Chair: Dr Coretta Phillips (LSE)

Listen to the podcast or watch the video

The Class Ceiling: why it pays to be privileged

Hosted with the International Inequalities Institute

Monday 28 January

Speakers: Dr Sam Friedman (LSE), Dr Daniel Laurison (Swarthmore College) 
Discussants: Dr Louise Ashley (Royal Holloway),Dr Faiza Shaheen (Centre for Labour and Social Sudies)
Chair: Professor Mike Savage (LSE)

Listen to the podcast or watch the video

Tabula Rasa Regeneration

Wednesday 23 January

Speakers: Alberto Duman (Middlesex University), Dan Hancox, Malcolm James (University of Sussex), Anna Minton (University of East London) 
Chair: Dr David Madden (LSE)

Listen to the Podcast

Book launch: Citizenship in Africa: The Law of Belonging

Thursday 15 November 

Speaker: Dr Bronwen Manby (LSE)
Respondents: Dr Chaloka Beyani (LSE), Professor Nic Cheeseman (University of Birmingham)
Chair: Professor Chetan Bhatt (LSE)

Find out more about the event

British Journal of Sociology Annual Lecture 2018

From "having" to "being": self worth and the current crisis of American society

Thursday 25 October

Speakers: Professor Michèle Lamont (Harvard) 
Chair: Dr Rebecca Elliott (LSE)

Listen to the podcast

199Z: Diversity Revisited and Fashion at the Saatchi Gallery

Thursday 16 October

Speakers: Dr Anna-Mari Almila (London College of Fashion), Dr Agnes Rocamora (London College of Fashion), Jake Young Shim, Jamall Osterholm, Dr Serkan Delice (London College of Fashion)

Chair: Dr Don Slater (LSE)

Find out more about the event

Renewing Sociology in the Digital Age

Thursday 11 October

Speakers: Professor Susan Halford (President, British Sociological Association)
Chair: Professor Mike Savage (LSE)

Listen to the podcast

199Z: Diversity Revisited and Fashion at LSE

Monday 8 October

Speakers: Dr Mukulika Banerjee (LSE), Professor Sandy Black (London College of Fashion), Professor Ben Voyer (LSE), Dr Joanne Entwistle (King's College London), Dr Natascha Radclyffe-Thomas (University of the Arts London)
Chair: Dr Don Slater (LSE)

Find out more about the event

For the Love of Humanity: the World Tribunal on Iraq

Thursday 4 October

Speakers: Dr Ayça Çubukçu (LSE), Professor David Graeber (LSE), Haifa Zangana, Professor Kimberly Hutchings (Queen Mary), Dr Tor Krever (Warwick), and Dr Lori Allen (SOAS)
Chair: Professor Tarak Barkawi (LSE)

Listen to the podcast 

British Journal of Sociology Annual Lecture 2017

The Social Life of DNA: racial reconciliation and institutional morality 

Thursday 26 October

Speakers: Professor Alondra Nelson
Chair: Professor Nigel Dodd

What Is Housing for?

Monday 23 October

Speakers: Anna Minton (UEL), Alex Vasudevan (Oxford), David Madden (LSE)
Chair: Suzanne Hall (LSE)

Strangers in Their Own Land: bridging a growing divide

Monday 30 October

Speaker: Professor Arlie Russell Hochschild
Chair: Dr Rebecca Elliott

Mao Zedong and Cultural Revolution: history versus myth

Thursday 16 March 

Speaker: Andrew Walder
Chair: Robin Archer

Housing, Financialisation, and Human Rights: A conversation with Leilani Farha, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing

Monday 6 March

Speaker: Leilani Farha
Chair: David Madden.

Understanding Self-Injury: A Symposium for National Self-Injury Awareness Day

Wednesday 1 March

Speakers: Kay Inckle (LSE), Conor McCafferty and Noella McConnellogue (Zest, NI), Wedge (LifeSIGNS UK). 
Chair: Kay Inckle

Sociologies of Competition

Tuesday 21 February

A workshop organized by the Economic, Technology and Expertise Research Cluster

A Material Sociology of Markets: the Case of ‘Futures Lag’ in High-Frequency Trading

Thursday 23 February

Speaker: Professor Donald MacKenzie.
Chair: Dr Bryan W. Roberts, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, LSE. 

The Big Picture: The People vs. America

Tuesday 7 February 

Department of Sociology and Al Jazeera Film Screening

Moderator: Richard Gizbert, Al Jazeera English Senior Presenter. 
Chair: Dr Michael McQuarrie

Do We Really Live in an Acceleration Society?

Thursday 12 January

Speaker: Professor Hartmut Rosa
Discussant: Professor Judy Wajcman
Chair: Professor Nigel Dodd         

Society and Politics in the Age of Trump: Sociological reflections and critical discussion

Thursday 8 December

Department of Sociology Open Discussion

In Defense of Housing

Wednesday 25 October

Speaker: Dr David Madden
Discussants: Dr Melissa Fernandez, Dr Suzanne Hall, Dr Paul Watt
Chair: Dr Hyun Bang Shin

Sociology of WE Du Bois: why Du Bois is the founder of American scientific sociology

Thursday 20 October

Speaker: Professor Aldon Morris
Chair: Professor Nigel Dodd

Sociology After Brexit

Monday 10 October

Speakers: Professor Craig Calhoun, Professor William Outhwaite, Professor Gurminder K. Bhambra, Dr Will Davies, Dr Lucy Mayblin, Dr Lisa McKenzie.

Resist: Festival of Ideas and Actions

Department of Sociology Festival

Launching on 26 September with a public lecture by fashion designer and activist Vivienne Westwood, followed by three days of events from 28 to 30 September.