2024 Events

Fathers in a Motherland: Imagining Fatherhood in Colonial India

Hosted by the Ayahs and Amahs Research Network

Friday 14 June 2024 at 9:00pm. Online event.

Speaker: Professor Swapna M. Banerjee, Professor of South Asian History, Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York

Swapna Banerjee recently published her monograph Fathers in a Motherland: Imagining Fatherhood in Colonial India (Oxford University Press, 2022). This book breaks new ground by weaving stories of fathers and children into the history of gender, family, and nation in colonial India. Focusing on the reformist Bengali Hindu and Brahmo communities, the author contends that fatherhood assumed new meaning and significance in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century India. During this time of social and political change, fathers extended their roles beyond breadwinning to take an active part in rearing their children. Utilizing pedagogic literature, scientific journals, autobiographies, correspondences, and published essays, Fathers in a Motherland documents the different ways the authority and power of the father was invoked and constituted both metaphorically and in everyday experiences.

Power, politics, and belonging: the lasting impacts of colonialism 

Hosted by LSE Festival: Power and Politics

Saturday 15 June 2024 at 12:00pm – 1:00pm. In-person and online event. Marshall Building. 

Speakers: Professor Neil Cummins, Professor of Economic History in the Department of Economic History at LSE; Leah Eryenyu, Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity; Dr Maël Lavenaire, Research Fellow in Racial Inequality in the International Inequalities Institute at LSE

Chair: Dr Sara Camacho-Felix, Assistant Professor (Education) in the International Inequalities Institute at LSE

Politics of power and wealth have had a huge impact on the structuring of inequalities across the globe. As the racial and ethnic inequalities that we see today stem from centuries of discrimination and marginalisation, in order to tackle them, we will need to understand how they have been embedded in the very structures of our societies. 

We discuss examples of racial and ethnic inequalities from the 19th century to the present day in an attempt to unravel the legacy of past injustices and investigate the link between power, politics, and belonging. 

Defending democracy: building solidarity with persecuted writers, journalists, and artists

Hosted by LSE Festival: Power and Politics

Saturday 15 June 2024 at 2:00pm – 3:00pm. In-person and online event. Marshall Building. 

Speakers: Ross Holder, Head of the Asia/ Pacific Region at PEN International; Professor Alpa Shah, Professor of Anthropology at LSE; Salman Usmani, writer, editor, and digital communications specialist

Chair: Dr Ayca Cubucku, Associate Professor in Human Rights and Co-Director of LSE Human Rights at LSE

Amidst the surge of global authoritarianism, how do we protect the freedom of speech and the freedom of dissent that is crucial for democracy? What is the role of global financial institutions and regimes in the crackdown on dissent in faraway places? What role do international human rights organisations, cultural spaces and educational institutions have in protecting the spaces of democracy globally? 

In this event, we examine the persecution of writers, academics, journalists and artists across the globe, and question the unwitting role of international financial regimes and reflect on how we might cultivate international solidarity and carve out vital spaces of hope in these globally challenging times. 

Cart before the Horse? Unpacking the Pathways between Social Norms, Opportunities and Women's Work

Seminar hosted by the International Inequalities Institute 

Wednesday 5 June 2024 at 2.00pm - 3:30pm. In-person event. Marshall Building, Room 2.06 (MAR.2.06).

Speaker: Ashwini Deshpande, Visiting Fellow, III (joint with Anisha Sharma, Ashoka University)

Chair: Naila Kabeer, Faculty Associate, III; Professor of Gender and Development, Department of International Development

Mainstream analyses of low and declining labour force participation of women in India focus on the constraints imposed by conservative social norms that prevent women from accessing paid work opportunities. Accordingly, most interventions and policy suggestions focus on changing norms through individual behavioural changes. How valid is this understanding? Historically, have gendered norms related to women's employment changed in response to material conditions, or is a prior change in norms a precondition for increasing participation of women in paid work? The talk draws upon examples from international historical experience, and analyses Indian national level data over the last three decades to document which social norms have been changing and to what extent. I present evidence on the specific constraints on women's participation in paid work, arising from low demand for female labour,  which needs to be understood within the wider context of insufficient productive employment opportunities. The evidence will highlight the importance of intersectionality in the analysis of the interplay between norms and opportunities. 

Visions of inequality: from the French Revolution to the end of the Cold War

Hosted by International Inequalities Institute

Thursday 30 May 2024 at 6:30pm – 8:00pm. In-person event. Sheikh Zayed Theatre, Cheng Kin Ku Building. 

Speaker: Professor Branko Milanovic, Research Professor at the Graduate Center at City University of New York (CUNY), Senior Scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality at CUNY, and Visiting Professor at the International Inequalities Institute at LSE

Chair: Professor Facundo Alvaredo, Co-Director of the World Inequality Database and the World Inequality Lab

Join us for this talk by Branko Milanovic about his new book, Visions of Inequality: from the French Revolution to the end of the Cold War.

A history of how economists across two centuries have thought about inequality, told through portraits of six key figures. “How do you see income distribution in your time, and how and why do you expect it to change?” That is the question Branko Milanovic imagines posing to six of history's most influential economists: François Quesnay, Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, Vilfredo Pareto, and Simon Kuznets. Probing their works in the context of their lives, he charts the evolution of thinking about inequality, showing just how much views have varied among ages and societies. Indeed, Milanovic argues, we cannot speak of “inequality” as a general concept: any analysis of it is inextricably linked to a particular time and place. Meticulously extracting each author’s view of income distribution from their writings, Milanovic offers an genealogy of the discourse surrounding inequality. These intellectual portraits are infused not only with a deep understanding of economic theory but also with psychological nuance, reconstructing each thinker’s outlook given what was knowable to them within their historical contexts and methodologies.

Climate Equality: A planet for the 99%

Hosted by the International Inequalities Institute, Oxfam, Stockholm Environment Institute and Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity

Tuesday 4 June 2024, 5.00pm to 6.30pm. Online event.

Speakers: 
Dr Fadhel Kaboub, Associate Professor of Economics, Denison University; Dr Sivan Kartha, Equitable Transitions Program Director, SEI US; Madhumitha Ardhanari, Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity

Moderator:
Nafkote Dabi, Climate Change Policy Lead, Oxfam International

The super-rich are burning our world. The world confronts twin crises; climate breakdown and runaway inequality. The richest people, corporations and countries are destroying the world with their huge carbon emissions. Meanwhile, people living in poverty, those experiencing marginalisation, and countries in the Global South are those impacted the hardest. The world needs an equal transformation. Only a radical reduction in inequality, transformative climate action and fundamentally shifting our economic goals as a society can deliver wellbeing for all within a liveable planet.

Labour Inequalities Bound In Histories Of The Colonial And Postcolonial: A Workshop On Impact And Knowledge Exchange

Hosted by International Inequalities Institute

Monday 20 May, and Tuesday 21 May 2024, 9.30am to 5.00 pm. In-person and online event. Marshall Building, Room 1.07.

This workshop aims to deepen theoretical knowledge of the impacts of colonialism by exploring marginalized and disadvantaged cohorts who remained invisible at the formal close of empire in South Asia (1947 onwards) and the aftermath. Categories who have gone unnoticed, unaccounted, and remained hidden or have escaped our attention. What was the relationship of these groups to the colonial state, economy, and civic society? How did they confront colonial practices? What kind of knowledge systems, skill sets, labour and world views were they able to offer that met with biases and omissions? Did they see the later as transformational? Did the postcolonial moment alter their circumstances by opening new economic pathways, identities, resistance, migration avenues, social mobility, and a diverse set of experiences? Or did the postcolonial moment deepen existing inequalities that remain bound up in colonial histories? Crucially, the workshop aims to explore approaches that prioritize decoloniality, coloniality and postcoloniality. We seek papers that can offer new insights to discuss and advance debates through fresh ideas, rigorous knowledge exchange, and impactful evidence. 

Please find the full-day agenda here.

The sixth suspect: Stephen Lawrence, investigative journalism and racial inequality

Hosted by International Inequalities Institute

Thursday 16 May 2024 at 6:30pm – 8:00pm. In-person event. Old Buillding (OLD) Theatre. 

Watch the recording here.

Speaker: Daniel De Simone, correspondent for BBC News

Discussants: Dr Clive Nwonka, Associate Professor in Film, Culture and Society at UCL Institute for Advanced Studies; Cllr Ann-Marie Cousins

Chair: Professor Shakuntala Banaji, Professor of Media, Culture and Social Change in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE

In June 2023, a major BBC investigation led by BBC News reporter Daniel De Simone produced new evidence that revealed the identity of a previously unnamed key suspect in the April 1993 racist murder of Black teenager Stephen Lawrence by a gang of 5-6 white men in Eltham, South East London that changed policing and race relations in Britain. The news report, and its accompanying BBC One documentary Stephen Lawrence: The Sixth Suspect received worldwide coverage and was met with widespread public demands for an inquiry into the Metropolitan Police’s failure to identify the key suspect and renewed calls for the re-opening of the Stephen Lawrence murder case.

In his first public talk, BBC correspondent Daniel De Simone will offer previously unheard insights into his two-year investigation, how the sixth suspect was identified, his methods and findings, with responses by a panel of experts drawn from academia and politics. The discussion also allows for an exploration of the potential of contemporary investigative journalism practices in uncovering historical institutional failings and intervening in structural racial inequalities.

Data grab: the new colonialism of big tech and how to fight back

Hosted by the Department of Media and Communications and the International Inequalities Institute

Tuesday 14 May 2024, 6:30pm – 8:00pm. In-person event. Sheikh Zayed Theatre, Cheng Kin Ku Building.

Watch the recording here.

Speakers: Professor Nick Couldry, Professor of Media Communications and Social Theory, Department of Media and Communications, LSE; Professor Ulises A Mejias, Professor of Communication Studies at SUNY Oswego

Chair: Professor Myria Georgiou, Professor of Media and Communications, Department of Media and Communications, LSE

Join us for this public event to celebrate the book launch of Data Grab: The New Colonialism of Big Tech and How to Fight Back with the authors.

In the past, colonialism was a landgrab of natural resources, exploitative labour and land from countries around the world. It promised to modernise and civilise, but actually sought to control. It stole from native populations and made them sign contracts they didn’t understand. It took resources just because they were there. Colonialism has not disappeared – it has taken on a new form. In the new world order, Big Tech companies are grabbing our most basic natural resource – our data – exploiting our labour and connections, and repackaging our information to track our movements, record our conversations and discriminate against us. Every time we click ‘Accept’ on Terms and Conditions, we allow our most personal information to be repackaged by Big Tech companies for their own profit. In this searing, cutting-edge guide, two leading global researchers – and leading proponents of the concept of data colonialism – reveal how history can help us both to understand the emerging future and to fight back.

How do we campaign around wealth inequality?

Co-hosted by International Inequalities Institute and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Monday 13 May, 6.00pm - 7.30pm. In-person event. Marshall Building, Room 2.04 (MAR.2.04).

Watch the recording here.

Speakers:

Professor Mike Savage, Martin White Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, LSE; Faiza Shaheen, Visiting Professor in Practice, International Inequalities Institute; Shabna Begum, Interim CEO of the Runnymede Trust

In the shadow of a UK general election, this public event takes stock of the politics of wealth inequality and reflects on how to build political awareness and expand campaigning action. Mindful that divisive ‘culture war’ agendas are being used to fragment and distract campaigning which centres fundamental socio-economic inequality, panelists will consider how to shift political debate to more progressive directions. The recent abolition of the non-dom status, informed by III research and campaigning, shows that change is possible.

Why wealth inequality matters: an expert roundtable

Workshop co-hosted by International Inequalities Institute and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Monday 13 May, 2.00pm - 5.30pm. In-person and online event. Marshall Building, Room 2.04 (MAR.2.04).

Watch the recording here.

This closed roundtable event presents new and cutting-edge research from the LSE International Inequalities Institute demonstrating the systemic problems that wealth inequality is generating in the UK. The aim to equip policymakers, journalists and civil society groups with key insights that can be used for campaigning work and in spreading awareness so that the issues can inform campaigning in the run up to the General Election.

Researchers at the III have a powerful impact on policy developments, marked for instance in the recent abolition of the ‘non-dom' tax clause which drew on underpinning research by Dr Advani and Dr Summers. We want our new research to also inform emerging policy agendas.

Five panels will introduce new findings on (i) the extent and nature of wealth inequality in the UK, focusing especially on the rich; (ii) how wealth inequalities is shaping the social mobility prospects of Britons; (iii) the entrenched nature of gendered wealth divides; (iv) the scale and significance of the racial wealth divide and (v) how political perceptions amongst the disadvantaged are being shaped by fundamental wealth divides.

Workshop on climate change and inequality

Workshop hosted by International Inequalities Institute, and Queen Mary's, University of London

Friday 10 May 2024, 9.00am to 6.00pm. In-person and online event. Fawcett House, Room 9.04.

Watch the recording here.

The Research Circle for the Study of Inequality and Poverty (QMUL) and the International Inequalities Institute (LSE) will host a workshop on climate change and inequality on the 10th of May 2024 at the London School of Economics. The keynote speaker for the workshop will be Professor Lord Nicholas Stern, IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government at the Department of Economics and Chair of Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics.

Human Rights: The Case for the Defence

Hosted by International Inequalities Institute, LSE Human Rights and the Wollstonecraft Society

Tuesday 7 May 2024 at 6:30pm– 8:00pm. In-person and online event. Old Buillding (OLD) Theatre.

Watch the recording here.

Speaker: Baroness Shami Chakrabarti, leading British human rights lawyer and campaigner and legislator in the House of Lords

Discussants: Professor Conor Gearty, Professor of Human Rights Law at LSE and a barrister in practice at Matrix Chambers; Bee Rowlatt, writer and public speaker, and a programmer of events at the British Library

Chair: Professor Alpa Shah, Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science

We are threatened by wars, inequality, new technologies and climate catastrophe, and we need our human rights now more than ever. At this year’s annual Wollstonecraft Society Lecture, we are joined by Shami Chakrabarti, lawyer, parliamentarian and leading British human rights defender.

Chakrabarti will discuss her latest book Human Rights: The Case for the Defence, which shows us why human rights are essential for our future. Outlining the historic national and international struggles for human rights, from the fall of Babylon, to the present day, Chakrabarti is an indispensable guide to the law and logic underpinning human dignity and universal freedoms. Her intervention will engage both sceptics and supporters, equipping believers in the battle of ideas and persuading doubters to think again. For human rights to survive, they must be far better understood by everyone.

Seminar hosted by International Inequalities Institute

Thursday 25 April 2024, 11.00am to 12:30 am. In-person event. Centre Building, Room 2.06.

Watch the recording here

Speaker:

Dr. Niyathi R. Krishna, Sir Ratan Tata Post-Doctoral Visiting Fellow, III, LSE

Chair: 

Dr. Ruth Kattumuri, Co-Founder, India Observatory, III, LSE

In this seminar, Dr. Niyathi R. Krishna will be presenting her research on interstate seasonal migrant women in Punjab, India, conducted as part of Sir Ratan Tata fellowship 2023-24 at the International Inequalities Institute. This qualitative study attempts to unravel the gender order induced experiences in the lives of interstate seasonal labour migrant women in Punjabat various levels in the post pandemic period, as labourers, migrants, and people possessing multiple binds in terms of caste, class, and gender. Concurrently, the study also analyses the causes, process, and consequences of interstate, seasonal migration of women in India and reviews existing policy gaps.

Sustainability, Inclusive Development and Dr B.R. Ambedkar - A celebration to mark 100 years of “The Problem of the Rupee: Its Origin and Its Solution” 

Invitation only event hosted by the India Observatory, International Inequalities Institute

Saturday 13th - Sunday 14th April, 2024. In-person event. Centre Building, Malaysia Auditorium.

Speakers: Larry Kramer, President, LSE; Ravindra Kulkarni, VC University of Mumbai; Lord Nicholas Stern, LSE; Lord Meghnad Desai; Virendra Sharma, MP 

The India Observatory at International Inequalities Institute, in collaboration with University of Mumbai, Mumbai, India & Babasaheb Ambedkar Research and Training Institute (BARTI), Pune, India, is organising a two day conference titled 'Sustainability, Inclusive Development and Dr B.R. Ambedkar' during 13-14 April 2024 at Malaysia Auditorium, LSE, to celebrate the centenary of Ambedkar's PhD at the LSE.

Please note this event is invitation only.

The search for democracy in the world's largest democracy

Hosted by International Inequalities Institute, LSE Human Rights, Department of Anthropology and Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity

Tuesday 26 March 2024, 6.30pm to 8.00pm. In-person and online event. Centre Building (CBG) Auditorium.

Watch the recording here. 

Speaker:
Professor Alpa Shah, Professor of Anthropology, LSE

Discussants:
Professor Christophe Jaffrelot, Avantha Chair and Professor of Indian Politics and Sociology at the King's India Institute

Professor Tarun Khaitan, Professor (Chair) in Public Law, LSE

Priyanka Kotamraju, independent journalist from India

Chair:
ProfessorDeborah James, Professor in the Department of Anthropology, LSE 

Join us to launch and discuss Alpa Shah’s new book, The Incarcerations: BK-16 and the search for democracy in India.

As general elections fast approach in the world’s largest democracy, this event asks what democracy today must urgently ensure for our common future. In her latest book, Alpa Shah pulls back the curtain on Indian democracy to tell the remarkable and chilling story of the Bhima Koregaon case, in which 16 human rights defenders (the BK-16) – professors, lawyers, artists – have been imprisoned, without credible evidence and without trial, as Maoist terrorists. The BK-16 were accused of inciting violence and plotting to kill the Indian prime minister. But Professor Shah finds a shocking case of cyber warfare - hacked emails, mobile phones and implantation of electronic evidence used to make the arrests. Diving deep into the lives of the BK-16, The Incarcerationsshows how the case is a bellwether for the collapse of democracy and why these events matter to all of us.

The trading game

Hosted by the International Inequalities Institute

Thursday 21 March 2024 6.30pm to 8.00pm. In-person and online event. Centre Building (CBG) Auditorium. 

Watch the recording here.

Speakers:
Gary Stevenson, economist and author

Join us at this event where Gary Stevenson will talk about his new book, The Trading Game: A Confession. 

Ever since he was a kid, kicking broken footballs on the streets of east London in the shadow of Canary Wharf's skyscrapers, Gary wanted something better. Then he won a competition run by a bank: 'The Trading Game'. The prize: a golden ticket to a new life, as the youngest trader in the whole city. But what happens when winning starts to feel like losing? When the easiest way to make money is to bet on millions becoming poorer and poorer - and, as the economy starts slipping off a precipice, your own sanity starts slipping with it? 

Gen-AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work

Seminar hosted by the III

Tuesday 14 March 5.15 to 6.45pm. Online and in-person event. LSE Centre Building, Room 1.04 (CBG 1.04). 

Watch the recording here.

Speaker: Marina M. Tavares, Economist in the Climate Change Structural Reforms Division, International Monetary Fund

Discussants: Sir Christopher Pissarides, Regius Professor of Economics, LSE, and Professor of European Studies, University of Cyprus; David Zuluaga Martinez, Partner and member of the Public Sector practice, Boston Consulting Group; Christopher Martin, Senior Associate General Counsel, Boston Consulting Group

Chair: Kirsten Sehnbruch, Acting Director of the International Inequalities Institute, British Academy Global Professor and III Distinguished Policy Fellow

Join us to hear Marina M. Tavares, from the International Monetary Fund, present her paper "Gen-AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work".

Abstract: Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to reshape the global economy, especially in the realm of labor markets. Advanced economies will experience the benefits and pitfalls of AI sooner than emerging market and developing economies, largely due to their employment structure focused on cognitive-intensive roles. There are some consistent patterns concerning AI exposure, with women and college-educated individuals more exposed but also better poised to reap AI benefits, and older workers potentially less able to adapt to the new technology. Labor income inequality may increase if the complementarity between AI and high-income workers is strong, while capital returns will increase wealth inequality. However, if productivity gains are sufficiently large, income levels could surge for most workers. In this evolving landscape, advanced economies and more developed emerging markets need to focus on upgrading regulatory frameworks and supporting labor reallocation, while safeguarding those adversely affected. Emerging market and developing economies should prioritize developing digital infrastructure and digital skills.