Organizing (along with James Putzel) the LSE’s guest lecture series on ‘Cutting Edge Issues in Development Thinking and Practice’ has turned out to be one of the few genuine silver linings in the Covid cloud. Because we’ve had to move to fully online, we’ve been able to get some of the world’s most interesting thinkers to speak to us from all over the globe. Turns out speaking from your study/bedroom is even more of an incentive than coming to London for a free dinner in Holborn.
The series kicks off on Friday 9th October with renowned Indian economist Jayati Ghosh on the Pandemic and the Indian government’s response – expect fireworks. John Harriss, a leading figure in development studies, will provide a short response from Kingston Ontario. From then til mid-February, we’ll have an equally stellar speaker every Friday from 4-6.
Check them out
Each lecture will be about an hour, followed by plenty of time for Q&A. The only downside is that students won’t be able to mob their favourite speakers at the end to ask for jobs/tips/business cards (yes, it happens). Which is probably a relief all round, at least for the speakers….
The other benefit of going online is that the series can be open to all – LSE students and alums can watch it on Zoom and ask questions. Register here and a Zoom link will be sent out a day before the event. Everyone else can watch the livestream on youtube (sorry, we have to limit the numbers on Zoom), or catch up with it later. [update after some initial glitches:
If you are an LSE alum without an LSE alum email account, please email d.patel20@lse.ac.uk with your full name, programme and year of graduation. Zoom links will be sent to those who have registered on the day of the event.]
Here’s more detail on speaker dates and topics:
So, what you doing this time next week? Hope to see you online from 4-6.