Epistemic pluralism and climate change

Contributor(s): Professor Kenneth Chambaere, Professor Emily Jackson, Father Hugh MacKenzie, Professor Alex Voorhoeve | A new bill proposes to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill patients in England and Wales. Many difficult philosophical, moral, legal and social questions are raised by end-of-life legislation. Do people have a right to die? Is suicide ethically permissible? Can we create laws that protect the vulnerable from being pressured into ending their lives? Should psychological as well as physical illnesses be covered by right-to-die laws? How do such laws work in other countries?

Contributor(s): Lord Maurice Saatchi | In an age of conformists and faux-contrarians, Maurice Saatchi has revolutionised British business and politics through his willingness to question received wisdom. He discusses with Larry Kramer his new book Orgasm, a vivid and engaging blend of memoir, philosophy and critical thinking, in which he debunks some of the modern world’s most widely-held social and cultural delusions, in his inimitably witty and pugnacious style.

Contributor(s): Professor Lilie Chouliaraki, Professor Rosalind Gill, Radha Sarma Hegde, Professor Karin Wahl-Jorgensen | Why is being a victim such a potent identity today? Who claims to be a victim, and why? How have such claims changed in the past century? Who benefits and who loses from the struggles over victimhood in public culture? In this timely and incisive book, Lilie Chouliaraki shows how claiming pain is about claiming power: who deserves to be protected as a victim and who should be punished as a perpetrator. She argues that even if suffering is universal, this "politics of pain" is deeply embedded within power relations and ultimately privileges the voices of the powerful over those of the powerless. Unless we come to recognize the suffering of the vulnerable for what it is—a matter not of victimhood but of injustice—Chouliaraki powerfully warns, the culture of victimhood will continue to perpetuate old exclusions and enable further injuries.

Contributor(s): Professor Mukulika Banerjee, Professor David Wengrow | A cultivar is a plant that people have selected for desired traits and which retains those when propagated. This inaugural lecture by Mukulika Banerjee draws on long-term fieldwork among paddy farmers in Bengal to explore the ways in which cultivation - of crops, neighbourly relations, and selves - can help democracy and truthful politics to flourish. It also considers how the university, through its own cultivation of knowledge and debate, is another vital site for nurturing active citizens and a better future.

Contributor(s): Professor Tanya Aplin, Professor Martin Kretschmer, Dr Luke McDonagh, Professor Madhavi Sunder | This event will explore the challenge of artificial intelligence technologies in the creative industries (film, theatre, music, video games). The panel will debate Intellectual Property Law issues related to the training and use of generative AI models that produce works of text, art and music, such as ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion, and will discuss the use of AI in the context of image rights of performers. The panel will explore the legal rights of authors, performers, and users, considering whether AI use can constitute copyright or trade mark infringement, and whether regional or global IP licensing solutions are feasible.