2009 Programme: Festival weekend overview

The Festival weekend includes more than 70 debates which are listed below ordered by time slot and room. To see Saturday or Sunday sessions only, select the day you want from the menu on the left or select sessions by Theme.

Or view and print out the Timetable as a two-page PDF.


Saturday 31 October: 10.30am to 12.00pm
Lecture Theatre 2
It's not fair! The Battle for Equality
Student Union
Parliament: reform or revolution?

Saturday 31 October: 12.15pm to 1.15pm
Lunchtime Debates Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
Post-recession Ideologies: it's the politics, stupid!
Lunchtime Debates Henry Moore Gallery
Germany, 20 years united: growing together or falling apart?
Student Union
The Fight over Flight: what's the problem with air travel?

Saturday 31 October: 1.30pm to 3.00pm
Café
Welfare Dependency: who benefits?
Student Union
Activist revival or aimless hyper-activism?

Saturday 31 October: 3.30pm to 5.00pm
Keynote Controversies Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
Rethinking Freedom in an Illiberal Age: securing rights or celebrating liberty?
Student Union
The Rise of Populism in Europe: we the people or them the mob?

Saturday 31 October: 5.15pm to 6.30pm
Keynote Controversies Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
Rethinking Therapy Culture: changing the subject?
Student Union
Revolutions Balloon Debate

Sunday 1 November: 10.45am to 12.15pm
Keynote Controversies Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
Nudge Nudge, Nag Nag: the new politics of behaviour

Sunday 1 November: 12.30pm to 1.30pm
Lunchtime Debates Student Union
From Macpherson to the rise of the BNP: Race Today?

Sunday 1 November: 1.45pm to 3.15pm
Henry Moore Gallery
Mr Obama goes to Washington

Sunday 1 November: 3.45pm to 5.15pm
Keynote Controversies Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
The Good Society: virtues for a post-recession world
Café
Standing up to Supernanny: why we need a Parents' Liberation Movement

Sunday 1 November: 5.30pm to 6.30pm
Keynote Controversies Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
America, Obama and the Recession

Festival Buzz
Particle Physics is Sexy

View: Particle Physics is Sexy

"The Battle of Ideas goes from strength to strength. The intensity, variety and depth of debate, sustained for an entire weekend, makes for a unique experience charging the intellectual batteries for the rest of the year."
Raymond Tallis, emeritus professor of geriatric medicine, Manchester University