2011 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 29 October: 10.30am-12.00pm
Keynote Controversies Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
The Battle against the Fates
Lecture Theatre 1
Unrealpolitik: a new new world order?
Courtyard Gallery
What is evil? The politics of morality
Lecture Theatre 2
Censoring science: have scientists become the new inquisitors?
Henry Moore Gallery
Drinking by numbers: should we count our alcohol units?
Saturday 29 October: 12.15pm-1.15pm
Lunchtime Debates Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
What is nature for?
Lecture Theatre 1
Eurozonia: too big to fail, too small to succeed?
Courtyard Gallery
Maybe I do? Marriage in the modern era
Lunchtime Debates Lecture Theatre 2
Seduced by stats?
Henry Moore Gallery
Doing it for charity?
Saturday 29 October: 1.30pm-3.00pm
Lecture Theatre 1
Middle East 'revolutions': hopes and fears?
Lecture Theatre 2
The Tea Party: defenders of the American Dream?
Henry Moore Gallery
Remaking citizens for the ‘Big Society’
Saturday 29 October: 3.30pm-5.00pm
Lecture Theatre 1
The trillion dollar question: is the US economy resurgent or dependent?
Courtyard Gallery
Coarse sex and cheap lives
Students' Union
Dreaming spires for all? Oxbridge and social mobility
Saturday 29 October: 5.15pm-6.30pm
Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
Moral panics or just panic?
Lecture Theatre 1
Is this Africa's decade?
Courtyard Gallery
Crime and punishment: what are prisons for?
Henry Moore Gallery
Hand-out Britain? Has a dependency culture made us sick?
Students' Union
Performing politics: is all the world a stage?
Sunday 30 October: 9.45am-10.30am
Courtyard Gallery
Civil disobedience or violent criminality?
Breakfast Banter Lecture Theatre 2
Haters gonna hate: should we hate hate?
Breakfast Banter Students' Union
Are the Germans still European?
Sunday 30 October: 10.45am-12.15pm
Keynote Controversies Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
Has tolerance gone too far?
Courtyard Gallery
Can conservatism survive the 21st century?
Lecture Theatre 2
Sylvia Pankhurst: everything is possible
Sunday 30 October: 12.30pm-1.30pm
Lunchtime Debates Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
Fracking and Fukushima: our energy security fears
Courtyard Gallery
Can social democracy survive the 21st century?
Lunchtime Debates Lecture Theatre 2
Silencing sectarianism: football's free speech wars
Sunday 30 October: 1.45pm-3.15pm
Keynote Controversies Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
Loyalty in an age of whistle-blowing and Wikileaks
Courtyard Gallery
Queer times: has the gay rights movement triumphed?
Sunday 30 October: 3.45pm-5.15pm
Keynote Controversies Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
Is individualism bad for society?
Courtyard Gallery
What is feminism for?
Lecture Theatre 2
Islamophobia: the new racism or liberal angst?
Sunday 30 October: 5.30pm-6.30pm
Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
The rise of the clicktivists: will the revolution be digitised?
Courtyard Gallery
Rise of European populism: the revenge of politics?
Students' Union
Interns or slave labour?
Sunday 30 October: 6.30pm-7.30pm
What next for...? Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
Alone together? Cultivating social solidarity in the year ahead

China: Elizabeth Economy - Urbanising 400 million people

"A superb brainstorming of gritty brinkmanship. Totally mind-stretching and wonderful."
Humphrey Hawksley, BBC World Affairs correspondent

follow the Academy of Ideas