Battle of Ideas 2015
Festival weekend: Politics & Ideology

Fuller details of sessions are available where the title is in bold.

Saturday 17 October: 9.30-9.50
Festival Attractions Free Stage
Battle of Ideas 2015 Welcome Address: Je suis...what? Free speech after Charlie Hebdo
Saturday 17 October: 10.00-11.30
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Is there a future for liberalism?
Eye on the World Pit Theatre
After Ferguson: policing and race in America
Growing Pains Frobisher 1-3
Generation wars: Is it time to stop the 'Boomer Blaming'?
Contemporary Controversies Conservatory
Trust me, I'm a professional: surviving scandals and regulation
Saturday 17 October: 13.45-15.00
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Reassessing paternalism: is autonomy a myth?
Saturday 17 October: 14.00-15.30
Contemporary Controversies Barbican Library
Joining the party: Gen Y and politics today
Saturday 17 October: 17.30-18.45
Contemporary Controversies Conservatory
Is the pope a Catholic?
Sunday 18 October: 10.00-11.30
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Why are young people joining ISIS?
Feminism and Its Discontents Frobisher Auditorium 1
Rape culture: menace or myth?
Academy in One Day Hammerson Room
Plato, The Republic
Sunday 18 October: 12.00-13.15
Feminism and Its Discontents Frobisher Auditorium 1
The Personal is Political: is identity politics eating itself?
Sunday 18 October: 12.00-13.00
Academy in One Day Hammerson Room
Machiavelli, The Prince
War and peace Conservatory
The 1916 Easter Rising: Ireland's history wars
Contemporary Controversies Cinema 3
The culture war on tradition
Sunday 18 October: 14.00-15.30
Academy in One Day Hammerson Room
Georg Lukács, History and Class Consciousness
Contemporary Controversies Cinema 3
Libertarians of the world unite?
Sunday 18 October: 16.00-17.15
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Religious tolerance: can we keep the faith?
Hot Off the Press Cinema 3
The Great Migration Crisis: a pan-European debate
Sunday 18 October: 17.30-18.45
Keynote Controversies Frobisher 1-3
The Corbyn Effect: are the old parties dead?
Feminism and Its Discontents Frobisher Auditorium 1
Campus Wars: safe or sanitised?
Academy in One Day Hammerson Room
Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition

Why are we afraid to judge?

"Although 'battle' suggests destruction, these were some of the most constructive debates I've taken part in. This was civilised conflict in the best sense of both words."
Julian Baggini, author, Welcome to Everytown: A Journey into the English Mind, and The Ego Trick

follow the Academy of Ideas

Newsletter

Keep up to date with Academy of Ideas news and events by joining our mailing list.