Welcome to the Institute of Ideas April newsletter.
BATTLE OF IDEAS 2006
EVENTS
IoI FORUMS
JOIN THE INSTITUTE OF IDEAS
DEBATING MATTERS REGIONAL FINALS
DEBATING MATTERS SHOWCASE
MEDIA
PUBLIC APPEARANCES
OTHER EVENTS
Battle of Ideas 2006
The Battle of Ideas 2006 programme is taking shape. Confirmed partners include Pfizer, the Royal College of Art, The Times, Building Design Partnership, Natural Environment Research Council, The Art Fund, and Camelot.
A challenging and diverse line up of debates include:
- Have high arts institutions lost their nerve?
- Playing balls - why men are becoming obsessed with their health
- The Battle for Affluence - does economic growth make us happy?
- Tomorrow’s innovators - will today’s ‘soft’ science create the Brunels and Einsteins of tomorrow?
- Crime and punishment - is there a place for vengeance in criminal law?
- The Battle for History - national narratives versus personal memories
- Can politics still inspire?
- From sun, sand and sangria to eco-tourism
And many more plus strands including the Battle for Innovation, Battle for the Law, Battle for the Media and Battle over Nature.
Partner opportunities still exist and if you would like to talk to the Institute of Ideas about becoming a Battle of Ideas 2006 partner, please call Claire Fox on 020 7269 9223 or Shirley Dent on 020 7269 9229.
If you would like to volunteer to help us organise the Battle of Ideas - from distributing promotional material to arranging the 2006 Battle of Ideas party - please contact Geoff Kidder on 020 7269 9224 or Shirley Dent on 020 7269 9229.
EVENTS
Thursday 27 April 7.30pm
The Douglas Adams Memorial Debate presented by the Institute of Ideas at Sci-Fi London:
The Battle for the Future: Who Controls the Future Controls the Present?
Science fiction gives us free rein to explore our hopes and fears for the future, and conflicting ideas about the future have an obvious bearing on what we do in the here and now. Today's concerns about the future range from global climate change to the unintended consequences of nanotechnology. Should we pursue the possibilities of human cloning, for example? Or do we have to accept a more humble place in nature if we are to avoid catastrophe? Will it ever be possible to 'upload' our consciousnesses onto computers? Or are we destined to be ruled by robots in a post-apocalyptic nightmare world? An eclectic panel considers the cultural and political assumptions behind the writing and re-writing of the future on the cinema screen and beyond.
Speakers will include:
Michael Hanlon, science editor, Daily Mail; author, The Science of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Sandy Starr, science and technology correspondent, spiked-online; film reviewer, The Sun.
Apollo West End, Lower Regent Street, London Ticket hotline 0871 22 33 444. For more information, please see here
IoI FORUMS
All forums meet in London. There are limited places and attendance is by invitation only. If you have an interest in the field and would like to take part, please email the contact given.
EDUCATION FORUM
Monday 24 April
This month’s forum will feature Stephen Rowland, Professor of Higher Education at University College London and author of The Enquiring Classroom, The Enquiring University Teacher and The Enquiring University (forthcoming) in conversation with Dr Dennis Hayes.
EDUCATION FORUM SPECIAL EVENT
Friday 21 April
Dr Alex Standish, visiting from Rutgers University, USA, and Dr Vanessa Pupavac, lecturer in the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences at the University of Nottingham, will discuss Global Ethics and Citizenship Education.
Please contact Dennis Hayes at education@instituteofideas.com or on 078 6271 2742.
SCIENCE AND HEALTH FORUM
Wednesday 12 April
This month’s forum will explore ‘Avian Flu – a pandemic or panic?’ Dr Stuart Derbyshire, Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, will introduce the discussion and present some of the controversies around a possible outbreak.
Please contact Brid Hehir at health@instituteofideas.com
JOINT SCIENCE AND HEALTH FORUM AND EDUCATION FORUM EVENT
Wednesday 10 May
Physics teacher David Perks will present ‘Raking over old bones? Darwinism on trial: teaching creationism - the controversy’. David Perks recently published an article on intelligent design on spiked.
Please contact Dennis Hayes on 078 6271 2742 or at education@instituteofideas.com"
CULTURE WARS FORUM
Tuesday 18 April
In anticipation of the IoI's Battle for the Future event to be held as part of the Sci Fi London festival at the end of the month, April's Culture Wars Forum will be introduced by Sandy Starr and look at how utopias and dystopias are explored in science fiction and in culture more generally.
Please contact Dolan Cummings at dolancummings@instituteofideas.com
IoI BOOK CLUB
Tuesday 9 May
The book discussed will be Cell by Stephen King. Brendan O’Neill hasreviewed Cell for the New Statesman.
The IoI BookClub is open to IoI associates. If you would like to attend, please contact Geoff Kidder at geoffkidder@instituteofideas.com
DEBATING MATTERS REGIONAL FINALS
Sixth formers from 28 schools have battled it out in seven Regional Finals around the country in March. Well done to all the students who
took part, the standard has been very high. There has been extensive coverage of the Debating Matters Regional Finals in local radio and newspapers across the country. With one more to go, at the University of Leicester on Friday 28 April, there is still a chance to attend a debate.
If you would like to come along and challenge the students from the audience, please contact Justine Brian at justinebrian@instituteofideas.com
The winners so far are:
London & South, sponsored by Syngenta:
Thomas Tallis School, London
West & South Wales, sponsored by Research Councils UK:
The Chase School, Malvern
Scotland, sponsored by the Research Councils UK:
Harris Academy, Dundee
North West & North Wales, sponsored by Castle Cement:
Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn
South East, sponsored by Canterbury Christ Church University:
Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Faversham
North East, sponsored by the University of Newcastle upon Tyne:
The Newcastle upon Tyne Church High School
East, sponsored by the University of Hertfordshire:
Queens' School, Bushey
The winning teams will take part in the National Final at Goodenough College in central London, 30 June - 2 July.
DEBATING MATTERS SHOWCASE
The Debating Matters Competition was showcased at the Wellcome Trust
Engaging Science Conference at the Manchester Conference Centre, 3 and 4
April 2006. Students from Winstanley College from Wigan debated against Graveney
School, South London over the motion "Parents should be allowed to use the
latest reproductive technologies to chose the sex of their children".
The
judges were the psychiatrist and author Raj Persaud, the science writer
Timandra Harkness, and Colin Johnson the former CEO of Techniquest. The
judges narrowly awarded victory to Graveney.
The Debating Matters Competition is supported by a Wellcome Trust Engaging Science Society Award.
MEDIA
Tiffany Jenkins had an article on genealogy in The Scotsman.
Claire Fox had an interview about being an Orange Prize judge
Battle of Ideas committee member Chris Bickerton reviewed David Runciman’s The Politics of Good Intentions: History, Fear and Hypocrisy in the New World Order for Culture Wars.
Other Culture Wars reviews include Karl Sharro’s film review of Syriana
IoI Science and Health forum member Dr Michael Fitzpatrick had an interview in totalspec magazine.
PUBLIC APPEARANCES
Tuesday 25 April
Claire Fox will speak on 'the right to be offensive' to the Sixth Form at Cranleigh School
Monday 22 May 6:30pm
Tiffany Jenkins will speak at Making Connections: The Present – The Global Museum, a debate organized by the Museum of London as part of Museums and Galleries month. Should museums be obliged to play a role on the international stage? Some argue that they are indispensable to rebuilding national identity and therefore an integral factor in peace building. Others suggest
they should be making a contribution to development in third world countries. But what qualifies museums to deal with such political
issues? Are there dangers in this approach, which means they would be better off concentrating on their own collections, back at home? A panel debates the issues.
The debate will be chaired by Gillian Reynolds, radio critic of the Daily Telegraph, Chairman of Trustees of the Charles Parker Archive, Trustee of National Museums Liverpool.
Other speakers include:
Claude Ardouin, Head of the Africa section, British Museum, Henrietta Hopkins, MLA, Partner, Hopkins Van Mil, Professor Jack Lohman, International Council of Museums UK and Director of Museum of London
Box office telephone: 0870 444 3850
OTHER EVENTS
Friday 28 April
And the Next - The Folly of War
IoI member Barb Jungr performs a special repertoire of songs for this show accompanied by Jenny Carr as part of the Independent Voices Festival with Normi Noel's 'No Background Music' based on the diaries of a Vietnam nurse at the UCL Bloomsbury Theatre, 15 Gordon Street, London, WC1H 0AH, Box Office:020 7388 8822
Tuesday 2 May
The Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) is holding its first 'Donald Bligh Intellectual Exploration Together' (IET) entitled
"Bridging the Gap between Neuroscience and Education".
Please contact Franco Carta at fcarta@srhe.ac.uk