Jonathan Shaw (Estados Unidos) nació fruto de la relación entre la leyenda del jazz Artie Shaw y la estrella de Hollywood Doris Dowling. Durante su adolescencia frecuentó a Charles Bukowski y entró en una espiral de delincuencia juvenil. A los 19 años viajó por Centroamérica y Sudamérica, donde vivió durante años. En 2008 publicó su primera novela, Narcisa, que pronto se convirtió en un libro de culto con una legión de fans entre los que se encuentran Johnny Depp, Iggy Pop y Jim Jarmusch. Recientemente publicada en México, la novela narra la pasional historia de amor entre Cigano, un ex-toxicómano, y Narcisa, una prostituta adicta a las drogas. Jonathan conversará con el editor y escritor Diego Rabasa.
A conversation about the most notorious spies of the Soviet era – until today, the most high-profile example of Moscow Station intervention in the UK. Phillips is the author of a new biography, A Spy Named Orphan: The Enigma of Donald Maclean. Christened ‘Orphan’ by his Russian recruiter, Maclean was the perfect spy and Britain’s most gifted traitor. But as he leaked huge amounts of top-secret intelligence, an international code-breaking operation was rapidly closing in on him. Moments before he was unmasked, Maclean vanished. Macintyre wrote A Spy Among Friends, a book about Kim Philby, probably the most notorious British defector and Soviet mole in history. Agent, double agent, traitor and enigma, he betrayed every secret of Allied operations to the Russians in the early years of the Cold War. His other spy books include Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat and Double Cross.
The United Nations Security Council’s agenda on Women Peace and Security seeks the inclusion of women’s experiences into decision and policy-making about conflict and its aftermath, encompassing women’s participation, preventing and protecting against sexual violence and post-conflict relief and recovery. Chinkin will consider the challenge presented in making a top down Security Council agenda meaningful to women on the ground. Professor Christine Chinkin, CMG, FBA, is the Director of the LSE Centre for Women, Peace and Security and a leading human rights and international law expert. Chaired by Stephanie Boland of Prospect magazine.
Drawing on his experience as UK Minister for Universities and Science from 2010 to 2014, Willetts offers a powerful account of the value of higher education and the case for more expansion. He discusses access for disadvantaged students, tuition fees, the potential for business and universities to work together in promoting innovation, and envisions how globalisation and technological progress may change the university significantly. He talks to Owen Sheers, Professor in Creativity at Swansea University.
From the earliest archaeological relics and rituals, through the development of writing and state, to the advent of empire, Harrison-Hall, head of the China section at The British Museum, charts the country's transformation from ancient civilisation to the world’s most populous nation and influential economy, showing us a myriad historical insights and cultural treasures along the way.
The writer and doctor considers the transformations in mind and body that continue across the arc of human life. Some of these changes we have little choice about. We can’t avoid puberty, the menopause or our hair turning grey. Others may be welcome milestones along our path – a much-wanted pregnancy, a cancer cured or a long-awaited transition to another gender. We may find ourselves turning down dark paths, towards the cruel distortions of anorexia, or the shifting sands of memory loss. New technologies and medicine have unprecedented power to alter our lives, but that power has limitations.
Egg freezing is an increasingly popular reproductive technology that offers the potential of staying fertile later in life. Yet while it opens up possibilities of having children at a later age, promise of ‘rewinding the biological clock’ also encourages younger, presumably fertile, women to undergo infertility treatment. Dr Lucy van de Wiel will discuss how egg freezing profoundly shifts our understanding of what it means to be fertile, and to age. Dr van de Wiel is a Research Associate at the Reproductive Sociology Research Group.
