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January 2021
SitP – Resisting Incarceration: Prisons, Activism and Abolition – Professor Phil Scraton
Since Michael Howard’s pronouncement that ‘Prison Works’ the prison population in the UK has doubled with the current Government planning to build several more multi-occupancy ‘Titan’ prisons to incarcerate thousands more men and women. This reflects an ill-founded commitment to what became a cross-party mantra. In what sense does ‘prison work’? Does the claim stand scrutiny? Or, as Jonathan Simon suggests, does locking away an ever-increasing number of women, men and children amount to ‘social warehousing’? Derived in three decades of activist work and academic research Phil Scraton will address the harms of imprisonment for those locked away, their families and their communities. He will
Find out more »Conway Hall – Thinking on Sunday: Epicurus and the Art of Happiness
Over two thousand years ago, long before Trump, Brexit and 2020, the Greek philosopher Epicurus offered a seemingly simple answer: pleasure. All we really want is pleasure. Philosopher John Sellars takes us through the basic arguments of Epicureanism with wonderful clarity, distilling the essence of an ancient philosophy that speaks with increasing urgency to our troubled times. Today we tend to associate the word ‘Epicurean’ with the enjoyment of fine food and wine and decadent self-indulgence. But, as Professor Sellars shows, these things are a world away from the vision of a pleasant life developed by Epicurus and his followers who were more concerned with mental pleasures
Find out more »February 2021
CEMB – Women leaving Islam – a film premiere for World Hijab Day
A new film by CEMB – Women Leaving Islam – will premiere on 1 February 2021, World Hijab Day. In this powerful film, six ex-Muslim women activists share their moving stories of growing up in Muslim families and Muslim-majority countries and the violence, loss and shunning they faced because of their scepticism and apostasy. The women talk about everything from tearing their hijab on door handles as a child, wearing a burkini on a beach in Italy, wanting to scream their atheism in Mecca during Hajj, losing custody of a child after a husband’s accusations of blasphemy, reporting a violent fundamentalist father, forging a male
Find out more »SitP – Dangerous Products: In The Home & In Our Stomachs – David Frank and Virginia Ng
The societal and scientific consensus says only irrational people fear things like WiFi, artificial sweeteners, and fluoridated water, but there have been legitimately dangerous products sold as safe in the past. Flammable, toxic, radioactive and generally bad for you, we’ll look at products throughout history that killed, injured and poisoned, and the marketing campaigns that went along with them. Plus, we’ll explore some formerly dangerous things that turned out to be fine, and things we know are bad for us that we consume anyway. Come along. It’ll be good for your health. David Frank David Frank is a marketer, a writer and a former radio
Find out more »Conway Hall – Thinking on Sunday: China 1949 – Year of Revolution
Graham Hutchings offers a vivid, gripping account of 1949: the year in which China abruptly changed course and pulled the rest of world history along with it. The overthrow of Chiang Kai-shek’s government by Mao Zedong reverberated across the world, resulting in long-lasting consequences that are still being felt today.
Find out more »NSS’s ‘No More Faith Schools’ campaign talk to local humanist groups
From faith schools to coercive worship, and from confessional RE to faith based sex education, our school system is full of inappropriate religious influence, privilege and discrimination. But it doesn't need to be this way, our many fantastic community schools show how we can move towards a secular, inclusive education system. The National Secular Society's Alastair Lichten, will talk about the Society's No More Faith Schools campaign, along with their other education focused campaigns. The talk includes advice on activism and is engaging and informative for those with all levels of pre-existing knowledge on the subject. Alastair Lichten is the Society's head of education. He
Find out more »May 2021
NSS’s ‘No More Faith Schools’ campaign talk to local humanist groups
From faith schools to coercive worship, and from confessional RE to faith based sex education, our school system is full of inappropriate religious influence, privilege and discrimination. But it doesn't need to be this way, our many fantastic community schools show how we can move towards a secular, inclusive education system. The National Secular Society's Alastair Lichten, will talk about the Society's No More Faith Schools campaign, along with their other education focused campaigns. The talk includes advice on activism and is engaging and informative for those with all levels of pre-existing knowledge on the subject. Alastair Lichten is the Society's head of education. He
Find out more »