World Humanist Congress 2014, 8-10 August, Oxford, UK
- This topic has 0 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 12 years, 1 month ago by
.
-
Posts
-
World Humanist Congress 2014, 8-10 August, Oxford, UK
Quote:WHC2014. Oxford. Be part of it.
Richard Dawkins
The World Humanist Congress, held every three years, is a unique event bringing together humanists from over forty countries under the auspices of the International Humanist and Ethical Union. In 2014 the British Humanist Association will host the World Humanist Congress in historic Oxford from 8-10th August. And you can register now.
Joan Bakewell
Tickets are £299 and each ticket includes:
-
- Three days of plenary sessions in the Sheldonian Theatre, where generations of Oxford graduates have received their degrees since the 17th century, and workshops, talks, and panel discussions in the 19th century Oxford University Examination Schools
A C Grayling
- Three sit-down ‘English picnic’ style lunches in the Oxford University Examination Schools
- A gala Congress dinner in the high Gothic surroundings of the Oxford Examination Schools, with special guest speakers
- A private viewing of the unique collections of the Ashmolean Museum, the first university museum in the modern world, at an evening reception with special guest speakers
See the programme page for more details.
Wole Soyinka
Speakers so far include renowned author Philip Pullman, physicist Jim Al-Khalili, Nobel Prize-winner Wole Soyinka, and activist Peter Tatchell – see the Speakers page for full information.
Taslima Nasrin
You can also stay informed about the Congress by joining our mailing list today – simply enter your details into the form on the right. But we’d encourage you to register as soon as possible.
Quote:
This person is speaking at this event.Humanist philosopher
Humanist philosopher A C Grayling is Master of the New College of the Humanities, and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. Until 2011 he was Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London.
He has written and edited over thirty books on philosophy and other subjects; among his most recent are "The Good Book", "Ideas That Matter", "Liberty in the Age of Terror" and "To Set Prometheus Free".
This person is speaking at this event.Internews’ Innovation Advisor for Africa, specializing in ICT4D
Internews’ Innovation Advisor for Africa, specializing in ICT4D (Information and Communication Technologies for Development), including crisis mapping. She currently manages pilot projects across Africa that explore the use of technology to overcome communication barriers. She is co-founder of the Standby Task Force, an online volunteer community for live mapping which managed the LibyaCrisisMap project in collaboration with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in March 2011. She was technical adviser for Freedom House for an Ushahidi project to monitor elections in Egypt in 2010 though social media. Iacucci is the co-author of several articles and publications on crisis mapping and disaster response, crowdsourcing applied to health issues, and the role of social networks in today's media environment. She is based in Nairobi, Kenya.
This person is speaking at this event.Acting Executive Director, The Clergy Project. Former RC chaplain and atheist.
Catherine runs the Clergy Project, an invitation-only online peer support community for active and former clergy who have lost their faith. It was launched in 2011 and to date has over 300 members who use the forum to discuss the challenges of being an unbelieving leader in a religious community. Catherine completed both an undergraduate and masters degree in Theology and became a Roman Catholic chaplain but left the church when she recognized that she was no longer a believer. A communications professional and one of the original 52 members of the project, Catherine has been volunteering to help organize the Clergy Project from the beginning.
This person is speaking at this event.Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Religion, University of Exeter
Francesca is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Religion at the University of Exeter, focussing her research on Israelite and Judahite history and religion.
She presented a three-part television series on the BBC The Bible's Buried Secrets (2011) and contributed to Channel 4's series The Bible: A History. She describes herself as "an atheist with huge respect for religion" and regards her work as "a branch of history like any other”.
This person is speaking at this event.Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University
Greg Epstein has been Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University since 2005, since when he has raised over $1 million in gifts and pledges to the organization, while organizing and launching a range of new programs and initiatives. He is author of the New York Times Bestselling book, Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe and blogs for CNN, Newsweek and The Washington Post.
This person is speaking at this event.Heather Blake
UK Director of Reporters Without Borders
Heather was appointed in April 2010 as UK Director of Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières or RSF), the NGO founded in France in 1985 that now operates in 150 countries to protect journalists and freedom of information. She graduated from Smith College, Massachusetts, before moving to Scotland to study for a year at St Andrews University and then moved to London to join the Young Writers' Programme at the Royal Court Theatre. Afterwards she worked as a freelance political opinion journalist and playwright and as RSF's UK correspondent and representative. She is a Commissioner for the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission and a rapporteur for foreign policy reports on the Human Rights Council Review.
This person is speaking at this event.Heiner Bielefeldt
Since 2010, Heiner has been the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief
Since 2010, Heiner has been the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, appointed by the UN Human Rights Council as an independent expert to identify existing and emerging obstacles to freedom of religion or belief and to recommend how to overcome such obstacles. A philosopher, historian and Catholic theologian, from 2003 to 2009, he was Director of the German Institute for Human Rights, which monitors the human rights situation inside Germany. In 2009, he was appointed professor in the newly created Chair of Human Rights and Human Rights Policy at the University of Erlangen where he teaches in the areas of political science, philosophy, law and history.
This person is speaking at this event.Advocacy Director at Global Voices and long-time member of the Global Voices community
Global Voices is an international community of bloggers who report on blogs and citizen media from around the world, amplifying the global conversation online by compiling reports that emphasise voices that are not ordinarily heard in international mainstream media so as to shine light on places and people other media often ignore. Hisham writes about Morocco, North Africa and online freedom of speech. He won Deutsche Welle's Best of Blogs competition for his co-authored blog TalkMorocco.net in 2010. He then co-founded Mamfakinch, which won the Breaking Borders award in support of online freedom of expression from Google and Global Voices. Additionally, Hisham is a medical doctor, and with practices both in France and in Morocco.
This person is speaking at this event.Ibn Warraq
Founder of the Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society (ISIS)
Ibn Warraq (a traditional pen name for dissident authors throughout the history of Islam) was born in India, brought up in Pakistan after independence but educated at boarding school in England and Edinburgh University, where he studied philosophy and Arabic. The fatwa against Salman Rushdie's "Satanic Verses" led him into his career as a serious critic of Islam, first in articles for Free Inquiry and then in his book Why I Am Not a Muslim (1995), since followed by six other books on Islam's origins and the Koran. He was a speaker at IHEU's "Victims of Jihad" conference at the UN in 2005 and founded the Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society (ISIS), which is associated with the Center for Inquiry. He describes himself variously as an atheist or humanist but works with liberal Muslims for the reform of Islam. He has attracted worldwide attention for his writings, declarations and speeches.
This person is speaking at this event.Director @FreedomRightsP and Director of legal affairs @CEPOS. Free speech fundamentalist.
Jacob Mchangama is a Danish lawyer and social commentator and since 2008 director of legal affairs at the independent thinktank CEPOS in Copenhagen where his work focuses on the rule of law, civil liberties, human rights, constitutional matters and regulation. He is also an external lecturer in human rights law at the University of Copenhagen and has published articles on freedom of expression and human rights in the Wall Street Journal Europe, The Times, and leading newspapers across the world. He defends a strong liberal position in favour of freedom of speech even against well intentioned moves to suppress hate speech.
This person is speaking at this event.Janet Radcliffe Richards
Professor of Practical Philosophy at Oxford University and a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics
Janet has sat on many advisory committees in areas of philosophy and bioethics and posts regularly at the University of Oxford’s website "Practical Ethics: Ethical Perspectives on the News website". She originally worked on metaphysics and philosophy of science, but for many years now has concentrated on the practical applications of philosophy, with books on topics such as feminism (The Sceptical Feminist, 1980), discrimination and inequality (Philosophical Problems of Equality, 1996) and the implications of Darwinian theory (Human Nature after Darwin, 2000). She is a frequent broadcaster on controversial philosophical, moral and scientific issues and is now working on a book on medical ethics, especially organ transplantation. She gave the BHA Bentham Lecture in 2010.
This person is speaking at this event.President of the British Humanist Association Jim Al-Khalili is an Iraqi born theoretical physicist, author and broadcaster.
President of the British Humanist Association Jim Al-Khalili is an Iraqi born theoretical physicist, author and broadcaster. He is a professor at the University of Surrey where he teaches and carries out his research in quantum physics.
Jim currently presents The Life Scientific on Radio 4 on Tuesday morning, where he interviews prominent scientists about their life and work. He has presented a number of science documentaries on television, particularly on BBC4 where he says he is happiest as he can really get his teeth into a subject. His work includes Atom(2007), The Secret Life of Chaos (2009), Chemistry A Volatile History (2010), which was nominated for a Bafta, Everything and Nothing (2011), Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity (2011), Black Holes, Wormholes and Time Machines (Taylor&Francis), Pathfinders: The Golden Age of Arabic Science (Penguin Press), and Paradox: The Nice Greatest Enigmas in Science (Bantam).
This person is speaking at this event.Director, English PEN
Jo joined English PEN (the founding centre of the global literary network working to defend and promote free expression and to remove barriers to literature) in September 2012, having for the previous six years been the award-winning editor of Index on Censorship. She was a BBC current affairs producer for eight years and appears regularly in the media, including the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, the London Review of Books, as a commentator on culture and freedom of expression.
This person is speaking at this event.Joan Bakewell, Baroness Bakewell, DBE is an English journalist, television presenter and Labour Party Peer.
Joan Bakewell has had a distinguished career in television – principally in programmes concerned with the arts and culture, taking the opportunity several times to challenge prevailing inhibitions and taboos. Her journalism deals with culture and politics and she has written an autobiography and novels. She was asked by the UK government in 2008 to be a 'voice for older people' and has complained about the absence of older women on television; and she has criticised some side effects of the sexual revolution of the 1960s. In 2011 she was made a member of the House of Lords.
This person is speaking at this event.Writer, broadcaster, presenter of Analysis, panelist on the Moral Maze. Latest book: From Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair and its Legacy (Atlantic)
Kenan Malik is an Indian-born English writer, lecturer and broadcaster, trained in neurobiology and the history of science. As a scientific author, his focus is on the philosophy of biology, and contemporary theories of multiculturalism, pluralism and race. He is a strong advocate of the values of the 18th-century Enlightenment, campaigning in defence of free speech, secularism and scientific rationalism. He was one of the first left-wing critics of multiculturalism, has opposed restrictions on hate speech, supported open door policies on immigration, and spoken out in defence of animal experimentation. His book "From Fatwa To Jihad" documents the Rushdie affair and its aftermath, exploring the experience of immigrants to the UK from India, the political manoeuvrings of numerous Islamic groups, and the media and government response to their protests. He critiques the rise of state multiculturalism and the culture of self-censorship by today's media. Malik is a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association and a trustee of the free-speech magazine Index on Censorship.
This person is speaking at this event.Leo Igwe
Human rights advocate who has played leading roles in the Nigerian Humanist Movement, Atheist Alliance International and the Center For Inquiry
Leo is a Nigerian human rights advocate who has played leading roles in the Nigerian Humanist Movement, Atheist Alliance International and the Center For Inquiry—Nigeria. For many years he represented IHEU at the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and generally in Western and Southern Africa. He specialized in campaigning against child witchcraft accusations and is now researching the topic at the University of Bayreuth in Germany. His exposure of the violence and child abandonment and death that can result from accusations of witchcraft brought him into conflict with high-profile witchcraft believers, such as Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries, whose followers broke up a meeting he was addressing, beat him up and robbed him. His campaigns for human rights have led to him several times being arrested in Nigeria. In 2012, Igwe was appointed as a Research Fellow of the James Randi Educational Foundation, where he continues his work against superstition.
This person is speaking at this event.Co-Founder of @QuilliamF, Founder of @KhudiPK: Challenging Extremism, Promoting Pluralism, Inspiring Change
Maajid Nawaz is the co-founder and chairman of anti-extremism think tank Quilliam and founder of Khudi, a social movement campaigning to entrench democratic culture in young people in Pakistan. Himself a British-Pakistani, he studied Arabic and Law at SOAS and took a masters degree in political theory at LSE. But he spent in his youth as a member of a global Islamist group, starting when as a young student in London he was recruited to Hizb ut-Tahrir and became a speaker and recruiter for the party, travelling to Pakistan and setting up cells from London. He was arrested in 2001 in Egypt and remained in prison until 2006. He resigned from Hizb-ut-Tahrir in May 2007 and has since become a prominent counter-extremism consultant and a regular writer, debater and public commentator. He has addressed the US Senate, been profiled by major TV channels in America and Europe. He tells his story in his autobiography "Radical".
This person is speaking at this event.Maggie is the Director of Development and Communications at the American Humanist Association
Maggie is the Director of Development and Communications at the American Humanist Association and edits the AHA’s weekly e-zine, Humanist Network News. She graduated in sociology with a second major in religion from James Madison University and was vice president of the JMU Freethinkers, a student group for atheists, agnostics, and humanists. She is a board member of The Humanist Institute, an educational degree program in humanism, and administrator for the Institute for Humanist Studies, a humanist think tank.
This person is speaking at this event.Maleiha Malik
Maleiha Malik is a Professor in Law at King's College, London
Maleiha's research focuses on the theory and practice of discrimination law, and she has written extensively on discrimination law, minority protection and feminist theory. She is the co-author of the leading text "Discrimination Law: Theory and Practice" (2008) and joint co-ordinator of a major project to explore the relevance of tradition in contemporary societies. Her current research focuses on the intersection between sexual and cultural equality, exploring the adjustments that may need to be made to feminist theory to accommodate increasing cultural pluralism. In "Minority Legal Orders in the UK: Minorities, Pluralism and the Law" (2012) she argues that a liberal democracy must combine consideration for the rights of those from minority groups who wish to make legal decisions in tune with their culture and beliefs with responsibility to protect those ‘minorities within minorities’ who are vulnerable to pressure to comply with the norms of their social group.
This person is speaking at this event.Cartoonist, writer, zoo enthusiast, atheist and cook
Martin is a British editorial cartoonist and novelist. His genre is political satire and his style is scathing and graphic. He characterizes his work as "visual journalism". His cartoons appear frequently in the Guardian and the Independent. His books include graphic adaptations of The Waste Land and Tristram Shandy. He is an honorary associate of the National Secular Society and a distinguished supporter and board member of the British Humanist Association.
This person is speaking at this event.Law Society Junior Lawyer of the Year – Sexual liberty campaigner Consults on Obscenity & Extreme Pornography
Myles Jackman is the only solicitor in the UK specialising in sexual liberties and obscenity law. He has been instrumental through campaigning, litigation and advocacy in challenging the legal framework in which sexual morality is represented and has won acquittals or minimal sentences for many defendants on charges of extreme pornography. He was the Law Society Junior Lawyer of the Year 2012-2013 and made legal history as the first ever solicitor to be granted permission to live-tweet a criminal trial as it unfolded. Myles blogs and tweets on obscenity issues as @ObscenityLawyer and has made numerous appearances on TV and radio discussing obscenity issues. He is a consultant solicitor with Hodge Jones & Allen, advises publishers and artists, and has a record of pro bono work for campaigning organisations.
This person is speaking at this event.Nick is a radical and controversial British journalist
Nick is a radical and controversial British journalist (he has a column in the Observer), political commentator and author: he has written six books, including What's Left? (2007), which shows how the liberal left of the 20th century came to support the far-right of the 21st, and You Can't Read this Book (2012) about censorship.
This person is speaking at this event.Philosopher and author
Nigel Warburton is lecturer in philosophy at the Open University and has written many popular books on the subject, including "Philosophy: The Basics", "Philosophy: The Classics" and "Thinking from A to Z". He was the co-author of Reading Political Philosophy: Machiavelli to Mill. He writes a monthly column "Everyday Philosophy" for Prospect magazine and regularly teaches courses on philosophy and art at Tate Modern. He is the author of "The Art Question" on the definition of art and of a biography of the modernist architect Ernő Goldfinger. He has also written extensively about photography, particularly about Bill Brandt. He runs a philosophy weblog Virtual Philosopher and podcasts interviews with top philosophers at Philosophy Bites. He is a founder-member of the BHA's Humanist Philosophers' Group.
This person is speaking at this event.Padraig is news editor of Index on Censorship and former deputy editor of New Humanist.
Padraig is news editor of Index on Censorship and former deputy editor of New Humanist. His work has also featured in the Guardian, the Independent, Tribune, the Irish Examiner and the Irish Post.
This person is speaking at this event.Peter Atkins
Former Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford
Peter Atkins has researched the application of quantum mechanics to chemical problems and theoretical aspects of magnetic resonance, after which he moved into writing books and has now published nearly 70 – both major chemistry textbooks and popular science books. The latter include "Molecules" (described as ‘one of the most beautiful chemistry books ever written’) and "Galileo's Finger: The Ten Great Ideas of Science". He has written on issues of humanism, atheism and the incompatibility of science and religion and has appeared in many television programmes on the subject. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the USA's Reason Project which is devoted to spreading scientific knowledge and secular values in society, and is a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association.
This person is speaking at this event.Cybersecurity and digital evidence specialist and academic
Peter is a specialist in cybersecurity and digital forensics, having acted as an expert witness in numerous criminal cases. He combines academic work (he is a Visiting Professor at de Montfort University and a Visiting Reader at the Open University) with commercial consultancy and public policy work. Under the pseudonym "Hugo Cornwall" he wrote The Hackers's Handbook (1985), DataTheft (1988) and The Industrial Espionage Handbook (1991), and since then has published numerous highly specialised books and articles. He has been engaged as an expert advisor by the UN, the EU and the UK Parliament, and he advises the media and appears frequently on radio and television.
This person is speaking at this event.Campaigner for human rights, democracy, LGBT freedom and global justice since 1967.
Peter Tatchell has been campaigning for human rights, democracy, LGBT freedom and global justice since 1967.
He is a member of the queer human rights group OutRage!, and the left-wing of the Green Party. Peter is also the Green Party’s spokesperson on human rights.
Through the Peter Tatchell Foundation, he campaigns for human rights in Britain and internationally.
This person is speaking at this event.Philip Pullman
Author and commentator on religion, education and literature.
Philip Pullman’s best known work is the trilogy His Dark Materials, beginning with Northern Lights in 1995, continuing with The Subtle Knife in 1997, and concluding with The Amber Spyglass in 2000. This excellent and absorbing trilogy is an imaginative and humanistic story of growing up, with elements of mythology, fantasy and magic, philosophy and theology combining to make it an instant children’s classic. The Catholic Herald described His Dark Materials as "truly the stuff of nightmares… worthy of the bonfire." But the books were incredibly popular and in 2001 The Amber Spyglass won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award – the first time that this prize had been awarded to a children's book. The books have also won the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Book Award, and in 2002 Philip Pullman received the Eleanor Farjeon Award for children's literature. In April 2007 Northern Lights was voted the public's favourite winner from the Carnegie Medal's 70-year history.
Since the publication of His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman has become known as a public commentator on religion, education and literature. He was chosen by The Independent for its ‘Good List 2006’ of ‘50 campaigners, thinkers and givers’; the panel of experts at The Independent cited the worlds he creates ‘in which children see good as a matter of choices that are within their control. Pullman wants children to realise they are the inheritors of philosophical, artistic and scientific and literary riches.
This person is speaking at this event.Godless liberal biologist
P Z Myers is associate professor of biology at the University of Minnesota Morris, currently working with zebrafish in the field of evolutionary developmental biology. He is an outspoken critic of creationism and intelligent design (for which he has "nothing but contempt", saying that it is "fundamentally dishonest"). He is founder and co-author of the Pharyngula science blog which in 2006 was listed by the journal Nature as the top-ranked blog by a scientist. He was the American Humanist Association's 2009 Humanist of the Year and won IHEU's International Humanist Award in 2011. His book "The Happy Atheist" was published in 2013.
This person is speaking at this event.Evolutionary biologist, author and Vice President of British Humanist Association
Richard Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist whose 1976 book "The Selfish Gene" popularised the gene-centred view of evolution and introduced the term meme. He has written many further books, both specialist and popular, on evolution including "The Blind Watchmaker" (1986) and "The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True" (2011). He was the University of Oxford's Simonyi Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008. A severe critic of creationism and of religion at large, in 2006 he founded the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science in the wake of the sensational success of his book "The God Delusion" which has sold over two million copies in English and been translated into 31 languages. He is a vice president of the British Humanist Association and helped launch their “Atheist Bus” campaign. He has recently published an autobiography, “An Appetite for Wonder”.
This person is speaking at this event.Writer, editor, philosopher, critic. Author of FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND THE SECULAR STATE
As a fiction writer, Blackford specialises in science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction. His non-fiction work frequently deals with issues involving science and society, particularly philosophical bioethics, cyberculture, transhumanism, and the history and current state of the science fiction genre. He is a Fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies His books include "Freedom of Religion and the Secular State" (2012) and (as co-author) "50 Great Myths About Atheism" (2013).
This person is speaking at this event.President of Rationalist International and Indian Rationalist Association. Author, TV commentator and defender of reason, science and secularism.
Sanal is the president of the Indian Rationalist Association (in which he was active from the age of 15) and founder-president of Rationalist International. He is author of 25 books and numerous articles mainly on rationalism and against the superstition prevalent in India, and has exposed many fraudulent mystics and 'godmen', frequently appearing on television. The documentary film Guru Busters shows him and other rationalist campaigners giving public demonstrations of how to perform supposedly supernatural stunts. He has lectured in many countries and has been honoured by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and the New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists and (UK) Rationalist Association. In April 2012 after he exposed the "miracle" of the dripping Jesus statue in Mumbai the Catholic Church brought an action against him for "deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the[ir] religious feelings" which can result in three years' imprisonment – but can result in indefinite pre-trial imprisonment. He therefore moved to Europe where he continues his campaigns for free speech and against blasphemy laws.
This person is speaking at this event.Simon is noted for writing about mathematical and scientific topics in an accessible manner.
Simon is noted for writing about mathematical and scientific topics in an accessible manner. His books include Fermat's Last Theorem (US: Fermat's Enigma), The Code Book (about cryptography and its history), Big Bang (about the origins of the universe) and Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial (about complementary and alternative medicine). His column on this subject in the Guardian led to his being sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association. A "furious backlash" to the lawsuit resulted in the filing of formal complaints of false advertising against more than 500 individual chiropractors within one 24 hour period, with one national chiropractic organisation ordering its members to take down their websites. After the court upheld his right to rely on the defence of fair comment the BCA withdrew its lawsuit. His legal costs were tens of thousands of pounds, but the trial was a catalyst for reform of the libel laws, resulting in the Defamation Act 2013.
This person is speaking at this event.Stephen is an English philosopher and member of the BHA’s Humanist Philosophers’ Group.
Stephen is an English philosopher and member of the BHA's Humanist Philosophers' Group. Since 2008 he has been Provost of the Centre for Inquiry UK, now a division of the BHA. He is editor of the philosophical journal Think, published for a general readership by the Royal Institute of Philosophy. He has written a number of popular, introductory books (including three children's philosophy books). His The War For Children's Minds is a strong defence of a liberal approach to education, in particular to moral and religious education, and refutes such widespread anti-liberal myths as that the Enlightenment was responsible for the Holocaust and that liberals are moral relativists. Phillip Pullman said that the book, "should be read by every teacher, every parent, and every politician."
This person is speaking at this event.Bangladeshi Feminist, Poet and Novelist
Taslima Nasrin, the daughter of a Bangladeshi doctor, followed her father into medicine where her work as a gynaecologist led her to feminism. She became a poet and novelist, and in her book "Shame" told the story of a Hindu family persecuted by Muslims. This led to condemnation and death threats from Islamic fundamentalists who organised huge demonstrations against her. She fled to the West in 1994, had her Bangladeshi citizenship revoked and, after three troubled years in India from 2004-2007 facing renewed Muslim demonstrations and house arrest by the authorities, she returned to live in Europe and the USA, continuing her writing and becoming a human rights activist. She has written four volumes of candid autobiography which have suffered bans in Bangladesh and India.
This person is speaking at this event.Interculturalism and Community Cohesion (iCoCo) Foundation. Independent views. Aims: social, economic, environmental sustainability. Against identity politics
Ted Cantle is a visiting professor at Nottingham Trent University and the University of Nottingham. He has a long record of work focussed on urban regeneration and key social and environmental problems. After the 2001 riots in northern English cities he was appointed by the Home Secretary to chair an inquiry into the causes of the troubles. His ground-breaking Report – known as ‘the Cantle Report’ – introduced the concept of ‘community cohesion’ and community cohesion programmes have since succeeded in reducing tension in local communities by promoting cross cultural contact and developing support for diversity. His books include "Community Cohesion: a New Framework for Race and Diversity" and "Interculturalism: The New Era of Cohesion and Diversity". He set up the Institute of Community Cohesion (iCoCo) which has become the UK’s leading authority on community cohesion and intercultural relations. He is also an environmental campaigner, especially on climate change. He and his Foundation are key supporters of Accord (the campaign for inclusive education in state-funded ‘faith’ schools) and of the Fair Admissions Campaign, which seeks to outlaw admissions policies based on religion in state-funded schools, in both of which the BHA plays a leading role.
This person is speaking at this event.Nigerian writer, poet, playwright; Nobel Prize in Literature, 1986.
Wole is a prolific Nigerian writer, notable especially as a playwright and poet. He won the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born to Anglican parents – his father a minister – in a community that followed Yorùbá religious traditions, he himself became an atheist. After study in Nigeria and the UK, he worked with the Royal Court Theatre in London, writing plays that were produced in both countries. From 1975 to 1999, he was a Professor of Comparative Literature at the Obafemi Awolowo University. He was active in Nigeria's struggle for independence but has been a vigorous critic of many Nigerian military dictators: in the Nigerian Civil War in 1967 he was arrested and spent two years in solitary confinement. Escaping from the Nigeria of General Sani Abacha (1993–98), who proclaimed a death sentence against him "in absentia", he held academic positions in the USA at Harvard, Yale and elsewhere and has also taught at Oxford. He has deplored the freedom in the United Kingdom for religions to proselytise as open to abuse by fundamentalists, thereby turning England into a "cesspit for the breeding of extremism".
This person is speaking at this event.Writer and journalist
Zoe's career as an assistant director in the film industry, came to an end when she was revealed as the author of the 2006 book, based on her award-winning blog, Girl With A One Track Mind, describing her life as a sexually active young woman in London. The book was an international bestseller, translated into 16 languages. She wrote about the trauma of her treatment by the tabloid press when she was identified in her subsequent book Girl With A One Track Mind: Exposed. She is an ambassador for the Brook sexual health charity for young people.
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.