We’re hurtling towards the end of the term, but there’s still a lot going on on campus. Here are some events that you might want to catch at the tail end of this week:

16-20 June – Birkbeck Conference “Law on Trial” 

Venue: B34 Malet Street

Booking:  http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/law-on-trial-tickets-11250830537

This year’s conference is focused on the use of scientific evidence in legal contexts

The event is free and everyone is welcome to attend. The drinks receptions will be held on the first and final days of the conference week. 

Some tickets still available at: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/law-on-trial-tickets-11250830537

19 June – 18:00-19:30 – Anthropology of the Brain: Consciousness, Culture and Free Will

Venue: Peltz Gallery, Ground Floor, School of Arts, Birkbeck, 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD

Booking: First come, first served

In this talk, Roger Bartra will discuss his latest book Anthropology of the Brain: Consciousness, Culture and Free Will (2014), in which he explores the mysteries of the human brain. In the book, Bartra shows that consciousness is a phenomenon that occurs not only in the mind but also in an external network, a symbolic system. He argues that the symbolic systems created by humans in art, language, in cooking or in dress, are the key to understanding human consciousness. Placing culture at the centre of his analysis, Bartra brings together findings from anthropology and cognitive science and offers an original vision of the continuity between the brain and its symbolic environment.

19 June – 18:00 – 20:00 – A panel of Social Scientists discuss the concept of ‘Change’

Venue: Room B33, Malet Street

Booking: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-panel-of-social-scientists-discuss-the-concept-of-change-tickets-11270477301?aff=eorg

Marx famously wrote: ‘Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.’ Social scientists, philosophers and historians continue to share some sense of present, political engagement; but in order to make a difference in the world, it is necessary also to understand how and why it changes. To address that challenge this round-table brings together experts from six different disciplines, to discuss what ‘change’ means from their disciplinary context, and to see what perspectives can be thrown upon ‘change’ when looking at it comparatively, across time, space, culture and methodologies.

Participants include: Edwin Bacon, Jennifer Hornsby, Kate Maclean, Malcolm Edwards, Leticia Sabsay and Casper Meyer, chaired by Miriam Zukas.

20 June – 17:30 – 18:30 Hip hop+Afrobeats class for ALL levels and it’s ONLY £5!!!

Venue: Maryland Studioz Ltd, 86 – 90 Leytonstone Road, Stratford, London, E15 1TQ

Booking: Bring cash on the day

You can Wear anything comfortable i.e. leggings/joggers bottoms/t-shirt etc, but DEFINITELY trainers. Don’t forget to Bring water too

20 June – 12:00 – 17:00 – Perversions of Paper workshop

Venue: Keynes Library at 43 Gordon Square, WC1H 0PD

Booking: g.partington@bbk.ac.uk

Perversions of Paper comprises two events, an invitational workshop on 20 June 2014 and a one-day symposium on 28 June 2014. Both events investigate the outer limits of our interactions with books, manuscripts and paper. They consider unorthodox engagements with texts, from cherishing or hoarding them to mutilating and desecrating them, from wearing them to chewing them, and from inhaling their scent to erasing their content. ‘Perversion’ may apply to deviations from normal usage but also to our psychological investments in paper. To talk of having a fetish for books is common, but is there more to this than merely well-worn cliché? These events provide for reflections on perverse uses of – and relationships with – paper and parchment. What part do books, manuscripts and other written artefacts play in our imaginary and psychic lives, and what complex emotional attachments do we develop towards them? Also, how might literary studies or cultural history register these impulses and acts; what kind of methodologies are appropriate?

20 June – 15:00 – 17:45 – Transmission: Hari Kunzru workshop and conversation

Venue: School of Arts, 43 Gordon Square

Booking: bianca.leggett@gmail.com

The Centre for Contemporary Literature will host a workshop on novelist Hari Kunzru from 3pm, at 43 Gordon Square, Birkbeck. The event is organized by Bianca Leggett, Churnjeet Mahn and Bran Nicol, in association with the University of Surrey, and sponsored by the AHRC project The Memory Network.

The workshop will act as a forum for debate between Kunzru scholars, with an eye to planning an essay collection provisionally titled Reading Hari Kunzru. Bloomsbury have expressed an interest in a Hari Kunzru study as part of their single author series and the day will provide an opportunity to exchange ideas as to the angles which the book might cover. (Please do come along whether or not you would like to contribute to this collection; equally, attendance is not obligatory for those who would like to contribute.)

The workshop will be followed by a short break, after which you are invited to our evening event, ‘A Conversation with Hari Kunzru’. Hari Kunzru has confirmed his attendance: he will be giving a short reading from his new multi-modal essay ‘Twice Upon a Time’ followed by an interview, which will be opened up to the audience for a general Q&A followed by a wine reception. Attendance is free but places are limited.

21 June – 11:30 – 13:00 – Managing Your References Using EndNote

An introduction to EndNote, reference management software that helps you store, manage and cite your references correctly. There will be an opportunity for some hands-on practice.

To book for these or any of the other workshops this term, please visit http://www.bbk.ac.uk/lib/news/infoskills

21 June – 13:00 – 23:00 – Open City Docs Fest

Venue: Birkbeck Cinema, 43 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PD

Booking: Each individual show via Open City Docs Fest

Open City Docs Fest, in partnership with the Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image, presents the following screenings:

http://opencitydocsfest.com/films/shorts-harvard-sensory-ethnography-lab

http://opencitydocsfest.com/films/casse

http://opencitydocsfest.com/films/once-i-entered-garden-0

http://opencitydocsfest.com/films/stream-love

21 June – 09:30 – 20:30 – Guilt Colloquium

Venue: Clore Management Centre

Booking: jpc.brown@bbk.ac.uk

The BISR Guilt Group is pleased to announce the programme for the Guilt Colloquium to be held at Birkbeck on Saturday, 21st June.

Anyone is welcome to attend, but places are limited. To reserve a place, please email James Brown.

There will be papers on:

Guilt and the Unconscious

Mark Cousins (Architectural Association): ‘The superego’
Colin Gordon: ‘’Avowal and truth: between spirituality and legality’
War and Guilt

Paul Eden (Sussex): ‘Apartheid in America: truth, reconciliation and the Alien Tort Statute’
Eric Gordy (UCL): t.b.c.
Law, Guilt and Responsibility

Hallvard Lillehammer (Birkbeck): ‘What do we owe?’
Alan Norrie (Warwick): ‘Legal and moral guilt and The Act of Killing’
Antonio Ribeiro will screen his film, Justice Seekers, about the struggle of Dafroza and Alain Gauthier to have alleged perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide put on trial in France. Afterwards he’ll be in conversation with Philip Spencer (Kingston)

Round-table discussion including Sam Ashenden (Birkbeck), James Brown (Birkbeck), Tom Osborne (Bristol), Juliet Rogers (Melbourne), Lisa Wintersteiger (Birkbeck)

Launch of Economy and Society special issue on Guilt

21 June – 13:45 – 17:00 – Organizational Psychology Postgraduate Taster Event

Venue: B33 Malet Street

Booking: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/organizational-psychology-postgraduate-taster-event-tickets-11706314903

Come and find out more about the Department of Organizational Psychology’s postgraduate portfolio of programmes at our Taster Event.

At the Taster Day you will hear about our programmes, meet the staff who will be teaching, talk to some of our alumni and get the chance to participate in discussions with potential fellow students.

• 13.45 Welcome to Taster day and department overview Professor Pat Tissington, Head of Department Organizational Psychology
• 14.15 Programme groups:
  • Etlyn Kenny, MSc Organizational Behaviour
  • Kate Mackenzie Davey, MSc Occupational Psychology
  • Katrina Pritchard, MSc Human Resource Development
  • Huadong Yang, MSc Human Resource Management
  • Andreas Liefooghe, Postgraduate Certificate in Coaching
• 14.45 Seminar preview: Small Group Discussion
• 15.30 Tea and Pastries
• 16.00 Past and current student panel Q&A
• 16.45 Round-up, final questions
• 16:45 Drinks Reception

A little ahead of time, but you might want to book now!

 

4 July – MA Social and Cultural Geography Launch film event

CRITICAL GEOGRAPHIES OF FILM PLUS  Special showing of ‘A World Not Ours’ (2012) + Q&A with producer Patrick Campbell

Join them for an afternoon showcasing research within the GEDS department, exploring themes of identity, power and representation through film:

• Kate Maclean on ‘Film, masculinity and the financial crisis’.
• Penny Vera Sanso on ‘The working elderly in India’.
• Karen Wells on ‘The melodrama of being a child: NGO representations of poverty’.

There will also be  a special showing of ‘A World Not Ours’ (2012; Best International Film – Edinburgh International Film Festival 2013; Winner Peace Film Prize – Berlin International Film Festival), followed by a Q&A session with the producer Patrick Campbell.Set in Ain el-Helweh, Lebanon’s largest refugee camp and home to over 70,000 displaced Palestinians, director Mahdi Fleifel combines his own footage with that of his father’s from the 80s and 90s, to present an intimate portrait of the place where he was born.

Research talks 4-6pm; documentary showing 6.30-8pm; Q&A 8-8.30pm. There will be an opportunity to chat to our academics about the new MA Social and Cultural Geography, over refreshments before and after the film.

Book your tickets for the Research Talks and Film Showing at: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ma-social-and-cultural-geography-launch-film-event-tickets-11661390533