PVC's Lunchtime Seminars: 'Violent & Nonviolent Protest'

The final PVC’s Lunchtime Research Seminar of the year is a change to that originally advertised, and will focus on ‘protest’:

'Violent & Nonviolent Protest’
Wednesday 11th May 2011 12.30pm-2pm
Cornwallis NW Seminar Room 5

Recently, heroic protests, both violent and non-violent, have achieved astonishing results in some countries in the Middle East. But there have also been protestations at some kinds of protest. The front cover of a recent Private Eye shows Colonel Gaddafi saying to a sidekick ‘What news of the rebels?’, and the sidekick replying ‘They’ve invaded Fortnum and Masons’. Great figures such as Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King have advocated nonviolence, and we tend to think of nonviolent protest as noble. Why? What happens when nonviolent protest is ineffectual? Under what circumstances, if any, is violent protest justified? These are some of the issues that will be debated in this session. The convenor is Laurence Goldstein (SECL) and the other speakers are Helen Frowe (Philosophy), Adrian Pabst (PolIR) , David Radlett (KLS) and William Rowlandson (Hispanic Studies).

A light lunch is available from 12:30pm, together with tea and coffee, and the Seminar itself will start around 1pm.

All are welcome, but do let me know if you would like to come so that I can get a sense of numbers.