EXPeditions - The living library of knowlegde

I’m the Tutorial Fellow in Philosophy and Christian Ethics at Regent's Park College, Oxford. My research focuses primarily on Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and I've written a few books on Sartre and Beauvoir and Existentialism more generally. About Kate Kirkpatrick I’m the Tutorial Fellow in Philosophy and Christian Ethics at Regent's Park College, Oxford. My research focuses primarily...

Lyndsey Stonebridge, Professor of Humanities and Human Rights at the University of Birmingham, tells how Hannah Arendt helped her to think. About Lyndsey Stonebridge "I am Professor of Humanities and Human Rights at the University of Birmingham, in the UK. I work on the intellectual history and literature of the 20th century, and I’ve written books on war, justice, war-time trials, statelessness,...

Dana Mills, lecturer in political theory at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam, discusses Simone Weil and activism. About Dana Mills  "I'm the Director of International Relations at Gisha and I have taught political theory at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam. I’ve written books on dance and politics, and especially revolutionary women. Most recently, I wrote a biography of Rosa Luxemburg." Key...

Barry Smith, Director of the Institute of Philosophy at the School of Advanced Study, discusses Wittgenstein, logic and language. About Barry Smith "I'm a professor of philosophy and Director of the Institute of Philosophy at the University of London School of Advanced Study. I'm a philosopher of mind and language, and I'm interested in how these systems help put us in touch with the world around...

Adrian Moore, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford, explores the practical use of reason and morality in Kant’s system. About Adrian Moore "I am Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford and a Tutorial Fellow of St Hugh’s College, Oxford. I study the philosopher Immanuel Kant, who, in my view, is the greatest philosopher of all time. He's certainly my own favourite philoso...

Susan James, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, London, discusses why Spinoza’s philosophy is relevant to our lives today. About Susan James  "I’m a professor of philosophy at Birkbeck College in London. Most of my work is about early modern philosophy, particularly the social and political aspects of philosophy in that period. My most recent book is called Spinoza on Learning to Live To...

Sridhar Venkatapuram, Senior Lecturer in Global Health and Philosophy at King’s College London, discusses ethical implications of health inequalities. About Sridhar Venkatapuram "Sridhar Venkatapuram, Senior Lecturer in Global Health and Philosophy at King’s College London, discusses ethical implications of health inequalities." Key Points • Health outcomes mirror other social inequalities. In any...

Lyndsey Stonebridge, Professor of Humanities and Human Rights at the University of Birmingham, talks about Arendt’s reaction to Eichmann’s trial. About Lyndsey Stonebridge "I am Professor of Humanities and Human Rights at the University of Birmingham, in the UK." Key Points • Arendt coined her famous phrase “the banality of evil” at the trial of Adolf Eichmann, as a way of describing the Nazi war...

The Nuremberg moment happened in 1945: a group of countries came together to create the first-ever international criminal tribunal with jurisdiction over crimes against humanity and war crimes. About Philippe Sands "I’m Professor of Law at University College London, a Barrister at Matrix Chambers and a writer." Key Points • The Nuremberg moment happened in 1945: a group of countries came together...

Helena Kennedy, barrister at the English bar, member of the House of Lords and head of the IBAHRI, talks us through gender bias in law. About Helena Kennedy "I’m a barrister, a member of the House of Lords and the head of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute. I am a founding Member of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights in the University of Oxford." Key Points • Women ever...

Samuel Moyn, Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University, examines the development of human rights. About Samuel Moyn "I am Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University." Key Points • The modern concept of the “Rights of Man” is born out of the French and American revolutions. • The first declarations of rights founded new states, but then moved to rights of...

Hugh Brody, Honorary Associate at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge, explores the role of the anthropologist. About Hugh Brody "Hugh Brody, Honorary Associate at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge, explores the role of the anthropologist." Key Points • After the N|uu language was thought to be extinct, one of the last remaining people...

A society of equals is one where no one looks up to anyone and no one looks down on anyone. No one is exploited, no one is dominated and no one is subjected to violence. About Jonathan Wolff "I’m the Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government in the University of Oxford. I’m a political philosopher, and my research is largely about making connectio...

Eva Hoffman, Visiting Professor at University College London, discusses what lessons, if any, we have learned from the Holocaust and other genocides. About Eva Hoffman "I’m a Visiting Professor at the European Institute of University College London. I write about the aftermaths of difficult history, democracy and human time. I was born in Poland two months after World War II ended. My parents surv...

Jim Secord, Director of the Darwin Correspondence Project, University of Cambridge, explains how perception of Darwin has evolved. About Jim Secord "I’m the Director of the Darwin Correspondence Project in the University Library at Cambridge University. My research is on public debates about science in the 18th and 19th centuries. I’ve written particularly about Victorian evolution and debates abo...

Peter Girguis, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, examines microbes, life and its origins. About Peter Girguis "I’m a Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. My research focuses on the deep sea and the relationship that animals and microbes have to one another, but also to their environment. We do a lot of work developing new too...

Buzz Baum, Cell Biologist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, explains the beginnings of life on Earth.   Key Points • Darwin hypothesised that all living organisms are branches on a tree and that there is one single trunk to life on Earth. • Two partners gave rise to all complex cells: bacteria and archaea. We are all composite organisms – a mixture of bacterial genes and arc...

Jim Secord, Director of the Darwin Correspondence Project, University of Cambridge, explains the traits Darwin thought to be fundamental to humans. About Jim Secord  "I’m the Director of the Darwin Correspondence Project in the University Library at Cambridge University. My research is on public debates about science in the 18th and 19th centuries. I’ve written particularly about Victorian evoluti...

Emanuele Coccia, Associate Professor of Historical Anthropology at EHESS, discusses metamorphosis. About Emanuele Coccia "I am Professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. I’m working on art, fashion and ecology. I published The Life of Plants four years ago, and this year I published a book called Metamorphoses." Key Points • Metamorphosis shows that life cannot be redu...

Tim Lenton, Professor of Earth System Science at the University of Exeter, discusses how our remarkable planet came to be the way it is now. About Tim Lenton "I’m Director of the Global Systems Institute and Professor of Earth System Science at the University of Exeter. My work focusses on the transformation of our planet. Reading Jim Lovelock’s books on Gaia ignited my passion for studying the Ea...

Nowadays, I would say almost every person I see in therapy talks about their troubled body en passant, as though it is not something to be dealt with because it is just something you have to live with. About Susie Orbach "I am a psychoanalyst, psychotherapist and writer, and the co-founder of the Women’s Therapy Centre in London and New York. I look at how the issues of society are structured into...

Anger is a primordial emotion and appears across cultures as a formative force. About Josh Cohen "I’m a psychoanalyst in private practice in London and Professor of Modern Literary Theory at Goldsmiths, University of London. My research is at the borders of psychoanalysis, literature and cultural theory. I’ve written a number of books, including one on Sigmund Freud, on privacy, on our aversion to...

Helping and being helped informs almost all our forms of relating to other people. About Adam Philips "I was trained as a child psychotherapist and I worked in the NHS for 17 years. I am currently a psychoanalyst and a writer. Since 2003 I have been the general editor of the new Penguin Modern Classics translations of Sigmund Freud. I write one day a week and I tend to write about psychoanalytic t...

Lisa Appignanesi, Visiting Professor at King’s College London and Chair of the Royal Society of Literature, explores “good” and “bad” emotions. About Lisa Appignanesi "I’m a Visiting Professor in Medical Humanities at King’s College London. I’ve written books on anger, on love and trials of passions, and on women. I’m fascinated by the subject of emotions: extreme emotions, madness, Freud, the the...

Edith Hall, Professor of Classics at Durham University, examines Aristotle’s approach to emotions and how we might understand them. About Edith Hall "Professor of Classics at Durham University and Fellow of the British Academy. I’m a classicist, originally focused on Ancient Greek theatre. I’ve spent most of my career blending data from ancient Greek literature with sociology, history, political t...