UCL Institute of Advanced Studies

Al-Biruni on Islamic history - Carole Hillenbrand, St Andrews Part of the Workshop 'Al-Biruni and his world' on 15 February 2016, organised by the ERC Calendars Project at the Department of Hebrew & Jewish Studies, UCL. Carole Hillenbrand (St Andrews) spoke on “al-Biruni on Islamic history”. This talk focussed on the large extract from a lost work by al-Biruni contained (in Persian translation) in...

***Presentation in Spanish only*** This presentation, from a ‘varieties of capitalism’ approach, examines the trajectories of labor policies and union power in six Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Costa Rica and Mexico) and their consequences in terms of poverty and social inequality. Do the differences identified amoung these countries in the past decade still persist...

Socialist Cuba is undergoing profound change. As the “historic generation” of the Revolution’s leaders is preparing its departure from center stage of politics, the island is in the midst of an ambivalent process of crisis and reform. Where is Cuba heading? What impact will the economic reforms have, and how far will they go? How much change is in store for US-Cuban relations after Obama’s histori...

The new edition of al-Biruni’s ‘Chronology’: work in progress - François de Blois, UCL Part of the Workshop 'Al-Biruni and his world' on 15 February 2016, organised by the ERC Calendars Project at the Department of Hebrew & Jewish Studies, UCL. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/hebrew-jewish/research/accordion/erc-workshops/al-biruni-and-his-world This paper gives a general account of the Chronology and its a...

Roy Rivera Hidalgo was forcibly disappeared from his home in the state of Nuevo Leon, Mexico in January 2011. His mother, Leticia Hidalgo, along with fellow members of FUNDENL, have set an example of citizen-led search and lobbying with the government in order to end disappearances at the local and national level. She shares her experience in the search of her son.

This lecture discusses the challenges and opportunities for Central America’s social and economic development. His talk will focus on several initiatives pursued by the region to facilitate trade, integrate into the global economy, and constitute a customs union between the countries of Central America. He will also address the challenges of mitigating the effects of climate change, channeling for...

Throughout the civil rights-Black Power era and in cities across the United States, public education became an important site of political contest, as African Americans fought for control of white-dominated institutions in their communities.

The strong traditional bi-regional ties that the Caribbean and the European Union have maintained will be severely tested in the next five years as both regions pivot to adapt to new regional and global realities. In particular, the European Union is now engaged in critical reviews of its global strategic policies that will certainly have far-reaching consequences for Caribbean-EU relations in are...

Say Burgin and Kate Dossett from the University of Leeds will discuss the framing of equality and diversity issues in British Higher Education around questions of race and gender exclusion. Drawing on both national conversations around gender inequalities in the wake of reports on inequalities by the Royal Historical Society and the Runnymede Trust and our local work on inequalities in higher educ...

Legislation and policy in support of linguistic human rights for Peru's indigenous people have gathered new momentum in the last five years. Despite repeated efforts in the last decades of the twentieth century, only now have laws been passed that officially allow indigenous languages to be spoken, and provide for use of translators and interpreters, in public service settings and other spaces of...

Formal human rights institutions can provide powerful venues for affecting the outcome of political processes. National human rights institutions (NHRIs) have emerged across countries and at different times as central players in enhancing citizen scrutiny, participation and state human rights obligations. However, as this study highlights, while some Latin American NHRIs have successfully advanced...

Introduction by Dr Kate Quinn, UCL Americas (up to minute 05:00) and presentation by book's author Dr Steve Cushion - To both its supporters and detractors, the Cuban Revolution is almost universally understood as having been won by a small band of guerrillas. This book turns the conventional wisdom on its head, and argues that the Cuban working class played a much more decisive role in the Revolu...

The economic profession has traditionally concentrated on designing the most efficient and effective public policies. Little attention has been given, however, to the way those policies are communicated, which may affect their effectiveness. For example, it has been traditionally assumed that once introduced into law, fines and penalties would reduce tax evasion. But could the way the government a...

Barack Obama became president in 2009 on a wave of goodwill that seemingly promised the opportunity to launch a “new New Deal” in the face of the worst economic crisis since the 1930s. Despite significant legislative achievements in his first two years, however, the loss of control of the House of Representatives in the 2010 midterm elections prefaced a new era of political polarization that limit...

This paper revolves around the cultural history of the Atlantic world, particularly in the long eighteenth century. It is concerned with recovering the memory of Atlantic slavery in a Scottish context, and it considers the implications of this recovery for contemporary debates on Scottish (and British) identity in a post-referendum context.

Justin Trudeau was elected at the head of a majority Liberal Government on Monday 19 October after an unusually long and eventful general election campaign, ending almost ten years’ of government by Stephen Harper and the Conservatives. Since this rather unexpected victory, Trudeau and the Liberals have set about turning Canada in a more liberal direction and the new Prime Minister has been very a...

Al-Biruni on the Jewish calendar: sources and reliability - Sacha Stern, UCL Part of the Workshop 'Al-Biruni and his world' on 15 February 2016, organised by the ERC Calendars Project at the Department of Hebrew & Jewish Studies, UCL. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/hebrew-jewish/research/accordion/erc-workshops/al-biruni-and-his-world Al-Biruni wrote his Chronology of the Ancient Nations in Tabaristan, cen...

With the discovery of an unknown continent during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries not only was a radical change brought about in traditional representations of the world. The West was now also faced with the revelation of the existence of another humankind, an ‘otherness’ all the more radical because even the possibility of its existence had never been imagined.

Latin America is widely known for its leaders. It is a continent that has produced political leaders that have gained global recognition – for good and ill. It is closely associated with leaders whose political projects have resonated far beyond their own countries. The book 'Latin America´s Leaders' (ZED Books, 2015) explores the reasons behind the emergence of different types of leaders in post-...

Egregious police violence has a long and racialized history in Brazil. Yet, in contemporary times, much police violence -torture, humiliation, execution- has become mundane, unexceptional and assumed. These kinds of violence have been made invisible, existing largely in and upon populations with little political voice. However, today, that may be changing. Some historical patterns of violence are...

Professor Jan Kubik explores the role of democratization in civil societies in his Inaugural Lecture.

Professor Melvyn Stoakes delivering his Inaugural Lecture: ‘New Waves’, Love seats, Ciggies and Kia-ora: Memories of 1960s Cinema and Cinema-going in Britain.

The talk will critically assess Canada's response to the October 2014 terrorist attacks including Bill C-51 which became Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act, 2015. It will examine the response in the context of Canada's past reactions to terrorism including the October 1970 Crisis, the 1985 Air India attack and the post 9/11 fall out. Questions about the evolving response of the new Liberal government wil...

To understand the contemporary state of American foreign policy, it is vital to turn to the origins of the nation’s global role in the twentieth century. This event will bring two eminent scholars of US foreign relations – John A. Thompson and David Milne – into conversation about this topic.

The seminar will look at Canada’s Political Economy within a North American and North Atlantic Framework and will cover a number of issues including recent major political and economic developments in Canada; foreign policy issues; Canada’s complex relations with the United States; Canada and NAFTA; Canada and the EU: CETA, the TPP, and indirectly the TTIP; Canadian federalism and the ‘internation...