Birkbeck Institute for Social Research
Saturday 7th June 2014 9.30am – 5pm Room B33, Birkbeck Main Building (Torrington Square)
We are delighted to announce that the renowned moral philosopher Professor Peter Singer will be presenting the keynote at theCaring in Crisis colloquium sponsored by Birkbeck Institute for Social Research. Author of best-selling books such as The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty (2009), Professor Singer will discuss the findings of the three-year, interdisciplinary and collaborative research project ‘Mediated humanitarian knowledge; audiences responses and moral actions’, funded by the Leverhulme Trust.
The project investigated the responses and moral actions of the British public to information about humanitarian crises and international development. Dr Bruna Seu (Birkbeck) and Dr Shani Orgad (LSE), the lead researchers on the project, will present its findings which also provide new insights into the public’s perceptions of humanitarian and international development agencies. They will show that the high visibility of humanitarian disasters in the global media generates generous public response, but that people seem to be increasingly critical of and reluctant to commit to on-going support. The research probed the underlying perceptions and attitudes behind these changes and the extent to which campaigns and communications by humanitarian agencies themselves generate public criticism.
Along with Professor Singer, two panels of experts from the academic and NGO sectors – Brendan Gormley (CDAC Network),Professor Paul Hoggett (UWE), Professor Mark Levine (University of Exeter), Professor Sonia Livingstone (LSE), Professor Kate Nash (Goldsmiths College), and Glen Tarman (Action Against Hunger) – will comment on the findings.
This important conference will interest campaigners and policymakers involved with humanitarian and development NGOs, as well as academics working in psychosocial studies and social psychology, media and communications, and development programmes.
Click here to register
Cost: £25 Standard £20 Birkbeck Staff £15 All Students and Unwaged
Please do forward this email to anyone you think might be interested. We hope to see you there.
Mark Carrigan 