The AKC Course in 2024/5
The AKC programme is comprised of two separate lecture series. This year all of the AKC lectures will first be delivered in-person on the dates listed below in the Safra Lecture Theatre on the Strand Campus. However, if you wish to follow the AKC programme online then you can access the course material via our KEATS page. Each lecture will be released on the KEATS page one week after it is delivered in person. For example, Lecture 1, which will be delivered at 12:00 midday on Monday 30 September on campus, will be released at 12:00 midday (UK time) on Monday 7 October on our KEATS page. The KEATS quizzes will open on the day of the live lecture and will close at 12:00 midday three weeks later. For example, the quiz for Lecture 1 will open at 12:00 midday on Monday 30 September and will close at 12:00 midday (UK time) on Monday 21 October.
Below you can find the outline of the 2024/5 AKC lecture series.
All AKC lectures are delivered from the perspective of the academic delivering them and do not represent an official position of King’s College London. These lectures often explore contentious subjects and viewpoints and we welcome constructive debate at these events.
Semester 1: 2024/5
Why War? Living with Peace and Violence, curated by Dr Taushif Kara
Conflict has been a constant feature of history. But our present moment is increasingly defined by civil war, renewed forms of state violence and genocide, and the sustained persecution of minorities around the world. Must conflict be resolved by recourse to violence? What are the consequences of war? And what makes peace possible? This AKC series invites intellectuals and academics to reflect on the causes and effects of violence both past and present, as well as the possibilities for peace, peacebuilding, and nonviolence in our own times. Drawing together a range of perspectives – from religion, philosophy, and political science to law and contemporary art – this series asks: why must we live with war?
AKC CONVERSATION: Antisemitism and Conflict – 1:30-3PM, Wednesday 13 November
Antisemitic incidents and other forms of hate surge during times of war and conflict. Why is this the case? And what is the relationship – both historical and contemporary – between antisemitism and violence? This AKC Conversation will begin to unpack these questions in the context of the current series, Why War? Living with Peace and Violence. It brings together scholars of antisemitism and voices from the Jewish community for a moderated dialogue on the troubling links between antisemitism and conflict.
Please note: this event is open to King’s students and staff only. Free tickets required. Email akc@kcl.ac.uk for more information.
Monday 30 Sep 2024 – Amjad Iraqi, Al-Shabaka & +972 Magazine, When Calm is Violence: Media and Power in Israel-Palestine
Monday 7 Oct 2024 – A Vigil for Peace (no lecture)
Monday 14 Oct 2024 – Dr Kazuyo Murata, King's College London, The Greater War Is Against Your Ego: A Sufi View on Inner Struggle
Monday 21 Oct 2024 – Dr Moiz Tundawala, University of Oxford, Is Gandhi Pacifist? Violence and Ethics in Anticolonial Thought
Monday 28 Oct 2024 – READING WEEK (No live lecture)
Monday 4 Nov 2024 – Prof Marat Shterin, King's College London, What Is ‘Holy’ in This War? Religions and Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
Monday 11 Nov 2024 – Dr Maria Varaki, King’s College London, The Right to Peace
Monday 18 Nov 2024 – Prof Rachel Kerr, King's College London, Art for Peace and Justice
Monday 25 Nov 2024 – Zena Agha, Writer and Poet, Colonial Cartography in Palestine and the Decolonising Potential of Counter Maps
Monday 2 Dec 2024 – Prof Hanna Kienzler, King’s College London, Wounds Inside: The Anticipated Mental Health Consequences of the Genocide in Gaza
Semester 2: 2024/5
Enduring love? Intimacies and Care in Turbulent Times, curated by Dr Ruth Sheldon
This AKC series will explore a universal human concern that takes radically different forms across times and places: what is love and how can we love well? Bringing together diverse academic, activist, and practitioner voices, we will grapple with the contemporary challenges of sustaining love in the face of the violence, and injustices affecting people and planet. Our topics will take in the ethics and politics of marriage, belonging in marginalised communities, subversive cultures of intimacy, love in times of environmental extinction, and possibilities of care in the university itself.
Mon 13 Jan 2025 – Prof Devorah Baum, University of Southampton and Prof Clare Carlisle, King’s College London, On Marriage: A Conversation
Mon 20 Jan 2025 – Dr Selma Dabbagh, Author, Cunning Encounters: Love as Bravery and Defiance
Mon 27 Jan 2025 – Dr Jamie Hakim, King’s College London, Vulnerability and Control: Smartphones and Queer Men's Cultures of Intimacy
Mon 3 Feb 2025 – Guilaine Kinouani, Founder of Race Reflections & Author, Scholar and Activist, On Love, Non-attachment and Liberation
Mon 10 Feb 2025 – Krysia Waldock, University of Kent, Impossible Subjects? Autistic People’s Belonging in Religious Groups
Mon 17 Feb 2025 – READING WEEK (No live lecture)
Mon 24 Feb 2025 – Yehudis Fletcher, Founder of Nahamu & Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Kent, Shoulders to Lean On, or Sharp Elbows: Who Controls the Narrative of Lived Experience in High Control Communities?
Mon 3 March 2025 – Prof Yasmin Gunaratnam, King’s College London, Last Love: Lessons from Care at the End of Life
Mon 10 March 2025 – Dr Lois Lee, University of Kent Theme, Love and Existential Traditions
Mon 17 March 2025 – Dr Michael Malay, University of Bristol, Radical Hope? The Poetics and Politics of Hope
See our sample lectures, including previous AKC lectures