Team of Global Development academics are announced as speakers at the renowned Ilkley Literature Festival
The Ilkley Literature Festival has announced its stellar line-up for this year’s event, which runs from 28 September until 14 October and comprises 240 events across 15 venues.
The University is Higher Education Partner for the festival, as well as principal partner for the Words in the City spoken word festival that took part in Leeds for the first time last May.
Entitled ‘Empower a Girl’ and ‘Goats for Christmas’: Challenging the Myths of Development Aid, Dr Lata Narayanaswamy, Dr Polly Wilding and Dr Anna Mdee, will discuss how aid is being used and, in some cases, abused, in light of recent scandals in the news. Bringing together the global development expertise from the School of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) they will reflect on the challenges of development aid.
They will address the question ‘If we want a more equal or sustainable world, is ‘development’ the answer?’ Drawing partly on reflections from Dr Narayanaswamy’s recent book Gender, Power and Knowledge for Development, the panel considers the power relations that shape how we ‘know’ the world.
Professor Frank Finlay, Director of the University’s Cultural Institute, said: “Our collaboration is a wonderful way to give our students and staff exciting opportunities to interact with large and diverse audiences, to engage with the wider world of ideas and to share new knowledge.”
Rachel Feldberg, Festival Director, saidː “The carefully curated line-up for 2018 includes some of the biggest names in literature as well as some of the most well-respected experts in history, poetry, non-fiction and science. This year, we’re lucky to have leading voices and specialists in their subject to contribute to our strands.”
