Archive

These days, virtually anyone outside the political mainstream is called a populist. The term populist is frequently used to denigrate people who vote the 'wrong way'. Frank Furedi argues that in the current climate anti-populism represents a far greater threat to public life than populism.

Is data the new oil? who refines this valuable resource? and what role do and can the people play?
Every day, as you browse the Internet and carry your mobile phone, you create and share data about yourself. This data of the people and by the people is the most important economic resource of the twenty-first century.
In this lecture Andreas Weigend, former chief scientist at Amazon and author of the book Data for the People, shows that it's misguided to fight for a naive conception of privacy or anonymity. Instead, you must take an active role in extracting value from your data, and demand a seat at the controls of the data refineries.

Christina Lamb is one of Britain’s leading foreign correspondents and a bestselling author. She gave the annual Tans lecture on 6 November 2017: Never-Ending War and Finding Hope in the Darkest Places. The Tans Lecture is organised by Studium Generale every year to honour dr. J. Tans (1912-1993), the founding father of Maastricht University. Interview & camera: Lennart Kleinschmidt Edit: Sandu Ambrosi

Europe’s Pursuit of Peace:  Past, Present and Future by Stella Ghervas, PhD (Assistant Professor, Un. of Alabama at Birmingham & Harvard University (USA)) On Tuesday 9 May at the School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University.
​Spanning three centuries, this year’s Schuman lecture examined a number of deep-rooted reasons why, in the face of all odds and failures, political leaders in Europe have been trying to achieve a peaceful unification of the continent, and why this pursuit is a never-ending process.

Agnes Heller was invited to speak at the 4 May lecture 2017. During her long life, the Hungarian-Jewish philosopher Ágnes Heller has seen a great deal of recent European history. As a Jew, she survived the Nazi regime in Budapest. She studied philosophy with György Lukács after the war and was active during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Among her many works are A Philosophy of Morals (1990), The Time is Out of Joint (2002) and The Immortal Comedy (2005).

Before her lecture on Biodiversity: the Basis of Nature's Economy, Prof. Louise Vet was interviewed about her research. "Biodiversity is not just ‘nice to have’; it is essential for all life on Earth – including our own. During the lecture professor Vet showed what we can learn from nature when it comes to changing our economy into a new one that fits within nature’s economy: circular, energy from the sun and based on biodiversity."

Peter Asaro is a philosopher of science, technology and media at The New Schoo, New York (USA). His research examines the social, ethical and legal implications of autonomous technologies. This includes agency and autonomy, liability and punishment, and privacy and surveillance as it applies to robotics, automation, smart buildings, drones, autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence. At 11 april 2017 he gave a lecture for Studium Generale: Robot Ethics, Human Rights & Autonomous Weapons

The Eurozone: Groupthink and Denial on a Grand Scale (06-03-2017)

Bill Mitchell, Professor of Economics at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia and a notable proponent of Modern Monetary Theory, presented the 2017 Joan Muysken Lecture on 6 March. This lecture, organised in cooperation with the School of Business and Economics, is based on Mitchell’s book of the same name, which argues that the political class in Europe is trapped in a destructive groupthink which prevents it from seeing their own policy failures.

Before his Studium Generale lecture, Prof. Philipp Ther (Professor of Central European History) was interviewd by Ferenc Laczó (Assistant Professor in History).

Ther works at the University of Vienna and is author of Europe since 1989: The New Order on the Old Continent.  Read more...

Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind over Body (01-11-16)
Have you ever felt a surge of adrenaline after narrowly avoiding an accident? Salivated at the sight (or thought) of a sour lemon? Felt turned on just from hearing your partner’s voice? If so, then you’ve experienced how dramatically the workings of your mind can affect your body. Jo Marchant is a science journalist and author based in London. In this years Tans lecture she discussed the potential – and limits – of the mind to heal, and asked how we might harness these principles in medical care. More info