Speakers 2013
ANWAR IRFAN KHATRI
THE CONTEMPORARY CRAFTSMAN Anwar Irfan Khatri, like many others in his community, is an expert at the art of ajrakh printing. The printing technique, native to what would later become Sindh, came to India in the 16th century when Khatri’s ancestors migrated to Kutchh. Getting its name from the Hindi phrase ‘aaj rakh’ (keep it Read More…
ALAN RUSSELL
THE SERIALLY DISRUPTIVE DOCTOR Rolling Stone named him one of the 100 people who will change America, but in a rare move they underplayed his contribution: Dr Alan Russell is likely to change the world. His professional qualifications, titles and affiliations are incredibly impressive – a PhD in Biological Chemistry from London’s Imperial College, he Read More…
AMITABH BACHCHAN
THE GREATEST GATSBY The problem in trying to piece together a coherent narrative about Amitabh Bachchan is that you’re doomed to be trite, inadequate or just plain wrong. No amount of research about his epically successful films, his cult dialogues, his piercing intensity, his inimitable voice, his most iconic roles, or his sublime acting skills Read More…
BINALAKSHMI NEPRAM
THE INTREPID WARRIOR As the Nature of war and weapons change, so must the archetype of the warrior. The soft-spoken Binalakshmi Nepram, secretary general of the Manipuri Women Gun Survivors Network, has in recent years emerged as one of the most strident voices against the trafficking of small arms in India, particularly in the Northeastern Read More…
CAROLINE FOUREST
THE FIERY FEMINIST In 2006, French activist-journalist Caroline Fourest made global headlines when she and 11 others – including Salman Rushdie, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Taslima Nasreen – signed a Manifesto Against Islamist Totalitarianism, a manifesto for which she received death threats on an Islamist website called ummah.net. Fourest was unfazed. “The threat is simply Read More…
CARTER EMMART
THE ASTROVISUALISATION GENIUS It’s the kind of job kids fantasise about and adults envy. Carter Emmart uses astronomy and computational modelling to create scientifically accurate, three-dimensional tours of the universe. For the last 12 years Carter – who is Director of Astrovisualisation at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) – has been working with Read More…
DAVID BARASH
THE EVOLUTIONARY OUTLIER The irony of teaching Peace Studies and being included in a listing of the ‘101 Most Dangerous Academics in America’ isn’t lost on David Barash: for a while after the book was published, he mockingly took to signing his emails as Dangerous David. An evolutionary biologist and professor of psychology at the Read More…
DAVID PRIESTLAND
THE HISTORIAN WHO CAN DECODE THE ECONOMIC CRISIS “History is a set of lies agreed upon,” said Napoleon Bonaparte. Turns out they forgot to send David Priestland that particular memo because he’s a historian with a penchant for disagreeing. Or at least for revisiting what most are happy to take as a given. In writing Read More…
DIARMAID MACCULLOCH
THE SUBVERSIVE HISTORIAN “God cannot alter the past, though historians can,” said Samuel Butler, one assumes in jest. Diarmaid MacCulloch – arguably the most influential historian of the Church in the world and one of Britain’s most distinguished living historians per se, seems to have taken up the challenge. The dapper Oxford don – who Read More…
