IGNITE! Festival of Radical Ideas

We live in dark times — obscene levels of inequality, uncontrolled corporate greed, genocide in Gaza, rampant militarization, a rising far-right, and ecological breakdown. Our political and economic system has created this mess. We need radical, systemic change.

A spark has ignited. People are taking to the streets, occupying institutions, connecting across continents, questioning systems of power, and building an inspiring global force for change. These movements tap into deep popular discontent and a desire for profound transformation.

Join us at Ignite! to explore what this system change looks like and how we can achieve it.

Dr. Jason Hickel is an economic anthropologist, author, and Professor at the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Jason’s research focuses on global political economy, inequality, and ecological economics, which are the subjects of his two most recent books: The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions (Penguin, 2017), and Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World (Penguin, 2020). In addition to his academic work, Jason contributes regularly to The Guardian, Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera and other outlets.

Jayati Ghosh is Professor of Economics at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She has authored and/or edited a dozen books and more than 160 scholarly articles, including Demonetisation Decoded: A critique of India’s monetary experiment (with CP Chandrasekhar and Prabhat Patnaik, Routledge 2017), the Elgar Handbook of Alternative Theories of Economic Development (co-edited with Erik Reinert and Rainer Kattel, Edward Elgar 2016). In addition to her academic work, she is also a columnist for several newspapers in India, and regularly contributes to The Guardian and other media outlets.

Ahdaf Soueif is the author of the bestselling The Map of Love (shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1999 and translated into more than 30 languages). Her account of the Egyptian revolution of 2011, Cairo: a City Transformed, came out in January 2014. Her collection of essays, Mezzaterra (2004), has been influential and her articles for the Guardian in the UK are published in the European and American press. In 2007 Ms Soueif co-founded the Palestine Festival of Literature which takes place annually in occupied Palestine.

Jerome Roos is a Fellow in International Political Economy at the London School of Economics, and author of Why Not Default? The Political Economy of Sovereign Debt (Princeton University Press, 2019). He holds a PhD in Political and Social Sciences from the European University Institute in Florence.

Aderonke Ige is a humanitarian lawyer, development practitioner and activist based in Nigeria. She has since been a human rights advocate, and social impact crusader in the non-profit space over the last 14 years. She is currently Associate Director at CAPPA, previously led legislative efforts in Oyo state, Nigeria, resulting in the Community Service Law. She’s pursuing a postgraduate degree in Development Studies at SOAS, focusing on decolonising development and resource governance.