LSE100 News

13 March 2024 - Abstract submissions are now open for the fourth annual Knowledge Beyond Boundaries conference, LSE's interdisciplinary student research conference! This year's conference will be taking place online and on campus on Monday 10 June as part of LSE Festival.

Find out more about the conference and how to submit an abstract here.

7 March 2024 – This evening, in collaboration with LSE Data Science Institute and Digital Skills Lab, LSE100 hosted the event “Developing AI Literacy in the classroom and beyond” as part of AI UK Fringe 2024.

The panel featured experts from a range of sectors, including Associate Professor (Education) and LSE100 Co-Director Dr Jillian Terry, who spoke to the developing role and impact of AI in a variety of educational and professional contexts. Over the course of the evening, the panel examined the concept of AI literacy and its role in using AI effectively while thinking critically about AI technologies and their continuing impacts on the world around us.

Chaired by Professor Emma McCoy (LSE Vice-President and Pro-Vice Chancellor for Education), the panel also looked to the development of practical steps and strategies in developing AI literacy in a diverse range of sectors and teams.

You can view the recording of tonight’s event here.

29 February 2024 – LSE100’s Beatriz Buarque and her collaborators from Think Twice Brasil presented their recent research on the relationship between social media’s algorithmic user recommendations and youth violence in Brazil.

In this LSE100-sponsored event, Beatriz spoke alongside Gabriele Costa Bento Garcia and invited attendees to reflect upon the ways in which an education model for peace and human rights can be developed in our contemporary world.

You can read the project’s research findings here.

22 February 2024 – Dr Moé Suzuki’s chapter “Situating the Body in Digital Migration Research: Embodied Methodologies for Analysing Virtual Reality Films on Displacement” has been published as part of Doing Digital Migration Studies: Theories and Practices of the Everyday (eds. Koen Leurs and Sandra Ponzanesi, Amsterdam University Press, 2024).

Moé’s chapter develops the term ‘embodied methodologies’ in relation to VR films, and how they can shape understandings of ‘valid’ knowledge and highlight the geopolitics of knowledge production.

The edited volume is Open Access and can be found here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.11895524

15 February 2024 – This afternoon, a group of first-year undergraduate students participated in an exciting Spotify Unwrapped workshop!

Hosted by LSE100, as part of Fellow Dr Nina Vindum Rasmussen’s wider research on Spotify with Dr Taylor Annabel (Utrecht University), this workshop invited students to critically reflect on their experiences of music streaming. Specifically, Nina and Taylor asked their participants to explore Spotify Wrapped as an algorithmic event and the ways in which this event depicts their musical identities.

While listening to live music, workshop participants also had the opportunity to create their own musical artefacts – found-object-collages speaking to their music tastes – in order to examine the ways in which physical objects, rather than streaming data, can also express their individual tastes.

15 February 2024 – The most recent video in LSE Data Science Institute’s “Introductions Series” features Associate Professor (Education) and LSE100 Co-Director Dr Chris Blunt.

In this introduction, Chris shares the ways in which LSE100’s “How can we control AI?” theme engages with the wealth of work being carried out across the School concerning data science. You can check out Chris’s introduction here to learn more about LSE100 and LSE Data Science Institute’s Affiliate Scheme.

19 January 2024 – LSE100’s Dr Afroditi Koulaxi has received funding from the LSE Urgency Grant Scheme for the research project: “Citizen-refugeeness: internal displacement and digital order in Greece’s Storm Daniel”.

Hosted by LSE’s Department of Media and Communications and the Hellenic Observatory, Afroditi and her co-investigator Maria-Christina Vogkli’s project investigates the aftermath of Storm Daniel (2023) in Greece's Thessaly region and its transformation of displaced citizens into refugees in their own country. Focusing on the storm's impact on citizenship and information poverty, this research confronts the complexities of internal displacement against the backdrop of a multi-faceted climate-driven crisis, and looks at how media and communications technologies reshape responses to such crises.

You can learn more about this important research project here.

15 January 2024 – The LSE100 team are excited to welcome back over 1800 first-year LSE undergraduate students to their LSE100 seminars as Winter Term begins!

This term in LSE100, students will be working with their peers to learn about making change in complex systems. Together, they will employ elements of systems thinking and systems change to complete collaborative research projects proposing a positive change to a system and chosen focus problem related to students’ chosen LSE100 theme.

This term, we also welcome two new Fellows to the LSE100 team: Maximilian Afnan and Alexandra Pugh.

18 December 2023 – Featured as part of LSE Eden Centre’s “Practice Bursts” series, LSE100 Co-Director Dr Chris Blunt shares about the LSE100 team engage students in their learning about and usage of generative AI tools.

You can view Chris’s video here.

Also featured as part of the “Practice Bursts” series, LSE100’s Dr Nina Vindum Rasmussen discusses her fascinating research concerning Spotify Wrapped as an algorithmic event. Nina also outlines the Spotify Unwrapped workshop format that she and her collaborator, Taylor Annabell (Utrecht University), have developed to foreground experiences of ordinary Spotify users.

You can view Nina’s video here.

24 November 2023 – Today, LSE100’s Beatriz Buarque facilitated an academic workshop at the World Peace Forum Barcelona 2023, entitled , “Current challenges of the harmful use of digital technologies and the challenges it poses to Human Rights”.

Beatriz’s workshop provided an overview of the ways in which digital capitalism poses challenges to human rights before encouraging attendees to find solutions that can employ digital media for acts of peace. Employing similar methodologies to her teaching practice, Beatriz then organised attendees into groups to help them develop strategies to address various types of harmful internet usages, including racism, religious intolerance and misinformation.

Beatriz, who is also a recipient of the Luxembourg Peace Prize 2021, teaches on LSE100’s “How can we control AI?” and “How can we create a fair society?” themes.

23 November 2023 – Today, LSE100 hosted a student visit to the Barbican Centre’s moving and empowering Re/Sisters: A Lens on Gender and Ecology exhibition.

The even was open to students from all three of LSE100’s themes. It was wonderful to see everyone making connections between their learning about AI, social inequalities and climate futures, and the exhibition’s art and ethos.

We ended the afternoon in the Barbican Café, discussing our favourite pieces and how the exhibition impacted our understandings of climate activism.

 This exhibition visit was the final LSE100 theme event of the term, and the LSE100 team are thankful to all of the students who have come along and joined in with events throughout Autumn Term!

16 November 2023 – This afternoon, students on LSE100’s “How can we control AI?” theme attended a workshop hosted in collaboration between LSE100 and Amnesty International, exploring Amnesty's Ban the Scan campaign and with a specific focus on their work on facial recognition and AI surveillance in New York City.

Entitled “Seeing Artificial Intelligence”, the workshop was led by Dr Matthew Mahmoudi (researcher and adviser on AI and Human Rights for Amnesty International). Over two hours, students were walked through Amnesty’s methodologies and findings in their work suing the NYPD in relation to the use of facial recognition. Contributor Julien Cornebise (UCL) offered excellent insights from a data science perspective in breaking down the case’s research design and methodologies.

Students were then given the opportunity to engage with some of these methodologies themselves, and were tasked with monitoring the number of surveillance cameras in an area of Central London.

In the final part of the workshop, students shared their thoughts and questions about what they had learned and possible implications of future implementations of facial recognition in other global cities.

A massive thank you to Matt and Julien for their collaboration and work in facilitating this workshop for our students.

9 November 2023 – This morning, students on LSE100’s “How can we create a fair society?” theme attended a fantastic event at LSE Library concerning the work of English industrialist and social reformer Charles Booth.

Hosted in collaboration between LSE100 and LSE Library, the event was led by Indy Bhullar and it was a valuable opportunity for students to learn about the wider social and historical context of Booth’s Inquiry, his methods of measuring inequalities across the city and the Inquiry’s continued relevance in the twenty-first century. Students also had the unique chance to see some of Booth’s notebooks and maps in person, and gain insights into the physical site upon which LSE stands today.

This event was the first of three theme-specific LSE100 events taking place this month, and we’re looking forward to our AI and Climate Futures events happening over the coming weeks.

18 October 2023 – LSE recently launched "Generative AI: Developing Your AI Literacy" - a new self-study course aimed at developing users’ understanding of generative AI, the way it works and best practice when using it.

Designed in collaboration with LSE100 Co-Directors Dr Jillian Terry and Dr Chris Blunt, the course consists of four sections and takes approximately 3 hours to complete. The course is also designed to be completed at your own pace, and you can dip in and out of it as much as you want. Upon finishing the course, you receive a Certificate of Completion.

Open to all LSE students and staff, the course can be accessed here via Moodle.

10 October 2023 – The LSE100 team were joined by students and staff from across the School in celebrating the LSE100 award winners 2022-23!

We were delighted to welcome Professor Emma McCoy, Vice President and Pro-Vice Chancellor (Education), who delivered a warm and insightful opening address ahead of the winners receiving their awards.

Students who received awards for Outstanding Academic Achievement represent the top 9 out of 400 groups who completed group research projects during their time on LSE100 in the 2022-23 academic year. 

Sakina Nakhoda and Yestin Davies, the winners of the Sir Robert Worcester Prize for Exceptional Academic Performance on LSE100, represent the top 2 students out of the entire cohort who completed the LSE100 course last academic year.

You can read more about the LSE100 awards and this year’s reception here.

30 September 2023 – Danielle Cameron, the LSE100 Student Experience Administrator, has submitted her PhD thesis in American Studies.

Entitled “Architectures of Age: Adulthood, Age-Based Relationality & Space in Post-1980 New York City Literature”, Danielle’s thesis is an interdisciplinary study of age in US literature.

Her research examines how adulthood (as defined by the markers of marriage, mortgage and career) is reproduced and resisted through contemporary New York novels and offers new ways of understanding adulthood in the neoliberal era.

As LSE100’s Student Experience Administrator, Danielle assists with the general administration of the course as well as delivering student communications and events throughout the year.

25 September 2023 – Today marked the first day of the 2023-2024 academic year here at LSE!

The LSE100 team are ready and excited to see over 1,800 new LSE undergraduates attend their first LSE100 seminars and begin their studies in AI, climate futures and fair society while learning how to think and research as social scientists.

This term, we also welcome three new Fellows to the LSE100 team: Dr Afroditi Koulaxi, Dr Moé Suzuki and Beatriz Buarque.

18-21 September 2023 – Over 600 LSE first-year undergraduate students attended our Welcome to LSE100 events this week.

Led by LSE100 Co-Directors Dr Jillian Terry and Dr Chris Blunt, these events introduced students from across all LSE Departments to LSE100, and what to expect from the School’s flagship interdisciplinary course. Each session was full of high energy and enthusiasm from staff and students alike, with students getting to meet and make new connections with first-years from outside of their own Departments.

Our Welcome to LSE100 events also featured introductions to other teams and resources from across the School, all of whom will be supporting students through their LSE100 studies and beyond. Team members from LSE Library, LSE LIFE and LSE Digital Skills Lab were present in all of our sessions, informing students about how they can access further academic and pastoral support in their first year and their whole time at LSE. 

Thank you to everyone who came along to our events and made them a resounding success! It was wonderful to meet so many new faces and see students settling into their time here at LSE.

3 August 2023 – It was a great evening at Dr Emily Cousens and Dr Catherine Duxbury’s LSE100-sponsored book launch of their respective publications: Trans Feminist Epistemologies in the US Second Wave and Science, Gender and the Exploitation of Animals in Britain since 1945.

Emily teaches on LSE100’s Fairness theme, while Catherine teaches on our “How can we control AI?” and “How can we avert climate catastrophe?” themes.

Together, they discussed the convergence of trans feminism and critical animal studies, and how these two fields can inform ideas of liberation from oppression more broadly.

24 July 2023 – Dr Daniel Frost has been awarded a Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education by the Eden Centre.

Dan is a contemporary British political historian, and teaches on the “How can we create a fair society?” theme here at LSE100.

19 July 2023 – Dr Emma Taylor graduated with her PhD in Sociology from LSE today!

 Emma teaches on the “How can we create a fair society?” theme at LSE100, and her research examines the reproduction of inequalities through the education system.

23 June 2023 – Members of the LSE100 Course Office were celebrated at this year’s LSE Values in Practice Awards!

LSE100 Student Experience Administrator Danielle Cameron placed as a runner-up in the Student Experience Ambassador category, and LSE100 Course Manager Simon Jolly was commended in the Outstanding Collegiality category.

14 June 2023 – We hosted our 3rd annual interdisciplinary student research conference, Knowledge Beyond Boundaries, as part of LSE Festival 2023.

With over 80 speakers, 12 panels and 2 poster sessions, this year’s conference was our biggest one yet. Presenters shared research from across the social sciences, with topics including AI and feminist resistance, educational fairness and the future of cities.

The conference featured contributions from current LSE students, alumni and students from CIVICA institutions from across Europe.

The conference finished with a plenary discussion with LSE Vice President and Pro-Vice Chancellor Professor Emma McCoy, followed by a sunny rooftop drinks reception.

Congratulations to all presenters, especially those (including LSE100 Student Representative Diza Saxena) who gave their first ever conference presentations as part of Knowledge Beyond Boundaries 2023!

 A big thank you again to everyone involved – your collegiality, curiosity and support of interdisciplinary research mean the world!

6 June 2023 - As part of the Destination LSE series, members of the LSE100 team hosted an interactive online session introducing undergraduate offer holders to the LSE100 course.

Offer holders were able to learn about the course’s structure, themes and its enrichment of the first-year student experience.

23 May 2023 – There was a packed lecture theatre for today’s LSE100-sponsored book event!

Chaired by LSE100’s Dr Lukas Slothuus, the event saw a panel discussion of Søren Mau’s new book Mute Compulsion (Verso) between Mau, Professor Sumi Madhok, Professor Paul Apostolidis and Dr Sara Salem. Together, they discussed and unpacked Mute Compulsion’s main arguments concerning a new Marxist theory of abstract and impersonal forms of power in capitalism.

11 May 2023 – Dr Emma Taylor and Dr Rian Mulcahy received Class Teacher Awards at LSESU’s Teaching Awards 2023!

 Emma and Rian teach students on the LSE100 theme of “How can we create a fair society?” and we’re thrilled to see their hard work and enthusiasm recognised by the wider LSE community.

On 25 April, LSE100 Fellow Dr Lukas Slothuus appeared on live national Danish news to share his insights about the relationship between climate activism and popular opinion.

He discussed recent protests organised by Extinction Rebellion in London and Letzte Generation in Berlin, in particular, and the effects that such protests have on media coverage and broader popular opinion.

Following on from their successful “Spotify Unwrapped” creative workshop in February, LSE100 Fellow Dr Nina Vindum Rasmussen and King’s College London’s Dr Taylor Annabell presented at this year’s Algorithms for Her 2 conference (23-24 March).

Dr Vindum Rasmussen and Dr Annabell shared their initial findings from the workshop as part of a presentation entitled “Spotify Unwrapped: How to Critically Examine Your Repackaged Data Stories”.

By analysing these initial findings, they explored questions relating to algorithms and the ways in which the Spotify algorithm determines users’ personality types and prompts certain genres to users.

LSE100 Co-Director Dr Jillian Terry presented two papers at the 2023 Annual Convention of the International Studies Association, which took place between 15-18 March in Montréal, Canada.

Dr Terry’s papers were featured in the Active Learning in International Affairs section of the conference and focused on her pedagogical research related to LSE100.

The papers were entitled “Creating pathways for interdisciplinary learning: students’ experiences of course choice” and “Students as change makers: complex global challenges and interdisciplinarity”.

LSE100 Fellow Dr Lukas Slothuus and LSE Department of Methodology’s Dr Marion Lieutaud have received an LSE Change Makers award for the academic year 2023/2024.

They will be completing research designed to improve understanding of what life is like for early-career researchers here at LSE within the wider landscape of academic precarity in Higher Education.

ECRs are vital members of any academic institution and Dr Slothuus and Dr Lieutaud’s work will provide insight into the challenges this particular community faces.

Change Makers is a collaborative programme between LSE and LSE Students Union which gives recipients the chance to make meaningful change at LSE through independent research. You can read more about the programme here.

LSE100 Co-Director Dr Jillian Terry and LSE100 Fellows Dr Shereen Fernandez and Dr Emma Taylor participated in a panel discussion as part of the Lent Term 2023 LSE Education Forum.

Chaired by Dr Akile Ahmet (Head of Inclusive Education), the discussion focused on inclusive group work in the classroom. Dr Terry, Dr Fernandez and Dr Taylor drew from their experiences teaching in the classroom and supporting students through the LSE100 group research project to explore the opportunities and challenges in facilitating inclusive and principled spaces for student group work.

 LSE Education Forums are termly fora hosted by the LSE Eden Centre for Education Enhancement for LSE staff and students. To read more about them, visit here.

On Friday 24 February, LSE100 Fellow Dr Nina Vindum Rasmussen and her collaborator King’s College London’s Dr Taylor Annabell hosted a creative workshop entitled “Spotify Unwrapped”. Together with 25 student participants from across London universities, including LSE, Nina and Taylor explored Spotify Wrapped as an ‘algorithmic event’ - .

Dr Vindum Rasmussen and Dr Annabell led their participants through creative exercises, including creating collages on CDs and vinyls, to trace the connections and disparities between Spotify’s data capture, individual listening habits and lived identity.

Dr Vindum Rasmussen, Dr Annabell and their participants were also joined by musician Abby Inez who shared what types of data she accesses via ‘Spotify for Artists’ and how this data informs her own creative process.

This workshop builds upon Dr Vindum Rasmussen and Dr Annabell's respective research into digital technologies, especially within the cultural and media production, and the ways in which they impact daily life.

On 25 January, Dotmaker Tours hosted an environmental walking tour for students taking the LSE100 theme of "How can we avert climate catastrophe?"

Students and members of the LSE100 team were guided through the streets of London as they learned about the environmental challenges threatening across history as well as the city's attempts to meet them.

From Middle Temple to the embankment of the River Thames, our guide Rosie Oliver shared insight a rich, new environmental perspective on familiar city streets. 

On 25 January, students taking the LSE100 theme of "How can we create a fair society?" experienced the LSE Library's archive of Charles Booth's original materials up close.

Led by Inderbir Bhullar, LSE100 contributor and Curator for Economics and Social Policy, this archival tour provided further insight into Booth's work, its context and socio-political history of the area immediately around LSE. 

Discussion of Booth and his work forms a key part of an LSE100 "How can we create a fair society?" seminar and this tour offered students a unique opportunity to directly engage with these materials in person.

LSE100 Fellow Dr Shereen Fernandez recently completed the research project “The Securitisation of Muslims in Britain” as part of her ESRC fellowship. The project, made in conjunction with the organisation Maslaha, considers the impact of Prevent and counterterrorism measures on Muslim identity. Focusing on various institutional structures and spaces, including schools, healthcare and homes, the project identifies how Islamophobia enters and operates in these spaces.  

Designed to be an audio-visual experience based on extensive research carried out from 2017 onwards, each chapter of the project is accompanied by an illustration and audio clip to elucidate how Muslim identity in Britain is being securitised.  

Congratulations to Dr Fernandez and her collaborators in completing such important, accessible research. 

 You can read and learn more about the project here. 

Congratulations to LSE100 Fellow Dr Lukas Slothuus on the publication of his peer-reviewed article “‘Black Intellectuals in the Age of Crack’: Organic Responsibility, Race-Class-Gender Nexus, and Action Paralysis in the Boston Review Roundtables, 1992-1993” in Global Intellectual History. 

In the article, Dr Slothuus offers a deeper understanding of Black intellectuals’ role in resisting oppression by recovering the critical context, arguments and outlooks offered during two roundtable debates held between prominent Black intellectuals in early 1990s United States.  

You can read Dr Slothuus’s article here.