Renewing freedom through education and debate

Living Freedom exists to engage young minds and encourage debate with the aim of taking on the challenge of understanding and renewing freedom today.

From its inception in 2017, Living Freedom - a project run by the charity Ideas Matter - has understood that freedom is a value that is in constant need of renewal and that every generation faces the challenge of understanding freedom for its own times and making it a core value in society.

As discussed on Substack earlier this week, the cancelling of a talk by Claire Fox at Royal Holloway University is a salutary reminder that academic freedom - and free expression more generally - remains under challenge. We have plenty of work to do to bring freedom to life.

Young people especially require new opportunities to discover and engage with some of the key thinkers from history and to debate the particular challenges of today. So for anyone aged 18 to 30 - regardless of particular political perspective, and whether in universities or beyond - Living Freedom initiatives represent an opportunity to get to grips with the key challenges of our times.

Keep up to date with Living Freedom by subscribing to our new, regular newsletter. Read on to find out about our summer school, university salons and freedom forums. Young people should sign up for our up and coming events. And everyone else, please do spread the word.

Summer School 2023 - open for applications

Now Living Freedom is launching the open call for applications for Summer School 2023. Taking place from Thursday 29 June to Saturday 1 July in central London, we have wide-ranging, expert-led talks on the history and philosophy of freedom, covering issues such as conscience, progress and free will. These are interspersed with panels, debates, seminars and workshops on hot topics from safety versus risk-taking to ethical conundrums such as the morality of borders to clamping down on protests.

If you’re aged between 18 and 30, please apply. We think you’ll love the experience. And if you aren’t eligible, but know someone who is, please forward the details on to them. You can find out more about the programme and how to apply here.

University salons

The Summer School isn’t the only thing we’re doing to raise the issue of freedom. One new initiative from Living Freedom has been to develop our University Salon discussions, ‘What can we learn from…?’. These are an invitation to students to engage with some of the key thinkers and themes from history as a way to understand freedom, then and now. Having completed a series of events in Cambridge, we move on next to Oriel College, Oxford (3 May) with plans to expand the series nationwide in 2023/24. Please do get in touch with us at info@livingfreedom.org.uk if you would like to chat to us about hosting one of these events at your university.

Freedom Forums

Our London Freedom Forum will host a series of events in the months ahead. With ChatGPT rarely out the news, we kick off with a talk from Sandy Starr on artificial intelligence and the implications it poses for freedom. One of the first out of the blocks to look at ChatGPT was Living Freedom alumnus, Rob Lownie, who wrote for UnHerd that not only is ChatGPT far from being politically neutral but it points the way to a darker future where intelligence is increasingly artificial. What do you think? Join us for our new ‘nightschool’ style educational events in Westminster. Find out more and register here.

Get involved

Many of those who have attended our summer school in the past – or are intending to this year - are already taking up the challenge of breathing new life into freedom. See for example the articles that we post below. Hopefully more of you will join us in the months ahead. So have a look at the Living Freedom website, sign up for our events, and join the debate.

Reading and Listening 

Here is a selection of thought-provoking recent articles and podcasts, including many from Living Freedom attendees and speakers, that should provide intellectual sustenance.
 
The Left-wing case for a free speech tsar
Ahead of our next University Salon, University of Oxford student Anvee Bhutani with a welcome call to foster a university culture which protects free speech.

The problem with sensitivity readers
At The New Taboo Substack, run by our regular partners Free Speech Champions, Ella Nixon responds to the recent changes to Roald Dahl’s work. Sign up to Ella’s excellent regular updates on the arts.

The human subject
David Cotter, speaker at our recent Cambridge University salon in March, looks at Tár, a film of moving ambiguities.

The coddling of young women at university is deeply anti-feminist 
Felice Basbøll on the overprotective bureaucracy of universities hampering the freedom of young women.

Why Debating Matters
Ideas Matter’s Mo Lovatt with the latest in the series Letters on Liberty published by Academy of Ideas.

Performance Anxiety: All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)
Alex Dale and Maren Thom - the winner of our Living Freedom Xmas balloon debate - discuss what makes a performance Oscar-worthy, what it means to be cancelled, and why Cate Blanchett is an alien queen.

Radio 4’s In Our Time: Rawls' Theory of Justice
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss A Theory of Justice by John Rawls, first published in 1971, a work that's been called the most influential book in twentieth-century political philosophy.

Donate 

We aim to expand our work further in the coming months, developing more events in universities. If you could contribute financially to support our work, we’d be very grateful. Please visit our donation page.

Spread the word 

Please forward this email to friends and colleagues, and encourage them to sign up to the Living Freedom newsletters.