No Platform: Solidarity & Censorship from BDS to Trans rights

*Please check ticket info for this event below, incl. information about access.

Whose voices do we elevate, platform and engage with in our public spaces and institutions? How and why are certain issues given legitimacy, whilst others are undermined, marginalised, even stigmatised?

Dr Hil Aked, author of Friends of Israel : The Backlash Against Palestine Solidarity and Dr Gina Gwenffrewi from Edinburgh University join us to bring nuance, complexity and insight on 'no platforming', free speech and hate speech, integrity and responsibility in the social movements we are part of.

We'll be challenging reductive narratives around censorship, especially in institutional setting, and considering the power dynamics at play.

Our Speakers:

Dr Hil Aked (they/them) is a writer, investigative researcher and activist with a background in political sociology whose work has appeared in the Guardian, Independent, Sky News and Al Jazeera, as well as volumes from Pluto Press and Zed Books/Bloomsbury. Their first book Friends of Israel: The Backlash Against Palestine Solidarity was published by Verso in 2023.

Dr Gina Gwenffrewi (she/her) is a lecturer in Trans Studies at the University of Edinburgh and LGBTQ+ rep on the UCU's National Standing Committee. Her published articles include 'JK Rowling and the Echo Chamber of Secrets' and 'The stoning of Stonewall during the new trans panic,' and her first book, on the response of trans counterpublics to JK Rowling, will be published by Ohio State University Press in 2024-2025.

This panel will be chaired by Jim Taylor

*Please note that masks will be required at this event (as with all Lighthouse events).

*Accessibility: All events will be professionally filmed & livestreamed. The Roxy is wheelchair accessible (including toilets) and we'll have provisions for neurodivergent guests including stims, quiet space and colour-coded lanyards.

*Events are £5 or free -we completely understand paying for one or two events and then getting free spots for others. The Radical Book Fair is entirely bookshop run and ticket sales are vital to keeping the fair sustainable and paying all our speakers so all support is heartily welcome!

*Featured books: The book & ticket option will select the most recently published book at any given event, if you’re not sure which book you want or don’t want that featured book, then buy a £5 voucher ticket that can be used for any of the books below.

*If you'd like to help make the book fair accessible to more folks, please consider adding to our pay-it-forward fund HERE.