Hanif Leylabi is studying Politics at the University of Leeds, and is a student union official. […]
Speakers and Panellists
previous speakers
Marco Schneebalg
Marco Schneebalg from Belgium and is studying Politics, Philosophy & Economics at the University of Manchester, and has published in various publications such as Haaretz and Le Monde. […]
Andrew McMillan
Andrew McMillan is a poet born in Barnsley in 1988. He grew up in a house with lots of poetry books, and acknowledges Thom Gunn as a major influence. Andrew describes his debut collection Physical (Cape Poetry) as ‘a collection about the male gaze on the male body’. He has most recently published a pamphlet with Red Squirrel Press, Every Salt Advance (2009), and is working on the second. […]
Ronan McDonald
Ronan McDonald is the author of The Death of the Critic (Continuum, 2007). Born in Dublin and educated there and at the University of Oxford, he is now a Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Reading and the Director of the Samuel Beckett International Foundation. His other books include Tragedy and Irish Literature (2002) and The Cambridge Introduction to Samuel Beckett (2007) together with numerous essays and […]
Jeremy Taylor
Jeremy Taylor was a television producer and science writer. For 30 years, he made science documentaries for television, working initially on Tomorrow’s World and later for the BBC’s Horizon series, and he is the author of Not a Chimp: The hunt to find the genes that make us human (OUP, 2009). […]
Graham Aitken
Graham Aitken is a student at the University of Leeds, and a member of Students for a Sensible Drugs Policy. […]
Darryl Bickler
Darryl Bickler is a lawyer and help found the Drugs Equality Alliance, a not for profit organisation based in the UK aimed at challenging the administration of drug laws. […]
Dolan Cummings
Dolan Cummings is an Associate Fellow of the Academy of Ideas, part of the committee that programmes the annual Battle of Ideas, and a regular participant at the festival and other AoI events. He has a particular interest in religion and politics, especially in the USA and India. He is also one of the co-founders of the Manifesto Club, a campaign group for freedom in […]
Yvonne Crowther
Yvonne Crowther is the Volunteer Youth Manager at the Cardinal Community Enterprise Project in Leeds, and is a graduate in Youth & Community Studies from Leeds Beckett University. […]
Cath Follin
Cath Follin is Head of City Centre Management and Markets at Leeds City Council and the Trustee and Mentor at Emmaus Leeds, a charity that gives homeless people both a home and employment. Cath has an MA in economics from the University of Leeds. […]