Joanna Williams is founder and director of the think tank Cieo. She is the author of How Woke Won: The Elitist Movement That Threatens Democracy, Tolerance and Reason (Spiked, 2022). Women Versus Feminism (Emerald, 2017), Academic Freedom in an Age of Conformity (Palgrave, 2016) and Consuming Higher Education: why learning can’t be bought (Bloomsbury, 2012). Joanna is also a columnist for spiked and writes regularly for the Spectator, […]
Speakers and Panellists
previous speakers
Simon Sweeney
Dr Simon Sweeney is a Reader in International Political Economy & Business at the University of York. He is the author of Europe, the State and Globalisation (Routledge, 2016). His PhD was on EU Security and Defence Policy (University of Leeds, 2015). Between 2006 and 2013 he served as a UK Bologna Expert, sponsored by the European Commission. He is a widely published post-doctoral researcher […]
Lee Jones
Dr Lee Jones is Professor of International Politics at Queen Mary University, London. Lee specialises in political economy and international relations, focusing on the politics of intervention, security, and governance, with a particular interest in social conflict and the transformation of states. Lee regularly advises the British and other governments and civil society organisations and has often appeared in the national and international media. A […]
Phil Mullan
Phil Mullan researches and lectures on the interplay of the economy and politics. Currently working independently, his work is informed by over two decades of experience in management and advisory roles in international business including, until 2014, eight years as a senior manager with Easynet Global Services and previously as Chief Executive of internet services company Cybercafé Ltd. Phil is author of Beyond Confrontation: globalists, nationalists and […]
Nikos Sotirakopoulos
Nikos Sotirakopoulos is a senior lecturer in sociology at York St John University. He has researched on how, in recent decades, some of the core values and concepts of modernity and the Enlightenment – such as individual agency and material progress – have been problematised in the narratives both of the new left and of the mainstream and extreme right. He is author of The Rise of Lifestyle […]
Alan Kinder
Alan Kinder is the Chief Executive of the Geographical Association. His wide variety of roles within geographical education – teacher, school and curriculum leader, field studies officer, local authority adviser, PGCE tutor and educational consultant – have taken him from the south coast of England to South Yorkshire and from continental Europe to South-East Asia and the Pacific region. Alan has played a key role […]
David Alcock
David Alcock teaches geography at Bradford Grammar School and writes about progress, sustainability and pedagogy at Alcock.Blog and @DavidAlcock1. He has also written for Teaching Geography, Geography Review and Impact: The Journal of the Chartered College of Teaching. He’s an A Level examiner and speaks on progress and optimism in education at Geographical Association Conferences and at an Academy of Ideas Education Forum. […]
Alex Standish
Alex Standish is a Senior Lecturer in Geography Education at UCL Institute of Education and fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He teaches PGCE, Teach First and Masters in Education, and works in an advisory capacity for the Department for Education, the Mayor’s Office, Department for International Trade, Cambridge Examinations, as well as several London schools. Alex previously taught at Western Connecticut State University and […]
Nick Jones
Dr Nick Jones is a lecturer and the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the School of Philosophy, Religion & History of Science at the University of Leeds. He specialises in the History of Philosophy from the 17th to 19th Centuries, and teaches courses on Descartes, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Kant. He is also the author of Starting with Berkeley (Continuum, 2009). […]
Li Sun
Dr Li Sun is a lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds. As an ethnic ‘Miao’ woman, she grew up in a remote village in southwestern China. Since 2007, she has been living and working abroad (in the UK, Germany, the US and the Netherlands). Besides academic positions, Li also serves as a consultant to the UN, World Bank, and OECD, as well […]