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Posted on October 16th 2015
‘The Book and the Believer’: A Talk at LSE
The Book and The Believer: Are Catholics, Jews and Muslims still outsiders in British society?
This was the topic for the latest post-16 talk attended by our students at the LSE. Speakers included:
- Frank Cottrell-Boyce, author and screenwriter
- Sughra Ahmed, Woolf Institute Cambridge (pictured)
- and Dr. Ruth Gilbert, University of Winchester.
Each panellist spoke about their experiences growing up in a religious community. This was developed with their reflections of the situation today, followed by a current student at LSE (one representing each of the three religions being discussed) describing their reflections and perspectives.
Finally the discussion was opened to the floor, with interesting questions on cultural identity and faith schools being raised.
Students' own perspectives
The discussion continued after the event with our sixth formers thinking about their own perspectives. Interesting quotes that we took away related to how "writing shows a shift from the struggle to be British to now where it reflects the struggle to be Jewish, so the struggle to connect the two parts". This is reflected in Jonathan Miller’s quote that he "felt Jew-ish". This was taken up by our students and it was suggested that ‘we are all a bit Brit-ish’.
On Friday we had our first working lunch at the academy (pictured). Students discussed with staff issues raised at the LSE event and articulated their thinking over lunch.
