Senior Fellow in the Public Understanding of Philosophy
Angie Hobbs FRSA was created the UK's first Senior Fellow in the Public Understanding of Philosophy in October 2009. She is an Honorary Patron of The PhilosophyFoundation, Chair of the Arts and Ideas Trust and one of the Town Philosophers for Malmesbury PhilosophyTown.
For those wishing to sign The Philosophy Shop's (www.thephilosophyshop.co.uk) online petition to the Government asking for more philosophy and critical thinking classes in schools (including primary schools), and for the safeguarding of adequate numbers of philosophy places at University and philosophy lecturers, here's the link: http://t.co/q3dGNLZ
2012
August 18th: BBC Radio 4 Today programme on genetic screening: http://bbc.in/TFmNy
July 28th: BBC Radio 4 Today programme on the morality of taxation.
July 27th: podcast for Warwick Knowledge on whether sportspeople can be heroes: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/knowledge/culture/heroes
June 22nd:recorded video for the new Institute of Education MA in Independent Student Enquiry.
June 8th: discussion of Plato's Republic and Symposium at the Hay Literary Festival (with Bettany Hughes and Paul Cartledge)
June 7th: discussion of The Greek Idea at the Hay Literary Festival (with Bettany Hughes, Tom Holland and Paul Cartledge)
June 2nd: discussion of time at Hay Philosophy Festival HowTheLightGetsIn with Jim Al-Khalili, Raymond Tallis and Craig Bourne. Also chaired The Philosopher's Dream with Robert Rowland Smith, Barry C. Smith and Adrian Moore.
May 31st: gave talk on Plato and Atlantis at the Leamington Looks Back Festival.
May 17th: BBC Radio 3 Nightwaves discussion of sport and human enhancement.
May 8th: keynote speaker at Philosophy and Education Conference at Rugby School. Talks put online on July 5th.
April 19th: BBC Radio 4 In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg on Neoplatonism (with Peter Adamson and Anne Sheppard).
January 25th:
BBC Radio 4 Today programme discussion of intergrity 8.55-9.00 http://bbc.in/zPiZju
2011
December 29th: BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour 10.00-10.45 with Jenni Murray (discussion of New Year's resolutions with Merryn Somerset Webb; item starts at 36.30): http://bbc.in/tiknPj
December 8th: BBC Radio 4 In Our Time 9.00-9.45 am with Melvyn Bragg on Heraclitus (shortened repeat 21.30-22.00) http://t.co/0K7a2l7O
For further information on the appointment please visit the following links:
Link to press release at the Communications Office webpages
Link to University podcast where Angie discusses her new role
Link to an interview in the Times Higher Education
Link to a Woman's Hour podcast
Angie's twitter address is http://twitter.com/drangiehobbs
Also please view Angie's blog (http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/drangiehobbs)
My first year as Senior Fellow in the Public Understanding of Philosophy has proved a hectic, challenging and hugely enjoyable and rewarding mix of public talks, media work, visits to festivals and schools and interaction with various government and national bodies. It has been wonderful to discover just how much general interest there is in philosophy and to witness at first hand the excellent work already being done by a number of groups and individuals to promote this endlessly resourceful subject. An important part of my job has simply been putting people in touch with each other and promoting their achievements to an even wider audience. For a full report see the link to the right, but here are a few of the highlights:
Atlantis: the Evidence (BBC2 June 2010); Hay-on-Wye Philosophy Festival HowTheLightGetsIn (May 2010: Talk on Plato and Erotic Love and Panels on After Sanity and The Truth About Everything); article on 'Ethics and Money' for the Guardian's Citizen Ethics in a Time of Crisis (February 2010); campaign on Twitter during the U.K. election campaign to elect an alternative cabinet of philosopher-rulers, with the results announced on BBC Radio 4 Today Programme on Election Day (May 2010); contributor to BBC Radio 4 In Our Time on Sparta (November 2009); guest presenter of BBC World Service Forum (January 2010), plus a Forum-sponsored discussion in the House of Lords on how the BBC might address current global challenges; speaker at a residential weekend on 'Socrates' at Burton Manor College (partly in association with the Philosophy in Pubs network); discussing my favourite political/social tracks for Agitpop on North Cotswold Community Radio (July 2010); address to the NCCPE (National Co-ordinating Council for Public Engagement) and AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) Public Engagement in the Arts and Humanties Workshop (June 2010), followed by taking part in the consultation process for the NCCPE's Senior Managers' Toolkit (to be published December 2010); meeting with David Willetts on philosophy's civic potential and the public role of academics (February 2010).
In May 2010 I took part in a (loosely interpreted!) re-enactment of the Monty Python Philosophers' Football Match - here's a short film of the match
On the 11th October 2010 I presented a short essay on fairness on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 - here's the link
And on 13th October I took part in a brief discussion of the history of fairness on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4:
And here's the link to a BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour discussion I took part in on the 27th October on women in philosophy:
And a link to a video I made on utopias for the Warwick University Thinking Aloud series
On the 6th November I gave a talk on heroes and heroism at the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival at the Sage, Gateshead which was broadcast as a Radio 3 Nightwaves programme on 8th November. Here's the link:
I also greatly enjoyed speaking on public engagement at the Hobbes Philosophy Festival in Malmesbury on October 17th.
2011
On the 2nd Jan I took part in a discussion on colour on the Forum on the BBC World Service with Guy Orban, Paul Butler and Bridget Kendall http://ow.ly/3suOE
And here's a short video on the Guardian website in which I argue for the importance of funding philosophy: http://bit.ly/fXfepe
And a slightly longer video (18 minutes) from the TEDxWarwick conference in which I discuss 'Censorship in Utopia': http://bit.ly/eA1xsV
January 27th 2011 BBC Radio 4 In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg on Aristotle's Poetics. Here's the link: http://tinyurl.com/6clmntv
Melvyn Bragg cited this programme in a debate on arts funding in the House of Lords the following week: http://bit.ly/fvJoP0
Here's a link to a live rsa/lbc debate on fairness held at the Royal Society of Arts on 28th February: http://bit.ly/gx2N5d
March 6th 2011 BBC Radio 4 1.30-2.00: interviewee for In Doubt We Trust with Mark Vernon
March 13th BBC Radio 4 1.30-2.00: interviewee for In Doubt We Trust with Mark Vernon
March 13th: on-screen contributor to a programme on the Atlantis legend for National Geographic US: preview here http://on.natgeo.com/gQCNBT (also to be screened on National Geographic International in the U.K on 26th June 2011).
May 17th Bristol Festival of Ideas: took part in a double bill on 'Philosophy and Everyday Life' 18.00-21.00 (with 30 minute interval) at the Watershed, Bristol http://t.co/8rucO0x
May 19th BBC Radio 3 Nightwaves 22.00-22.16: discussion of 'open secrets' and freedom of expression: http://bit.ly/j3wP10
May 23rd BBC Radio 4 9.00-9.45: Start the Week with Andrew Marr, discussing heroism: http://bbc.in/iJguSi
May 28th and 29th HowTheLightGetsIn Philosophy Festival at Hay-on-Wye:
May 28th 12.00: took part in 'Blinded by the Light?', a panel discussion on metaphor with Simon Armitage, Don Cupitt and Barry C.Smith: http://t.co/St5poGo
May 28th 17.30: chaired panel on 'After Postmodernity' with Mary Warnock, Hilary Lawson and Ziauddin Sardar.
May 29th 11.00: solo talk on 'Plato and Atlantis'.
June 23rd: took part in debate on 'Policy and Philosophy for Children' at the New Theatre, LSE 17.00-19.50 (my panel was 18.00-18.50). Here's the link: http://t.co/TobxBDf
June 26th The Sunday Times/Wellington College Festival of Education: panellist on 'Philosophy in Schools' 15.45-16.45 with Julian Baggini, Emma Williams and Peter Worley.
June 26th 20.00 on-screen contributor in 'Finding Atlantis'on National Geographic International.
July 26th: chaired public debate on 'The Death of Socrates' at the Cambridge Triennial with Germaine Greer, Simon Heffer, Paul Cartledge and Roger Scruton.
August 14th: here's a podcast on Plato and fame which I recorded for Warwick Knowledge in light of the return the return of Big Brother: http://bit.ly/qJ5TOT
September 5th: took part in a BBC Radio 4 Today programme webstreamed debate on the England riots in Birmingham. Excerpts from my contributions were broadcast on the Today programme on September 6th between 8.10-9.00.
October 9th: took part in discussion of the Atlantis story with Bettany Hughes at the Cheltenham Literary Festival.
October 15th: gave talk on 'The Death of Socrates' at the Hobbes Philosophy Festival in Malmesbury.
October 20th: BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour, discussing proposed changes to parental rights with Alice Thompson (starts at 13.04): http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b015zrrn
November 18th: BBC Radio 4 Malmesbury: the Philosophy Town http://bbc.in/vYJZ17
