2025

DIAS event: The Corporate Revolving Door by Benjamin C. K. Egerod

The movement of public officials into private sector jobs—often referred to as the revolving door—has become an increasingly visible and consequential feature of contemporary politics. While the phenomenon is often discussed, we still know relatively little about how common it is, why firms engage in this practice, and what consequences it has for markets and business-government relations.

Joseph Stiglitz: The Road to Freedom

In The Road to Freedom Nobel prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz dissects America’s current economic system and the political ideology that created it, laying bare their twinned failure. “Free” and unfettered markets have only succeeded in delivering a series of crises: the financial crisis, the opioid crisis, and the crisis of inequality.

DIAS Event: What is democracy? Some answers from the age of revolutions by Joanna Innes

In this lecture Innes draws on the findings of a long-running historical research project, ‘Re-imagining democracy’, which looks at the circumstances in which the ancient concept of democracy was ‘re-imagined’ for modern circumstances, from the era of the American and French revolutions.

DIAS Event: Graphene, the Universe and Everything by Prof. A. N. Grigorenko

Twenty years past from the isolation of graphene. In this talk we will discuss some history connected to the graphene discovery. We will also consider how 2D materials, van der Waals heterostructures and metasurfaces inspired by graphene, enriched physics and technology.

DIAS event: Reproducible research, peer review, and research assessment: how do they mix? by John Ioannidis

This talk sheds light on the increasing evidence that most scientific research does not meet standards of reproducibility and transparency. Concurrently, there are many efforts to improve the reproducibility, transparency, and eventually the credibility and usefulness of scientific evidence. Peer review is a central mechanism for vetting, correcting, and improving science

DIAS Event: Human-Machine Interaction and the Exercise of Human Agency in the Military Domain by Ingvild Bode

Militaries increasingly utilise AI technologies (AIT) for decision support and combat operations. These developments point in the direction of a potential comprehensive integration of AIT into military decision-making processes. This makes it likely for such processes to be characterised by many situations of human-machine interaction, often described by militaries as human-machine teaming.

DIAS event: Marx and the Body by Søren Mau

Throughout the history of Western thought, the body has often been overlooked, devalued, or treated with mistrust and hostility. The failure to fully acknowledge human corporeality and its entanglement with the rest of nature is deeply connected to contemporary ecologiccrisal es, and has since the 1980s been subjected to a thorough-going critique by scholars across the humanities and social sciences

DIAS event: Understanding Brain Cells: How They Shape Health and Disease by Oscar Marín

The brain relies on a diverse group of cells called GABAergic interneurons to maintain balance and regulate communication between neurons. These specialized cells play a crucial role in brain function, and when they don’t work properly, they have been linked to epilepsy and cognitive deficits in many neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders. Despite their importance, we are only beginning to understand how these cells develop, connect, and adapt.

DIAS x Word Festival Event: The International Chamber of Commerce and neoliberal globalisation (1980-2000)

The last two decades of the twentieth century witnessed a tremendous growth in global economic exchange. World exports exploded. The movement of capital across national boundaries was even more impressive.

DIAS event: When and why is it so hard to change cities? by Martin Vinæs Larsen

This talk examined how communities mobilize to resist urban development and how these dynamics shape the future of cities. As well as discussing the factors that drive opposition to change, such as housing costs, community identity, and the perceived impacts on local character. By understanding these motivations, we can gain insights into the persistent challenges urban planners and policymakers face in building cities that balance progress with preservation.

DIAS Event: 'Radical Ecological Democracy: Pluriversal Pathways out of Global Crises' - By Vasna Ramasar

Solutions are urgently needed to the multiple intersecting crises facing the world, including biodiversity loss and climate change, socio-economic inequities, conflicts, and authoritarianism. Individuals, groups and initiatives around the world are questioning whether the same economic development models and institutions that have created many of these problems can truly solve them - or whether new (and renewed) paradigms and approaches are required to bring about a more sustainable and equitable future for all.

DIAS event: In defense of hope in an age of climate upheaval: Theoretical and empirical considerations

Whether hope concerning climate change is something positive or negative for our ability to mitigate and adapt to this problem is a frequently discussed topic, both in the public debate and in scientific outlets.

Kirill Martynov

Kirill Martynov, the editor in chief of Novaya Gazeta Europe, the media created by exiled journalists of Novaya Gazeta, answers how to be a journalist if you lost your country and was labeled a criminal by the Kremlin

DIAS event: The Feel of Algorithms by Minna Ruckenstein

This talk engages with ‘the feel of algorithms,’ outlining how the analysis of algorithmic folklore and related emotional responses provides novel perspectives on algorithmic relations. By examining the affective infrastructure of algorithmic culture, we can identify various modes of presence and participation, ranging from enthusiasm and ‘mild paranoia’ to irritation and frustration.