BRIGHTHINK

Advance Tickets available at EVENTBRITE

How did wet nurses drive civilisation? Are women always the weaker sex? Is sexism useful for evolution? And are our bodies at war with our babies?

Join Cat Bohannon as she delves into the past 200 million years to explain the specific science behind the development of the female sex.

Eve is not only a sweeping revision of human history, it's an urgent and necessary corrective for a world that has focused primarily on the male body for far too long. Bohannon's findings, including everything from the way C-sections in the industrialised world are rearranging women's pelvic shape to the surprising similarities between pus and breast milk, will completely change what you think you know about evolution and why Homo sapiens have become such a successful and dominant species, from tool use to city building to the development of language.

Cat Bohannon will be ‘In Conversation’ with Sally Howard.

AUTHOR BIO
Cat Bohannon is a researcher and author with a PhD in the evolution of narrative and cognition from Columbia University. Her essays and poems have appeared in Scientific American, Mind, Science Magazine, The Best American Non-required Reading, The Georgia Review, The Story Collider and Poets Against the War.

CHAIR BIO
Sally Howard is a journalist and feminist academic. She holds a Master’s in Gender Studies and Law from SOAS, The University of London.
She is also the author of ‘The Kama Sutra Diaries: Intimate Journeys Through Modern India’ and ‘The Home Stretch: Why the Gender Revolution Stalled at the Kitchen Sink’.

Cat will also be signing copies of her book 'Eve' which will be available to purchase on the night.
This event will take place upstairs in The Nightingale Room at The Grand Central Pub, Brighton. Unfortunately, there is no wheelchair access at the venue.

• DOORS OPEN: 7:00pm
• TALK STARTS: 7:30pm
• AUDIENCE Q&A: 8:30pm
• BOOK SIGNING: 9:00pm (Books available to purchase on the night)

ADVANCE TICKETS AVAILABLE AT EVENTBRITE NOW

What Do Russians Really Think About Putin, Ukraine and the West?

Join us for a timely and critical discussion on how the war in Ukraine is understood, interpreted, and justified within Russia.
In this panel event, leading scholars Jeremy Morris Ilya and Yablokov will explore the narratives shaping Russian public opinion, the role of state propaganda, and the broader implications for Russian society and global geopolitics. They will examine how the Kremlin constructs consent, how ordinary Russians respond to the war, and how the boundaries between truth, belief, and coercion are navigated in a time of conflict.
Whether you're interested in international politics, post-Soviet studies, or the dynamics of information warfare, this conversation will offer nuanced insights into one of the most consequential conflicts of our time.

Our chair for the evening will be Stefanie Ortmann.

JEREMY MORRIS is professor of Russian and Global Studies at the University of Aarhus in Denmark. He does ethnographic fieldwork in Russia and writes on many aspects of Russian politics and society. He is the author of books on the Russian working-class and rustbelt, Russian civil society, and Russian ‘everyday’ politics.

ILYA YABLOKOV is a lecturer in digital journalism and disinformation, and co-founder of the Disinformation Research Cluster, at the University of Sheffield. His research is on Russian disinformation, state-led conspiracy theories and the history of media post-1991. He’s written books on Russian conspiracy theories and Kremlin's propaganda and for the New York Times, BBC and Open Democracy.

CHAIR BIO - Stefanie Ortmann is Associate Professor in International Relations at the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex. She has previously taught at the American University of Central Asia, Bishkek, and at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her research is focused on relations between Russia and Central Asia.

Presentations take place upstairs in the Nightingale Room at the Grand Central Pub, opposite Brighton Station. Unfortunately there is no wheelchair accessibility.

• DOORS OPEN: 7:00pm
• TALK STARTS: 7:30pm
• AUDIENCE Q&A: 8:30pm
• BOOK SIGNING: 9pm

ADVANCE TICKETS Available at EVENTBRITE now.

HOW THE MEDIA HOLLOWS OUT DEMOCRACY AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT...

A free media is inextricably linked to a healthy democracy, but in many parts of the world liberal democracies are deemed to be dying or on the decline – enabled by many forms of media whilst they herald themselves as democracy’s saviour. This hollowing out of democracy has left many people questioning the value of (neo)liberal democratic societies and what we can do about it?
Join Natalie Fenton as she explores the potential of our media and tech systems to be democratic and contribute to a just and transformative democracy.
By interrogating different media and their relationship to seven key elements of democracy – power, participation, freedom, equality, public good, trust, and hope – Natalie will ask what is the response of society when the ability of news media to speak truth to power has been restricted by corporate logic? And, how do we tackle a deep-rooted market logic that shifts public debate towards private interest and marginalises progressive perspectives?

Natalie Fenton is Professor of Media & Communications at Goldsmiths, London and Co-Director of the Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre. Her research addresses the role the media play in the formation of identities and democracies. She is also a founding member of the Media Reform Coalition, and vice-chair of the Board of Directors for the campaign group Hacked Off, and also Co-Director of the new Centre for the Study of Global Media and Democracy.

This event will take place upstairs in The Nightingale Room at The Grand Central Pub, Brighton. Unfortunately, there is no wheelchair access at the venue.

• DOORS OPEN: 7:00pm
• TALK STARTS: 7:30pm
• AUDIENCE Q&A: 8:30pm
• BOOK SIGNING: 9:00pm (Books available to purchase on the night)

Advance Tickets available at EVENTBRITE

Cosmetic surgeries are at an all-time high, Ozempic is bringing back ‘heroin chic’ and TikTok, trad-wives are on the rise – after four waves of feminism, what went wrong?
Despite decades of progress, the gains of the feminist movement feel more fragile than ever. But as Atlantic critic and Pulitzer Prize finalist Sophie Gilbert points out, this is not a unique moment. Feminism felt just as fragmented in the early 2000s, when the momentum of third-wave feminists and riot grrrls was squashed by lad culture and the commodification of Girl Power.
In her new book, Girl on Girl, Sophie argues that we cannot move forward without fully reckoning with the ways pop culture has defined us. She casts her eye across pop culture of the past thirty years – from Madonna, the Spice Girls and the Kardashians, to MySpace, #GirlBoss and Real Housewives – and highlights a toxic pattern of progress and misogynistic backlash, claiming that every form of media, heavily influenced by the rise of porn, has shaped and warped women’s relationships with themselves and other women.

Sophie Gilbert will be 'In Conversation' with Hannah Martin and will also be signing copies of her latest book, Girl on Girl, which will be available to purchase on the night.

This event will take place upstairs in The Nightingale Room at The Grand Central Pub, Brighton. Unfortunately, there is no wheelchair access at the venue.

• DOORS OPEN: 7:00pm
• TALK STARTS: 7:30pm
• AUDIENCE Q&A: 8:30pm
• BOOK SIGNING: 9:00pm (Books available to purchase on the night)