The invasion of Ukraine and its impact upon international relations, and the importance of race and religion in the forthcoming US Presidential Election and for American politics more broadly, will be the focus of two public talks taking place this month at the University of Exeter.
Award-winning journalist Luke Harding, and Reverend Professor Keith Magee - a former advisor to both the Biden-Harris administration and Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London - will visit the Streatham campus on consecutive weeks to share their personal experiences and insight into these critical global events.
Harding, who has been reporting from Ukraine since 2021, and was the first journalist to be expelled from Moscow since the Cold War, will talk about his latest book Invasion in the first event on Wednesday 9 October.
The following Wednesday, Professor Magee will speak about how race and religion are being weaponised for electoral gain, and how a conservative Supreme Court is using religion as a basis to legislate against minority rights.
"We are delighted to be able to bring to Exeter experts at the cutting-edge of some of the most consequential political challenges of our time," said Professor James Clark, historian and Director of the Societies and Cultures Institute (SCI). "Luke Harding and Professor Keith Magee can share front-line experience and insights with our staff, students and wider community many of whom themselves are contributing to the fields of Conflict Studies, International Relations, Racial and Social Justice. Our hope too is that by bringing external experts into our broad and interdisciplinary academic community, we can inspire innovative and creative research projects."
Professor Magee is a theologian and social justice scholar, and a Senior Fellow and Visiting Professor of Practice in Cultural Justice at University College London's Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. He served on Joe Biden's 2020 President Campaign's African American Kitchen Cabinet and was appointed by Sadiq Khan as a Commissioner on Diversity in the Public Realm.
Among a plethora of honorary positions and fellowships, Professor Magee is the first scholar to be welcomed to Exeter under the SCI's Visiting Researcher Scheme.
During his talk, he will also discuss his book Prophetic Justice: Race, Religion, and Politics, a collection of essays and articles written between 2016 and 2023, which explore American democracy and how it has a tendency to use 'sacred texts' as justification for subjugation of minorities in its society.
Luke Harding was the former bureau chief for The Guardian newspaper in Moscow, and during his talk, he will discuss why Vladimir Putin launched the attack on Ukraine, how the war has changed international relations and what prospects there are for peace.
He said: "I'm delighted to be talking to the University of Exeter's Societies and Cultures Institute. I got back last week from Ukraine where I met Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv and visited the frontline in the east. Russia's bloody war continues. Now more than ever it's important not to look away from Europe's biggest conflict since 1945."
