Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Zygmunt Bauman to speak at Leeds Met
One of the creators of the "postmodernism" concept and internationally celebrated as one of the greatest social thinkers of our time - Professor Bauman's session is to be held at the University's Rose Bowl from 3.30pm on Wednesday 12 December.
Places for the hour-long event, entitled 'Living in Times of Interregnum - or on the Discordance of Tasks and Means', can be booked in advance and are allocated on a first come first served basis.
Professor Ieuan Ellis, Dean of the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, said: "It is a great honour for Leeds Metropolitan University to have Zygmunt Bauman attend to give this important lecture. As one of the most respected sociologists and social thinkers in the world he has and continues to be of huge influence on an international level as a professor, a speaker and an author. This event really is not to be missed."
Zygmunt Bauman is an Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Leeds where they launched the Bauman Institute in his honour in September 2010.
Since his retirement in 1990, he has published more than 40 books and continues to lecture across the globe. He was awarded the European Amalfi Prize for Sociology in 1992, the Theodor W Adorno Award in 1998 and the Prince of Asturias Award in 2010. In his lecture at Leeds Metropolitan University he will discuss his latest books 'Collateral Casualties', published in 2011 and 'This is not a Diary' - published earlier this year.
Best known for his work analysing links between modernity and the Holocaust, and of postmodern consumerism, globalisation and morality, his unique contribution of the conceptual framework 'liquid modernity' has influenced international research.
Before moving to Leeds in 1972, Professor Bauman lived through the great events of mid-20th-century Europe. Born to non-practising Polish-Jewish parents in provincial Poznan, he and his parents escaped to the Soviet Union in 1939 following the Nazi invasion of Poland. He served in the Polish division of the Red Army, being awarded the Military Cross of Valour in 1945. Still enlisted, he studied at Warsaw University and married in 1948 - he has noted the irony that he owed both his education and his marriage to the war. Anti-Semitism impeded his academic progress and led to his discharge from the Army in 1954. These factors, when added to his disillusionment with communism in Poland, if not with communism itself, formed his decision to leave Poland in 1968. He then lived in Israel before moving to the UK.
Professor Malcolm Todd, Head of School for Social, Psychological and Communications and Sciences, added: "Zygmunt Bauman's works have had a great influence on higher education and social thinking across the globe and Leeds Metropolitan's Sociology group is delighted that he is taking the time to be a part of the University's Social Science seminar series."
The lecture will end with an opportunity to ask questions. To book your place please email s.rooke@leedsmet.ac.uk.