Mansfield Public Talks

Schona Jolly KC will bring together the history of the race equality legislation in the UK, important cases in which advances have been made, and some personal reflections from over 20 years of practising in the field on the changes that need to come next. This talk is held in conjunction with the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights.

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Schona Jolly KC is a leading barrister, practising from Cloisters Chambers in London at the confluence of equality, human rights, employment, sports, artificial intelligence and international law. She leads teams of lawyers in complex domestic and international claims, including in group litigation, and is widely sought after for strategic advice on litigation and policy.

Schona is Head of Cloisters Human Rights and International Practice Groups. She was Chair of the Bar Human Rights Committee of England & Wales from 2019- 2021, after being Vice Chair and an Executive Committee member. She is also a Visiting Professor at Goldsmiths University, London. Schona was appointed King’s Counsel (then Queen’s Counsel) in 2017.

She has co-authored and contributed to various textbooks on human rights, equality and employment law (including, recently: Judicial Independence Under Threat (OUP/British Academy); Equal Pay (OUP); and Sweet & Maxwell’s Human Rights Practice) as well as a contributor in the national press and academic journals.

Schona’s legal expertise is bolstered by her longstanding experience across international relations, rule of law and human rights legal and policy issues. She is particularly interested in legal and political systems which are faced with acute challenge. In recent years, this has included work relating to Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Myanmar, South Asia and Turkey, amongst others. She works with civil society groups, parliamentarians, government agencies, judges and legal professionals around the world in a strategic and advisory capacity. She is an experienced investigator in reputationally important and sensitive matters, as well as a mediator. She is multilingual, has lived and worked in a number of countries, and has a long-standing interest in Latin America.

In 2024, as Visiting Fellow to Hertford College and a Research Visitor to the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, Schona will be deepening her work on international law, human rights and foreign policy, and is currently writing a book.

How does an Oxford college build a contemporary art collection? Where do successful artists come from? Join us to meet some rising stars of the art world: the winners of the Mansfield-Ruddock Art Prize.

This event will be followed by a free drinks reception with the artists.

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The political party identities that seemed so strongly entrenched among citizens in the post-war period have now inevitably weakened. Does anything replace them, or do voters increasingly act without any fixed political values or orientations? In particular, are post-industrial societies capable of producing identities in anything like the way that their industrialising and industrial predecessors did? The talk will cover western European societies from the post-war years onwards, and central and eastern European ones since 1990.

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Colin Crouch is an external scientific member of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies at Cologne and Professor Emeritus of the University of Warwick. He previously taught at the London School of Economics and Political Science, the University of Oxford (Fellow of Trinity College), and the European University Institute, Florence. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, and of the Academy of Social Sciences, and a member of the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino.

His most recent books include ‘The Globalization Backlash’ (2019); ‘Will the Gig Economy Prevail?’ (2019); ‘Manifesto for Social Europe’ (2020); and ‘Post-Democracy after the Crises’ (2020). His new book  ‘Rethinking Political Identity: Citizens and Parties in Europe’ will be published in 2025.

Time and again, history shows that moral courage proves to be stronger than military might and that even a handful of dissidents bravely opposing a dictatorship can contribute to its downfall.

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Evgenia Kara-Murza graduated with honours from the Moscow State Linguistic University and worked as translator and interpreter for several non-governmental human rights organizations including the International Centre for Nonviolent Conflict, Modern Russia, and the Free Russia Foundation before joining her husband Vladimir Kara-Murza, a prominent Russian politician and human rights activist, in his pro-democracy and human rights work.

As Advocacy Director of the Free Russia Foundation, Evgenia Kara-Murza helps FRF’s efforts in public diplomacy and global outreach on behalf of Russian civil society.

The wife of Vladimir Kara-Murza, sentenced in Russia to 25 years for high treason in a politically motivated case, Evgenia Kara-Murza ensures the continuation of her husband’s years-long work on engaging multilateral oversight mechanisms to hold the Russian government to account over violating its international commitments on human rights, democracy, and the rule of law, and on establishing personal accountability for Kremlin officials complicit in corruption and human rights abuses.

She is part of FRF’s global campaign for solidarity with Russian anti-war and pro-democracy activists both inside and outside of the country and continues her husband’s work of being a voice of political prisoners in the Russian Federation.

Drawing on his new book, ‘Fair or Foul – the Lady Macbeth Guide to Ambition’, Stefan will consider the good and the bad things about ambition – why we need it, how it can lead us astray, and explore our love/hate relationship with ambition and the ambitious.

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Stefan Stern is a journalist and author. He writes for the FT, the Guardian, Prospect and The Conversation. His third book, ‘Fair or Foul – the Lady Macbeth Guide to Ambition‘, has just been published. His previous two books were about leadership and management.

As an autistic and ADHD creator, writer and consultation, Ellie will share her personal journey over the past decade. How, just ten years ago she was at her lowest point, struggling with being undiagnosed while in sixth form. Despite being the top student in her school for Maths, teachers convinced Ellie not to apply to Oxford due to the immense stress it would have caused her. Instead, she applied to other universities but ultimately had to decline their offers because of her deteriorating mental health.

Ellie will talk about how society often disables individuals rather than the disability itself. By sharing her experiences, she aims to highlight the importance of supporting the neurodiverse community so they can reach their full potential.

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Ellie Middleton is an autistic and ADHD creator, writer and consultant. After a lifetime of feeling misunderstood, she was diagnosed with both Autism and ADHD at the age of 24.

Since then, she’s gone on to build an audience of over 300,000 people online, create the unmasked community for neurodivergents, and work with global brands like The Independent, Google & LinkedIn to change the narrative on neurodiversity.

Ellie aims to shout about the positives that come with being neurodivergent, highlight the ways that society can better accommodate those of us with different brains, and help other undiagnosed neurodivergent people find the answers that they deserve.

She is living proof that getting a diagnosis can change your life, change your outlook and allow you to reach your true potential – and thinks that is something that every neurodivergent person deserves.

Mansfield’s sixth annual celebration of music, poetry and creativity in our joyful, multi-cultural, non-conformist College, curated by our Honorary Fellows Lemn Sissay, and Errollyn Wallen; our Director of Music, James Brown; and Poet in Residence, Kate Clanchy.

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