Professor Phil Scraton to give our annual lecture

We are delighted to announce that Professor Phil Scraton will deliver this year's Eve Saville Memorial Lecture, on Tuesday, 23 May.

His lecture – 'Bearing witness to the pain of others' – will draw on his experience investigating the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, the politics of incarceration, and childhood in transition, and he will talk about the role of critical research in securing truth and acknowledgement.

Phil Scraton is author of the widely-acclaimed Hillsborough: The Truth and primary author of The Report of the Hillsborough Independent Panel. He led the Panel's research team and was consultant to the families’ legal teams throughout the recent ground-breaking inquests.

In an article in the Liverpool Echo earlier this week, he called on the UKIP leader, Paul Nuttall, to clear up the confusion around his alleged involvement in the Hillsborough disaster. Professor Scraton wrote:

I understand fully there were many people who were, and have remained, unable to talk about what they witnessed on the day. What is not so readily explained is why Paul Nuttall did not drop by for even a confidential conversation, why he held back on disclosure until the Hillsborough Independent Panel was in session and why he chose national television as the forum to break his silence? These are questions of timing and context that, alongside the questions regarding the details of his experiences on the day, require explanation.

In 2016, Professor Scraton was awarded the Freedom of the City of Liverpool, the Political Studies Association's Campaigner of the Year and an Honorary Doctorate of Laws by the University of Liverpool.

However, he publicly rejected an OBE, saying that he ‘could not receive an honour on the recommendation of those who remained unresponsive to the determined efforts of bereaved families and survivors to secure truth and justice’ over the Hillsborough disaster.

Our Director, Richard Garside, said:

We have long admired Phil Scraton's work in uncovering painful truths and making the hidden and ignored known. His work over many years represents critical and publicly engaged social research at its very best.

I am delighted that Phil Scraton has agreed to give this year's annual lecture. Through our annual lectures we offer a platform for fresh, critical thinking and research that sheds light on pressing social and policy challenges.

His lecture continues this proud tradition.

 

Bearing witness to the pain of others Tuesday, 23 May 2017 Book your place today