Claire Fox
director, Academy of Ideas; independent peer, House of Lords; author, I STILL Find That Offensive!

Claire Fox is the director of the Academy of Ideas, which she established to create a public space where ideas can be contested without constraint. She convenes the yearly Battle of Ideas festival and initiated the Debating Matters Competition for sixth-formers. She also co-founded a residential summer school, The Academy, with the aim to demonstrate ‘university as it should be’.

In May 2019, she was elected as an MEP for the North West England constituency of the UK in the European Parliament elections. In 2020, she was made a visiting professor in professional practice at the University of Buckingham. In September 2020, Claire became a member of the House of Lords as Baroness Fox of Buckley.

Claire is frequently invited to comment on developments in culture, education, media and free speech issues on TV and radio programmes in the UK such as Newsnight and Any Questions? She has been a regular newspaper reviewer on Sky News and is a monthly columnist for MJ (Municipal Journal). She was the longest standing panelist on BBC Radio 4’s The Moral Maze for over 20 years until 2020. She is author of a book on free speech, recently republished as I STILL Find That Offensive! (Biteback, 2018), and No Strings Attached! Why arts funding should say no to instrumentalism (Arts&Business, 2007). She has written a variety of chapters and essays for a range of publications, most recently ‘Narcissism and Identity’ in From Self to Selfie: A Critique of Contemporary Forms of Alienation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).

Follow Claire on Twitter @Fox_Claire.

RELATED SESSIONS

Saturday 31 July, 11:00 Assembly Hall, Church House
Beyond Culture Wars: How to argue better in an age of conformity

Saturday 9 October, 10:15 Assembly Hall, Church House
Should we resist the ‘new normal’?

Saturday 9 October, 16:45 Room 511, Church House
The social-justice march through the institutions

Sunday 10 October, 10:30 Assembly Hall, Church House
What are Western values – and should we defend them?

Sunday 10 October, 15:00 Room 511, Church House
Onward Christian soldiers? The role of religion today

Sunday 10 October, 17:00 Assembly Hall, Church House
Stuck in the present with you: political change in an era of pessimism

Saturday 30 October, 11.00 Devonshire Dome - DO/G16-18
Should we resist the new normal?