ARC Conversations: Newspeak, Oldspeak and the Unspoken - The Power of Language to Shape the World
How does language shape what we know, imagine and act upon? Nearly eighty years after Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, ARC Conversations brings together leading voices from urban studies, data science, the arts and public discourse to explore the relationship between language, power and truth.
Social Sciences Hub
ARC Public
Date: Tuesday 17 November 2026
Time: 16:00 - 17:30
Venue: Advanced Research Centre
Category: Public lectures, Academic events, Community events,
Chaired by Professor Dominic Paterson, the panel will examine how knowledge is produced, whose voices are heard, what remains unsaid, and how language can both constrain and expand our collective futures.
The event forms part of the POLART Re-ARTiculating Policy programme, centred around a unique installation at the ARC of 1,984 copies of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, donated and sourced from around the world, which invites reflection on the enduring relevance of the novel's themes. Drinks, networking and an opportunity to view the installation will follow the panel discussion.
Speakers
Dominic Paterson
Dominic Paterson is Professor of History of Art and Curator of Contemporary Art at the University of Glasgow. He has written widely on contemporary art and art theory: recent publications include the monograph Neil Clements: Fellow Traveller and essays on Ilana Halperin in Felt Events (2022), on Ulrike Ottinger in Ulrike Ottinger: Film, Art, Ethnography (2024) and on Phil Collins for Feelings / Sensors (European Media Arts Festival, 2024). Recent curated exhibitions include Flesh Arranges Itself Differently (2022, with the Roberts Institute of Art), Elizabeth Price: UNDERFOOT (2022), The Trembling Museum (2023, co-curated with Manthia Diawara and Terri Geis), Cathy Wilkes (2024), and Digging in Another Time: Derek Jarman’s Modern Nature, (2024). Prof. Paterson has been awarded grants including the Art Fund Moving Image Fund for Museums, Imperial War Museum 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund Major Commission, and Creative Scotland's Open Fund.
Ana Basiri
Ana Basiri is a Professor of Geospatial Data Science and the Director of Centre for Data Science and AI at the University of Glasgow. Ana leads research group that finds meaning in what’s missing—transforming gaps, absences, and biases in data into powerful insights about why and what are missing to understand the world around us. From incomplete GPS signals to underrepresented voices on social media, Ana’s work turns the data we don’t have into clues about real-world systems, behaviours, and challenges.
Annette Hastings
Annette Hastings is Professor of Urban Studies and Head of Urban Studies and Social Policy in the School of Social & Political Sciences. She has degrees in English from the University of Cambridge and in Urban Policy from the University of Glasgow. Before joining the University in the 1990s, Annette worked in local government and in the community-based housing association movement. Her research and teaching interests centre on inequality in cities, inclusive public services and the role of narrative and discourse in policy processes. She served as Independent Chair of the North Lanarkshire Fairness Commission and has had various advisory roles including for the Scottish Government’s Local Government and Communities Committee and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. She is currently an Expert Advisor to SURF (Scotland’s Independent Regeneration Forum) and Vice Chair of the Whiteinch Centre in Glasgow. She is on the Editorial Board of Local Government Studies and was previously on the Boards of Critical Discourse Studies and Urban Studies Research.
Chris Hannan
Chris Hannan’s plays have been produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Old Vic, Shakespeare’s Globe and the Lyceum, among many others. His 2026 adaptation of 1984 opened at the Citizens’ Theatre Glasgow to multiple 5 star reviews. His 2016 play What Shadows, about Enoch Powell’s « River of Blood » speech and identity politics, was described by the Daily Telegraph as « the most provocative theatrical act of the decade». Shining Souls opened at the Traverse in 1996 and played the Old Vic in 1997, with the Guardian calling it a "funny and serious postmodern masterpiece." His contemporary classic Elizabeth Gordon Quinn, first performed in 1985, was re-staged in 2006 by the National Theatre of Scotland in its inaugural season. The Guardian hailed Elizabeth Gordon Quinn as « a Marie-Antoinette of the slums » and a « monstrous and magnificent heroine ».