Tuesday 22 October, 7.15pm – 8:30pm

Delivering the 2019 Robert H Smith Lecture in Democracy, Irina Bokova, former Director-General of UNESCO, explores how issues of education for all, gender equality, tolerance and the fight against violent extremism are crucially linked to the preservation of heritage.

Irina Bokova is a Bulgarian politician and former Director-General of UNESCO (2009 to 2017). She was the first woman and the first Eastern European to lead the organisation. During her political and diplomatic career in Bulgaria, she was twice elected as a Member of the National Parliament and served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She also served as Bulgaria’s Ambassador to France and to Monaco, and was Bulgaria’s Permanent Delegate to UNESCO. At UNESCO, Director-General Bokova advocated for gender equality, improved education and preventing funding for terrorism, especially by enforcing the protection of intellectual goods. She was particularly active in defence of cultural heritage in conflict in Mali, Syria and Iraq and in denouncing extremists’ destruction of heritage as a tool of war.

Sponsored by the Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library in collaboration with Benjamin Franklin House.

For more information and to purchase tickets please follow the link here.

Join us on a whistle-stop tour of Franklin’s many ingenious inventions, from the lightening rod to the glass armonica and the Franklin stove. House Education Manager, Eleanor Hamblen, will reflect on how Franklin’s scientific process led him to become one of the key figures of the Enlightenment and how his discoveries have shaped our modern world.

Watch the full talk and Q&A below