Public lecture and evening of talks by LSE scholars to honour the life and scholarship of Hilde Himmelweit, part of LSE's 130th anniversary programme.
LSE is holding a public event celebrating the life and legacy of Hilde Himmelweit on Thursday 22 October, from 6.30pm to 8pm at the Old Theatre in the Old Building. It's part of the school's 130th anniversary programme and the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2026, which runs from 17 October to 7 November.
Himmelweit (1918–1989) was a refugee scholar and one of the very few women to hold a professorship at LSE in its early history. She was appointed Professor of Social Psychology in 1964, and she helped establish the subject as a recognised field at the school. Her work had a real reach beyond the lecture theatre, too: her 1958 study Television and the Child was the first major empirical investigation of television's effects in the UK, and she made internationally influential contributions to media and communication research.
The evening brings together colleagues, former students, family and scholars to reflect on her scholarship, her leadership and the impact she left behind. Among the speakers is her daughter, Emerita Professor Susan Himmelweit, an economist at The Open University, a past President of the International Association for Feminist Economics and the founding Chair of the Women's Budget Group. Joining her are Professor Sandra Jovchelovitch, Professor Sonia Livingstone, Professor Shani Orgad and Professor Terhi Rantanen, with Professor Myria Georgiou chairing the conversation.
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It's an in-person event at the Old Theatre, but you can also catch it online via LSE Live if you can't make it into town. It runs from 6.30pm to 8pm on Thursday 22 October.
