ATTENTION: The lecture will not take place at the U-Residence as previously mentioned, but in the D-building (same campus): auditorium D.02. In order to celebrate the first observation of Gravitational Waves the Interuniversity Institute for High Energies IIHE(ULB-VUB) is hosting a seminar in English for the general public. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) collaboration has announced two weeks ago the first direct observation of gravitational waves, predicted in 1916 by Albert Einstein. Dr. Chad Finley, from the IceCube neutrino…

Saskia Sassen is the Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology, and chairs The Committee on Global Thought, Columbia University (www.saskiasassen.com). She is a student of cities, immigration, and states in the world economy, with inequality, gendering and digitization three key variables running though her work. Her new book is "Expulsions: Brutality and complexity in the global economy" (Harvard University Press/Belknap 2014). It launches a fourth major research project. The organizing thesis is that our global modernity is marked by systemic…