CASE Special Events
Hosted by the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE)
Joyful revolution: poverty, social justice and a pioneer of participation
Diana Skelton (ATD Fourth World International), Eileen Alexander (LSE), Fran Bennett (Oxford), Kate Evans (ATD Fourth World Trust), Elaine Li Quan
Tuesday 04 November 2025 18:30 - 20:00
Many of our seminars and public events this year will continue as in person or as hybrid (online and in person) events. Please check our website listings and Twitter feed @STICERD_LSE for updates.
Unless otherwise specified, in-person seminars are open to the public. Please ensure you have informed the event contact as early as possible.
Those unable to join the seminars in-person are welcome to participate via zoom if the event is hybrid.
About this event
Tackling poverty and campaigning for social justice must be with, not just for, people in poverty. This key insight will be explored by speakers and lived-experience activists at this event, through reflections on the life-story of pioneer Mary Rabagliati and on contemporary anti-poverty struggles, and through a community theatre performance.
A new biography charts Rabagliati's 'Joyful Revolution' from the war on poverty in New York City and an emergency housing camp outside Paris, through her studies under Richard Titmuss at LSE, to founding the British branch of ATD Fourth World and ground breaking work at the first three UN World Conferences on Women. She was a force to be reckoned with. Kate Evans will introduce author Diana Skelton, in conversation with Tania Burchardt. Fran Bennett and Eileen Alexander will discuss the participation in research and advocacy of people with experience of poverty and activists will perform a scene inspired by the ‘Joyful Revolution’.
Meet our speakers and chair
Eileen Alexander is an LSE fellow in qualitative methodology in the Department of Methodology. She received her PhD in Social Policy from LSE in 2022. She is interested in using creative and collaborative methods in qualitative research to better understand people’s lived experience of inequality, insecurity, and informal everyday welfare practices.
Fran Bennett is an emeritus fellow in the Department of Social Policy and Intervention at the University of Oxford and has a particular interest in social security policy, gender issues, and poverty and participation.. Fran is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and a member of the policy advisory group of the Women's Budget Group.
Kate Evans is a writer and member of the ATD Fourth World Trust.
Diana Skelton is the Deputy Director of the ATD Fourth World International. As part of ATD’s full-time Volunteer Corps since 1986, she has lived and worked in low-income neighbourhoods in New York and Madagascar, and represented ATD at the United Nations from 1996-2004.
Elaine Li Quan is a theatre maker based in London with a Master’s degree in Applied Theatre from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Tania Burchardt is Associate Director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion and an associate professor in the Department of Social Policy.
To find out more information on how to attend, please visit the LSE events page.
Related
For further information and papers, when available, please contact:
The CASE team, Email: case@lse.ac.uk.