Namita Gokhale and Miguel Larrañaga

Hay Festival Segovia 2016 began last Saturday September 17th and will last until Sunday 25th. This year will also see big names of the universe of the arts and letters such as writer Deborah Levy or actress Julie Christie. The present edition has India as invited country, in order to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Indian Spanish Diplomatic Relations.

On Monday 19th Humanities Professor Susana Torres had a conversation with journalist Dileep Padgaonkar, Former Editor at The Times of India. The event was an overview of Dr. Padgaonkar extraordinary life, from his times of doctoral student at l’Université Paris-Sorbonne to his leadership of India’s most relevant opinion maker. With an exquisite intellectual approach he shared with the audience several insights to understand the course of Indian’s history since its independence from the United Kingdom.

Dileep Padgaonkar and Susana Torres

On Tuesday 20th Vice Rector Miguel Larrañaga held a conversation with writer and cultural activist Namita Gokhale. This interesting talk versed on two themes, her literature works and the Jaipur Literature Festival. With an amazing pedagogic style Ms. Gokhale decostructed the main themes in her literature, based in women and love. Her speech was clear and well structured, a pleasure to hear and learn. She also talked about the Jaipur Literature Festival, a project she launched 10 years ago and now co directs with writer William Dalrymple.

These two talks were the perfect warmup for this edition of Hay Festival Segovia and for this years IE University’s cycle of conferences India Present and Future. This series of lectures will officially start on October 20th with a talk on Indian Economy by Pradeep Bhargava (Chief Representative India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh La Caixa) and Patricia Gabaldón (Assistant Professor of Economic Environment at IE Business School) Chaired by Kiron Ravindran (Associate Dean of the Masters in Management Programs at IE Business School). And will also include renowned personalities such as the above mention Namita Gokhale or Spanish writer Javier Moro, among many others. Stay tuned!