2020 learning and insight

ideas

Cambridge Festival Of Ideas 2018

University of Cambridge

In the 14th Hinsley Memorial lecture – an annual lecture given at St John’s on international relations - Timothy Garton-Ash examines the competing interests vying for control of the internet

International Relations: The Struggle for Power Over the Internet in a Post-American World

Every day your immune system is busy protecting you from the thousands of germs around you that can make you sick. It does its job so efficiently that you don’t even notice that it is at work. Micro-organisms are present in your gut and interact with your body during periods of health and disease. When the immune system hits the wrong target, however, it can unleash a torrent of disorders, including inflammatory diseases, cancer, and autoimmune disease. Come along and be enlightened by our experts in the field.

Panelists: Dr Eoin McKinney (Autoimmunity - Dept of Medicine), Dr Maike De La Roche (Immunity - CRUK), Dr Sam Forster (Microbiota - Sanger Institute). Chaired by Prof Clare Bryant (Innate Immunity - Dept of Vet Medicine).

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

The dangers of the dark web are explored in a discussion that looks at how anonymous users can purchase illegal firearms and drugs on this hidden part of the internet. The challenges this poses and what could be done to manage its impact are also examined.

• Giacomo Persi Paoli is a research leader at RAND Europe in the Defence, Security and Infrastructure Group, where he leads the National Security and Resilience research portfolio. Giacomo will give an introduction to RAND Europe’s research into cryptomarkets – the black markets on the dark web – and reveal the size and scope of the dark web and what is available for trade, with a focus on illegal firearms.

• Stijn Hoorens is the head of RAND Europe's Brussels Office and an associate director of RAND Europe. His research interests are broad, but most of his work has revolved around issues related to illicit markets, security, demographic issues, employment, and skills. Stijn will be looking at how the dark web has facilitated the trade in illicit drugs and how the findings converge and differ between firearms and drugs.

• Steve Welsh is a senior manager at the National Crime Agency in the UK and heads up the Dark Web Intelligence Collection and Exploitation department. He will be giving an insight into the evolving threat of dark web markets and sharing some of the UK’s success in combatting it with international partners.

• Judith Aldridge is Professor of Criminology in the School of Law at the University of Manchester in the UK, she is the author of over 80 publications in the drugs field; 19 of these on ‘darknet’ drug markets. As a counterpoint, Judith will explore some of the unexpected benefits of the dark web, such as how it may reduce some of the harms generally associated with global drug prohibition.

15 Oct - SHINING A LIGHT ON THE DARK WEB

Why do fundamentalist beliefs and practices function as they do? Why are they so attractive? How should we distinguish between fundamentalism, extremism, radicalism and orthodoxy?

Professor Kim Knott, Lancaster University, Ed Kessler MBE, Woolf Institute, Cambridge, and Tobias Müller, Woolf Institute and POLIS, University of Cambridge, present their reflections on fundamentalisms, particularly in Jewish, Muslim, Christian and non-religious contexts. They draw on case studies and fieldwork in religious communities in the UK and Europe. In addition, the panellists present some conceptual proposals on how best to study and conceptualise fundamentalism in order to make it an analytical and useful category that takes seriously the historical development of the term. The presentations focus on shared characteristics such as the role of patriarchy, the desire to return to a golden age, the significance of sacred texts and truth claims, anti-pluralist attributes, the importance of charismatic leadership and the influence of globalisation. At the same time, the presentations will point out characteristics that are particularly noticeable amongst some religious fundamentalisms but not others, for example sacred land is important to Jewish, Sikh and Hindu fundamentalists but less so for Christian and Buddhist. Finally, the panel will address how fundamentalism relates to mainstream interpretations of the same religion.

Chair: Dr Sara Silvestri, Senior lecturer, City, University of London and Bye Fellow, St Edmund's College, Cambridge

Read Tobias' feature article: https://www.festivalofideas.cam.ac.uk/what-fundamentalism-and-what-should-we-do-about-it

15 Oct - RETHINKING RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM

This panel reflects on mystical experiences in epilepsy and what they can teach us about empathy, personal reflection, and how different traditions of faith or non-faith can intersect in big questions about the nature of personal experience.

This panel includes experts on the psychology of religion and people who have had mystical seizures. By using a rare and unusual phenomena that has implications for both medical and faith communities, this talk aims to address how we engage with the hard to understand subjective experiences of others and how competing understandings of the nature of these extreme experiences can share the explanatory landscape. Rather than simply focusing on the science of mystical seizures, this panel aims to address what these experiences tell us about spiritual plurality, interfaith understanding, and how we grapple with first hand accounts of experiences inaccessible to most people.

With Prof. Rev. Alasdair Coles, Joseph Tennant, Ian Ball, Mordecai Zeller

18 Oct - THE MYSTERY OF MYSTICAL SEIZURES

With huge internal and external pressures facing the European Union, including the rise of nationalist and populist movements of all types across Europe - both inside the EU and outside, as well as the power struggle going on for control of Europe, can it survive?

With Ian Kearns, co-founder of the European Leadership Network and author of Collapse: Europe after the European Union, Dr Julie Smith, Director of the European Centre in the Department of Politics and International Studies at Cambridge University, John Breuilly, professor of nationalism and ethnicity at the London School of Economics, and Timothy Less, associate researcher at the University of Cambridge and director of the Nova Europa consultancy, which provides political risk analysis of Eastern Europe.

Chaired by BBC Radio Cambridgeshire's Chris Mann.

18 Oct - EUROPE IN THE AGE OF EXTREMES

Best-selling author Tara Westover talks to Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman about her memoir, Educated, which tells of her experiences growing up in rural Idaho, raised by a radical, survivalist father who was intensely paranoid about government interference in the lives of his family. In the book she writes of how, through the pursuit of knowledge, she evolved into a 'new self'. She says: 'You could call this selfhood many things. Transformation. Metamorphosis. Falsity. Betrayal. I call it an education.'

Read Tara's feature article: https://www.festivalofideas.cam.ac.uk/educated-tara-westover-conversation-hadley-freeman

20 Oct - EDUCATED: TARA WESTOVER IN CONVERSATION WITH HADLEY FREEMAN

Cooperation and violence are opposite poles of human experience. Some societies, institutions and places are highly violent, while others promote cooperation and mutual respect. Four experts discuss core ideas about the root causes of these differences, and how research can help us to better address different forms of violence.

• What makes some societies more violent than others? Manuel Eisner

• What makes some prisons more violent than others? Alison Liebling

• What makes some neighbourhoods more violent than others? Graham Denyer Willis

• What makes some places more violent than others? Alex Sutherland

20 Oct - EXTREMES IN VIOLENCE: WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM VIOLENT AND PEACEFUL SOCIETIES AND PLACES?

Will the future of work be one in which jobs become ever more precarious and robots take over or can we regulate to make the gig economy and artificial intelligence work in our favour? With Magdalena Soffia, former UN consultant and researcher in Sociology at the University of Cambridge, Dr Alex Wood, a sociologist of work and employment at the University of Oxford, Dr Hatice Gunes, associate professor in the University of Cambridge's Computer Laboratory, and Laetitia Vitaud, HR specialist and writer on the future of work.

20 Oct - THE FUTURE OF WORK

Ever felt your phone vibrate without getting a message? That’s a hallucination. In this talk, Hannah Jongsma will explore the spectrum from normal experiences to mental illness. How helpful is it to think of wellbeing this way? Where and how do we draw a line between being well and being ill?

20 Oct - MENTAL ILLNESS AN EXTREME STATE OF BEING

What does gender equality mean in practice? Is feminism a threat to men or a collective liberation from social stereotypes? A panel discussion will look at the links between equality at work and equality at home and how the move towards gender equality connects to wider issues of social equality. With Jude Browne, Jessica and Peter Frankopan Director of the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies, economist Victoria Bateman, sociologist Manali Desai, film, TV and theatre director Topher Campbell and Duncan Fisher from the Family Initiative. Chaired by psychologist Magdalena Zawisza.

24 Oct - BRIDGING THE GENDER DIVIDE

The University Library is delighted to have been given the archive of the satirical TV programme Spitting Image. The first latex puppet to arrive is Margaret Thatcher. In this podcast, by Made For Your Podcasts, Spitting Image creator explains why the archive is coming home, and Mrs Thatcher speaks form beyond the grave...

Spitting Image archive comes to Cambridge University Library

Has parliament taken back control and if so, are MPs about to shed their traditional party loyalties to prevent a no-deal Brexit? Listen to David Howarth, Professor of Law and Public Policy and former Cambridge MP, and Simon Deakin, Professor of Law, discuss what’s likely to happen in the Brexit negotiations in both the short and longer term.

A Center for Business Research Podcast: January 28th 2019

Brexit and its consequences for the UK economy and political systems

Daphne Martschenko, president of Cambridge University Women’s Boat Club, is determined to make the sport of rowing more accessible. Her mission to pave the way for greater diversity in rowing chimes with her study of the charged concepts of race, socio-economic status, intelligence and genetics.

Read more here: https://medium.com/this-cambridge-life/the-star-rower-whose-research-examines-teachers-perceptions-of-intelligence-59467a7e18e2

The star rower whose research examines teachers’ perceptions of intelligence - Daphne Martschenko

In this episode, Charis and I speak to Cambridge University alumna, Pat Marsh. When we recorded the interview, we didn’t have any of the studio equipment with us, just a phone, but we thought it would be a crime not to share Pat’s incredible story. 

Pat was the first woman in the UK to hold a gaming licence and in 1979 she brought Space Invaders, the arcade game sensation, to the UK shores. 

Pat has had a distinguished business career, most recently serving as Executive Chairman of Philip-Treacy. Philip Treacy’s hats have adorned the heads of royals and celebrities alike, including Grace Jones, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Sarah Jessica Parker, Beyonce and Victoria Beckham.

The woman who brought Space Invaders to the UK - Pat Marsh

Shuckburgh is a climate scientist and mathematician, and is co-author of the Ladybird book on Climate Change. She will speak about her research on modelling localised effects of climate change – from Arctic warming to flooding in Tewkesbury, from severe drought in Malawi to record-breaking temperatures in Thailand, and from the acidification of the Barrier Reef to the hurricanes battering the Caribbean.

Emily Shuckburgh - How will climate change affect me?

Holding her first grandchild in her arms in 2003, Mary Robinson was struck by the uncertainty of the world he had been born into. Before his fiftieth birthday, he would share the planet with more than nine billion people – people battling for food, water and shelter in an increasingly volatile climate. As the UN’s Special Envoy for Climate Change, Robinson’s mission led all over the world, from Malawi to Mongolia, and to a heartening revelation: that an irrepressible driving force in the battle for climate justice could be found at the grassroots level, mainly among women, many of them mothers and grandmothers like herself. Robinson met with ordinary people whose resilience and ingenuity had already unlocked extraordinary change. Robinson is the former President of Ireland and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and is now a member of The Elders. This year she was awarded the prestigious Kew International Medal for her work on climate justice.

Hay 2019

Mary Robinson talks to Emily Shuckburgh - The Kew Gardens platform: Climate justice

How do we counter fake news and can we inoculate public opinion against misinformation? Dr Van der Linden is Director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab and is investigating the psychological mechanisms behind the spread of misinformation.

Sander van der Linden - Vaccinating against fake news

The Industrial Revolution brings to mind famous male inventors and industrialists. In her new book economist Victoria Bateman instead argues that the everyday woman underpinned Britain’s – and indeed the West’s - rise.

Victoria Bateman - The Sex Factor: How women made the West rich

Bill Sutherland, who holds the Miriam Rothschild Chair in Conservation Biology at the University of Cambridge, described attempts to make global evidence available to all, improve the effectiveness of experts and change attitudes toward the use of evidence, especially in relation to conservation.