lectures

2013 marks the six-year anniversary of the Festival of Ideas, a University of Cambridge public engagement initiative that celebrates the arts, humanities and social sciences by showcasing a diverse mix of inspirational talks, performances, films, exhibitions and other creative displays. 

Cambridge Festival of Ideas 2013

Learn About The World

cambridge

Nice - 12 nov 2013

university of Cambridge

Health Care

Podcasts

Bad Fluids - Class of ´87

Bad Fluids - Disfarmer

The Chain Gang Of 1974's new hit-single "Sleepwalking" has been remixed by @DawnGolden. soundcloud.com/dawngoldenmusic

Daydream Forever

Sleepwalking (Dawn Golden Remix)

The problem of violence against women and girls has been prominent in media coverage with many distressing cases coming to light over the last year and more. What steps are being taken through legal processes, by organisations and academia to tackle the issues involved? Speakers include Norah Al-Ani of Cambridge Rape Crisis centre.

How far have we come? Ending violence against women and girls

Writer and influential political commentator Owen Jones talks about his strong opposition to Government cuts and proposes a fight-back alternative to austerity.

Owen Jones is a columnist, author and influential commentator associated with left-wing politics, he appears regularly on Question Time, Newsnight and in newspapers. In this talk, he examines the alleged failings of the current Government's austerity measures and proposes what some might consider a radical alternative.

Owen Jones was born in Sheffield and grew up in Stockport. After graduating, he worked as a trade union and parliamentary researcher. His first book, Chavs: the Demonization of the Working Class, was published in June 2011. He writes a weekly column for the Independent, is a regular broadcaster and is a policy and media advisor to the trade union think tank Class. He is currently working on his second book, on power in Britain, for Penguin. He was named 2012 Stonewall Journalist of the Year and Young Writer of the Year at the 2013 Political Book Awards.

An alternative to austerity: a talk by Owen Jones

Join Dr Miranda Griffin, College Lecturer in medieval French literature, in her fascinating investigation of medieval tales of transformation, exploring the way in which the Middle Ages imagined the frontiers between the human and the animal.

Werewolves and snakewomen

Lord Byron’s death on 19 April, 1824, ‘in Greece, and for Greece’, created a legend that is still with us. Professor Roderick Beaton traces the real story behind Byron’s mission to help the Greeks in their revolution against Ottoman Turkish rule and shows its effects are still with us.

Roderick Beaton is Professor of Modern Greek & Byzantine History and Director at the Centre of Hellenic Studies at King's College, London. He is also Chair of the Academic Committee overseeing the International Byron Conference this year. His research interests are Greek literature since the 12th century; the history of the novel; and nationalism in Modern Greece.

What Byron really did for Greece and why it still matters

What can patterns of history and business teach us? Join a discussion with: Dr Victoria Bateman, Lecturer and Fellow in Economics; Alan Turner, Managing Director, Global Head of Debt and Co-Head of Product at Barclays; and Aditya Chakrabortty, Economics leader writer at the Guardian, to explore turbulence in the UK economy across centuries and the balance sheets of more recent times.

The cycle of confidence

THE ROY JENKINS MEMORIAL MEETING

As we approach the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, two writers encourage us to remember that, despite fighting each other in two terrible wars, Britain and Germany share centuries of deep friendship. Philip Oltermann, deputy editor on the Guardian comment desk, is the author of Keeping Up with the Germans, an interweaving of memoir and history, published earlier this year to outstanding reviews. The biographer Miranda Seymour's forthcoming publication 'Noble Endeavours' is a moving exploration of 400 years of Anglo-German relationship and forgotten friendships, told through the stories of people at all levels of society, from kings to students. Chaired by John Jungclaussen.

John Jungclaussen, Philip Oltermann and Miranda Seymour on Anglo-German relations: October 2013

Today's bookshops are helpfully categorised - crime, biography and memoir, fiction - and we rarely venture into unknown territory. Some writers are breaking down the barriers, but are publishers increasingly pushing their writers to write books with the same 'DNA' and will the digital revolution make any difference? Panel discussion with authors MJ Hyland and Trevor Byrne, digital publisher Daniel Franklin and literary agent Rachel Calder. 

Opening up literature: pushing the boundaries between genres

How far do conspiracy theories undermine trust in government and shape history? From 9/11 to the rise of Holocaust denial, three leading academics will explore and reveal some surprising answers. Sir Richard John Evans is an academic and historian, best known for his research on the history of Germany in the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly the Third Reich. Professor John Naughton is an academic, journalist and author. He is a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at Cambridge, Vice President of Wolfson College, Cambridge, Emeritus Professor of the Public Understanding of Technology at the British Open University, Adjunct Professor at University College, Cork, and the Technology columnist of the London Observer newspaper. Professor David Runciman is a political scientist who teaches political theory at Cambridge University. He specialises in the development of the theory of the modern state and on aspects of contemporary politics.

Conspiracy theories: the impact on world history

Times have never been better for single women. Then why is it still so hard? Four women, experts on relationships and sex, share their insight and suggestions.

The s word- spinster - has been virtually outlawed, and ladies of all ages are encouraged to seek out the sex and relationships that suit them online or in person. Being single is all about being free, having fun, doing things your way or the highway...or is it?

This event brings together four experts on relationships and sex to discuss their own unique take on single womanhood at all ages - it's pitfalls, freedoms and the pressures. If it's as great as we think it should be in 2013, why do so many women, particularly those over 30, still find being single such a trial? How can they get the most out of it? Join in the discussion with Rowan Pelling, broadcaster, writer and founder of The Erotic Review; Cecilia d'Felice, award-winning clinical psychologist, author and relationships expert; Susan Quilliam, sex and relationships educator and author of the revised Joy of Sex and panel head Zoe Strimpel, internet dating and gender scholar and author of The Man Diet: One Woman's Quest to End Bad Romance (Avon).

How to be a single woman in 2013, whether you're 25 or 60

Written By Dan Bodan
Co-produced by Physical Therapy, Ville Haimala of Renaissance Man and Dan Bodan

Dan Bodan - Hunger Games (Produced by Physical Therapy & Renaissance Man)

The Government's welfare reforms are starting to bite, but are they radical enough, given projected demographic changes, or do we need a complete rethink of our social values? With Rory Meakin, Professor Simon Szreter, Bill Davies, Jeff Miley and chaired by Gaby Hinsliff.

Rory Meakin is Head of Tax Policy at the TaxPayers' Alliance. He has contributed to projects on a variety of subjects from local government spending to an influential paper on simplifying taxes on income called Abolish National Insurance. Simon Szreter is Professor in History and Public Policy at Cambridge. He teaches modern British economic and social history since 1700. His main fields of research are demographic and social history, the history of empirical social science and the relationship between history and contemporary public policy issues. Jeff Miley is Lecturer of Political Sociology in the Department of Sociology at Cambridge. His research interests include nationalism, language politics, identity politics, immigration, religion and politics, regime types, and democratic theory.

Is Britain's welfare system ready for the 21st century?

Never-before-broadcast memories from JFK's confidantes recorded just after the assassination. Hosted by legendary journalist Robert MacNeil.

We Knew JFK: Unheard Stories from the Kennedy Archives

Barry Bergdoll, The Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art, and professor, Columbia University

In the third lecture, originally delivered at the National Gallery of Art on April 21, 2013, architectural historian Barry Bergdoll explores the idea of export architecture and outdoor exhibitions and the development of temporary exhibition pavilions from the world's fair to the open-air museum, including Colonial Williamsburg. The 19th-century debate on national identity as expressed in architectural style is shown to have been advanced by the changing valence of high-style pavilions and redeployed vernacular structures.

The Sixty-Second A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts: Out of Site in Plain View, Part 3

Do we really need more biographies of Hitler, or are historians currently adding to the wealth of existing literature simply cashing in on continuing public interest in Hitler and World War II? In this seminar on Modern European History, three scholars currently working on studies of the Nazi dictator offer their thoughts, and discuss some of their latest research. With Prof Wolfram Pyta (Stutgart), Prof Brendan Simms (Peterhouse, Cambridge) and Dr Thomas Weber (Aberdeen). Presented by Dr Bernhard Fulda (Sidney Sussex, Cambridge) and recorded at Sidney Sussex College on November 19, 2013.

Why Hitler Needs Revisiting

Peter Marks explores the irony that George Orwell never experienced the fame, authority and controversy that his name and writing command over sixty years after his death.

George Orwell has been called the ‘most influential political writer of the twentieth century’ and ‘the greatest English essayist since Hazlitt’. He is credited with introducing the term ‘cold war’ in 1945.
He invented the terms Big Brother, Thought Police, doublethink and the telescreen.
The adjective Orwellian is used to describe government intrusion and malevolent power.
Peter Marks explores the irony that George Orwell never experienced the fame, authority and controversy that his name and writing command over sixty years after his death.
Peter Marks is Associate Professor at the Department of English University of Sydney, and gave this talk at Clare Hall, on 19 November 2013.

From Nineteen Eighty-Four to 2013 and beyond: The Surprising Legacy of George Orwell

How do conspiracies happen, how can historians use them to understand more about the past, and where do they begin and cease to be relevant to the study of history? Such questions were the starting point for this panel debate, in which Professor Christopher Andrew and Dr Stephen Dorril examine cases from Stalinist Russia, Harold Wilson’s government in the 1960s, and Northern Ireland in the 1970s, to name but a few. - See more at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/history-and-conspiracy#sthash.UnAMoebB.dpuf

History and conspiracy

Produced, Engineered and Mixed by Kevin Augunas

Cold War Kids - Hang Me Up to Dry

Simon Blackburn, Professor of Philosophy, and Chris Blackhurst, editor of The Independent
Trust in British public life has now reached catastrophically low levels for parliament, the press, the banks, the police and the NHS. Just as the National Rifle Association in the USA claims that the solution to gun crime lies in more guns, our government (and, for instance, The Times) preaches that the cure for decline in trust lies in less public service and more profit motive. The conversation will reflect on this alarming state of affairs.