What happens when history narratives are produced not for library bookshelves but for a mass audience? Does popularisation of history automatically mean dumbing down? Who are the people who make history for the public sphere, and what are their motivations and priorities? The Public & Popular History seminar series brings them together, film makers, journalists, professional historians and museum curators. Through talks, multi-media presentations, panel discussions, and debates the seminar explores the practices and characteristics of public and popular history in the contemporary world.

Public and Popular History

sciences

technology (Cambridge)

Cambridge lectures

news & politics all around the world

cambridge

History! :)

courses

Panel discussion with

Jane Ellison (Commissioning Editor, Radio 4, BBC),

Matthew Cock (Head of Web, British Museum),

Bill Thompson (Technology writer and Head of Partnership Development, BBC Archive Development) 

History on the Internet

Panel Debate with Owen Hatherley, architectural historian & journalist, author of Militant Modernism (2009);

Prof Peter Mandler (Gonville & Caius), President of the Royal Historical Society & author of History and National Life (2001)

Prof Andrew Saint, architectural historian & general editor of the Survey of London

Architectural Heritage or Awful Houses?

Hamish Mykura, Head of global development, National Geographic Channels International

Until recently, the biggest development in the making of television history programmes was the use reconstruction. However, the advent of user-generated content has not only made a huge impact on the presentation of contemporary history, but it has also altered the role of the broadcaster and audience expectations.

New technology and editorial control in Documentary, History and News programmes

Talk by Patrick Russell (Senior Curator, British Film Institute)

The Elephant Will Never Forget? Film archiving, archaeology and historiography

Panel discussion with Tim Boon (Chief Curator, Science Museum, London),

John Lynch (CEO of TV production company Words Make Pictures Ltd, former Head of Science at BBC Television 2001-2010; & Chairman of World Congress of Science and Factual Producers),

Simon Schaffer (Professor in History & Philosophy of Science, Cambridge)

Presenting The History Of Science & Technology

Panel discussion with Chris Skidmore (MP, Cons) & Gregg McClymont (MP, Lab)

The Uses of History in Politics

Rabbi David Ingber's weekly Tuesday Kabbalah Café. Find out more and join in on http://romemu.org

Kabbalah Café: Shabbat, Class 2

Talk by Charles Cecil MBE, video game designer (Broken Sword series) & Director of Revolution Software, at the Public and Popular History Seminar.

Charles Cecil, video game industry legend and creator of the Broken Sword series discusses the uses of historical narratives in video games, and the link to different media like film. In fact, the video game industry has been a bigger industry than film for some years now, and millions of users have their most intensive encounters with representations of the past in front of a computer screen. Just what this means when historical narratives have to be moulded to fit the entertainment objectives of the video game producer is the subject of this multi-media talk by one of the most successful designers in the industry.

Moulding history for a video game story

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

Language about ‘plague’ rather than – say – ‘epidemic’ introduces elements of moral and theological interpretation into our view of a situation: plague is something ‘inflicted’, and is conceived against the background of certain kinds of biblical and classical narratives (the plagues of Egypt, Oedipus at Thebes, etc.). While this is by no means defunct (with some very unpleasant recent applications) the overall climate has changed. But it is still possible to reach for this language as a metaphorical structure – Camus, Garcia Marquez – which highlights aspects of the moral urgencies and ambiguities of a situation. The lecture will look at both the background usage and its modern transformations so as to draw out some thoughts on the nature of human limits and human responsibilities.

Biography

Dr Williams is Master of Magdalene College. He was educated at Dynevor Secondary Grammar School in Swansea, he came up to Christ’s College in 1968. He studied for his doctorate at Christ Church and Wadham College Oxford, working on the Russian Orthodox theologian Vladimir Lossky. His career began as a lecturer at Mirfield (1975-1977). He returned to Cambridge as Tutor and Director of Studies at Westcott House. After ordination in Ely Cathedral, and serving as Honorary Assistant Priest at St George’s Chesterton, he was appointed to a University lectureship in Divinity. In 1984 he was elected a Fellow and Dean of Clare College. During his time at Clare he was arrested and fined for singing psalms as part of the CND protest at Lakenheath air-base. Then, still only 36, it was back to Oxford as Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity for six years, before becoming Bishop of Monmouth, and, from 2000, Archbishop of Wales. He was enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury in 2003. He was awarded the Oxford higher degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1989, and an honorary DCL degree in 2005; Cambridge followed in 2006 with an honorary DD. He holds honorary doctorates from considerably more than a dozen other universities, from Durham to K U Leuven, Toronto to Bonn. In 1990 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. Dr Williams is a noted poet and translator of poetry, and, apart from Welsh, speaks or reads nine other languages. He learnt Russian in-order to read the works of Dostoevsky in the original. This led to a book; he has also published studies of Arius, Teresa of Avila, and Sergii Bulgakov, together with writings on a wide range of theological, historical and political themes.

Plagues & Metaphor

Royal Society Fellows are the most the most eminent scientists, engineers and technologists in the UK and Commonwealth and Fellowships have been awarded annually since 1660. Six new Cambridge researchers were made Royal Society Fellows in 2013. Tonight we are delighted to welcome immunologist Professor Gillian Griffiths from Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, biochemist Dr Phillip Hawkins from The Babraham Institute and computer scientist Professor Jon Crowcroft from the Computer Laboratory to the Festival to introduce us to their research

Cambridge stars: Professor Gillian Griffiths

Today, more people live in cities than in rural areas and, by 2050, this ratio is predicted to rise to 7 out of every 10 people. Can we rethink how we design and live in cities? What will the impact of increasing numbers of people living in cities be on society, or biodiversity, or on food, water and energy security? A panel of distinguished speakers focuses on some of these most pressing challenges faced by our cities. 

Sustainable Cities

Social Science, Small worlds and Big Data

Matthew Jackson - Research Directions: Networks and their Roles in Economics

Dame Barbara Stocking is President of Murray Edwards College and former CEO of Oxfam GB. Barbara will be joined by three alumna - Telegraph fashion journalist Ellie Pithers (matriculated 2008), singer-songwriter Polly Paulusma (1994) and the author and comms expert Frances Edmonds (1970).

Women today, women tomorrow

LOL et JLB  composent dans une très large palette de genres et de styles pour divers supports et medias : musiques de génériques TV, habillages Radio, films documentaires, films, téléfilms et courts-métrages.


Funky Day

Jonathan Haslam, Professor of the History of International Relations
The history of Russia’s Secret Services from the Revolution to the Fall of the Wall: the Military Intelligence, the codes and ciphers and the KGB. 

Near and Distant Neighbours 1917–1989

A Public Lecture by Conspiracy & Democracy Visiting Fellow Professor Cornel Zwierlein (Ruhr-Universität Bochum). 

It seems as if Conspiracy Theories are a particularly modern phenomenon. By relying on some examples and cases, this lecture gives a long-term overview of what they looked like and when they appeared. We possess full-fledged conspiracy theory texts only since the 16th century. While examples may have existed already in Antiquity, we do not possess any textual evidence for them. The lecture tries to develop an explanation for why conspiracy theories emerged only at this point in European history. In order to do so, it is necessary to distinguish between conjurations, any kind of revolts, conspiracies and conspiracy theories. We will show how their coming into being is linked to the emergence of the ‘Information Public Sphere’, as a by-product of the early inter-state diplomatic communication (which has, first, little to do with the later famous ‘Enlightenment Public Sphere’), and how those narratives filled in where knowledge gaps existed. In a hasty run through history, we will distinguish several phases or ‘epochs’ of Conspiracy (theory) communication. Finally, we will ask how Democracy comes in: ‘Real’ democracies were practiced rather nowhere after Ancient Europe, and were rare even during the 19th century. So, in pre-modern times, often it was ‘democracy’ or ‘democrats’ that were ‘conspiring’ against the good order of the commonwealth – not vice versa.

Cornel Zwierlein is Associate Professor at the University of Bochum, Germany. Currently, he is on leave as a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University. His research focuses on the intersection of political, religious and scientific knowledge. Cornel is the author of ‘Discorso und Lex Dei die Entstehung neuer Denkrahmen im 16. Jahrhundert und die Wahrnehmung der französischen Religionskriege in Italien und Deutschland’ (Göttingen, 2006), and, more recently, ‘Der gezähmte Prometheus. Feuer und Sicherheit zwischen Früher Neuzeit und Moderne’ (Göttingen, 2011). 

The Early Modern Foundations of Conspiracy & Democracy

Earlier this year Education Secretary Michael Gove criticised "left-wing myths" about World War One and said they denigrated patriotism and courage by depicting the war as a "misbegotten shambles". His views were criticised by some historians. This debate will discuss how we should teach history in a globalised world and why it is important. BBC Cambridgeshire's Chris Mann chairs a discussion with Professor Evans, Regius Professor of History at the University of Cambridge, Professor David Cesarani, Research Chair in History at the Holocaust Research Centre, Royal Holloway, University of London, Katherine Edwards, a secondary school history teacher and Damian Collins, a Conservative MP, member of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Archives and History and Modern History graduate. 
http://www.festivalofideas.cam.ac.uk/

Learning to remember: how should we teach history?

Hear how archaeology connects people across time and space using examples from nationally important museums and pioneering outreach projects. Join Drs Carenza Lewis and Jody Joy to explore highlights and legacies of the last ten years’ work inspiring thousands of members of the public to unearth new discoveries to advance knowledge and enjoyment of local heritage. In association with Access Cambridge Archaeology and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology with Curating Cambridge - See more at: http://www.festivalofideas.cam.ac.uk/events/time-team-archaeology-all#sthash.XGzqFVMV.dpuf

From Time Team to Archaeology for All

Speaker(s): Professor Judy Wajcman, Genevieve Bell | Judy Wajcman explores why it is that we both blame technology for speeding up everyday life and yet turn to digital devices for the solution. The event marks the publication of Professor Judy Wajcman's new book Pressed for Time: the acceleration of life in digital capitalism. Judy Wajcman is the Anthony Giddens Professor of Sociology at LSE. Genevieve Bell (@feraldata) is Vice President of User Experience Research at Intel Labs. Anthony Giddens is a former director of LSE and a Member of the House of Lords. The Department of Sociology at LSE (@LSEsociology) was established in 1904 and remains committed to top quality teaching and leading research and scholarship today.

Pressed for Time: the acceleration of life in digital capitalism [Audio]

Taylor McKnight of The Hype Machine talks about music, the entrepreneurial spirit and finding a niche.