Tap into Cambridge’s Hay lectures

Starting on Thursday this week, 17 Cambridge academics will be giving talks at the famous literature festival in Hay-on-Wye, offering a unique insight into some of the latest thinking on issues as diverse as climate change, stem cell research, ancient history and the works of Jane Austen.

To mark the series, the University is launching a new web page where readers will find previews about some of the speakers and their work, as well as live reports from the Festival and the Cambridge series.

The blog begins today, with features on Ben Barry, the Judge Business School PhD student who set up his own modelling agency aged 13, and Professor Jacqueline Scott, a sociologist who looks at the causes and consequences of the gender gap, and how it might be narrowed.

More previews will follow over the next few days, covering Professor Paul Cartledge’s views on the lessons of Ancient Greek democracy; Professor Diane Reay’s work on the education system and social mobility; Dr. Priyamvada Gopal’s examination of the legacy of the British Empire and Dr. Jude Browne’s research into the relationship between gender equality and the law.

From this weekend, the blog will also carry reports from the Festival itself. Readers who cannot make it to Hay will be able to find out what was covered in the talks and question and answer sessions, and offer their own thoughts via the comments board. Audio recordings of each lecture will also be made available through the same site.

This is the second year in which Cambridge has run a lecture series at the Guardian Hay Festival. Last year, the “Cambridge 800 series” celebrated the University’s 800th anniversary and the University’s Science Festival and Festival of ideas, and attracted a total audience of 4,000 people.

Cambridge academics including Dame Gillian Beer and Professor Simon Blackburn took part and the series was described as “a highlight of the Festival” by Claire Armistead, Literary Editor of The Guardian.

This year, 17 Cambridge academics will be speaking. The full line-up is as follows:

27th May at 10am
Dr Chris Hope, Fellow of Clare Hall; Reader in Policy Modelling, Judge Business School
"Climate change issues and what the priorities should be"

29th May at 11.30am
Ben Barry, PhD student, Judge Business School
"The impact of body diversity in the modelling world, on the high street, in the classroom and on the couch"

30th May at 11.30am
Professor Roger Pedersen, Laboratory for Regenerative Medicine; Cambridge Stem Cell Initiative.
"What do stem cells tell us about ourselves?"

30th May at 17.30pm
Professor Janet Todd, President of Lucy Cavendish College.
"The uncensored Jane Austen: her juvenilia and unpublished works"

31st May at11.30am
Professor David Reynolds, Fellow of Christ's College; Professor of International History.
"America and the Challenges of 'Popular' History"

31st May at 17.30pm
Professor Jackie Scott, Fellow of Queens' College; Professor of Sociology.
"Understanding and tackling gender equality in work and within the family at home"

1st June at 11.30am
Professor Christopher Andrew, Fellow of Corpus Christi College; Professor of Modern and Contemporary History.
"MI5 - Secret Intelligence and the Cambridge connection"

1st June at 4pm
Professor Paul Murdin, Institute of Astronomy.
"Secrets of the Universe: How we discovered the cosmos"
How technological innovation and pure serendipity have expanded our knowledge"

1st June at 5.30pm
John Cornwell, Fellow of Jesus College; Affiliated Research Scholar, Department of History and Philosophy of Science; Visiting Fellow, Centre for Advanced Religious and Theological Studies, Faculty of Divinity.
"Newman's unquiet grave."

2nd June at 11.30am
Professor Paul Cartledge, A G Leventis Professor of Greek Culture, Faculty of Classics; Fellow of Clare College.
"Democracy"
2nd June at 1pm
Dr Richard Miles, Fellow of Trinity College; Lecturer in Ancient and Early Medieval History.
"Carthage must be destroyed."

3rd June at 11.30am
Dr Terri Apter, Senior Tutor of Newnham College; Social Psychologist. "Sisters"

3rd June at 17.15pm
Professor Diane Reay, Professor of Education.
"Education and class"

4th June at 11.30am
Professor Simon Baron Cohen, Professor of Developmental Psychopathology; Director of the Autism Research Centre; Fellow of Trinity College.
"Autism: the evolution of empathy"

4th June at 1pm
Professor Ian Glynn, Fellow of Trinity College; Emeritus Professor of Physiology.
"Elegance in Science"

5th June at 11.30am
Dr Priyamvada Gopal, Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of English; Teaching Fellow and Dean of Churchill College
"How (Not) to Write the History of Empire."

6th June at 1pm
Dr Jude Browne, Frankopan Director of the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies. “The Principle Of Equal Treatment”.