Dreams and nightmares at the Festival of Ideas

The Festival aims to celebrate the rich contribution the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences make to our culture and understanding of the world and to showcase the huge breadth of work being done by University of Cambridge academics.

In addition to leading academics from the University, speakers at the numerous talks and debates throughout the Festival will include the legendary BBC World Affairs Editor John Simpson, China expert Martin Jacques, Radio 4 Controller Gwyneth Williams and Executive Editor of The Economist, Daniel Franklin.

The debates cover issues as wide-ranging as the aftermath of the Arab Spring, the future of the BRICs, the social impact on the West of the rise of China and the US elections.

Professor Simon Baron Cohen will take part in a panel discussion on whether neuroscience has been used to promote traditional gender stereotypes.

John Simpson will ask whether, in a world of increasing turbulence, progressive forces will be stronger than repressive ones and if our increasing interconnectedness is a force for good in international politics.

A panel of experts, including Nick Pickles from Big Brother Watch will ask whether social media giants like Facebook are profiting from our willingness to share the most intimate details of our lives online and if we should be concerned by this compromise to our privacy.

Cartoonist and graphic novelist Posy Simmonds will talk about inventing plots, characters, make-up, wardrobe, props, special effects and performing goats.

Most Festival events are free, but some require pre-booking. The first Saturday of the Festival [27th October] is Family Day and includes scores of hands-on activities and interactive sessions for children of all ages as well as a host of talks and events for adults. Children's authors taking part include Lauren Child, Andy Stanton and Benjamin Zephaniah.

Interactive sessions range from making junk musical instruments, junk puppets,and graffiti and circus workshops to an examination of the everyday practice of magic in medieval Egypt.

The events for children continue through half term week and, in keeping with the nightmare theme, include talks and handling sessions with slimy hagfish and blood-sucking mini-beasts. On Halloween, the Scott Polar Museum will be sharing close encounters with dreaming explorers, ghostly presences, trails and creative activities, spooky books and film.

Other highlights include an exploration of middle age and the upsides of ageing, sleep patterns through the ages, a screening of Michel Gondry’s 2006 film The Science of Sleep, a talk about the representation of dreams in ‘Dreams of transcendence’, a series of dialogues which show humans' enduring quest for life beyond the here and now.

Sophie Smith, Festival and Outreach Co-ordinator for the Festival of Ideas, said: “We were delighted that over 12,000 people attended the Festival of Ideas last year and are excited by the diversity of events on offer this year. The theme has proved poignant and inspiring for many and we hope that more people than ever before will take part in the Festival.”

The Festival is sponsored by Cambridge University Press, Arts Council England, Barclays Corporate, Anglia Ruskin University, the ESRC Festival of Social Science, Heffers, the Darwin Anniversary Festival and Irwin and Joan Jacobs.

For more information visit: www.cam.ac.uk/festivalofideas. Booking opens in September.