New ideas and inspiration feature at Cambridge Festival 2022

Why do we need a more global perspective on history? How do we grieve better? Do we need to change the stories we tell about animals in an era of climate disaster?

These and many more vital topical questions will be discussed and debated at this year's Cambridge Festival which launches next week [31st March] and runs until 10th April. The University of Cambridge’s leading public engagement event, it tackles and offers solutions for some of our most pressing issues, from the multiple crises in politics, health and climate change to global economics and human rights. 

Speakers at the Festival include Jeannette Winterson; Astronomer Royal, Professor Lord Martin Rees; former head of News and Current Affairs at Channel 4 and President of Murray Edwards College, Dorothy Byrne; geneticist, obesity researcher and broadcaster, Dr Giles Yeo; virologist and broadcaster, Dr Chris Smith; and Professor of Politics David Runciman

Hidden histories: why we need more stories and a broader perspective [4th April, 7-30-9, hybrid] will explores the need for multiple perspectives on global history and the links between popular culture and academic research. Other speakers include Ali Meghji, Assistant Professor in Social Inequalities at the University of Cambridge and author of Decolonising Sociology;  Edward Wilson-Lee, a lecturer at the University of Cambridge who specialises in cultural and intellectual history in the early modern period and has authored books including Shakespeare in Swahililand and the forthcoming History of Water; and James Van Der Pool is a producer, editor and director who recently directed The Three Lives of Michael X for Sky. The event will be chaired by Kamal Munir, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (University Community & Engagement) and Professor of Strategy and Policy at the University of Cambridge.

"I suppose the role of the historian is to keep making history new, to push past received truths and to think about what it is that we've missed. A lot of the time this is about keeping vigilant watch for the tricks we play to keep ourselves at the centre of things and to preserve our accustomed ways of thinking, and devising strategies to counteract these, to recognize the hidden forces that are at play or to see things from a different perspective."

 _{Edward Wilson-Lee, a lecturer at the University of Cambridge}

Another topical discussion will consider the relationship between humans and animals in the light of climate change and pandemic threats. Animals and humans: towards a closer relationship takes place on 7th April, 1-2.30pm [recorded]. Sujit Sivasundaram, Professor of Global History at the University of Cambridge, will talk about his work on the history of human's relationship with animals while Mark Ashwill, Professor and Chair of Philosophy at the University of Miami, will outline three main environmental problems facing humans - climate change, zoonotic disease and mass extinction and how our treatment of animals is relevant to all three.

Hayley MacGregor, Professor of Medical Anthropology and Global Health at the Institute of Development Studies, will talk about issues related to livestock and zoonotic disease, including her work on the challenges of urbanising populations in Myanmar and increased demand for meat which is intensifying livestock farming.  And Ganga Shreedhar, Assistant Professor in LSE’s Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, will talk about how the stories we tell about animals can help us reflect on our relationship with them and help to change our behaviour when it comes to climate change.  The event will be chaired by Stephen Cave, Director, Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge.

In addition to issues about animal/human relations, Covid has brought bereavement to the fore, raising questions about how we as a society confront grief on such a huge scale.  In Good Grief: how do we support bereaved people better discussion [April 7th, 6-7pm, hybrid], Professor Stephen Barclay, leads the Cambridge Palliative and End of Life Care Group and the teaching of Palliative Care in the Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, will be in discussion with GP Dr Dan Knights and grief podcaster Amber Jeffrey about the impact of bereavement on society at large, changing attitudes to how the medical profession should respond and the kind of support needed in the community. The event will be chaired by Dr Laura Davies, founder of the A Good Death? project.

There are discussions on the latest developments in science to cutting-edge thinking in the humanities and social sciences.  

In Cambridge at the forefront of human embryo research [8th April, 7.30-9pm, hybrid] experts will discuss how new developments led by the University mean that we are now pushing the limits of what is technically and legally possible in embryo research.  Chaired by Professor Nick Hopwood, historian of biological and medical sciences at the University of Cambridge. With Professor Kathy Niakan, a developmental biologist at the University of Cambridge – in 2016 she became the first scientist in the world to gain regulatory approval to edit the genomes of human embryos for research; Professor Sarah Franklin, a sociologist at the University of Cambridge – she has substantially contributed to the fields of feminism, gender studies, cultural studies and the social study of reproductive and genetic technology; and Professor Robin Lovell-Badge from the Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics at the Francis Crick Institute – he is most famous for his discovery, along with Peter Goodfellow, of the SRY gene on the Y-chromosome that is the determinant of sex in mammals

How do we build a resilient society? [31st March, 6-7.15pm, hybrid] will see a very timely discussion, hosted by research organisation RAND Europe, on what we understand by the notion of societal resilience, how we can improve and bolster resilience in the UK and what lessons we can learn from other countries. Speakers include Sir Ian Andrews CBE TD, vice-chair of the National Preparedness Commission (NPC) and former second permanent secretary, Ministry of Defence; Rebecca Lucas, a defence, security and infrastructure analyst at RAND Europe; and Stephen Baker, chief executive of East Suffolk Council and a commissioner for the NPC.

Several events centre around books or literary figures. For instance, Televising the future: 1984 and the imagination of Nigel Kneale [9th April, 1-2..30pm, hybrid] will see a panel of experts, writer and film critic Jon Dear, Dr Una McCormack, New York Times and USA Today bestselling science fiction writer, Robin Bunce, a Cambridge fellow specialising in British politics and the history of ideas and writer and lecturer Andy Murray discussing the place of Nineteen Eighty-Four in the career of Nigel Kneale, the innovative screen writer who is best remembered today as the creator of the Quatermass series.

Other discussions at the Festival include:

Covid communications: did science win? [April 1st, 6-7.30pm, hybrid] will focus on the lessons to be learned from the Covid pandemic. Panellists include Chris Smith, founder of the Naked Scientists and a medical consultant specialising in clinical microbiology and virology at Cambridge University and its teaching hospital, Addenbrooke; Sander van der Linden, Professor of Social Psychology in Society and Director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge; and Tushna Vandrevala, Professor of Health Psychology at Kingston University / St George's University of London.

In An unequal world: beyond levelling up  [4th April, 6-7pm, hybrid] Professor Simon Szreter, economics consultant Hilary Cooper and Professor Diane Coyle will look not only at longer term inequality in the UK, but how Covid has exacerbated this. Simon Szreter, Professor of History and Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, and Hilary Cooper, a former senior policy maker, are authors of the new book After the virus: Lessons from the past for a better future which reveals the deep roots of the UK’s vulnerability and sets out a powerful manifesto for change post-Covid-19. Diane Coyle, the Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, is author of Cogs and Monsters: What economics is, and what it should be, which argues that economics needs to change to keep pace with the 21st century and the digital economy. Chaired by Patrick Butler, Social Policy Editor at the Guardian.

Waterloo sunrise: London from the sixties to Thatcher [5th April, 7.30-9pm, hybrid] John Davis, emeritus fellow in modern history and politics at The Queen’s College, University of Oxford, will talk about his new book on the making of modern London during the transformative years of the sixties and seventies, when a city still bearing the scars of war emerged as a vibrant yet divided metropolis. The book covers topics as varied as the rise and fall of boutique fashion, Soho and the sex trade, eating out in London, cabbies and tourists, gentrification, conservation, suburbia and the welfare state.

In Can political innovation come from crisis? [7th April 2022, 7.30-8.30pm, hybrid] David Runciman, Professor of Politics at the University of Cambridge an author of the new book Confronting Leviathan, and Arshin Adib Moghaddam, Professor in Global Thought and Comparative Philosophies at SOAS, University of London, will discuss global politics, the history of ideas, the role of technology in politics and the war in Ukraine with Dorothy Byrne, President of Murray Edwards College and former Head of News and Current Affairs at Channel 4 Television.

For the full programme and bookings, please see the Festival website: www.festival.cam.ac.uk    

Keep up to date with the Festival on social media: Instagram @Camunifestivals | Facebook: @CambridgeFestival | Twitter: @Cambridge_Fest

The Festival sponsors and partners are AstraZeneca and RAND Europe. The Festival media partners are BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and Cambridge Independent.

*Contact Mandy Garner on 07789 106435 or email mandy.garner@admin.cam.ac.uk for more information.