The 2019 Cambridge Festival of Ideas will take place 14 - 27 October. A number of Christ’s alumni and Fellows are contributing to the fantastically interesting and varied events happening during the Festival. You can look up the events and secure tickets here: https://www.festivalofideas.cam.ac.uk/events
THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE MUSEUM Former museum director, Sir Charles Saumarez Smith (Christ’s Hon Fellow), explores changes in how museums have been designed, managed and built in the post-war period, drawing on his experience at the V&A, National Portrait Gallery and National Gallery, and as Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Arts. 6PM – 7PM WED 16 OCT Lee Hall, Wolfson College, Barton Road, CB3 9BB
WHEN WAS REPRODUCTION INVENTED? From abortion to climate crisis, intimate experiences to planetary policy, reproduction presents urgent challenges today. Taking a long view, this debate asks when and how reproduction as we know it was made. Panel: Rebecca Flemming, Prof. Susan Golombok, Prof. Nick Hopwood and Prof. Lauren Kassell. Chaired by Prof. Jim Secord (Christ’s Fellow). 6PM – 7.30PM THU 17 OCT St John’s College Fisher Building, St John’s Street, CB2 1TP
CHANGE THE RECORD! HOW TO TREAT AN EARWORM Dr Edward Allen (Fellow, m. 2005) will touch on a whole host of examples: the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe, the music of Clean Bandit, the films of Quentin Tarantino, and the poetry of T. S. Eliot. The purpose of bringing all these influences together will be to think in new ways about something neuroscientists have often considered to be a contemporary problem: the earworm. By looking back through a range of art forms, the talk will reveal the long and colourful history of a phenomenon most of us have to deal with on a daily basis. 6PM - 7PM FRI 18 OCT Faculty of English, GR06/07, 9 West Road, CB3 9DP
IDENTITY AND BELONGING IN POSTBREXIT BRITAIN What has Brexit revealed about how we view ourselves and how others see us? Panel discussion with Prof. Robert Eaglestone, Ali Meghji, Lecturer in Social Inequalities, anthropologist Prof. Katherine Tyler and international relations expert Ayse Zarakol. Chaired by Prof. David Reynolds (Christ’s Fellow). 3.30PM – 5PM SAT 19 OCT Faculty of Law, Sidgwick Site,10 West Road, CB3 9DZ
ISLAND STORIES: HOW DID WE GET INTO THIS MESS OVER BREXIT? Drawing on his new book Island Stories, Prof. David Reynolds (Christ’s Fellow) reflects on the story so far – not just the tangle of events since 2016 but the deeper history of Britain and Europe that has frustrated the hopes of both Leavers and Remainers. 8PM – 9PM MON 21 OCT St John’s College Old Divinity School, All Saints Passage, CB2 1TP
RETHINKING DRUG ADDICTION Our current stance on Class A drugs is not working. Is the lack of success in reducing the harm drug users do to themselves or others a matter of economics, politics, ethics or education? Rowan Williams (Christ’s m. 1968, Hon Fellow) chairs a discussion on safer drug use and the research on drug consumption rooms. 6PM – 7.30PM TUE 22 OCT St John’s College Fisher Building, St John’s Street, CB2 1TP
METAMORPHOSIS IN MUSIC. A short chamber concert featuring music on the subject of change, with works by Britten, Elgar, Mozart, Poulenc, Rachmaninov and John Wilson (Christ’s Fellow). Pieces to be performed will include movements from Britten’s `Metamorphoses after Ovid’, John Wilson’s ‘Changing Times: Schoenberg meets Bach’ and Poulenc’s trio for oboe, bassoon and piano. 5:30pm - 6:50pm, SATURDAY 26 OCT Christ's College, Yusuf Hamied Theatre, St Andrew's Street, CB2 3BU