A selection of talks from the University of Cambridge’s series at this year’s Hay Festival, which ended on Sunday, are now available online.
The collection can be found on iTunesU, or via Soundcloud by clicking here.
This was the fifth year that the University has run a series of talks at the famous literary festival as part of its public engagement work. Thousands of people attended the Cambridge series, which covered subjects as diverse as domestic service, women’s equality, US politics, nanotechnology, and smart drugs.
Alumni including Chris Blackhurst, editor of the Independent, and Gaby Hinsliff, author of Half a Wife: The Working Family’s Guide to Getting a Life Back, also took part in discussions with Cambridge researchers. The Cambridge Alumni Relations Office meanwhile held an event which was addressed by Peter Florence, the Festival’s director and a Cambridge alumnus.
Professor Martin Rees’ talk on a post-human future drew an audience of about 1,000 people, Professor Simon Blackburn ‘s discussion with Chris Blackhurst on the nature of declining trust in institutions pulled in about 750, and several other talks and sessions had to be moved to bigger venues because of their popularity among festival-goers.
Dr Alex Jeffrey, who spoke on justice and recovery in Bosnia with Guardian journalist Ed Vulliamy, said: “It was superb! It was a welcome change from more scholarly styles of discussion and forced me to think differently about my work.”
A total of 16 researchers from the University took part in the Festival’s Cambridge series and the full list of participants can be found at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/festivalofideas/2013/03/28/hay-festival/. Elsewhere, a further six Cambridge academics appeared as part of the broader Festival programme.
Nicola Buckley, Head of Public Engagement, said: "The audience reaction to the Cambridge series at this year's Hay Festival was fantastic, and the question and answer sessions were thought-provoking for speakers and audiences alike. We met a number of people at Hay who had chosen to go to several of the talks in the Cambridge series because they enjoyed them so much. We are grateful to Peter Florence and the team at Hay and all the speakers for taking part."
Eight of the talks from the Cambridge Series from this year’s Hay Festival are now available for users to stream or download online.
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