Cambridge Festival of Ideas launches today

The Cambridge Festival of Ideas begins today with a host of free events and debates on everything from the future of capitalism to the high point of the Hollywood musical.

 

The Festival runs from 15th to 28th October and is packed with over 200 debates, talks, exhibitions, film screenings and performances at venues around Cambridge.

 

Speakers include Baroness Valerie Amos, former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Professor David Runciman, best-selling author Tara Westover, film director Tim Slade, author James Bloodworth, psychologist Terri Apter, Professor David Reynolds, economist Victoria Bateman and postcolonial literature expert Priyamvada Gopal.

 

Top picks for the first week of the Festival include:

 

Rethinking religious fundamentalism - Professor Kim Knott, Lancaster University, Ed Kessler MBE, Woolf Institute, Cambridge, and Tobias Müller, Woolf Institute and POLIS, University of Cambridge, discuss why fundamentalist beliefs and practices are so attractive to some, how fundamentalism relates to mainstream interpretations of the same religion and how we should distinguish between fundamentalism, extremism, radicalism and orthodoxy. 15th October

 

Dance in hospital will present the findings from the UK's first in-patient dance programme. Researchers, dancers and nurses will be on hand to discuss the Cambridge University Hospitals programme which has run since 2016. It offers seven sessions each week on six different wards: elderly care, diabetes and endocrinology, neuro-rehabilitation, stroke rehabilitation and renal. Bedside sessions can also be offered to patients who are unable to attend the group sessions for clinical reasons. Each session lasts up to one hour and is entirely shaped around and in response to the patients who attend. 15th October

 

In this year’s Hermann Bondi Lecture, The future of capitalism: facing the new anxieties, Sir Paul Collier will outline how rigorous social science can both explain and address new anxieties raised by the economic divergences - spatial, educational and international - that have arisen since the 1980s. Drawing on his new book, published in October, he will suggest how capitalism can be saved from itself and how we can free ourselves from the baggage of the 20th century. 17th October.

 

In The destruction of memory film maker Tim Slade will discuss his award-winning film on the cultural destruction wrought by wars around the world, from Syria to Iraq, why culture has become an increasing target of combattants and why this matters. 16th October

 

Tim Slade says: "Destroying cultural artefacts  erases history and the record of human achievement, it disorientates the people who draw meaning from the artefact, and as noted above it attacks the identity of the group of people for whom the artefact is a record of presence in the past, present and future. I think what is crucial is that all of us recognise that we can have a voice if we feel governments and international organisations aren’t doing enough to protect cultural heritage. We can act as individuals or in small groups to lobby, to write letters, to contribute to groups working in the area. Individuals and small groups can be more agile in responding to the issue than governments and courts can be." 

 

In The high point of the Hollywood musical historian and screenwriter Colin Shindler explores the highs and lows of the Hollywood Musical in a lavishly illustrated lecture in glorious Metrocolor. 20th October

 

Regulation, inspection and extreme risk: the history behind the Grenfell Tower tragedy will discuss the historical precursors to the Grenfell tragedy. In Victorian Britain a number of disasters similar to the Grenfell Tower fire struck in various sectors of industry and society as the rapidly changing and largely unregulated profit-oriented economy threw up all manner of hazards. This event examines how statutory regulatory bodies were set up to counter these dangers, how they evolved into today’s publicly funded inspectorates and how cost-cutting has affected their ability to function. 17th October.

 

Synaesthesia and art: dance of light is a two-part lecture about the neuroscience of synaesthesia - the phenomenon that describes linkages in the brain, which give rise to multi-sensory experiences such as seeing sounds as shapes. It is followed by an illustrated talk by the artist Rhea Quien who will talk about her experiences of synaesthesia and its consequences in her creativity: stillness and movement – emptiness and form. 16th October

 

The mystery of mythical seizures reflects on mystical experiences during epileptic seizures and what they can teach us about empathy, personal reflection and how different traditions of faith or non-faith can intersect in big questions about the nature of personal experience. It includes experts on the psychology of religion and people who have had mystical seizures. 18th October

 

An end to inequality? - Professor Nava Ashraf will talk about recent research in economics questioning the assumption that human beings are primarily self-interested, and will discuss what many religious and philosophical thinkers have understood about human nature, drawing on Bahai perspectives on economics. 19th October

 

What have the angels ever done for us? Angels are a nearly ubiquitous aspect of many world religions. They continue to be widely represented in popular literature, theatre, cinema, radio, television and music. Yet many doubt the intelligibility of the angels, although they are among the most exciting and least known topics in theology. This discussion panel will address who and what angels represent in religion and culture and whether they exist. 19th October

 

Many of the Festival's events take place in the first weekend which is full of lively discussion on topical and historical issues and experimental performances, including:

 

In Black power, in Britain and on film historian Robin Bunce chairs a discussion of film makers and screenwriters who are bringing the hidden history of the Black Power Movement to the screen. Speakers include writer and producer Misan Sagay, screen writer and script editor Anna Ssemuyaba, director and producer Cathy Hassan, Helen Bart, legal producer of Stephen: the murder that changed a nation and Farrukh Dhondy, leading member of the British Black Panthers, author, screenwriter and producer for Channel 4. 20th October.

 

In Trade wars: deal or no deal an expert panel will discuss what the likely impact of trade wars is and how the tension between protectionism and free trade has played out in history. With historian Dr Marc-William Palen, Dr Meredith Crowley, trade consultant Dr Minako Morita-Jaeger and international law expert Dr Lorand Bartels. 20th October. 

 

The future of work is a discussion of leading thinkers who will address whether the future of work is be one in which jobs become ever more precarious and robots take over or whether we can regulate to make the gig economy and artificial intelligence work in our favour. With James Bloodworth, sociologist Dr Alex Wood, robotics expert Dr Hatice Gunes and HR specialist Laetitia Vitaud. 20th October

 

Ensembles and embryos will explore the extraordinary parallels between making music and making an embryo in an interactive performance, featuring live music and stories of the beginning of life. 20th October

 

The Festival sponsors and partners are St John’s College, Anglia Ruskin University, RAND Europe, University of Cambridge Museums and Botanic Garden, Cambridge Junction and Cambridge University Press. The Festival media partners are BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and Cambridge Independent.