Festival of Ideas 2013

Hermann Bondi was a promoter of the open mind, free debate and solutions based on facts. He welcomed a challenge. So should we. In this stimulating talk, Sir John Boyd examines the rise of Asia and our understanding, sense of history, objectivity and policy balance in responding to this challenge. He considers how we can help the next generation embrace the skills needed to deal with a radically changed world and the role universities should play. Sir John Boyd was the master of Churchill College, Cambridge from 1996 to 2006. He was also the British ambassador to Japan between 1992 and 1996. In 2007, Sir John Boyd received the Grand Cordon of the Rising Sun from the Emperor of Japan in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the promotion of friendship, as well as academic and cultural exchange, between Japan and the UK.

Nationalism has been one of the most dynamic yet dangerous ideologies in modern history. Politicians encourage us to think that national frontiers are firm and unchanging, central to our identity. But in this session, members of the History Faculty reflect on the porous nature of borders. With Professors David Reynolds, Chris Clark and Dr Joya Chatterjee. THE BALKANS AND THE LEGACIES OF 1914 Prof. Chris Clark (St Catharine's) Professor of Modern European History Until recently, a bronze plaque in Sarajevo commemorated the moment in June 1914 when the young Bosnian Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated an Austrian Archduke and took ‘the first steps into Yugoslav liberty’. National tensions wrought havoc on the Balkan peninsula in 1912 and 1913 and triggered the outbreak of the First World War. After the collapse of Soviet power, they helped to bring about the dissolution of the Yugoslavian state. Chris Clark unravels the legacies of a region in which political borders and cultural identities have never coincided. MAKING AND BREAKING MODERN SOUTH ASIA Dr Joya Chatterji (Trinity) Reader in Modern South Asian History The British Raj came to an abrupt end in 1947 but millions of people in South Asia are still living with the legacies of its break-up. Joya Chatterji unravels the tangled story and the nationalist mythologies spun around it. A schools project she has developed in London with migrants from Bangladesh shows how a clearer understanding of the past can promote reconciliation in the present. BRITAIN, EUROPE AND THE LEGACIES OF 1940 Prof. David Reynolds (Christ's) Professor of International History The events of 1940 cast a long shadow over modern Europe. They drove Britain away from the continent, just at a time when it had been drawing closer to France. Across the Channel, however, the appalling legacies of 1940 for France and Germany persuaded these two countries to transcend their long cycle of border wars and forge an unprecedented European Community. David Reynolds reflects on the frontiers of the mind that often matter as much in history as visible national borders.

The Government's welfare reforms are starting to bite, but are they radical enough, given projected demographic changes, or do we need a complete rethink of our social values? With Rory Meakin, Professor Simon Szreter, Bill Davies, Jeff Miley and chaired by Gaby Hinsliff. Rory Meakin is Head of Tax Policy at the TaxPayers' Alliance. He has contributed to projects on a variety of subjects from local government spending to an influential paper on simplifying taxes on income called Abolish National Insurance. Simon Szreter is Professor in History and Public Policy at Cambridge. He teaches modern British economic and social history since 1700. His main fields of research are demographic and social history, the history of empirical social science and the relationship between history and contemporary public policy issues. Jeff Miley is Lecturer of Political Sociology in the Department of Sociology at Cambridge. His research interests include nationalism, language politics, identity politics, immigration, religion and politics, regime types, and democratic theory.

Times have never been better for single women. Then why is it still so hard? Four women, experts on relationships and sex, share their insight and suggestions. The s word- spinster - has been virtually outlawed, and ladies of all ages are encouraged to seek out the sex and relationships that suit them online or in person. Being single is all about being free, having fun, doing things your way or the highway...or is it? This event brings together four experts on relationships and sex to discuss their own unique take on single womanhood at all ages - it's pitfalls, freedoms and the pressures. If it's as great as we think it should be in 2013, why do so many women, particularly those over 30, still find being single such a trial? How can they get the most out of it? Join in the discussion with Rowan Pelling, broadcaster, writer and founder of The Erotic Review; Cecilia d'Felice, award-winning clinical psychologist, author and relationships expert; Susan Quilliam, sex and relationships educator and author of the revised Joy of Sex and panel head Zoe Strimpel, internet dating and gender scholar and author of The Man Diet: One Woman's Quest to End Bad Romance (Avon).

Today's bookshops are helpfully categorised - crime, biography and memoir, fiction - and we rarely venture into unknown territory. Some writers are breaking down the barriers, but are publishers increasingly pushing their writers to write books with the same 'DNA' and will the digital revolution make any difference? Panel discussion with authors MJ Hyland and Trevor Byrne, digital publisher Daniel Franklin and literary agent Rachel Calder.

Using specialist techniques, the Language Research Team at Cambridge University Press unpick the patterns of scholarly English as they explore the journey of academic writing: from sixth form students to published professors.

Humans are social creatures using communications that are ‘regulated’ by trust, ethics, social systems and law. Our world of interactions and networks is increasingly complex and automated. What happens when events and decisions become too fast for us to perceive, let alone control? Professors Huw Price and Murray Shanahan join Dr Jonathan Cave and Dr Hermann Hauser.

How should we allocate positions of power in today’s corporate sector? Aristotle argued that ‘the best flutes should be given to the best flute players’. Such thinking might lead us to reject the EU’s recent draft Directive calling for all listed companies to give at least 40% of their board memberships to women. Certainly, the proposal has been met with fierce opposition from the UK government on the grounds of efficiency as well as justice. Drawing on various perspectives from the field of political theory, Dr Jude Browne considers the debate on corporate quotas.

Is creating a more inclusive society vital for a country's economic development or does economic development need to come first? Speakers include journalist Richard Dowden, Dr Kamal Munir (Judge Business School), Dr Sharath Srinivasan (Department of Politics and International Studies) and Brita Fernandez Schmidt (Women for Women International). Chaired by Dame Barbara Stocking. Four leading experts in the fields of social change, innovation and human rights will discuss this question, debating the role microfinance has played in economic development and the effect of new communication technologies, alongside examining how much these have allowed previously excluded groups, such as women, to have more of a say in governance. The panel will also discuss the importance of less recognisable social movements and collectives and how technology is changing the nature of social action. Dr Kamal Munir has been teaching at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School since 2000. Dr Munir's research focuses on social change and stability, as well as innovation and technological shifts in society. Dr Sharath Srinivasan is a Lecturer in Governance and Human Rights at the University of Cambridge. Prior to academia, Dr Sharath worked in the field of international aid in conflict settings. He has led programmes for a leading international relief agency in Sudan, and has advised a range of international organisations and government agencies on conflict prevention, peace-building and political development. Brita Fernandez Schmidt is Executive Director of Women for Women International UK. She has a strong record of work on women’s human rights, gender, social inequality and development and has worked with a number of different national and international human rights and development institutions over the past 20 years. Prior to joining Women for Women International, Brita led the programmes and policy work of Womankind Worldwide; acted as Chair of the Gender & Development Network; and advised numerous other organisations and institutions, including the Department for International Development, on gender, women’s rights and development. Richard Dowden is a journalist who has specialised in African issues. Since 1975, he has worked for several newspapers, including The Independent, The Times and The Economist, and for the past eight years he has been the Executive Director of the Royal African Society. He has made three television documentaries on Africa for the BBC and Channel 4 and is author of the book, Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles. Chaired by Dame Barbara Stocking.

Join us for an afternoon of poetry readings and discussion as Gillian Clarke, Imtiaz Dharker, Sean Borodale and Jo Shapcott talk about their recent experience as poets in residence with the Thresholds project in the University of Cambridge Museums and collections. The poets will be in conversation with Professors Isobel Armstrong and Steven Connor. Poets Sean Borodale, Gillian Clarke, Imtiaz Dharker, Jo Shapcott in conversation with: Steve Connor, Grace 2 Professor of English in the University of Cambridge and Isobel Armstrong, Emeritus Professor of English at Birkbeck College, University of London. To read the four poems that will be discussed during this event visit http://www.thresholds.org.uk/ and search under Gillian Clarke, Imtiaz Dharker, Sean Borodale and Jo Shapcott

Football meets French philosophy. Albert Camus was a goalkeeper. Sartre preferred boxing. After his stint at Paris Saint-Germain, is it possible that David Beckham has become an existentialist? Andy Martin, lecturer in French, explores the links between the ex-captain of England and France’s left-wing thinkers. Writer, teacher, surfer, Andy Martin is currently researching FBI files on French philosophers. He is the author of ‘The Boxer and the Goalkeeper: Sartre vs Camus’, ‘Waiting for Bardot’ and the tumblr blog, ‘BecksinParis’. He is also a contributor to BBC radio and the pages of The New York Times.

Professor Ian Roberts will explore how languages shape human culture and human thought. Some languages have shaped our world more than others and some of them are not as obvious as you might think. This talk offers a sample of those languages, from Sanskrit to Singlish, via French and Esperanto, with one or two real surprises along the way.

Join Georg FK Höhn who will talk about interactions between attitudes to language and the creation and maintenance of identities in the current age of the nation-state.

What can patterns of history and business teach us? Join a discussion with: Dr Victoria Bateman, Lecturer and Fellow in Economics; Alan Turner, Managing Director, Global Head of Debt and Co-Head of Product at Barclays; and Aditya Chakrabortty, Economics leader writer at the Guardian, to explore turbulence in the UK economy across centuries and the balance sheets of more recent times. Sponsored by Barclays

Join Dr Miranda Griffin, College Lecturer in medieval French literature, in her fascinating investigation of medieval tales of transformation, exploring the way in which the Middle Ages imagined the frontiers between the human and the animal.

ord Byron’s death on 19 April, 1824, ‘in Greece, and for Greece’, created a legend that is still with us. Professor Roderick Beaton traces the real story behind Byron’s mission to help the Greeks in their revolution against Ottoman Turkish rule and shows its effects are still with us. Roderick Beaton is Professor of Modern Greek & Byzantine History and Director at the Centre of Hellenic Studies at King's College, London. He is also Chair of the Academic Committee overseeing the International Byron Conference this year. His research interests are Greek literature since the 12th century; the history of the novel; and nationalism in Modern Greece.

Writer and influential political commentator Owen Jones talks about his strong opposition to Government cuts and proposes a fight-back alternative to austerity. Owen Jones is a columnist, author and influential commentator associated with left-wing politics, he appears regularly on Question Time, Newsnight and in newspapers. In this talk, he examines the alleged failings of the current Government's austerity measures and proposes what some might consider a radical alternative. Owen Jones was born in Sheffield and grew up in Stockport. After graduating, he worked as a trade union and parliamentary researcher. His first book, Chavs: the Demonization of the Working Class, was published in June 2011. He writes a weekly column for the Independent, is a regular broadcaster and is a policy and media advisor to the trade union think tank Class. He is currently working on his second book, on power in Britain, for Penguin. He was named 2012 Stonewall Journalist of the Year and Young Writer of the Year at the 2013 Political Book Awards.

The problem of violence against women and girls has been prominent in media coverage with many distressing cases coming to light over the last year and more. What steps are being taken through legal processes, by organisations and academia to tackle the issues involved? Speakers include Norah Al-Ani of Cambridge Rape Crisis centre.