̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - arts

Time, crime and how can the arts interact with a Natural World in decline?

zs332 — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 10:44:21 +0000

Each year the Cambridge Festival’s (13-28 March 2024) rich programme of events celebrates the arts across the city and this year is no exception.

̽��ֱ��social scientist who inadvertently became a poet

cg605 — Fri, 25 Mar 2022 10:29:49 +0000

At the age of thirteen Mona Jebril found herself stranded in Gaza, becoming a refugee for the second time in her life. Her talent and determination brought her to Cambridge where she became the first Gates Cambridge Scholar from the Gaza Strip. She completed her PhD in education in 2017. Today she is using the arts to give a voice to those in areas of conflict.

Funding announced for almost 400 new doctoral places in arts and humanities

sjr81 — Wed, 15 Aug 2018 10:45:43 +0000

̽��ֱ��Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC DTP is a consortium of the three universities for doctoral training and funding in the Humanities. ̽��ֱ��DTP is underpinned by world-class research and training environments, supported by strategic partnerships with the BBC World Service, the National Trust and British Telecom, and is national and international in mindset, and determined to take a leading role in shaping the future of doctoral training in the UK.

̽��ֱ��AHRC is the UK’s largest funder of postgraduate training in the arts and humanities, and plays an essential role in supporting the next generation of highly capable researchers. By working together, the AHRC, the Open ̽��ֱ��, and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge are able to commit to investing in this partnership over its lifetime.

Professor David Rechter, incoming Director of the Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC DTP, said: “I am pleased by the success of our bid, and look forward to recruiting our first cohort of students next year. Supported by our partners the National Trust, the BBC World Service and British Telecom, the Open-Oxford-Cambridge DTP will offer students a wealth of opportunities to pursue research and engage in training, and to learn from each other as part of a large multi-disciplinary group. These opportunities will equip our DTP students with the research expertise and skills that will allow them to go on to wide range of careers in academia and beyond.”

Professor Martin Millett, Head of the School of Arts and Humanities at Cambridge, said: “ ̽��ֱ��success of this bid is excellent news. ̽��ֱ��unique collaboration between Oxford, Cambridge and the Open ̽��ֱ�� opens up exciting new prospects for the next generation of doctoral research students in the Arts and Humanities.”

Professor Edward Harcourt, the AHRC’s Director of Research, Strategy and Innovation, said: “ ̽��ֱ��AHRC is delighted to announce its renewed commitment to the Doctoral Training Partnerships model. Our support for the next generation of arts and humanities researchers is critical to securing the future of the UK arts and humanities sector, which accounts for nearly a third of all UK academic staff, is renowned the world over for its outstanding quality, and which plays a vital part in our higher education ecosystem as a whole.

“We were extremely pleased with the response to our call, which saw high-quality applications from across the UK from a variety of diverse and innovative consortia, each with a clear strategy and vision for the future support of their doctoral students.”

Professor Kevin Hetherington, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Academic Strategy), ̽��ֱ��Open ̽��ֱ��, said: “ ̽��ֱ��Open ̽��ֱ�� is delighted that the AHRC has chosen to recognise the commitment to innovation and diversity inherent in the Open-Oxford-Cambridge DTP, and looks forward to participating fully in the delivery of an exciting training programme for our PhD students.”

Professor Karen O’Brien, Head of the Humanities Division, ̽��ֱ�� of Oxford, said: “This is good news and an endorsement of our collective commitment to developing the next generation of Humanities scholars. We are looking forward to working with the Open ̽��ֱ��, Cambridge, the AHRC and our strategic partners to deliver a truly exciting opportunity to our consortium students.”

Stephen Cassidy, Chief Researcher, System Science, BT Labs, said: “As a communication company deeply rooted in the interaction between people, communities and businesses, BT sees great benefit in being part of this DTP. Interaction with the students and academics will extend our understanding of ethical, legal and social ramifications of the possible directions the industry as a whole could (and is) embarking on. These are issues of international scale, and we are pleased to link with the DTP and to provide further links with our research collaborations around the UK and the globe.”

Jamie Angus, Director, BBC World Service Group, said: “ ̽��ֱ��objectives of the Consortium and the Doctoral Training partnership fit very well with the BBC World Service’s objectives; ̽��ֱ��BBC World Service Group provides independent impartial journalism to nearly 350 million people around the world each week, across cultural, linguistic and national boundaries. We look forward to working with world-class doctoral students in the Humanities drawing on their research skills and subject expertise, as well as making the most of the huge range of languages studied at Oxford, Cambridge and the OU. Working together we will play our part so that the Consortium can provide DTP-funded students with skills and experience they need to communicate their ideas beyond academia so that they may be better able to reach a wider audience.”

Nino Strachey, Head of Research and Specialist Advice at the National Trust, said: “ ̽��ֱ��National Trust is delighted at the success of the bid and excited to work with students and staff from these internationally recognised universities and partners. With a long history of hosting and co-supervising PhDs, we look forward to offering opportunities for students to gain experience of the heritage sector and to work with Europe’s largest conservation charity.”

Information on how to apply for scholarships via the Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership for entry in 2019/20 will be available from www.oocdtp.ac.uk from 1 September 2018.

̽��ֱ��Open ̽��ֱ��, the ̽��ֱ�� of Oxford and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge are pleased to announce the success of their bid for funding for the Open-Oxford-Cambridge Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Training Partnership, which will create nearly 400 new doctoral places in the arts and humanities.

̽��ֱ��unique collaboration between Oxford, Cambridge and the Open ̽��ֱ�� opens up exciting new prospects for the next generation of doctoral research students in the Arts and Humanities

Martin Millett

Sir Cam

Faculty of English on the ̽��ֱ��'s Sidgwick Site, home to many of the faculties and departments from the School of Arts and Humanities.

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Newton, Darwin, Shakespeare – and an envelope of ectoplasm: Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library at 600

sjr81 — Wed, 23 Dec 2015 09:45:45 +0000

Older than the British Library and the Vatican Library, Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library was first mentioned by name in two wills dated March 1416 and its most valuable contents stored in the wooden chest pictured above. ̽��ֱ��library now holds nine million books, journals, maps and magazines – as well as some of the world's most iconic scientific, literary and cultural treasures.

Its priceless collections include Newton’s own annotated copy of Principia Mathematica, Darwin’s papers on evolution, 3000-year-old Chinese oracle bones, a cuneiform tablet from 2000BC, and the earliest reliable text for 20 of Shakespeare’s plays.

But is also home to a bizarre assembly of non-book curiosities, collected over centuries, including a jar of ectoplasm, a trumpet for hearing spirits and a statue of the Virgin Mary, miraculously saved from an earthquake on Martinique.

Since 1710, Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library has also been entitled to one copy of each and every publication in the UK and Ireland under Legal Deposit – meaning the greatest works of more than four millennia of recorded thought sit alongside copies of Woman’s Own and the Beano on more than 100 miles of shelves. With two million of its volumes on open display, readers have the largest open-access collection in Europe immediately available to them.

To celebrate the Library’s 600th birthday, a spectacular free exhibition, Lines of Thought, will open on March 11, 2016. Featuring some of Cambridge’s most iconic and best-known treasures, it investigates through six distinct themes how both Cambridge and its collections have changed the world and will continue to do so in the digital era.

As well as the iconic Newton, Darwin and Shakespeare artefacts mentioned above, items going on display include:

Edmund Halley’s handwritten notebook/sketches of Halley’s Comet (1682)
Stephen Hawking’s draft typescript of A Brief History of Time
Darwin’s first pencil sketch of Species Theory and his Primate Tree
A second century AD fragment of Homer’s Odyssey.
̽��ֱ��Nash Papyrus – a 2,000-year-old copy of the Ten Commandments
Codex Bezae – 5th New Testament, crucial to our understanding of ̽��ֱ��Bible.
A hand-coloured copy of Vesalius’ 1543 Epitome – one of the most influential work in western medicine
A written record of the earliest known human dissection in England (1564)
A Babylonian tablet dated 2039 BCE (the oldest object in the library)
̽��ֱ��Gutenberg Bible – the earliest substantive printed book in Western Europe (1454)
̽��ֱ��first catalogue listing the contents of the Library in 1424, barely a decade after it was first identified in the wills of William Loryng and William Hunden

As well as Lines of Thought, 2016 will also see dozens of celebratory events including the library’s 17-storey tower being lit up as part of the e-Luminate Festival in February. Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library is also producing a free iPad app giving readers the chance to interact with digitised copies of six of the most revolutionary texts held in its collections. ̽��ֱ��app analyses the context of the six era-defining works, including Darwin's family copy of On the origin of species, Newton's annotated copy of Principia Mathematica, and William Tyndale's translation of the New Testament into English, an undertaking which led to his execution for heresy.

From October 2016, an exhibition featuring some of the ̽��ֱ�� Library’s most unusual curiosities and oddities will replace Lines of Thought as the second major exhibition of the sexcentenary.

Over the past 600 years, Cambridge has accumulated an extraordinary collection of objects, often arriving at the library as part of bequests and donations. Some of the library’s more unusual artefacts include children’s games, ration books, passports, prisoner art and Soviet cigarettes and cigars.

̽��ֱ�� Librarian Anne Jarvis said: “For six centuries, the collections of Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library have challenged and changed the world around us. Across science, literature and the arts, the millions of books, manuscripts and digital archives we hold have altered the very fabric of our understanding. Thousands of lines of thoughts run through them, back into the past, and forward into tomorrow. Our 600th anniversary is a chance to celebrate one of the world’s oldest and greatest research libraries, and to look forward to its future.

“Only in Cambridge, can you find Newton’s greatest works sitting alongside Darwin’s most important papers on evolution, or Sassoon’s wartime poetry books taking their place next to the Gutenberg Bible and the archive of Margaret Drabble. Our aim now, through our Digital Library, is to share as many of these great collections as widely as possible so that anyone, anywhere in the world, can stand on the shoulders of these giants.”

In 2016, Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library will celebrate 600 years as one of the world's greatest libraries with a spectacular exhibition of priceless treasures – and a second show throwing light on its more weird and wonderful collections.

For six centuries, the collections of Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library have challenged and changed the world around us. Across science, literature and the arts, the millions of books, manuscripts and digital archives we hold have altered the very fabric of our understanding.

Anne Jarvis

Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library

Detail from Vesalius' Epitome, one of the most influential works in western medicine

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Whistleblowers, zombies… and how to stay out of prison

sjr81 — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:39:44 +0000

Those three themes form the backbone of this year’s Festival of Ideas at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - the UK’s only arts, humanities and social sciences festival.

Taking place from 19-30 October 2011, the festival, now in its fourth year, returns with more than 160 free events for all ages spanning everything from the Arab Spring and Wikileaks, to Darwin’s work on facial expressions and a presentation, complete with mock-up cell, on how to stay out of prison.

World-class speakers, celebrity writers and leading academics will be on hand to engage, explain and examine today’s burning issues - and looking at what lessons we can learn from the past.

As the population imminently approaches the seven billion mark, we ask leading academics to debate whether the Earth can sustain this many people.

Meanwhile, whistleblowers, computer security researchers and policymakers will discuss whether the Internet should be censored in light of the Wikileaks revelations; and experts will debate the consequences of the uprisings, protests and civil wars in the Arab world.

Organiser Sophie Smith said: “ ̽��ֱ��purpose of the festival is to examine the biggest question facing us today and not shy away from contentious issues. That is why we’re holding debates on everything from the right to have reproductive freedom in light of an ever-increasing world population, to Mau Mau torture claims, to the Arab Spring.”

̽��ֱ��main day of the festival, on Saturday, October 22, is bursting with free events for the whole family to enjoy. There will be talks by world-famous children’s authors Marcus Sedgwick and zombie-loving Charlie Higson; debates by pioneering academics and dozens of hands-on activities for adults as well as children.

Popcorn comedy for kids sees Holly Walsh and CBBC’s Ed Petrie present some of the funniest videos online mixed with stand-up comedy for all the family.

Also on October 22, Dr Michael Scott will explore Delphi and Olympia; and the fate of the English language will be questioned by Dr Andrew Dalby and Dr Stephen Pax. Leonard, just returned from a year spent recording the language of the Inughuit people of north-west Greenland, the northernmost settled population in the world.

This year’s festival sees the return and expansion of a pioneering new musical initiative following last year’s sell-out opera in the vaults of the Museum of Zoology. This year there will be a special late-night opening at five of the ̽��ֱ�� Museums with live performances and sound installations.

Perhaps the most eagerly-anticipated music event of the festival is Unlocking music’s secrets at King’s College Chapel, featuring choral and solo instrumental performances as the evolution of music – from the medieval era to the 21^st Century - is played out before the audience’s eyes and ears.

̽��ֱ��full programme is available from August and can be requested by phoning 01223 766766. Please visit: www.cam.ac.uk/festivalofideas.

Bookings open on Monday 5 September.

̽��ֱ��Festival of Ideas this year has been made possible thanks to the generous support from Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Press, Barclays Corporate, Research Councils UK, Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Irwin & Joan Jacobs Foundation.

Freedom, revolution and communication have shaped human history since the earliest days of mankind.

̽��ֱ��purpose of the festival is to examine the biggest question facing us today and not shy away from contentious issues.

Sophie Smith

Cambridge ̽��ֱ��

Festival of Ideas 2011

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What shape will universities take in the future?

amb206 — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 11:03:53 +0000

Children born this year will enter university in or around 2030. ̽��ֱ��offspring of children born this year will arrive at university-age in the middle of the 21^st century. By this time, much is likely to have changed about the ways in which teaching and research take place: a greater use of technology as a tool for teaching and learning is one obvious example. Predicting what universities will look like in the coming decades requires an even greater leap of imagination: will the institutions we know today even exist in the same shape and form?

̽��ֱ��Future ̽��ֱ��, a conference taking place at Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� later this week, will tackle some of the big questions surrounding the future of higher education, not simply in response to the current pressures on funding, but also in terms of the sweeping changes affecting the ways in which we live our lives. In particular, it will look at the vital role and contribution of the arts, humanities and social sciences within an environment that is in danger of dominance by an increasing emphasis on science and technology – and ask how the humanities and related disciplines are responding to the challenges and changes of the digital age.

̽��ֱ��three-day forum, generously funded by the Andrew W Mellon Foundation, is being staged by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) at Cambridge ̽��ֱ��, and convened by CRASSH director, Professor Mary Jacobus. It is the second of two conferences looking at the way in which the humanities engage with the wider world on many different levels. This week’s conference also marks the 10^th anniversary of CRASSH as a thriving hub dedicated to the interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and perspectives, not simply within Cambridge but also globally.

̽��ֱ��event will bring leading figures in academia and policy-making together with graduate and post-doctoral researchers at the start of their careers. In a series of panels, discussions and debates on a range of broad themes, they will look at the ways in which the study of the humanities engages with, and enriches, people’s lives by encouraging a creative dialogue that crosses boundaries and enhances cultural understanding. ̽��ֱ��themes embrace aspects of language, literature, archaeology, history, art history, music and more - and will be discussed from perspectives that include such pressing issues such as human rights, the need for a sustainable built environment, and the preservation of endangered languages.

“ ̽��ֱ��conference will provide a forum for conversations about topics that affect us all and represent aspects of our lives that reach far beyond the current crisis in humanities funding into the nature of our society,” said Professor Jacobus.

̽��ֱ��event’s key note speakers will be the philosopher Bernard Stiegler, Director of the Institut de Recherche et d’Innovation at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, on “ ̽��ֱ��Pharmacology of Mind: Digital Technologies and the Conditional ̽��ֱ��”, and Sir Adam Roberts, President of the British Academy and a specialist in law and international relations, on “ ̽��ֱ��Impact of International History”. Leaders in their field, these speakers will offer perspectives that will prompt an exploration of lines of thought about the fundamental human questions underlying knowledge and education.

Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz will take part in a panel discussion on “ ̽��ֱ��Fate of the Humanities” along with the President of the Mellon Foundation, Don Randel. Other eminent speakers include Stefan Collini and Simon Schaffer ( ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge), Marina Warner (Essex ̽��ֱ��), Joseph Koerner (Harvard ̽��ֱ��), Richard Sennett (NYU and LSE) and Debjani Ganguli (ANU). “We hope that the contribution of these speakers will generate lively audience discussion,” said Professor Jacobus.

Discussions about the importance of music and art, and their role within the life of universities in for both theoretical and practice-based study, will be complemented by musical improvisation at the West Road Concert Hall at the end of the first day. ̽��ֱ��conference will conclude with a discussion about the role of the art museum in a university setting at the Fitzwilliam Museum featuring the Director of the Tate Museums, Sir Nicholas Serota, and the Director of the Courtauld Institute, Deborah Swallow, with the conversation chaired by Timothy Potts, director of the Museum, .

̽��ֱ��Future ̽��ֱ�� takes place from 30 June to 2 July. For details of the conference programme, including registration and booking for Improvisation in the Round at the West Road Concert Hall on 30 June and the Fitzwilliam Museum Panel Discussion on 2 July, go to http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/1321/.

A conference at CRASSH later this week will address some big and highly topical questions.

̽��ֱ��conference will provide a forum for conversations about topics that affect us all and represent aspects of our lives that reach far beyond the current crisis in humanities funding.

Professor Mary Jacobus

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Writing, Sunset, Italy.

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