̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Woolf Institute

Students from across the country get a taste of studying at Cambridge at the Cambridge Festival

zs332 — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 10:17:46 +0000

We were delighted to welcome pupils from Warrington’s Lymm High School, Ipswich High School, ̽��ֱ��Charter School in North Dulwich, Rickmansworth School, Sutton Valance School in Maidstone as well as schools closer to home such as St Peter’s Huntingdon, Fenstanton Primary School, Barton Primary School, Impington Village College and St Andrews School in Soham.

Running over two days (25/26 March 2025) and held in the Cambridge Sports Centre, students went on a great alien hunt with Dr Matt Bothwell from the Institute of Astronomy, stepped back in time to explore Must Farm with Department of Archaeology and the Cambridge Archaeological Unit as well as learning to disagree well with Dr Elizabeth Phillips from ̽��ֱ��Woolf Institute.

Schools had a choice of workshops from a range of departments including, how to think like an engineer and making sustainable food with biotechnology with researchers from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, as well as the chance to get hands-on experience in the world of materials science and explore how properties of materials can be influenced by temperature at the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy.

̽��ֱ��Department of Veterinary Medicine offered students the opportunity to find out what a career in veterinary medicine may look like with workshops on animal x-rays, how different professionals work together to treat animals in a veterinary hospital as well as meeting the departments horses and cows and learn how veterinarians diagnose and treat these large animals.

Students also had the opportunity to learn about antibodies and our immune system with the MRC Toxicology Unit. ̽��ֱ��students learnt about the incredible job antibodies do defending our bodies against harmful invaders like bacteria and viruses.

Alongside this, a maths trail, developed by Cambridgeshire County Council, guided students around the West Cambridge site whilst testing their maths skills with a number of problems to solve.

Now in their third year, the Cambridge Festival schools days are offering students the opportunity to experience studying at Cambridge with a series of curriculum linked talks and hands on workshops.

̽��ֱ��Cambridge Festival runs from 19 March – 4 April and is a mixture of online, on-demand and in-person events covering all aspects of the world-leading research happening at Cambridge. ̽��ֱ��public have the chance to meet some of the researchers and thought-leaders working in some of the pioneering fields that will impact us all.

Over 500 KS2 and KS3 students from as far away as Warrington got the chance to experience studying at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge with a selection of lectures and workshops held as part of the Cambridge Festival.

Students make antibody keychains during a workshop with the MRC Toxicology Unit

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 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 – 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.

Yes

Opinion: Why scientists need to work more closely with faith communities on climate change

ta385 — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 11:15:00 +0000

I am used to sceptical looks when I talk to scientists about my work with religious communities. They have reason to see science as under threat from zealots: examples abound, from the treatment of Galileo Galilei to vaccine aversion. But faith communities can feel the same way about scientists. Even if they disagree on important topics, it’s both possible and essential to collaborate on urgent issues, such as the fact that large parts of Earth are becoming uninhabitable. In my view, this Easter, Passover or Ramadan is the perfect time to start.

I’m a political scientist who studies how religious groups respond to problems, from environmental crises to domestic violence to racism. Since 2013, I have worked with other researchers, some religious and some not, to explore climate science with communities of faith.

I’ve seen the power of this approach: some 1,200 institutions have committed to divest from fossil-fuel companies, totalling US$14.5 trillion (£10.5 trillion). One-third are faith-based organizations. Many, such as Operation Noah, are led by scientists. Similarly, the group Extinction Rebellion Muslims has built a transnational network with scientists and activists in Kenya, Gambia, the United Kingdom and beyond; they host 'Green Ramadan' seminars. Their efforts stalled plans for a luxury tourist resort that would have destroyed parts of the Nairobi National Park in Kenya. A co-campaigner, Maasai leader Nkamunu Patita, has been appointed to a government task force that will map wildlife-migration routes and be consulted in future development plans.

This is the opening of an opinion piece published in Nature on 30 March 2021. This is open access and can be read in full here.

Dr Tobias Müller is a Junior Research Fellow at the Woolf Institute and an Affiliated Lecturer at Cambridge's Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS).

To make sufficient progress in the fight against climate change, scientists need to start taking religious groups more seriously as allies, writes Cambridge political scientist, Dr Tobias Müller, in Nature.

I am used to sceptical looks when I talk to scientists about my work with religious communities

Tobias Müller

Unitarian Universalist and larger faith contingent taking part in the September 2014 People's Climate March in New York, USA

̽��ֱ��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.

Yes

Licence type:

Attribution-Noncommerical

Opinion: Why new anti-lobbying rules leave small charities out in the cold

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 16:02:43 +0000

Charities will no longer be able to use public money for lobbying activities according to new rules. ̽��ֱ��anti-advocacy clause in government contracts announced by the Cabinet Office stated that “taxpayers’ money must be spent on improving people’s lives and spreading opportunities, not wasted on the farce of government lobbying government”, adding that it was “a zero sum game if Peter is robbed to pay Paul”.

There are structures for local communication between the public and voluntary sectors, such as Local Strategic Partnerships, but these do not connect charities with the national policymakers that regulate their work. This is particularly true for small and medium-sized charities who already lack channels of communication, despite the value of their experience working closely with service users. This is a potentially more profound political problem resulting from the clause.

So if the government is serious about not stifling debate, but rather to ensure money is spent on services, then it should demonstrate this through creating other venues for critiquing policy and transmitting knowledge gained from frontline service delivery.

Feedback from the frontline

̽��ֱ��new clause has been criticised by umbrella charities such as the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) and others, although charities such as Shelter, cited in the government announcement as an example of using private funds for lobbying, have been (officially) quiet. Those who have criticised the government’s regulation have expressed their concern that knowledge from frontline service delivery, which should inform better decision-making in policy, will go unused.

For these critics, the “farce” is a political construction that in practice undermines the aim of government funding to address social problems. John Tizard, an adviser and commentator on public policy, wrote that his “experience suggests that mature and confident politicians welcome informed debate and campaigns, even when they disagree with them”.

A joint letter from the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations and NCVO also said the clause “may actually cost the taxpayer more money through limiting the range of insight that policy makers can draw upon”.

Deep cuts

Yet it’s the issue for smaller charities that cuts deepest. Both the local charities and government-funded consortia that bring together community-based associations working in the same area (such as public health), and the community activists the government now depends on to fill the gaps created by cuts, risk becoming more distant than ever from the political elites instigating those cuts. These groups operate job clubs, advice networks, food banks, lunch clubs, and other activities that are often replacing or compensating for reduced local public services.

Large charities such as Shelter, with diverse sources of funding, will continue to pressure the government over poverty-related issues like housing and likewise receive recognition as a representative of the sector. But smaller charities or government-funded local consortia, which already lack a voice because of their size and diversity, may find themselves even more financially and politically marginalised in a climate that will discourage open, public discussion.

This marginalisation may affect both local charities and policymakers in three specific ways:

• It will exacerbate the mounting frustration and workload among many local charities facing daily the personal consequences of policies like sanctions, the bedroom tax, and cuts to public services, but unable to leverage this responsibility for greater access to policymakers.

• Likewise, there will be an increasingly visible tension between local charities striving to be “safe spaces”, where service users can trust that someone will listen and try to help, and the policies that affect their work. Policies like the anti-advocacy clause implicitly convey a lack of trust in the intentions of charities and demonstrate the unwillingness of policymakers to listen to what charity staff have to say.

• Community-based associations that serve particular ethnic and religious groups may have little or no capacity to express the impact their projects have on integration, undermining policies aimed at inclusion.

Smaller charities (and bigger ones too) must be able to transmit knowledge and findings from the frontline to those making policy. If the government keeps the anti-advocacy clause, then it must provide alternative ways for charities to voice concerns – or share ideas. These forums should include charities dependent on government funding or which lack the resources to develop a policy position so that they have the opportunity to have genuine influence over policymaking. They should include a range of charities from diverse local communities, not just the large national charities that can afford to lobby using private funds, in order to gain the broadest understanding of the social impact of current policies and the policy reforms needed to improve this impact.

Shana Cohen, Senior Research Associate, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

This article was originally published on ̽��ֱ��Conversation. Read the original article.

̽��ֱ��opinions expressed in this article are those of the individual author(s) and do not represent the views of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

Shana Cohen (Woolf Institute) discusses the anti-advocacy clause in government contracts that means charities will no longer be able to use public money for lobbying activities.

ccbarr

Volunteer

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Licence type:

Attribution-ShareAlike

‘Intelligent Trust’, ethno-religious relations and the rise of the food bank

lw355 — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 12:30:30 +0000

In December 2011, when economic turmoil was sweeping through Europe, the Woolf Institute and the Cardinal Bea Centre for Judaic Studies of the Pontifical Gregorian ̽��ֱ�� in Rome organised a meeting between the former Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks, and Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI.

Following the Papal Audience, Lord Sacks delivered a lecture and stated that, “when Europe recovers its soul, it will recover its wealth-creating energies. But first it must remember: humanity was not created to serve markets. Markets were created to serve humankind.” He identified the breakdown of trust as a cause of the economic crisis and pointed out that that the key words in the financial markets are spiritual: “credit” (from “credo”) and “confidence” (from “confidere”).

In the months that followed the papal audience, Woolf Institute staff, led by Drs Shana Cohen and Ed Kessler, began to prepare a European-wide research project to address public and academic concerns related to trustworthiness; in particular, the aim was to explore the practical importance of trust and its placement within social relations, especially across ethno-religious differences. ̽��ֱ��title ‘Intelligent Trust’ was adopted from a concept put forward by philosopher Baroness Onora O’Neill and her argument that “trustworthiness rather than trust should be our first concern.”

̽��ֱ��economic crisis in Europe since 2007 has provoked substantial discussion within the public sphere regarding the decline of trust in the State and major private institutions like banks. Institutions are now charged with ‘restoring confidence’. For instance, banks should refrain from aggressive sales tactics to push high-risk products, which prioritise self-interest over the benefit of consumers. ̽��ֱ��implication here is that, to become trustworthy again, commercial institutions should prioritise the interests of those who rely upon them over (or even to the exclusion of) profits.

In contrast to public concern for the institutional practice of trustworthiness, academic research and philosophical debate have focused on more abstract, or non-contextual, questions of how individuals place trust (or mistrust) within interpersonal relations. Here, the individual trusting decides whether the trustee (i.e. the person trusted) will perform to expectations in the particular area in question (financial transaction, taking care of the children, and so on). ̽��ֱ��individual placing trust takes a risk and elects to become vulnerable to the trustee’s consequent actions.

In the project, we asked if and how community and faith-based initiatives in London, Paris, Berlin and Rome integrate trust and trustworthiness in their activities to improve their practical effectiveness. Across the four cities, the project compared the role of trustworthiness and trust among three different types of initiatives aimed at increasing local social and economic resources, individual aspirations and personal growth: interreligious understanding, social action and business associations. ̽��ֱ��research identified and investigated the significance of qualities associated with trustworthiness – for instance, reliability and honesty – demonstrating trustworthiness, and placing trust to the functioning, sustainability and impact of each type of initiative.

Our project addressed a gap in ethnographic research on the practical role of trust and trustworthiness at a critical moment for understanding how individuals of different ethno-religious backgrounds in Europe learn to trust each other and how community-building initiatives in deprived areas enhance individual growth.

In Europe, the far right is becoming stronger politically and anti-immigrant rhetoric is becoming more pervasive. Marginalisation of religious practice in public space, particularly regarding Islam, has also become more prominent across the region. At the same time, public sector cuts and increasing deprivation and unemployment in Europe have resulted in clergy and lay leaders becoming more prominent advocates for vulnerable populations, and community and faith-based social action has become vital in addressing basic human and social needs – demonstrated by the dramatic expansion of church-run food banks in the UK, for example.

Our preliminary research suggests that community-level responses to austerity are making trust and trustworthiness an integral part of their operations and aims, emphasising honesty, reliability and competence. In providing this kind of data on the practice and practical importance of trust at a local level, the project should prove valuable to community leaders and policy makers seeking to improve the effectiveness of local cooperation not only in the areas included in the study but also beyond.

In emphasising the relation between character development and the integration of trust and trustworthiness into organisational practises, the research may also demonstrate that changes to practises in other sectors, like banking, may have profound implications for the development of individual qualities like honesty and reliability.

Our hope as well is that the research project will shed light both on how relations between different ethno-religious groups are evolving in communities under economic pressure and the practical importance of trustworthiness and trust within community responses to these pressures. By integrating analysis of attitudes and behaviour between individuals of different faiths (and none) with community-based work in an era of austerity, the project may indicate ways to advance simultaneously interfaith relations and individual opportunities and welfare at a local level. In addition, by including theology in the multidisciplinary project, the Intelligent Trust research project will contribute to efforts to regain momentum towards a genuine interfaith conversation.

Drs Shana Cohen and Ed Kessler are at the Woolf Institute (www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/), which is dedicated to the study of relations between Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Shana Cohen and Ed Kessler discuss how individuals of different ethno-religious backgrounds in Europe can learn to trust each other, and how community-building initiatives in deprived areas can enhance the resilience of society.

Our preliminary research suggests that community-level responses to austerity are making trust and trustworthiness an integral part of their operations and aims

Shana Cohen and Ed Kessler

Infinite Jeff

Christmas dinner

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.

Yes

Licence type:

Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike