̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Hay Festival

Fake news, black holes and AI: Cambridge academics to speak at Hay Festival

mjg209 — Tue, 26 Mar 2019 11:00:00 +0000

̽��ֱ��Series is now an established feature of the Hay Festival and is now in its eleventh year. This year’s speakers include experts on the localised effects of climate change, combatting fake news, black holes, food security and the impact of dinosaurs on the British landscape.

̽��ֱ��Series is part of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s commitment to public engagement. ̽��ֱ��Festival runs from 25th May to 2nd June and is now open for bookings.

Several speakers will address how experts navigate a world of fake news and artificial intelligence. Bill Sutherland, Miriam Rothschild Chair in Conservation Biology, will describe attempts to make global evidence available to all, improve the effectiveness of experts and change attitudes toward the use of evidence, especially in relation to conservation. Sander van der Linden from the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab and Department of Psychology will speak about how we can counter fake news and whether we can inoculate the public against misinformation. His forthcoming book will investigate the psychology of trust and how to communicate about facts and evidence in a post-truth society. Rapid changes in the use of artificial intelligence and the social and ethical implications of these will be discussed by Adrian Weller, a senior research fellow in machine learning.

Other speakers will address how reading is being transformed in a digital age. Writer, editor and researcher Tyler Shores will explore reading in an age of digital distraction while literacy education expert Fiona Maine will speak about the potential of complex, ambiguous wordless picturebooks and short films as springboards for children’s critical and creative discussions about the world and how we live in it.

From the world of science speakers include Professor Nicole Soranzo on the evolution of human genetics and how new genetic evidence is being used to better understand the interplay between our DNA (‘nature’) and the environment (‘nurture’). Professor Christopher Reynolds will describe how black holes stretch our understanding of space-time to the limits and power some of the most energetic phenomena in the Universe. Neuroscientist Professor Paul Fletcher will explain how different processes in the brain can lead to seemingly irrational decisions when it comes to what we eat. Dr Catherine Aitken will explore how life in the womb affects not only children’s lifelong health and well-being, but maybe even that of grandchildren.

Responses to climate change feature in several Cambridge Series sessions: climate change scientist Emily Shuckburgh will speak about her research on modelling localised effects of climate change and will also be in conversation with former Irish president Mary Robinson about climate justice. Another Cambridge Series session on female voices on climate change will see a panel of researchers talk about what kind of adaptations may be required as global warming increases and how we bring a broad range of the public on board, particularly with regard to the more complex issues around climate change. Speakers include Chandrika Nath, executive director of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, Professor Melody Clark from the British Antarctic Survey and two Gates Cambridge Scholars - Morgan Seag, co-chair of the international council of the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists, and anthropologist Ragnhild Freng Dale from the Scott Polar Research Institute and the Western Norway Research Institute.

Other sessions explore issues of identity. Professor Michael Kenny will take part in a panel discussion on Brexit and the politics of national identity in the UK with Welsh government minister Eluned Morgan and Adam Price, leader of Plaid Cymru, while economist Victoria Bateman will address the role of women in the economic rise of the West. Her new book ̽��ֱ��Sex Factor - how women made the West rich argues that, far from the Industrial Revolution being all about male inventors and industrialists, the everyday woman underpinned Britain’s – and the West’s - rise.

For those interested in the more distant past Anthony Shillito and Neil Davies will explore their research on how ancient creatures, from dinosaurs to giant millipedes, shaped the land around them and what secrets are held within their prehistoric footprints. Martin Jones, Emeritus Professor of Archaeological Science at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, will discuss the vital question of food security, showing how our prehistoric ancestors built resilience into their food supply and what we can learn from them.

Peter Florence, director of Hay Festival, said: "Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� is home to some of the world's greatest thinkers, at the forefront of debate and exploration in the arts, sciences and global affairs. We're proud to open those ideas into conversations that resonate around the world from our field in Wales. Join us."

Ariel Retik, who oversees the Cambridge Series, said: “We are proud to continue our valued relationship with Hay. ̽��ֱ��Festival is a wonderful way of sharing with the public the research and learning that happens in Cambridge. We have found that Hay audiences are diverse, engaged and intellectually curious. They are an incredible cross-section of the public: from potential students and tourists, to journalists and policy-makers – everyone is represented. They are always interested in the research and, importantly, ask fantastic and challenging questions! We are excited for another year of talks and debates around the research and emerging ideas from Cambridge, which have global relevance and potential for world-changing impact."

Other ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge speakers at the Festival include Professor Martin Rees, neuroscientist Giles Yeo, author and lecturer Robert Macfarlane and neuroscientist Hannah Critchlow. Charlie Gilderdale, NRICH Project Secondary Coordinator, will once again be running maths masterclasses with Alison Eves from the Royal Institution.

Book tickets

Full line-up of the Cambridge Series

Nineteen academics from a wide range of disciplines will take part in this year’s Cambridge Series of talks at the Hay Festival, one of the most prestigious literary festivals in the world.

We are excited for another year of talks and debates around the research and emerging ideas from Cambridge, which have global relevance and potential for world-changing impact

Ariel Retik

Sam Hardwick

Hay Festival

̽��ֱ��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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̽��ֱ��last Muslim King in Spain

sjr81 — Thu, 18 May 2017 08:21:48 +0000

Based on original research, and drawing attention to the connections between the medieval Moorish king Boabdil, and current social and political concerns in Europe today, Drayson presents the first full account in any language of the Moorish sultan of Granada, and head of the Nasrid dynasty.

̽��ֱ��academic’s research has also uncovered a potential mystery regarding the final resting place of the last Muslim king in Spain. Long thought to have died in Algeria in 1494, experts are now hoping to exhume and DNA test what they believe to be the remains of the sultan beneath a derelict mausoleum in Fez, Morocco.

In the ten years before Boabdil’s fall in 1492, his kingdom of Granada was the theatre of one of the most significant wars in European history. ̽��ֱ��sultan’s territory was the last Spanish stronghold of a Muslim empire that had once stretched to the Pyrenees and beyond – including the cities of Barcelona, Pamplona and Cordoba, which had been home to paved roads, street lighting and more than 70 libraries at a time when London and other European cities were backwaters of disease, violence and illiteracy.

“How did Boabdil change the course of Spanish history? Does he now represent what he stood for in the past? And how significant is he as a figure of resistance to the forces of western Christendom?” asked Drayson, who spent three years working on her new book – ̽��ֱ��Moor’s Last Stand: ̽��ֱ��life of Boabdil, Muslim King of Granada.

“That Boabdil was a key figure at a crucial moment in world history cannot be doubted: the current tensions between Islam and the West have their roots in his reign and in the kingdom he lost. Christian posterity has treated him with scorn and pity – viewed from the perspective of the victors. But my account presents the other side of the coin, revealing that issues of violence, tension and compromise between Muslims and Christians were as pressing then as they are now.”

Betrayed by his family and undermined by faction and internal conflict, Boabdil’s defeat at the hands of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella (the parents of Catherine of Aragon) symbolised the epoch-changing transition of Granada from Islamic state to Christian territory – a moment which set Spain on course to becoming the greatest power in early modern Europe.

̽��ֱ��Christian victory marked the completion of the long Christian reconquest of Spain and ended seven centuries in which Christians, Jews and Muslims had for the most part lived peacefully and profitably together.

“Five centuries after his death, it’s timely to consider the impact of his defeat then and now,” added Drayson. “Boabdil was a man of culture and war: a schemer, rebel, father, husband and brother. He was a king, yet also the pawn of the Catholic monarchs. I wanted to show why his life matters – and the meanings it now has at this time of extreme tension between the west and the Islamic states.”

̽��ֱ��end of Muslim rule at the heart of Spain came to an end on January 2, 1492 when Boabdil relinquished the keys to the Moorish capital to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. “These are the keys to paradise,” he said before leaving the city with his mother Aixa.

Legend has it that as Boabdil retreated into exile, he turned around for one final, distant look at Granada – sighed, and burst into tears. His mother, betraying little sympathy for her vanquished son, is said to have told him: “You do well, my son, to cry like a woman for what you couldn’t defend like a man.”

̽��ֱ��‘last sigh’ has long been used by historians to belittle and diminish Boabdil’s legacy, ignoring – according to Drayson – the immense sacrifice he demonstrated in saving his people from certain slaughter at the hands of Ferdinand and Isabella’s irrepressible armies which encircled Granada.

“ ̽��ֱ��fall of Granada was of such magnitude that a mythical story was needed to explain, accept or legitimise the immense upheavals the conquest brought about,” said Drayson.

According to her, Boabdil’s heroism, long repudiated by most historical commentators, is evident in his ability to recognise the futility of further resistance, and the choice he made in rejecting the further suffering, starvation and slaughter of his people. Instead, he bargained for the best terms of surrender possible, rejecting martyrdom and willingly sacrificing his reputation for the greater good.

“ ̽��ֱ��loss of Granada is viewed by modern writers as a prelude to the repression of the Muslim world,” added Drayson. “At a time when Europe is seeking a way of addressing issues of racial and religious intolerance, equality and freedom, we might look closely at the Spanish Muslim society of which Boabdil was the final heir, which successfully tackled some of these problems.

“Today, Boabdil represents a last stand against religious intolerance, fanatical power, and cultural ignorance; his surrender of the city and kingdom of Granada symbolised the loss of the fertile cross-cultural creativity, renewal and coexistence born out of the Muslim conquest of Spain.”

Elizabeth Drayson appears at the Hay Festival as part of the Cambridge Series on Sunday, May 28 at 2.30pm on the Good Energy Stage.

̽��ֱ��history, myths and legends surrounding the last Muslim ruler in Spain – whose surrender ended seven centuries of Islam at the heart of Western Europe – is the subject of a new book and Hay Festival appearance by Cambridge academic Elizabeth Drayson.

I wanted to show why his life matters – and the meanings it now has at this time of extreme tension between the west and the Islamic states.

Elizabeth Drayson

̽��ֱ��Capitulation of Granada by Francisco Pradilla y Ortiz 1882: Boabdil surrenders to Ferdinand and Isabella

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

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Cambridge heads for Hay

jfp40 — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 09:20:09 +0000

̽��ֱ��Cambridge Series has been running for six years at the prestigious Festival and is part of the ̽��ֱ��’s commitment to public engagement. ̽��ֱ��Festival runs from 22nd May to 1st June and is now open for bookings.

This year's line-up includes Sir John Gurdon who was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery that mature cells can be converted to stem cells. He will talk about his pioneering work on cloning.

Other speakers include Dr Ha-Joon Chang on economics, classicist Professor Paul Cartledge on after Thermopylae, Dame Barbara Stocking, former chief executive of Oxfam GB and president of Murray Edwards College, on the challenges for women in the workplace, Professor Chris Dobson and Dr Mary Dobson on Alzheimer's and other plagues, economist Professor Noreena Hertz on smart thinking and Professor Robert Mair on tunnelling into the future of our cities.

Professor Richard Evans, president of Wolfson College, will talk about the history of conspiracy theories, Dr John Swenson-Wright from the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies will ask if North Korea is the perennial crisis state and Dr Robin Hesketh from the Department of Biochemistry will attempt to demystify cancer.

Several of the talks will take the form of a conversation: Professor Simon Blackburn will debate the uses and abuses of self love with journalist Rosie Boycott; novelist and playwright Biyi Bandele, a former Judith E. Wilson Fellow at Churchill College, will be in conversation with Dr Malachi McIntosh from the Department of English about migrant writing; Professor Henrietta Moore, William Wyse Chair of Social Anthropology, will talk about the future of civil activism with Ricken Patel, founding President of Avaaz, the world's largest online activist community; and psychologist Dr Terri Apter will debate how women follow, resist and play with the stereotypes that define them with author and alumna Zoe Strimpel.

Other Cambridge academics speaking at Hay are Professor Stefan Collini discussing higher education’s two cultures - the humanities and science - and historian Professor David Reynolds.

Peter Florence, director of the Hay Festival, said: "Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� nurtures and challenges the world's greatest minds, and offers the deepest understanding of the most intractable problems and the most thrilling opportunities. And for one week a year they bring that thinking to a field in Wales and share it with everyone. That's a wonderful gift."

Nicola Buckley, head of public engagement at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “ ̽��ֱ��Cambridge series is a wonderful way to share fascinating research from the ̽��ֱ�� with the public. ̽��ֱ��Hay Festival draws an international cross-section of people, from policy makers to prospective university students. We have found that Hay audiences are highly interested in the diversity of Cambridge speakers, and ask some great questions. We look forward to another fantastic series of speakers, with talks and debates covering so many areas of research and key ideas emerging from Cambridge, relevant to key issues faced globally today."

For tickets, go to: www.hayfestival.org

A host of Cambridge academics, including Nobel Laureate Sir John Gurdon, will be speaking on subjects ranging from stem cell technology and Alzheimer’s to the future of North Korea and the history of conspiracy theories at this year’s Hay Festival.

Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� nurtures and challenges the world's greatest minds, and offers the deepest understanding of the most intractable problems and the most thrilling opportunities

Peter Florence, Director of Hay Festival

Hay Festival

Night shot at Hay Festival

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Catch some Hay fever online

tdk25 — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 14:36:31 +0000

A selection of talks from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s series at this year’s Hay Festival, which ended on Sunday, are now available online.

̽��ֱ��collection can be found on iTunesU, or via Soundcloud by clicking here.

This was the fifth year that the ̽��ֱ�� 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: ̽��ֱ��Working Family’s Guide to Getting a Life Back, also took part in discussions with Cambridge researchers. ̽��ֱ��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 ̽��ֱ�� took part in the Festival’s Cambridge series. Elsewhere, a further six Cambridge academics appeared as part of the broader Festival programme.

Nicola Buckley, Head of Public Engagement, said: " ̽��ֱ��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.

It was superb! It was a welcome change from more scholarly styles of discussion and forced me to think differently about my work.

Alex Jeffrey

Hay Festival.

Reading at the Hay Festival.

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Live performance

gm349 — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 06:02:50 +0000

Hay is a curious combination of glamour and grunge. It’s my first time here, and I’m struck by how different it feels from the Edinburgh Book Festival, my usual hangout, in the formal confines of Charlotte Square. Hay is more glitzy than Edinburgh, with theatrical stage lighting, huge bouquets in classical urns, and the giant single white rose presented to the speaker at the end of each event. But it’s much muddier too, with the cross-country tramp from the car park a sharp reminder that this is just a bunch of tents in a faraway field. A sort of Glastonbury, then, for writers. ̽��ֱ��seasoned festivalistas walk around in wellies; the rest of us slide around in city shoes.

Writers are the rock stars here . I join a thousand others to hear the pearls of wisdom from the lips of Mario Vargas Llosa, inspired to be in the presence of somebody who can speak so eloquently and authoritatively about the capacity of literature to generate freedom and political change in the world. “Literature should be without borders”, he says, his frequent pause to choose his words carefully actually lending them additional gravitas. “Literature makes us sensible to injustice. It heightens our awareness of the fraternity that should exist among human beings’. It’s heady stuff.

But later, I’m in a similarly packed auditorium to hear Andrew Miller, author of Ingenious Pain and the recent Pure, and Andrew Robinson, who’s written a new book on Champollion and the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone. They are two good writers but hardly conventional rock-star figures. So why do people go to literary festivals in greater and greater numbers? And why do writers turn up for the festival season, which is getting longer and longer? “I like to meet my readers”, Andrew Miller says when asked this question by a brave member of the audience. “And I like chatting with my fellow writers in the Green Room [the artists-only common room]. It’s a social thing”.

Hay certainly is a social scene. In my two days here, I’ve bumped into many old friends and caught the book launch (arresting poetry on Scott’s doomed Antarctic expedition) of my old college roommate Samantha Wynne Rhydderch. I’ve also run into a large number of former students, some of whom are performing in debates, glamorously welly-booted, multiple times and another who is playing in a swing band for the alternative philosophy and music festival How the Light Gets In and camping out at night. (Yes, Hay, like Edinburgh, has its fringe festivals too).

But I think the attraction is more than simply rubbing shoulders with the Slebs and catching up on old times. In this age of the internet and instant access to news, views and e-books, there is conversely an allure inherent in the live performance. This becomes the main focus of discussion at the event that I was invited to Hay to participate in, a panel discussion on “Is Tragedy the Perfect Form for the Modern World”? Reporters of disasters now still shape their narrative of terrible events in ways that echo the age-old dramatic traditions of the ancient Greeks or Shakespeare. And even if we can read about or look at pictures of disasters in isolation, on TV or on computer screens, we still want to come together to mourn, to feel compassion for individuals picked out for particular attention or to try, as a community, to seek explanations for suffering and to stage rituals to mark loss.

As the debate opens up to the audience, my fellow panelist Adrian Poole warms to the theme: “This is the attraction of live performance, this is why we are all here. You never know, with live performance, what might happen”. There is time for one more question. A man rises to his feet out of the theatre darkness. “I’d like each of you three panelists to tell me in turn what is the most tragic experience of your life”. My mind reels. What is the most tragic experience of my life? And am I going to confess it publicly to 200 strangers whom I can hardly see with the spotlights shining in my eyes? Adrian is similarly filibustering beside me. Does live performance mean that you have to reveal everything to your audience, that they can demand that kind of intimacy? Careful what you wish for, the Greeks might have said. Call no man happy until the show is safely over. But the TV monitor, which lets speakers know when their allotted hour is up, is now steadily counting down the seconds. “I’m afraid that’s all, folks”, we say with the question unanswered, and Gemma, our festival minder, is coming on stage with white roses, while the Bee Gees’ song “Tragedy” strikes up to play the audience out.

Dr Jennifer Wallace is the author of ̽��ֱ��Cambridge Introduction to Tragedy.

Jennifer Wallace took part in the Cambridge series at this year's Hay Festival and spoke on a panel on whether tragedy is the perfect form for the modern world. She gives her impressions of the event and of the Festival itself.

Even if we can read about or look at pictures of disasters in isolation, on TV or on computer screens, we still want to come together to mourn, to feel compassion for individuals picked out for particular attention or to try, as a community, to seek explanations for suffering and to stage rituals to mark loss.

Kevin Greenaway

Hay Festival

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Cambridge academics head for Hay

bjb42 — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:00:16 +0000

A series of talks and debates by Cambridge academics on pressing contemporary issues kicks off this week at the Hay Festival.

This year is the 25^th anniversary of the Festival and the fourth year running that the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge has run a series of talks there as part of its commitment to public engagement.

This year's line-up includes Paul Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture, who will be participating in three of the 10 sessions on in the Classics series on Herodotus, the “Father of History”, on Plato and on the aspirations and concepts of civilisation, democracy, drama, virtue, victory, liberty and xenia and what the study of Classics has meant in the wider world.

For the first time, Cambridge academics will take part in a series of debates about contemporary political and social issues, including Europe, democracy and urban violence. Among those taking part in the Europe debate is Professor Robert Tombs who has written a blog on the implications for France and Europe of the election of Francois Hollande as president of France.

Another debate covers the broader cultural implications of current events, with Professor Adrian Poole, Professor Alison Sinclair and Jennifer Wallace discussing the modern meaning of tragedy and literary representation of current events. Other speakers include Professor Susan Golombok on alternative family structures, Professor Martin Jones on the archaeology of food, Carolin Crawford on the birth and death of stars, Dame Patricia Hodgson on media regulation in the shadow of the Leveson Inquiry, Professor David Spiegelhalter on our risk society and Professor Stefan Collini on what universities are for.

Professor Lawrence Sherman will talk about how science is transforming policing in a session entitled “ ̽��ֱ��new police knowledge”. ̽��ֱ��session will be introduced by Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary Sir Denis O’Connor.

Brendan Burchell, senior lecturer in the Sociology Department, will be in conversation with Julia Hobsbawm, honorary visiting professor in networking at Cass Business School, about the future of work.

Other Cambridge academics speaking at Hay are Professor John Thompson, Professor Robert Macfarlane, Professor Martin Rees, Professor John Barrow, Dr Julian Allwood and Professor David MacKay.

Nicola Buckley, head of public engagement at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “ ̽��ֱ��Cambridge series is a wonderful way to get the fascinating research being done at the ̽��ֱ�� out to the public. ̽��ֱ��Hay Festival draws an international cross-section of people, from policy makers to prospective university students. It is a fantastic platform for our research and this year’s debates aim to highlight the broad range of what we do at the ̽��ֱ�� and its relevance to the key issues we face today.”

Peter Florence, director of the Hay Festival, said: “What’s thrilling about this year’s series is how exacting it is about society. ̽��ֱ��Cambridge experts cut through the political and media spin on big issues and look at them with real attention and intellectual rigour - from policing to European integration and 21st century family structure and risk. It’s a timely reminder about the value of authority; an aspiration that ‘policy’ might be formed by the best ideas and analysis rather than doctrinaire inclination or what’s easiest to sell. What else would you want from the world’s greatest ̽��ֱ�� but the best thinking on subjects that matter?”

Cambridge is fielding a series of talks and debates by leading academics on a range of global challenges at this year's Hay literary Festival.

̽��ֱ��Cambridge experts cut through the political and media spin on big issues and look at them with real attention and intellectual rigour.

Peter Florence

Hay Festival.

̽��ֱ��main site at the Hay Festival.

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Reinventing tragedy in the modern age

bjb42 — Wed, 09 May 2012 16:00:47 +0000

This year's Cambridge series at the Hay Festival will include a debate about how we make “good tragedy” today.

Taking part are Professor Adrian Poole, Professor Alison Sinclair and Jennifer Wallace. ̽��ֱ��debate is just one of five panel discussions organised by the ̽��ֱ�� for the Festival, which this year celebrates its 25th anniversary. ̽��ֱ��series also includes a number of stand-alone talks by Cambridge academics, including Professor Susan Golombok and Professor Lawrence Sherman.

It is the fourth year for the Cambridge series at Hay, which takes place from 31st May to 10th June, and the first time it has included panel discussions on a range of contemporary issues. Professor Poole, who has taught an undergraduate course on tragedy for many years and is author of Tragedy: a Very Short Introduction, says Aristotle set out to answer the question of what makes good tragedy when he composed his influential handbook, ̽��ֱ��Poetics. He says: “For Aristotle, 'tragedy' mainly meant a form of drama, though it also connoted a kind of story, of which Homer's Iliad was exemplary. ̽��ֱ��answers to this question are bound to look very different in 2012.

“We have many more ways of telling stories in words, sounds and visual images than were available to the ancient Greeks, Shakespeare and Racine, and of disseminating them to audiences around the world, now at the press of a button – all of which will have some impact on our ability to make - and respond to - 'good tragedy'.”

Jennifer Wallace, author of ̽��ֱ��Cambridge Introduction to Tragedy, says that the media and the public still tend to respond to tragic events in ways that echo the age-old traditions which go back to Greek tragedy, for instance, turning horror into narrative and seeking an explanation for events by telling individuals' stories. However, she says Aristotle's notion of catharsis is much more problematic now and can be hard to justify.

She says: “Aristotle implies that through witnessing tragedy, we purge ourselves or gain relief. This suggests tragedy has some moral or therapeutic function in society. But is there such a phenomenon now as "compassion fatigue" or "tragedy porn"? Is it still possible to consider witnessing others' suffering morally improving or enriching?”

For Alison Sinclair, professor of modern Spanish literature and intellectual history, our continuing fascination with the tragedies of others and the popular media's obsession with offering up disaster for consumption opens up interesting questions about the fine line we often tread between thrill and horror. “I am intrigued by why we are moved to consume such stories. While they may not qualify as cathartic our consumption of them raises interesting issues about our experience, and our experience of our experience, that it might be difficult to confront.”

She says 20th century Spanish writers like Federico Garcia Lorca and Ramon del Valle- Inclán grappled with the need to reinvent tragedy for a modern audience. Lorca sought to meld elements of Greek tragedy with contemporary social realities in plays such as Blood Wedding, she says, but arguably either avoided catharsis or undercut it. By contrast, Valle-Inclán theorised in 1920 that a new form was needed to replace tragedy. “ ̽��ֱ��aim,” she says, “was to interrupt the processes of identification and/or catharsis, the point of this being to free the spectator, or indeed to force the spectator, not to feel, but to think, both about what is on the stage, but also about the implications for him or herself.”

Jennifer Wallace adds: "In an era of 24/7 news and constant potential exposure to tragedies around the globe through the internet, it may be paradoxically difficult to focus the kind of active, sympathetic attention on suffering which dramatists could do in the past. Does that matter? Is the capacity to make what might be termed a 'good tragedy' the hallmark of human civilisation, or an indication of a humane society?"

For more information on the Cambridge series at the Hay Festival and to find out about booking, click here.

Is tragedy the perfect dramatic form for our current predicament? Or has the classic idea of catharsis through viewing the suffering of others become much more problematic in an age of 24/7 news and the internet? An event at this year's Hay Festival will investigate.

Is there such a phenomenon now as "compassion fatigue" or "tragedy porn"? Is it still possible to consider witnessing others' suffering morally improving or enriching?

Jennifer Wallace

Jeff Rozwadowski, Creative Commons

Tragedy.

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Hay gears up for Greek marathon

bjb42 — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 11:32:18 +0000

Ancient Greece is all the rage this year as the UK gears up for Olympic fever and this year's Hay Festival [www.hayfestival.com] is no exception. It is putting on a series of debates on classical Greece covering everything from Plato to heroisation and sex.

̽��ֱ��idea for the series came after Professor Paul Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture, gave a very popular talk at Hay 2010 on how the Greeks would view contemporary democracy. He will be taking part in three of the 10 Greek Classics sessions this year.

On 7^th June he will speak on the first panel on Herodotus, described in the Festival programme as “the Father of History, who pioneered the systems of ‘inquiry’ and holds a mirror up to our own concerns about East and West”. His fellow panellist is author and Cambridge alumnus Tom Holland.

̽��ֱ��two are collaborating on a new hardback translation of Herodotus for Penguin so at least part of the focus of their session will be the translation process. “Tom is not a classicist. His degree was in English,” says Professor Cartledge, “but he has turned himself into a master historian and translator.”

Tom's books include Persian Fire, the first world empire, battle for the West which draws extensively on Herodotus.

̽��ֱ��new translation, which will be completed by the time the Hay Festival begins, will be printed on high quality paper and will only be out in hardback. There could be an e-version as well, which would be the first digital version of Herodotus.

Later that day Professor Cartledge will also be speaking at a session entitled the Greek Idea. This will cover the aspirations and concepts of civilisation, democracy, drama, virtue, victory, liberty and xenia, and discuss what the study of Classics has meant in the wider world.

̽��ֱ��panel consists of Tom Holland, popular historian Bettany Hughes, ̽��ֱ�� of Warwick philosopher and former Cambridge alumna Angela Hobbs and Professor Cartledge and the session is based on a proposal which Professor Cartledge and Bettany Hughes are putting forward for a 15-part BBC Radio Four series. This will be consist of 15 minute programmes on Greek ideas that have had a major impact down the ages.

̽��ֱ��third session he is taking part in on 8^th June is on Plato with Angela Hobbs, a Plato specialist and a former pupil of Professor Cartledge and Bettany Hughes who has a book out on Socrates, Plato's mentor. Professor Cartledge has also written a chapter on Socrates in his book, Ancient Greek Political Thought in Practice. ̽��ֱ��panellists will consider the influence and impact of ̽��ֱ��Republic and ̽��ֱ��Symposium.

Professor Cartledge is a veteran of the Cambridge series at the Hay Festival – now in its fourth year - and last year he was in a discussion with Guardian journalist and author Charlotte Higgins which drew an audience of around 400 people.

“It shows how Cambridge, Classics, outreach and impact are just bubbling at the moment. It's terrific publicity and I'm very thrilled to be taking part,” he says.

He has also written the introduction to ̽��ֱ��Sites of Ancient Greece, a book of aerial photos of Greece published by Phaidon which will be launched on 3^rd May at Heffers and he will be on the Today programme talking about it this week. “There's a huge buzz about ancient Greece right now thanks to the Olympics,” he says.

Next year, the Hay Festival will run a series on Rome which will be organised by Professor Mary Beard.

For the full line-up of the Cambridge series at the Hay Festival, click here. Tickets can be booked through the Hay Festival site.

Following a successful talk at Hay in 2010, Professor Paul Cartledge will be playing a major part in a series of 10 discussions on Ancient Greece at this year's festival, alongside Cambridge's own regular programme.

It shows how Cambridge, Classics, outreach and impact are just bubbling at the moment.

Paul Cartledge

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Herodotus

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