̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Cambridge Festival of Ideas

Unexpected experiences: Lucy Spokes talks about the excitement of a newly digital Festival

zs332 — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 07:00:56 +0000

Head of Public Engagement, Dr Lucinda Spokes, describes the difficult decision to pull the plug on the 26th Cambridge Science Festival in March this year and reflects on the breathtaking flexibility of the Festival going digital – at least for now.

Cambridge Festival of Ideas Launches Today

mjg209 — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 15:27:29 +0000

Participants include Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Professor Gina Rippon, author and campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez, politicians David Lammy and Ed Miliband and Professor Mary Beard.

̽��ֱ��Festival runs from 14th to 27th October with over 270 events, most of them free. They cover subjects ranging from climate change, Brexit, hate speech and the impact of artificial intelligence on society to how to bring divided communities together after major trauma and who will look after us in our old age.

Change is the theme of this year's Festival and events cover everything from social and political change to cultural transformation, with new research challenging traditional views of the past.

Events on social change span how we care for the old in a rapidly ageing society, reproduction past and present and addiction.

In Who will look after us in our old age? on 21st October, we ask who will look after us in our old age and how it will be funded? Will the crisis in carer recruitment require greater immigration? Will women still be relied upon to take on the burden of unpaid care? Or will social robots take up the slack? Join affective computing expert Professor Peter Robinson, sociologist Elif Cetin, feminist economist Victoria Bateman and Dan Holden from the International Longevity Centre for a fascinating discussion about an issue that will affect us all. ̽��ֱ��event is chaired by Chris Mann from BBC Cambridgeshire.

Elif Cetin, a junior research fellow at the Von Hügel Institute in Cambridge, said: "It is very likely that the UK’s need for immigrants will increase as the population ages. Yet, due to the heavily politicised nature of immigration in the UK, I think it will be really difficult for politicians to openly discuss and make the case for an additional labour force that cannot be met through the domestic labour market due to reasons such as the lack of necessary qualifications, unwillingness to take care jobs due low salary and/or lack of prestige etc. ̽��ֱ��British public remains highly worried about migration and tends to express a preference for highly restricted immigration...

"Various types of migrants are now highly politicised and even the case of European mobility is approached within the frame of immigration controls. Surprisingly, older people are more likely to vote in favour of Brexit, which had immigration debates at its core, despite the fact that they are more likely to need care. This is because prejudice and fear about immigration and immigrants have become ossified to the extent that this group's sense of insecurity has reached the point that rejection of further immigration is likely to triumph over the necessity for having more immigrants. And fewer immigrants is also likely to affect women as it could lead to more women leaving their jobs for unpaid carer roles."

Reproduction is at the heart of many major debates around the world today. In When was reproduction invented? on 17th October Nick Hopwood, Professor of History of Science and Medicine in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, his fellow editors of Reproduction: Antiquity to the Present Day and Professor Susan Golombok, Director of the Centre for Family Research at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, will talk about the history of reproduction from ancient times to the present day, looking at continuity and change over the long term.

Professor Hopwood says: " ̽��ֱ��question ‘When was reproduction invented?’ is intended to highlight what we can learn from different periods of change. Some aspect of reproduction is in the news every day, and by the nature of news it can all seem new. But reporters, like scientists, clinicians and patients, typically frame what’s happening in terms of historic achievements or abuses, recent progress or worrying contrasts with how things used to be. We appeal to history all the time, because it allows us to compare in a long view. So we wanted to pool expertise to make that history robust and acknowledge that our interests shape the ways we use the past."

Give and Take: How Giving Has Changed ̽��ֱ��World And Why It Matters asks whether giving a gift must necessarily exclude hopes of a return to be considered a “good deed”. Based on a short film produced by Alexander Massmann and DragonLight Films, the event will include a discussion panel on the complex nature of gift giving for humans and their close relatives. [19th October]

Rethinking drug addiction will ask why current approaches to addiction are not working and question if this is a matter of economics, politics, ethics or education. Rowan Williams, Master of Magdalene College and former Archbishop of Canterbury, will chair a discussion on safer drug use and the research on drug consumption rooms. [22nd October]

Events focusing on political change include Is it possible to forgive and forget after major national traumas, a panel discussion on how we bring divided communities together after war or trauma. Drawing on the examples of East and West Germany, Korea, Japan and Burundi leading experts will discuss how we rebuild peace after traumatic division has riven communities on 22nd October, a subject of huge relevance in our increasingly divided world.

Other events relate to widespread cultural change, including the Yoko Ono: Looking For... exhibition at the Ruskin Gallery, which explores themes of violence and healing, and the screening of two films by Yoko Ono. It is the first time Ono's work has been exhibited in Cambridge and curator Gabriella Daris will give an illustrated talk about how Ono’s art resonates with the cultural and political specificities of our contemporary condition on 19th October.

̽��ֱ��impact of historic political and social revolutions can be seen in events such as:

Maroon Nation, where Dr Johnhenry Gonzalez, ̽��ֱ�� Lecturer in Caribbean and Atlantic History, will talk about his new book on the history of Haiti and how the country went from the most profitable slave colony to the site of the only successful slave revolt in modern times. He will argue that Haiti’s early independent history has been the subject of relatively little basic research despite its historical significance. His book is inspired in part by him getting access to a vital historical document on those early years which is held in Kings College London's library. His session will discuss discuss broader questions around the provenance and proper place of foreign historic treasures held in British and other national collections. [17th October]

Four events commemorate 50 years since the Stonewall uprising, a landmark event for gay rights activism. In addition to panel discussions about the history of the uprising and the LGBTQ+ movement today, there will be screenings of two important films linked to events in New York in 1969 - Screaming Queens: ̽��ֱ��Riot At Compton's Cafeteria and Marsha P Johnson On Film, celebrating trans activist and queer icon Marsha P. Johnson [22nd October].

Other events focus on new research which changes our perspective on past eras:

In Animals In ̽��ֱ��City, historian Tom Almeroth-Williams, author of City of Beasts, will talk about the fascinating facts his research has uncovered about the interaction between humans and animals in Georgian London when people and animals lived in close proximity. He will compare the experience of living with cows in 21st century Cambridge with the experience of living in the shadow of Smithfield Market in Georgian London, painting a picture of life then and now. Focusing on evidence of tangible, dung-bespattered interactions between real people and animals, drawn from legal, parish, commercial, newspaper and private records, Almeroth-Williams will open up new perspectives on unfamiliar or misunderstood metropolitan spaces, activities, social types, relationships and cultural developments and challenge traditional assumptions about the industrial, agricultural and consumer revolutions. As one reviewer says: "It will change how you see the pre-industrial world and every mutt you meet on the street." [23rd October]

Bring Out Your Dead!: Destiny And Health In ̽��ֱ��Middle Ages members of the After the Plague: Health and History in Medieval Cambridge project will use the actual life stories of people from medieval Cambridge, as revealed by multidisciplinary studies of their skeletons, to show the kind of health lottery faced by our ancestors. ̽��ֱ��session also includes an interactive game which allows you to play out the lives of typical people from the Middle Ages. Was the Plague the biggest health challenge facing them or were things like influenza and even toothache more deadly? [24th October]

* ̽��ֱ��Cambridge Festival of Ideas programme is available in hard copy around Cambridge and online here. Bookings open at 11am on 23rd September 2019. Follow the Festival on Twitter at https://twitter.com/camideasfest and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/CambridgeFestival

̽��ֱ��Cambridge Festival of Ideas launches today [14th October] with a huge array of events and cutting edge thinkers, tackling social, cultural and political change in a rapidly transforming world.

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Bookings open for 12th Cambridge Festival of Ideas

mjg209 — Mon, 23 Sep 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Politics takes centre stage at the Festival with sessions on everything from the future of democracy, the US elections, Brexit, the rise of populism, power politics in the Far East and growing schisms in the Balkans.

̽��ֱ��Festival, which runs from 14th to 27th October, celebrates the enormous impact of arts, humanities and social sciences on our daily lives and encourages lively discussion about many of today's most challenging global issues. With 273 events spanning two weeks, most of them free, the Festival - now in its 12th year - attracts thousands of people to Cambridge.

This year’s event includes political experts such as Professor David Runciman, author of How Democracy Ends, a live edition of the chart-topping podcast Talking Politics and leading politicians David Lammy and Ed Miliband.

David Lammy will be in conversation with journalist Gillian Joseph for the Annual Race Equality Lecture [14th October] about his personal journey and how race and racism has shaped his life as well as a variety of topics including: how racism manifests itself in organisations’ today; the barriers to career opportunities faced by BAME staff and how to overcome them; the lack of BAME role models in senior positions; and how to increase BAME access and representation in leading professions.

Ed Miliband will be speaking with Emily Shuckburgh, Director of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Carbon Neutral Futures Initiative, about Environmental Justice and how strong action in the UK can be translated into global action through visionary leadership? [17th October]

One of the biggest political issues of current times is surely the future of democracy in a world of constant upheaval, rising populism and a return to ‘strong man’ leadership.

In How do democracies change? [23rd October] Professor Runciman** highlights how Brexit has shown how easy it is for contemporary democracies to get stuck. He will ask how easy is it to reinvent the way they work once we can see that they are no longer working and will explore the challenge of turning around failing democratic institutions without undermining the idea of democracy itself. Runciman is Professor of Politics and will be launching the Centre for the Future of Democracy at the Bennett Institute in Cambridge in the near future.

He says: “On the one hand Brexit has shown us that our democratic institutions are pretty robust. I don’t think we are at risk of seeing democracy collapse. On the other, it has shown that they aren’t working well at all. They depend heavily on their adaptability and they haven’t adapted successfully to this challenge – if anything, they have frozen our divisions in place. What’s most striking is how little thought seems to have been given by politicians to whether the institutions are capable of doing the things they ask of them. It’s possible to blame individual politicians for particular mistakes: maybe Cameron shouldn’t have called the referendum because he lost it; maybe May shouldn’t have called the election in 2017 because she lost her majority. But it’s also true that the bigger mistake was to believe the British system could accommodate a referendum or that an election could be used to force the issue of Brexit after it had got stuck in parliament. Some of what’s gone wrong is political misjudgement but some of it is simply institutional inertia. Rather than taking a gamble and then hoping the institutions can deliver, maybe we should reform the institutions first.”

Professor Runciman will also be co-hosting, with fellow politics expert Professor Helen Thompson, a live edition of Talking Politics [16th October]. Supported by the London Review of Books, the hosts will be joined by a panel of political experts to explore a wider view on current events at a particularly momentous point in time as we head towards 31st October.

Other events relate to changing trends in British politics, including one linked to a new book reappraising the New Labour years.

In Why Tony Blair was right: the New Labour revolution 25 years on [26th October] Dr Richard Carr, Senior Lecturer in History and Politics at Anglia Ruskin ̽��ֱ�� and author of the new book March of the Moderates, will take a new look at New Labour’s achievements. Using newly unearthed archives and interviews with key players, his book investigates the relationship between the administrations and sheds new light on big set pieces such as the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, the handover to George W. Bush and the controversial Iraq War. He says: “Those seeking new perspectives on Blair’s partnership with George W. Bush and the Iraq War will find much of interest, as will those seeking a more positive take on the New Labour years.”

Meanwhile, in ̽��ֱ��changing British voter: taking back control? [19th October] communications expert Justin Jackson from the Department of History at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Francesca Granelli from the Department of War Studies at King’s College London will look at how voter patterns have changed over the last 70 years in the light of the sudden rise of new parties, such as the Brexit party, and splits in traditional parties. They will offer three perspectives – behavioural, socio-economic and political – that provide a compelling picture of how the British voter has changed in a few generations.

Several events will cover world politics and conflict:

In ̽��ֱ��2020 presidential election: ideological and institutional change in American politics an expert panel will discuss whether President Trump is the cause or a symptom of the upheaval going on in US politics. Taking on topics foreign and domestic, the panelists will cover a sweeping set of issues including the breakdown of the neoliberal consensus, rising polarisation and ideological divisions in both parties and the future of foreign policy in a period of relative decline and great power competition. [19th October]

In Reordering the Balkans [19th October] Timothy Less, director of the Nova Europa consultancy on Eastern Europe, will discuss recent events in the region, such as open discussions between Serbia and Kosovo’s leaders about an exchange of territory along ethnic lines, with the apparent approval of the United States and the European Union, proposals to unify Albania and Kosovo over the next decade and ongoing conflict between Serbs and Croats in Bosnia. Less will ask how long the region’s current borders can hold, what the map will look like in the future, whether the region make a transition to nation statehood without another conflict and what the response of the outside powers should be.

What does the future hold for China in a world of global trade wars, rising concerns about human rights and regional expansion in the form of the Belt and Road Initiative? China: power politics in the Asian age [23rd October] is a panel discussion with historian Professor Hans van der Ven, human rights expert Professor Eva Pils, Agnes Chong, visiting lecturer at POLIS, and Bhavna Dave from the School of Oriental and African Studies, chaired by Professor Rana Mitter from the ̽��ֱ�� of Oxford.

Other events will seek to look at the ongoing imprint of past conflicts.

Is it possible to forgive and forget after major national traumas? [22nd October] will discuss how to build lasting peace after devastating division, from the civil war in Burundi and apartheid in South Africa to Cold War politics in Germany and the Sino-Japanese war. With Gates Cambridge Scholar Alice Musabende, Hanno Balz, DAAD Lecturer in Modern German and European History, and John Nilsson-Wright, Fuji Bank ̽��ֱ�� Senior Lecturer in Modern Japanese Politics and International Relations at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Catherine Jenkins, Chair of the Centre for Law & Conflict at the School of Oriental and African Studies. Chaired by Devon Curtis, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

In the film Teatro de Guerra/Theatre of war six veterans [three British and three Argentinian] from the Malvinas/Falklands War of 1982 share their memories and re-enact their experiences together. One of the protagonists of the film, Lou Armour, will be joining after the screening for a Q&A session, in conversation with Erika Teichert from the Centre of Latin American Studies (CLAS), ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.[16th October]

In Maroon Nation: the history of revolutionary Haiti, Johnhenry Gonzalez discusses his new book on the history of Haiti, how the country went from the most profitable slave colony to the site of the only successful slave revolt in modern times and ongoing claims for the repatriation of national treasures. [17th October]

* ̽��ֱ��Cambridge Festival of Ideas programme is available in hard copy around Cambridge and online here. Booking lines are open from 11am-3pm from 23rd September.

Follow the Festival on Twitter at https://twitter.com/camideasfest and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cambridgefestivalofideas?fref=ts

**Read Professor Runciman’s Q & A about his event here.

For more information, contact Mandy Garner on 07789 106435 or email mandy.garner@admin.cam.ac.uk. Picture credit: ̽��ֱ��British Parliament and Big Ben by Maurice from Zoetermeer, Netherlands ℅ Wikimedia Commons.

Bookings open today for this year’s Cambridge Festival of Ideas which takes place at a time of political upheaval across the world.

Maurice from Zoetermeer, Netherlands

̽��ֱ��British Parliament and Big Ben

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Cambridge Festival of Ideas opens for bookings

mjg209 — Mon, 24 Sep 2018 08:00:43 +0000

These questions and many more on subjects ranging from the future of capitalism and whether marriage is healthy to how democracy ends will be discussed at this year’s Cambridge Festival of Ideas, which opens for bookings today.

̽��ֱ��Festival, which runs from 15 to 28 October, includes over 200 events and exhibitions. Speakers include bestselling author Tara Westover, former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Professor David Runciman, Fiona Mactaggart from the Fawcett Society and Professor David Reynolds.

Top picks for this year’s Festival include:

From politics: Professor David Runciman will speak about the threats to democracy in the 21st century in How Democracy Ends.

From economics: in Trade wars: deal or no deal an expert panel will discuss what the likely impact of trade wars is and how the tension between protectionism and free trade has played out in history.

From history: Forms of extreme protest in the post-war West explores two very different forms of extreme protest: violent protest cultures within ethno-separatist movements and two forms of extreme religious protests as part of the HIV/AIDS movement in Britain: the Catholic AIDS Link and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

From social affairs: marriage comes under the spotlight in the discussion Does marriage make us healthier? which brings together two historians, a psychologist, a scientist and a relationship counsellor to discuss the ways individuals have defined bodily and emotional health and its complex relationship with marriage in the past and present.

From technology: Shining a light on the dark web explores the dangers of the dark web, including how anonymous users can purchase illegal firearms and drugs on this hidden part of the internet.

From health: Improving our diets: more freedom or more control? debates whether we should be free to choose what we eat or whether there should be more state control.

A number of events deal with some of today’s most complex religious issues.

In Apocalyptic terrorism: taming the pale horse Dr Justin Meggitt from the Faculty of Divinity will focus on contemporary movements that have been associated with acts of terrorism, such as Aum Shinrikyo, ISIS and various environmental and white supremacist groups.

Dr Meggitt says: “Most apocalyptic groups share the following ideas: that the world is ruled by evil, that a special group possesses this knowledge, an authoritative text or figure discloses that the way the world appears to be is not the case, that the way things are is about to be shattered by a cataclysmic event and that those in the know will have a special role in these events. It is important to emphasise that not all apocalyptic groups believe that they have a role in bringing about this cataclysm or, if they do, this is necessarily a violent role.

“Apocalyptic movements are often misunderstood. They are not necessarily violent. In fact, historically, some have been radical pacifists. However, they are often depicted as solely destructive or dismissed out of hand. A significant proportion of the world’s population belong to movements that are apocalyptic, so we cannot afford to do this, and many people in the past were motivated by such ideas, and we do them a disservice if we do not try to make sense of the way they thought about the world.”

In Rethinking religious fundamentalism, Professor Kim Knott, Lancaster ̽��ֱ��, Ed Kessler MBE, Woolf Institute, Cambridge, and Tobias Müller, Woolf Institute and POLIS, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, discuss why fundamentalist beliefs and practices are so attractive to some, how fundamentalism relates to mainstream interpretations of the same religion and how we should distinguish between fundamentalism, extremism, radicalism and orthodoxy. They will focus on shared characteristics such as the desire to return to a golden age, the importance of charismatic leadership and the influence of globalisation while pointing out differences. 15 October

Other events linked to religions include:

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

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

What is extreme? Definitional issues in the Government’s Prevent counter-terrorism strategy? Ryan Hill from Anglia Ruskin ̽��ֱ�� discusses the Government’s use of the term non-violent extremism. 27 October

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

*To book online go to www.cam.ac.uk/festivalofideas or ring the booking line on 01223 766766.

How should we tackle apocalyptic terrorism? What can mystical experiences during epileptic seizures teach us about empathy? What purpose do angels serve?

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Opinion: ‘Difficult’ Latin risks remaining a qualification for elite pupils

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Nov 2015 12:20:21 +0000

In a recent column for ̽��ֱ��Telegraph, Angela Epstein branded Jeremy Corbyn as “too thick to be prime minister”. ̽��ֱ��basis of this accusation was the Labour leader’s two Es at A-level, among his other academic adventures. In a world where jobs are won on the basis of experience and networks, one might expect Corbyn’s A-levels – taken in the late 1960s – to be ancient history. Yet the fact this argument can be made in a national newspaper shows that school qualifications matter long into one’s life, and are expected to stand for something.

Indeed, qualifications matter so greatly that the Department for Education has for more than a year now been consulting teachers and other interested parties about the reform of GCSEs. ̽��ֱ��final stages of this reform is still underway, and the government is explicit about its intention to make these qualifications “more academically demanding and knowledge-based”.

A key shift in policy is the move to measure schools’ performance or progress primarily on the basis of the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), the achievement of pupils in English, maths, science, a language and history or geography – rather than English, maths and three other subjects, as has been measured previously.

What this shift appears to acknowledge by focusing on “academically demanding” subjects, is that grades at GCSE mean different things between different subjects. Not all GCSEs are directly comparable – and those which do not make it into the EBacc are understood to be absolutely “less demanding” as courses.

Certainly, this is backed up by research. In a working paper from 2006, Robert Coe of Durham ̽��ֱ�� undertook a study of GCSE subjects using a statistical model developed by Georg Rasch, a Danish statistician of the mid-20th century who specialised in psychometry. It was a comparison of the likelihood for success in different GCSE examinations, based on a pupil’s ability. Coe’s findings are graphically represented below:

Relative difficulty of grades in 34 GCSE subjects ordered by difficulty of grade C. Robert Coe, Author provided

̽��ֱ��general disparity between subjects is clear. But as Coe comments, one of the most striking things about this data is just how difficult Latin appears when compared to other subjects: it is about as difficult to get a grade C in Latin as it is to get a grade B in chemistry, or a grade A in sociology. One is further able to group subjects between those on the left-hand side of the median line – science, technology, maths and engineering subjects, languages and humanities – and those on the right-hand side, which are more vocational in character.

Degree of difficulty

It is important to remember that this is no reflection of any inherent easiness or difficulty in a subject: sociology would not exist as a degree or research specialism if one could not think about it on the same level as Latin or chemistry. What this data instead shows is that these GCSEs test different levels of skills, some of which may be more readily acquired in a lower number of contact hours and some of which take more time.

Pupil achievement appears to be measurable only in relation to the expectations for an individual exam, rather than across all GCSEs. As a result, these grade levels also reflect the typical profile of those taking these exams. In Latin, data from the Cambridge Schools Classics Project suggests that 97% of the candidates taking the examining body OCR’s Latin GCSE are in the top third of the national ability range. What this means is that a profile similar to the sociology GCSE would be useless for classing candidates.

What these profiles really reflect, however, are the groups one would have expected to take these subjects in the 1950s the peak of grammar school education. Vocational subjects, which one might imagine transplanted back into secondary modern schools, could be taught with the expectations of 16-year-olds mastering skills at one level down from the average grammar school student, studying the subjects on the left-hand side of this chart.

While both grammar school pupils and secondary modern pupils would have studied maths, history and other subjects now on the EBacc, secondary modern pupils would typically not have learned Latin: the preserve of those at grammar or fee-paying schools. Those at the top of their sets in these schools, hoping to gain entry into Cambridge or Oxford, would be the ones for whom it was most important to be qualified in Latin, which was a requirement for entrance into both of these universities until 1959.

Quod erat demonstrandum

Today, in spite of this legacy, it can no longer be assumed that the average Latin learner is at the top of the ability range for their school. Since 2000, the numbers of schools offering Latin has increased dramatically, with reportedly 50,000 pupils starting to learn the language each year. For what must be the first time in Latin’s history in the UK, the majority of schools offering Latin right now are non-selective state institutions. Yet, despite this, the numbers of entrants into the OCR GCSE qualification have declined steadily since 2000. We have a situation where more and more young people are interested in Latin and the ancient world, but ever fewer have a qualification to show for it that will survive the current reforms.

Latin has long been defended as a difficult GCSE on the basis of the challenge it offers to the brightest 16-year olds. But as long as qualifications matter, it should be a concern for us all that the middle-range of schoolchildren in this country are put into a situation whereby Latin is inaccessible to them if they want to achieve that “good” rating of A*-C on their CV and they don’t have the opportunity or time to join an after-school club.

If Latin continues to function as a badge of distinction for those at the very top – an A* more impressive than every other A* – then it is a subject that can never belong to everyone. It remains a tool for social elites, with resources of extra contact hours, study time and tutoring, to be classed on their own terms – to the detriment of those now interested in the subject who never had access to it at school before.

This is an edited version of a talk delivered by the author at the Cambridge Festival of Ideas.

Francesca Middleton, Lecturer in Classics (Greek), ̽��ֱ�� 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.

Francesca Middleton (Faculty of Classics) discusses the reform of GCSEs and Latin's reputation as an academically demanding subject.

General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale ̽��ֱ��

Childrens talk, English & Latin : divided into several clauses

̽��ֱ��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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Opinion: How free are we really?

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Oct 2015 16:11:02 +0000

Freedom. A word redolent with benevolence. We like the idea of being “free”. We are outraged at the thought of being “un-free”. It is often presented to us as a polarity: free expression, free choice and democracy, on the one hand – and repression, censorship and autocracy on the other. We are to guard the former from the latter.

But is that all? What is the “freedom” we are told about, think about and experience? What does it consist of? What uses do we put it to or – perhaps even more importantly – not put it to?

In the advanced capitalist polities of the West, we are repeatedly told that freedom is the defining value of our time, that it is a precious possession to preserve by almost any means, even a measure of un-freedom, say, in the form of increased surveillance or accelerated militarisation. As such, it is a word that is put to many dubious uses including, of course, the now familiar idea of “bringing” freedom and liberty to a “recalcitrant world”, as David Harvey puts it. He asks:

If we were able to mount that wondrous horse of freedom, where would we seek to ride it?

Where indeed?

Freedom ‘thingified’

Has “freedom” turned into one of those buzzwords honoured more in the invocation than in its exercise? A talismanic utterance commandeered for various agendas including offering a reinforcing platform to the rich and the powerful, even when some of those people are responsible for squashing free expression and academic freedom – and worse – in their own states?

Would you like dignity with those? PROistolethetv, CC BY

“Free speech” – rather than being the nurturing and encouragement of real courage and the opening up of the imagination to new possibilities – is in danger of becoming one of the great banalities of our day, trotted out much more by the establishment for explaining its more degraded moves than a channel for producing meaningful dissent that could lead to material alternatives for the majority.

As something “thingified” – to borrow a word from Aimé Césaire’s Discourse on Colonialism – freedom isn’t seen as a practice which requires constant, vigilant exercise on all our parts. It becomes, for example, something that must be transmitted through teaching from an already free West to the un-free zones of the world. Here’s US president, Barack Obama, addressing the British parliament about the “Arab Spring”:

What we are seeing in Tehran, in Tunis, in Tahrir Square, is a longing for the same freedoms that we take for granted here at home … That means investing in the future of those nations that transition to democracy, starting with Tunisia and Egypt – by deepening ties of trade and commerce; by helping them demonstrate that freedom brings prosperity.

Freedom friendship: Obama addresses the UK parliament.

Once again then, freedom carefully channelled through the checkout lane.

Gregarious tolerance

It’s often assumed that science and rationalism are “free” while religion and faith are not. Yet some of the most uncritical acquiescence to the regimes of our day comes from science and many scientists in their collaboration with the privatisation of knowledge by big corporations who determine what questions get asked and what gets funded.

More often than not, what must be opposed is not just the openly repressive or oppressive (that of course, must be done – and is done by people who show astounding courage in their daily lives under harsh conditions: Saudi bloggers, women seeking education in Afghanistan, Irom Sharmila on hunger strike for a decade against army atrocities in India). What we must all guard against is rather more subtle and creeping.

We may have to recognise that the greatest danger to our exercise of freedom is lapsing into habits of thought where we acquiesce – where it becomes easier to think of the way things are as the way things ought to be, or will always be.

Speaking of intellectuals who shy away from the task of speaking difficult truths, the late Edward Said deprecated what he called “a gregarious tolerance” for the way things are. This gregarious tolerance is rife in our society and more tragically, more inexcusably, in our universities and among our intellectuals where one of the biggest assaults on independent thinking – increasing tuition fees, bloated managerial salaries, greater corporate presence in research funding – is failing to provoke a collective resistance.

Mounted Police at the Tuition Fee Protest. SomeDriftwood.

We need to guard against turning “freedom” into a weapon of smugness, cultural certainties to be wielded against apparently lesser cultures rather than a tool constantly sharpened through speaking truth about and against power. When freedom is seen as a “thing” – a value to be worshipped rather than as a practice – it atrophies into something that shores up power and the status quo ordained by it and as such becomes its opposite, an ossified, rather toothless idea.

Frederick Douglass. Wikimedia commons.

Freedom as an idea and practice, of course, also has a very different history or histories when we think of struggles against power from below. That sense of freedom was perhaps best articulated by remarkable former slave and anti-slavery campaigner, Frederick Douglass, in his famous speech commemorating the West Indian emancipation. After noting that those “who would be free, themselves must strike the blow”, Douglass famously declared:

̽��ֱ��whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of earnest struggle.

Maintain the rage

There Is No Alternative – Margaret Thatcher’s beloved TINA – is now being carried forward through Cameron and Osborne’s austerity regimes. An unfree, repressive, autocratic and despotic idea if there was ever one, but using “freedom” as its logo, the claim there is no “alternative” immediately narrows down “freedom” to consumer choice and business transactions at the expense of all other rights.

Cameron, you’ll note, saw no irony in feting Xi Jinping, an unelected ruler from an autocratic regime, and spouting platitudes about human rights. China in many ways represents a capitalist wet dream: a constrained population offering up wage labour without meaningful rights but “free” to consume what they can afford.

Meanwhile as we’ve seen with the hysteria over the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader, his once rather widely accepted ideas about social and economic justice are shrilly denounced as dangerous extremism which must be rooted out immediately – no free flourishing of alternatives there. Protest and anger? Bring out the demonising smears, the batons, the legislation, the water cannons.

How then to be free? Face them down. “Indignez vous”, as the French campaigner, Stephane Hessel, put it. Stay indignant. Protest, undermine, challenge and change. Douglass again, famously: “This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

This is an edited version of a talk delivered by the author at the Cambridge Festival of Ideas.

Priyamvada Gopal, Lecturer, Faculty of English, ̽��ֱ�� 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.

Priyamvada Gopal (Faculty of English) discusses freedom as a practice rather than a value to be worshipped.

Jonathan Potts

Manchester protest (27 September 2014)

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Flashmobs and flamenco: how Spain’s greatest artform became a tool for political protest

Anonymous — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 14:46:28 +0000

Flamenco is perhaps Spain’s most alluring cultural phenomenon, characterised by the stereotypes of sun, passion and tumbling black hair. Political protest and social activism are less likely to come to mind when thinking of flamenco, but for some performers it has always been a powerful tool for voicing political protest.

Never more so than today. Spain has suffered immensely in the global economic crisis – especially Andalusia, the southernmost region of the country most associated with flamenco. Neoliberalism has taken its toll on the Spanish people, who are suffering one of the highest levels of unemployment in Europe. In 2011, this led to the infamous 15M (indignados) protest movement that mobilised millions of citizens across the country to challenge policies of austerity following the banking crisis.

On the back of this movement, the flashmob group Flo6x8 has rebranded flamenco as a powerful political weapon. This anti-capitalist group has been well publicised for its political performances that have taken place in banks and even the Andalusian parliament. Using the body and voice as political tools, the group carries out carefully choreographed acciones (actions) in front of bemused bank staff and customers. These performances are recorded and then posted online, attracting a huge number of views.

Through explicitly political lyrics, Flo6x8 denounces the banking crisis and the austerity measures resulting from European bailouts. By claiming public, capitalist spaces the performers give a powerful political message that challenges the status quo. But these performances also break with typical gendered stereotypes in flamenco. ̽��ֱ��exotic, seductive and “oriental” image of the female dancer is turned on its head. Instead the female dancers in these performances become powerful, political figures.

̽��ֱ��group believes it is repoliticising flamenco, returning to its historical origins. Nowadays flamenco is closely associated with the world music industry and tourism. Yet the origins of flamenco tell a different story. Flamenco was born among socially marginalised communities such as Gypsies, miners and other disadvantaged Andalusian groups. Lyrics from the 18th and 19th centuries tell tales of poverty and social hardship.

True, the flamenco we know today owes much of its legacy to the commercial theatres (cafés cantantes) of mid-19th century Spain. But its political side has come out during times of social upheaval. Republicans during the Spanish Civil War sang ideological messages. And singers of the 1960/70s such as Manuel Gerena and José Menese challenged the Franco regime in pursuit of democracy and equality.

Fandangos republicanos sung by Manuel González “El Guerrita”.

I want to say with passion, this fandango that I sing, Spain is Republican. And this is from the heart, down with the law and tyranny.

Flo6x8 see themselves as the continuation of this political legacy, where flamenco becomes a catalyst for social change as can be seen by this anti-austerity flashmob in the Andalusian parliament in June 2014.

Flo6x8 anti-austerity protest at the plenary session of the Andalusian parliament in June 2014.

̽��ֱ��controversial new gag law introduced by the Spanish government in 2015 has restricted the activities of Flo6x8. Yet members remain committed to flamenco as a political weapon against continued social and economic inequalities in Spain.

Confronting racism

̽��ֱ��history of flamenco has also been used to promote tolerance. Flamenco is said to have links to Spain’s Islamic past a period when Christians, Jews and Muslims allegedly coexisted in peace (convivencia). Although criticised by some as a utopian myth, convivencia carries a message of tolerance for today. Many argue that flamenco emerged from an amalgamation of cultural influences in southern Spain: Arabs, Jews, Gypsies, African slaves, Andalusian underclasses and so on. ̽��ֱ��belief, then, is that flamenco is born of intercultural dialogue.

However, Spain’s relationship with its Islamic past is problematic. In some quarters it is celebrated – in others it is shunned. Since the 1980s, increasing immigration into Spain, particularly from Morocco, has complicated matters. Like in many countries across Europe, racial tensions and Islamophobia have increased. Here flamenco has been used to confront racial tensions and promote tolerance.

In 2003, the dancer Ángeles Gabaldón and her company premiered the show Inmigración (Immigration), which was also broadcast online to more than 50,000 people. Inmigración raised awareness of the humanitarian issues surrounding migration across the Strait of Gibraltar: human trafficking, migrant deaths, immigrant sex work and racism.

̽��ֱ��show, which featured a multiracial cast, sought to raise awareness of the social reality of immigration – and, interestingly, also presented Spain’s own history of emigration before it became a country of immigration. But the most powerful element of Inmigración was how the past and the present were joined together in musical performance. Flamenco was combined with musical styles believed to have originated in Islamic Spain that now exist in North Africa.

̽��ֱ��cast included Jalal Chekara, a Moroccan performer who has lived in Spain for many years. He is known for his collaborations with flamenco musicians, promoting tolerance through the musical re-imagining of a shared cultural history.

Since 2003, the situation across Spain and Europe has deteriorated. ̽��ֱ��current migrant crisis is maybe the most difficult challenge facing Europe and Inmigración is perhaps even more relevant today than when it was first performed. It shows the capacity of flamenco as a form of social criticism that can give power to the powerless and voice to the voiceless.

Joshua Brown, a lecturer in Ethnomusicology at Chapman ̽��ֱ�� and Juan Pinilla, flamenco singer and writer in Granada, assisted with research for this article. ̽��ֱ��author will be appearing at the Cambridge Festival of Ideas.

Matthew Machin-Autenrieth, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, ̽��ֱ�� 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.

Matthew Machin-Autenrieth (Faculty of Music) discusses flamenco and its use as a tool of social activism.

Flamenco and the politics of resistance: flashmobs and immigration in Spain

CB Shoots

Flamenco

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Outlaws, trolls and beserkers: meet the hero-monsters of the Icelandic sagas

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 14:28:14 +0000

“I’ve come to kill your monster!” exclaims Beowulf in the 2007 film version of the epic poem. But how do his suspicious Danish hosts know that this monstrously huge stranger is actually a hero searching for glory? And, by the same token, how do modern audiences with no prior knowledge of the Marvelverse know that the Incredible Hulk is a “good guy”? At least readers of the Icelandic sagas had an advantage: they were used to their heroes being monsters – at least part of the time.

Iceland’s medieval literature is rich in many regards: in Eddas and sagas, it tells us about early Scandinavia and its expanding world-view, ranging from the mythology of the North, the legends and heroes of the migration age, the Viking voyages and the settlement of Iceland all the way through to the coming of Christianity and the formation of kingdoms in Scandinavia.

It also tell us about monsters – for the literature of medieval Iceland is also rich in the paranormal. In mythology, gods and men fight against giants. In the sagas, humans battle the forces of disorder, the trolls and revenants – think a cross between a vampire and a zombie – that inhabit the wild mountains and highlands of Norway and Iceland. Or at least that is what, on the surface, appears to happen.

Trolls won’t always be trolls

Monstrosity, however, is never clear-cut. Because of their hybrid nature, monsters cannot easily be categorised – instead, they demand to be approached and read in a more nuanced way. Such a reading will soon lead to the realisation that not all monsters are created equal, that they do not all pose the same threat. For trolls are not always trolls.

In fact, the word “troll”, which we now understand to denote some kind of mountain-dwelling ogre, was used for a number of different kinds of figures: witches, the undead, berserkers, but also people who were larger or stronger or uglier than ordinary humans. Which leads us to the monstrous heroes of the medieval Icelandic family sagas, or Íslendingasögur.

Half monster, half hero

In these texts, we encounter characters that are both troll-like monster and human hero – that both threaten and defend society and that therefore draw our attention to the fact that the boundary between monstrosity and heroism is not only thin but also regularly crossed.

While some of the creatures that are referred to as “trolls” – especially revenants, but also witches and even berserkers – are unequivocally monstrous, the characters that occupy the most ambiguous position suspended between monstrosity and heroism are outlaws. These, however, are also the characters that have captured the Icelandic imagination the most: there are three sagas that scholars agree to be major outlaw stories, the sagas of Grettir Ásmundarson, Gísli Súrsson, and Hörðr Grímkelsson.

There are also some sagas that draw on similar narrative motifs to tell the story of men who are outlawed for at least parts of their lives, like the saga of the Sworn Brothers (Fóstbræðra saga) or the saga of the people of Kjalarnes (Kjalnesinga saga). All of these marginal heroes border not only on society, but also on that which one encounters when one leaves the social spaces behind: the monstrous.

This has less to do with their physical location in the “wild”, and more with the way they interact with society: when Hörðr goes raiding with his outlaw band, he becomes a threat to the local community. And such a threat to economic growth and social stability has to be removed. However, if these characters were only threatening, only monstrous, they would not have their own sagas. They are not only monsters: they are also heroes, defenders of the society they themselves threaten.

Fringe dwellers

̽��ֱ��story of Grettir “the Strong” Ásmundarson is a particularly interesting example of this. In the 19 years Grettir spends as an outlaw both in Norway and Iceland, he constantly moves back and forth between human society and isolation as a “monster”, never fully belonging to either. When he steals from the local farmers or simply sits on their property and refuses to let go, he becomes a monster in the eyes of society. But when he fights against trolls and revenants, performing tasks no one else would be able to perform, he becomes a guardian of the medieval Icelandic galaxy that consists of farms and sheep.

In this duality, Grettir and Hörðr and other strong, troll-like men, are not too dissimilar from the monstrous heroes of the present day. Bruce Banner has clear anger management issues, but when he transforms into the Hulk, his strength enables him to perform amazing feats of heroism in defence of society. But the dual nature of his character can also make him turn against his friends and allies, just as Hörðr turns against his family when he wants to burn his own sister in her house.

This fluid continuity between monstrosity and heroism has been explored extensively in medieval literature: Beowulf or the Táin Bó Cúailnge, (the Cattle Raid of Cooley) – just like the Icelandic sagas – have their fair share of monstrous heroes. But it keeps fascinating us even today.

Shows such as Heroes have added a new shade to this exploration in recent years. Currently, even the humanness of zombies is on the cultural agenda in Warm Bodies or iZombie. Let us hope that, as this exploration continues, as we become more aware of the continuity between the monstrous and the human, we will eventually realise that, often, “the other” is just another “self”.

̽��ֱ��Avengers in the North, a talk by the author on the monstrous superheroes in the Viking Age, will be part of the Cambridge Festival of Ideas.

Rebecca Merkelbach, Doctoral Candidate, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

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

Inset images: An old Mountain Troll, 1904 (Wikimedia Commons); ̽��ֱ��Hulk (Ton Haex).

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

Rebecca Merkelbach (Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic) discusses the monstrous heroes of Scandinavian mythology and literature.

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Manuscript of Beowulf, in the British Library

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