The interdisciplinary Cambridge Festival will take place from 13 – 28 March 2024 with a mixture of online, on-demand and in-person events covering all aspects of the world-leading research happening at Cambridge.
Once again we’ve scoured the programme to highlight events featuring Churchill College connections including Churchill Fellows and current students leading a wide range of activities and talks, from an experiential relaxation session in the College recital room to an interactive quiz on the topic of energy sustainability!
All these events are free to attend but booking is often required – see below for details.
14 March – 28 March
Cambridge Creative Encounters Exhibition – 10am-5pm every day at the West Hub
The work of Churchill College JRF Dr Joshua Fitzgerald, on art history of 19th century Mexican boardgames as presented in Augmented Reality and poetry, forms two parts of this free exhibition which aims to showcase research in novel and creative ways. No booking required. Find out more.
For the invite-only launch for the Cambridge Festival on Wednesday 13 March, Dr Joshua Fitzgerald will also be reading his contributions to CCE Words (“Parsing Posada’s Pastimes: Museum Reflection on the Artful Boardgames of Mexico Before the Revolution”) from the poetry book Touching Traces: Finding the Words for Immersive Research.
Thursday 14 March
6:00pm – 7:30pm: Waterstones Bookshop, Cambridge
‘AI Needs You: an evening with Verity Harding’
Verity Harding, one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in AI, will discuss her new book ‘AI Needs You: How We Can Change AI’s Future and Save Our Own’ with Churchill College fellow Professor Dame Diane Coyle. Booking required. Find out more and book
Friday 15 March
4:30pm – 6:00pm: Wren Library, Trinity College
‘Textual genetics’
Join Churchill College PhD student Kemal Sultanov as he leads a workshop examining writer’s notebooks, drafts and ‘proofs’ held at the Wren Library. Booking required. Find out more and book
Saturday 16 March
10.30am – 11.30am: Dept. of Chemical Engineering & Biotechnology
‘Surprising and Informative Kahoot Quiz for Energy Transition’
Join four Churchill College PhD students; Aki Fujinawa, Yujia Wang, Paula Mendoza Moreno and George Fulham as they lead an eye-opening interactive quiz on the topic of energy sustainability! Booking required. Find out more and book
11.00am – 4.00pm: Cambridge Academy for Science & Technology
‘Vision assessment in clinical brain research’
Churchill College PhD student Dr Jonathon Holland will be part of a team demonstrating some of the tools used by the Cambridge Clinical Vision Lab as part of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus Day. No booking required. Find out more
1.30pm – 2.30pm: Institute for Manufacturing
‘Your life is manufactured: Revealing the secrets of how things get made and delivered to you’
Join a talk by Churchill College fellow Professor Tim Minshall making a largely invisible world visible. He will also discuss why – if we want to have a more sustainable and equitable world – we need to rethink what we make, and how and where we make it. Booking is recommended. Find out more and book
2.30pm – 4.00pm: Recital Room, Churchill College
‘Relaxation Through Mindfulness, Breathwork, Motion and Music: A Guided Experiential Session’
You are invited to take part in this interactive relaxation session led by an expert team that includes Churchill College fellow Professor Valerie Ross, Director of the Centre for Intercultural Musicology at Churchill College. Booking is required and places are limited but a few spaces have been reserved for members of the Churchill College community. Email vr270@cam.ac.uk to book, indicating ‘Churchill College’ in your email. Find out more
Wednesday 20 March
6:00pm – 7:30pm: Department of Pathology
‘Diversity in the immune system’
Join recent Senior Research Fellow Professor Adrian Liston and learn just how different our immune systems can be and what makes them so. Booking required. Find out more and book
Friday 22 March
5.00pm – 6.15pm: Department of Chemistry
‘Bioplastics for a sustainable future: a lecture in memory of Alex Hopkins’
This year’s Alex Hopkins Lecture will be delivered by Professor Dr Marta E. G. Mosquera, from the University of Alcala and will reflect on how materials have defined human existence. Booking recommended. Find out more & book
Saturday 23 March
10.00am – 2.00pm: Department of Engineering
‘Engineering Sustainable Communities’
Join Churchill College fellow Dr Rachel Thorley and students from Churchill College and engineering department for a range of interactive games, hands-on activities and fun experiments to discover how engineers create sustainable communities. No booking required. Find out more
Sunday 24 March
10.00am – 4.00pm: University of Cambridge Student Services, New Museums site Bene’t Street
Churchill College PhD student Carmen Petitjean is running a stall as part of the Festival’s Family Weekend where she will talk about cardiovascular health and cardiovascular disease risk prediction using a card game she designed! No booking required. Find out more
Tuesday 26 March
8.00pm – 9.00pm: Cambridge Union Society
Kamal Ahmed, former BBC Economics editor and editor–in–chief of the News Movement, is in conversation with Churchill Fellow Professor David Spiegelhalter, about the manipulation of statistics in an era of misinformation and how we can all be better at spotting false narratives. Booking required. Find out more & book
Wednesday 27 March
10.30am – 12.00pm: Babbage Lecture Theatre
‘Meet the researchers: Clinical MS research in Cambridge’
Join Churchill College PhD student Dr Jonathon Holland for a mini-symposium featuring presentations from members of the Cambridge Clinical MS Research team and an open discussion on MS research. Booking required Find out more & book
6:30pm-8:30pm: The Chapel at Churchill College
‘Songs of Air and Sea’
Join Churchill College fellow and composer Dr Ewan Campbell for a pre-concert talk and exhibition followed by a live performance with the Marsyas Trio. Booking required. Find out more and book
For information about other events taking place visit the Festival website: Cambridge Festival
