Join us for a live online talk and Q&A with Prof Rebecca Kilner FRS, Director of the Museum of Zoology, Cambridge. Hear about her fascinating research into animal behaviour, and how recent work on the parental behaviour of burying beetles is changing our understanding of evolution. Ask your questions and find out more about the Museum, its collections, and how they are being harnessed for research and engagement.

Libraries and museums across the world are filled with the remnants of the Greek and Roman past: objects, manuscripts, literary works, papyri, inscriptions… not to mention copious amounts of ink spilt on understanding them. But access to this classical past has not always been equal – and, in fact, a classical education was historically the preserve of the rich. So who owns the past?

Few figures have exercised as much fascination in Western history as Julian the ‘Apostate’, the last Roman emperor to believe in the Greek gods. Hated in the Middle Ages, loved by the Enlightenment, he continues to feature in contemporary fiction from Erik Ibsen and Gore Vidal to Julian Barnes’ Elizabeth Finch (2022). But who was Julian? What drove his resistance against the final and perhaps most radical of the transformations of Roman power, its Christianisation?

The Cambridge Festival is open for booking, with a mixture of online, on-demand and in-person events covering all aspects of the world-leading research happening at Cambridge.

For 2023 the Festival includes a special fifth theme - Power.

From panel discussions, film premieres, and self-guided walking tours, to interactive activities for the whole family, discover a breadth events on the Festival website. 

 

Find events under the theme of power

Ever wondered how women supported polar expeditions before they were allowed to travel to the poles themselves? Join the Polar Museum and a team of student costume designers who have recreated one of the most eccentric and beloved items in the museum's collection: Dorothy Irving Bell's polar-themed party costume. Learn about a woman whose self-proclaimed mission in life was to imbue the young with a love of polar exploration and try on the replica costume for yourself!

Part of the Cambridge Festival Student Creatives project.

Join us for this talk by Jack Ashby, Assistant Director, University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge

Join guest artist Suman Gujral and Heong Gallery, Downing College curator Dr Prerona Prasad as we discuss how today's museums can remain relevant and the role they and artists can play in engaging audiences with the concerns of a 21st century global Britain.

Join us at the Polar Museum with author Katherine MacInnes to celebrate International Women's Day this March. Discover the untold stories of the race for the South Pole from the perspective of the women whose lives would be forever changed by it.

We are delighted to welcome Sujit Sivasundaram, Professor of World History from the University of Cambridge for this talk which will be held in person and also livestreamed from the Museum of Zoology.  

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