Marking International Women’s Day at the Cambridge Festival
From pre-eclampsia and its lasting impact on women’s health to inequitable distribution of domestic and caring labour in different-sex couples to an in-conversation with the Vice Chancellor: the Cambridge Festival counts a host of prominent female speakers in its programme.
Pre-eclampsia affects approximately 6-8% of pregnancies and is thought to be a problem with the placenta that usually causes blood pressure to rise.
If left untreated, pre-eclampsia can be very dangerous for both the Mother and her baby.
In Pre-eclampsia and its lasting impact on women’s health: Not just a villain of pregnancy? (28 March, 6.30pm), explore the puzzling relationship between pregnancy, pre-eclampsia and women’s long-term cardiovascular health, and explain how the University of Cambridge-led POPPY study hopes to provide answers to some of these questions.
Principal Investigator Dr Carmel McEniery says, “Our principal aim is to raise awareness about the increased long-term health risks faced by women who experience pre-eclampsia and other pregnancy syndromes.”
“We need to ‘continue the conversation’ around pregnancy, pre-eclampsia and women’s long-term health and the Festival will be an ideal forum for this. We also wish to highlight the POPPY study, which will address fundamental questions around the links between pre-eclampsia and women’s long-term cardiovascular health.”
Top female voices taking part in the festival include University of Cambridge’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Debbie Prentice, Dr Una McCormack, Verity Harding and Nicola Upson amongst others.
In our Cambridge Conversations series, University of Cambridge’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Debbie Prentice will take part in a Q&A on her research in Psychology where she has specialised in the study of domestic violence, alcohol abuse and gender stereotypes. She will also discuss her time at Cambridge and her vison for the University of Cambridge (27 March, 6pm).
An eminent psychologist, Professor Prentice carried out her academic and administrative career at Princeton University, which she first joined in 1988. She rose through the academic ranks and took on administrative responsibilities of increasing scope, chairing the Department of Psychology for 12 years, serving as Dean of Faculty for three years, and then serving six years as Provost.
Her academic expertise is in the study of social norms that govern human behaviour – particularly the impact and development of unwritten rules and conventions, and how people respond to breaches of those rules.
Bestselling science fiction writer, Dr Una McCormack, will be speaking with Professor Lord Martin Rees on the relationship between science and science fiction when it comes to our knowledge of the life, the universe and outer space. (25 March, 8pm)
Dr McCormack is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling science fiction writer who has written more than twenty novels based on TV shows such as Star Trek, Doctor Who, and Firefly. Her academic interests include women’s science fiction, transformative works (‘fanfiction’), and JRR Tolkien
Writer Emily Kenway and Thara Raj, Director of Population Health and Inequalities at Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, will be on a panel discussion trying to answer the question: how can we fix the NHS and social care? (21 March, 6pm).
Emily Kenway researches, writes and speaks about thought-provoking social issues. Drawing on a decade-long career working in social justice, from campaigning for living wages to tackling worker exploitation, she sheds light on the crucial forces shaping our lives and communities.
Thara Raj is Director of Population Health and Inequalities at Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WHHT). Prior to coming to the hospital Thara was Director of Public Health for Warrington Borough Council and oversaw the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Professor Clare Brooks is Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge. She will be speaking in a Question Time-style panel discussion on the teacher recruitment crisis on Who can fix the teacher recruitment and retention crisis? (20 March, 5.30pm). Professor Brooks is a leading authority on teacher education whose work emphasises its wider social context, impact and purpose.
Dr Melisa Basol is a social psychologist and one of Forbes' 30 under 30 Class of 2022 and is currently leading the misinformation work at Moonshot, a social impact business that works to end online harms, applying evidence, ethics and human rights.
Dr Ella McPherson, Associate Professor of the Sociology of New Media and Digital Technology and Co-Director of the Centre of Governance and Human Rights (CGHR). At CGHR, she leads the research theme on human rights in the digital age. Both will be panel members on How will AI affect the democratic process? (20 March, 6pm)
Emily Kenway
Emily Kenway
Professor Clare Brooks
Professor Clare Brooks
Dr Melisa Basol
Dr Melisa Basol
Dr Ella McPherson
Dr Ella McPherson
Verity Harding
Verity Harding
Dr Tina Van der Vlies
Dr Tina Van der Vlies
Samantha Day
Samantha Day
Crime author Nicola Upson will be talking to Cambridge University Librarian Dr Jessica Gardner about curating the library’s latest exhibition, Murder by the Book, which opens on 23 March, and the importance of crime writing as a genre. (28 March, 5.30pm)
As part of the Cambridge Festival, 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 Professor Dame Diane Coyle, from the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, Cambridge (14 March, 6pm)
Verity will draw from her book some inspiring lessons from the histories of three 20th-century tech revolutions – the space race, in vitro fertilisation and the internet – to draw us into the conversation about AI and its possible futures.
She argues that it is critical for society to take the lead in ensuring that AI fulfils its promise to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
History is a contested school subject and a topic of polarised public debates. These discussions involve the attributed meaning to the narrated and remembered past, while shaping identities and world views. In Why school history matters: Public discourses on the value of history for society, 1924–2024, Dr Tina Van der Vlies discusses how and why ideas on the value and purpose of school history for society changed in this period. Dr Van der Vlies is Assistant Professor History, Heritage & Education at the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication.
Comedian Samantha Day will present an evening of thought-provoking humour in the Booby Trap. Breasts loom large in our culture, but why are we so obsessed with them? The award-winning comedian gets her tit jokes out and exposes some big issues. (20 March, 7.30pm)
The inequitable distribution of domestic and caring labour in different-sex couples has been a long-standing feminist concern. In Seeing the mess: Gender, housework and perception (21 March, 3pm) we question why do women continue to shoulder a disproportionate amount of housework and childcare despite economic and cultural gains? And why is there a widespread one-sided misrepresentation within different-sex couples about how domestic and caring work is distributed between the two partners?
The Cambridge Festival is a unique festival of events brought to you by the University of Cambridge. With over 350 events from exhibitions, walks, talks, workshops, performances, hands-on activities, films and more!
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