Talks
Holding it Together: Making, Maintaining and Mending from the Early Modern to the Present
‘Holding it Together’, a two-day symposium taking place in late June 2026, addresses this gap, bringing together makers and scholars of material culture to co-create new and robust concepts of lastingness rooted in both historical understanding and contemporary practice.
| Tue 2 June | 1:00PM - 2:00PM |
Evolution: Inevitable or Remarkable? On 2nd June at 1pm Prof. Peter Jeavons will give a seminar entitled ‘Evolution: Inevitable or Remarkable?’. A light sandwich lunch will be provided from 12:30pm in the Shasha Suite, Woolf Building, Westminster College, Madingley Road, Cambridge. Please be seated by 12:50pm so that the seminar can start promptly. |
| Thu 4 June | 11:00AM - 3:30PM |
Highlight Weirding Sustainability In this two-day event series, we explore the potential for weirding sustainability; going beyond conventional discourses that reproduce business-as-usual, to ask: What does global weirding mean for us as researchers and creative practitioners? How might a weirding of our own imaginations and practices spark more radical and meaningful change? |
| 1:00PM - 2:00PM |
The search for life beyond the solar system Are we alone in the universe? This ancient and deeply human question continues to fascinate. In this public talk, astrophysicist and exoplanet expert Professor Nikku Madhusudhan will take you on a journey into the search for worlds beyond our solar system and what they might reveal about life. |
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| 5:00PM - 7:30PM |
Highlight Weirding Sustainability In this two-day event series, we explore the potential for weirding sustainability; going beyond conventional discourses that reproduce business-as-usual, to ask: What does global weirding mean for us as researchers and creative practitioners? How might a weirding of our own imaginations and practices spark more radical and meaningful change? |
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| 5:30PM - 7:00PM |
The Cambridge Interfaith Programme partners with the Fetzer Institute to ask: Can storytelling and art generate a shared sense of the sacred without becoming unfaithful to existing traditions? What is the practical impact of such effort? With Giles Waller, Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz, Riya Kartha, Ankur Barua & Bill Vendley. |
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| 9:00PM - 10:30PM |
MUSIC AND SILENCE | A lecture by Sir James MacMillan A lecture by award-winning composer and conductor Sir James MacMillan |
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| Fri 5 June | 9:30AM - 1:45PM |
Highlight Weirding Sustainability In this two-day event series, we explore the potential for weirding sustainability; going beyond conventional discourses that reproduce business-as-usual, to ask: What does global weirding mean for us as researchers and creative practitioners? How might a weirding of our own imaginations and practices spark more radical and meaningful change? |
| 2:00PM - 4:30PM |
Highlight Weirding Sustainability In this two-day event series, we explore the potential for weirding sustainability; going beyond conventional discourses that reproduce business-as-usual, to ask: What does global weirding mean for us as researchers and creative practitioners? How might a weirding of our own imaginations and practices spark more radical and meaningful change? |
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| 6:00PM - 8:00PM |
Highlight Weirding Sustainability In this two-day event series, we explore the potential for weirding sustainability; going beyond conventional discourses that reproduce business-as-usual, to ask: What does global weirding mean for us as researchers and creative practitioners? How might a weirding of our own imaginations and practices spark more radical and meaningful change? |
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| Sat 6 June | 10:00AM - 5:00PM |
Set in our beautiful landscape, the Festival of Plants celebrates the wonder of plants when the Garden is in full bloom. |
| 4:00PM - 5:00PM |
GLOBAL CULTURES: A T KABE WILSON – HONOURMASTICS 6 JUNE 2026 Join us at Jesus College, Cambridge, for a presentation and painting unveiling by Jesus College Artist in Residence A T Kabe Wilson, focused on his recent work about the memorialisation of names. Tickets are available below. |
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| Sun 7 June | 2:00PM - 4:00PM |
Highlight Public reading series: Germany in Text and Context with bestselling author Olivia Wenzel German author Olivia Wenzel and reads from her award-winning book 1000 Coils of Fear, followed by an audience Q&A |