Symposium Translation and Transformation

The final Festival Symposium of the term will take place on Saturday 10th March, 11am to 3.45pm.

The theme is Translation and Transformation. The event, which includes Lunch, is Free and Open to All. Booking is required at litfest@magd.cam.ac.uk (mention dietary requirements).

The Key-Note lecture will be gven by Clare Pollard, highly-acclaimed translator of Ovid’s Heroines (2013).

A stellar list of speakers will be leading discussion on the theme of Translation and Transformation in our panel session, chaired by Dr Jane Hughes.

Speakers will be Professor Robin Kirkpatrick (the distinguished Professsor of Italian and translator of many works including the outstanding Penguin version of Dante’s Divine Comedy), Dr Sophie Seita (based here in Cambridge as a research fellow at Queens’ and a well-known translator of German texts) and the multi-award-winning Hungarian poet and translator, George Szirtes (whose many honours include the T S Eliot Prize).

The Symposium will conclude with a Workshop chaired by Silke Mentchen and led by Dr Vivien Kogut Lessa de Sa, the renowened expert in comparative studies in Brazilian, Portuguese and English literatures.

REMEMBER TO BOOK by emailing litfest@magd.cam.ac.uk

Festival – Programme for Lent Term

We are delighted to announce the programme for the Lent Term.

All events are free of charge and open to all.  Booking only required as stated for Saturday events.  Evening events conclude with a reception for audience and speakers.  Day-time events include lunch.

Events take place in the Sir Humphrey Cripps Theatre, Cripps Court, Magdalene (Entrance on Chesterton Road).

Thursday 25th January, 5pm

Reporting Change

Sam Coates, Bridget Kendall,

Ramsey Zarifeh.

A panel discussion featuring three distinguished journalists on how political and social news is reported.

Bridget Kendall, Master of Peterhouse and distinguished journalist

Thursday 8th February, 5pm              

Life Change, Death and Grief

Dr Cecilia Brassett, Dr Brendan Burchell, Will Stone, Dr Carl Watkins. A panel discussion about the impact of major life changes through the eyes of experts in medicine, history and poetry.

 

Saturday 10th Feb, 11am – 4pm

Changing the Human Experience

Dr Bettina Beinhoff, Prof Nicky Clayton, Clive Wilkins, Dr Marwa Mahmoud, with Interstellar 227. A symposium, chaired by Dr Hannah Critchlow, on Artificial Intelligence, non-verbal communication and constructed languages. Includes lunch. Booking essential: litfest@magd.cam.ac.uk (mention any dietary requirements).

Dr Hannah Critchlow, Neuro-scientist and Outreach Fellow, Magdalene College

Thursday 22nd February, 5pm

Change on the Early Silk Road

Dr Michael Scott, author and broadcaster on the Ancient World, gives the Lent Term Festival Lecture.

 

Thursday 8th March, 5pm 

Gender and Change  Dr Ari Ercole, Jess Borthwick, Dr Gillie Stoneham. A panel discussion on the social and medical issues surrounding gender.

 

Saturday 10th March, 11am -3pm Translation/Transformation. A Symposium and Workshop for all on the idea of translation (no special knowledge required). Lunch included. Booking essential litfest@magd.cam.ac.uk (mention any dietary requirements). Speakers include George Szirtes and Sophie Seita.

Magdalene Festival: poetry and change

ANNOUNCING THIS EXCITING and UNIQUE ONE-DAY EVENT – booking now open

“POETRY AND CHANGE”

Open to all -free of charge

Saturday 25th November 2017 11.00 am to 5.00 pm

PLEASE BOOK BY EMAILING litfest@magd.cam.ac.uk

Lunch is free, but please mention any dietary requirements. Let us know if you wish to book a place on the workshop (spaces are limited, and will be allocated on a first-come basis)

The event is in the superb auditorium in the Cripps Building, Magdalene College, Cambridge (entrance on Chesterton Road).

 

11.00am: Coffee, registration.

The Chair for today’s event is the poet Neil Wenborn.

11.30am: Poetry as Change: Readings by poets who have engaged with
the art of translation. Readers: Susan Wicks, Peter Hughes, Clive Wilmer

12.45pm: Lunch in the Denis Murphy Gallery

1.30pm:  Talk by Dr Marcus Waithe, Fellow in English at Magdalene
College and Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of English, University of
Cambridge.

2.15pm: Change in Poetry: Readings by poets whose work reflects on
change in various ways. Readers: Philip Gross, Moniza Alvi, Richard
Berengarten

3.30pm: Afternoon tea

3.45pm: Members of the audience who have pre-booked are invited to stay for a workshop led by the poet Jane Monson.

Jane Monson, who will lead a workshop after the readings

Festival of Change: Saturday Symposium and New Exhibition

The first weekend event of the Festival of Change was a superb day-long symposium on “Legacies and Conservation in a Time of Change”.

The opening session chaired by Dr John Munns, examined  how change impacts on two areas of conservation.   Helena Byrne of the British Library discussed the challenges of website preservation in the modern world.  What do we preserve and how do we record  changes within web-based material?  Why might we keep such material at all – is it for the content, or as a record of what engages people today,  or for future scholars interested in design?  With a wealth of information, the presentation was an invaluable guide to the latest thoughts on digital preservation.  A link to the Powerpoint is here.

Festival of Change Helena Byrne

The second speaker, Dr Mia Jackson, who is curator at Waddesdon Manor, gave a double-sided talk about metamorphosis, looking first at the way Ovid’s great poem “Metamorphosis” (and especially images of the story of Apollo and Daphne) was used in late seventeenth-century art and furniture; and then using this material to think about the metamorphosis of materials (whether wood, horn or tortoiseshell) in the creation of French furniture of the period.   The talk was in conjunction with the Festival Exhibition, in the Pepys Library, on the Reception of Ovid in Caxton and early printed books.

The Exhibition is open Monday to Saturday 2pm to 4pm until 19th December in the Pepys Library Magdalene College. Entry is free of charge for individuals or groups under 10 in number.

After lunch, the keynote lecture was given by Dame Fiona Reynolds, Master of Emmanuel College and formerly Director General of the National Trust. In a wide-ranging and passionate account of both the history of conservation and also the challenges facing us today, she gave a strong defence of the National Trust’s aim of making the great buildings of the nation more widely available for people.

The symposium concluded with a session on the beautiful house, given by Jim Ede to the University of Cambridge, Kettles Yard.

The archivist, Frieda Midgley, introduced us to the history of the house, which is preserved as Jim Ede intended for visitors to stroll or sit and contemplate the superb collection of twentieth-century art. A recent renovation is nearly complete; and the house is reopening to the public in February.

The afternoon session, chaired by Dr Annja Neumann,  concluded with the  premier of an evocative and sympathetic film on Jim Ede and the Kettles Yard project by Cary Parker.

 

Festival of Change: Launch event 12th October

We are delighted to launch the Magdalene Festival of Change. A programme for the term can be found here. Festival of Change_2017_Term1

What do we mean by Change?

A distinguished panel will discuss the way Change is key to different disciplines, from science to history, philosophy to anthropology.

The event is at 5pm on THURSDAY 12th OCTOBER  in the Cripps Auditorium, Cripps Building, Magdalene College, Cambridge (Chesterton Road entrance).

All welcome, free of charge.

The Discussion will be followed by a Drinks Reception for Audience and Panellists.

Chaired by the Master of Magdalene, Dr Rowan Williams, the panel includes the modern Political Historian Dr Neil Ketchley (Kings College  London) who has just completed a major new book on “Egypt in the Time of Revolution”, Dr Francoise Barbira-Freedman, who is an expert in the interface between plant adaption and human health, and  Dr Martin Ruehl who specialises in German philosophical thought.

If you wish to be added to the mailing list for future events, please email us at litfest@magd.cam.ac.uk

We regret there is no parking on site, except for disabled parking which needs to be pre-booked.

The Cripps Building

Festival of Change

Magdalene College has announced the theme of the forthcoming Festival, 2017-18. It is on the theme of Change.

This is the fifth in the series of Festivals, which began in 2005, and which are held by the College every three years.

Events are all free of charge and open to all.  Members of the public are warmly invited to join us for any or all events. Booking is not required EXCEPT for Saturday events,which include lunch.

Updates will be posted on this site, or you can ask to be sent information by email by contacting us at litfest@magd.cam.ac.uk and asking to be added to the mailing list.

Provisional Programme

All Thursday events start at 5pm and all Saturday events start at 11.30am  (unless otherwise stated) in the Sir Humphrey Cripps Theatre, Cripps Court, Magdalene College, Cambridge.

 Thursday 12th October Launch Event

What do we mean by ‘Change’?

A panel discussion of the way we define, identify and engage with change in different disciplines.  Chair: Dr Rowan Williams

Thursday 26th October

Climate Change

A panel discussion on climate change and the changing ways in which we adapt to it. Chair: Dr Luke Skinner

Saturday 28th October  (11.30am to 3pm)

Collections and Legacies

Symposium on collecting and preservation in a time of change. Chair: Dr John Munns

Thursday  9th November

Extinction: a natural change?

A panel discussion about extinction in the natural world and the linguistic world.  Chair: Professor Paul Dupree

Thursday  23rd November

Adaptation and Change

Discussion of adaptations between media, such as film versions of novels. There will also be a short recital of musical adaptations.  Chair: Dr Michael Hrebeniak

Saturday  25th November

Change as theme, change as form

Poetry Readings and Discussions  Chairs: Mr Neil Wenborn  and Dr Jane Hughes

Thursday 25th January

Key Note Lecture on Change in the Classical World.   Chair: Dr John Patterson

Thursday 8th February

Life changes: Death and Grief.

A panel discussion of the impact of major life changes Chair:  tbc

Saturday 10th February (11am to 3pm)

Scientific Change

Workshop aimed at young people, on changing ways in which we (and others!) communicate – from birds to humans, to robots. Chair: Dr Hannah Critchlow

Thursday 22nd February

Reporting Change

A panel discussion on the ways political and social changes are reported. Chair tbc

Thursday 8th March

Gender change

A panel discussion on the political, social, legal and medical issues surrounding gender change. Chair tbc

Saturday 10th March    (11am to 3pm)

Translation

A workshop on Translation, aimed at young people.  Chairs: Ms Silke Mentchen and Dr Jane Hughes

Exhibition:

In the Michaelmas Term (before Christmas) , there will be an exhibition in the Pepys Library curated by Dr Hughes on Ovid the author of Metamorphosis — the bi-millennial anniversary of whose death is marked this year.  Dates to be confirmed.

Ferrar Conference and Exhibition

A big thank you to everyone who came to the Ferrar Conference and Exhibition here at Magdalene College, to all the speakers who generously shared their knowledge and research into the Ferrar family, Little Gidding and the Virginia Company, and to all the Magdalene College staff who looked after us.

Professor Alison Shell (UCL) gives a key-note lecture at the Ferrar Conference, introduced by Professor James Raven (Essex University and Magdalene College, Cambridge)

The conference marked the completion of the project to conseve the Ferrar prints, and the arrival of our beautiful, custom-made oak units in which to house them.

Oak units commissioned to house the Ferrar papers and prints, made by Ed Garrett-Jones and the generous gift of the Friends of the Pepys Library and Historic Collections, Magdalene College

The legacy of this highly successful  conference will partly be in the work which it inspires; and we are looking forward to seeing how the conference and the improved scholarly access to the Ferrar Papers in the Old Library achieved by the conservation project will  contribute to Seventeenth-Century studies.

The other legacy will be a bibliographic project, headed up by the Pepys Librarian, Dr M E J Hughes, to widen access to up-to-date scholarly materials relating to the Ferrar collection at Magdalene, including as a shared database to allow researches to see — and add to — what we know about each of the (neary 1,000)  individual items.

For more information on the Ferrar papers, contact pepyslibrary@magd.cam.ac.uk

An unexpected result of the conference — two members of the extensive, modern Ferrar family, Susanna and Richard, meet for the first time at the Conference Exhibition

English in Cambridge -Post A-level applications

Have you had great results this summer?  Rethinking your plans? If you are considering applying post-A level (or equivalent) to study English (commencing Oct 2017), you might like to contact the Director of Studies here at Magdalene, Dr Jane Hughes, for advice or information.   She is available to meet prospective candidates, answer email enquiries  or to talk on the ‘phone.

email litfest@magd.cam.ac.uk

Magdalene English Trip 2015

Ferrars of Little Gidding Conference – Information for Delegates

It is nearly time for the Ferrar Conference.

Information for delegates can be found here. Information for delegates FERRAR CONFERENCE

Looking forward!

Ferrars of Little Gidding Conference – update

The Conference 5th to 7th September is now fully booked and registration has closed.

All registrations will be confirmed by Friday 15th July.  If you haven’t received an invoice with the details of your booking by then, or if you need to make any changes, please let us know.   litfest@magd.cam.ac.uk

Looking forward!