Cambridge Alumni Podcast

The vice-chancellor Alison Richard addresses the alumni.

The Marlowe Dramatic Society was founded, with Rupert Brooke as President, in 1907, to perform neglected Elizabethan and Jacobean dramas. It later became noted, under George ‘Dadie’ Rylands, for its ensemble playing, fine verse speaking and the 1964 Argo recordings of the entire Shakespeare canon uncut.

‘The Marlowe has had more influence on the British theatre than, I think, anyone knows.’ Sir Peter Hall (St Catharine’s, 1950).

Join celebrated old Marlovians for anecdotes and memories of the Marlowe Society, including Advisory Director, Royal Shakespeare Company, John Barton CBE (King's, 1948), Director Sir Peter Hall (St Catharine's, 1950), Film Producer Pippa Harris (Robinson, 1986, former Head of Drama Commissioning for the BBC), British comic performer and scriptwriter Kit Hesketh-Harvey (Clare, 1975), British actor Michael Pennington (Trinity 1961). This event will be convened and chaired by Director Shevaun Wilder (Lucy Cavendish, 1988, President of The Marlowe 1990-91).

This lecture gives a description of the Enigma machine and how it was used operationally by the Germans, followed by an explanation of the how the Enigma messages were broken with the Turing Bombe.

Mr Frank Carter works for the Bletchley Park Trust and is an expert on the methods used to break the Enigma and similar codes. He is one of Bletchley Park’s most experienced guides and regularly lectures on Colossus and Enigma. He recently gave a lecture on Polish code-breaking achievements to an audience, which included the Polish Ambassador.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Alison Richard, welcomes alumni to Lady Mitchell Hall and introduces the main afternoon event, Truth, Lies and the Digital Age. This event is a discussion between two of the industry's most influential journalists, Alan Rusbridger (Magdalene 1973), editor, The Guardian and executive editor, The Observer, and Tim Gardam (Gonville & Caius 1974), member of the Board of Ofcom, former Head of Current Affairs for BBC television and radio, and former editor of Panorama and Newsnight.

The powerful and ambivalent feelings about

siblings play a significant role in

development. A study of sisters, in particular,

challenges many common assumptions

about girls’ psychology, and offers a

framework for new understanding of a

range of human experience, from tiffs on

the playground to jealousy in the

boardroom.

Dr Terri Apter is a psychologist and writer

and Senior Tutor of Newnham College. Her

books on family dynamics, identity and

relationships have received international acclaim

Have you attended an Alumni Weekend before or are you thinking of coming to the event for the first time? If so, you may be interested to listen to a selection of feedback from alumni who came to last year's event.

Each year the Alumni Weekend features a stimulating programme of lectures, given by distinguished alumni and academics from the University. Please click here to listen to a selection of lectures and edited highlights from previous Alumni Weekends.

Dr David Starkey, expert on the constitution and leading historian of the monarchy, lectures on events have or have not changed the course of history: That Was the Year that Was: 1605, The Gunpowder Plot.

The UK's most outspoken academic, Dr David Starkey is a leading

constitutional and monarchy expert. His documentaries on the life of

Henry VIII and Elizabeth I both achieved audiences of 3.5 million. Dr

Starkey lectured in international history at the London School of

Economics and is now a Bye-Fellow at Fitzwilliam College where his

research interests have developed to include a broad spectrum of

cultural, social and political history. He has written and edited

several books, including The Reign of Henry VIII: Personalities and

Politics, The English Court from the Wars of the Roses

to the Civil War and Elizabeth: Apprenticeship.

There is much discussion of the dangers of climate change, but what is the scientific basis for the predictions? This talk will review the science behind the headlines. Dr Emily Shuckburgh is a Fellow in mathematics at Darwin College and a Natural Environment Research Council Fellow based at the British Antarctic Survey. She is involved with the media, regularly contributing to discussions of climate change and other environmental issues.

(Photograph courtesy of Howard Guest.)

Alumni Weekend 2007: the Vice Chancellor, Professor Alison Richard,

reflects on the year's achievements and future challenges before

introducing Memories of the Marlowe Society.

The Abolition of the Slave Trade in America and Britain.

Internationally-renowned historian Professor Simon Schama was an undergraduate, and later Fellow, at Christ’s College, Cambridge before becoming Fellow and Tutor in Modern History at Brasenose College, Oxford. He then spent 13 years as professor at Harvard and is currently Professor of Art History and History at Columbia University in New York, where he specialises in European cultural and environmental history and the history of art.

Professor Schama is well known for his award-winning books including Landscape and Memory, Dead Certainties, Rembrandt’s Eyes and Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution. He has also written and presented the BBC documentary series A History of Britain, The Power of Art, and Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution, the little-known history of thousands of African-American slaves who fought for the British in the American War of Independence.

Since 1995, he has been art and culture critic for The New Yorker and essayist for The Guardian, and was made a CBE in the 2001 New Year’s Honours list.