University of Cambridge

Professor Sir Richard Evans was the principal expert witness against Holocaust-denier David Irving when he sued American historian Deborah Lipstadt for libel. Here he reflects on the case and the recent film – Denial – based on the events.

See related Feature article www.festivalofideas.cam.ac.uk/denial

Refugees often have to give the most personal details to prove their past and receive asylum. But how easy is it to be open and truthful in a climate of mistrust when governments are looking to keep numbers down? Lucy Popescu, editor of A Country of Refuge, speaks to asylum seekers and writers Noo Saro-Wiwa and Hassan Abdulrazzak, and Tim Finch, writer and former director of communications for the Refugee Council, about their experiences.

Insufficient sleep affects all stages of a person’s live, from their development as a child and teenager, to their ability to function as an adult at home and work.

You are what you sleep takes attendees through all the different effects of insufficient sleep, from the impact on individual health and performance, to the impact on businesses and the wider economy. The session looks at what can be done to tackle the growing problem of sleep deprivation in society, and explains why the science and economics show that sleep really matters.

Speakers are:

• Dr Dagmara Dimitriou, Director of the LILAS Lab: Lifespan Learning & Sleep Lab at University College London. Dagmara is interested in sleep disorders and how these relate to learning and behaviour in children with developmental disorders, such as Autism, Williams Syndrome, Down syndrome and ADHD.

• Dr Wendy M. Troxel, Senior Behavioural and Social Scientist at the RAND Corporation. Wendy’s research focuses on understanding the links between close relationships and sleep, and how this relationship may influence couples’ health and functioning.

• Marcus de Guingand, Managing Director of Third Pillar of Health. Marcus helps organisations to support their staff in overcoming the debilitating health, safety and productivity effects of tiredness, sleep deprivation and fatigue.

• Marco Hafner is a Senior Economist at RAND Europe. Marco led the research – Why Sleep Matters – which estimated the economic impact of insufficient sleep among the workforces of five countries – the US, UK, Canada, Germany and Japan.

Presented with RAND Europe

In a polarised world, populist leaders with narratives of grievance promote global schisms based on religious and cultural differences. How can this be prevented? Andrew Preston, Julian Hargreaves, Sara Silvestri and Esra Ozyurek will discuss the situation in the US, Turkey and the UK, how it might be feeding a rising intolerance of different cultures and religions and how it can be challenged.

Leaks and hacks are both praised as tools of transparency and accountability or condemned as espionage and manipulation by malevolent powers. How safe is our data in the digital age…and what is the worst that could go wrong? Discussing this topic are Richard Dearlove, former head of MI6, MI5 historian Christopher Andrew, journalist Nick Davies and Martha Spurrier, head of Liberty. Chaired by BBC Cambridgeshire's Chris Mann.

False statistics can spread around the world in an instant. Politicians are open to manipulation by hostile government hacking. Masses of data on citizens is widely available and open to surveillance and misuse. How can politics and government keep up? With social anthropologist Beth Singler, Law lecturer Nora Ni Loideain, author George Zarkadakis and Will Moy from Full Fact factchecking charity.

Is history always written by the victors? Panelists Ruth Dudley Edwards, Kehinde Andrews, Maximilian Sternberg and Yesim Yaprak Yildiz will discuss how history is used to advance nationalist and colonialist ideas and how different sides can fervently believe different versions of the same events. Their contributions will cover decolonisation, Irish history, torturers’ confessions in Turkey and how architectural heritage is used and abused in Jerusalem.

We know that populists can be sloppy with facts and speedy with promises that are impossible to deliver. Yet populist leaders also tend to highlight real inequities and to persuade followers that they are in possession of some greater truth. Followers often outsource their judgment to the populist leader on the basis of this belief. What, then, is the relationship between populism and truth? What might we learn about our contemporary political moment from an understanding of this relationship? In this panel, we explore these less discussed aspects of populism, drawing on current and historical examples from Argentina to India, and from Turkey to Russia.

Confirmed speakers:

Ayça Çubukçu (LSE) on Recep Erdogan

Hugo Drochon (CRASSH) on Marine Le Pen

Tanya Filer (CIPP) on Cristina Fernández de Kirchner

Matthew Barr (Cambridge) on Donald Trump

Nayanika Mathur (Oxford) on Narendra Modi

Madeleine Reeves (Manchester) on Vladimir Putin

Earlier this week, Professor Stephen Hawking and the University of Cambridge made his 1966 PhD thesis available to anyone, anywhere in the world via Open Access. You can read more about the story and download the PhD thesis here: https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/step-inside-the-mind-of-the-young-stephen-hawking-as-his-phd-thesis-goes-online-for-first-time

And, to whet your appetite, Professor Hawking recorded a short extract from the PhD thesis for you to listen to here.

Herodotus is referred to as the 'father of history' - and he was that, and also much more besides: the father of comparative ethnography, and the father of cultural history of civilisations among others .... But much of his life remains a mystery, and there are a ton more things to be discussed about his superb work, The Histories. Join translator Tom Holland and Herodotus expert Professor Paul Cartledge in conversation about this enigmatic figure and what we can learn about history from his writings.

Paul Cartledge is A.G. Leventis Senior Research Fellow of Clare College and emeritus AG Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at Cambridge. His many books on ancient Greek history include The Spartans: An epic history (pb 2003) and Ancient Greece: A Very Short Introduction (2009, pb 2011); his latest is Democracy: A Life (2016). He wrote the introduction and notes to accompany Tom Holland's new translation of Herodotus's Histories (Penguin 2013, pb 2014).

Tom Holland is the author of Rubicon, Persian Fire, Millennium and In The Shadow Of The Sword, and the translator for Penguin Classics of Herodotus’ Histories. His most recent work of history, Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar was published last year. His biography of Æthelstan, the first in Penguin’s monarchs of Britain series, was published last summer. He is the presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Making History, and of TV documentaries on topics that have ranged from ISIS to dinosaurs.