The British Academy Summer Showcase - Friday Late

Award-winning British-Turkish novelist Elif Shafak was awarded the 2024 British Academy President’s Medal for her exceptional body of work which demonstrates incredible intercultural range. In this special event, she will discuss her latest novel ‘There Are Rivers in the Sky’ with Ritula Shah, and share how she tackles sensitive topics such as conflict, gender equality, human rights, ecology and the environmental crisis with bravery, scholarly rigour and intellectual force.

Award-winning performance company Clod Ensemble will share initial working collages for a new research project which explores the way human beings see, experience and represent the natural environment. The iconic imagery of German photographer Karl Blossfeldt (1865 – 1932) is the point of departure for this mesmerising new body of work, both film and live performance featuring dance artist Fukiko Takase. 

Directed by Suzy Willson with music by Paul Clark

Does the factor of alcohol influence the punishment we think offenders should receive? This workshop will use interactive polling technologies and hypothetical scenarios to interrogate our societal judgement of those under the influence.

Dr Carly Lightowlers – British Academy / Leverhulme Small Research Grant

Using real social media posts, examine the effects of their influence on your views about veganism – and see if they change your mind.

Reading Room

Jessica Drakett, Dr Joseph Ibrahim and Dr Chris Till– British Academy / Leverhulme Small Research Grant

With your fellow participants, collaborate in the Women’s Liberation practice of zine-making to explore different themes relevant to gender equality such as: low pay, childcare, education, representation and images of women.

The Gallery

Dr Annette Naudin and Dr Karen Patel– British Academy / Leverhulme Small Research Grant

Despite the colonial erosion of indigenous health knowledge, many communities have sustained their health traditions. Through samples of masala chai, rum and teas, celebrate the convergence of cultures and traditional health knowledge from the Caribbean, South America, and India.

Reading Room

Dr. Swati Gola and Anne Madray– British Academy / Leverhulme Small Research Grant The Gallery

Dr Annette Naudin and Dr Karen Patel– British Academy / Leverhulme Small Research Grant

Film duration: 27 mins 

A retelling of the 1924 black-and-white and 1940 Technicolor versions of ‘The Thief of Baghdad’, ‘Thieves’ (2023) is a fantasy movie-within-a-movie which challenges the film industry’s structural racism during its so-called ‘Golden Age of Cinema’.

After the screening, historian Dr Kulraj Phullar will lead a discussion and Q&A with Michelle Williams Gamaker about the film and its place in her Critical Affection Trilogy.

Dr Michelle Williams Gamaker and Dr Kulraj Phullar

While we often have aesthetic encounters with African embodied art such as fabrics and textiles, jewelleries and body paintings, this talk invites us to an epistemic encounter in which African embodied art furnishes us with philosophical knowledge of sub-Saharan African peoples.

The Library

Dr Elvis Imafidon – Mid-Career Fellowship

Ever wonder why we are still reading the Hebrew Bible and its stories? This talk will explore what it means to be resilient, and how this works for a religious community and their God.

The Library

Dr Anja Klein – Mid-Career Fellowship

This interactive talk imagines a murder in the midst of a citizens’ assembly debating climate policies. Audiences will become part of the citizens’ jury themselves, vote on their favourite climate policy and ultimately help the detective solve the crime.

The Library

Professor Denise Baden – SHAPE Involve and Engage

Until recently, extinction was forever, but scientists are getting ever closer to bringing extinct species back to life.  This talk will explore the science and ethics of de- extinction.

The Library

Professor Sadiah Qureshi – Mid-Career Fellowship

This talk will reveal key takeaways from acts of cultural imperialism that accompanied the Spanish-Catholic invasion of Mesoamerica, post-1521. The conversation will include insights from dozens of ‘Aztec’ (Nahuatl) manuscripts made by Indigenous-Christian scholars, including revelations from a recently identified Nahuatl-Latin lectionary in the Bible Society Collection, Cambridge.

The Library

Dr Joshua Fitzgerald – British Academy / Leverhulme Small Research Grant