FREE Take a Feeling copy language Menswear under the collar sick Fashion 28-29 Rediscovering my native Sitting down tongue after years of neglect with he Mays Features 12 Features 13 Arts 24
No. 862 Friday 15th February 2019 varsity.co.uk
Cambridge’s Independent Student Newspaper since 1947
Cambridge birth control: long waits and high prices
Belle George Revealed: Cambridge’s bid to Senior News Correspondent “I was feeling quite mentally fragile. I would have been in no state to cycle the 15 minutes home on a freezing dark house a Ministry of Defence January night,” said an anonymous sec- ond year student who recently had an intrauterine device (IUD) itted at Cam- psychological research centre bridge’s Lime Tree Clinic. Students in Cambridge who want By Noella Chye long term preventative contraception, such as IUDs or the contraceptive im- plant, can obtain it from either their GP or the Lime Tree sexual health and contraception clinic at Brookields Hos- pital on Mill Road. he Lime Tree clinic ofers a range of services, from itting contraceptive implants and intrauterine devices to STI testing and emergency contraception. However, students have complained of the relative diiculty of travelling to the Lime Tree clinic, which is a 30-minute walk from the city centre. Speaking to Varsity, the student who had an IUD itted at the clinic com- plained of the efort required to travel for an appointment: “he eight pounds it cost me each way I would rather have spent on something else.” She also spoke of the long time period between irst contacting the clinic about getting an IUD itted and the procedure actually happening. After waiting three he Ministry of Defence, Whitehall, London (Denny J) Exclusive page 6 ▶ Continued on page 7 ▶
Inside ● An interview with Dr Nisha Kapoor Pg.2-3 ● Costs of halfway hall prove steep at certain colleges Pg.8 2 Friday 15th February 2019 News
features Talking Dr Nisha Kapoor trauma at Cambridge. One student’s ‘We need to experience. Page 14 ▶ think about oPiNioN Highly functioning, still in need of support. he transition from racism more coping to struggling. Page 18 ▶ deeply and features Lamenting the lost tongue Page 13 ▶ more critically vulture Magazine than is being An exlusive behind the scenes look at the latest allowed for’ menswear derstand the way in which borders are shoot for constructed and what their purpose has Raphael Korber Hofman speaks been.” Kapoor notes how the intensiica- CUCFS tion of the use of deportation arose in the to the sociologist about racism 1990s in the uK with the growth in the Page 28-29 ▶ number of asylum seekers often arriving from countries which had previously been colonised by european powers. editors Catherine Lally & Vivienne Hopley-Jones [email protected] and deportation in the age of the deputy editors Maia Wyn Davies & stephanie stacey [email protected] in certain high-proile cases public magazine editor isobel Bickersteth (senior) & James Dickinson (Deputy) opinion can be swayed towards sup- [email protected] War on Terror porting extradition despite the various digital editor Joe Cook [email protected] business manager Mark Curtis [email protected] human rights concerns. in reference to news editors Jess Ma & Kiran Khanom (senior); elizabeth Haigh & oliver the media and public hostility to the rhodes (Deputy) [email protected] senior news correspondents Belle George, Katy Bennett, Charlotte rom the so-called ‘hostile envi- security, be subject to deportation on idea of due process and human rights Lillywhite, Victor Jack, Chloe Bayliss, Molly Killeen, Kyoka Hadano, Hannah ronment’ in Britain to immigra- national security grounds.” guarantees in high proile extradition Bowen, Nesta smith & Diana stoyanova tion and Customs enforcement With the issue of deportation con- cases, Kapoor argues “a big part of this investigations editors amy Batley & sarah orsborne investigations@varsity. co.uk (iCe) in the united states, it stantly making headlines on both sides feeds on racism.” opinion editors Nicholas Harris, eve Lynch & Cait findlay (senior); Charley f seems as if the topic of immigration is of the atlantic, with the controversies in the era of the War on terror, “the Barnard & Bethan McGinley (Deputy) [email protected] becoming an ever more prominent part surrounding the actions of iCe in the Muslim comes to be synonymous with science editors Zak Lakota-Baldwin & Marco oechsner [email protected] features editors Marcus McCabe & Sophie Zhang [email protected] of political discourses across the world. united states often focussed on people the igure of the terrorist in general.” she arts editor Lois Wright [email protected] it was in this context that Dr Nisha Ka- from Central america, and the Windrush goes on to make the point that “you film & tv editors Lillian Crawford & Madeleine Pulman-Jones ilmandtv@ poor, assistant Professor in sociology at scandal at home regarding the deporta- have these particularly unsympathetic varsity.co.uk music editors Miles ricketts & alex spencer [email protected] the university of Warwick, published tion of people originating from the Carib- pathologized igures that become tropes fashion editors Helena Baron & Cie Jen Wong [email protected] her book Deport, Deprive, Extradite in bean, Kapoor acknowledges the funda- in the media. so abu Hamza with a hook theatre editors Alex Jacob & Jess Beaumont [email protected] 2018. mentally racial element to deportations for a hand and a patch over his eye. lifestyle editor emily Blatchford [email protected] sport editors William ross (senior) & William robinson (Deputy) Kapoor points out at the beginning and notes the political nature of the “it’s an ideal trope for the media to [email protected] of our discussion that of the extradition original construction of borders as part mobilize a sort of demonic monstrous violet editors edwin Boadu & steven edwards [email protected] cases discussed in her book, only one of the idea of the nation-state. referring non-human igure upon which you can interviews editors & SWITCHBOARD producers Daniella Adeluwoye & Raphael Korber Hofman [email protected] individual had been convicted of a crime to the “arbitrary boundaries” which was carry any kind of measures.” long reads editors Lucy Fairweather & Iris Pearson [email protected] before they were extradited, and that the result of this development, Kapoor he fact that there has been a “mass head of video Zébulon Goriely [email protected] sub-editors Hannah Kossowska-Peck (Chief); alex Parnham-Cope, Hania crime was not the reason for their ex- adds that “there’s no kind of normative mobilization of islamophobia for the Bar, Poppy Kemp, Beth Noble, hea trollope-Metcalfe, esmee Wright, Georgia tradition. his serves to demonstrate the way in which certain groups of people last 20 years” only increases the chal- Burns, Pia engelbrecht-Bogdanov, ruth Moss, aimee Wragg, Daniel Maghsoudi point that the uK has deported people belong here, and other groups of people lenge of encouraging the public to sup- & edwin Bahrami Balani [email protected] photography editor sarika Datta [email protected] to “places that are known for carrying belong there.” port human rights for individuals who illustrations editor alisa santikarn [email protected] out torture who have not been convicted Kapoor refers to history in noting how have made the news for the attempts website developer Edwin Bahrami Balani [email protected] of any crimes.” the enforcement of immigration legisla- to extradite them. Kapoor further raises varsoc president Caitlin Smith [email protected] associate editors Noella Chye, rosie Bradbury, Merlyn homas & Devarshi a large part of this comes down to tion in Britain began in the early 20th her concern with regards to the Home Lodhia [email protected] counterterrorism legislation which “is century restricting Jewish immigration oice denying certain individuals pass- varsity board Dr Michael franklin (Chairman), Prof Peter robinson, Dr tim suiciently expansive so as to allow for from eastern europe, before later be- ports – that there is “no real transpar- Harris, Michael Derringer, Caitlin smith, Noella Chye, Louis ashworth, anna Menin, Daniel Gayne, ellie Howcroft other mechanisms of punishment where ing used to restrict immigration from ency” in a process which she describes
© Varsity Publications ltd, 2018. all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be the criminal justice system isn’t sui- the Commonwealth of Britain’s former as being “very much racially targeted”, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission of the publisher. cient. so, if you haven’t been convicted colonies. hus, “if we look at the institu- and threatens to “set particular kinds Varsity, 16 Mill lane, cambridge cb2 1rX. telephone 01223 337575. of a crime because the evidence isn’t suf- tion of immigration, its history is deeply of precedents and the normalization of Varsity is published by Varsity Publications ltd. Varsity Publications also publishes he Mays. icient … you can nevertheless, because racially marked in the same way that how power operates and what’s possible Printed at ilife Print cambridge – Winship road, Milton, cambridge cb24 6PP on 42.5gsm newsprint. registered as a newspaper at the Post oice. issn 1758-4442. you’re deemed to be a risk to national it is in the u.s and … requires us to un- and what we think of as necessary in the Friday 15th February 2019 3 News
and populist political programmes. Yet greater resistance to these laws when as Kapoor has noted, liberal democracies “it’s represented in a clean anti-racist in the West have themselves become narrative.” increasingly authoritarian. Relecting Nevertheless, Kapoor adds that “the on this trend, Kapoor notes how liberal problem is that we need to think about states have always “had its colonies or racism more deeply and more critically its spaces where democratic principles than you could say is being allowed for can be suspended. It’s dependent on ❝ in this space and I think that’s what’s a having those spaces arguably. And so bit worrying.” through the liberal centre there has he rhetoric Turning to the simple matter of Brexit, been this whole array of authoritarian I ask Kapoor about the centrality of im- practices that have been cultivated of the War migration to the debate surround Britain and normalized a kind of securitiza- on Terror leaving the EU. For Kapoor, “the Brexit tion practice.” vote was a racist vote. Absolutely it Turning to the appeal of populism connects was. which has afected the so-called lib- all kinds of “he discourse about immigration is eral democracies of Europe and North always deeply racialised … Immigration America, Kapoor relects on how “the disparate played a massive part but it wasn’t about centre has always looked to the far Europeans. here was that big picture right and then tried to rein it back. But political with Nigel Farage with the loods of it basically replicated what they’re struggles Muslim, brown bodies from Syria, ar- saying in a more civilised or sophis- riving in Europe that was key to the vote. ticated way to try and manage that that are Statistics on voting patterns show that relationship. And now things have very support for Brexit wasn’t simply from kind of exploded.” the white working class, it was as much A particular concern for Kapoor is diferent from middle England.” the way in which “this move towards Acknowledging many of the problems fascism is really dangerous in terms of physically, with the European Union, Kapoor nev- immigration and it is really dangerous historically, ertheless emphasises the importance in terms of what it means for people of “liberal institutions” such as the Eu- like the Windrush generation.” She adds socially ropean Court of human Rights which that “through recognising the violence ❞ are progressive elements of the EU that of the immigration system there is a Britain would cease to participate in disconnect between what’s allowed or after Brexit. legitimated through the immigration Kapoor also believes that the Brexit system and then the broader security vote “gave licence to a real visceral racist narrative. And so there’s a lot of silence expression” which led to the large spike around the securitization stuf.” in Islamophobic incidents immediately Perhaps noting the complicity in the following the Brexit vote. securitization of the state from both Kapoor adds that in many ways we sides of the aisle, Kapoor noted that “La- are already living in a post-Brexit real- bour have happily passed through more ity of “racism on the street” that she draconian legislation around counter ter- expects to continue. rorism” – yet she also notes that there Dr Nisha Kapoor was visiting Cam- is a greater resistance to these types of bridge to speak at an event organised by measures when is it represented in a the Critical heory & Practice Seminar name of security.” from Britain’s role or the West’s role in diferent way. For example, there is a Series. In the post-9/11 era, countries such the Middle East in terms of imperialist as the UK and the United States have occupation and military intervention.” greatly expanded their security appa- Turning back to the issue of counterter- ratus and processes which has come, ▲ Dr Kapoor rorism, Kapoor contends that the “whole some argue, at the expense of civil lib- is an assistant point of this infrastructure of counterter- erties. She strongly rejects the argument professor in rorism policy is not designed to police that such measures have made us safer sociology at the or stop terrorism. It’s designed to repro- from terrorism, making the point that University of duce it to justify or to sustain the whole “all it’s done is enhance the power of the Warwick security industry.” state … If you look at the kind of statis- (RAPhAEL KORBER- Kapoor makes the point that the tics around counter-terrorism policing hOFFMAN) germination of these structures in fact there’s a number of things that show began in the 1990s, not after 9/11 which up. One is that most people … who are is often used as a justiication for the arrested are not charged. And then the existence of such systems. She explains small number of people who are charged, that “when the Cold War was dying very few of those are charged for terror- down … there was talk by the powers ism related ofences.” that be here and in the US about where Further to this, Kapoor also notes the to look, there needed to be a new kind variety of acts which governments are of global threat … a new kind of enemy classifying as a terrorism ofence. to the West … it wasn’t communism any- She notes that “it could be something more and Islam came to be a suicient like an expression of a political opin- replacement.” ion which is deemed to be solicitation Referencing Arun Kundnani’s book or deemed to be potentially a kind of he Muslims are Coming! Kapoor notes the material support which [could be] an foreign policy shift which took place in action or behaviour which in other con- the 1990s and how Islam being a global texts would be defended as freedom of religion with a global population ena- speech.” bled the “rhetoric of the War on Terror She adds that individuals spend “very to connect all kinds of disparate political long periods of time in prison” due to struggles that are very diferent physi- convictions based upon acts such as cally, historically, socially.” “typing up a document for a website … Whilst the technology of the modern using somebody’s phone and the per- security apparatus is new, Kapoor add son who owns the phone is someone that “there is a big connection between who is marked as suspicious … typing a the practices that are used against Mus- comment on social media about some- lims in Muslim communities in the US thing.” and the police departments and sur- Kapoor adds that she is not “naïve veillance strategies and techniques about violence and it’s not to say that that were used against civil rights there aren’t some individuals who are groups.” carrying out or have carried out violent Muslim communities across Europe acts. But we then need to understand the in particular have attracted the wrath of political context in which these things far-right groups who often use Islamo- are happening and they’re not separate phobia to advance their authoritarian 4 F 15 F 2019 News
Comic tim- ing: Cam- bridge’s student cartoonists
▶ Chloe Marschner’s ‘Scambridge’ gives us an insight into the cooking habits of some of the University’s culinary whiz- kids
Number theory Probability Numerical analysis Integer factorisation
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DIONYSIAN DEJECTION ICY INNOVATIONS Drinking order does Student ice not help hangovers structure wins big
‘Grape before grain, but never the An ice structure designed and built by twain’? It won’t afect your hangover, students from the Department of Engi- according to recent research by Cam- neering and Department of Architecture bridge and Witten/Herdecke University. has won irst place at the annual Inter- his study involved an experiment on national Ice and Snow Innovation Con- three groups of volunteers, where one struction Competition in Harbin, China. drank 2.5 pints of beer followed by 4 he 11-man team created what is said large glasses of wine, another did the to be the world’s irst hyperboloid cable same in reverse, while a control drank net ice structure, which also won the only one type of alcohol. Senior author Best Design and Construction Works of the study Dr Kai Hensel said, “as un- Award. Students worked in tempera- pleasant as hangovers are ... they can tures as low as -20 degrees Celcius over help us learn from our mistakes.” a one-week period in December.
FUNGAL FINDINGS BREXIT IN THE NUDE Darwin specimen Rees-Mogg dared to found in Cambridge ‘naked debate’
A fungus specimen from Darwin’s Cambridge academic Dr Victoria HMS Beagle voyage was discovered at Bateman, who is known for her the back of a cupboard, where it had anti-Brexit campaigning, publicly been forgotten for over 150 years. he challenged Conservative MP Jacob orange golf ball-like fungus, initially Rees-Mogg to a ‘naked debate’. “We collected in Tierra del Fuego, was will get to the roots of this issue”, Dr found by Lauren Gardiner, curator of Bateman said, making this invitation the Cambridge University Herbarium. while herself in the nude on the Dr Gardiner will discuss this BBC’s Today Programme. “Brexit is specimen, alongside other highlights the emperor’s new clothes,” she of the collection, at the upcoming declared, saying that “Brexit leaves ▲ Lara Erritt touches on Brexit, portraying Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg and David Davis (from left) Cambridge Science Festival. Britain naked.”
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News Gender pay data Cambridge’s proposal to compete for a Ministry of Defence research centre ● Documents leaked to Varsity said that the proposed programme would be “designed to inform UK Defence and Security strategy, policy, and capability”. At some point along the bidding process, Cambridge dropped out.
hey also “urge[d] University au- ▶ Continued from front page thorities to clarify the nature of their involvement with this tender process Two years ago the Ministry of Defence and explain the extent of their pre- announced it was looking to set up a existing links with both the MoD and psychological research centre tasked Frazer Nash.” with building a better military. he programme would involve research How Cambridge would have into inluencing human behaviour, and implemented the programme promised millions of pounds in funding. If selected, documents showed the pro- Cambridge decided to apply. gramme in Cambridge would have been he programme, called the Human So- set up in a new centre for research, called cial Science Research Capability (HSSRC) the Centre for Strategic Futures. programme, involved the “targeted ma- he General Board of the Faculties nipulation of information in the virtual consists of the vice-chancellor as chair, and physical domains to shape attitudes heads and deputy heads of the Universi- and beliefs in the cognitive domain,” ac- ty’s six schools, four members appointed cording to a Ministry of Defence (MoD) by the University’s primary decision- presentation in 2017. making body — University Council — If selected, Cambridge estimated it and two student representatives. would receive £69 million in research he Heads of the School of Arts & funding over four years. Humanities, and School of Humanities At a meeting in June 2018, Cambridge’s and Social Sciences, were noted to be General Board noted they were one of the supportive during the General Board four inal candidates being considered to meeting. house the programme, and voted to apply In discussions, the Head of the School for it, alongside a university committee of Clinical Medicine, Professor Patrick which reports to Council and “scrutinises Henry Maxwell, voiced support for the sources of signiicant funding from an proposal. He claimed that the research ethical and reputational perspective”. he – which the MoD said was designed to centre would have been set up within the deliver a “skilled and capable workforce School of Arts and Humanities. equipped ... to meet Defence require- At some point along the bidding ments” – could contribute to supporting process, the University told Varsity, it students’ mental health. dropped out. It did not respond to mul- ▲ Top, the Ministry of Defence headquarters. Bottom, the building where CRASSH is located (ARILDV, SIMON LOCK) he HSSRC programme is estimated tiple requests for comment on when to provide Cambridge researchers with and why. of the full spectrum of national capabili- by Varsity. Against Arms Trade, said: “he University £20m for research projects. he Univer- Documents leaked to Varsity r e v e a l ties to achieve geopolitical and strategic Speciically, documents noted, the management has serious questions to sity would also receive £6.9m in funding that if they had been chosen, Cambridge aims, including military, non-military, programme would have administered answer about how this proposal came to administer and develop the HSSRC would have collaborated with Frazer- overt and covert means, within the rule projects up to the Ministry of Defence’s to be, and what other programmes it programme. Cambridge also estimated Nash Consultancy, a consultancy irm of law.” security clearance level of ‘secret’, which has applied for. that as prime contractor, it would be which supports members of the weapons A University spokesperson said: “We grants access to ‘very sensitive informa- “Universities are for education, they in a better position to compete for re- industry in the design and manufactur- did not take the application further.” hey tion’, such as where compromise could should never be treated as outposts for search funding worth £42m. It would ing of small arms, naval guns, complex declined to multiple requests for com- seriously damage military capabilities, the MoD or research departments for the total £69m paid over four years, with the weapons, and artillery systems. ment on when and why they dropped international relations or the investiga- arms industry.” possibility of an additional three years, Oicials noted the “potential reputa- out of the process. tion of serious organised crime. he proposal was brought to the Gen- subject to review. tional risks” of working with the Ministry A spokesperson for the UK Ministry of Pro-vice-chancellor for Enterprise and eral Board for consideration because it he programme would be managed ini- of Defence, and detailed a “targeted com- Defence conirmed the selection process Business Relations, Professor Andrew was seen as having the potential to raise tially by Professor Steven Connor, director munications efort” to mitigate them. is ongoing. Neely, also present at the meeting, said concerns due to the link to the Ministry of the Centre for Research in the Arts, So- In light of today’s indings, the na- In 2014, he Guardian revealed the that Frazer-Nash was “well-respected” in of Defence. cial Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH), tional Campaign Against Arms Trade has Ministry of Defence’s “secret, multimil- the defence industry and had been suc- It contained plans for a “targeted and supported by six academics. condemned the proposal, and said that lion-pound research programme into the cessful with the development of other communications efort” to mitigate Prime contractors for the programme the University management has “serious future of cyberwarfare, including how national research centres. the potential reputational risks of the would be responsible for delivering hu- questions to answer”. emerging technologies such as social Professor Neely did not respond to programme, which would emphasise man, social and behavioural sciences media and psychological techniques can a request for comment. A University “the positive impact of the University’s research, and “building and maintaining An MoD centre to understand be harnessed by the military to inluence spokesperson commented on his behalf: involvement in the programme”. a robust supplier network.” human behaviour people’s beliefs”, which included the full “he minutes of the General Board speak he proposal was also approved by One academic spoke to Varsity about he programme claims a focus in six spectrum approach. for themselves. Working with business the Committee on Benefactions, External the proposals on the condition of ano- research areas: personnel, training and is part of the role for the Pro-Vice-Chan- and Legal Afairs (CBELA), which scru- nymity. hey said: “he University should education, humans in systems, human Collaborating with Frazer-Nash cellor for Enterprise and Business Rela- tinises funding for ethical and reputa- not be involved in secretive military [...] performance, and, notably, understand- In June 2018, three members of the tions. Professor Neely talks to and about tional risks. programmes, especially not without ing and inluencing human behaviour. University’s research oice put forth a outside organisations on behalf of the Student activist groups Cambridge proper democratic consultation of staf One of the HSSRC’s six research ar- proposal for Cambridge to enter the bid University all the time about potential Defend Education and Demilitarise Cam- and students. eas — understanding and inluencing in collaboration with Frazer-Nash Con- collaborations.” bridge commented: “It is no surprise that “Contracts of this sort restrict aca- behaviour — would follow a ‘full spec- sultancy, which would “provide the pri- Cambridge sought to keep its potential demic freedom by imposing projects trum approach’, according to a Ministry mary interface with industry and cover ‘Potential reputational risks’ involvement in [the programme] secret, and ideological parameters, and most of Defence presentation. he presenta- work that requires high levels of security In a statement on today’s indings, a nor that it was so worried about poten- often include conidentiality clauses on tion described it as a “co-ordinated use clearance,” according to documents seen spokesperson for the national Campaign tial damage to its reputation.” the results.” F 15 F 2019 7 News
health clinics, most NHS walk-in centres vides a variety of condoms, dental dams, Delays and and minor injuries units, most GP surger- female condoms, lubes and pregnancy ies and some A&E departments. tests which welfare reps then distribute It also states that the morning a ter in colleges. pill can be bought from most pharma- It seems that long acting reversible high prices: cies. e two types of pill, Levonelle and contraception and emergency contracep- ellaOne, can be bought for approximately tion, however, has a long way to go. £25 and £35 respectively. Speaking to Varsity, the Newnham Long-term GPs can prescribe emergency contra- College JCR welfare rep said “CUSU runs ception to patients registered at their a great service providing contraception practice. However, students cannot be to welfare o cers to distribute among contraceptives registered with a GP practice simultane- their own colleges, however di erent ously at home and at university, creating colleges take di erent approaches to di culties for students who wish to seek how they do this.” preventative or emergency contraception “Newnham’s anonymous request in Cambridge in Cambridge without giving up their reg- form is a great way to make sure eve- istration at their home GP practice. ryone has easy access to anything they is means that some students are need without feeling under pressure in ▲ Cambridge students have easier access to condoms than ▶ Continued from front page limited to visiting a pharmacy to obtain any way.” long-acting or emergency contraceptives BELLE GEORGE the pill, where it is possible that they weeks for the initial consultation in will be charged. Michaelmas Term, the backlog of book- One rst-year student spoke to Varsity ings for ttings meant she had to wait about how they had to buy emergency until Lent Term to have the IUD tted. contraception from Superdrug due to Emily Loud, Communications Specialist not being registered with a GP in Cam- for the Cambridgeshire Community Serv- bridge. She said the £30 she had to pay ADVERTISE ices NHS Trust, which runs sexual health for the pill at a pharmacy really put her services such as the Lime Tree Clinic in “out of pocket” and “added hugely to Cambridge, said to Varsity that they were the stress of worrying about having had aware of the di culty of making time for unprotected sex”. contraception-related appointments and Superdrug, one distributor of the WITH US. “are looking for other ways to make LARC morning a ter pill in Cambridge, sells [long acting reversible contraception] even four brands of emergency contracep- To advertise in any of our print publications or easier to access”, including receiving the tive pill (ECP) ranging in price between contraceptive injection or implant in one £13.45 and £33.25. online, please contact our Business Manager: visit rather than multiple. Speaking about the cost of the ECP, Currently in Cambridgeshire, “iCaSH one of the pharmacists at Superdrug on [integrated contraception and sexual Sidney Street told Varsity: “If the phar- tel : 01223 33 75 75 health] ts most patients requesting an macist that has accreditation is working email: [email protected] IUD for regular contraception within 3-4 in the pharmacy we can give it for free. web: varsitypublications.co.uk weeks, but o ten sooner.” If the pharmacist is not in the store then, She added that “copper intrauterine we can’t.” devices for emergency contraception will “We give them the option if they want nearly always be tted within 5 days. to pay, or to come another day. So it de- , Most implants will be tted when the pends if they need it now and if they are patient attends an appointment, which happy to pay. If not, they can go to another Looking for paid work in is usually arranged within two weeks of place.” ey added that their store had only contacting us.” one pharmacist who was accredited. GP practices in Cambridge similarly Other pharmacies in Cambridge also Cambridge this summer? reported a backlog for IUD ttings. A said that getting a free morning a ter representative from Newnham Walk GP pill depended on whether an accredited surgery told Varsity “we like patients to pharmacist happened to be in, or how see a doctor to discuss the procedure and busy the pharmacy was. Cambridge Student Assistants take some swabs before we book them A manager of the Boots branch on An opportunity to work for the University’s into our IUD clinic, which is usually one Petty Cury told Varsity the morning a ter morning a week.” pill “can be free, or sometimes they do world-renowned International Summer Programmes. ey added that “the IUD clinics tend charge depending on the situation.” to ll up because we have a big student “It depends whether the pharmacist Rewarding customer-facing work assisting academics population”, saying that patients usually is accredited or not and how busy we and adult students from over 60 countries. had to wait several weeks for an avail- are – it depends if we have a pharmacist able appointment. available who can do it.” Working hours additionally constrict e manager did not know how com- • 5 - 7 weeks’ employment, starting 2 July 2019 the availability of contraception to stu- monly people were given the pill for free dents, with all GP practices in the city or not, or how many of their pharmacists • Includes four days of training centre closed on Saturdays and Sun- could were accredited to give it out for • 36.5 hour working week on a rota basis days, and the Lime Tree clinic closed on free following consultation. Sundays and only open from 9am to 12 e pharmacist at Janks N K pharma- • Free single-room College accommodation noon on Saturdays. is Saturday clinic cy in the Newnham area of Cambridge is appointment-only for contraception told Varsity the emergency contraceptive • Up to four free College dinners each week and does not cater to walk-ins. ❝ pill could be bought over the counter • Valuable transferable skills to enhance your CV Loud added that LARC is “an e ective for a fee, or could sometimes be given form of contraception that should be Long acting for free depending on how busy they available to all who need it.” reversible were that day. For details, including how to apply, email: Access to emergency contraception “For emergency contraceptive hor- was found to be particularly di cult for contracep- mones we can do an interview if we are [email protected] (closing date 25 February) some students, with factors including cost tion should not busy, but if I’m really busy and I’m and availability complicating students’ on my own then I can’t do it.” access to the ‘morning a ter’ pill. be avail- e access to other types of contra- e NHS website states that the able to all ception, such as male and female con- morning a ter pill can be obtained free of doms, is relatively easy compared to charge from contraception clinics, Brook who need it long acting reversible contraception and centres, some pharmacies, most sexual ❞ emergency contraception, as CUSU pro- 8 Friday 15th February 2019 NewsFEATURES Montreal Square he price discrepancies in halfway demolition conirmed halls across Cambridge ◀ Formal hall at St John's, where halfway hall is free for students (WIKIMEDIA/RNT20) Chloe Bayliss Senior News Correspondent hey added: “It [halfway hall] is not he Cambridge Housing Society (CHS) an easy thing to opt out of, as you feel announced on 4th February its decision like you are not properly part of the year to go ahead with hotly protested redevel- if you don’t go.” opment plans for Montreal Square. hey “A lot of people who said they could not will demolish and replace “the current aford it, have now just bought tickets any- 18 homes with 45 new afordable and way, which is pretty depressing, because energy-eicient homes”. they have been made to choose between his decision comes after months inancial pressure and social pressure.” of protesting from residents, some of he student further expressed frustra- whom have lived in Montreal Square for tion over the arrangement, saying that over 40 years. heir campaign has so far they believe the College “has a system of received the support of a range of groups, prioritising formals and conferences over including the student activist group CDE the student body”, which has caused “a (Cambridge Defend Education). lot of dissatisfaction” among the student he CHS Chief Executive said in a body, despite the pastoral system try- press release that despite the protests, ing “very hard” to improve welfare for after having conversations with resi- students. dents it is “the Board’s obligation is to Another student, however, said that balance residents’ concerns with the even though the price is “a bit contro- wider social beneit that a redevelop- versial”, they “don’t actually mind the ment could provide through more new price given that we get matriculation and afordable homes”. graduation dinner for free”. he student “hrough careful consideration of the commented that they are “so lucky to design plans and an extensive support have a chance to experience Cambridge package in place for residents, we believe lege itself at most colleges, with some colleges not charging students, and some, life” and that while those who struggled we will be able to address the majority Elizabeth Haigh being organised by the JCR. At Newn- such as Emmanuel, including free wine, inancially “should be helped out”, “the of residents’ concerns.” Deputy News Editor ham, JCR oicers organise the evening, college pricing choices face criticism. rest of us don’t have much to complain Residents forced to leave their homes Kiran Khanom while at Pembroke, although some help Jesus College in particular has seen about it when you put things into per- will receive a £6,300 home loss repay- Senior News Editor is given by the College, they do not di- criticism of the price of its halfway hall: spective”. ment. CHS will help to move residents rectly organise the formal. one anonymous Jesuan told Varsity that Jesus halfway hall does now have a in and out and will reimburse any extra ‘Halfway hall’ dinners vary starkly in However, while some colleges ofer the price is “not reasonable, but obvi- scheme to assist those on Cambridge rent costs during the time that tempo- price across Cambridge colleges, with the evening to their students for free, ously just typical for Cambridge”, adding Bursaries following petitions to the col- rary accommodation is required. All resi- some ofering them for free, while one others charge students a wide range that “the price of this formal has added lege from Jesus College Student Union dents are to be ofered one of the new charges over £40. of prices. Jesus College charges all un- an element of wealth and privilege into (JCSU). he college provides discounted homes built, at no extra cost above what Halfway hall celebrates the midpoint dergraduates £42.50 for the meal with an already fraught situation”. tickets for those who receive bursaries, they are already paying. of most undergraduate degree courses, drinks included, and £35 for the meal he student cited May Balls as another although the President and Vice-Presi- In response to the news, Andy Smith taking place halfway through Lent Term without drinks. Meanwhile, Queen’s costly social activity, but argued that “at dent of JCSU told Varsity that “the JCSU of the Montreal Square Residents’ As- each year. All second-year undergraduate College charges £28 and Gonville and least with May Balls there are always believe that Halfway Hall is too expen- sociation said that though “the mood students are invited to a formal meal at Caius £21.95. many people not going to each one, but sive and are looking for ways to reduce is very low at the moment” the “ight their respective college, normally along Other colleges charge more modest with halfway hall it seems like the thing the overall cost for students next year.” still goes on”, with residents planning with academics and fellows. prices, with Churchill and Newnham to do if you are properly integrated into Varsity has reached out to Jesus Col- to protest the decision. Halfway hall is organised by the col- charging around £12. However, with many your college.” lege for comment. Scheme for more sustainable May Balls garners widespread college support
responsibilities to an existing one and tiative is only gaining traction now, but Victor Jack can achieve ‘platinum’ accreditation in is hopeful in that May Ball “presidents Senior News Correspondent only fulilling 65% of criteria. do seem quite keen [and] the impetus Blanchard argues that “it doesn’t make is there”. An accreditation scheme encouraging any sense – the environmentally friendly he St John’s May Ball committee more sustainable May Balls has gathered option tends to be more economical and said: “Everyone at the St John’s May support from 17 of the 26 colleges holding often more socially sustainable as well”. Ball committee is dedicated to improv- a ball this year, with a further seven com- he scheme provides suggestions for po- ing the environmental sustainability of mitting to a sustainability pledge. tentially cheaper measures such as using our event. To this end, we have a com- he project, titled “Sustain-a-ball”, is locally sourced food companies. mittee member for Green, as well as an led by the Cambridge University Envi- Sustain-a-Ball also ofers the oppor- additional committee member who is on ronmental Consulting Society and en- tunity for colleges to sustainably share the Cambridge University Environmen- visions a new “Sustainability Oicer” ▲ St John's May Ball is not accredited under the scheme (SIMON LOCK) resources such as umbrellas and carpet- tal Consultancy committee. on each May Ball committee to adopt ing, providing another money-saving “he St John’s May Ball traditionally sustainable measures for the accredita- and promise to consider “environmental tions for Green Oicers. incentive. has a secret theme until the night and so tion scheme. awareness and sustainable thinking” in John’s and Wolfson are the only col- he idea originated from the appoint- many details of the ball are kept secret he accreditation scheme ranks balls their organisation. leges who have refused to participate ment of two sustainability oicers at until the night. Whilst we do not pri- from bronze to platinum depending on his scheme comes amidst a surge of both in the pledge and the scheme, at Clare May Ball in 2016, which also went oritise secrecy over sustainability, this the criteria fulilled, ranging from us- related criticism on May Balls for wid- the time of writing. fully carbon neutral last year. 2019 has means we cannot share those [details] ing compostable toilets to LED eicient ening inequalities and the waste they he scheme is designed to be “real- seen a remarkable widening of support with the Sustain-a-ball campaign for lighting. It also ofers colleges the chance produce. Cambridge MP David Zeichner istic”, insisted project coordinator Aoife for the scheme, which went from have accreditation and so cannot be part of to sign the non-binding Sustainability has signed a petition deeming May Balls Blanchard. four participating colleges last year to the scheme.” Pledge, which requires them to read a as “extremely wasteful”. he petition has Colleges need not appoint an entirely 20 this year. he Wolfson College May Ball commit- one-page document of recommendations also similarly called for committee posi- new committee member but can add Blanchard was “surprised” this ini- tee has been reached for comment. CAMERATA MUSICA ARCADI VOLODOS
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Tickets £10-£35 ADC Box Oice 01223 300 085 & online Generously sponsored by Mr & Mrs Adam Horne WEST ROAD CONCERT HALL www.cameratamusica.org.uk 10 Friday 15th February 2019 News Senior Labour councillors call on Robinson to act on housing and pay
which extend far beyond the university Charlotte Lillywhite ‘bubble.’” Senior News Correspondent his comes after the recent release of the Taylor’s Table, a study compiled by Senior Labour Party Cambridge Council- students Joe Cook and Abdullah Shah, lors have called on Robinson College to which ranks Cambridge colleges based contribute to helping tackle the city’s on their treatment of their lowest paid afordable housing crisis by letting out employees. homes under their ownership to low- Robinson came last, with 58.7% of paid members of college staf. non-academic or administrative staf Robinson owns several properties in paid below £8.75 per hour, represent- Romsey Terrace, based just of Mill Road, ing 128 employees. which were previously let to students, he College also had the joint-third but have lain empty for several years. lowest hourly wage, alongside Clare and Councillor Richard Johnson, executive Magdalene, at £7.38. councillor for housing on the Labour- Over the past ive years Labour have controlled Cambridge City Council, said been working to boost the supply of af- that oicers from the Council’s Empty fordable homes in Cambridge, with the Homes Team have for several months City Council completing nearly 250 new been discussing with the College how council homes since 2014, and advancing they could bring these empty homes plans to build an additional 535 council back into use. homes by 2022. He continued: “My understanding is ❝ he Council set up a Housing Com- that they are currently refurbishing these pany to purchase and manage ‘interme- properties, and wish to sell them on the A world diate’ housing at submarket rents, and housing, it is simply unacceptable that also invested in eforts to increase the open market. class in the last three years has helped bring potential homes have been lying empty ▲ Robinson number of employers that pay the Real “I suggest a better approach would 100 empty homes back into use. for so long”. Smith “welcome[s] the as- placed last in the Living Wage of £9 an hour as determined be for them to be let out, preferably at univer- Councillor Anna Smith, executive surances that these properties will be recent Taylor’s by the Living Wage Foundation. In 2018, below-market-rent levels, to members councillor for communities and ward made available soon, and hope that Rob- Table the University of Cambridge sought ac- of their lowest paid staf.” sity needs a councillor for Romsey, said that Cam- inson chooses to rent them at an aford- (LOUIS ASHWORTH) creditation from the Living Wage Foun- Johnson added that it is time Cam- world class bridge colleges should “follow the ex- able rate to its lowest paid workers.” dation however this does not apply to bridge colleges “showed more leadership ample of the University itself and pay For Smith, “a world class univer- individual colleges. At present, only and made more of an active contribution attitude to all [their] staf at least the Real Living sity needs a world class attitude to its Queens’ College is an accredited Living in working alongside us in addressing its staff Wage of £9 an hour. staf.” Wage employer. the city’s twin problems of low pay and “When there is such a high demand he City Council have, as part of its Varsity has reached out to Robinson the lack of afordable housing - problems ❞ in Romsey, and across Cambridge, for vision of ‘One Cambridge Fair for All’, College for comment. Cambridge student Peter Biar Ajak ‘detained in hellhole’ and potentially faces death penalty
which is in the midst of a civil war, to at- ❝ the government to either release Peter Katy Bennett tend a youth forum organised by the Red Biar Ajak, or to bring charges against him Senior News Correspondent Army Foundation, which was created by Somebody in a timely manner in accordance with former child soldiers seeking to address the rule of law and to grant him access he lawyer of Peter Biar Ajak, Jared social issues in South Sudan. like him to a lawyer.” Genser, has told the BBC that Peter Biar Ajak led Sudan as a child refugee dur- Genser told the BBC: “Somebody Ajak is being “arbitrarily detained in a ing the Second Sudanese Civil War and needs to be like him needs to be on the front lines modern-day hellhole in clear violation was ofered asylum in the US when he on the front ighting for freedom, democracy and hu- of his rights under international law”. was 16. He was granted a scholarship to man rights – not arbitrarily detained in He also said that charges being con- study a PhD at Cambridge in 2013. line fighting a modern-day hellhole in clear violation sidered by the Sudanese government Last week, Congresswoman Madeleine for freedom, of his rights under international law and include treason and terrorism, both of Dean highlighted Mr Ajak’s plight in the for crimes he did not commit.” which carry the death penalty. United States House of Representatives, democracy International human rights organisa- Peter Biar Ajak, 35, has been detained stating that she “knew Peter as a brilliant tion Amnesty International has taken up without charge in South Sudan since student and leader” while teaching at La and hu- Mr Ajak’s cause. his arrest at Juba Airport in July last Salle University. man rights Seif Magango, Amnesty International’s year by South Sudan’s National Security A Cambridge University representa- deputy regional director for East Africa, ▲ Ajak has petition describes Mr Ajak as “a youth Service. He is currently studying for a tive said to Varsity: “he University re- ❞ said that his ongoing detention with- been a vocal advocate for peace and a friend and PhD at Cambridge University. mains deeply concerned about Peter’s out charge was “absurd” and in breach critic of the inspiration to many who know him Ajak has been a vocal critic of the welfare and his access to legal repre- of South Sudan’s own constitution and South Sudanese around the world”. regime, tweeting on 4 July 2018, less sentation and the violation of his rights international law. government he petition states that “more pres- than a month before his arrest: “We in accordance with the Constitution of He told the BBC that “South Sudanese (BROOKINGS sure is needed to show South Sudan gov- must stop thinking that the so-called South Sudan, which guarantees all South authorities must either release him so INSTITUTION/ ernment that the best option it has is to leaders will bring peace #SouthSudan. Sudanese people liberty and security of he can rejoin his wife and children who YOUTUBE) immediately release Peter”, adding that We, the great people of #southsudan, person, due process, and freedom of ex- miss him dearly, or charge him with an “Peter’s arrest comes amid a worrying must organize ourselves to bring about pression and association.” ofence recognised under international trend in arbitrary detentions due to a the peace we deserve!” On 4 September 2018, Cambridge law.” crackdown on freedom of expression by Genser told the BBC that the govern- University Vice Chancellor Stephen A petition to release Mr Ajak, which the South Sudanese government.” ment decided to target him for arrest Toope wrote a letter to the President of has collected over 80,000 signatures. It It concludes with an appeal that “Pe- “because he was being a very efective the Republic of South Sudan, Salva Kiir states that “Peter has always kept his ter has a wife and two young children. critic”. Mayardit. focus on South Sudan and his hope for We are asking for him to be released and Ajak had returned to South Sudan, It stated that the University “call[s] on a peaceful future for his country”. he allowed home to his family.” Friday 15th February 2019 11 News Family linked with US opioid crisis has funding links with Cambridge
◀ Multiple Two Sackler Lecture heatres cur- Jess Ma departments, rently exist in Cambridge: one at the Senior News Editor including the the Institute of Astronomy and the other Diana Stoyanova Departments of at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Senior News Correspondent Medicine and Research. he Sackler family were also Psychiatry have one of the many donors that made the he Sackler family, currently facing an received funding construction of the Maxwell Centre pos- ongoing lawsuit having been accused from the family sible in 2015. of fuelling the opioid crisis in the United (FLICKR: DAvID J As well as Cambridge, the Sackler States, has previously funded multiple MORGAN) family have made donations to Oxford lectures, PhD studentships, and scholar- University, as well as many prominent ships, which still exist across multiple universities in the United States, includ- departments in Cambridge, as well as ing Harvard and Princeton, and a vari- a college. ety of museums and galleries, including Last Sunday, photographer and activ- the Tate Modern, the British Museum ist Nan Goldin staged a protest against and the Guggenheim Museum in New the acceptance of donations from the York. Sackler family at the Guggenheim Mu- Dr. James Barrett, Deputy Director of seum in New York, which features the the McDonald Institute for Archaeologi- Sackler Centre for Arts Education. cal Research, which holds the Raymond Brothers Raymond, Mortimer and and Beverly Sackler Distinguished Lec- Arthur Sackler created the company ture in Archaeology in honour of Profes- Purdue Pharma, which invented the sor Norman Hammond, told Varsity that drug OxyContin, in 1996. OxyContin is the Department is “aware of the emerg- considered to be the root of the opioid tiple fronts. ment of Archaeology, and the Depart- efactions and External and Legal Afairs ing and on-going situation [of the opioid addiction crisis in the United States. It has also been sued in the past: in ment of Medicine. (CBELA) “fully veriies donations”, crisis] through press coverage”. According to the National Institute 2015, it settled a $24 million lawsuit with It has previously made donations to Meanwhile, the committee “continues He added that they “are concerned in on Drug Abuse, as of January 2019, on the state of Kentucky, though it did not fund PhD studentships in the depart- to review engagements using all avail- any situation that may negatively afect average every single day over 130 people admit any wrongdoing. In 2017, the state ments of Psychiatry, Physics and Medi- able information, including any new human wellbeing”. in the United States die after overdosing of Ohio led a lawsuit against ive major cine. information that has emerged.” He also said that the Department is on opioids. pharmaceutical companies, including he Dr. Mortimer and heresa Sackler he spokesperson added that the “keeping in touch with the Central Uni- he US Centre for Disease Control and Purdue Pharma, for false advertising Foundation funded a 2016 joint research University has not received any dona- versity, wishing to react responsibly”. Prevention estimated that the total “eco- and understating the addictive efects programme on the interoceptive abilities tions from the Sackler Foundation since He conirmed to Varsity that the De- nomic burden” of prescription opioid of these drugs. of inance traders. 2015. partment of Archeology is not anticipat- misuse alone in the United States stands he Sackler family’s Cambridge con- Cambridge participated in this pro- In 2013, the foundation funded a ing any new donations from the Ray- at $78.5 billion per year nections include sponsorship from the gramme, along with the University of non-stipendiary research fellowship at mond and Beverly Sackler Foundation. he Sackler family has been accused Raymond and Beverly Sackler Founda- Sussex and Queensland University of Christ’s College for up to two years. Christ’s College and the Cambridge of deceiving the public and medical tion, which funded an annual lecture Technology in Australia. he programme was ofered to post- Institute for Medical Research did not profession of the negative side efects series, under the foundation’s name, at A University spokesperson told Varsity doctoral researchers working in Chem- respond to Varsity’s request for com- of OxyContin, and is being sued on mul- the Institute of Astronomy, the Depart- that the University’s Committee on Ben- istry or Applied Mathematics. ment. Toope second-highest paid vice-chancellor in UK
£379,000, and again precipitated a leap On this matter, a University Spokes- Molly Killeen up for Cambridge in the rankings highest person said, “he University is working to Senior News Correspondent paid head, moving the University from ❝ improve the pay of its lowest paid staf. 20th place in 2016-17, to joint seventh In 2018 the University took the decision A newly published report has revealed in 2017-18. The stark to become an Accredited Living Wage Cambridge’s vice-Chancellor to be the Responding to these igures, a Uni- employer. In the vice-Chancellor’s ad- second highest paid head of a univer- versity Spokesperson told Varsity: “he dispari- dress to the University in October 2018, sity in England. vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University ties in pay he recognized that high living costs are Data released by the Oice for Stu- is one of the most signiicant roles in disproportionately felt by those at the dents (OfS), the government’s higher world academia. he University has an across the lower end of the pay scale, and stated education regulator, sheds light on the annual income of more than £2 billion, that the University was looking at adopt- basic salaries of, and total remunera- around 16,000 staf and 150 faculties and University ing a minimum rate of payment for Uni- tions paid to, heads of such institutions departments”. must ques- versity employees that goes beyond the across the country. he OfS was formed he spokesperson added that the Uni- Accredited Living Wage.” in January 2018 and the report com- versity’s Remuneration Committee set tion what Across England, the report notes, the pares igures from the 2017-18 period the current vice-Chancellor’s remunera- its true majority of heads of higher education with those from 2016-17. tion package prior to his appointment providers have received an increase in In 2017-18, vice-chancellor Stephen and “after a detailed analysis of compa- values are Here, Cambridge came in ifth in terms of ▲ Toope earned basic salary or total remuneration or Toope earned a basic salary of £431,000, rable salaries in the UK, North America basic salary and fourth in terms of total a basic salary both between 2016-17 and 2017-18, with a signiicant increase from the £343,000 and Australia.” when staff remunerations. of £431,000 in just 13 providers reporting a reduction paid the previous year to his predeces- he report also outlines pay ratios, and stu- In response to the report, CUSU Presi- 2017-18 in the basic salary of their head, and an- sor, Leszek Borysiewicz, whose role showing the relationship between the dent Evie Aspinall said “he stark dis- (MATHIAS GJESDAL other 18 reporting no increase. he OfS Toope assumed in October 2017. his remuneration of the head of the provider dents are parities in pay across the University are HAMMER) states that there is evidence that “at least increase saw Cambridge jump from and that of all other employees. his year struggling unacceptable and the University must some” higher education providers are eleventh to second place in the rank- marked the irst time that providers had question what its true values are when demonstrating pay restraint. ings of highest paid head, coming in just been required to report this informa- financially staf and students are struggling inan- Where it is a “matter of public inter- behind the University of Bath. tion to the OfS. Toope, the report shows, cially while senior oicials get huge pay est”, the report concludes, the transpar- Toope’s total remunerations were earned 11.3 times the median basic sal- while snen- rises” and urged the University to “reas- ency which the data lends to the issue £492,000, a igure which included £49,000 ary of all other university employees ior officials sess its priorities”. will “help providers’ remuneration com- attributed to the costs of accommodation in 2017-18, and received 12.4 times the he news comes in the wake of the mittees and governing bodies to bench- and utilities, relocation expenses, private median remuneration. On this count, get huge release of the ‘Taylor’s Table’, which mark more efectively. It will also help healthcare, tax consultancy services and universities were ranked according to pay rises ranks Cambridge Colleges based on their staf and students push for changes in personal light travel. which institutions paid their heads the wage and employment practices and has a provider’s approach to remuneration his igure was also an increase from greatest amounts compared to the me- ❞ drawn attention to the treatment of the where it is out of step with stakeholders’ the previous year’s, which came in at dian amount paid to all other employees. university’s lowest paid workers. expectations.”
FeaturesFriday 15th February 2019 13 he lost tongue
Khadija Tahir explores her complex relationship anguage has dominated my life ❝ I was less home-sick and more language- ever since I can remember, as it During sick. I found it odd not hearing the occa- with English and Urdu, alongside the historical probably does for most people. It sional Urdu word uttered by my friends, Lisn’t merely a means of commu- Michaelmas, or the speedy Urdu instructions given to and social associations of each language nication, of getting your ideas across and I was less little kids on the street. I remember look- a tool to share opinions; for me, it was ing at the Urdu newspaper alongside the the foundational basis of a community. home-sick, English ones in the morning, the latter My Pakistani identity, which constantly more lan- which only my father read. It took 18 went through conlicts and contradic- guage-sick years and about 5,000 miles of distance tions, wasn’t bound solely by my mother from Pakistan, for me to acknowledge tongue, Urdu, but also English. ❞ the importance of my mother-tongue. From school curriculums to street I opened up diferent websites, and signs, Pakistani society has openly em- spent time every week just reading sim- braced a language that was once imposed ple prose, trying to read the curvature of on them, and which invalidated, not the letters luently enough to form words only their power to communicate and rather than syllables. It began embar- express, but also their native literature, rassingly. I was not able to read simple gharoor, worried). It) رورغ culture and academia. English, seen to be words such as more of a weapon than a language in the was tempting to dismiss the Urdu, and colony, has now become an integral part return to the comfortable English lan- of the post-partition generations. he guage, I had always spoken, read, and importance of being luent and polished listened to through the various medi- in a language that is no longer even con- ums it was available to me in. But, I also sidered foreign, is stressed repeatedly. knew that any further distance would My teachers preferred an ‘international’ be a loss of my ‘Pakistani-ness’, which accent, which I was forced to develop, ◀ Illustration by I wasn’t willing to lose in a country I and my peers automatically associated Kate Towsey for wasn’t comfortable calling ‘home’ yet. English with intellectual superiority, and Varsity So I persevered. used it repeatedly to stress points and After three months, through improv- arguments, these were instances that I ing my Urdu reading, I was exposed to dismissed as being completely normal. the subversive literature of writers nar- Having no regard for Urdu, barely using rating their experiences in both colonial دالوا it in everyday life, and having no knowl- and post-colonial Pakistan. I read edge of the art such a language produced (Aulaad, Children), one of the irst stories was an outlook shared by many. by Pakistani short story writer Saadat In the past, language was used to di- Hassan Manto, which focused on the vide and rule the diverse communities unrealistic, yet straining pressures faced in the colonies, and this pattern repeats by women all over the world, to bear itself in modern Pakistan. Feeling less children and satisfy everyone but them- comfortable in my own language, I built selves. his dark commentary on South barriers between me and those who still Asian society aligned with opinions and retained their native tongue. In other criticisms I held. words, I distanced myself from my own Despite enjoying Saki and other such country, despite having been born and writers growing up, it wasn’t until I had that I had held up a mirror to دالوا raised there. read I was handed Dickens’ novels be- ❝ my own self and my own society, im- fore being able to read Mumtaz Mufti’s proving my grasp of the social structures short stories, and I was reading Plath A language in Pakistan and the impact that they had before Ghalib. I had created playlists which carries on women who didn’t have the privi- illed with American and British music with it the lege of escaping to institutions such as and had completely lost track of the up Cambridge. and coming Urdu artists. I felt nothing painful past In my time at Cambridge, I began towards Pakistan except for this deeply- of such a be- to appreciate the beauty of both Urdu embedded desire to leave it. Blinded by loved country and English, and the honour of being visions of the American Dream and the able to have access to both. Despite the supposed ‘cultural superiority’ of Eu- ❞ complicated relationship Pakistan has rope, I failed to acknowledge the beau- with English, it is diicult to dismiss a ties of Pakistan, speciically Lahore, and language which exerts immense inlu- of the language that carries the pain, the ence on a global platform. violence, the recovery, the development Where I went wrong, and where most and the constant struggle the country Pakistanis unfortunately still do, was has faced. I dismissed my country com- neglecting the importance of our native pletely by partially, and at times, com- tongue, a language which carries with it pletely abandoning Urdu. the painful past of such a beloved coun- September 2018 was when I was told try. Urdu is a means of accepting our to focus on one language that would colonial past, and to a rebuilding of the ‘open doors for me’ and ‘guarantee me culture that such a past had blurred. success’, rather than half-heartedly jug- It is about regaining what was taken gling two languages. Coming to Cam- away from us and using language as a bridge I did not expect to grow closer bridge to close the gap we have estab- to something I had undermined for the lished as a nation, between our own past eighteen years. During Michaelmas, country and us. 14 Friday 15th February 2019
FeaturesFEATURES Talking trauma at Cambridge
◀ Illustration but it was thrown with so much force ate for me to have the bright future he by Christina that I could hear it coming through the had been denied. He taught me maths O’Brien for air. It hit me right between the eyes. I daily, and we would play football in the Varsity was in shock. She was surprised, but did park. Football will always ignite warm not understand the signiicance of what memories of playing with him. While she had done. his was one of the irst neither his English, nor my Tamil, per- times I began to feel unsafe in my par- mitted much eloquence of conversation, ents’ company. In time, things got worse, through football, it was as though we but this beginning is unforgettable. To- could communicate seamlessly. day, I am sickened that anybody could Like most children, I believed my treat a person, a child that way. Perhaps parents were the greatest and wisest my mother thought she would toughen people alive. I always trusted my dad me up and prepare me for life in a tricky to know best for me. Now I know that neighbourhood. Indeed, in my parents’ nobody is perfect, and that a history of childhood in Sri Lanka, teachers and unresolved trauma can corrupt the best parents would commonly use physical of intentions. Eventually, the police be- punishment. Britain in the same period came involved with the violence in our was not a world apart, but I believe social household, and I moved out to escape violence is more endemic and severe in the situation. his was how I eventually countries with a colonial history. found myself in a youth homeless shelter In any case, the sight and sound of at 17, in the midst of my A Levels. With the cup hitting my nose did not seem to my mind now signiicantly less preoc- disturb my mother. hat yellow plastic cupied with concerns over my physical cup was once my favourite, from which I safety I was able to inally buckle down would drink soya milk before bed. From with school and after just over a year I that day onwards, I no longer cherished left to read Medicine at Cambridge. it, or felt protective of it. In fact, it disap- Talking about my backgrounds at one pears from my memories thereafter. of our last meetings, my social worker hreats and violence like this were in- advised, “Other people, particularly the tegral to the way I was raised. hey were really privileged students, won’t under- used to stop me from doing things, such stand and may try and use what they as throwing tantrums, lying, or ‘misbe- know against you”. We had been close. I having’ (a term which could be twisted will never forget the way she shed a tear, into referring to almost anything at all). like proud mother. She had my interests Relecting on his experiences who identify with more than one minor- At other times it could be completely at heart. However, looking back, I chal- ity group. Belonging to intersecting mi- unprovoked – regardless of my actions. lenge this advice. ‘Don’t tell anyone un- of childhood trauma, nority groups means you have even less On one occasion, an episode was trig- til you’re sure you’re ready’ might have in common with most other students, gered by a parent sitting on a table and been better. I’m glad I didn’t open up hinesh Pathmaraja and these divisions of identity can make spilling water. Other times, it would be prematurely, and nor was I ever teased the weight of taboo even stronger. used as punishment for my resistance, about my past. But concealing heavy discusses the importance of Being a minority at Cambridge in for simply being myself, or for not join- secrets can have disastrous long-term many ways led me to preferentially ing in with the oppression of another consequences for mental health. breaking taboos and talking trust other people’s judgements when family member. Opening up is by no means simple, it comes to what’s best for me. I have his parenting style was common in and when I speak about childhood about the past always been proud of everything I have our neighbourhood (Edmonton, North trauma, I am often met with incorrect achieved and am not ashamed of my London), and therefore normalised to assumptions. When I conided in one Content note: this article contains detailed circumstances. However, I have often me. It never occurred to me that I could friend that I had not spoken to a par- discussion of trauma and abuse been discouraged from discussing my report the abuse, for example, to my ent for 3 years, they suggested “I should experienced abuse growing up. I past by well-meaning people. here school. At a younger age, I failed to re- patch things up with them and apologise was brought up the child of a refu- seems to be a consensus that it is best alise that the abuse wasn’t in my best for my wrongdoings because the rela- gee in a single parent, non-English kept hidden and despite desiring open- interests – I accepted the reasoning that tionship with such close family is really Ispeaking, working class household. ness, I followed this advice. In hindsight, it was disciplining me despite the cost important. We all make mistakes when I led home aged 16, and I am currently ❝ I should have taken a leap and opened it came at. Once I became a teenager, we’re young.” I did not want to get in estranged from my family. I’d be lying up, instead of conceding to Cambridge’s I feared the repercussions of reporting touch, as cutting contact was a decision if I said my childhood trauma doesn’t My father social norms. If I hid every tabooed expe- such crime: Firstly, the punishments I which protected my personal safety and afect me daily. was devot- rience in my life, it would mean hiding would receive for ‘betraying’ my family mental space. Worst still, the advice to It could be when catching up with ed, desper- away a lot of what makes me who I am. and secondly, the ostracisation from a lo- ‘apologise for my wrongdoings’ suggests a close friend. When saying goodbye, I’d like to break the pattern of taboo and cal community (who may be unaware of I hold responsibility for the abuse I re- as she leans over and kisses me on the ate for me share some of my own experiences. In the entire situation) for betraying family. ceived. In reality, I only ever responded forehead, I become confused and linch, to have the my memory, it started one day when Where did this parenting approach come to the violence with fear, silence and anticipating violence. When I’m with bright future I was with my mother, aged about 5. I from? I believe it has roots in the violence avoidance. If you have a friend who is someone I really like, as they come close was a quiet boy, and rarely misbehaved. in Sri Lanka’s history, and indeed in its going through something like this, it can to give me a hug, once again, I linch. I he had been I must have made a mess in the living present day. Sri Lanka has been colo- be tough knowing how to support them. squeeze my eyelids shut and spin my denied room, and my mother was angry. nised 3 times in the last 500 years – by Empathising with a survivor of child- head away - preparing myself for a punch ❞ My mum isn’t around anymore, but Portugal, the Netherlands, then Britain. hood trauma and pretending to know as I hold my breath. It takes a few sec- in my early memories she was incred- he many genocides in this period were what it’s like are very diferent things; onds to remember that I’m with some- ibly afectionate and sweet. When I was followed by ethnic cleansing of Tamils you shouldn’t need to pretend to under- one I trust, and that everything’s ine. about four, and she fell ill, things began and other minorities. My father grew stand what it is like to be in their shoes It can be hard to talk about my past to slowly change. Once cheerful and up in this environment, around people to be supporting. I believe that only by experiences. here is certainly a taboo sociable, she grew moody and sulky. being abducted in white vans – not to talking about trauma can we break ta- around trauma and childhood trauma, in Where she used to greet me with a ‘sing- be seen again. His own brother was one boos and educate prejudice. particular, is very diicult to talk about songy “hiiii—nesh”, she would eventu- such. He and his surviving brother hid in Some of my colleagues have suggested here at Cambridge. he silence can be ally hardly acknowledge me. When she another city, before leeing the country, that this article shouldn’t be published, heavy and stiling. Many students have died, she was a shell of herself. Her brain never to see their parents again. that I’m committing social suicide. Per- grown up loved, cared for and safeguard- tumour had eaten away a lot of her per- When you grow up in an environment haps you think I’m breaking social rules ed by the adults around them. I’m glad sonality. An awareness of her health has of normalised murder and injustice, it is or reducing myself to my traumas. But most students have loving families, but it allowed me to colour some of my more not hard to see how violence could take I want to express myself, and I want to can mean that those with abusive or ne- diicult memories with a more hopeful root in your behaviours. Many young begin a productive conversation about glectful parents are forgotten. his gap in view. Had she been well, perhaps things Tamils joined resistance groups, ighting abuse and its inescapable daily remind- experience can be tricky to bridge when I would have been diferent. back directly in the name of survival. I ers. I want to spread understanding, and discuss my own situation. It doesn’t help But on that day, I remember how she am impressed that my father was able above all, I want survivors to feel vin- that Cambridge isn’t very intersectional; threw my plastic mug across the room at to move on, and to become a mostly dicated: to know that it’s okay to speak It’s uncommon to ind minority students me. Perhaps she didn’t expect to hit me, loving parent. He was devoted, desper- about trauma. F 15 F 2019 15
Features Imposter syndrome, the elephant in the room Solomon, who has su ered under im- ❝ syndrome requires the initial brave step on from ridiculous things like accom- Eliane oma- poster syndrome her whole working of the individual student communicat- modation” when “there are de nitely life, has described the feeling as having Whilst ing their feelings to another person. But ❝ other ways to reward people for achiev- Stemmet nds snuck in through the back door to life’s the term perhaps knowing that there is a large The power ing well”. Another added, “Encouraging theatre and constantly looking over your ‘imposter chance your conversation partner will of com- elitism within an elite university that that imposter shoulder for the bouncer who will im- empathise with what you’re saying and already places pressure on students is minently kick you out. It can seem so ob- syndrome’ experiencing might make that step a lit- munication so alarmingly unhelpful and out of place syndrome is a vious that everybody else is progressing is often tle less daunting. cannot be that it’s a wonder everyone doesn’t have more quickly, smoothly and con dently shunned... Even so, universities do hold power overstated some sort of complete mental break.” more widespread that we forget to acknowledge that it’s over their students, with which comes Overall, however, 42% of students I impossible to really know how hard the over- responsibility. I asked Cambridge Univer- ❞ surveyed did believe that their univer- issue than we other people are working, what they’re whelming sity students what they thought of the sity had shown awareness of imposter realise compromising on and when they under- majority scholars’ ballot still employed at Christ’s, syndrome and made e orts to help stu- performed. Conversation is key, yet over of univer- Corpus Christi, Gonville and Caius and dents combat it. is is a step in the right mposter syndrome is never a very 30% of students I surveyed who felt like several other colleges, by which students direction, but there is more work to be popular accessory to carry around. imposters “constantly” had never voiced sity sutdents achieving rst-class or high 2.1 exam re- done. For example, the publication of It’s an admission of vulnerability, this to anyone – in the case of those who bear the sults are given priority choice for their class lists. Some argue that publishing Isomething to never be disclosed – felt imposter syndrome “fairly regularly”, weight of it room allocations. One student comment- class lists are a healthy incentive for stu- so, as a general rule, we don’t. the percentage rose to 80%. ed that “there is so much pressure al- dents to perform, but it seems to me that Whilst the term ‘imposter syndrome’ Is this an issue a ecting marginalised ❞ ready to do well in exams from Directors every student who has earned their place is o ten shunned in conversation, an groups to a particularly great extent, es- of Studies, family, peers and self motiva- here, has not done so without breaking overwhelming majority of university pecially here at Cambridge? Speaking to tion that I just don’t feel extra pressure a sweat – they know how to work hard students bear the weight of it on a daily Emily Claytor, women’s o cer at Em- needs to be – and so the detrimental impact of an basis. Of the 100 people I surveyed this manuel College Students’ Union, added overcompetitive environment on mental week, 89 said they had felt imposter she expressed her impres- health far outweighs any motivational syndrome’s symptoms: feelings of sion that women have bene ts. self-doubt, of not truly hav- a”tendency to assume More students still feel con- ing earned your place at that what you’re say- stantly impacted by im- university, of being the ing doesn’t have poster syndrome (14%) least able person in a value” which is than students who room of geniuses. “specifically have never been These reac- linked to, as affected by it tions, though, a woman, (11%), this is don’t evidence feeling a subject disparity that needs between to stay you and within dis- those you cussion. see as the Every Einsteins. In positive truth, even the step is original Albert’s a cause intelligence could not for cel- convince Einstein himself ebra- of his intellectual worth. Further- t i o n , more, increasing numbers of successful that but individuals have come forward you have to re- when to express feeling like a phoney ally be giving all feelings –amongst them are Kate Wins- the time and presenting of self let, Emma Watson and Maya something that is perfect.” All- doubt Angelou. Even Michelle Obama male, all-white reading lists can give have be- has spoken of her experience of the impression that “being female is an come a imposter syndrome as something that accessory to the default” – no doubt normality ‘never goes away’. imposter syndrome would creep in for for the over- If all these gures of success to whom marginalised groups excluded from the whelming we look for inspiration are telling the canon when these reading lists only re- majority of same story as applies to us, there cannot inforce feelings of not quite being part of the student be much correlation between feelings the mainstream and belonging. body, its clearer of inadequacy and real-life inadequacy. It’s important to emphasise nonethe- than ever that if We can’t all be imposters. A fourth-year less that imposter syndrome is a very you feel intellec- MML student summed it up perfectly: ‘if pervasive villain – men may be less likely tually inferior to everybody’s feeling that way, it annuls to su er from imposter syndrome but your peers, chanc- the problem, because if everybody feels they are also much less likely to discuss es are they’re just like they don’t belong, then everybody it if they do. In the face of impossibly as intimidated by does belong’. demanding male stereotypes, requiring you as you are by Imposter syndrome is not Cambridge con dence and concealing expressions of them. Something speci c, nor university speci c. A 2017 vulnerability, these realities should not be so relentlessly survey found a third of millennials to surprising. Claytor expressed regret that irrational most be su ering under its weight, and in my a “hyperawareness” of other students’ de nitely doesn’t survey of students, 14% of participants opinions of you meant telling those stu- deserve your wor- were “constantly” a ected by imposter dents a “scary vulnerable feeling” just ries. But when the syndrome, whilst 38% felt like imposters “doesn’t correlate” for many students. rational is hard to “fairly regularly”. Why we don’t think Considering how widespread the reach, someone the issue is so prevalent could be down problem is, it also begs the question of to talk to might to ‘pluralistic ignorance’: doubting our- what the university is doing to help stu- be easier to nd. selves privately but believing we are dents. However, the degree of agency e power of com- alone in our self-doubt. the University can exert can appear dis- munication cannot be overstated. CEO and founder of Interact, Lou couragingly slim, as remedying imposter 16 Friday 15th February 2019 Features Rethinking solitude
associated with Cambridge, and great- Being alone need not be ly over-romanticised. Little wisdom is gained without leaving a desk and lead- lonely, says Aisha Niazi ing a fulilling life. It is not enough simply to spend time reading the words of oth- houghts, transpired by the tap- ers; even introverts need a social life. ping of keys, from libraries, bed- he loneliness I felt was a confusing rooms and cofee shops. hese thing to me, as I had continuous inter- Tare the moments essays and action most days – chatting to familiar calculations are completed, in between faces on the way to lectures, supervi- the manic rush of students attempting sions and library sessions. However, not to spill their cofee on the way to the common saying that quality beats lectures. In the world of academia, this quantity applies here; many casual con- paints a glamorous image. You listen to versations on a regular basis do little to the ideas of intellectuals before settling build connection – in fact they can en- into a comfortable solitude to consider shrine small talk in daily routine, until your own. However, an undiscussed side it becomes an obligation. Sometimes efect of Cambridge, can be a certain we should leave the library early, call loneliness that creeps upon those stuck our friends and spend the evening chat- in the bubble. ting in someone’s room. I know these I have always been a natural intro- ❝ evenings always left me more satisied vert, taking solace in moments alone. Not all time than a night out. A late trip to the pub Coming to Cambridge, I still loved com- can be spent or a walk along the river with friendly pany, but I needed a balance between company is often necessary in order to other people’s and my own; I was con- alone, yet connect with those around you, who are tent in this routine. So, it struck me as we must often just as lonely as you are. particularly strange when, a few weeks work to Lifelines – resources such as Night- work to normalise a genuine, comfort- ▲ Aisha Niazi exhaustion – there is so much else to into irst term, I ended the days feeling line – can be fantastic resources, and able solitude. Long walks exploring Cam- encourages us be gained from university life. Take time alone. I had been more social than ever normalise sometimes loneliness can be chronic and bridge, trips to benches in Jesus Green, to ind joy in alone; whether it be to do a sport, to take before, meeting someone new in every a genuine, indicative of an underlying condition. In and mindfulness are all key to becoming solitude (SYLvIA long walks or even just to listen to music. moment, spending the days exploring comfortable this case, a chat to a therapist or with content in those moments that we spend SCHADE) I now make sure to leave my room at Cambridge with diferent people and a support group can be so important. alone. Often, we are so caught up in im- least once a day, even when it is tempt- the nights dancing in clubs. It began as solitude However, articles focused only on pro- minent deadlines that we forget life also ing to stay cooped up reading books. I new and exciting, yet once I settled into ❞ moting these things can alienate those has a deadline. Work can be incredibly will always have deadlines, but I will not this routine I found myself conined to readers that do not fully relate to them. fulilling when balanced with thought always be in Cambridge, so I take time small talk, and constantly facing guilt hey never appealed to me. I craved a about your values and interests, so that to explore the city and call upon friends of feeling I was not doing enough work, diferent solution. But loneliness cannot mental health and personal development in the evenings. Learn one of life’s best because there is always more work that be solved only through friendship either. are not neglected. lessons: that to be alone need not always can be done. I was not as content alone; Learning to listen attentively to people’s After some time, I have realised there be lonely, when paired with connection I was so caught up in routine that I lost thoughts can build quality connections is no end to the workload here, so I’ve to others. connection both to myself and others that help immensely, yet, as with any- decided I should focus on the topics that If you have been afected by any of the in the process. thing, change must irst come from the truly inspire passion in me. It is vital issues discussed in this article, please con- he image of a tortured academic, individual. here must be balance; not that we make the most of our degrees, sider reaching out to support services, such creative only in solitude, is one I always all time can be spent alone, yet we must working hard, but not to the point of as Nightline (01223744444) How perfectionism fuelled my eating disorder
Cordelia enough. If I’m not the best at something, also my greatest weakness. I have always overwhelming that it physically hurts. I would much rather give up than having admired those amongst my friends who For me, this was through food, for others Sigurdsson to sufer carrying on at a below average seem, at least on the surface, entirely it can emerge in a whole host of difer- level. I used to play a large amount of unafected by life – no up or down, be it ent ways. discusses the netball; if my team lost on a Sunday it big or small, seems to have an obvious I have, since this time, learnt how to would ruin my entire week. ❝ impact on them. In comparison, when I ight against these feelings, started to dangers of her I revised for my A-Levels for weeks I have, reached a stage in my life when I actually igure out how to fail and how not to upon weeks because I couldn’t bear since this did feel like I was failing, it showed in ❝ punish myself for it. In other words, my impossible need not to be the best. I refuse to play board an incredibly obvious way. eating disorder recovery was not just games anymore because in all honesty time, learnt I sufered with anorexia, an illness I have about gaining weight and being healthy for perfection I’m not especially good at them, and I how to fight that I am entirely convinced was linked always again – it was about learning that failure just can’t bear to lose. If I’m not the best against to perfectionism and my consequent fear admired is a part of life and perfection is a goal Content note: this article contains detailed at something, I automatically dislike it. of failure. I was absolutely petriied of that nobody will reach. discussion of eating disorders his isn’t me being big headed, rather it these failing my GCSEs, of choosing a sixth those I know I am still learning how to cou- display all the symptoms: I despise is the nature of the perfectionist who feelings form, of losing friends, and of growing up amongst my ple this perfectionist ambition and fear losing to the point I refuse to play seeks obsessively to triumph in what- ❞ and not being successful. Food became friends who of failure with being my own best friend, board games, the thought of failing ever they do. the only thing I felt I could really control. yet I would never live without it. his my A-Levels made me feel physi- hese examples are soul destroying I was referred as a hospital outpatient seem little voice, which constantly shrieks for I entirely cally sick and knowing I should have for a perfectionist because it means where, as they questioned me on my per- perfection has got me to exactly where I done something I didn’t will keep me suddenly that you are not the best at sonality, eating habits and health, they unaffected want to be in life; I wouldn’t be at Cam- awake and thinking at night. I am a self- something: someone else, somewhere, asked: “Would you describe yourself as by life bridge without it. his is a battle I know confessed perfectionist. has igured it out – so why can’t I? a perfectionist?” I will have to live with probably all my I don’t think you can be a perfection- his little voice in your head may be I remember nodding solemnly, and ❞ life, but I, like so many others, am learn- ist and not also be scared to fail: the two pushy and unforgivingly motivational they returned, “Ah, of course, they all ing how this voice can be changed. Not come hand in hand – if you fail, surely but, equally, it will eat you from the in- are, bet you hate losing as well.” being good at one thing, even a silly chil- you are no longer “perfect.” I know many side out when something goes wrong, his, then, is why I claim perfection- dren’s board game, does not mean that of you reading this will also see yourself, whenever you fail or think that you ism to be a strength of mine and yet also you should punish yourself, or respect at least partly, in this description. might. In fact, the risk of failure is en- my greatest weakness. It has pushed me yourself any less. When I was a child I would always tirely overestimated; but still we see its into good grades and a good university If you have been afected by any of the begin a new sheet of paper if I had to possibility in every endeavour we pur- but the overwhelming fear of failure content of this article, B-eat Eating Dis- cross out one word on the previous sheet sue. I have come to call this little unfor- and the fragility of the perfect persona orders provides useful information and – because the irst just didn’t look neat giving voice my greatest strength and yet is forever present and sometimes it is so resources (0808 801 0677). At TTP, we aren’t interested in bureaucratic process or monotonous meetings. We’re a science and engineering consultancy interested in great ideas with real-world impact. Get in touch to start your career today. ttp.com/careers
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The Tech o o art ersh p 18 Friday 15th February 2019 Opinion We shouldn’t wait for coping to become struggling before acting
they may sufer in the long term. he cumulative efect of short, work-dense Cait Findlay terms at Cambridge can lead to burn- out, a condition from which over half Some are left out of discussions a million people in the UK sufer. he about mental health at Cambridge: symptoms can include exhaustion and those who appear to be ‘coping’ frustration – all feelings which can be worked through, to an extent, but at an emotional and psychological cost. We ver the last few weeks, the shouldn’t wait for students who appear University has been holding to be shining to burn out before ofering discussions on its mental them support. Ohealth and wellbeing strat- In a recent tweet, Dr Kathy Christoi- egy. In my time at Cambridge, I’ve no- dou said “I wish university mental health ticed that the discourse around mental weeks were more about providing man- health among students and staf focuses datory training to supervisors and aca- on a dichotomy of ‘struggling’ and ‘cop- demics on how to manage and help their ing’ as if these are two discrete states of students through diicult times and less being, rather than a continuum of over- about getting people to do yoga.” It’s lapping categories. his attitude reveals important to note that things like yoga that there are people who are frequently and puppy therapy aren’t proper substi- left out of considerations about mental tutes for addressing the reality of mental health: those who appear to be ‘coping’. health issues. Such schemes get a lot of Attitudes to mental health need to be interest, and can deinitely be short-term holistic, considering not only those who pick-me-ups, but do little to address the are in the most obvious need of help, but everyday realities of mental health peaks also those students who appear to be and troughs. As Dr Christoidou suggests, breezing through their degrees. they should be add-ons to a pre-existing In the intense work environment at structure that addresses the fact that Cambridge, where the cycle of weekly mental health exists on a spectrum for all work can feel like an intellectual ham- students, not merely those who access ster-wheel, it is easily assumed that mental health services. only those students who seem to fall A key facet to changing strategies for behind are ‘struggling’. However, we wellbeing at Cambridge has to recog- cannot ignore that there are students nise that meeting an arbitrary metric who appear to be meeting the metric of success or ‘coping’ does not equate to of success on the surface – submitting feeling happy and healthy. he workload essays on time every week, partaking at Cambridge is very heavy, yet some in multiple extra-curricular activities, people manage it and thrive, while oth- etc. – but who are only just managing to ers manage it and sufer. More should keep their heads above water. We need be done to alleviate pressure where increased awareness and a proactive possible, starting by fostering healthy approach to the many facets of mental attitudes to work. Libraries should not health, especially those which are less be open for 24 hours, since that implies immediately visible. Services need to that any available hour (even time which prevent the damage before it is done: could be spent sleeping) should be put they need to be forward-looking rather towards work. Supervisions should be than reparative in aspect. held, as much as is possible, in reasona- Current understanding of wellbeing ble working hours – that is, between 9am in Cambridge (and beyond) does not rec- and 5pm on weekdays. Supervisors and ognise that we all have mental health. ❝ staf should develop a more nuanced ap- Instead, mental health is frequently Meeting an proach to learning which recognises that conlated with mental illness. he two pumping out essays is not efective nor are intimately connected, but students arbitrary practical for everyone. Faculty guidelines can sufer from poor mental health must change to acknowledge that. without necessarily having a diagnos- metric of Rebuilding the scafold of academ- able condition. Some students may not success or ic work would contribute towards a even be aware of the luctuating internal healthier environment for all, regard- environment which informs how they ‘coping’ less of whether they appear to be meet- feel on a day-to-day basis. Others have does not ing Cambridge’s metric of ‘coping’. We ‘invisible’ symptoms which allow them should foster open dialogue about what to appear high-functioning while still equate constitutes a diicult time, the fact that feeling the efects of mental illness. We some students can ‘manage’ more than shouldn’t wait for people to stop ‘coping’ to feeling others without conveying visible signs and start ‘struggling’ before considering happy and of ‘struggling’, and that being able to their mental health – you can be tick- complete assigned tasks does not pre- ing every academic box and still feel healthy clude the possibility that something is sub-par. If students force themselves ❞ bubbling under the surface. to work despite feeling sub-optimal, F 15 F 2019 19 Opinion Colleges must be pushed to uphold their duty of care to non-academic sta
We must stand oping to press “colleges to re- e average house price in Cambridge mal hall for granted, it’s worth remem- to the nancial situation of their most with non- ect on their social responsi- is £439,60 and the University continues bering that Cambridge is a rarity in terms essential sta . Bursars continue to “in- academic sta bility”, student campaigners to invest their wealth in real estate and of the domestic support that students vest in the wrong things”, as one bed- Hlast week launched a ‘league ashy property developments. get. Having somebody to clean up ater der put it. table’, ranking colleges on the basis of Meanwhile, it was revealed earlier you is a luxury which the vast majority It is important that we encourage how they treat their lowest paid work- this month that the number of home- of working adults, let alone students, are colleges to uphold their duty of care to ers. e worst o ender was Robinson less people sleeping rough on Cambridge unable to enjoy. workers. But it is equally important that College, where nearly 60 percent of non- streets grew between 2017 and 2018, de- What’s more, the work undertaken we do this in a spirit of solidarity, and academic sta are paid below the Living spite falling nationwide. We believe that by non-academic sta can oten be a with a constant recognition of our own Wage, despite its master receiving an ❝ Colleges have a social responsibility to thankless task. One bedder at Emmanuel relative privilege. is means organising annual salary of £92,951 (more than the serve the communities in which they are described having to clean a constantly with workers rather than on behalf of head of any other college). The fact so deeply embedded, and paying sta messy kitchen as “building a machine them, such as by encouraging and facili- With just one college currently ac- that colleg- the living wage is the most basic step only to see someone else smash it up.” tating unionising to help them get their credited by the Living Wage Foundation, towards ful lling this responsibility. As ere can be a huge amount of unpaid voices heard. It also means not limiting the table con rms what many students es do not the UCU ballots lecturers and supervi- emotional labour involved as well, with ourselves to pressing colleges to commit had already known to be the case: the sors on whether to go on strike over uni- some bedders comparing their role to to Living Wage accreditation, but also wages of bedders, caterers, cleaners, and pay their versities’ failure to tackle the gender that of a ‘surrogate mum’; looking out pushing for better working conditions other non-academic sta do not re ect housekeep- pay gap, the burden of ensuring that for the general wellbeing of students and more secure contracts. the hard work they do. our colleges are liveable spaces is also and dealing rst-hand with welfare is- Whether colleges live up to the legacy e payment of the Living Wage, ing and a gendered issue sues. of the league table’s namesake — Dr which is currently set at £9.00 per hour, catering e working conditions of house- Yet while the work of catering and Sedley Taylor, who in 1907 o ered £500 is the bare minimum any worker needs keeping and catering sta should be housekeeping sta in colleges is crucial to Cambridge Borough Council to pay to cover the cost of living in one of the staff fairly everyone’s concern. eir work enables for students and the smooth running for the dental inspection of every child most expensive cities in the UK. e fact students to go about our day-to-day lives of the University’s colleges, their pay at a council-funded school — will de- that colleges do not pay their housekeep- is irrespon- with relative ease, helping to support runs the risk of undervaluing their la- pend on our ability to stand with sta ing and catering sta fairly is irresponsi- sible our education. bour. Colleges which spend extortionate and collectively demand meaningful ble when we consider Cambridge’s sta- While it’s easy to take empty bins, amounts on free wine and academic change.
Howard Chae & Chae Howard Humphreys Parker Edward tus as the most unequal city in the UK. ❞ clean kitchens and waiter service at for- prizes are falling short when it comes
he Varsity Trust CAMBRIDGE STUDENT LIFE THE OFFICAL FOOD OF If suitable candidates present themselves, the Trustees intend to make awards to students about to graduate, or who are recent graduates, from either the University of EVERY SINGLE DAY Cambridge or ARU who intend to undertake approved training in journalism for 2019/2020. VALID ON MEDIUM OR LARGE PIZZA ONLY Trust awards will be tailored to individual circumstances but are normally intended to make a signiicant contribution to the fees for the training concerned. Up to £5,000 is potentially available. For further information and how to apply JUST USE CODE: PIZZA241 AT THE CHECKOUT visit: www.varsity.co.uk/trust
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Professor hat should the Univer- ‘actual’ interests, nor was it regarded as we took evidence I believe are sincere agenda or tie scientists’ hands: the BP Dame Donald, sity, including all its suiciently concrete to need minuting. in their goals of changing their own Institute was set up with BP’s capital who served members, be doing in But that does not mean it was hidden strategies, both towards more eicient but the research agenda belongs to the as chair of the Wthe face of the existential from any of the other DWG members, energy production and use, but also to scientists within it. Divestment crisis that is climate change? Is divest- who could have insisted on adopting a sustainable sources of energy. hey also Policy has a key role to play here. Our Working Group, ment the right solution? Should it be the diferent position. have to satisfy shareholders in what they ❝ evidence sessions highlighted the impor- shares her only thing that is done? he Divestment For completion, and for readers who do. Shareholders are therefore powerful. tance of putting a price on carbon emis- thoughts on Working Group that I chaired consid- are unfamiliar with BHP, they are an hey can – and should – put pressure Walking sions, to relect the damage they do to Cambridge’s ered these questions during much of the Australian-based mining company, not on the companies to move in the right away – as the climate and to provide incentives to divestment academic year 2017-18 and reported to a fossil fuel company in the normal direction much faster. If we divest – even expedite the transition away from fossil debate Council last spring. sense of the word. I talked to a senior from funds (since the University has es- the di- fuels. hose involved in policy discus- he issues of ‘conlicts of interest’, representative of BHP as part of the sentially no direct holdings in fossil fuel sions should be stressing the crucial need which have just surfaced after all this evidence-gathering sessions and they companies) – we lose that ability. he vestment to establish an international consensus time – although they were publicly re- stressed that only about 5% of the coal DWG recommendation was that the Uni- movement to achieve this aim. We, in the University, ported on the website throughout our they mined was burned; their main focus versity joined one of the institutional could introduce our own local scheme work – are a diversion from what should was on ‘metallurgical’ coal, stuf that is groupings which exert growing pressure demands to efect behavioural change. be the real focus for everyone: ensuring used in steel production, for instance, a on fund managers, who in turn put that A single focus on action targeting the collective work across the university, fact that may not be obvious from recent pressure on the companies. he sooner – removes divestment loses sight of the bigger and the lifestyles we each choose to live, discussions. we add our voice to those debates the our power picture. It is incumbent on all of us to contribute to reduce carbon emissions. Secondly, let me turn to the issue of better. Walking away – as the divest- consider how we live. Is that light really Let me irst consider the ‘charges’ divestment itself. It is a simple mes- ment movement demands – removes ❞ necessary? What would it cost to pay for against Simon Redfern, charges which sage to get behind, and I understand our power. the damage caused by my comfortable are not supported by the evidence and why many feel the fossil fuel compa- Our world-class scientists are part of Cambridge life? What am I going to do which are simply a distraction. Simon nies are the source of all our problems. the solution to inding innovative solu- to pay that debt? How can I use what I was not in receipt of money from BHP. Nevertheless I believe there are far more tions to energy production, storage and have learned in this University to help? As head of a department putting together constructive and positive things to do, use as well as to developing technologies We should be collectively ighting for a a bid to government for capital fund- which require all of us to act and sup- that work for carbon capture and stor- better world by using every means avail- ing, he was in discussion with BHP and port them. he fossil fuel companies are age. he oil companies – as they have able to us. he time for such action is this fact was brought up at one of our supplying the oil and gas our current said repeatedly and publicly – need our certainly now. meetings. Because the money did not economy and lifestyles require. Hence input if they are to solve the manifest Professor Dame Athene Donald DBE FRS ‘exist’ – and nor was the bid successful – how we live, the research we do and the problems. Turning our research backs on chaired the Divestment Working Group it could only be regarded as a ‘potential’ choices we make should be targets for them will not remove the issues we face. (DWG). Dame Athene is Professor of Experi- conlict of interest at some future date our action. hat does not mean we have to do ‘what mental Physics, Master of Churchill College
Professor DameProfessor Donald Athene and hence it did not it on the register of he fossil fuel companies from which they tell us’. hey don’t set the research and a Fellow of the Royal Society. We must open dialogues that bridge diferences in order to create change
Oliver Moodie (Accompanying Piece: Orchestra Baobab to the ideas being pushed forward. So his is a presentation of Cuban and Af- sarily at formal debates, but in a conver- argues that – Utrus Horas) many important discussions are held rican cultures inding common ground sation while the kettle is boiling. we should reating dialogue on conten- at FemSoc events, but who is attending? through artistic expression. he group We must also understand that ques- approach tious issues is diicult – cre- Who is clicking on a link to an article efortlessly depicts the musical syncre- tions some may consider ignorant will student ating change is even harder. about climate change? he comfort of tism I believe must be translated into inevitably be asked, but in order to activism with CAfter writing an article about discourse with like-minded individuals our approach to change within the stu- change perceptions they must irst be the same my experience of racism at Cambridge provides a space where personal experi- dent body. addressed, and no one should be berated sycrentism of last term, I found myself wondering how ences are validated, which is important, I completely respect and understand for trying to erode their own misconcep- Utrus Horas to make the ripples of student activism but is it suicient in proselytising a new the need for closed groups at University. tions or naivety. Scorn serves no purpose by engaging in reverberate for longer and reach beyond audience, or is it guilty of attempting to Forums like FLY and CUSU LGBT+ have but to cement the barriers segregating collaborative my small pond of exposure. persuade the persuaded? Preaching to done amazing work for culturing a sense individuals and worsen the disconnect. A conversation For individuals to write an article elu- the converted in discussion forums, as is of self-esteem and identity for people who coalition of tolerance is a two-way street: cidating their personal struggle, or insti- common, does little for changing current feel underrepresented or marginalised. we all have the right to be heard. tutions to release a statement condemn- social climate. However, if we want change, we must In order to be paragons of change, ing inappropriate activities is certainly So, what is the solution? I think it’s open the conversation to those who are we must grasp every opportunity to a step in the right direction; however, it exquisitely illustrated by Orchestra not directly afected by our own personal open dialogues across diferences - men is not enough. Behind every article and ❝ Baobab’s Utrus Horas. his Senegalese adversities. Open conversations have the shouldn’t feel afraid to talk about femi- every corroborating declaration is a group outit was formed in the 70s in Dakar. potential to bridge the gap between im- nism and LGBT+ activism needn’t be lim- with a story to tell, which we would be The fact It contains at minimum a saxophonist, passioned individuals and the layperson, ited to those with that speciic identity. remiss to limit to ink on a page. that colleg- guitarist, vocalist, timbalero and rhythm who doesn’t necessarily understand every Support should not be levied solely on It may seem ironic that I’m writing an section. heir Afro-Cuban-folk amalga- personal strife viscerally. the basis of relatability; much like Utrus article about the limited utility of writ- es do not mation is a masterclass in cross-cultural I have been educated by friends on Horas, comprehension of each other’s ing an article, but hear me out. Powerful communication, fusing son Cubano, issues ranging from identity crises in the lives through collaborative dialogue, be penmanship is a fantastic tool for start- pay their Wolof and Mandé musical traditions Tamil community to Western ideology- it musical or verbal, can produce fruit- ing communication, especially around housekeep- from Cuba, Senegal and Mali, respec- driven miscegenation plaguing diasporic ful results for our society as a whole. taboo or stigmatised subjects, but it tively. he eclectic song opens with roll- South Americans. hese are issues that I his can be diicult, I know, because, must always only be a start. If change ing and ing arpeggios on a guitar accompanied am not intimately acquainted with, but ignorance more frequently begets con- across the entire face of our environment catering by a Cuban drum. he call is answered by they need to be discussed. If we cannot idence than it does knowledge, but it is desired, conversation must be used to a meandering trumpet which introduces learn to communicate across our own is a necessary enterprise all the same. broaden the scope of discussion. Never- staff fairly the elegiac lyrics sung in a Portuguese borders, change will surely be slow to he message to take away, then, is that theless, simple dialogue in itself is not creole, adopting slang phrases and prov- come. As individuals, we are a smor- the starting point for change is honest suicient. he conversations being had is irrespon- erbs from across the ethnosphere. he gasbord of privileges and challenges. conversations with sincerity, openness at the moment can feel isolated or eso- sible land of sonorous pleasures painted by Conversations that cause us cognitive and inclusivity at their heart, concern- teric, appealing repeatedly to the same the song conjures up images of a smoky dissonance should not be shirked away ing topics afecting individuals from all
Oliver Moodie Oliver people, who are already sympathetic ❞ bar with cigars and single-barrel rum. from, but probed sensitively, not neces- diferent walks of life. vulture
▶ARTS THE MAYSPREVIEW∙23 ▶LIFESTYLE WHAT EXERCISE MEANS TO ME ∙ 26 ▶ FAShIon bT- Sof cucfS’ lATEST SHooT∙ 28-29
Illustration byAlisa Santikarn 23 vulture Friday 15th February 2019 The Japanese House interview: ‘I'm hard to pin down’
The rising star of indie-pop talks to Alice French about music-making, supporting The 1975, and her upcoming album
I’m in a constant crisis because I love my dog, but I also worry that I might “be keeping him prisoner” muses Amber Bain, the brilliant brains and voice behind The Japanese House. Amber is speaking to me on the phone from her studio in Oxfordshire on a sunny January morning with her dogs wrestling in the background, ahead of the release of her highly-anticipated debut album, Good at Falling, on March 1st. The Japanese House’s dreamy electro-pop has captured the hearts of many, including myself, since her first EP came out in 2015. She describes her music style as “hard to pin down,” but says that it’s “a mixture of depressing lyrics and hopeful chord progressions,” with most of her songs based around relationships and love. According to Amber, Good at Falling involves a wide range of styles and moods, so there’s bound to be something to tickle everyone’s fancy. When asked what she’d like a listener to take away from the new album, Amber says that once she’s released a record, she largely loses control of how it’s perceived. “here’s al- ways that battle between wanting the listener to interpret a song how I intended, and allow- ▲ Amber Bain, the creative force behind The Japanese House (IAn CHEEk PrESS) ing them to interpret it personally,” she says. “I don’t think I’d be a songwriter if I didn’t want emotions: “when I’m feeling an emotion, if an- to say something, but sometimes the more ything more gets put on top of it, I’m a goner.” intent you put into a song, the more it takes he Japanese House irst stepped into vulture tunes: away from its honesty.” However, the overall the spotlight when supporting he 1975 on aim of the album is to illicit “that weird nostal- tour a few years ago, and Amber admits that “I he best of 2019 so gic feeling you get when you go back to a place ❝ probably owe the boys a lot.” he 1975’s Matty you haven’t seen in a long time,” which is cer- Healy actually sings on her song Faraway from far tainly the vibe one gets from the two singles Focus on making good the upcoming album, and she’s worked closely already released, 'Lilo' and 'Follow My Girl'. with the band on writing and production. and different music, he Great Pixley Train robbery Good at Falling features only one song According to Amber, he 1975 are “hilarious, from he Japanese House’s earlier EPs: 'I Saw rather than just trying and very kind,” and she says she’d always Cass McCombs You in a Dream', which Amber wrote during to replicate the work of be open to collaborating with them more. a very emotionally diicult time following However, although the band’s inluence on red Bull & Hennessy the death of a friend. “he only thing I have artists you love Amber’s music can be seen in some of her Jenny Lewis is my perspective of things,” she says humbly, ❞ more electronic singles, her ethereal vocals but this perspective makes for a wonderfully and fantastic song writing skills set her apart. Seconds beautiful song, the album version of which When I ask her to disclose her best LCD Soundsystem is set to be even more dreamlike, as it’s been piece of advice for musicians when starting re-produced acoustically. out, Amber maintains that being authentic is Clean While 'I Saw You in a Dream' is high on the most important thing. “Focus on making the list, Amber’s favourite song to perform good and diferent music, rather than just try- he Japanese House live is 'Clean', which she admits is probably ing to replicate the work of artists you love,” the most-played song in her music library she implores. he key is to “make music that Sweet Little Lite (it’s mine too). She puts this down to the fact sounds like nothing else.” Wise words, and Nils Frahm that “I can’t relate to any music more than my you’d be wiser still to listen to them; he own.” However, when I tell her that 'Clean' is Japanese House is arguably one of the most my go-to musical remedy for stress, she says exciting names in British music this year. Under he Tallest Arch that she can never listen to music when she’s Daniel Avery feeling under pressure or experiencing strong Good at Falling is out on 1st March vulture 24 The Mays: sitting down with the editors ▼ The Mays anthology annually showcases Kyoka Hadano sits and celebrates new student creative talent down with the co- at Oxford and Cambridge. LOIS WRIGHT editors of this year's copy of The Mays to discuss their vision for the twenty-seventh edition
he Mays anthology annually showcases and celebrates new Tstudent creative talent at Oxford and Cambridge. Since its creation in 1992 by three friends at Cambridge, the publication has always been edited and largely run by a team of students across the two universities. I sit down with Elizabeth Huang and Eimear Ni Chathail, co-editors of this year’s anthology, over a cup of tea one evening to discuss this year’s anthology and their opinions on art and the creative scene in Cambridge. e Mays has a uniquely broader scope than most other student publications - transporting student writing and artwork from the desks of college rooms to a national audience. Its volumes are delivered across the UK and are found upon shelves of major bookstores and the desks of every major literary agent. “We even ended up in Finland last year!” says Eimear with a laugh. Guest editors, prominent authors, poets or artists such as Jeanette Win- terson, Philip Pullman and Seamus Heaney, also take part in the selection process and contribute a preface to the anthology. ogy”, to prevent the risk of art “just becoming Both editors embrace how this visibility decoration, which does not do justice to the encourages new student writing and art to artist”. ese changes are facilitated by the be more open to the wider public. “It’s an- Eimear and Elizabeth are aiming for “a more new role of an arts editor within e Mays other way to get new student writing read”, diverse Mays’ this year – in relation to contrib- team. says Eimear, who raises the example of Zadie utors” backgrounds as well as expanding the Stemming from the arts theme, Elizabeth Smith, whose career was launched by liter- range of content they accept. is year’s e draws attention to the physical copy of e ary agencies taking notice of her short story Mays will be published as a digital anthology Mays as “an aesthetic object”, where creatives in the 1997 collection. “Being published in an as well as a paper copy, in order to showcase have also been involved through designing anthology could also inspire people to become a diversity of art in multimedia formats, such the cover and setting fonts. While the digital more con dent in themselves and encourage as video art or sound art, transcending the ❝ anthology o ers new opportunities, there is them to send out more submissions, be more limitations of the printed format. still “something powerful about having a ma- creative”. Another potential new element of this There are loads of terial object in your hand in which you know e anthology’s prestigious history and year’s anthology comprises re ections of zines in Cambridge, so much labour has been involved to create”. public pro le has its bene ts, but can equal- people involved in creative projects around Printed copies of e Mays have also enabled ly intimidate, especially for those who have Cambridge in general. “ ere are loads of zines a lot of exciting stu- direct connection with readers - Eimear talks never been published before. However, while in Cambridge, a lot of exciting student writ- dent written theatre of how “it was lovely to sell past copies in the e Mays takes itself seriously as a publica- ten theatre going on and art exhibitions that English Faculty because it was a chance to tion, it de nitely does not seek to seem elit- have really exploded over the past few years”, going on and art meet and engage with so many people who ist – aiming instead to “to give a platform for explains Elizabeth. “ ere is a lot of stu going exhibitions that have are interested in e Mays and being creative”. people’s talent to be shown”, regardless of on and it would be nice to record that”. ey really exploded over is dynamic between paper and digital, tra- prior experience. Stressing that “you don’t identify an archival quality in e Mays as an dition and the modern, age-old prestige and need to do an arts degree to be creative”, they annually released publication, being “like a the past few years new student writing, is a central one to e also bring to attention to how e Mays en- record of student writing and student art that ❞ Mays. Even in submissions, Eimear points out courages a lot of people studying seemingly took place within that year”. the beauty of a well-written sonnet and that non-creative subjects, such as STEM, to tune A new approach will be taken concerning “sometimes, being very traditional can be very into their artistic talents as a welcome re- the arts element of the anthology. Submis- interesting”. Good art does not necessarily lief from their work. Elizabeth, a third-year sions will be featured not as stand-alone have to be overtly radical or consciously edgy lawyer, found that while “there aren’t many pieces, as had been done in previous years, - “we love everything, that’s the message”, opportunities for creative work within my but as a selection of images of people’s work they summarise. “We encourage well done degree, it has been really exciting to be in- accompanied by a blurb where the artist can things, whatever they are”. volved in the creative scene here at Cam- write a little about their practice. e aim is e Mays welcomes submissions by midnight bridge through publications such as e Mays”. to present “mini portfolios within the anthol- on 20th February 2019. 24 vulture Friday 15th February 2019 From Cambridge comedy to a career in stand-up: Chatting with Ahir Shah
▲ Ahir Shah on the BBC's Live At the Apollo (BBC//yOUTUBE)
currently on tour and brings the show to the break between shows, I ask. thing cohesive will come through,” and that Hasan Al-Habib Cambridge Junction on Friday 8th February. “Partly, but what you end up writing about “a combination of inspiration and despera- interviews ex-student But how did he make that decision that every ends up being deined by what you’ve been tion will make you realise everything hung performer in Cambridge theatre and comedy thinking about at that time. For the 2017 together in a beautiful way.” Ahir Shah about struggles with at some point: can I really jus- show, I was very much thinking about Trump Arts students will be encouraged by Shah’s tify turning down a more orthodox, inancially and Brexit and the political backsliding that analogy for show construction: “As with writ- writing comedy and stable career for a passion like acting or com- seemed to be happening across the world, ing anything, ive or ten-minute sets or an his latest show, Duffer edy, loaded with far more risk? whereas in the leadup to the 2018 show, what essay, you need a beginning, middle and end. “It’s diicult. To go into stand-up requires I was thinking about was, and what the show he skill isn’t particularly diferent, it’s more nterviewing Ahir Shah, there’s a a degree of self-delusion, so it’s then diicult is based around, was a trip I took to India the practice of being able to do it over a longer temptation to simply ask: How? Of to ask the people interested to be realists”. and a few family members dying after being stretch of time.” I’m pushed for time, so I ask Icourse, student stand-up comedians at Shah adds that “No one cares if you didn’t severely ill.” one inal question. Canadian comic Norm Cambridge often have no prior experience get the shiny grad scheme straight away” and “I was thinking about my own future and Macdonald once remarked that the perfect and face their own challenges trying to that “you don’t want it to be something you mental health, and it became much more joke is one where the setup and punchline establish themselves in what is arguably the regret not trying”. He tempers his pep talk inward-looking and about family.” are exactly the same, giving the following UK’s (if not the world’s) best student comedy with a dose of caution: “Equally, know when Shah is, understandably, wary of his com- example: scene. But there’s always that thought in to fold”. edy ever being typecast. “Julia Roberts told reporters this week that the back of your head: could I ever be good Folding is clearly the last thing on Shah’s “I don’t want it to be like, this is the politics her marriage to Lyle Lovett has been over for enough to do this for real? How will I know, mind, however, and so it should be. I saw guy. It’s more, as human beings, we will al- some time,” he says, as a picture of the country and what do I need to do in order to try? his previous show, Control, at the Cambridge ways be varied in what we’re thinking about singer’s asymmetrical face appeared behind Why not ask someone who has, I thought. Junction last year and enjoyed it immensely. and what deines us at given points of time. him. “he key moment, she said, came when Ahir Shah is certainly qualified to advise. His latest, Dufer, represents a marked difer- And [Dufer] is just an exploration of that par- she realized that she was Julia Roberts, and After reading PPS at Clare, directing the ence in its content. Control was illed with ticular point in time for me.” that she was married to Lyle Lovett”. Footlights Spring Revue and graduating in incisive political comedy, equally disparaging Most Cambridge stand-ups are used to tight I recount this to Shah and ask him what his 2012, he tells he me applied for a master’s of igures and ideas from the left and right, ive or ten-minute sets, and the idea of writ- perfect joke would be like. He’s impressed, degree but was rejected because, in his words: but Shah tells me that Dufer is a far more ing a whole show can be intimidating. I ask clearly not for the irst time, by Macdonald’s “my application was efectively an acrostic introspective afair. if he starts with an overarching narrative or wit: “hat’s really nice. My perfect joke would poem that said I’m not ready for the real world “I wouldn’t even describe it as a political theme, or with the jokes themselves. be one told with the style and cadence of Norm yet, please help me”. His latest show, Dufer, comedy show,” he says. “his is a human story, “he answer is both. here was one particu- Macdonald, and written by Norm Macdon- debuted at the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe Festival rather than ‘this is why I’m very angry with lar story that I wanted to tell [in Dufer], and I ald”. It feels appropriate that we should end and enjoyed a sell-out run which earned him the world’, which is much more what [Control] tried to make sure the other things in there it our interview on a tribute to a living comedy his second consecutive nomination for Best was about.” in with that.” He adds: “other times you write legend. It may very well be that one day, Ahir Show at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards. He’s Was this a concerted efort to make a clean seemingly disparate things and hope some- Shah joins him. vulture 25 The role of the reviewer
the lacklustre. constant development. tion of shows into broad categories, when of Sarah Robertson e role of the reviewer does, of course, However, the critic should be expected course not all four-star shows were designated di er between the student and professional to uphold the same commitment to a high as such for the same reasons. And of course, he theatre is saturated with the spheres. Upon writing a review, at any level, standard of creative ability as those involved the use of stars could negate the need for re- excited chatter of spectators, blissfully it is important to acknowledge the scale and in the production itself. In the Cambridge views altogether, with readers only using stars Tdislocated within the anticipation of resources that might a ect the product of setting, with a plethora of performances to base their judgement. entertainment. Discreetly, I find my open performance. e reviewer shouldn’t be a put on each week, a review might make the is brings into question whether reviews seat, demarcated by a sheet of printer paper: menacing gure – being inordinately critical di erence of whether one decides to see a are necessary at all, when ve lled-in bub- “reserved for reviewer”. without being constructive is useless for all show at all. It’s important, then, for reviews bles might yield similar results. Can it be said e performance commences, and I en- parties involved. to be crated with care. e critic’s judge- that theatre and the review might exist as a gage, yet simultaneously engrossed in my Approaching student theatre with a such a mental eye should be a coalescence of both sort of chicken-and-egg scenario, where one urry of scribblings into an open notebook, lens is crucial. ough a professional reviewer journalistic skill of presentation as well as cannot exist without the other? as to not forget ephemeral details: visuals, might blast a commercial production, for, in a level of experiential and academic knowl- Of course, theatre can certainly exist with- apt descriptors, or memorable lines, those essence, its misuse of bounds of monetary edge regarding the artistic form critiqued. out the review, and oppositely, the review well-executed, and those, well, not so much. resources and experienced talent, a student is might be unrealistic, initially, but these inherently depends on a subject for its crea- At the concluding applause, the rooms is im- production, even as a nished product, is aspects are gained over time, both through tion. But a review, I argue, strengthens theatre bued with a shared warmth, performers and an amalgamation of works in progress, and training and also in duty and respect to the through the creation of a level of expectation audience members having, in a sense, created should be held to such a standard. Yet being production. – to continue to create not only commercially something in tandem. overly forgiving and thus untruthful isn’t fair, A central feature of the review process in successful theatre (read: the plethora of lm- Such is the job of the theatre critic: a phrase either. the context of Cambridge theatre is star rat- turned-stage musicals like Frozen and Pretty that when uttered might strike fear (or prob- e student review should then exist in the ings, which are used regularly as a prelude to Woman on Broadway), but to push creatives, ably, rather, annoyance) into the hearts of space between the lenient and the biting, in the review itself. Of course, there are pros and students and professionals alike to make not creatives everywhere. In the space of perform- order to ful l its fundamental task of assisting cons: unstarred reviews can come across as just enjoyable but stimulating, thoughtful, and ance, it’s a dislocated role, not an element of in the improvement of the theatre it speaks indecisive, bouncing too freely between the objectively good pieces of art for audiences to the creation of the art, nor the generic specta- on, working as a sort of collaborator to the positive and the negative. With stars, there’s nd and digest. With the review holding the tor, there strictly to be entertained. creative process. an element of imprecision, being blunt in de- creatives accountable, audiences are given an Yet despite the isolated nature of the role, In the student context, a reviewer is just as ciding the quality of a production. However, advocate, a voice to push theatre in invigorat- the critic still remains integral to the theatri- much in training as the theatre practitioner. contrarily, using stars promotes the need to ing and challenging directions. cal experience. e role of the theatre critic As performers and creatives are improving be extremely opinionated – audiences want And of course, an audience shouldn’t be is multifaceted, and overall, characterised by their crat with each production, similarly, to read a damning one-star review, or a glow- told what to feel – a review is just one person’s the love of the art form, attempting to inspire critics work to improve their writing and ar- ing ve-star one, less interested in the tepid opinion. No matter what a critic might say, it audiences to see outstanding works, and per- tistic eye. It is unrealistic to expect nesse neutrality of a three-star designation. always will remain in the hands of a reader haps, conversely, steer watchers away from from either side, as both are in the midst of Stars, as a concept, promote the generalisa- whether to act on it or not. he Mays Call for submissions! SUMMER EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
he Mays Anthology is delighted to announce that submissions for our 27th edition are open.
he Mays is the premier student anthology, publishing the best new POSITIONS AVAILABLE IN CAMBRIDGE writing and art from Oxbridge students each year. Widely credited July - August 2019 with launching Zadie Smith’s literary career, he Mays continues to Teaching in a number of subjects attract the brightest creative talent from both universities. Previous aTeaching eaching Pastoral aand Pastoralactivities a Administrative guest editors have included Kate Bush, Stephen Fry, Rupi Kaur, Nick Cave, Patti Smith, Colm Toibin, Jarvis Cocker & Ted Hughes. NextLogistics Interviews and administrative 27-28th February
We are seeking submissions of student poetry, prose, and art. Employment is subject to an enhanced DBS check and appropriate references.
For more details see www.themaysanthology.co.uk/submissions/ or follow our Facebook page. Get in touch for application details and further information: [email protected] facebook.com/heMaysAnthology twitter.com/MaysAnthology www.oxford-royale.co.uk/work-with-us 26 vulture Exercise, anxiety and me For Eve Hodgson, was able to get through the day on unhealth- ily small amounts of food, but has now be- exercise was a lifeline come the reason I can exercise. I go to the gym every day. in recovering from My anxiety – and I can only speak for mine anxiety – is a kind of nervous energy. Panic attacks were always a distinctly physical thing. ey Content note: is article contains discussion of weight felt muscular and twitchy and I’d o ten jit- loss and anxiety ter. e sensation of motion – rolling a glass ❝ between my palms, physically getting up and used to run, and I used to hate it. It was pacing – could o ten ease, if not end, a panic Itoo hard to breathe consistently and too Exercise attack. I haven’t had an extreme panic attack cold to feel as if I’d worked up a sweat. I lets my in a long time, but as third year wears on, felt was really bad at it – forty-five minutes anxiety is naturally setting in, and sometimes in a hilly area was not a realistic start-point brain more irrationally escalating. when I’d basically only exercised in PE switch off Going to the gym at a more or less xed and netball practice before. I’d be so tired time every day is my way of nipping a panic and so unsatisfied that I’d lie down and ❞ attack in the bud, because, soon, there will put biscuits in me as a reward as soon as I be a point where I’m ne again – or, if not got home, thus undoing all my hard (half-) ne, at least occupied. e gap between my work. current state of panic and the point where it So, I stopped. I lost weight in the summer will end gets smaller and smaller the more a ter my GCSEs through no work or fault of frequently I work out. A schedule I would have my own, and kept losing weight throughout once thought of as unrealistic and impossible sixth form. I never had any need to exercise, has become necessary for my wellbeing. mostly because I was frequently too nerv- It distracts me from work for a xed amount ous to eat anything signi cant. I was at my of time, so I am (in theory) sharper and more absolute slimmest and absolute most anxious focused when I come back to it. I’m eating when I rst came to Cambridge. better – it feels like a cliché, but my body feels Anxiousness was at one time the reason I cleaner. I am sleeping better: I don’t really
drink ca eine anymore and I’m physically ▲ Exercise exhausted when I get into bed. Mostly, I am proved a too busy and too tired to be anxious or sad. powerful Mine tends to hit when I have empty hours. outlet for My brain can spiral. It used to keep me up for the author hours most nights during my worst periods. PIXABAY It took me a long time to gure out what kind of exercise works for me. For most of my ❝ time at uni, I’ve just played college netball It is in- once or twice a week. Last term, I tried to go back to running – going in the morning vigorat- for an extremely short run round the river ing, and every other day. It was too easy to cop out, especially as it never felt like I was missing it makes much by skipping it anyway. you feel e gym however is indoors. Plus it’s free and there’s a huge variety of stu to do. If strong you do a humanities subject you can a ord ❞ to go when it’s empty in the middle of the day, especially useful if you’re self-conscious starting out. You have the space and time and equipment to work out how you like moving best, and the absolute luxury of being able to switch it up whenever you get bored. Exer- cise makes me feel as though I’ve earned my tiredness, it lets my brain switch o , and I genuinely feel a huge sense of triumph when I nish. For the last two weeks, I’ve split workouts between cross-trainers, rowing machines, and exercise bikes. Today, I spent forty minutes on a treadmill, running my rst continuous 5k, and I loved it (move over, Mo Farah). Ex- ercise makes me feel as though I’ve earned my tiredness, it lets my brain switch o , and I genuinely feel a huge sense of triumph when I nish. I feel genuinely very obtuse for not taking the advice of every single medical professional who advised me to exercise as a way to stop feeling low or tense. It is invigorating, and it makes you feel strong. You have achieved something, your body has achieved some- thing, and you have proven to yourself that you are capable of taking at least tiny steps towards caring for yourself. Ticking through my to-do list at halfway hall
Enia Phocas contemplates of this kind should be quanti able. Yes, I could this is also something that can never truly be how it feels to be halfway estimate the number of books I have taken ‘complete’; there are always new connections out of the library, or the amount of people to be made and new friendships to form. through her degree I’ve met, the number of times I went out, or A more personal aim was to read James when I have enjoyed myself in a supervision, Joyce’s Ulysses, which I had wanted to do hat does it mean to but I feel this would somewhat miss the ever since I was in sixth form, having just Wbe halfway through point. My time at university has been far discovered the delights of literary modern- your degree? This more than the sum of individual experiences ism. Within my rst term here I had not only was the question which floated or arbitrary statistics to catalogue them. read the work, but written an essay on it – into my mind when I received I wondered if there wasa way to evidence my sixteen-year-old self never would have the email inviting me to my the progress an event like Halfway Hall im- believed it possible. college’s Halfway Hall during plies, even if it was just for myself. And then Something that de nitely had been on my the winter break. And now that I remembered. You see, since I received my list for a long time was going to May Ball. It Halfway Hall has come, I feel myself acceptance letter, I have been unconsciously was both everything I had imagined it would still pondering this question: am I formulating a mental list of all the things I be, and somehow more magical than I had supposed to feel like I have gained wanted to do during my three years here, my anticipated – I spent much of the evening in in life experience, knowledge of ‘Cambridge To-Do List’. Some things are, natu- a happy trance, oating in the wonderland English literary history rally, rather touristy things, like going punting that was my transformed college. and cooking skills? and climbing up Great St. Mary’s Church. Oth- ere have been smaller moments of per- I struggle with ers are more Cambridge-speci c, such as the sonal joy too: going to the UL by myself was the idea that formal challenge (with only three col- particularly exciting (and more than a little progress leges done, I will really need to up stressful); my rst cheesy chips made me wish the pace if I want to get round I had tried them sooner; I remember my very the remaining twenty-eight), rst lecture (on Childhood in the Victorian or getting college married. novel) was utterly delightful. And some are entirely So, as I stand on this precipice between personal: getting my past and future time, between the rst half laundry done beforeit of my degree and the second, I have given was completely nec- much thought to what should be added to essary; showing my the list. Without doubt, I would like to pursue mum the UL; read- my own academic interests more, now that I ing Sylvia Path’s have grown in understanding about what sort diaries about doing of literature and authors I enjoy. the tragedy paper. Simply contemplating this made me realise Although it will how much I have learnt over the last year and be impossible for a half, as well as recognising an increased me to know if I am con dence in my own judgements to shape halfway through my learning. this list, as I have With my rst set of ‘real’ exams coming never written it up this Easter, I am also looking forward to down, thinking ticking o going to Grantchester as another back on the things item on my list, especially as I deliberately I have already done prolonged going there so that I could enjoy it has been a surpris- as a post-exams treat. I guess you could say ingly moving expe- that I’ll also be ticking o my rst Cambridge rience. If I hadwrit- exam term, but I personally prefer to keep the ten it down, one list fun and relatively frivolous, a distraction of the rst items from more serious concerns. on the list would Of course there are many other things I have naturally could add: Mill Lane Winter Fair, Compline in been to make Chapel, or the annual Fashion Show, I could go friends. And ever on. But whilst I think that many good things since I asked my have come from ‘ e List’, equally, some of my neighbour to favourite memories have come from entirely help me set up spontaneous situations: conversations in the eduroam and gyp; coming out of a formal greeted by the the conversa- sight of snow; a midnight walk. tion started Perhaps what I have realised most from owing, I have this rst half of my university experience is been able to how quickly the time has gone; I would like tick that one to live in the moment as much as I can for off. However, my remaining time here, and maybe tick o in some ways, a few more things from the list.
◀ "I would like to live in the moment as much as I can for my reamining time here." ILLUSTRATION BY ALISA SANTIKARN FOR VARSITY 28 vulture Friday 15th February 2019 ‘Insanely beautiful’ in fragile chiffon behind the scenes with CUCFS Fashion Editors Cie Jen Wong and Helena Baron go backstage and talk to the creative team behind the inal photo shoot in the run up to the Cambridge University Charity Fashion Show
s we walk into the green room (also aesthetic that the CUCFS has been leaning Aknown as Sidney Sussex JCR) we towards this year, it takes a more analytical are instantly hit by an atmosphere eye to ind the nuanced details of the pieces. of bustling creativity: makeup is strewn Sive is quick to gush about what makes this across a table as two artists giggle with the particular collection so special. “he shapes models, while those waiting their turn scroll are quite minimalist, but then you have these ▲▼ Who would think to put a trucker jacket in baby blue vinyl? It's kind of a triple flip. (SARIkA through Instagram or zealously get on with details on them,” she explains, “like the ruch- DAttA) some work. Alexandra Sive, the president of ing and the layered use of chifon – there are CUCFS, calmly weaves her way between peo- so many diferent textures too, It its in with ple, chaperoning new arrivals, stopping to the other collections because even when the chat with Rosy Sida, creative director, as they silhouettes seem minimalist, the garments are eagerly plan next moves with Moran Arwas, still so full of detail.” he collection moreover the graduate designer whose collection they ofers “an exciting contrast to many of the de- are preparing to shoot. Elle Curzon, fashion signers,” Swire elaborates, noting the dramatic director and vice-president Eleanor Swire, are contrast it embodies in its “distinctly urban already on location, setting up with photog- feel” rendered in “earthy and sky tones.” rapher Sarika Datta. So what is the impact of this collection? It his is the inal photo-shoot in the run-up seems hard to deny that it highlights a gender- to the Cambridge University Charity Fashion luid, fun and fantastical approach to fashion. Show 2019, which is now just under a month Arwas is, of course, a woman designing for away on the 8th of March. With the shoot men, something she claims was a deliberate consisting of exclusively menswear, it soon choice so as to “come up with weirder ideas” becomes clear that, as Sida put it, “there’s than when designing womenswear. She en- nothing quite like” this collection, which joys blending softer, more efeminate details is both “insanely beautiful” and, in Arwas’ with the more masculine shapes of the cloth- own words “slightly weird [...] and slightly ing, loving that“it shows that there is a female feminine”. When probed a bit further about designer behind the clothes” and the freedom the inspiration behind this playful, delicate that comes with working in what she calls “a and yet raw collection, Arwas cites every- territory that wasn’t mine”. Gently pushing thing from “skate subcultures” to “some very the boundaries of received norms certainly weird, American stuf ” David Lynch ilms and seems to be a running thread in the tapestry an exploration of “oddness” and the “unex- of the shoot’s concept: Men wearing makeup? pected”. he result is “middle America trash” “I think it’s cool, if you want to wear makeup, re-imagined in pastel pink chifons, high- wear makeup,” airms Lottie Marie Mccrin- shine baby blue vinyl, and soft neutrals. “It’s dell, one of the makeup artists for the shoot; supposed to make you feel uncomfortable,” “there’s no diference at all between [working Arwas explains, “and it’s also supposed to be with] a guy and a girl,” her colleague Clara Ba- a bit surreal.” It is precisely this exploration of lon happily chimes in, “I’m looking at the face, ‘oddness’ that caught the eye of both Sida and I’m taking into account the bone structure and Sive. “Who would think to put vinyl in baby the makeup that I am creating.” blue and then make a trucker jacket out of it?” his shoot is evidently shaping up to be the President efuses: “It’s kind of a triple lip, one of spectacle, inspiration and innovation, you go through this fabric that’s almost fetish, both in front and behind the camera. “I think and it’s made delicate by this colour, and then we’ve found that the more unexpected things the shape is a skater, workwear-style jacket happen, the shoots get better. We’re just going that you’d think would be in denim.” to play with it; we’re excited,” Sida explains, a he inal photo-shoot in the CUCFS ven- feeling clearly shared by all in the now buzzing ture into a more maximalist approach than room. An easy giddiness hangs over the room in previous years. he collection may at irst as the models slip into their given looks. And glance seem to distance itself from previous there’s something almost poetic about see- photoshoots (which have included collections ing a 6ft, broad-shouldered man manoeuvre such as a baroque-heavy shoot at the Fitzwil- himself into a fragile chifon crop top. liam Museum). While the other collections But the magic doesn’t stop with this pho- have seemed at irst to it the ‘maximalist’ toshoot. he designs in their totality will be Friday 15th February 2019
showcased next month during the main show, which is set to be nothing short of “spectacu- lar” according to Sive, who explains her deci- sion to move into Guild Hall from the Corn Exchange: “It is going to be very theatrical,” both in setting and content. As for the designs, though they might not be the most wearable, it is the “ability of fashion to evoke feeling and whole worlds when you look at a collection,” that remains at the forefront of the President’s mind. he very idea of dreaming, Sida adds, is intrinsic to the designs, with each piece “made by hand - it’s not made en masse, you can’t buy it” which makes platforming the collec- tion “really really special” in her mind. Curzon was in full agreement, adding that “Moran was one of the irst designers we signed for ❝ the show and her work set an incredibly high standard. (...) It is also very encouraging to fashion has the know that the designs I have been staring at ability to evoke on Instagram for 9 months look even more sensational in real life.” feeling and he show that Sive and her team have planned is meant to make the audience feel whole worlds and believe in the vast potential for creativity when you look in all its shapes and forms. he belief in cre- ating a show that sparks and inspires those at a collection watching is seen strongly in Sida, who remarks ❞ that “there are lots of creative people out there who don’t indulge in art because they don’t think that it is a worthwhile pursuit, which is wrong.” Swire agrees, adding, “I think many students in Cambridge play down their en- joyment of fashion, but they shouldn’t. he 8th March is not only International Women’s Day, but also an opportunity to bring fashion into discussion in Cambridge, whilst raising money for Solidaritee.” Judging by the direc- tion of the show and the enthusiasm emanat- ing from all those involved, it seems that the show will be one for the books: an evening to stimulate the artistry of all those who see it, and one which will push the boundaries ▲ Creative director Rosy Sida had models play around with sculptural positions. (SArIkA DAttA) that we’ve set for ourselves. 30 vulture
her mistakenly asking the plumber his earliest memory of his scrotum). However, Ncuti Gatwa as faithful best friend Eric is a triumph, threatening to steal the show Why we all need some from under the nose of acting royalty. With only two minor credits to his name before this, Gatwa announces himself stunningly with an assured and gutsy performance, in a storyline of awakening identity and self-love that probes some dark and harrowing corners more Sex Education on the way. Sex Education doesn’t just break down bar- ances from a supremely-talented cast lead ment and a universal quality that establishes riers and taboos, it emphatically bulldozers The exceptional new by Asa Butter eld, Sex Education traverses an instant connection to the viewer. a whole spectrum of them, tackling urgent Net ix series everyone the platitudes of teenage sexual awakening Yet the series’s strength lies in the ease with themes in an ambitious yet unassuming way. and growth while showing a depth of un- which it carries itself o – Sex Education ar- Where most pop culture would either shy is talking about. David derstanding and sensitivity unmatched al- rives with subdued fanfare, funny and gently away or confront with the emotional sub- Rennie disucusses Sex most anywhere else. Our hero, 16 year-old subversive, and leaves in the nal episode on tlety of a sledgehammer, anxiety, same-sex Education Otis (Butter eld), repressed by a debilitating a touching and similarly lowkey note, packing parenting, racial identity, drug abuse, body- social and sexual awkwardness as well as his an emotional wallop but making no claims to shaming, and sexuality are highlighted here prying sex therapist mother (a glorious Gillian self-importance in its core message. But it’s with a warmly humorous touch. In perhaps Developed by Laurie NunnStarring Asa Butter- Anderson), discovers an uncanny ability to what is packed in between that makes the big- its strongest and most a ecting instalment, eld, Gillian Anderson, Ncuti GatwaCurrently solve his fellow teens’ bedroom issues. He sets gest impact. Each story arc grows organically, abortion is addressed head-on in the show’s available on Net ix up a paid clinic in the school alongside rebel- crucially lacking the condescension of other signature style (“nothing says Happy Abortion “It’s my vagina.” In a surely timeless se- lious outcast Maeve Wiley (Emma Mackey) as works of its ilk, building layer upon layer of like a bouquet”), an emotive sucker punch that quence, the pupils of Moordale Secondary complex – and horny – dramas of adolescence emotional complexity and, certainly in the manages to be hilarious, sweet, and devastat- School stand up one by one and claim the unfold around them. case of Maeve’s di cult storyline, distress. ing all at once. Which, really, is how all teen explicit image circulating online as their e show sets itself apart with a bold and In this light, it is staggering to think that drama should be. own, whether boy or girl, to the headmas- unique aesthetic quality, a stylised presenta- much of the young cast are relative screen e series delivers a surge of adolescent ter’s (Alistair Petrie) mounting frustration tion comprising a 70s/80s-infused soundtrack debutants. Mackey shows an astonishing empowerment regardless of identity or sex- (“it cannot be all your vaginas”). Only this coupled with retro set and costume design, range as Maeve, bearing on her shoulders uality and a simultaneous arm around the series could make such a da t comic scene laced with the tropes of high-school Ameri- some of the series’s weightier themes, while shoulder to those who feel unrepresented or as this so poignant: it builds and swells until cana. e seemingly anachronistic design also delivering its sharpest wit. Able support is disillusioned, embodied by Eric’s arc. Con- you’re practically punching the air in solidar- and unclear time setting has been the focus found in fellow newcomers Connor Swindells tinuing Net ix’s ercely-hot streak of original ity, as each student stands up for the victim of much of the show’s social media chatter, and Kedar Williams-Stirling, whose plotlines, in-house production, it is no understatement of body-shaming in a call to arms of teenage but this presentation is key to its intent – the as ‘bully’ Adam and athlete Jackson, take on to say that Sex Education is the most unpat- empowerment and positivity. series as a super cial package becomes emi- unforeseen gravity beyond their super cial ronising and honest portrayal of adolescent Nothing better captures the emboldening, nently appealing and watchable, calling to character moulds. Gillian Anderson brings life in recent popular culture. e series is bravura, yet sweet-natured spirit of Net ix’s that nostalgic need embedded in popular con- the acting gravitas, providing an e ective so e ective and so well-executed it becomes latest original o ering, created by Laurie sciousness. Shot in high contrast, the show is counterpoint to Otis’s bumbling angst and necessary viewing, demanding to be seen by Nunn. Bolstered by empathetic perform- a burst of colour that takes on a fantasy ele- some of the show’s funniest lines (not least this or any generation.
don’t like you when you’re being annoying.” volved in a shooting, and his nuanced presen- faces, cutting out abruptly and changing fo- Jenkins’s take on love is always grounded, tation of Juan (Mahershala Ali) in Moonlight, a cus as we watch the real-life pair simply exist Portrait of making little use of dialogue and instead kindly drug dealer and father gure to together. We see a similarly punctuated ap- showing passion by gestures; we see couples Chiron, shows that Jenkins proach to transitions in My Josephine, where working at desks in adjoining rooms in A does not deal in black- shots change abruptly as the couple carry Young Couple, play- ghting with um- and-white charac- out their various tasks. at Jenkins admits an Artist brellas in Tall Enough, and sharing terisation. to being inspired in part by the transitions in a meal together in Moonlight. You do not Nigella Lawson’s cooking programmes only at is not to say that every- have to look hard enhances my appreciation for his work. Orla Horan explores an thing is rosy. In Chlorophyl, to nd that behind Jenkins also makes consistent use of chang- array of the work of lm- Jenkins shows the reality of most of these narratives is ing focus as shots accentuate the features of unrequited love as we see the a deeper social commen- the young couple only to blur them as they maker, Barry Jenkins protagonist having a de- tary. is is perhaps dance in the launderette in My Josephine and brief with her friends af- most obvious in embrace each other in A Young Couple. In the ter going to a club and Moonlight since it former, most of the footage is tinted with usually live by the logic that you can seeing her love inter- shows those who green-blue hues due to a happy accident never get too much of a good thing, be it est someone else. reap the rewards in production. It does not seem like a coin- Icheesy chips, ASOS next day delivery, or It is undeniable of drug addiction cidence that Jenkins, who has a long-term Gemma Collins-related content. at is until I that Jenkins’s and those who working relationship with cinematographer saw Moonlight, directed by Barry Jenkins, this focus is on ro- pay the price for James Laxton, was emboldened to use colour time two years ago and realised that some mances that do their addiction. We so artfully in Moonlight – a particularly striking things are good enough for once in a lifetime. not o ten make are also shown how example being the scene in which Chiron is I distinctly remember sitting in the cinema in it to the silver young black men are yelled at by his mother (Naomie Harris) whilst stunned silence as the credits were rolling, screen; he has o ten treated by the bathed in pink light. my (small) brain struggling to comprehend described his criminal justice sys- Whenever you are in awe of an artist, be how a lm which charts the coming-of-age latest lm, If tem, whether they it Van Gogh, Plath, or Bowie, there is some- of Chiron managed to be so understated yet Beale Street have actually been thing incredibly satisfying about looking at utterly mesmerising. Could Talk, as involved in a crime, their entire body of work and tracing their Although I have technically stayed true to a “black love story”, as in Little Brown Boy, progression. my word and kept Moonlight as a perfect one- and the same is true and when they have For the artists themselves, their early works o experience, I have cheated somewhat by of Moonlight. Despite not, as in If Beale are the foundation on which later success is watching all of Jenkins’s short lms in the in- not being about a young Street Could Talk. built; it is no coincidence that Jenkins has terim. ey reveal that all the hallmarks of his black couple, both My Jose- There is also remarked that his favourite lm is My Jose- distinctive approach to lmmaking have been phine and Tall Enough, cen- technical consist- phine, and that it was an experience more present and correct since circa 2003 when tred around an interracial ency throughout lifechanging for him than his Oscar win. is Jenkins produced his rst short, My Josephine, couple, demonstrate that the Jenkins’s career, is why it so important not only to engage with about a young Arab-American couple who director of Moonlight wants such as his choppy short lms made by now-successful lmmak- own a launderette and wash ags for free in to spotlight the love stories and colourful cin- ers such as Jenkins, but also to support those post-9/11 US. Hollywood has o ten ignored. ematography. In A who are rising stars. Indeed, running through Jenkins’s entire Jenkins broaches these stories Young Couple, the e Watersprite International Student Film oeuvre is the theme of love – not the fairytale with the utmost subtlety; his camera angles are Festival, which showcases short lms from version but the real deal, as demonstrated in e orts in Little Brown Boy, in o ten cropped around the world, held in Cambridge from A Young Couple: “Of course I like you, I just which the protagonist is in- YOUTUBE/ANNAPURNA PICTURES tightly around 7-10 March is a chance to do just that. The Reply team - based programming competition 15TH MARCH 2019 REGISTER ON CHALLENGES.REPLY.COM
Each Member of the Winning Team wins an Amazing MacBook Pro 4 Hours to solve an Open to University Optimisation Problem using Students and Professionals any Programming Language
The Reply Challenges fit within Reply’s vast programme of initiatives designed to promote a lifelong learning attitude 32 F 15 F 2019 Science e trials and triumphs of Cambridge's rst female scientists
▲ Marine debris washed up on a beach JUSTIN DOLSKE
ea Elvin explores the liberty, the space in which women car- ▲ Women were Place. e laboratory was campaigned unprecented opportunity that ried out their experiments and studied not permitted for and funded by Emily Davis and Elean- practical science was by no means ideal. to use the or Sidgwick (née Balfour), and used by Newnham's Old Labs o ered One student in 1880 recalls “raw days University's Newnham and Girton. A student of 1909 women to study science in the laboratory, barely tempered by science facilities remembers carrying out practical work a little grate re in one corner”. Equip- NEWNHAM here and in the Newnham Old Labs dur- For many years, studying science at ment and chemicals, now easily taken COLLEGE ing her rst year, joining male students Cambridge o ered a vastly di erent for granted, were di cult for the Newn- in the University Chemical Laboratory experience for men and women, and ham scientists to obtain, having to be in her second year and, by third year, indeed to those studying science at other bought or borrowed under “the strictest working closely alongside twelve male red brick universities. Women studying economy”. counterparts and laboratory sta in the at these newly founded institutions were Work in the Old Labs was not all hard- Physiological Laboratory. enrolling at the same time as their male ship though and, as many undergradu- By the end of the rst world war, counterparts, whereas at Oxbridge they ates nd today, it was the demonstrators women were well integrated into the were aliens in a system rmly rooted in who helped instigate a fascination with main University science laboratories and tradition. science in their students. One such dem- Newnham’s Old Labs were no longer re- A turning point in the acceptance of onstrator was Ida Freund, who taught quired for teaching purposes. Today they women at the University came with the chemistry in the Old Labs for almost 30 are used as a music and drama space, creation of college science laboratories. years. Instantly recognisable not only for ❝ with one fume hood let in the entrance Although these institutions were segre- her strong Austrian accent and wooden to serve as a reminder of their past. gated and, as an anonymous female stu- leg (she had lost her leg in a cycling ac- For For many of the women who under- dent stated in 1913, a constant reminder cident), she was famed for her “special many took study in the Old Labs, this was their of “the fact they are not merely students study” classes, held before Tripos exams, rst experience of practical science. e but also female ones”, their foundation which involved a periodic table made women, freedom to carry out their own scienti c was a leap forward in scienti c equality from cupcakes and chocolates depicting this was experiments represented huge progress at Cambridge. famous chemists. towards equality in science and holds an Built in 1879 “a respectful distance” As the University gradually moved their first important place in Cambridge’s scienti c from the residential buildings, Newn- towards gender equality, so women’s op- experi- history. Above all, in allowing women ham’s Old Labs were originally intended portunities grew. In 1881, women were ence of a place to practice science, the Old Labs for the study of chemistry, but for ve allowed to sit Tripos exams and the need opened up a world of wonder for many years were used to study a variety of for more space in which to study prac- practical young female scientists, as is summed scienti c disciplines when women were tical elements of the course led to the science up by a Newnhamite of 1880: “Chemis- denied access to all the main University creation of the Balfour Biological Labora- try is great fun and I did some splendid labs. Despite winning this hard fought tory in an abandoned chapel in Downing ❞ experiments”. ▲ e Old Labs are in Newnham's gardens STEPHANIE STACEY F 15 F 2019 33 Science ‘If food waste were a country...’
Sophie Cook confronts the not an issue we can detach ourselves social and environmental from either – over one million people in consequences of the current the UK used a food bank last year and 40 million Americans are living in food food waste crisis poverty. You could be forgiven for thinking ‘If food waste were a country, it would be that when you chuck food in the bin, the third-largest emitter of greenhouse it’s a short-term use of land ll space gases a ter China and the USA.’ Hearing which will quickly decompose. While global statistics on this scale, I o ten nd food does biodegrade much faster than the gures so incomprehensible that it’s synthetic materials like plastic, it still all too easy to remain shamefully unaf- exacts a signi cant environmental cost. fected by them. But the next one really Anoxic land ll conditions mean food got my attention: ‘Food that is never waste is broken down by methanogenic eaten accounts for 25% of all global fresh microbes, generating methane – a green- water consumption’. I had to know more house gas 30 times more potent than - surely that couldn’t be correct? carbon dioxide. e FAO estimate that Over the last few years, food waste food waste is responsible for 8% of global has de nitely been climbing the ranks greenhouse gas emissions. on our social radar. Hugh Fearnley-Wit- While these stats are all very depress- tingstall’s War on Waste documentary ing and rather hard to relate to, the good vili ed supermarkets for their stringent news is that since so much of this goes rejections of so-called ‘wonky veg’ and on in our own homes, we can all do their disposal of out-of-date produce. something about it. Food sharing fo- But I was shocked to nd that in the UK, rums are experiencing explosive growth 70% of post-farm gate food waste actu- as public awareness increases. OLIO, a ally happens at home. In a study by the popular food sharing app, now boasts Waste & Resources Action Programme over 700,000 users across 48 countries. (WRAP), it was found that in the UK, Local initiatives like our own college we use an area the size of Wales to pro- food sharing forums are also growing duce food and drink that ends up going and demonstrate public willingness to waste. What’s more, the average UK to change. At the end of the day, who family throws away 22% of their weekly doesn’t love free food? shop – costing them around £800 per Sadly, in the UK we waste the meat of year! Globally, the picture is even worse. 120 million chickens each year. We also It’s estimated that over one third of all throw away 20 million slices of bread food produced worldwide goes to waste. and 900,000 bananas daily! Simple life- at’s equivalent to a land mass the size style changes really can make a di er- of China being used to grow food that ence. Our hectic Cambridge lives may is never eaten! is results in enormous not be the most conducive to rigorous market ine ciency and an estimated meal planning, nor our tiny fridges fa- annual loss of $984bn. cilitative of food preservation. However, Aside from economic absurdity, there there is no excuse for not sharing food are also shocking social implications within our community. Many ‘OLIOers’ of our food waste habit. e Food Aid express concerns about whether other Foundation estimates that 800 million people will actually want their le tovers; people go to bed hungry every night. but research has found that over 50% of at’s 1 in every 9 people on earth. But listings are claimed within two hours of all of these people could be fed on less posting! Whatever you have going, there than a quarter of the food wasted by the will always be a better home for it than USA and Europe each year. is is in the bin. ▲ e average UK family throws away 22% of their weekly shop PHOTO BY DEL BARRETT ON UNSPLASH
e protocol behind Bitcoin is centred correctly, and the block is then in- on the ‘blockchain’, a public record of corporated into the overall chain. For transactions made using the currency. their troubles, the user who created Varsity explains Each time an exchange takes place, a the block receives a payment in Bit- message – say, “Alice sends Bob one bit- coin. ere is hence a double-function How does Bitcoin work? coin” – is broadcast, and checked through to the process: both the maintenance the network against the records to avoid of the public transaction record, and removed from the transaction, in part to the possibility of double-spending. Every the introduction of new Bitcoins into Joseph Krol reduce this reliance on trust. However, ten minutes or so, the transactions are the economy (up to a long-term limit Bitcoin, blockchain: both are buz- there was a central issue, known as the grouped together into a single ‘block’, ❝ of 21 million). zwords, o ten peddled as heralds of ‘double-spending problem’ – essentially, which is then added to the blockchain. ese factors combined means that a new nance. eir impact is great, when digital currencies are used in a However, it’s clearly important that the This the system is extremely secure – the but not total – pound, dollar, euro no system without a central authority, how creation of the block is correct, and there makes it public nature makes it almost impos- doubt shall circulate for decades. can one ensure that the same digital are no central authorities to do this. Na- sible to successfully carry out mean- Nevertheless, the problem that token isn’t used twice? kamoto’s ingenious idea was to open up almost ingful fraud. ere are certainly other Bitcoin was intended to solve began It proved rather di cult to solve; the the block creation process to public com- impossible concerns, though – the possibility of with a disenchantment with conven- rst practical solution was published in petition, with accuracy being ensured easy anonymity has arguably made it tional banks. e traditional nancial late 2008 in a paper on a cryptography through a ‘proof-of-work’ system. In a to carry easier for people to carry out illegal system relies to a great extent on all messageboard, credited only to a shad- broad sense, the bitcoin ‘miners’ race to out fraud business over the internet. ere’s users trusting some third party to owy, pseudonymous gure under the solve a certain mathematical problem, ❞ also the remarkable statistic that, due mediate the exchange, both to con- name of Satoshi Nakamoto. ( ey le t whose answer is then included in the to the extraordinary amount of hard- rm that the payment was made as their project around 2010; their actual block. e problem is set up such that ware being used worldwide in the intended and to con rm that both identity is still completely unknown, the answer can be almost immediately mining process, the electricity usage participants have the money they despite inordinate amounts of specu- checked, but the actual determination for such a virtual-seeming currency purport to. For many years, cryptog- lation.) Two months later, Nakamoto of the answer takes a relatively vast is approaching a remarkable 1% of the raphers had been looking for a way launched Bitcoin as a practical cur- amount of time. is is taken as proof world total. ere are certainly a lot in which this middleman could be rency. that the process has been carried out of questions to be asked. 34 Friday 15th February 2019 Science An app a day keeps the doctor away? he future of healthcare looks ticipant and they are ofered a free video deiciencies, using adaptive algorithms more than a little daunting in a society digital – Anjali Jayasekera consultation with one of the clinicians to provide personalised care to improve already concerned with the amount of taking part in the study. Should they be ❝ attention and memory. Products target- time spent on digital devices. heir ben- asks whether we should required, a free ECG path may be sent The digi- ing symptoms are also in development, eit to health may be met with suspicion welcome this to the individual to further track their such as self-stabilising cutlery for those both from the public and professional health. By frequently monitoring indi- talisation of with PD and exosuits to assist mobility, domain. hat said, technology’s potential It may feel like there is no pie that cor- viduals and giving them easy access to medicine is however clients may be unwilling to to lower the risk of medical error and porate giants such as Apple and Google a healthcare professional, the study may trust a video game or an app over a pill provide easily accessible healthcare is do not have a inger in, so their present increase the chances of discovering an underway prescribed by their doctor. Until some ▼ Illustration huge. interest in healthcare should probably incipient arrhythmia such as atrial i- ❞ solid regulations are in place, it is likely by Jakob he digitalisation of medicine is un- not surprise us. A number of tech irms brillation, which is one of the main risk that the public will remain skeptical to- Werbrouck for derway, but whether it can be success- are seeking to bring medical services on factors associated with stroke. wards such treatments. Varsity fully intergrated into society remains to a digital platform, while others are Apple is also applying this idea to hese developments are exciting and to be seen. developing digital therapeutics (‘digiceu- complex, chronic diseases such as Par- ticals’) and new diagnostic techniques, kinson’s disease (PD). he symptoms of with the help of artiicial intelligence. PD vary between individuals, and with- hough exciting, these developments out frequent specialist appointments must be treated with caution to ensure its progression can be diicult to track. their safety and medical accuracy. However, an app called mPower, devel- he recommended number of daily oped by Sage BioNetworks in collabora- consultations for GPs, according to the tion with Apple’s ResearchKit requires European Union of General Practition- the user to complete three tasks or sur- ers (UEMO), is 25, yet a survey of 900 veys a day, providing a closer analysis of GPs in 2017 reported this igure in reality symptom progression in the hope that stands at 41.5, and in some cases up to 70 by understanding their frequency and consultations. Not only does this create variation, a treatment to control this an unhealthy working environment for variation can be manufactured. doctors, it also increases the risk to pa- Digital health provider Babylon uses tients by exacerbating the potential for an AI chatbot to deliver medical advice human error. Lightening the workload to users via text messages, and may while targeting patient care is obviously recommend an appointment with a critical. DeepMind, a branch of Alphabet GP either via a video call or a face to (the parent company of Google) is seek- face appointment. he AI chatbot was ing a somewhat unorthodox solution: created by inputting millions of data it has provided an app called ‘Streams’ points from doctors and scientists to to four UK hospitals, which monitors best match symptoms and background patient data and sends an instant alert information to possible conditions. he to a clinician if acute kidney injury (an underlying algorithm analyses the con- indication of patient deterioration) is tents of the client’s messages, matches detected. It organises patient informa- them to medical terminology and uses tion to present the most relevant irst so the latest medical literature to predict that nurses can quickly develop a picture new relationships between diagnoses of the patient’s state. and treatments, and symptoms and By saving nurses and clinicians up outcomes. From this it can draw a reli- to two hours of work, the app improves able link between a symptom and out- prognosis and gives professionals more come, despite the billions of possible time to see their patients, or take a much combinations of symptoms, risk factors needed break. However, the app has and diseases. However, the accuracy of been met with some criticism. he ini- this algorithm has not been independ- tial agreement between DeepMind and ently supported by the Royal College of the Royal Free NHS Foundation Trust General Practitioners (RCGP). Babylon did not provide adequate protection of claimed the chatbot to have equal ac- patient data and had to be severely re- curacy to its human counterparts, scor- vised, while the storage platform used ing 81% on the inal exam required for by DeepMind to house the 1.6 million membership to the RCGP, but this could patient data records was found to have not be veriied by the RCGP as they had 11 minor vulnerabilities. At the heart of not provided the questions, pointing out these new technologies is the struggle to that while the service might be able to strike a balance between keeping patient give an accurate diagnosis during a test, data conidential and gaining access to in a clinical setting a range of factors, as much data as possible to increase the such as emotional impact and situation, predictive capacity of algorithms. must be considered before delivering Apple, in collaboration with the diagnoses, a task which currently only a Stanford University School of Medicine, human physician can accomplish. launched the Apple Health Study in No- he interest in digitalising therapeu- vember 2017. Here, an individual’s heart tics has led to the production of ‘digiceu- rate and rhythm are measured via a sen- ticals.’ Akili Interactive has developed a sor in their Apple Watch, and monitored video game which presents individuals for irregularities, or arrhythmias. If any sufering from ADHD with stimuli that are found, a notiication alerts the par- activate areas of the brain exhibiting friday 9th november 2018 31 Sport Opinion: Wilfried Zaha has every right to call out abuse
incidents, Zaha has been told to “grow be considering the emotional and psycho- blaming the victim? Football players Freya Lewis argues that we up”, called “idiotic” for reacting to abuse, logical toll perpetual abuse has on young are people and deserve compassion – must challenge the racism and advised to take being targeted as “a players, instead of reverting to ‘man up’. no matter how good at dribbling they sign of respect”. his is irresponsible at Ignoring the racial dimension of Zaha’s are. My hope is that this transcends the and hypermasculinity so best and downright dangerous at worse. abuse is wilful ignorance. hypermasculine masquerades that per- commonplace in football In an age where we are rightly trying to How badly does Zaha need to be meate football culture, but as it stands raise awareness and sensitivity around treated before those with a platform young black players like Zaha continue men’s mental health, surely we should stop pathologizing the problem and to bear that burden for us all. have never enjoyed seeing football players sent of, particularly when I believe the perpetrator is innocent I and the lash of red uncalled for, as was the case for young black winger Wil- fried Zaha. During a game against Pre- mier League rivals, Southampton, Zaha received two yellow cards for improper conduct – irst for aggression and then for sarcastically clapping the referee’s decision. He was subsequently sent of, the jeering of rival fans following him down the tunnel. In itself, this is fairly ordinary: a player loses his temper and is duly punished. However, recently I have been sensing more disturbing un- dercurrents in the way Zaha has been treated. Deciphering these undercur- rents involves delving into the toxic culture that is entrenched in football – a culture of performative masculinity and intrinsic racism. Despite being someone who comes from a football-obsessed family, I cannot ❝ help but be hesitant to truly immerse my- self into the culture which surrounds it. Decipher- he very things that make football culture ing these such a positive thing also tarnish it. he undercur- collective mentality of supporters often seems to manifest itself in unhealthy rents ways, speciically in aggressive rivalries involves and the virulent abuse of ‘rival’ players. As his career has progressed, Wilfried delving Zaha has been a particular victim of this. into the He has been labelled with a plethora of ofensive and unfair charges: being a toxic cheat, a diver and having an attitude culture problem are all characteristics that some have attributed to him. He is clearly that is targeted by opposition fans, who boo entrenched when he so much as touches the ball, and Watford striker Troy Deeney admit- in football ted that players “take turns in kicking ❜❜ him” on BBC Radio Five Live. he racial abuse he receives also makes explicit another dimension to what Zaha faces. Too often, we see young black players like Zaha (Sterling and Pogba are more high proile examples) disparaged by the footballing world for their ‘attitude’ or their personal lives. Negative stereotypes of black men, and what seems to be fear of them prospering in football, lies at the root of the criticism Zaha faces. In the case of Wilfried Zaha, tensions have spiralled on two occasions already this season: as well as his recent dismiss- al against Southampton, he claimed he would need to have his “leg broken” for someone to be punished for fouling him, after a horror tackle by Etienne Capoue. What bothers me in particular is the re- action of those in the profession – name- ly football pundits. In the wake of these 36 F 15 F 2019
Scrutinising football culture: Freya Lewis examines the toxic treatment of black male footballers 35 Sport
Cambridge 1
Derby 1
▲ Substitute Kosi Nwuba scored a controversial equaliser as CUAFC salvaged a late 1-1 draw in a fiercely-contested encounter with BUCS Midlands 1a frontrunners, the University of Derby BEN PHILLIPS Rugby Blues dominate in 46-0 win against Leicester
session. e margin would surely have by, Cambridge went into half-time with of Worcester having only a mathematical Michael Nguyen-Kim been even greater were it not for some a 20-0 lead. e ever-threatening Hannah chance of catching up to the Light Blues. Sport Reporter basic handling errors in the rst half Vandersluis scored in the 12th minute Cambridge lead Worcester by 15 points and a pedestrian performance with the ❝ following a slick rightwards movement at the top of the table, which means that e CURUFC Women’s team have fur- boot, with only three out of eight tries This is the o a scrum on the 22, while a bullocking Worcester require a bonus point vic- ther cemented their position as the converted. run by Emily Pratt saw her touch down tory ( ve points) in each of their three best women’s university rugby team e early momentum lay with Cam- fifth time beside the posts in the 29th. e bonus remaining games, as well as Cambridge in the region, all but securing the BUCS bridge, however. A ter locking Leices- this year point was secured a ter the rst-half si- losses in their two remaining games by Midlands 1A Conference title in a 46-0 ter in their own 22 a ter the kick-o , ren, with Bryony Warnock-Horn scoring more than seven points each, to draw win over the University of Leicester on the Light Blues struck rst. A line-out they have in the le t corner a ter a dominant pas- level. Assuming this were to happen, Wednesday a ternoon. at the 22 was followed by a sweeping kept the sage of play by the forwards. Worcester would take out the title due eir win, which puts them 15 points movement to the le t side, the ball pass- opposition e second-half saw a much more to their superior points di erential (+501 clear at the top of the table with two ing de tly amongst the backs before the polished performance by the hosts. versus Cambridge’s +361). games to play, was their eighth confer- home team touched down to open the scoreless eir physical superiority coupled with Following their BUCS Trophy quarter- ence victory of the season, all of which scoring. e remainder of the rst half ❜❜ some slick ball handling meant they nal at Cardi Metropolitan University were achieved with a bonus point. was a tale of struggle. Cambridge’s de- were a threat whenever they had the next Wednesday, Cambridge’s two re- Cambridge scored eight tries to zero fensive pressure and dominance at the ball. Leicester’s predicament was ce- maining conference games are both on in a clinical performance underpinned breakdown prohibited Leicester from mented just a ter half-time, when Pratt the road. ey visit the University of Not- by strong set pieces and a dominant making regular gains. Incredibly, at no shrugged o a tackle and set o down tingham on the 27th of February, before forward pack. e game featured seven point during the match did the visitors the ground. nishing their season at Worcester in a Could you be individual try-scorers, with outside- enter Cambridge’s 22. With no-one but the fullback between potentially title-deciding encounter. a match for centre Lara Gibson nabbing a double. Unfortunately, a lack of discipline her and the try-line, the No 8 squared her Varsity? Email Cambridge (1-15): Elgar, Pierce, Or- is is the th time this year they have from the home team prevented them eyes and lowered her shoulders, poleax- our sport team riss, Taylor, Schneemen, Hoshizaki, F kept the opposition scoreless. he game from fully capitalising on their oppo- ing the defender with impeccable tim- at sport@varsity. Shuttleworth, Pratt, Marks [c], Clark, was characterised by a urry of scor- nents’ o ensive struggles. Too o ten, ing. e latter ended up sprawled across co.uk to get Samuel, Bradshaw, Gibson, Warnock- ing at the end of each half, with two poor distribution and handling errors the grass, a poignant representation of involved Horn, Vandersluis. Replacements: tries scored in the nal ve minutes of gave Leicester possession just as an her team’s capitulation. Four more tries Wilkinson, House, Spruzen, Prowling, the rst half, and three in the nal ten attack was building momentum. e followed, with long-range e orts by Gib- J Shuttleworth, Holt, Osborne minutes of the second-half. early penalty count was also lopsidedly son and Schneemen padding the margin Leicester (1-15): Butcher [c], Krusze- e brute physicality of Cambridge’ against the hosts, although they were in the dying minutes. wska, Wells, Dudson, Holland, Ho man, forward pack was ever apparent, re- let o by Leicester’s failure to nd touch e result leaves Cambridge on the Booth, Shakespeare, Dixon, Howell, Ili- stricting Leicester’s forward momen- from the ensuing kick on at least three verge of clinching the BUCS Midlands e, May, Noble, Wilkinson, Iavarone. tum and enabling easy passage down separate occasions. 1A competition for the second year in a Replacements: Salmons, Gunn, King, the eld when Cambridge was in pos- Despite playing less than perfect rug- row, with the second-placed University Willems, Tucker