Cambridge Alumni Magazine Issue 83 – Lent 2018

Editor Mira Katbamna

Commissioning editor Steve McGrath

Design and art direction Steve Fenn and Tom Pollard

University of Cambridge Morven Knowles

Cambridge Alumni Magazine Issue 83 Lent 2018

02 LETTERS Publisher The University of Cambridge Development & Alumni Relations Campendium 1 Quayside 20 Bridge Street 07 DON’S DIARY Cambridge CB5 8AB Tel +44 (0)1223 332288 Dr Holly Krieger. 08 MY ROOM, YOUR ROOM Editorial enquiries Tel +44 (0)1223 332288 Professor Dame Ann Dowling (Girton 1970). [email protected] 11 SOCIETY Alumni enquiries The Cambridge University Tel +44 (0)1223 332288 Underwater Exploration Group. [email protected] alumni.cam.ac.uk 13 BRAINWAVES facebook.com/ Professor David Runciman. cambridgealumni @Cambridge_Uni #camalumni Contents Advertising enquiries Features Tel +44 (0)20 7520 9474 [email protected] 14 THE LOST KEY Services offered by advertisers are not specifically Porters spill the beans: CAM goes behind endorsed by the editor, YBM the scenes at the Lodge. Limited or the University of Cambridge. The publisher 20 SMASH THE PATRIARCHY reserves the right to decline What does feminism mean to the or withdraw advertisements.

Cambridge women leading the charge? Cover 26 FRUGAL INNOVATION See Red Women’s Workshop I Professor Jaideep Prabhu explains Copyright © 2018 The University of Cambridge. FORT why doing more with less is the future CAM is published three times N- R 14 of research and development. a year, in the Lent, Easter and 30 PHILANTHROPY MATTERS Michaelmas terms, and is sent free to Cambridge alumni. How will philanthropy impact It is available to non-alumni ; DAN BU on subscription. For further RY the University’s future? A information please email R 36 ONE HEART-STOPPING MOMENT [email protected]. The new Heart and Lung Research The opinions expressed

TY LIB TY in CAM are those of the

SI Institute hopes to supply answers to

R contributors and not E necessarily those of the V some of the world’s deadliest diseases.

NI University of Cambridge.

IDGE U IDGE Extracurricular R CAM is produced for the 43 SHELFIE University of Cambridge by YBM Limited. ybm.co.uk

W; CAMB W; Dr Spike Bucklow. O 44 STUDENT LIFE

E SN Getting out of the bubble. O 45 CAMBRIDGE SOUNDTRACK

TOP: J Alexander Armstrong (Trinity 1989). M 47 UNIVERSITY MATTERS Sarah d’Ambrumenil, Head of OSCCA.

IMAGES FRO IMAGES 48 CROSSWORD

LENT 2018 | CAM 83 1 2 CAM 83 83 2 CAM Editor’s letter Mira KatbamnaMira more online. of which are printed opposite, and agreat many your letters, emails and tweets –asmall selection is so crucial to Cambridge’s success. why, in politically challenging times, philanthropy iconic role entails, and on page 30 we investigate with Cambridge’s porters to find out what this and sexual misconduct. havealumni a role to play tackling harassment Conduct, Complaints and Appeals explains why d’Ambrumenil, Head of theffi O ce of Student means to them and on page 47, Sarah Cambridge feminists about what the movement demanding change. On page 20 we ask young whichand in many, many more women are centenary of some womenrageff su gaining – a yearin which in we are also marking the and for the University. a landmark moment for women’s education – or become members of the University. It was University exams but were unable to graduate women studying at Girton and Newnham sat admitted to degrees at Cambridge. Prior to 1948, Seventy years ago, women were, for the first time, | LEN On this, and all otherOn this, and all matters, Ilook forward to Elsewhere, on page 14, we go behind the scenes It feels appropriate that anniversary this falls T 2018 (Caius 1995)

Mailbag

ILLUSTRATION: KATE COPELAND Write to us We are always delighted to receive your emails and letters.

Email your letters to: [email protected] Write to us at: CAM, 1 Quayside, Bridge Street, Cambridge, CB5 8AB.

Please mark your letter ‘for publication’. You can read more CAM letters at alumni. cam.ac.uk/cam. Letters may be edited for length.

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MORE FROM THE MAILBAG

This issue, the mailbag was full of readers writing to add their voices to those who thought economics – and economists – could do a lot better. Janet Rizvi (Girton 1958) wondered why climate changes and the fact of finite resources did not figure: “Even without an understanding of economics, it is plain to me that this must involve seismic economic shifts, but it appears to pass the economists by completely. Ostriches? Or am I missing something?” Brian Luker (Sidney Sussex 1955) suggested that thought should be given to “the moral and political problems associated with calls for a halt to growth”, asking: “Who is to say that the people of the Ganges delta, let alone those in the inner suburbs of our cities or in rural poverty, may not aspire to the standard of E

R living enjoyed by even the

IG average person in the T developed world?” But alongside questions, N: LA LA N:

O CAM readers also provided answers. Responding to Anne Stotter’s (Newnham 1968)

KHAM; IC KHAM; request for a “treatise on R prosperity without growth”, Pam Lunn (New Hall 1968) pointed out that it had already been written. “It’s called, Prosperity Without Growth: N: MICHAEL KI MICHAEL N: O

I Foundations for the Economy T

A of Tomorrow” by Professor Tim

TR Jackson – and Michael Snell (Jesus 1961) wondered at it ILLUS not being better known.

LENT 2018 | CAM 83 3 ALUMNI FESTIVAL, 21-23 SEPTEMBER, 2018 The Alumni Festival is back, offering the perfect opportunity to meet up with old friends and hear directly from Cambridge’s world-leading academics about the revolutionary research taking place at the University.

CAMPAIGN “We are extremely grateful to all those who have contributed so generously to this Cambridge campaign,” said Dr Mohamed El-Erian (Queens’ 1977), co-chair of the campaign. “As an alumnus of Cambridge I am campaign marks privileged and honoured to be part of the work that is having such a profound impact.” £1bn milestone Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen Toope added: “There is still much to do; but with KHAM R generosity such as this from our alumni, I K The Dear World…Yours, Cambridge friends and partners, I am confident that campaign for the University and Colleges has the University of Cambridge will remain an ICHAEL passed the £1bn mark, after donations from unstoppable force for knowledge, inclusivity, N: M N: O

more than 47,000 contributors from across greater understanding and the betterment I T the globe. Launched in 2015, the campaign of our shared world.” A TR aims to raise £2bn, enabling Cambridge to Find out more about the campaign at

deliver answers to critical issues of our time. cam.ac.uk/YoursCambridge ILLUS

4 CAM 83 | LENT 2018 PROFESSOR STEPHEN HAWKING

As CAM went to press, friends and colleagues from the University paid tribute to Professor Stephen Hawking, who died in March. Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen Toope, said: “Professor Hawking was a unique individual who will be remembered with warmth and affection not only in Cambridge but all over the world. His exceptional contributions to scientific knowledge and the popularisation of science and mathematics have left an indelible legacy. His character was an inspiration to millions. He will be much missed.”

TWICKENHAM TRIUMPH TWO-MINUTE TRIPOS

SUBJECT Double win for SHEEP CAN RECOGNISE FIONA BRUCE. DISCUSS WITH REFERENCE TO LAST NIGHT’S Blues rugby teams NEWS HEADLINES.

Baa. Well, hello, Dolly. What’s that you’ve got It was a double celebration for the men’s and women’s in your mouth? teams at Twickenham in the 136th Varsity match, the Baa baa. Baa. Baa. first time both teams have shared victories at rugby’s Why, it’s a picture of well-known TV HQ. The women’s dominant 24-0 win, coming nearly newsreader Fiona Bruce. Are you searching for her? Has she fallen down 30 years after the first game and three years after a well? This is a bit surreal, isn’t it? the inaugural match at Baaa. Baa, baa, baa. Twickenham, is the 13th time No, you’re quite right to walk away. I’m they have won. The men’s not Fiona Bruce. Wow, that’s amazing. I never realised sheep had the capacity team, featuring former World for facial recognition. Sevens Player of the Year Baa. Well, we’ve known for some Ollie Phillips in his last ever time that sheep are capable of game, recorded back-to-back recognising fellow sheep and our beloved shepherds. But scientists victories for the first time in led by Professor Jenny Morton a decade, and extended their at the Department of Physiology, record of wins to 64-59. Development and Neuroscience wanted to find out if we could recognise people from photographs. I supposed picking Fiona Baa-ruce made sense.

MAGES As did including Baa-rack Obama, which works much better as a pun.

TTY I TTY Anyway. The study used pictures of E

/G celebrities to train sheep to recognise faces. Which, it turns out, we can do. IELD CAMPAIGN £2bn target. The money will support the That’s amazing. I always thought sheep RF E Cavendish Laboratory, the world-leading were stupid. You know, sheep-like. TT

E Sheeple. Not like us clever humans.

S £85m Dolby gift centre for physics research where Dolby Actually, we sheep might be cleverer IN

T received his PhD in 1961. Its flagship than you think. Professor Morton

US building, expected to open in 2022, will be says our brains are similar in size and : J is biggest ever named the Ray Dolby Centre, and will host complexity to those of some monkeys.

OTO This allows us to be used in studies

H the Ray Dolby Research Group.

P looking into how brain disorders ; to UK science “My father’s time at the Cavendish such as Huntingdon’s disease affect provided him with an environment where cognitive abilities over time. KHAM R I he got a world-class education in physics, Yeah, fantastic, amazing. Oh look, my K friend just sent me a gif of a penguin The University has received an £85m gift and many of his successful ideas about noise dancing and wearing a jacket. Awwww. from the estate of sound pioneer Ray Dolby reduction were stimulated by his Cambridge It also might enable us to silently plot ICHAEL – the largest philanthropic donation ever experience,” says Dolby’s son, David. “Our how we would run the world much, N: M N: much better than you, while looking O

I made to UK science. family is pleased to be able to support the T like we’re just eating grass. Baa. A The Dolby family’s gift has enabled the future scientists and innovators who will Wait. What? Did the sheep just say TR Dear World…Yours, Cambridge fundraising benefit from the thoughtfully designed something? Did anyone else hear that?

ILLUS campaign to surpass £1bn – halfway to its Ray Dolby Centre.” Baa.

LENT 2018 | CAM 83 5

CAMPENDIUM DON’S DIARY

I’m proud to see my second years swagger with confidence – they are the grizzled veterans now.

Dr Holly Krieger is the Corfield Lecturer in Pure Mathematics and a Fellow of Murray Edwards.

After two years at Murray Edwards, I have realised that

ELAND mathematics conferences OP don’t resemble those of other E C T fields – and not just because N: KA N: O I

T of our love of blackboards A TR ILLUS

LENT 2018 | CAM 83 7 CAMPENDIUM MY ROOM, YOUR ROOM INTERVIEW LUCY JOLIN Every now and then you’d see a bed on the verge which hadn’t quite made it

Room F35 Professor Dame Ann Dowling (Girton 1970) and third-year mathematician Andrew Pritchard discuss space-time, infinity and corridors.

rofessor Dame Ann Dowling and Andrew Pritchard are discussing a P problem of infinity and space-time that has long baffled their contemporaries. Where do Girton’s corridors begin, where do they end, and have they shrunk? “I always remember Girton having these infinitely long corridors,” Dowling says. “But it’s funny – they don’t seem so long now. And they used to have a very strong smell of polish, which I’m not detecting.” Pritchard agrees. “When I came up for my interview, it just seemed like a complete maze. I’ve been here for three years and I think I’ve walked them all now…” Dowling is the first female President of the Royal Academy of Engineering and was the first female Professor in the Department of Engineering and spent her third year in Room F35, which sits right in the middle of one of those endless corridors, “about as far away as you can get from the bathroom,” points out Pritchard. Pritchard doesn’t feel the need to decorate his space, he says: his shelves contain only a few books (including GCHQ’s Puzzle Book), a couple of tins of shortbread and a Go board. Dowling, however, did not travel light. “I brought so many clothes!” she remembers. “Piles and piles of clothes. I remember

standing in the tiny room I had in the first VY LE

year and wondering where on Earth I was R AI

going to put them. And I had a moped T which I’d ridden since I was 16, which : ALAS

was very useful for getting into town.” Y H

In the early 1970s, town was the place to P A R

be. “I don’t remember Girton having a bar,” G Dowling says. OTO H

“There were three women-only colleges P E; E;

and the rest were all men-only, and we spent R IG

a lot of time hanging out at the men’s T colleges. My boyfriend at the time, who later N: LA LA N: O

became my husband, was at Churchill, so I I T spent quite a lot of time there. Or coffee at a A greasy spoon. We did a lot of sitting around TR

and talking.” ILLUS

8 CAM 83 | LENT 2018 IN BRIEF

GLOBAL CAMBRIDGE TWEET OF THE TERM After successful events “Gravity is a mystery. in India, Hong Kong We know what it does. and Beijing, Global But we don’t know Cambridge will be what it is.” This cover visiting Cardiff, Dublin, of the @Cambridge_Uni Geneva and Singapore alumni mag is just showcasing and drop-dead gorgeous discussing how the work Matt Potter of leading Cambridge (Caius 1990) academics is changing @Cambridge_Uni our world. For more, visit: alumni.cam.ac.uk/gc18.

MERCHANDISE Celebrate your time at Cambridge with a high- quality, handmade gift from Annotated Studios. The company offers bespoke rings, cufinks, pendants and charm bracelets engraved with the University or your Students these days, she says, seem to A CAMBRIDGE GUIDE TO… College crest, as well as organise their leisure time far more a personal inscription. Custom-made pieces are than she ever did. “And they have all the The new ice rink created from reclaimed technology, of course. We used to have to or recycled precious queue up for the payphone. My mother metal, promoting liked to hear from me once a week.” Then Ninety years after David Gattiker (Christ’s 1929) sustainability, and the University receives a 10 there were the ‘Girton songs’ sung on dreamed of winning a Blue for ice hockey on a per cent donation from: special occasions (which Dowling insists University rink, work has begun on the sales.annotatedstudios. she cannot remember: luckily, Pritchard Cambridge Ice Arena – and it is all down to com/cambridge. points out, Wikipedia has recorded their Gattiker himself. Gattiker captained the HONOURED words for posterity) and the Bed Race University team during his time studying Cambridge academics down the A10 from Cambridge to London. chemistry in Cambridge from 1929 to 1931. have been recognised “Us girls drove the bed, as we were Later, he helped to smuggle uranium ore out of in the New Year Honours lighter,” she says. “And we had four or so Germany during the second world war. But he list. Professor Sir Keith Peters was awarded men pushing. We didn’t know that they never lost his love of ice, and, before his death in the Knight Grand had disconnected the handbrake! Every 1993, he bequeathed most of his estate to the Cross of the British now and then you’d see a bed on the University to build an ice rink for the city. Empire for Services verge which hadn’t quite made it.” Thermal insulation and solar panels will make to the Advancement of Medical Science. Pritchard’s spare time also remains it one of the most energy efficient in Europe, Professor Diane Coyle, determinedly analogue. “Parties do go and the new facility will host competitions, Cambridge’s inaugural on, in rooms and bars, but not this room!” displays, training sessions and more. Bennett Professor he says. “I tend to stay in college. We play of Public Policy, was awarded a CBE. OBEs pool or cards, and twice a week the board were awarded to Ian game society meet up. The room is so Goodyer, Emeritus quiet, it’s great for working.” Professor of Child and Their time at Girton, both say, helped Adolescent Psychiatry and Dr Tina Barsby them find their paths. Pritchard has CEO of Cambridge- discovered that he’s more interested in based crop science pure mathematics. “Proofs, and logic, organisation NIAB and that kind of thing,” whereas Dowling and Fellow of St Edmund’s College. is the opposite. “I did find that I was more interested in the practical application of mathematics,” she says, adding with considerable understatement, “and things came out OK. Although I did adhere to Cambridge mathematician GH Hardy’s famous maxim that no mathematician could work for more KHAM R I than four hours a day. That used to K be my mantra!” Andrew Pritchard is a third-year aiming for ICHAEL research or teaching. Professor Dame Ann N: M N: O

I Dowling OM DBE FRS FREng is the first T A female President of the Royal Academy of TR Engineering. She led the Engineering

ILLUS Department at Cambridge until 2014.

LENT 2018 | CAM 83 9

CAMPENDIUM SOCIETY INTERVIEW PAMELA EVANS Below, clockwise from top left: Marius Weber (Churchill), Isobel Hambleton (Clare), Afnan Azizi (Selwyn) and Alex Taylor (St Johns)

In search of Atlantis The Cambridge University Underwater Exploration Group positively enjoy being thrown in at the deep end.

Most of us join societies director of the British National there are plenty of experienced can’t dive safely by yourself. to meet new people – join Oceanographic Data Centre – members to learn from. He That is part of the attraction, the Cambridge University led its first expedition, in 1958, joined CUUEG in his third year. says Hambleton, and it is why Underwater Exploration Group to map the underwater city “I’d been inspired by things expeditions and meet-ups are (CUUEG) and you’re likely to of Apollonia in Libya. Since like Blue Planet, and I like crucial to CUUEG. “It’s a sport, meet new species, too. “On then, members have explored looking at new things and but not a competitive sport. one trip to the Farne Islands in underwater sites from Malta having new experiences,” he You’re always going at the speed Northumberland, the seals were to the Red Sea, carrying out says. “I guess you could describe of whoever you are diving with. so friendly that it was like being research on everything from it as being similar to going on a I think that’s quite different with huge puppies,” says current how diving affects intelligence walk, but the environment is so from doing a sport where, if chair Isobel Hambleton, a third- to the British government’s fantastically different. someone is very experienced, year PhD biochemist at Clare. claim to the uninhabited granite “I remember doing a training they will go off and leave you. “They swam right up to us, so island of Rockall. Hambleton dive at Gildenburgh Water, an You dive as a team.” we could stroke them. In fact, recalls a recent trip to the old clay pit near Peterborough. cuueg.org.uk it became a bit difficult to swim, Valentine tanks site off the coast The owners have put in as they were so interested in near Swanage, where a group of submerged attractions, and we our equipment, which was very the experimental amphibious were swimming into an old van. brightly coloured – they were vehicles sank in 1942. “They’re I’d just got myself a dive light fascinated with it. They kept all still there, and they’re and as we were going in, I saw trying to nibble it. It’s quite hard fantastic to dive around,” she this huge pike, slightly longer to discourage a seal…” says. “But it won’t be long before than my shoulder. When I shone These close encounters they all disappear: one really big my torch at it, I saw a whole load go back a long way. The club, storm and that will be it. So it’s of colours – reds and blues – that ENCE R also known as the Cambridge good to see these things while I’d never realised were on a pike. University Sub Aqua Diving we still can.” The pike didn’t care at all that we Club, was formed in 1956, University is the ideal place were there. It didn’t move.” : ADAM LAW

Y making it one of the oldest scuba to learn scuba diving, says Scuba diving, by its very H

P diving clubs in the UK. Nicholas Marius Weber, a fourth-year nature, is collaborative: you A R

G Flemming (Pembroke 1957) – physicist at Churchill: it is a distinguished marine geo- cheaper and more convenient OTO H

P archaeologist and former than doing it by yourself, and

11

CAMPENDIUM BRAINWAVES

We need to consider what it means for democracies to fail forwards. Professor David Runciman is Head of the Department of Politics and International Studies and a Fellow of Trinity Hall.

ecause I write and teach about politics mistake. Though there are unpleasant question of social science was ‘How to get to for a living, people sometimes ask echoes of earlier instances of democratic Denmark?’, the world’s most liveable society. B whether I’ve relished the last couple failure in what’s happening now – in the rise I think the central question now is what it of years. Even if Trump is bad for the world, of racist rhetoric, the spread of conspiracy would mean for Denmark to fail. Even the isn’t he good for my line of business? It’s true theories, the deep mistrust of mainstream Danes don’t have a clue on that one. that demand is definitely up. What once institutions – they happened in societies Yet, at the same time, we need to resist seemed like technical or academic questions that are fundamentally different from the other temptation too. In so far as what have exploded into life. The minute workings ours. The differences matter more than is happening is being driven by new of the American constitution can now seem the similarities. technology – including the rise of intelligent like life and death issues. Events about We live in a world that is much richer, machines – we risk thinking that nothing Britain’s relationship with Europe that older, more peaceful and more networked like this has ever been known before. As a would once have attracted 20 people now than anything that existed 50 years ago, historian, I feel we currently have too much pull in crowds of 200 or more. let alone 100. That does not mean our history informing our worries about politics, How democracy works matters for all of democracies can’t fail: they can, and at some but not enough informing our worries about us in a way that it hasn’t before in my adult point they almost certainly will. It may even technology. Many of the fears people express lifetime. But the bigger question is whether be happening before our eyes. But far from about the coming of the robots – the rise of it still works at all. That is much harder to following the familiar pattern of military heartless, conscienceless, super-capable answer. In tumultuous times, there are twin takeover or collapse in the rule of law, it is machines – are the ones they’ve had about temptations in how we think about what’s likely that democracy will fail in the 21st corporations for hundreds of years. In this happening. The first is to look for historical century in ways that we are not yet familiar case, we really have been here before. precedents that will map where we are with. Our democracies will not implode. But In these uncertain times, it’s hard to heading. The second is to assume that no they may simply fade away, hollowed out by come up with a rule of thumb to guide us. one has ever lived through anything like this forces of technological progress and social Still, mine would be this. Where history before and that what we are facing is a future division that we lack the power to currently speaks loudest is where we should that is entirely new. understand, never mind resist. be open to the idea that what is happening At the moment, I think the first is a Political scientists still like to describe is new. Where it all seems new is where we bigger danger than the second. As democratic failure in terms of what they call need more history. democracy wobbles, we look to the 20th ‘backsliding’: going back to a time when David Runciman’s new book How Democracy century for evidence of what will make it strongmen ruled the Earth. We need to Ends (Profile, UK; Basic Books, US) will be collapse. I have lost count of the number consider what it means for democracies to published in May. He leads the democracy of times I have seen our current predicament fail forwards, tumbling into an unknown research strand at the Leverhulme Centre for compared to what happened to democracy future. A few years ago, Francis Fukuyama the Future of Intelligence (lcfi.ac.uk), which is in the 1930s. I am convinced that this is a big popularised the idea that the central exploring the social and political impact of AI.

It is likely that democracy will fail in the 21st century in ways ELAND

OP that we are not yet familiar E C T with. Our democracies will N: KA N: O I

T not implode. But they may A

TR simply fade away ILLUS

LENT 2018 | CAM 83 13 14 CAM 83 | LENT 2018 OPPOSITE Neil Seabridge, Head Porter, King’s, in the College’s dining hall. The job runs from the sublime to the ridiculous. They always think they’re being original, but we were pulling the same stunts as students 40 years ago

Cambridge’s porters spill the beans.

WORDS W ILLIAM HAM BE VAN PHOTOGRAPHY DAN BURN-FORTI

LENT 2018 | CAM 83 15 he black bowler may be customary, applied for the job,” he says. “But I was soon He says: “Even after 30-odd years in but today’s College porters are dressed in my number one uniform and public service, I’m never surprised at being called on to wear any number of top hat to lead the procession for the King’s surprised. Unexpected events spring up in T hats during a day’s (and night’s) Sermon, carrying a silver-topped mace that all communities, and an academic place of work. They might take on the role of security was presented to the College by one of my learning is no different. Some are comical guard, student counsellor, postal worker, predecessors back in 1645.” and some less so.” tourist guide, conference assistant, Surprises are very much part of the “The job runs from the sublime to the locksmith, receptionist or crime prevention territory. A recent recruitment advert at ridiculous,” says Seabridge. “It can be officer – and even, on occasion, do a little of Homerton specified a “reliable, committed chasing geese off the front lawn or fishing the heavy lifting that Cambridge outsiders team worker who enjoys the unexpected”. students out of the river at 5am. might assume their job entails. And although Head Porter, Gordon Murray, “And we get all the japes you’d expect, That list is not exhaustive. Weeks after had previously served in the Household with traffic cones appearing in peculiar joining King’s as Head Porter in 2014, former Cavalry, for the City of London Police and as places. They always think they’re being police officer Neil Seabridge found himself John Major’s close protection officer when in original with their pranks, but we were being measured up for a top hat. “Nobody Cambridgeshire, he admits that he still faces pulling the same stunts when I was a told me I had a ceremonial role when I situations he has never encountered before. student 40 years ago.”

16 CAM 83 | LENT 2018 As with so much in the University’s By the time The Student’s Guide to the With five mail deliveries a day, this must history, the role of porter developed in University of Cambridge was published have added up to a significant income for the piecemeal fashion. A “keeper of the gate” in 1866, the role had been somewhat porter and his assistants. is mentioned in King’s 1453 Founder’s standardised. The book, aimed at For much of the 20th century, middle- Statute, with duties that included making prospective applicants, notes that a aged retirees from the police and armed torches for the Chapel, waiting on tables porter’s duties varied by College, but “in forces formed the backbone of the in hall, and having to “duly and diligently all cases he has to keep the gate, he has University’s cadre of porters. Some Colleges shave the Provost, Fellows, Scholars and to be ready to be called up at any time of would always seek to recruit from particular other persons” (indeed, the roles of head night in case of illness or any emergency, regiments; in others, a handful of families porter and College barber were combined to see to the carrying of luggage, and to supplied generations of porters and other until 1861). However, Pembroke did not fetch and carry the letters to and from the College staff, with plum roles passing down appoint a porter until the early 17th century, post office, and to see to the lighting of the from father to son. when a new court was added. Until then, courts and staircases”. It further notes that While these traditional backgrounds gatekeeping was the responsibility of a undergraduates had to pay between five are still well represented, most lodges are scholar or ‘sizar’ – a poor student who acted and 10 shillings a term for these services, gradually becoming as cosmopolitan as the as a part-time College servant. plus one halfpenny for each letter received. body of students they watch over. “At King’s ›

LEFT Pembroke porter, Sarah Hendry in Old Court at the College.

RIGHT Homerton Head Porter Gordon Murray in the College’s Combination Room.

LENT 2018 | CAM 83 17 we’ve got two other retired police officers, a Even at the turn of the millennium, Rookie porters quickly former railway worker, an estate agent and the job was overwhelmingly a male preserve. a chap who had his own design company,” It was not until 2009 that Helen Stephens learn that a lost key often Seabridge says. “One of my porters has a PhD became the first woman to take charge of signifies more than a lost in Chemistry and had a former career as a a Cambridge porters’ lodge, joining Selwyn key: students may have an research chemist at ICI, and among the relief after spells as Deputy Head Porter at ulterior motive for showing porters is one of our ex-graduate students, Trinity and the first female porter at Jesus who left with a Classics degree. College. She says: “I still ask myself why up at the lodge “We did a tally the other day of the it took 800 years, when women have been languages spoken in the lodge. We have at the forefront of the University for a long English, French, Estonian, Russian, time. But I just applied for the job and was ABOVE Swedish, Classical Latin and Greek, Italian fortunate to be given the chance.” Helen Stephens, Selwyn Head Porter, and Spanish, a smattering of Danish and Cheryl Bowran, who was appointed Head at the top of the flag Norwegian... It all illustrates the varied Porter at Newnham College after 14 years as tower overlooking experience they can bring to the College.” a senior prison officer, says: “Having a female Old Court.

18 CAM 83 | LENT 2018 CCTV and electronic locks have made “We see a side of the students that is not the task somewhat easier, but some Colleges always visible to their academic contacts, present a special challenge. King’s attracts and it’s a good thing that mental health is more than 350,000 visitors a year, and is being talked about far more openly. We’re a much-used thoroughfare for University lucky at Selwyn, as the College has invested members travelling between town and heavily in training me and my team and the Sidgwick Site. “The College wants to supporting our members: later this year be welcoming,” Seabridge says, “but we we will be doing a two-day course on have to apply basic security measures to mental health first aid.” allow that spirit of openness to continue. But as well as looking after junior It’s good that students feel safe in the members, porters are charged with enforcing King’s environment, but the bad news is discipline. When College rules are broken, that they drop their guard. They’ll leave the two sides of the pastoral role must be iPhones lying around, or leave their front balanced; and this can present one of the doors open. That absence of self-protection job’s thorniest challenges. “It may sound sometimes surprises me, so I have to keep a bit trite, but I rely on the three Fs: be firm, encouraging them to take responsibility.” fair and friendly,” says Seabridge. “You need Sarah Hendry, who spent 25 years in to beef up the firmness in some exchanges, retail before becoming a porter at Pembroke, but you should still be fair and friendly.” agrees. “Students can definitely get too Miscreant students (and sometimes staff comfortable, probably because it’s their first and fellows) would do well to remember that time away from home,” she says. “Within honesty is the best policy when dealing with weeks of the new freshers coming in, we go porters. “Remember, there’s nothing secret round checking doors. If they’ve gone away in a College,” says Hendry. “Someone always and left their doors open, we lock them out!” talks. So you’re far better off coming to say, Asked how the job has changed over ‘Yes, it was me – I broke the door. I was drunk recent years, many porters report that the and stupid.’ It’s a lot more painless to go to pastoral side of the role has increasingly the senior tutor off your own back, rather come to the fore – something driven by than be reported by the porters’ lodge. I’m greater awareness of welfare issues. “My not the biggest disciplinarian in the world number one priority is the students,” says and I’ll always give people the benefit of the Hendry. “They’re under my duty of care doubt. But if someone’s a repeat offender... while they’re at College. Often on a night well, there’s nothing worse than the wrath shift, students will just come in for a chat. of an angry porter!” They want to have a rant because they’re So what attributes are needed to succeed feeling stressed, so we’ll chat about anything at the job? A good level of intellect is the – perhaps just a TV programme or a film – first requirement, according to Murray. and if they want to get something off their “You don’t need to be academic, but a lot chest, they can do that. of the day-to-day tasks are now computer- “However, there are times when you’ll see based, and they’re always changing and a student’s pattern of behaviour change, and modernising. Above all, you need to be a you’ll have a word with the Tutorial Office, great listener, not just a good one. If you just the Dean or the nurse. More often than not, sit and nod, you may not pick up on some of you’ll find that it has been noted already. the things that a student is trying to express A maxim that rookie porters learn early to you. You have to ensure that every one of on is that a lost key often signifies more them feels part of the College and no one is than a lost key: students might have an excluded.” Bowran says: “It demands a lot ulterior motive for showing up at the lodge. of common sense and the ability to think “That sort of thing does happen a lot,” says on your feet. We get all sorts of bizarre Bowran. “They come to see us with reasons situations all the time that you can’t prepare that seem a little specious, and they might for. And you have to be a practical person head porter is still quite a novel idea for some actually need a friendly chat, or a bit of to deal with door locks and broken bikes.” people, and you do get some comments. But I support with something. We are often good All agree that it is a career unlike any take it in my stride – I know I’m here because sounding boards.” other, with a unique set of rewards. But one I have the skills and ability to do the job.” “During exam term, the porters go out form of job satisfaction gets a particular She admits that her previous career and buy sweets. There’s always a big bowl mention. “You see this fresh-faced student is the subject of occasional ribbing from of them on the front desk that we encourage come in looking like a rabbit in the the students. But while wielding keys the students to take. It’s a way of giving headlights,” says Hendry, “and you get to and regulating access might be the most them an excuse to see us, and letting them watch them grow and turn into a young conspicuous aspects of both jobs, for know there’s someone who cares. If need be, adult over three years. That’s the part I enjoy around 40 years Colleges have differed we can say, ‘You’re a bit quiet nowadays. Is the most.” Murray agrees. He says: “It’s a from prisons in allowing inmates to come everything all right?’” real privilege to go with the Praelectors and and go as they please. “No College should Most Colleges now provide mental health Senior Tutor at the head of the procession to be a fortress,” says Murray. “But safety and training for porters so they can recognise the Senate House, to hand the students over security are paramount. You just have to and deal with acute problems and know to the University and see them receive their be proportionate.” when to seek further help. Stephens says: degrees. That’s a sheer delight.”

LENT 2018 | CAM 83 19 SMASH THE PATRIARCHY

2018 is going to be a big “Modern feminism is what ‘feminism’ inclusive as a movement and that we’re at its core has always been about: striving not leaving anyone behind. It’s like Audre year for feminist thought for equal rights for all people, regardless of Lorde famously said: ‘I am not free while any and action. But what gender,” says Heenali Patel (King’s 2008), woman is unfree, even when her shackles are does change look like communications officer for the Fawcett very different from my own.’” Society and founder of 1000women.co.uk, Many people consider the chief defining to the Cambridge women a website that focuses on the mental and characteristic of feminism today to be its leading the charge? sexual health challenges faced by minority expression via social media and the internet, ethnic women. “Being a modern feminist both of which provide effective platforms for involves campaigning to change the law for the dissemination of ideas and campaigns. WORDS ANNA- MARIE CROWHURST a fairer society; challenging sexist attitudes Historian Dr Lucy Delap agrees that, while and gender stereotypes; and showing the DIY ethos of activism has always been solidarity with others who fight for the a hallmark of feminism, the accessibility of rights of oppressed groups.” the movement – as a result of the internet CUSU Women’s Officer, Lola Olufemi – is new. “What’s so powerful about both (Selwyn 2014), coordinates the work of the Everyday Sexism and the #MeToo campaign › The ‘fourth wave’ of feminism was first University’s Women’s Campaign, and points heralded by The Guardian, with journalist out that feminism today is about more Kira Cochrane citing the sudden mass of than how any given culture defines what a “protests, marches and talks”, the popularity feminist, or feminism, should look like. “I of Laura Bates’s (St John’s 2004) Everyday call myself a feminist, a black feminist,” she Sexism project, Caroline Criado-Perez’s says. “It means I believe in the ultimate goal campaign for female representation on of liberation for everybody. I think feminism British bank notes, the No More Page 3 allows people to imagine liberatory futures petition, as well as the Reclaim the Night and goes well beyond the concept of and One Billion Rising marches. ‘equality’. Feminism is justice work. But it’s 1910 Five years on, and the visibility entirely dependent on context and the way of feminism is greater than ever. The gender is perceived where you are; its social OPPOSITE A suffrage poster from a Huffington Post hailed 2017 ‘The year of and political meanings.” unique collection – the largest of its kind the feminist’, calling the Women’s March That intersectionality – taking into in the UK – held at the University Library. The poster shows a Lancashire cotton “the biggest one-day protest in history”. In account human factors such as ethnicity, worker protesting at the fact that she December, the American Merriam-Webster sexuality and economic background – is has not been informed about changes dictionary announced that its word of vital to understanding feminism in 2018. to factory rules and regulations. “There’s the year – based on the number of word Jinan Younis (Jesus 2013) is assistant politics a beautiful contrast between the fiery colours of her shawl and the grey in the definitions looked up on its website – was editor at gal-dem – a magazine for women rest of the picture, and the use of the ‘feminism’. The explosion of the #MeToo and non-binary people of colour – and was woman’s vernacular speech against the hashtag, which women around the world part of a team that successfully lobbied for sign,” says historian Dr Lucy Delap. “It use to write about having experienced sexual consent workshops that are still being reminds us that the suffrage struggle wasn’t just about middle-class women sexual assault and harassment, continues run by student unions today. Younis came – it was speaking for working-class to receive widespread media coverage. to the attention of the media at the age of women as well.” A space has opened up in which new 17 when she set up a feminist society at her questions can be asked, rule books can high school (shockingly, it took more than be ripped up and entrenched behaviours a year for the school to officially approve challenged. But what does it mean to the society), and says that creating a more the young women who are leading the inclusive, more diverse type of feminism charge? Do they see the new feminism as is vital. “I think the future of feminism has clearly defined? And where do they think to be intersectional. We need to actively feminism is going? work really hard to make sure we are as

20 CAM 83 | LENT 2018 LENT 2018 | CAM 83 21 is the sense of authentic voices,” she says. can be a place that’s deeply accessible,” she “It’s all about women saying, ‘This is my says. “It provides a space for people to meet, c.1912 1944 experience’ – and that has been radically connect and join forces with others across democratic. It’s really given a boost to the the world. It helps people feel less isolated in BELOW LEFT: BELOW: Poster, Equal A photograph from Pay demonstration profile and audibility of feminism.” their experiences. But the dark undertone of the Newnham archives In 1888 Clementina Black, She adds that the role that men are social media must also be recognised, of a group of women one of only three women being encouraged to play might also be as it opens up another space for women to students, carrying the delegates to the Trades new. “It’s never been very easy for men be attacked.” Cambridge Alumnae Union Congress, was suffrage banner. the first to propose a to say, ‘Yes I’m a feminist’. But I do think Olufemi also thinks social media resolution that where that that has changed.” Delap believes that has been a crucial tool. “It allows people women do the same self-proclaimed feminist Barack Obama, for to reframe feminist thought,” she says. work as men, they should example, is a hugely important “feminist “Mainstream feminism insists that it was receive the same wage. The motion carried. Fifty icon”. She adds, “You go to today’s feminist the suffragettes who invented feminism and years later, as this poster conferences and you see lots and lots of men that it has moved forward along straight demonstrates, women there. Twenty-first century feminism is more lines. Social media allows us to learn about were still fighting for comfortable about men’s presence.” the stories of people who have been written equal pay, as they are doing today. Younis believes the rise of social media out of feminist narrative because of their in feminism is especially important for radical work, be they women of colour, trans, more marginalised groups. “Social media queer or disabled.” › IDGE R LLEGE CAMB LLEGE O : NEWNHAM C OTO H P

A SHORT HISTORY OF FEMINISM The second wave in the UK, known as are sexy and wear high heels and lipstick, Historian Dr Lucy Delap says the waves the women’s liberation period, is considered and are still feminists,” she says. “Girl metaphor often used to describe the rise to have begun around 1970. The issues that power, riot grrrl, all that stuff, but with a and fall in the popularity of feminism over concerned this generation of feminists, Delap decidedly vague beginning and end point.” RY

the years is problematic for many feminist says, included sexual objectification, and And, in Delap’s view, the fourth wave is A R

historians because it is impossible to date workplace and gender pay gap issues including still defining its parameters. “Some people IB the periods precisely. representation of women in leadership roles. would say it’s about media-savvy social- , LSE L

The first wave, she says, is usually But the lack of a distinct ending is where the media feminism, about moving away from N O I

agreed to start around the 1860s, when wave metaphor comes unstuck. Many people the culturalist feminism of the 90s – which T suffragism “became a live issue”, and ends believe this happens at the end of the 1970s, was to do with the recognition of identities LLEC

“roughly around the time when some major but Delap points out a “proliferation” of and analysis of language and imagery O C

countries enfranchise women. Women feminism in the 1980s, including the founding – to get back to more material demands RY A

were saying, ‘We want to have equal rights, of many feminist bookshops and the launch of for better pay for women, for an end to R IB

we want the right to attend university many women’s studies courses. sexual harassment,” she says. “Something L S ’ and become a doctor or a barrister – and The third wave is generally defined exciting is definitely happening – I notice we want the vote’.” Discussions around as attempting to move towards a more it among my students. But no-one seems MEN

patriarchy, men’s sexual objectification intersectionalist feminism, recognising to know what the waves are about. Let’s WO THE

of women and sexual harassment in the difference, yet remaining inclusive. “The third just call ourselves feminists and be : workplace were also significant. wave is seen to be all about young women who done with it.” OTO H P

22 CAM 83 | LENT 2018 MAGES TTY I TTY E /G E V CHI AR N TO

UL 1977 /H BELOW: Grunwick ESS Strikes. The treasurer of the Grunwick strike

Y EXPR committee, Jayaben

AIL Desai, had been picketing D for a year. The sign on © : the left of the image

OTO reads: “Defend the H

P Right to Organise”. 1971 ABOVE: Members of the National Women’s Liberation Movement go on an equal rights march from Speaker’s Corner to 10 Downing Street to mark International Women’s Day in London on 6 March 1971. One woman is carrying a placard calling for ‘Equal Pay Now’. On the right, a woman is holding a copy of the Trotskyist newspaper Red Mole. IMAGES TTY D/GE OO AHAM W AHAM R : G OTO H P

LENT 2018 | CAM 83 23 1973 LEFT: A poster by See Red Women’s Workshop from the book Feminist Posters 1974-1990. The group grew out of a shared desire to combat sexist images of women and to create positive and challenging alternatives. Women from different backgrounds, including prominent member Sarah Jones (Newnham 1971), came together to make posters and calendars that tackled issues of sexuality, identity and oppression.

1992 BELOW: Young, Female and Black by Heidi Safia Mirza, whose comparative study challenged the widely-held myth that young black women consistently underachieved at school and in the labour market. OP KSH OR MEN’S W MEN’S O ED W ED R SEE © : OTO H P UK KS T 1992,

1983 BOO IGH RIGHT: Caribbean-American ANCIS writer, poet and activist Audre R Lorde lectures students at the F ZA, COPYR ZA,

Atlantic Center for the Arts in New R OR & & OR L

Smyrna Beach, Florida. Lorde was Y TA a Master Artist in Residence at the MI IA F Central Florida arts centre. OF N O MISSI R E Y P B

DUCED EMALEAND BLACK, HEIDI SA F PRO E UNG, UNG, YO

: LEDGE,R T U OTO H RO P

24 CAM 83 | LENT 2018 2018 LEFT: Women’s rights demonstrators hold placards and shout slogans during January’s Time’s Up rally in London. The march marked the one-year anniversary of the first Women’s March and was part of the response to the #MeToo movement and the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

And it’s certainly true that social Olufemi. “Younger people’s feminism should Brexit as “one of the biggest challenges to the media has given feminist voices a powerful not only be about identity, but how identity rights of women in the UK”. “So much of our scale and reach. “The #MeToo movement is linked to oppressive structures. Feminism equality law is written into EU legislation,” has definitely ramped up the pressure on is about more than just the self; feminism she points out. “Some of the rights we now institutions that have, at best, turned a includes fighting against austerity, racist take for granted could be affected, including blind eye to sexual harassment,” says Patel. policing, borders, prisons and other issues. rights for pregnant women at work, part- “It’s been encouraging to see so many Learning from the work of older feminists is time workers (42 per cent of women work women around the world supporting each important, to enable you to think about what part-time) and women fleeing violence. It’s other, amplifying each others’ voices, and works and what hasn’t." Younis agrees. “More something we all must campaign to defend.” acknowledging how traumatic speaking accessible feminism is awesome – that’s what Patel also sees global challenges ahead, about sexual harassment and abuse can be.” gal-dem is doing,” she says. “Feminism needs from the Trump presidency and from the So what’s next for feminism? Patel to be something everyone can feel involved rise of far right groups seeking to restrict believes #MeToo has created a tipping point. in, particularly those who have always been women’s reproductive rights and “actively IMAGES “We’ve got to use this moment to make it told certain spaces aren't meant for them. propagate misogynistic attitudes”. “There’s TTY clear that we should never tolerate abuse or As a magazine written by women and non- never been a more important time to protest,

E/GE harassment,” she says, “and we must counter binary people of colour we're providing a petition and use your voice to show solidarity

FF sexist attitudes by placing a higher value on platform for those traditionally excluded from with women experiencing violence or CLI

T emotional intelligence and empathy in the these spaces to flourish." oppression,” she says. “The moment we stop A R way we educate and go about our daily lives.” However, visibility is not an answer in and fighting for our rights is the moment we leave IS J J IS

R “I think where we go next is de-centring of itself, and many young feminists believe them vulnerable to being eroded or taken

CH the linear narrative of feminism,” says the real battles are still to come. Patel cites away altogether.”

LENT 2018 | CAM 83 25 26 CAM 83 | LENT 2018 Frugal innovation Professor Jaideep Prabhu says that doing more with less makes sense – whatever your location.

WORDS LUCY JO LIN PHOTOGRAPHY ANNA HUIX

On 26 January, 2001, an earthquake of magnitude 7.9 hit Gujarat, India, killing over 25,000 people. Mansukhbhai Prajapati, a rural potter, escaped with his life but lost all his stock. All around him were people like him, coping with devastating loss and enormous practical problems. So he set out to help them in his way: he designed a fridge that would keep food fresh without electricity, using the only resource available to him – the clay with which he made pots. One of Prajapati’s small, squat fridges – the Mitti Cool – sits in the corner of Professor Jaideep Prabhu’s high-ceilinged, light-filled office at the Cambridge Judge Business School (CJBS). No wires run out of the back: fill the top with water and it keeps the contents cool by the natural process of evaporation. The fridge is a superb example of the concept the Jawaharlal Nehru Professor of Indian Business and Enterprise highlights in his book Jugaad Innovation: Think Frugal, Be Flexible, Generate Breakthrough Growth (co-authored with Navi Radjou and Simone Ahuja). Jugaad, a Hindi word, is the art of overcoming harsh constraints by improvising an effective solution, using limited resources. Anyone can do it, with anything, and it can happen anywhere. All it takes is ingenuity. “The fridge is frugal, because it runs on water, which cools as it evaporates,” explains Professor Prabhu. “It’s flexible, because you don’t need electricity. And it’s inclusive, because it’s for people who would like to have a fridge but can’t afford one – and even if they could, they might not have access to electricity. It’s a good-enough solution that works. It addresses a large part of the problem, meets an unmet need, and uses resources that are already available.” Professor Prabhu’s journey of discovery began, naturally, in India, where he grew up. That India was very different from the one that the world now knows. “Everything was centrally planned,” he remembers. “The state was all-powerful. We were more or less equal, but equally poor, so we instinctively understood the ›

LENT 2018 | CAM 83 27 28 CAM 83 | LENT 2018 importance of being frugal. In those days, you either The sharing economy became a doctor or an engineer, and that was your ticket out of India. I studied to be an engineer.” He left in typified by companies 1989, along with most of his graduating class, switching such as Airbnb is another from Engineering to Business and studying for a PhD in example of frugal Marketing at the University of Southern California. innovation in the west Shortly after Professor Prabhu’s departure, India changed. The then finance minister Manmohan Singh (a Cambridge alumnus) scrapped hundreds of rules and regulations that governed how businesses could operate, with the aim of growing India’s economy. Younger people still left India, but now their ultimate aim was to go back. Indian businesses such as Tata went global. Western find it too expensive to reach communities beyond companies came to India not just to set up back office cities and towns. operations but also to do research and development. Professor Prabhu points out that this concept In 2008, after posts at the University of California, isn’t unique to India. In the US, it’s DIY culture. The Tilburg University in the Netherlands and Imperial Brazilians call it gambiarra or jeitinho, while Africans College, Professor Prabhu became the first Jawaharlal know it as kanju. It’s not new, either: necessity has Nehru Professor of Indian Business and Enterprise at always been the mother of invention. But set against CJBS. In 2009, he was appointed academic director of today’s backdrop of rapid technological innovation, the Centre for India & Global Business, set up to study emerging markets and resource depletion, jugaad India’s role in the global economy from a business suddenly becomes very relevant. perspective. “This, in itself, was indicative of the new The Raspberry Pi, Professor Prabhu points out, is a India,” Professor Prabhu says. “It would have been superb example of a jugaad innovation. Developed by slightly whimsical to have a centre devoted to the global a team of Cambridge computer scientists, the £30 Pi role of Indian business 20 years earlier.” is a highly affordable solution for budding engineers Up to this point, Professor Prabhu’s main interest had looking to gain hands-on experience by tinkering with been innovation in western corporations. The received computers and coding for them. The sharing economy wisdom was that this was where innovation happened: typified by companies such as Airbnb is another example with big budgets and massive research and development of frugal innovation in the west. “In the west, people teams pushing the tech frontier. Now he had the are positively empowered to do more with less,” he opportunity to study innovation in India – and he soon says. “These pro-sumers – people who are more actively realised that the Indian approach was vastly different involved in the economic process – are driving things from corporate innovation in the west. such as the sharing economy, where we can directly “In India, it was all about being affordable,” he trade spare assets with each other on a digital platform.” says. “Doing more with less. Taking advantage of the Makerspaces are another example: places where limited resources you had. The process was not terribly “makers” can try out equipment, learn skills like coding, structured. Indian innovators might have a plan, but and swap ideas, experiences and expertise. they would switch from one plan to another, partly The possibilities are endless. In emerging markets, because the environment was changing rapidly. And he points out, people have no choice but to innovate in a lot of the solutions seemed designed to bring people this way. “In India and China, hundreds of millions of who are outside the formal economy into the formal people aspire to the lifestyles of people in the west. Their economy, so they were inclusive.” governments and economies have to deliver, but they His views about innovation, based on western can’t deliver in a resource-heavy way. Their solutions corporations, were challenged. Travelling around India, cannot be expensive and they cannot be resource- talking to people from all sections of society, he realised depleting, because that would destroy the planet.” that innovation can happen anywhere. “And it wasn’t so But in the west, many people are choosing to much about technology; pushing the tech barrier for the innovate frugally. Growth must happen to maintain the sake of it. It was about identifying an unmet need and west’s economic system, but it can’t be done on the back then figuring out: ‘Is there a technology already around of resource depletion, Professor Prabhu says. People that I can use to produce an affordable and accessible know this. They want to make the world a better place, solution for this unmet need?’” and leave it a better place, too. Many of the best examples of jugaad innovations “The economy has to grow in a frugal, resource- come from the developing world. For instance, in their preserving way,” he says, “So there’s that pressure – Indian R&D lab, General Electric developed a robust and the push factor, if you like. But there’s also a pull factor. portable ECG machine made from easily available, off- People are now empowered. Increasingly, they don’t the-shelf components: telephone keypads and a printer want to work for large companies. They want to make a originally designed for bus tickets. Practitioners on the difference themselves. And they have access to all these ground are creating their own solutions: Dr Devi Shetty, tools – smartphones, makerspaces, cheap computers, the a sort of “Henry Ford for heart surgery”, has applied the internet, social media: the barriers to innovation have principles of scientific management – division of labour, fallen across the board. economies of scale – to carry out highly affordable heart “I truly believe that we need this way of thinking operations in resource-poor settings. Microfinance in both the developing and the developed world, and I institutions make use of what is already there – people in think we’re headed to a place where the two will meet villages (often women) who pool their resources and act in interesting, creative ways.” The future’s bright: the as a joint liability group – to fill the gap left by banks that future’s frugal.

LENT 2018 | CAM 83 29 A donation to Cambridge improves the lives of all of us. Not just you, the UK or even the developed world, but all seven billion people on the planet.

What does that mean in practice? A cure for cancer. Understanding the implications of AI. The preservation and digitisation of a 500-year-old book.

Another step taken on the journey to define what it is to be human. The campaign for the University and Colleges has passed the £1bn mark. So why does philanthropy matter to Cambridge?

WORDS W ILLIAM HAM B E VAN

What does the Cambridge Professor of nations. Without it, new centres such as Innovation carry in his pocket? It sounds the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and the like a question worthy of an admissions Centre of Governance and Human Rights interview. And if it were, it’s unlikely that would not have been founded. even the most lateral-thinking of candidates Benefactors have funded academic posts would guess what Professor Tim Minshall to attract the brightest minds to Cambridge, keeps with him as a reminder of his mission: and countless scholarships and bursaries a small thermostatic switch, exactly like the to help the most financially disadvantaged one found in almost every electric kettle. undergraduates meet the cost of their It’s a nod to the philanthropist who studies. Above all, philanthropy acts as a donated £2.5m to fund Professor Minshall’s guarantor of independence and intellectual chair. Dr John C Taylor is one of Britain’s freedom. It makes academics less vulnerable most successful and prolific inventors, with to reversals in government policy or more than 400 patents. He made his name changing trends in research-council by creating the small bimetallic thermostat funding, allowing them to concentrate on that ensures electric kettles switch off when ambitious long-term goals. the water reaches boiling point – though he’s It’s certainly not all about seven-figure arguably best known to Cambridge students bequests from individuals or charitable as the creator of the Chronophage clock that foundations; small, monthly direct debits gobbles up time outside Corpus Christi. from alumni add up to a vital enabling force. Professor Minshall, who took up his post “We very strongly believe that any gift, in September 2017, says: “When anyone asks however small, is extremely important and me what innovation is about, we can talk each one is received with huge gratitude,” about Tesla and Uber and machine-learning says Professor Chris Dobson, Professor of and going to the moon. But I can say ‘It’s also Chemical and Structural Biology and Master this’ and produce this device. It shows that of St John’s. “Long-term philanthropic innovation means spotting an opportunity, success for an institution such as Cambridge understanding what technology could be involves a large proportion of our alumni used to address it, developing the solution being aware of our needs and enthusiastic that uses the minimum necessary resources, to support us in achieving our ambitions.” and getting it to market where it can improve Cambridge is driving this success with a people’s lives.” major campaign. Launched in 2015, the Dear The creation of the Dr John C Taylor World... Yours, Cambridge campaign aims Professorship of Innovation is a clear example to raise £2bn for the University and Colleges of why philanthropy is of such crucial from alumni, friends and supporters. importance to Cambridge, and to every To date, more than 47,000 donors have modern university. Without the donation, it responded to the call. The campaign’s simply wouldn’t have happened. The story is co-chair, Sir Harvey McGrath (St Catharine’s repeated throughout the University’s Schools, 1971), is clear about the impact this is already Faculties, Departments and Colleges. having. He says: “As a result of this support, Philanthropy has enabled Cambridge we are able to attract, inspire and support to address the most critical issues of our the brightest in the world, irrespective of time. It has supported ground-breaking their background or financial capacity. research into treating Alzheimer’s and We must continue to do so, to ensure that Parkinson’s, addressing global biodiversity students who would not otherwise be able loss and gaining a deeper understanding to come to Cambridge have the financial of the economic challenges of African support they need, now and in years to come.” ›

LENT 2018 | CAM 83 31 Philanthropy – from big donations to small gifts from many people – underpins intellectual freedom. We are free to investigate and question, whatever the vested interest. An institution that draws funding from many sources cannot be controlled.

In December 2017, the tally was propelled on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. make that happen they needed to be up here through the £1bn mark by an £85m Patrick Maxwell, Regius Professor of Physic on the hospital site, integrated with clinical donation to the Cavendish Laboratory and Head of School of Clinical Medicine, scientists. Without the new building, there from the estate of Ray Dolby – the pioneer says: “Historically, we have been brilliant was no space for them to do that. And we of acoustic technology. at getting money to fund the actual expense couldn’t have done it without philanthropy.” “Reaching £1bn is an outstanding of doing the experiments. But there is very Professor Dobson has been deeply achievement,” says Vice-Chancellor limited government funding for anything involved with fundraising at both University Professor Stephen Toope. “It reflects the like new buildings or key long-term posts. and College level. A notable success on the extraordinary commitment of so many “In this instance, people working on research side has been the financing of the alumni and donors to the Collegiate stem-cell research, regenerative medicine Centre for Misfolding Diseases – a specialist University. Cambridge has had a huge and immunotherapy have been scattered unit within the Department of Chemistry impact on the world for more than 800 around the University, because they have pursuing research into disorders such as years, and our role in society at a time of roots in lots of academic disciplines that Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The Centre increasing global complexity and anxiety were organised that way 20 to 30 years ago. will be based in a new Chemistry of Health is more important than ever.” The new building will bring people together building that has been made possible Stem-cell research and immunotherapeutics from different departments in a facility with through support from donors, including are two areas to have benefited greatly from state-of-the-art equipment. £20m from the Elan Corporation and £5m philanthropy. On its completion later in 2018, “It’s one of the drivers for our brilliant from Emmanuel alumnus R Derek Finlay, the new Capella Building will bring biologists that they want to see their after whose wife, Una, the Centre’s new scientists together in a purpose-built lab discoveries taken through to patients, and to laboratories will be named.

32 CAM 83 | LENT 2018 .

Evidence-based public policy. Creating a more equal society. Understanding quantum materials and exploring new ways of delivering energy. Philanthropic gifts enable students and researchers to take the long view, free from changing government priorities.

College campaigns have been equally “I applied for the bursary the summer She says: “I was the first person from my successful. “Our current campaign at St before I came up to Cambridge and was school to go to Oxford or Cambridge, but I John’s aims to raise £100m, and we’re now interviewed by Mr Nathoo along with didn’t know about the scholarship before about halfway towards that target,” says the Senior Tutor and the Scholarship I applied. I receive the money from the Professor Dobson. “What’s particularly Administrator at St John’s,” says Lawson. scholarship on a termly basis, and it provides exciting is that this campaign is strongly “I worked to earn money for university and reassurance that I can take part in all the focused on enhancing support for our had some savings, but the bursary means that things that other students can. I can do my academic activities – not least the help my time in Cambridge can now be devoted to weekly shop and pay for events without we can give to students from low-income studying and pursuing work experience.” worrying about financial pressures. I was backgrounds, for example.” University-wide schemes are equally also able to buy a laptop, which makes it Recipients of philanthropic support via significant in helping all undergraduates a lot easier to access the resources I need. their College include Hannah Lawson (St make the most of a Cambridge education. “The networking side of the Reuben John’s 2017), a first-year undergraduate in Now in her second year, Mollie Georgiou Scholarship is important – we help and Human, Social and Political Sciences. She is (Queens’ 2016) was awarded a Reuben support each other. When you come to one of two candidates in her year to receive Scholarship when she was accepted to Cambridge from a state school, you don’t a Salim and Umeeda Nathoo Bursary, which read Psychological and Behavioural necessarily have a ready-made network. provides £5,000 a year for the duration of Sciences. The scheme, founded by We keep in contact via email, and I’ve been her degree. The bursaries are intended to brothers David and Simon Reuben, invited to the Reubens’ house in London to help outstanding students meet the cost of provides bursaries for talented students meet other scholars from Oxford and UCL living and learning in Cambridge. from disadvantaged backgrounds. as well as Cambridge.” ›

LENT 2018 | CAM 83 33 34 CAM 83 | LENT 2018 Georgiou strongly believes that KEY FACTS AND FIGURES but as I couldn’t self-fund, I had to explore scholarships such as hers attract a more £2 billion: campaign goal how I would finance my research. The Gates diverse set of applicants to Cambridge. “It’s £1.13 billion: amount raised by the University Cambridge Scholarship was the best option not just about the income,” she says. “It’s and Colleges since the start of the campaign for me because I have a daughter: it’s the knowing that there are people who believe 47,000: number of contributors to the only one that offers support for dependants. in you enough to support your journey campaign to date “In my research, I’m bringing together through higher education. They’re also 49 per cent: percentage of total raised to traditional songs and contemporary oral an acknowledgement of the wider issues date given by alumni poetry, looking at how the earlier material that can prevent candidates from trying 267: number of new graduate studentships becomes re-actualised and reinterpreted in for Cambridge: ‘How could I thrive in an funded by philanthropy the current conflict. The independence that environment like that, when I haven’t scholarships provide is immensely valuable, had that sort of academic experience and especially when we tackle sensitive before?’ Scholarships encourage academic political issues.” confidence and help people believe in Ultimately, there is a strong consensus in themselves.” The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Cambridge that philanthropy is no longer an Stephen Toope agrees. “Scholarships and optional extra, if ever it was: it’s now a vital bursaries are critical to Cambridge’s ability factor in enabling the University to maintain to attract the very best students regardless of academic independence and pursue its means,” he says. “We need to do much more mission at a time of unprecedented financial going forward, and philanthropic support is pressure. “I’ve been in Cambridge for over key to this endeavour.” 15 years,” says Professor Dobson, “and in Many schemes exist to support researchers that time the attitude to fundraising has at the start of their academic career. The changed beyond all recognition. Everyone is Gates Cambridge Trust, established by the convinced that it’s a vital part of our ability Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, confers to remain a world-leading university. scholarships on “intellectually outstanding “Our alumni are tremendously enthusiastic postgraduate students with a capacity for supporters of our objectives, and I believe leadership and a commitment to improving they feel increasingly strongly connected to the lives of others”. They include Ukrainian the University and its Colleges. In turn, we are poet Iryna Shuvalova (St John’s 2016), whose keen to encourage them to see for themselves award has allowed her to pursue a PhD in the effects of their donations and to meet Slavonic Studies. Her work examines the the students and academics whose activities role of poetry in war, and how it has helped they are supporting. In the end, their gifts are people in eastern Ukraine to cope with the the bedrock of our future success as a major trauma caused by the ongoing conflict. centre of teaching and research, and we could She says: “Cambridge has one of the best not be more appreciative of their generosity Ukrainian Studies programmes in the world, and encouragement.”

We need your support. That’s not just about money – it could be encouraging a potential applicant, attending an event or talking about what Cambridge did for you. Contact your College or visit cam.ac.uk/YoursCambridge

LENT 2018 | CAM 83 35 ONE HEART STOPPING

MOMENT36 CAM 83 | LENT 2018 Heart and lung diseases are the leading causes of premature death worldwide. What can be done? Work at the new Heart and Lung Research Institute hopes to supply some answers.

WORDS BECK Y ALLE N IMAGES SUSUMU NISHINAGA

LENT 2018 | CAM 83 37 ean Doyle’s heart problems began out of PREVIOUS cent were fatal. Today, more than seven out 10 people the blue. One moment he was on his way to A coloured scanning survive – a proportion Bennett aims to improve. electron micrograph Huddersfield parkrun; the next moment he (SEM) of the aortic Plaques in coronary artery walls are build-ups of collapsed. Doyle had a blocked artery and valve (top). The aortic material covered by a fibrous cap. Over time, the arteries S valve prevents the suffered his first heart attack. narrow and restrict blood supply causing angina and, By an extraordinary stroke of luck, his GP and a back flow of blood from if the plaques rupture, a heart attack. Not all plaques, the aorta (the body’s nurse were both running that May morning in 2013, main artery) to the left however, are likely to burst. “Size matters, but structure and performed CPR until the paramedics arrived. Doyle ventricle of the heart. is most important,” says Bennett. “Some are big but – who had a second heart attack on the way to hospital – fibrous and very stable. Others are small with a thin cap, was put into an induced coma and had a stent fitted. BELOW and these are very dangerous.” Coloured micrograph A week later he was back at home and, after cardiac (SEM) of the heart To prevent heart attacks, cardiologists such as Bennett rehab, pulling on his running shoes again. Although valve and strings. The need a way of distinguishing the two, something current his marathon days are over, Doyle is back to parkruns micrograph shows the techniques cannot do. Angiograms produce only a and the occasional 10k. “My trainers tend to last about mitral valve (upper left), silhouette, showing that arteries are narrowing. A newer controlling the blood 600 miles,” he says. “I’m now on the fourth pair since flow between two of technique – intravascular ultrasound – is better, but still my heart attack.” the heart’s chambers, only predicts 20 per cent. Prompt action saved Doyle’s life, but many others the left atrium and “Having reached the limit of detection with imaging, are not so lucky. What will herald a step-change in the left ventricle. The we decided we needed to look at the other side of the heart strings (thread- tackling the global epidemic of heart and lung disease like structures) are equation, and that’s why the University is such a great is the arrival of the Royal Papworth Hospital on the known as the chordae place to work,” he explains. “We have engineers who test Cambridge Biomedical Campus. By combining the tendineae, and are materials for buildings and bridges, and can work out UK’s largest specialist cardiothoracic hospital with the controlled by the the stresses and strains materials are under.” papillary muscles. University’s top-ranked medical research, and providing The structures at By scanning plaques using ultrasound, Bennett innovative educational facilities and a 10-bed clinical the centre, known as and researchers in the departments of Radiology and trials unit, the Heart and Lung Research Institute (HLRI) trabeculae carneae, Engineering can calculate which areas of the artery will attract the best clinicians, researchers and industry are muscular, columnar are under most stress. Trials so far show that the new protrusions found on partners who together will deliver better ways to prevent the internal surface of technique can predict 50 to 75 per cent of events, and treat heart and lung disease. the ventricles. and he hopes that in five years’ time it could change Martin Bennett, British Heart Foundation Professor the way cardiologists manage patients. “It’s the sort of Cardiovascular Sciences, works on heart attacks. of project that depends on cardiologists, engineers, Most coronary heart disease deaths are caused by a heart mathematicians and computer scientists. Cambridge attack, and in the UK in the 1960s, more than 70 per is great because we have all these experts.” RY A R LIB OTO H P : SUSUMU NISHINAGA/SCIENCE OTO H P

38 CAM 83 | LENT 2018 The new technique is groundbreaking. It’s the sort of project that depends on cardiologists, engineers, mathematicians and computer scientists – making Cambridge the perfect place to do it

ABOVE AND It’s a perfect example of how the new HLRI can change and die easily, and understanding the process is key to NEXT PAGE heart and lung research, leading to better outcomes discovering new therapeutic targets. Coloured micrograph (SEM) of the pectinate for patients in future, says Nick Morrell, BHF Professor “This endothelial dysfunction seems to trigger these muscles in the wall of Cardiopulmonary Medicine. “The HLRI will be a profound changes in the lung arteries,” explains Morrell. of the right atrium physical and intellectual hub for accelerating research “The simple hypothesis we’ve been working on for years of the heart. The and drug discovery, a hothouse for grand challenges is that if you can restore BMPR2 function, can we reverse woven structure of these muscles allows in heart and lung disease,” he says. “The clinical the effect?” Morrell believes he can, and has set up a a large contraction resources of the Royal Papworth plus major buy-in from spin-out, Morphogen-IX, to develop and test new ways strength with minimal AstraZeneca and GSK, as well as smaller biotech firms, of treating PAH. muscle mass. make this a phenomenal opportunity.” “We have a 50-patient trial planned to test whether Professor Morrell has spent much of his professional the treatment lives up to its promise, and we’ll have career hunting for a cure for pulmonary arterial the results in two to three years,” he says. “It works hypertension (PAH). A chronic and debilitating disease completely differently from the existing drugs, and that affects blood vessels in the lungs, PAH causes the whole rationale behind it is based on human genetic tiredness, breathlessness and eventually heart failure. studies. Because it’s such a complicated pathway, the Continuous intravenous drugs can alleviate symptoms human genetics has given us this razor-like focus.” and buy people a little extra time. Morrell spends part of Across the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in the RY

A his time at the Royal Papworth Hospital, a clinical centre NHS Blood and Transplant Building is Professor R of excellence for the disease, which treats and monitors Willem Ouwehand’s lab, which is pioneering the genome LIB around 700 patients with PAH. But most of his working science that has enabled Morrell to discover other genes OTO

H life is devoted to understanding its genetics and biology. associated with PAH. P PAH affects around 6,500 people in the UK and Using technology that slashes the cost of whole devastates lives. “It’s rare but horrible,” Morrell says. genome sequencing, invented in Cambridge by “It tends to come out of the blue in otherwise fit, healthy Professor Shankar Balasubramanian in the Department people in their 30s, 40s and 50s, predominantly women of Chemistry, Ouwehand is examining large cohorts of and often precipitated by childbirth, so diagnosis is patients – and revolutionising the understanding and associated with a lot of personal tragedy.” diagnosis of rare diseases. The first gene connected with PAH was discovered “In four years, we’ve sequenced the entire genome of almost two decades ago. Mutations in the gene, BMPR2, 13,000 people with rare diseases. Bringing together so

: SUSUMU NISHINAGA/SCIENCE explain around 25% of PAH and cause cells lining many of these patients has never been done before, and blood vessels in the lung to malfunction. Deficiency significantly increases the chances of discovering the OTO H

P in BMPR2 means the cells proliferate, become inflamed genes underlying these conditions,” he says. “Having ›

LENT 2018 | CAM 83 39 40 CAM 83 | LENT 2018 this new knowledge we’ve been able to develop a simple, Because platelet are integrally linked to heart attack affordable DNA test that can be used in the NHS, and and stroke, Ouwehand’s lab is looking for genes involved beyond, to diagnose many rare diseases, including PAH.” in platelet production and function. “We’ve built Ouwehand dislikes the term ‘rare’ diseases, pointing the biggest collection of patients with platelets that out that “inherited rare diseases affect one in 20 children don’t look normal and don’t work correctly. We have born every year, or three million people in the UK”. sequenced the whole genome of nearly 2,000 of these And they play an important role in medical research: people with rare platelet diseases,” he says. “They come “Discoveries based on these diseases often give a strong from across the globe – Austria, Belgium, Germany, signal to researchers and the pharmaceutical industry France, the Netherlands and the US, as well as the UK – that the proteins encoded by a particular gene are a and because Cambridge is a trusted partner, we can have good therapeutic target. Several drugs now used to treat global reach and give global leadership.” cardiovascular diseases, such as statins, were initially While Morrell and Ouwehand focus on the rare, developed to treat families with rare diseases.” Professor Edwin Chilvers, in the Department of His group’s major focus is platelet biology. Platelets Medicine, treats and studies some of the most common are the second most abundant cell in the blood and, diseases in the world. “Heart and lung disease kills more despite lacking a nucleus, these tiny cells are “loaded people than any other group of diseases, but it’s one of with goodies” that repair the blood vessel wall and the most underfunded parts of medicine,” he says. make blood clot in response to the rupture of plaques Professor Chilvers treats lung disease where in cardiac artery walls. This clot formation may lead to inflammation is the major driver, including asthma occlusion of a coronary artery leading to a heart attack. (the commonest disease of Europeans) and smoking- induced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pneumonia (the leading cause of hospitalisation and death) and even multiple forms of fibrotic lung. His research focuses on COPD (which affects 1.2 million people in the UK) and the role of neutrophils, a type of white blood cell that is essential to a healthy immune system. Neutrophils work by finding and eating bacteria, and preventing infections from taking hold. However, this can also result in unintentional injury to healthy tissues and result in chronic inflammation. Once infection is under control, this limb of the immune system should switch off, but in COPD, neutrophils remain activated, dysfunctional and refuse to die. “Healthy lungs have clear and open breathing tubes that taper beautifully down towards the end alveoli, but in COPD neutrophils damage the airways, causing them to become narrower and often blocked with mucus, making them very prone to infection,” Chilvers explains. To discover what traps these cells into a cycle of perpetual activation, he has been studying the chemical messaging systems inside the cells in order to design a drug that might put these cells back on to the correct path. It sounds simple but, until recently, neutrophils have kept their secrets well hidden. “It’s very difficult to isolate and study neutrophils, especially those that have already moved from the blood into tissue, so we’re largely working away from the action. The other challenge is these cells are very easily disturbed, so working with them tends to tickle them up,” Chilvers says. Five years ago, he developed a new way of isolating and labelling neutrophils. “It’s made a RY

A big difference, allowing us to follow these cells around R the body for the first time.” LIB As a result of the new technique, Chilvers and the OTO

H pharmaceutical companies he collaborates with have P new drugs in clinical trials that they hope will transform the lives of those living with COPD. “If we can give drugs that strip out neutrophilic inflammation, that would give a good chance of stopping the damage and resolving the inflammation,” he says. “People with COPD are on an inexorable decline in lung function. If we could stop that decline, it would be a fantastic achievement.”

: SUSUMU NISHINAGA/SCIENCE The new HLRI will deliver ground-breaking research thanks to collaboration between the University and Royal OTO H

P Papworth Hospital. For more, visit cam.ac.uk/HLRI.

LENT 2018 | CAM 83 41

SHELFIE INTERVIEW CATHERINE GALLOWAY

I ploughed through a lot of

Dostoyevsky in the hot strip mill. Dr Spike Bucklow is Reader in Material Culture at the Hamilton Kerr Institute.

5

4. THE SECRET OF SHAKESPEARE: HIS GREATEST PLAYS SEEN IN THE LIGHT OF SACRED ART MARTIN LINGS In my late 20s, I lived round the 4 corner from the Barbican when it was the temporary home of the RSC. I saw lots of Shakespeare, and my appreciation of the plays was absolutely transformed by the 3 1 2 discovery of this modest little book. My eyes were opened to the magical reality of Shakespeare’s world. Lings’ book led me to others, including CS Lewis’s Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature. These books suggested to me, as a chemist, that artists’ materials could be examined in the light of contemporary world views (the four elements, alchemy, astrology etc) to throw light on pre-modern visual culture, in the same way that Lings and Lewis threw light on pre-modern literature.

5. COLOUR AND CULTURE: PRACTICE AND MEANING FROM ANTIQUITY TO ABSTRACTION JOHN GAGE I was very lucky to have the late, great, John Gage as my PhD supervisor at Cambridge. He almost single- handedly established colour as an academic subject, so it is rather strange that my thesis was a pretty monochrome affair. However, I see my 1. ONE HUNDRED YEARS 2. MONKEY subsequent work as the expansion of OF SOLITUDE WU CH’ENG-EN two or three footnotes in his Colour GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ Also in my late teens, I read Monkey and Culture. Following in his footsteps In my late teens I worked in an as a piece of serious 16th-century (and those of Michael Baxandall) has Australian steelworks where, once literature, following the adventures of been extremely rewarding. I feel very I’d finished the tasks assigned for a Chinese monk journeying to collect privileged to have such close access each shift, the foreman allowed me to Y Buddhist scriptures from Gandhara. to great medieval and Old Master H read. I worked like a maniac and then P A few years later, I stumbled upon the paintings at the Hamilton Kerr Institute. A

R ploughed through a lot of Dostoyevsky BBC version of the low-budget cult This allows me to consider cultural G in the hot strip mill. From there, I sailed Japanese TV show, Saiyūki, based on ideas with reference to scientific

OTO to Malaysia as the only passenger on a the book. I returned to Monkey and analysis; to have my head in the clouds H

P Filipino cargo boat. For weeks on end I reread it as a ripping yarn. Funnily while keeping my feet firmly on the E

V basked alone over the prow, escorted enough, I got a lot more out of it. ground, bridging, in some small way,

EE by dolphins and flying fish. While on

R CP Snow’s Two Cultures.

: 3. METAMORPHOSES

Y board, I read One Hundred Years of

H OVID

P Solitude very slowly. It was completely A Over the decades, I’ve repeatedly R idyllic – magical realism for real. And, Spike Bucklow’s The Anatomy of G judging from my continued interest dipped into this extraordinarily deep Riches: Sir Robert Paston’s Treasure and subtle book. Each time it gets OTO in the magic of art and science, the will be published by Reaktion later H better. It’s my Desert Island book. P experience must have been formative. this year.

LENT 2018 | CAM 83 43 EXTRACURRICULAR STUDENT LIFE

I’m just there to chat, play games and referee their wrestling matches! The ‘Cambridge bubble’ is a comfortable place. But stepping outside the bubble can be hugely rewarding, Cambridge Student Community Action’s (SCA) volunteers explain.

ince it began in the early 1950s, Volunteering has enabled third-year medic experience has really opened doors for me.” Cambridge Student Community Action Kieran Kejiou (Churchill) to discover skills Other students have found that volunteering S has had two main aims: to benefit he never thought he had. He became a Big with SCA has helped to reinforce and clarify vulnerable members of the local Cambridge Sib – a volunteer befriender for vulnerable ideas they’ve had about their future career. community and to encourage students to children. Every week, he hangs out with his Finalist Megan Cheyney (St Catharine’s, try new things or develop existing skills. A ‘siblings’, two children aged 11 and eight Psychological and Behavioural Sciences) student steering committee works alongside who recently lost their mother. is a project leader at Bounce, a Saturday

the more senior executive committee, meaning “I’m just being there with the kids, chatting, afternoon club for vulnerable and X that student volunteers have a real voice in how playing games and refereeing their wrestling disadvantaged children. Each session, the organisation is run. matches,” he says. “They seem to enjoy it! It’s they decide on a theme to explore through : ANNA HUI

And there are numerous projects to fun and it’s taught me that, actually, I don’t crafts, games and activities – anything Y H

choose from: everything from entertaining hate kids, which is a nice revelation to have. from Chinese New Year to Under the Sea. P A R

older people with a traditional singalong They’re great. I had ruled out paediatrics as “Show and Tell is my favourite part,” G to buddying up with a teen who has mental a possible future career, because I thought Cheyney says. “All the children are allowed to OTO H

health problems. I hated kids. Now I’m very confused! So the bring in something from home, or anything P

44 CAM 83 | LENT 2018 EXTRACURRICULAR CAMBRIDGE SOUNDTRACK INTERVIEW: PAMELA EVANS Sometimes we get kids we’ve never met before, and they will have a specific need that you need to meet on the spot It is the most sumptuous piece of heart-aching music, and I fully intend to have it sung at my funeral. Alexander Armstrong (Trinity 1989)

they’ve made during the sessions. They talk about it and show it around. You can really see them grow in confidence and open up to the group.” Cheyney, who has received an offer for a place on the Civil Service Fast Stream after graduation, says that Bounce has helped her develop some skills vital to a successful career, such as organisation, planning and flexibility. “Sometimes we get kids we’ve never met before, and they will have a specific need that you need to meet on the JESU, MEINE FREUDE WAR REQUIEM spot,” she says. “You have to know how to JS BACH BENJAMIN BRITTEN I had sort of landed as first bass in I went to a performance of this at adapt activities to fit in with that need.” Trinity Chapel Choir and spent a lot Durham Cathedral as a school boy. Fourth-year medic Shoko Hirosue (Lucy of my first term mouthing and miming. It was the first time I’d ever been to Cavendish) has always been interested in But then in my second year, I found my a concert that felt like a devotional teaching. As a volunteer for SCA’s Homework voice and it all unfurled and became experience. When I sat down to glorious. Of all the Bach motets, I think write part one of my dissertation on Help project, she was matched with a student this is the longest and toughest. The Siegfried Sassoon, the Requiem was who needed assistance with GCSE maths. “I ‘Gute Nacht, O Wesen’ movement is my transporter. In its absolute austerity really enjoy contributing to the community,” the most sumptuous and beautiful there is a triumph of the human spirit, she says. “And teaching is important in piece of heart-aching music, and I fully and there is something so humane and intend to have it sung at my funeral. tender within it. I think that’s the point. your medical career, as well: junior doctors need teaching. We’re also encouraged to do volunteer work before we start our careers. When I become more senior, I want to be a good teacher. So this skill is very applicable to my future career.” Hirosue says SCA’s flexibility has made a huge difference. Currently doing hospital placements during the week, she sees her student at the weekend. “The family understand that sometimes I can’t make it on one weekend, and, if that happens, I can fit a session into the next,” she says. “I’ve REI MOMO RAIN DOGS found SCA very supportive – if you have any DAVID BYRNE TOM WAITS problems, they’re always willing to listen.” David Byrne and Talking Heads were Trinity used to have an exchange Calling volunteer work “rewarding”, is, kind of an idée fixe at Trinity in the late programme with Rice University, Texas. admits Cheyney, “a massive cliché! But 80s and early 90s. It’s this wonderful My friend George Langworthy (Trinity immersion in the deep bossa novas 1989) was one of those students and it’s true. It’s unbelievably worthwhile. and textures of Latin American we bonded over Tom Waits in my first I’ve worked with some of the children at music, with huge samba band sounds year. I can still hear the Trinity bell Bounce for three years now, and seeing their and virtuoso wind playing. It is so chiming two in the morning as we sat confidence improve has been wonderful. It’s capacious in terms of its landscape and banged on about Tom Waits. And and ambition you can store a huge I remember a backgammon board and a great feeling to do something for someone amount of memory and texture in it. cigarette ash. Very Tom Waits. other than yourself.” SCA are always looking for new volunteers. Alexander Armstrong is a comedian, actor, television presenter and singer. To find out more, visit cambridgesca.org.uk. He co-hosts the BBC TV game show Pointless.

LENT 2018 | CAM 83 45

EXTRACURRICULAR UNIVERSITY MATTERS

Breaking the silence on sexual misconduct Sarah d’Ambrumenil is Head of the Office of Student Conduct, Complaints and Appeals.

Research undertaken by the University, as well as the support and next steps 25 per cent in the number of students who the Students’ Union, and the National for victims. In the past 10 months the believe the University would not take any Union of Students confirms that sexual University has received around 140 reports action if they reported sexual misconduct. misconduct is just as prevalent within our of sexual misconduct taking place between However, the University, alone, cannot community as it is at any other university students through its anonymous reporting influence students’ confidence when it or microcosm of society. mechanism, with half of those reports comes to seeking support and reporting Equally concerning is that victims often relating to a sexual act or sexual intercourse sexual misconduct. Students’ behaviour is say they do not want to raise a formal taking place without consent. This is not partly a reflection of society and the wider complaint, reflecting the difficulties they information that is easy to accept, though it culture in which we live. face in disclosing what has happened to is perhaps not unexpected – national studies This is why it was so powerful to them, or in seeing the benefits to them of suggest that 68 per cent of students in the witness alumni coming out to support the reliving their experiences through a formal UK are sexually harassed while at university. campaign. The support from Colleges, staff reporting procedure. Students come here It is those ‘next steps’ that my office is and alumni has been overwhelming, with from all over the world to be influenced by involved in: the Office of Student Conduct, our campaign films being watched more their professors and peers. Consequently, Complaints and Appeals. We handle than 85,000 times. By raising awareness – it can be difficult to challenge others’ student complaints about the University sharing a video, retweeting posts or ‘liking’ behaviour or even recognise that it might and University staff, as well as complaints comments relating to Breaking the Silence be inappropriate. But it is not good enough of harassment or sexual misconduct about – you are strengthening the message that for the University to have support services other students. This is just one component of when a victim comes forward to report, and reporting options if students do not have the resources in place to support victims and they do so with the backing of the Cambridge the confidence to use them. prevent sexual misconduct. Students also community. Your actions help to prevent The University has been working with have access to a University Sexual Assault sexual misconduct, by showing potential students, staff, victims and specialist and Harassment Adviser and can attend perpetrators that the Cambridge community organisations for the past few years to bystander training and consent workshops; will not tolerate this kind of behaviour. try to improve things. This work has and student-facing staff receive briefings on I hope that in time your support in culminated in the campaign Breaking the how to support student disclosures. this area will become unnecessary, but, Silence – Cambridge speaks out against Early indications suggest that the for now: thank you. You are helping to sexual misconduct, launched in October campaign is already having an impact: break the silence. 2017. Spearheaded by the Vice-Chancellor, an increase in the number of cases being it raises awareness of the University’s zero- reported to our Office, and, via anonymous For further information and to see the video, tolerance approach to sexual misconduct, reporting, a decrease from 52 per cent to visit breakingthesilence.cam.ac.uk.

By sharing, retweeting or ‘liking’ these posts you strengthen the message ELAND

OP that when a victim comes E C T forward, they do so N: KA N: O I with the backing of the T A

TR Cambridge community ILLUS

LENT 2018 | CAM 83 47 EXTRACURRICULAR CROSSWORD INSTRUCTIONS Seven clues have a misprint in the definition. Clashes in seven cells form names; in these cells solvers must enter the initial letter of the name preceded by one of the misprint corrections. The collective name of the seven (two parallel words) must be highlighted. Numbers in brackets are the lengths of grid entries.

ACROSS DOWN 1 Religious woman in an excited state 1 Baronet and associate look up and outside court knocked back a drink indeed resist (8, 3 words) (6, 2 words) 2 Acting knight protected by our king’s CAM 83 PRIZE CROSSWORD 6 He rescues judge held in laird’s yard companion (5) by Republican (6) 3 Pass over doctor with zero capital (7) 11 Repeat “check” in gambling game (4) 4 Page lied awfully about a brilliant 13 Noisy game bird caught by the septet (6) French lizards (7) 5 Bishop led astray by academy Blues 14 Did raw volunteers fly across lake? (6) member fit for the madhouse (4) 15 A kind American to expose earl (6) 7 Peter Ustinov’s initial eccentricity 16 Drama in some trouble (5) stimulated an inspiring deity (7) by Schadenfreude 17 Travelling on another terrible day (7, 3 8 Casual errand boy’s game (6) words) 9 Exotic isle’s pear trees (9) 20 Comparatively thin artist, about 10 Did fish in Scotland fool local editor? eighty (5) (4) 22 Bloke ignoring female pass (4) 12 Blue, close to sour cheese (4) 23 Swimmer facing trouble on South 18 King of France touring US city (4) Island (8) 19 Chap beginning to experience palsy 25 Not more than a thousand stopping developed a state of body rigidity (9) for second time (6, 2 words) 21 Magnificent magistrate turned up with 28 Inbred sow trapped left foot (6) lire for money (5) 31 Magistrate’s ofce chair hack 24 Prompting device I fixed keeping a repaired without compliance (8) robot working (8, 2 words) 33 Curtail cold kiss (4) 26 Before one mother would skate (4) 34 Faith lives with recurrent pain (5) 27 Shilling gratuity to finish a soldier’s 37 I found in large dictionary “exultation day (7) of mythical ring” (7) 29 Monk nursing tailless sick dolphin (7) 39 Newspaper covering bird foot 30 Parasites? Religious cross carried by disease (5) each (6) 40 A written composition about Zulu 32 Nurse welcoming the start of exciting medical decoction (6) life (6) 41 Plant tree in shelter (6) 35 Maiden queen and goddess join 42 Brisk speed on foot (7) forces (4) 43 Victorian gave me and Kay backing 36 Dusty shore line followed by old (4) uncle and Penny (5) 44 Silly director worried about retiring 37 Firm engaging extremely loose apparently leaves (6, 2 words) feminist sociologist (4) 45 Poles keeping anonymous greeting 38 British medieval knight protecting promotional tour (6) learner more likely to snap (4)

All entries to be received by poetry which capture the unique SOLUTION TO CAM 82 CROSSWORD 11 May 2018. Please send spirit of the house. Two runners-up MIXED DRINK BY SCHADENFREUDE completed crosswords: will also receive £50 to spend on Vacant cells are filled CUP publications. by CAMBRIDGE Þ E\SRVWWR&$03UL]H UNIVERSITY PRESS Crossword, University of Solutions and winners will be (CUP) in the shape of a Cambridge, 1 Quayside, Bridge printed in CAM 84 and posted cup (mixed drink). Street, Cambridge, CB5 8AB online at alumni.cam.ac.uk/ Þ RQOLQHDWDOXPQLFDPDFXN magazine on 25 May 2018. Winner: Jamie crossword Carpenter (Trinity 1995) Þ E\HPDLOWRFDPHGLWRU#DOXPQL Runners-up: Elizabeth cam.ac.uk Warren (née O’Donnell, Sidney Sussex 1980), The first correct entry drawn will Bill Ball (St John’s 1963) receive £50 of vouchers to spend on Cambridge University Press publications and a copy of A Way of Life (Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge) by Jim Ede about E

Kettle’s Yard. Put together by Ede R IG

as lovingly as Kettle’s Yard itself, T it takes the form of a guided tour,

complete with photographs and LA N: O I T A TR ILLUS

48 CAM 83 | LENT 2018