Cambridge Alumni Magazine Issue 88 — Michaelmas Term 2019 The battle against inflammation and why lives are at stake How modern technology is forcing human rights into the spotlight From Dr Google to the selfie age – Jane Austen in the modern world MICHAELMAS TERM 2019 | CAM 88 1 2 CAM 88 | MICHAELMAS TERM 2019 Editor Mira Katbamna Managing editor Steve McGrath Design and art direction Rob Flanagan University of Cambridge Bruce Mortimer James Hardy Charis Goodyear Cambridge Alumni Magazine Issue 88 Michaelmas Term 2019 02 INBOX Publisher The University of Cambridge Development & Alumni Relations Campendium 1 Quayside, Bridge Street 28 Cambridge CB5 8AB Tel +44 (0)1223 332288 07 BRAINWAVES Dr Samantha Williams. Editorial enquiries Tel +44 (0)1223 332288 08 MY ROOM, YOUR ROOM [email protected] Lady Hale (Girton 1963). 11 SOCIETY Alumni enquiries Tel +44 (0)1223 332288 Cambridge University [email protected] African Caribbean Society. alumni.cam.ac.uk facebook.com/cambridgealumni 13 MUSEO @Cambridge_Uni #camalumni Contents Professor Liba Taub. Advertising enquiries Tel +44 (0)20 7520 9474 Features [email protected] Services offered by advertisers 14 INFLAMMATION are not specifically endorsed It’s linked to obesity, diabetes and by the editor, YBM Limited depression, but its full action and or the University of Cambridge. The publisher reserves the right to impact are yet to be fully understood. decline or withdraw advertisements. 21 HUMAN RIGHTS IN A DIGITAL AGE Cover Modern technology – from data to Russell Cobb social media – is forcing human rights into the spotlight. Copyright © 2019 The University of Cambridge. 28 AUSTEN IN THE 21ST CENTURY CAM is published three times Beyond the carriages and costumes, a year, in the Lent, Easter and Jane Austen has more to say about our Michaelmas terms, and is sent free 40 to Cambridge alumni. It is available digital lives than you might imagine. to non-alumni on subscription. 34 HOW TO BE MODERN For further information please email [email protected]. Why do students want to decolonise their curricula, and what does it have The opinions expressed in CAM are those of the contributors to do with the rest of us? and not necessarily those 40 ABSOLUTE ZERO of the University of Cambridge. Dr Emily Shuckburgh, Director of Cambridge Zero, on meeting the climate change challenge. CAM is produced for the University of Cambridge Extracurricular by YBM Limited. ybm.co.uk 45 SOUNDTRACK Professor Stephen J Toope. 46 DOWNLOAD The Student Support Initiative and the Harding Challenge. 47 STUDENT LIFE Matt Mahmoudi, Jo Cox Scholar. IMAGES FROM TOP: JOE SNOW; KATE PETERS; ALUN CALLENDER 48 CROSSWORD MICHAELMAS TERM 2019 | CAM 88 1 Welcome to the Michaelmas Term edition of CAM. Brexit Resolving the problems of the 21st century requires What point does Victor fresh thinking – and well-informed thinkers. So it will Launert imagine he is making (Letters, CAM 87)? He expresses come as no surprise to hear that, in Cambridge, concern that “no democracy can survive” a statistic showing that, curricula are continually assessed and reviewed. if Brexit were reversed, 65 per Inbox cent of the electorate would fall However, in the past few years, this quest has become into the disenfranchised don’t more searching, as academics and students endeavour care/don’t have faith category. May I point out that, as a to ‘decolonise’ the curriculum. If you’ve ever wondered remainer, I belong to the 63 per cent already disenfranchised what the fuss is all about – and what it has to do with since June 2016 (on his analysis), you – turn to our report on page 34. but have seen no sign of British democracy’s imminent demise? What would Jane Austen have thought? It might Dariel Francis (Girton 1965) sound counterintuitive, but, as Professor Janet Todd Editor’s letter points out on page 28, the great chronicler of Georgian Douglas Adams domestic life has much to say to the denizens of our As a direct contemporary of Douglas Adams at St John’s, own century. I very much enjoyed your piece prompted by the new archive Elsewhere, on page 40, Dr Emily Shuckburgh (CAM 87). discusses how a major new initiative, Cambridge Zero, Among my own recollections are that Douglas was an will harness Cambridge expertise from across the accomplished guitar player and singer of original comic songs – University to tackle the climate emergency. On page 21 something that is rarely mentioned. One of his songs was we assess what digital technology means for human about a local planner who was rights law, and on page 14 we examine the role of going to demolish the narrator’s house (shades of Arthur Dent inflammation in heart disease, obesity and depression. here) – which was never going to be allowed. He is sadly missed. On all these topics – along with anything else Neil Margerison Cambridge-related – we look forward to your (St John’s 1971) contribution to the debate, whether by post, email A silly bit of memorabilia that I still have from my last year at or on social media. St John’s is a beer mat invitation that I did for a boozy party that Mira Katbamna (Caius 1995) Douglas, Nick Burton and I held in November 1973. The great [email protected] thing about Douglas was that his COPELAND KATE ILLUSTRATION: 2 CAM 88 | MICHAELMAS TERM 2019 Write to us We are always delighted to receive your emails, letters, tweets and facebook posts. [email protected] CAM, 1 Quayside, Bridge Street, Cambridge, CB5 8AB @Cambridge_Uni facebook.com/cambridgealumni Please mark your letter ‘For publication’. You can read more CAM letters at alumni.cam.ac.uk/cam. Letters may be edited for length. surreal take on the world rubbed in assets; there is no transparent Summer podcasts would have given us the off on Nick and myself, and I was corporate register of beneficial opportunity to muse on the so pleased with the design that it ownership; and money A big thank you to Dr Hugh opposite: “Everything changes, is one of the very few things that laundering from developing Hunt for recommending the nothing stays the same forever” I did not throw away. I still have countries through Cayman podcast ‘Outrage and Optimism’. – my beloved first-year room is a chuckle, and wonder if I am entities has been proven over There are a lot of great now the photocopying room! alone in this? and over. Drug dealers, mafia interviews, not so much about Julie Perigo Johnnie Simpson bosses and con artists are often the science of climate change, (New Hall 1976) (St John’s 1971) considered economic success but about the process of change. stories, but this doesn’t mean Patrick Coghlan Plastic wrap Many years ago my then that we should ignore the (Downing 1966) girlfriend, now wife, got into socially destructive roots It made me very happy to conversation on a train with of their prosperity. Sport and wellbeing see this latest edition of CAM the tall chap (Adams) opposite, George Horsington wrapped in compostable plastic. who had got out an early Mac (Downing 1992) The interesting finding Keep up the good work! PowerBook. Having waxed lyrical that participation in sport is Stuart Ritson about how the computer enabled Someone once said about associated with superior (Corpus 2008) him to write on trains and hit elections that it is not so much examination results and deadlines, he typed not one the casting of ballots that improved mental health Thank you for converting to word. She says it was the most matters, as the counting. So too makes one wonder whether the potato-starch wrap. This is interesting chat she’s ever had. with taxes. It is not so much the participation in musical one small gesture in the fight Stefan Kukula collecting of taxes that matters, activities, by students who are against the irresponsible and (Churchill 1984) as the spending. not studying music formally, ubiquitous use and disposal of Flash qFiasco has a similarly positive effect. plastic, but powerful lobbies can, Why tax is good (St Edmund’s 1981) Active engagement of and hopefully will, develop from students with music, whether gestures both large and small. Congratulations on another The latest issue of CAM is as composers, performers, David O’Gorman excellent edition. An eclectic particularly appreciated. But I or self-directed students of (Trinity 1960) range of articles to choose from; have to lodge a fiver at the article musicology, independently of my main read was on taxation as on tax as the diagram ‘Why tax their formal areas of academic I, too, believe it is good for us! is good’ omits the most study, is surely an example of a John Gamlin important area of spending. beneficial “extracurricular” (or HOW WE USE (Fitzwilliam 1958) The first duty of every is that “co-curricular”?) activity. YOUR DATA government is Defence of the Martin Heyworth We are committed to protecting I take issue with the claim Realm, and you leave that out (St John’s 1965) your personal information and by May Hen-Smith that we altogether! This may well reflect being transparent about what should reconsider the negative reality, but it explains why our Murray Edwards information we hold. Your data image of the Cayman Islands armed forces are so over- is used by us for alumni and because neighbours in the stretched and unable to deal I always enjoy My Room, Your supporter relations, and for Caribbean “consider them an properly with the challenges Room as it allows us older alumni fundraising. Please read our full data protection statement at: economic success story”.