Hertford Festival Talks

The Hertford Festival takes place on Saturday 1 July. We are delighted to share the talks programme with wider Oxford community.

Please select the talks you would like to attend from the Festival programme.

• 15:00 Shakespeare fandom – how the Bard got famous. Corin Throsby, chaired by Emma Smith.

Corin Throsby, a historian of celebrity culture and Hertford alumna, in conversation with Emma Smith, Fellow in English. Together they will explore how a glover’s son from a one-horse Warwickshire town became an international celebrity, via the First Folio, mulberry wood souvenirs, and the invention of Stratford-upon-Avon. Can the modern experience of fandom help us understand how he went viral?

15:00 Sarah Brown in conversation with Suzanne Heywood on Suzanne’s recently published book Wavewalker: Breaking Free.

Aged just seven, Suzanne set sail with her parents and brother on a three-year voyage around the world. What followed turned instead into a decade-long way of life, through storms, shipwrecks, reefs and isolation, with little formal schooling. Suzanne fought her parents, longing to return to England and to education and stability. Suzanne’s recently published Wavewalker: Breaking Free covers her astonishing upbringing, a survival story of a child deprived of safety, friendships, schooling and occasionally drinking water…

Sarah Brown is a campaigner for global education and health, and works across the worlds of business, philanthropy, social media, and global campaigning to create sustainable change for young people. Founder and Chair of the children’s charity Theirworld and Executive Chair of the Global Business Coalition for Education, Sarah will talk to the author Suzanne Heywood on her recent book and the topics of childhood, self-discovery and fight for education.

• 16:15 From Big Bang to ChatGPT: Astronomy, Data and Society. Pat Roche in conversation with Roberto Trotta.

AI is poised to change every aspect of our lives – from the way we learn to the art we make, from our relationships to scientific discovery. How is AI already affecting research in cosmology and astrophysics? Is reaching for the stars the right way for humankind, or should we look up for a different kind of inspiration? Join Pat Roche in conversation with cosmologist and author Roberto Trotta as they discuss our understanding of the cosmos seen through the lens of modern astronomy and data science.

• 16:15. The Earth Transformed. Tom Fletcher in conversation with Peter Frankopan.

Climate change and depletion of natural resources is one of – and perhaps the most – important challenges of the 21st Century. In this conversation, Tom Fletcher will talk with Peter Frankopan, Professor of Global History and Director of the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research, about the past, present and future of the natural world and how to best learn from history for the years ahead.