First Peoples - Morning

Course Programme

10:00 Session 1 - Lost languages - Inky Gibbens

We’re currently living through one of the biggest extinction events the world has ever seen.  Across the globe one language dies every two weeks which means that by the end of the century little more than half of the languages spoken today are predicted to still be in use. 

When each language dies, we lose much more than just another parochial means of communication - we lose part of our shared cultural heritage, a whole way of thinking, acting and story-telling, and one more chapter of humanity’s rich yet slowly dwindling tapestry of cultural diversity.

11:15 Coffee

11:45 Session 2 - Arctic Material Culture: stories of transformation and continuity in the Circumpolar World - Alex Partridge

The Arctic of popular imagination is often depicted as a vast wilderness of ice and tundra. This talk will illustrate how the Circumpolar World is in fact peopled by a huge diversity of indigenous communities who have developed highly specialised technologies to not only survive, but flourish in this hostile environment.

Alex Partridge is the Collections Manager at the Scott Polar Research Institute’s Polar Museum. His background is in the archaeology of the North, with a particular focus on Arctic material culture. Alex moved to Cambridge in 2016 as a doctoral candidate in the Division of Archaeology before taking up his current post at SPRI.

Originally from Mongolia, Inky Gibbens grew up in a Ger (yurt). She studied languages, language endangerment and Anthropology at Leeds, Glasgow, Aberdeen universities & taught Mongolian and Russian at SOAS, University of London for many years. After a spell at a few London based EdTech startups, she took the inevitable plunge and founded Tribalingual to tackle the big social issue that motivates her - that of language and cultural loss around the world.

Lunch

A selection of sandwiches will be available to purchase in the Terrace Bar.

Additional requirements

ICE is committed to providing equality of opportunity and to a proactive and inclusive approach to equality. We aim to support and encourage under-represented groups, promote an inclusive culture, and value diversity.

Further information about student support.

Entry requirements

No academic qualification is required, and most courses are suitable for students who are new to the subject.

All teaching is in English (unless a foreign-language course). If your first language is not English, you need to satisfy yourself that you have the required near-native command of the language to get the maximum benefit from studying with ICE.

This course takes place at Madingley Hall, home to the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education.

About Madingley Hall

Madingley Hall itself is an impressive manor house dating back to the mid-16th century. The decoration of the Saloon and the formal Stair Hall was carried out 200 years later, and the whole fabric was renovated with great care around 1900. About four miles from the centre of Cambridge, the Hall stands in several acres of beautifully-maintained gardens and overlooks a landscape which has changed relatively little since it was laid out by Capability Brown. It is just four miles from the centre of Cambridge, and only 60 minutes from London, with excellent links to London airports.

Getting here

We also now have a mini-bus service which runs between the station and Madingly Hall weekday mornings between 06:45 and 09:25 and evenings between 16:45 and 19:25. Please contact the reception desk at ICE for more details.

For more information see directions to Madingley Hall.