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The sights, sounds and tastes from cultures around the globe are to be celebrated during a month-long festival at The University of Nottingham.
Tara Webster-Deakin, Widening Participation and Outreach Officer, said: “We are really excited about the opportunity this festival gives us to share our enthusiasm for languages and international cultures with the local community. Learning languages, foreign travel and exploring other cultures really widens horizons and engages minds. With the themes of food, travel, film and future, we hope that this festival offers a little something for everyone, from our schools-focussed workshops to taking part in the debate about Cake and Identity.”
Cake and conspiracies
Among the highlights will be the opportunity to examine the cultural phenomenon of the Great British Bake-Off and to explore the conspiracies behind the infamous assassination of the US president John F Kennedy.
The event will kick off on Wednesday November 6 between 2pm and 4pm at Highfield House on University Park with an International Food Fair and Welcome, which will offer the chance to sample and buy a range of international foods including Japanese, Polish and French cuisine.
The afternoon will also feature a sushi demonstration, Greek music and dancing and the public lecture German Food: More than Sauerkraut and Sausages, an entertaining take on German food and culture by Dr Heike Bartel in the University’s Department of German Studies.
The second day of the festival on Wednesday November 13, pupils and teachers from local schools will attend a series of afternoon workshops including a Spanish language taster session, a talk by the children’s book translator Chantal Wright who translates books from French and German and an interactive look at artefacts from the American Museum in Britain based around the topic of slavery.
Employability and transferable skills
In a public lecture, running from 5.15pm to 6.30pm at Highfield House, creative marketing consultant Ben Chatfield and Nottingham alumnus and Hollywood actor Enzo Cilente, co-authors of the autobiographical novel Mediterranean Homesick Blues, will offer a wry take on the year abroad experience.
The Culture, Identity and Cake session, taking place from 2pm to 5pm on Wednesday November 20 and led by Drs Elizabeth Evans and Catherine Johnson, will be a must for all fans of the Great British Bake-Off, offering the chance to view and discuss an episode of the hit TV phenomenon and compare it to its US counterpart.
Professor Peter Ling, author of a new book The JFK Conspiracies, will throw new light on the eternal question ‘Who shot JFK?’ during a talk and discussion from 6 to 7.15pm.
The final day of the festival on Wednesday November 27 will include a workshop highlighting the employability and transferable skills of a languages degree, led by East Midlands-based Business Language Champions, and a talk on Translating for a Multilingual European Union: Organisation and Challenges by Angelique Petrits from the European Commission.
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Notes to editors: The University of Nottinghamhas 43,000 students and is ‘the nearest Britain has to a truly global university, with campuses in China and Malaysia modelled on a headquarters that is among the most attractive in Britain’ (Times Good University Guide 2014). It is also the most popular university among graduate employers, the world’s greenest university, and winner of the Times Higher Education Award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Sustainable Development’. It is ranked in the World's Top 75 universities by the QS World University Rankings.
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