The 2017 PKP Plenary Lectures

The plenary lectures are key events in the timeline of the Pembroke-Kings Programme (PKP) which offers an exceptional opportunity for university students from around the world to experience Cambridge-style teaching for eight weeks over the summer long vacation, with lectures, supervisions, and plenty of opportunities to explore Cambridge and the UK.

The plenary lectures are given by high-level speakers who are experts in their chosen topic, and can offer insight and depth of discussion over the course of the hour lecture.  This year the series began with a talk by Lord Chris Smith, Baron of Finsbury, who is the Master of Pembroke College Cambridge, on the subject of ‘What next for Brexit?’ As a former MP and Cabinet Minister, with a long and distinguished career in politics, he was able to provide the audience with a comprehensive overview of this important aspect of British politics.

The lecture covered everything from the leave and remain campaigns to the long-term questions about protecting British industry and what a hard or a soft Brexit might mean for the politics and people of Britain and the EU.

The second lecture was given by Dr Hannah Mumby, who is a Drapers Company Fellow at Pembroke and took the audience on an in-depth tour of her work with elephants in Myanmar and, most recently, South Africa.  The third lecture was given by Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, on the topic of Sexual Violence in Conflict.

You can read an interview with some of the PAs, Cambridge students who work for PKP during the summer, on the PKP blog.