Dear Clare Hall members and friends,

Please find below a list of events taking place this week and beyond, to which you are warmly invited.

➢ Members’ events

Annual College Photograph |
Wednesday 18 November 2026, 2pm

The annual College Photograph will take place on Wednesday, 18 November 2026, at 2.00pm in the Fellows’ Garden, weather permitting. In the event of rain, the photograph will be taken in the Common Room.

All members of the Clare Hall community are warmly invited to join us for the occasion. There is no set dress code for the College photograph, we invite everyone to come as they would like to be remembered in the photograph.

To help the photographer plan accordingly, we would be grateful if you could confirm your attendance by completing the form here by Tuesday, 17 November.

We look forward to seeing you all and capturing another moment in the life of our College community!

Clare Hall Thanksgiving Formal |
Wednesday 25 November 2026, from 7pm

Celebrate Thanksgiving with friends and family with Formal Hall on 25 November 2026, from 7pm.

Normal formal prices will apply. Book your tickets on Upay. Bookings will close at 3pm on Monday 23 November, in line with the new Formal Hall booking deadline.

Small Formal Hall |
Wednesday 2 December 2026, from 7pm

We will be holding our next Small Formal Hall on Wednesday 2 December.  Numbers for these Formal Halls will be limited to a maximum of 60. Tickets will go on sale on Friday 13 November at 2pm. Please book in via Upay in the usual manner.

Clare Hall Christmas Feast |
Wednesday 9 December 2026, from 7pm

Join us for a joyous and festive dinner on 9th December!

We are delighted to have the choir, directed by Ben de Souza, performing at the Christmas Feast again this year. Enjoy a new Christmas carol written especially for us by James Woodhall, along with a selection of other festive music to sing.

• Cost: £60 for seniors | £39 for students (includes wine or a soft drink)
• Dress Code: Black Tie

New Clare Hall Books |
Buy now!

Clare Hall is delighted to share two new books that highlight the College’s engagement with art, collecting and material culture. Please follow the links below to find more information and order. There is a 10% discount if you subscribe to the publisher’s newsletter.

Collecting Dutch Golden Age Paintings: The Search for the Winterfeldt Wouwerman by Professor Alan Short, President of Clare Hall, offers a personal and scholarly reflection on the pursuit of Dutch Golden Age paintings, drawing on decades of research and collecting experience. Several works from this collection are displayed in the President’s Lodge.

Studio Potters: The Bell Collection at Clare Hall by Clare Hall Associates Professor Gordon Bell and Helen Ritchie celebrates the Bell Collection, one of the College’s most distinctive cultural assets. This book is also now available to purchase at the Porters’ Lodge at the discounted price of £39.99. Only a limited number of copies are available.

➢ Lectures and talks

Clare Hall Colloquia |
Tuesday 13 October – Tuesday 1 December 2026, 7.15pm

The Clare Hall Colloquia provide members of the College – especially (but not exclusively) Visiting Fellows and Life Members – with an opportunity to present their research, whether in its early stages or already published, in a friendly setting. They are a great way to discuss your ideas, meet fellow members and to contribute to our vibrant community. Sessions take place on Tuesday evenings during term time, 7.15–9.15pm, in the Clare Hall Meeting Room. Refreshments are provided.

The next session will take place on 17 November with speaker Dr Esko Yli-Hemminki (Visiting Fellow, University of Helsinki).

Title: Are Psychopaths Responsible? Rethinking Responsibility and Punishment

What makes someone responsible for a crime, and when should the state punish them? Psychopathy provides a difficult test. Individuals with psychopathic traits may understand rules and consequences while differing in capacities for empathy, moral understanding, and perhaps behavioral control. Should such differences reduce responsibility—or justify greater preventive intervention because of perceived dangerousness? Drawing on criminal law, philosophy, and behavioral science, this talk explores whether responsibility and punishment should be sensitive to differences in our capacities for agency.

Please see the full Michaelmas programme here.

Public Talks “Free Will and the Brain” |
Monday 26 October – Monday 16 November 2026, 5.30pm

Clare Hall Visiting Fellow and Leverhulme Professor Peter Ulric Tse (Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, Dartmouth) will be giving four public talks on the theme of “Free Will and the Brain”. 

They will be held weekly on Mondays starting on the 26th October from 5:30 to 7:00 in the Biffen Lecture Theatre, on the Downing Site. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Their titles are as follows: 

Short abstract: Yes, we have free will, because we have brains that evolved to internally represent possibilities and deliberate among them. Once we have chosen a favored option, we can strive, motorically and otherwise, to realize our envisioned future either in the world or in ourselves. I will talk about how volition and imagination evolved in our lineage, and how they operate in the human brain.

The Betty Behrens Seminar on Classics of Historiography |
Friday 30 October – Friday 27 November 2026, 2.15pm

he Betty Behrens Seminar on Classics of Historiography offers a unique opportunity for students and scholars to reflect on some great historical works and engage in discussion with renowned experts. This Michaelmas term, the seminar will take place between the 30 October and the 27 November and will be composed of three meetings. The charming and fresh atmosphere of the Richard Eden Suite in Clare Hall, West Court, will be the location for the discussions.

The next meeting is on Friday 27 November from 2.15-4.00 pm with speaker Simon Ditchfield (Emeritus Professor of Early Modern History, University of York).

Find more information here. Register for the seminars via Eventbrite.

Film & Moving Image SIG: Devi (The Goddess) (1960) |
Sunday 15 November 2026, 7.30pm

Satyajit Ray’s Devi (The Goddess) (1960) explores the devastating consequences of religious orthodoxy through the story of a young woman declared an incarnation of a Hindu goddess by her father-in-law. The film remains one of Ray’s most compelling yet often overlooked feminist works, challenging the subjugation of women in the name of religious devotion.

Join us at the ALB on Sunday 15 November, 7.30pm, for a screening of this masterpiece of Bengali cinema!

Building Healthy Societies SIG |
Tuesday 17 November 2026, 5pm

All Clare Hall members are warmly welcome to attend the meetings of the Building Healthy Societies SIG this Michaelmas term. See the full schedule here.

The next meeting will take place in the King Room on 17 November, 5pm, with speaker Professor Hugh Markus (Professor of Stroke Medicine, University of Cambridge; Honorary Consultant Neurologist at Cambridge University Hospitals Trust).

Topic: Preventing dementia by modifying our internal dn. external environment

➢ Music

Fitzwilliam String Quartet and Patrick Hemmerlé: Haydn, Osborne, Schumann |
Saturday 14 November 2026, 7.30pm

This concert brings together three contrasting works performed by the Fitzwilliam String Quartet, the Quartet-in-Residence at Clare Hall, and Patrick Hemmerlé, Musician-in-Residence.

Haydn’s Quartet opens the programme with his characteristic wit, elegance and inventiveness. A work by the British composer Nigel Osborne follows, bringing a distinctive contemporary voice to the evening. The concert concludes with Schumann’s celebrated Piano Quintet, one of the great works of the Romantic chamber repertoire, full of energy, lyricism and dramatic intensity.

Book your tickets via Eventbrite: General Admission – £25, Clare Hall members – £20, students – £5.

Clare Hall and Peterhouse Joint Evensong |
Wednesday 18 November 2026, 6.30pm

The Clare Hall Choir will be performing in a joint Evensong with Peterhouse on Wednesday 18 November. The service is 6.30pm and will be in Peterhouse Chapel. The service will include music by Thomas Tertius Noble and Samuel Sebastian Wesley. All are welcome to attend.

O Come, O Come: Contemplating the ‘O’ Antiphons in Image, Word, and Song |
Saturday 28 November 2026, 5pm

Professor Michael Dodds, Visiting Fellow, invites you to O Come, O Come: Contemplating the ‘O’ Antiphons in Image, Word, and Song, a contemplative, candlelit experience at Michaelhouse on Saturday 28 November, at 5:00pm.

Since the sixth century, the ‘O’ Antiphons—seven plainchants traditionally sung on the evenings leading up to Christmas Eve—have given voice to the longing and expectation of Advent. Interweaving diverse threads of salvation history, each antiphon invokes a biblical title of Christ and concludes with an earnest plea: Come.

The inspiration for the beloved Advent hymn, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, these ancient chants more recently inspired Cambridge poet and priest Malcolm Guite to write a sequence of sonnets, which he will read in person. The programme will also feature a new painting by the Revd Ally Barrett, Associate Rector of Great St Mary’s Church.

The hour will culminate in a performance of Michael Dodds’s song cycle, setting Guite’s sonnets to music, with soprano Charli Mills and pianist Owen Dodds.

Admission is free. Join us for an hour of poetry, music, and visual art in the warm, reflective atmosphere of candlelight.

Pianist Patrick Hemmerlé: Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, Books I and II |
Saturday 5 December – Sunday 6 December 2026, 7.30pm

Experience Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, 48 Preludes and Fugues exploring every major and minor key in a rare complete performance by Clare Hall Musician-in Residence Patrick Hemmerlé.

Across its 48 Preludes and Fugues, Bach explores every major and minor key, creating an extraordinary variety of character, colour and contrapuntal invention. The freer, often lyrical Preludes are paired with the astonishing intellectual and musical discipline of the Fugues, in a sequence that continually surprises and delights. Yet the sheer scale of the collection means that complete performances are rare. These concerts therefore offer not only an opportunity to encounter individual masterpieces, but to experience the remarkable coherence and variety of Bach’s conception as a whole.

Tickets on Eventbrite: General Admission – £20 (one night only) or £30 (both nights); Clare Hall members – £15 (one night only) or £22.50 (both nights); students – £5 (one night only) or £7.50 (both nights).

➢ Art

All from Life: Paintings by Pat Porter |
Friday 20 November 2026 – Thursday 7 January 2027

Clare Hall is delighted to present a new exhibition – All from Life: Paintings by Pat Porter. The exhibition will be open for public viewing Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

Find more information here.

The Bell Collection of British Studio Pottery, 1920-1980 |
Ongoing

A rotating display of some 400 pieces of studio ceramics. Learn more at https://www.clarehall.cam.ac.uk/bellcollection/

➢ External events

Salsa Classes at Homerton College |
Thursdays, from 8 October 2026

Join salsa dancing classes at Homerton College! University of Cambridge students, staff, and alumni are very welcome as are members of the public. The classes are free and open to all, so come along to learn a new skill and dance for wellbeing!

Classes are held every Thursday, starting from 8 October in the Great Hall of Homerton College from 18:00 to 20:30 throughout the academic year.  There is no requirement to bring a dance partner, because they rotate partners throughout the class. A typical class structure is as follows: 

Generation AI Seminar |
Thursday 26 November 2026, 4pm

On 26th November, Dr Katarzyna Kostyrka-Allchorne will give a seminar based on her recent research on ADHD and online experiences. Katarzyna is a developmental psychologist researching risks and opportunities of growing up in a digital world, cutting across the disciplines of child and adolescent development, mental health, clinical interventions, and human-computer interactions.

Thursday 26 November 2026, 16:00-16:45 (GMT), Teams Webinar
Online experiences and mental health in children and young people with ADHD: new longitudinal and qualitative evidence from adolescents and parents.

Register here.

Communication & Research Culture Workshop |
Tuesday 8 December – Wednesday 9 December 2026, 9.30am

There are a few places available for academic staff, technicians, professional services staff, and research students to sign up for the Communication & Research Culture Workshop! Places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Research culture can be defined as “the behaviours, values, expectations, attitudes, and norms of our communities” – in other words, factors that affect our lives in research. This workshop will focus on communication because it is an aspect of research culture where we, as individuals, can make an important and immediate difference. 

Event details:

If you have any queries, please contact the Workshop Committee at rcworkshop@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk. 

➢ Activities and Societies

Pilates sessions |
Monday 5 October – Monday 30 November 2026, 12.15pm

We are delighted to host Pilates sessions at Clare Hall throughout Michaelmas Term. The classes will be held on Mondays during lunchtime. Pilates is a form of low-impact exercise that aims to strengthen muscles while improving postural alignment and flexibility.

A full list of dates and the sign-up sheet can be found here.

Yoga sessions |
Sunday 18 October – Sunday 29 November 2026, 2pm

We are delighted to host Sunday afternoon yoga sessions in the Michaelmas Term. Yoga is a holistic mind–body practice that combines physical postures, breathing techniques, and meditation to promote strength, flexibility, and inner balance.

A full list of dates and the sign-up sheet can be found here.

Clare Hall Book Club |
Monday 7 December 2026, 8pm

Join the College’s Book Club as they discuss Rouge Street: Three Novellas by Shuang Xuetao, translated by Jeremy Tiang. All College members are welcome to attend in-person, meeting in Clare Hall’s Meeting Room, or via Zoom. If you are not on the mailing list and would like to be, please send an email to gloria.carnevali@icloud.com, confirming your Clare Hall connection and putting the following as the email title: I would like to join the Book Club mailing list.

Learn more about the Book Club on this page.

Choir Practice |
Various Dates

A reminder that Clare Hall Choir practice takes place in Robinson College Chapel every Monday (in term-time, but not always restricted to the official Cambridge term dates) from 7.30-9pm. New members are always welcome, and no previous singing or musical experience is necessary. The only requirement is that you want to sing and have fun doing it! If you are interested in joining, please email Ben de Souza, the Choir’s Director, who is a Clare Hall Associate, freelance choral conductor and accordionist: bd402@cam.ac.uk.

Recent recordings of the choir can also be found on our YouTube channel.