Intellectual Forum
The Intellectual Forum is a centre based at Jesus College, Cambridge that provides a space for multidisciplinary discussion amongst academics, students, industry leaders, and members of the global public.
At the IF, we focus on themes and problems of interest to communities across the world to cover topics important to our own time and to the future.
"Fresh from the Forum": the IF newsletter
Our quarterly newsletter contains the latest news from the IF. Download our more recent issue to read about our most recent events, discover what our staff and associates have been up to, and to find out what's coming up soon.
To read past issues, visit our newsletters archive.
Download the Spring 2024 issue of "Fresh from the Forum".
IF:Events
We run a wide range of events every year, most of which are open to the public and are live-streamed around the world. Highlights have included external speakers such as Jimmy Choo, Helen Clark, Lori Adelman, John Bercow, Philippe Sands, and Mary Beard. We also showcase the work that is being done by people within the College, from sustainable finance and synthetic biology to the history of taboo language and ultra-cold atoms.
We also run a number of conferences on subjects as diverse as education, health technology and AI, and health care in refugee and conflict zones in the Middle East and North Africa. Many of these are also open to the public.
"The Intellectual Forum is invariably interesting and stimulating - as a member of the 'community' I really appreciate having access to the quality of thinking that is so often locked behind academic doors. Thank you." - event attendee, 2022
You can register for forthcoming events on our Eventbrite page and see recordings of many of our previous events on the Jesus College Youtube channel.
IF:Education
We run bespoke training courses for a number of organisations around the world. These include broad-based university-level courses for Universities that wish to expose their students to the Cambridge approach to thinking, scholarship and discussion. We also run more focused courses for corporate clients.
As part of our global outreach, in 2021 Jesus College partnered with edX, an online learning platform, to deliver courses on a variety of topics. Our courses on Preventing and responding to sexual harassment and violence, Digital wellbeing and productivity, and Polarisation in the workplace and beyond can be taken for free by anyone in the world with an internet connection.
IF:Research
We conduct some of our own research projects, and have secured grants from numerous bodies to support this work, as well as hiring dedicated research staff to conduct this work. Current IF projects include work on sustainable finance and Universal Ownership, as well as topics around public health and public policy. We are grateful to the wide range of organisations that have funded our research activities.
Our Data Protection page has information about how we deal with your data.
If you would like to be involved in any aspect of our work, please email if-director@jesus.cam.ac.uk.
