Last week I was fortunate enough to enjoy my first visit ever to New York as part of a work trip to take part in Global Cambridge’s New York City Vice-Chancellor Welcome Reception for Cambridge’s new VC, Professor Stephen Toope.

I joined Professor Toope and Professor Geoffrey Ward, Principal of Homerton College, in front of gathered alumni to discuss why literature matters, and the importance and role of storytelling in the contemporary world. It’s a topic that’s crucial to the research and thinking that I am doing at the moment on the AI Narratives project at CFI, as well as to my public advocacy for the value and importance of literature and literary criticism in the twenty-first century. 

But the importance and seriousness of the topic didn’t prevent us from having a good laugh on occasion as well, as is clear from the photographic evidence!