The Sleepers: Study Day

The Sleepers: Study Day invites you to an afternoon of talks and conversation around rest, sleep and creative expression.

Bringing together writers and academics, this event explores how we might reimagine rest not as a luxury, but as a radical and necessary form of resistance. Through the perspectives of three powerful speakers — Jenny Chamarette, Akshi Singh, and a third speaker to be confirmed — we will reflect on how race, disability, activism and creativity intersect in everyday life and cultural work.

This event forms part of our wider programme for the exhibition The Sleepers, offering a space to pause, listen and collectively consider how rest can be protected and celebrated.

This event warmly welcomes members of the general public as well as students, researchers and academics.

Speakers

Akshi Singh
Author of In Defense of Leisure (2025), Singh is a writer, editor, and trainee psychoanalyst. Her work explores leisure, rest, and psychoanalysis through a radical lens, with a focus on how these intersect with literature and daily life.
Learn more about Akshi Singh →

Jenny Chamarette

Jenny Chamarette is an intersectional feminist researcher in disability arts, independent cinema and artist's moving image, museums and archives. Formerly a Research Fellow at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, her work concentrates on intermediality, phenomenology and affect in visual culture. She has published previously on theorizations of photography, film and installation art in France, Europe and North America.

Event Schedule

• 1:00–2:00 PM — Curator Tour of The Sleepers
• 2:05–2:30 PM — Talk by Akshi Singh
• 2:30–2:50 PM — Refreshment break
• 2:50–3:15 PM — Talk by Jenny Chamarette
• 3:15–3:40 PM — Final talk to be confirmed
• 3:45–4:15 PM — Speaker Q&A and Group Discussion

Access Information

• British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation will be provided if requested when booking.
• The room for the talks and the exhibition is wheelchair accessible.
• There are folding stools, benches and a large print guide in the exhibition.
• Refreshments will include a variety of dietary options.

Read our Access page to find out more about our spaces. Please get in touch if you have any further queries or requirements: womensart@murrayedwards.cam.ac.uk or call the Porter's Lodge at +44 (0)1223 762100.