The Sleepers: Study Day

An afternoon of talks centred around rest, sleep and creative expression.

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

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.

Natalie D Kane

Natalie D Kane is a curator and writer based in London. They are Curator of Digital Design at the V&A, and Curator of Design and Disability (June – Feb 2025). With the V&A, they curated the official U.K. pavilion at the 2019 XXII Milan Triennale, showing the work of Forensic Architecture. Natalie is a Trustee of the British Games Institute / National Videogames Museum and on the Advisory Board for the Society for Computers and Law. Recently, they have joined the Barbican Renewal’s Access and Inclusive Design Advisory Group. They are editor of Design and Disability (2025), published with the V&A.

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.

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 — Talk by Natalie D Kane
• 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.