YorkTalks 2020

Drawing on the direct testimony of prisoners in the Jewish ghetto at Terezín (in German, Theresienstadt), Dr Lisa Peschel revealed how comedy and cabaret were key to their survival.

Coupling her interviews with the recovery of songs and other dramatic texts created in the ghetto, her research provided deep insights into the ways in which these cabaret narratives helped those trapped in the ghetto to endure their imprisonment. Dr Peschel showed how this vibrant theatrical scene also helped the prisoners reclaim their right to interpret their own experiences. By trivialising even the most shocking events in comic performances, they resisted potentially debilitating fear and were able to carry on with the fight for life.

Professor Maria Goddard, Director of the Centre for Health Economics (CHE), revealed how her 60-strong team of researchers has shaped the health landscape at a national and global level: from developing robust tools for more effective, efficient and equitable healthcare here in the UK, through to research collaborations with academics and policymakers across Europe, America, Africa and Asia.

She showed that, while former Health Secretary Ken Clarke may have scoffed at taking advice from a newly formed research centre led by ‘a punk professor’ in the 1980s, Ken Clarke’s successors and counterparts across the world frequently seek advice from CHE researchers as they grapple with important questions about how best to spend a global $7.3 trillion healthcare budget.