GTC Care Initiative and GTC Future Ageing Initiative event:

‘Innovating for an Ageing Society: Collective Solutions to Care’

The speaker is Dr Clare McNeil, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). She is the author of the recent IPPR Report ‘The Generation Strain’ (http://www.ippr.org/publications/the-generation-strain-collective-solutions-to-care-in-an-ageing-society)

All welcome to attend and no need to register.

Any questions please email me on sophie.kendall@gtc.ox.ac.uk

The GTC Care Initiative, in collaboration with the GTC Future Ageing Initiative, are holding a lecture/discussion session on the topic of: ‘Innovating for an Ageing Society: Collective Solutions to Care’

The speaker is Dr Clare McNeil, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). She is the author of the recent IPPR Report on ‘The Generation Strain’ (http://www.ippr.org/publications/the-generation-strain-collective-solutions-to-care-in-an-ageing-society)

This will take place at the E P Abraham Lecture Theatre at Green Templeton College on June 2nd at 6pm. A drinks reception in the Common Room will follow at 7.15pm.

All are welcome to attend and there is no need to register.

Do get in touch with any questions:
Sophie Kendall
sophie.kendall@gtc.ox.ac.uk

A short talk followed by questions and discussion. All welcome, whether you want to take part in the discussion or just listen.

Speaker: Professor Richard Sennett
Professor of Sociology at the LSE & Professor of the Humanities at NYU. His work studies the social ties in cities and the effects of urban living on individuals, and entails ethnography, history and social theory.

Part of the Mansfield Lecture Series, convener Baroness Helena Kennedy QC.

Tour: Joseph Beuys & Jörg Immendorff
With Colin Harrison, Senior Curator of European Art

3–3.45pm on Wednesday 14 May and Wednesday 11 June

Tours are free, no booking is required. Please meet in Gallery 2.

http://www.ashmolean.org/exhibitions/details/?exh=92

This lecture is hosted by the Oxford Martin School and the International Migration Institute, an Oxford Martin School Institute

If Democrats and Republicans in the US Congress can agree that eleven million unauthorized immigrants are proof of a broken immigration system, why does Congress repeatedly fail to enact comprehensive immigration reform that might stand a chance of reducing illegal migration?

One reason offered by Rey Koslowski is that too many members of Congress are fixated on appropriating money for more Border Patrol Agents and fencing to stop people from crossing the US-Mexico border between ports of entry. Koslowski argues that each additional dollar spent at the border is a dollar that may have been spent elsewhere to a much greater effect in reducing illegal migration, for example, on worksite inspections to enforce employer sanctions against hiring unauthorized migrant workers. After President Obama was reelected with 72% of the Latino vote, Senate Republicans eagerly joined Democrats to forge a comprehensive immigration reform bill but it took throwing $44 billion at border fencing and more Border Patrol agents to secure enough Republican votes to pass the bill with a filibuster-proof majority.

Koslowski argues that this border security overkill is not only bad policy; it failed to attract majority support for comprehensive immigration reform among House Republicans as intended, leaving it unlikely that any immigration legislation will become law before the November 2014 elections.

This lecture will be followed by a drinks reception, all welcome

Join us at Freud this Wednesday as we consider how the collections, interpretations and rituals of our cultural institutions shape society today. Paul Hobson, director of Modern Art Oxford and Dr Christopher Brown, director of The Ashmolean will present two short talks before a question and answer session, followed by drinks. The Edgar Wind Society hopes that this will be a novel opportunity to exchange ideas and knowledge about art within an informal atmosphere. All are welcome.

Joseph Reeves, a contributor to Humanitarian OpenStreetMap, will talk about the importance of crowd sourcing and open data in providing information during a humanitarian crisis.

Free, collaborative maps are uniquely valuable to humanitarian work, especially in places where base map data is often scarce, out of date, or rapidly changing. OpenStreetMap is a project to create a free and open map of the entire world, built entirely by volunteers surveying with GPS, digitizing aerial imagery, and collecting and liberating existing public sources of geographic data. The information in OpenStreetMap can fill in the gaps in base map data to assist in responses to disasters and crisis.

Speaker: Susie Orbach
Psychotherapist, psychoanalyst, writer and social critic. Her books include Fat is a Feminist Issue and Bodies. A convenor of Anybody, an organisation that campaigns for body diversity. Co-founder of Antidote which works for the emotional literacy and Co-founder of Psychotherapist and Counsellors for Social Responsibility. Part of the Mansfield Lecture Series, convener Baroness Helena Kennedy QC

A short talk followed by questions and discussion.

“The Dalai Lama: a study in bourgeois rationality”

All welcome

The Self-Portrait: a Cultural History
With James Hall, author

Saturday 21 June , 2-3pm, Headley Lecture Theatre

Recounting the history of the self-portrait, this lecture offers insights into artists’ psychological and creative worlds. James Hall talks about the medieval ‘mirror craze’, the confessional self-portraits of Titian and Michelangelo, and the multiple selves of contemporary artists such as Claude Cahun and Cindy Sherman.

Tickets £5/£4
http://www.ashmolean.org/events/Lectures/?id=132

Early cyberspace theorists predicted that the digital world would be a world of plenty. But today’s Internet users are faced with many kinds of artificially scarce virtual markers, from online game items and digital currencies to likes and followers on social media and reward points in question and answer sites. Many such markers are traded online for significant sums of money and have spawned entire cottage industries for their production. Vili Lehdonvirta, author of Virtual Economies: Design and Analysis (MIT Press 2014, with Edward Castronova), argues that these “virtual economies” shape digital media in important ways, and that understanding them is vital for both practitioners and scholars of digital media and entertainment.

In this session, Lehdonvirta will also discuss and debate with economist Greg Taylor about what virtual economies could teach traditional national economies and the economists who run them.

Copies of the book will be available for purchase. The discussion will be followed by book signing and a drinks reception.

Weekend of films screenings, talks and workshops about public health. Kicks off on Friday at 18.00 with a screening of Dallas Buyers Club at the Phoenix Picturehouse in Jericho. All welcome. Please visit our website for further details http://publichealthfilms.org/

A TORCH day conference including keynotes from Terry Eagleton and George Pattison and parallel session papers on theodicy, evil in literature, film and TV, German philosophy (Hegel and Fichte), death and technology, Aristotle, the Akedah, and more.

In 2014 Barnett House is celebrating its centenary. The celebrations culminate with the Reunion Weekend on 12-13 July 2014.

This includes:
– Keynote talk from Magdalena Sepulveda, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.
– The 100th birthday tea party (the V-C Andrew Hamilton will cut the birthday cake!)
– A talk on the history of Barnett House and the launch of the book on the history.
– Open house at the department with displays of historic material and current research.
– Drinks and dinner with an after dinner talk from Prof Jonathan Bradshaw.
– Showing of the film Rich Man, Poor Man based on research carried out by Robert Walker and Elaine Chase with a discussion with the director of the film.

dobe specialists Niels Stevens and Tony Harmer are coming to Oxford for a special 2 hour presentation on the upcoming new features of the Creative Cloud for film makers, photographers, artists and designers.

Don’t miss our event to see the latest features in this new release of “Adobe Creative Cloud 2014”, including Premiere, After Effects, Speedgrade, Photoshop & more. Learn about what’s new in this 2014 release that will make your everyday post-production tasks easier and faster, and how support for cutting-edge hardware and standards will free you to build anything you can imagine. Get answers to your questions and get inspired by designers who are creating amazing work. Free event, Prize Draw, refreshments

On Monday 14th July at 7.00pm Adobe specialists Niels Stevens and Tony Harmer are coming to Oxford for a special 2 hour presentation on the upcoming new features of the Creative Cloud for filmmakers, photographers, artists and designers.

Don’t miss our event to see the latest features in this new release of “Adobe Creative Cloud 2014″, including Premiere, After Effects, Speedgrade, Photoshop & more. Learn about what’s new in this 2014 release that will make your everyday post-production tasks easier and faster, and how support for cutting-edge hardware and standards will free you to build anything you can imagine. Get answers to your questions and get inspired by designers who are creating amazing work.

Simon Singh will be discussing ‘Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial’.

The World Humanist Congress is taking place from Friday 8th August until Sunday 10th August in Oxford. Held every three years in different locations around the world, this years theme of the meeting is ‘Freedom of Thought and Expression’. We are pleased to announce during the conference period, 10 world-class speakers will be visiting the bookshop for a series of free 20 minute talks taking place in the Norrington Room. You do not need tickets to attend any of the talks but seating is limited, so please arrive early to get a ensure your place.

Sue Bolton and Fiona Ruck, smoking cessation specialists, look at the effects of passive smoking and their campaign for smoke-free homes and cars across Oxfordshire.

The talk will include myth-busting statistics and facts covering the effects of passive smoking on both adults and children, as well as a detailed look into what is in the cigarette smoke that is causing the adverse effects. Sue and Fiona will also look at local and national responses to this public health issue, including the Smoke Free Homes and Cars Pledge project.

Our speakers have worked as registered nurses and health visitors and worked for years in smoking cessation, including as a smoking and pregnancy specialist and as a smoking and young person’s specialist for Oxford Smoking Advice Service.

A public meeting with a short introductory talk followed by questions and discussion.

The anti-war movement
Thursday 21 August, 7:30pm to 9:00pm
Oxford Town Hall, St Aldates
All welcome

Organised by Oxford Communist Corresponding Society.
This is the second in a three-part series of public meetings on violence and war. The three meetings of the series are:

Thursday 17 July
The war to end all wars

Thursday 21 August
The anti-war movement

Thursday 25 September
The end of violence

All are from 7:30pm to 9:00pm in the Town Hall

Maybe an asteroid hit Earth. Perhaps a nuclear war reduced our cities to radioactive rubble. Or avian flu killed most of the population. Whatever the cause, the world as we know it has ended and now the survivors must start again. But how do we set about rebuilding our world from scratch?

Join Astrobiologist Lewis Dartnell in a lively and informative discussion about how we’ve become disconnected from the basic skills on which our lives and our world depend.

Lewis Dartnell will be at the Unicorn Theatre in Abindgon on Thursday 4 September talking about his new book The Knowledge, which explains everything you need to know to reboot our civilisation after a catastrophe.

A discussion on the need for more affordable homes in Oxford and what can be done to deliver them. Speakers Ed Turner ( Oxford City Council), Danny Dorling ( Oxford University), Bob Colenutt (Northampton University Charlie Fisher ( Community Land Trust)

A public meeting with a short introductory talk followed by questions and discussion.

The end of violence
Thursday 25 September, 7:30pm to 9:00pm
Oxford Town Hall, St Aldates
All welcome

Organised by Oxford Communist Corresponding Society.
This is the last in a three-part series of public meetings on violence and war. The three meetings of the series are:

Thursday 17 July
The war to end all wars

Thursday 21 August
The anti-war movement

Thursday 25 September
The end of violence

All are from 7:30pm to 9:00pm in the Town Hall

COIN are hosting the launch of international best-seller Naomi Klein’s new book “This Changes Everything”. Tickets for the 8 October event are on sale now.

Christian Fuchs, Professor of Social Media at Westminster University, will lead the discussion of his recently published book Social Media: A Critical Introduction, which navigates the controversies and contradictions of the complex digital media landscape.

Exploring the role of social media in contemporary popular movements including the Occupy Movement and the Arab Spring, and drawing on theorists including Marx, Weber, Habermas, and Durkheim, Professor Fuchs asks:

Is Google good or evil?
Is Facebook a surveillance threat to privacy?
Does Twitter enhance democracy?
What did WikiLeaks reveal about political accountability, the transparency of power, and new forms of cultural censorship?

Egyptomania: The Allure of Ancient Egypt
With Henrietta McCall, Department of the Middle East, British Museum

2pm Saturday, 11 October 2014 at Ashmolean Museum | Venue Information

Henrietta McCall talks about the enduring appeal of ancient Egypt in western culture. She assesses how it began with Napoleon in the early 19th century; how symbols and imagery from antiquity inspired architecture, gardens, furniture and fashion; and how in the 1920s that appeal reached its climax with the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun.

Join Professor Nick Bostrom for a talk on his new book, Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies, and a journey that takes us to the frontiers of thinking about the human condition and the future of intelligent life.

The book talk will be followed by a book signing and drinks reception.

This book talk will be live webcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jupxhH9mE-g

About the book:
The human brain has some capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. It is to these distinctive capabilities that our species owes its dominant position. Other animals have stronger muscles or sharper claws, but we have cleverer brains.

If machine brains one day come to surpass human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become very powerful. As the fate of the gorillas now depends more on us humans than on the gorillas themselves, so the fate of our species then would come to depend on the actions of the machine superintelligence.

But we have one advantage: we get to make the first move. Will it be possible to construct a seed AI or otherwise to engineer initial conditions so as to make an intelligence explosion survivable? How could one achieve a controlled detonation?

‘Tutankhamun and Co. Ltd’: Arthur Weigall and the Discovery of Tutankhamun’s Tomb

With Julie Hankey, author of ‘A Passion for Egypt: Arthur Weigall, Tutankhamun and the Curse of the Pharaohs’

Ashmolean Lecture Theatre

Tue 14 Oct, 2.30‒3.30pm

From 1905 to 1912, Arthur Weigall was Howard Carter’s successor as Chief Inspector of Antiquities for Upper Egypt. He used his position to conduct a campaign against government practice of allowing amateur collectors to excavate for private profit. With Tutankhamun’s discovery, Weigall came into open conflict with Carter’s patron, Lord Carnarvon, over his exclusive contract with The Times, and ‒ at a time of political unrest in Egypt ‒ over his assumption of rights to the contents of the tomb.

A public meeting with a short introductory talk followed by questions and discussion.

The difficulty of imagining a free society
Thursday 16 October, 7:30pm to 9:00pm
The Mitre, corner of High St and Turl St (upstairs function room)
All welcome

Organised by Oxford Communist Corresponding Society.

Overture to the Oxford Ceramics Fair
With Janice Tchalenko, potter

Ashmolean Lecture Theatre

Fri 17 Oct, 2–3.30pm

Janice Tchalenko is an award-winning potter whose work has been exhibited internationally and commissioned for retail outlets such as John Lewis. In this lecture Janice talks about her work and inspiration.