Dr Abril Saldaña Tejeda, University of Guanajuato(Mexico) & Collen Visiting Fellow at OIPA
This presentation looks into the lived experiences of young mothers in higher education in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. It draws on qualitative interviews and an analysis of medical discourses on the young maternal body through a revision of pregnancy prevention programs designed and implemented by governmental and non-governmental organizations. It is argued that social anxieties over young motherhood could be linked to the way youth is understood as a transition; an undefinable state that works as a margin between childhood and adulthood. It argues that discourses around young motherhood in Mexico often obstruct women’s access to public health, work against effective policies to address unwanted pregnancies and the country’s increasing rate of higher education dropouts.

Michaelmas Term 2014 Seminar Series
‘FERTILITY, REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT’
Thursdays – 12:30 – 14:00
Seminar Room, Oxford Institute of Population Ageing,
66 Banbury Road, Oxford, OX2 6PR.
Convener: Dr Melanie Frost

Despite our extensive knowledge of the major challenges the world faces during coming decades, impasse exists in global attempts to address economic, climate, trade, security, and other key issues. The Chancellor will examine the implications of this gridlock, drawing on the work of the Oxford Martin Commission for Future Generations – of which he is a member – as well as experiences from his distinguished political and diplomatic career.

This lecture is also being live webcast on youtube, please follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB3QmvwvHCk

About the Speaker

Lord Patten joined the Conservative Research Department in 1966. He was seconded to the Cabinet Office in 1970 and was personal assistant and political secretary to Lord Carrington and Lord Whitelaw when they were Chairmen of the Conservative Party from 1972-1974. In 1974 he was appointed the youngest ever Director of the Conservative Research Department, a post which he held until 1979.

Lord Patten was elected as Member of Parliament for Bath in May 1979, a seat he held until April 1992. In 1983 he wrote The Tory Case, a study of Conservatism. Following the General Election of June 1983, Lord Patten was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Northern Ireland Office and in September 1985 Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science. In September 1986 he became Minister for Overseas Development at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. He was appointed to the Privy Council in 1989 and was appointed a Companion of Honour in 1998. In July 1989 he became Secretary of State for the Environment. In November 1990 he was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Chairman of the Conservative Party.

Lord Patten was appointed Governor of Hong Kong in April 1992, a position he held until 1997, overseeing the return of Hong Kong to China. He was Chairman of the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland set up under the Good Friday Peace Agreement, which reported in 1999. From 1999 to 2004 he was European Commissioner for External Relations, and in January 2005 he took his seat in the House of Lords. In 2006 he was appointed Co-Chair of the UK-India Round Table. He was Chairman of the BBC Trust from 2011-2014.

He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, and Honorary Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. He served as Chancellor of Newcastle University from 1999 to 2009, and was elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 2003. His publications include What Next? Surviving the 21st Century (2008); Not Quite the Diplomat: Home Truths About World Affairs (2005) and East and West (1998), about Asia and its relations with the rest of the world.

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

Understanding other people: a science of belief systems
Speaker: Dr Edmund Griffiths, author of “Towards a Science of Belief Systems” (Palgrave Macmillan 2014)
Thursday 30 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.

About “Towards a Science of Belief Systems”

People believe in a great many things: the New Age and the new atheism, astrology and the Juche Idea, the marginal utility theory and a God in three persons. Yet most of us know almost nothing about why other people believe the things they do – or indeed about how it feels to believe them. This book presents an objective method for understanding and comparing belief systems, irrespective of their subject matter and of whether or not the investigator happens to agree with them. The method, descriptive logic, is illustrated through analyses of various phenomena, including Zoroastrianism, Dawkinsism, Fabianism, 9/11 Truth, ‘alternative’ Egyptology, Gnosticism, flying saucer sightings, and the hymns of Charles Wesley. Special attention is given to beliefs that are not supposed to be wholly believed, and to how descriptive logic relates to the materialist conception of history. The book also outlines a new theory of superstition.

Craig Clunas, Professor of History of Art at the University of Oxford and co-curator of the British Museum’s blockbuster exhibition ‘Ming: 50 years that changed China’, will discuss the exhibition with an interdisciplinary panel of academics and curators. They will be focusing particularly on the relationship between the exhibition and its catalogue, exploring how the exhibition is transposed to the page.

Panellists:

Rana Mitter (Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China)
Peter Ditmanson (Oriental Studies Lecturer in Chinese History)
Clare Harris (Professor of Visual Anthropology and Curator for Asian Collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum)

About the exhibition:

Between AD 1400 and 1450, China was a global superpower run by one family – the Ming dynasty – who established Beijing as the capital and built the Forbidden City. During this period, Ming China was thoroughly connected with the outside world. Chinese artists absorbed many fascinating influences, and created some of the most beautiful objects and paintings ever made. From September 2014 – January 2015 The British Museum stages a major exhibition exploring this golden age in China’s history. This discussion will examine the relationship between the exhibition and its catalogue, and explore the curation principles behind the exhibition.

This is part of the TORCH Book at Lunchtime series. All welcome, no booking required. Please visit www.torch.ox.ac.uk/book-at-lunchtime for more information.

Professor Sarah Whatmore, head of School of Geography and the Environment, will speak about ‘Living with flooding: the science and politics of flood risk management’.

Sarah Whatmore is Professor of Environment and Public Policy at the University of Oxford and one of the world’s leading scholars on the relationship between environmental science and the democratic governance of environmental risks and hazards. She has worked extensively on the conditions that give rise to the public contestation of environmental expertise; the dynamics and consequences of environmental knowledge controversies for public policy-making; and the design of methods for conducting environmental research that enable the knowledge of affected communities to inform the ways in which environmental problems are framed and addressed.

Professor Whatmore is currently Head of the School of Geography and the Environment and Associate Head (Research) of the Social Sciences Division at the University of Oxford. She is an elected Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the Academy of Learned Societies in the Social Sciences (AcSS) and the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) (RGS) and has served on its Council. She is also a member of the Social Science Expert Panel advising the UK Government’s Departments of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and Energy and Climate Change (DECC).
A free lunch is provided. To book a place please email ahdg@st-annes-mcr.org.uk

In May 1914 Polish anthropologist Marie Antoinette Czaplicka set off for Siberia in charge of an expedition to study the reindeer-herding Evenki people. She was twenty-nine years old, had recently completed a diploma in anthropology at Oxford and had started researching the peoples of Siberia, looking particularly at spirit worship and shamanism.
This talk explores the expedition, its extraordinary hardships and the Evenki people that were the focus of research. One of the aims of the expedition was to collect artefacts for both Pennsylvania University Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum, a selection of which are on display in Oxford to mark the centenary.

Globalisation has brought us vast benefits including growth in incomes, education, innovation and connectivity. Professor Ian Goldin, Director of the Oxford Martin School, argues that it also has the potential to destabilise our societies. In The Butterfly Defect: How globalisation creates systemic risks, and what to do about it, he and co-author Mike Mariathasan, Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Vienna, argue that the recent financial crisis is an example of the risks that the world will face in the coming decades.

The risks spread across supply chains, pandemics, infrastructure, ecology, climate change, economics and politics. Unless these risks are addressed, says Goldin, they could lead to greater protectionism, xenophobia, nationalism and to deglobalisation, rising conflict and slower growth.

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=UuW2rgtZuIM

About the Book
Global hyperconnectivity and increased system integration have led to vast benefits, including worldwide growth in incomes, education, innovation, and technology. But rapid globalization has also created concerns because the repercussions of local events now cascade over national borders and the fallout of financial meltdowns and environmental disasters affects everyone. The Butterfly Defect addresses the widening gap between systemic risks and their effective management. It shows how the new dynamics of turbo-charged globalization has the potential and power to destabilize our societies. Drawing on the latest insights from a wide variety of disciplines, Ian Goldin and Mike Mariathasan provide practical guidance for how governments, businesses, and individuals can better manage risk in our contemporary world.

Goldin and Mariathasan assert that the current complexities of globalization will not be sustainable as surprises become more frequent and have widespread impacts. The recent financial crisis exemplifies the new form of systemic risk that will characterize the coming decades, and the authors provide the first framework for understanding how such risk will function in the twenty-first century. Goldin and Mariathasan demonstrate that systemic risk issues are now endemic everywhere in supply chains, pandemics, infrastructure, ecology and climate change, economics, and politics. Unless we are better able to address these concerns, they will lead to greater protectionism, xenophobia, nationalism, and, inevitably, deglobalization, rising conflict, and slower growth.

The Butterfly Defect shows that mitigating uncertainty and systemic risk in an interconnected world is an essential task for our future.

Oxford University Archaeological Society invites you to our annual undergraduate conference, the theme of which is:

CELEBRATING THE DIVERSITY OF ARCHAEOLOGY

Papers will be presented by undergraduate students from across the country on the following topics:
– Zooarchaeology
– Greek Sculpture
– Pella’s Hellenistic Agora
– Experimental Archaeology
– Pottery Conservation

The cost of the full day is £8 including a buffet lunch and morning refreshments. Excluding lunch, the full day costs £3.50, refreshments included. Individual talks cost 50p each to attend. For a full event program, search for “Oxford University Archaeological Society” on Google and you will be taken to our website.

Panel:

Professor Charles Godfray, Director, Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food and author of the chapter How can 9-10 Billion People be Fed Sustainably and Equitably by 2050?
Professor Ian Goldin, Director, Oxford Martin School, Editor of Is the Planet Full? and author of the chapter Governance Matters Most
Professor Sarah Harper, Director, Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, Oxford Martin School and author of the chapter Demographic and Environmental Transitions
Professor Yadvinder Malhi, Director, Oxford Centre for Tropical Forests, Oxford Martin School and author of the chapter The Metabolism of a Human-Dominated Planet
Dr Toby Ord, James Martin Fellow, Oxford Martin Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology and author of the chapter Overpopulation or Underpopulation?
The panel will discuss whether our planet can continue to support a growing population estimated to reach 10 billion people by the middle of the century.

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

This panel discussion will be live webcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFIqDQP1Vjc

About the Book:
What are the impacts of population growth? Can our planet support the demands of the ten billion people anticipated to be the world’s population by the middle of this century?

While it is common to hear about the problems of overpopulation, might there be unexplored benefits of increasing numbers of people in the world? How can we both consider and harness the potential benefits brought by a healthier, wealthier and larger population? May more people mean more scientists to discover how our world works, more inventors and thinkers to help solve the world’s problems, more skilled people to put these ideas into practice?

In this book, leading academics with a wide range of expertise in demography, philosophy, biology, climate science, economics and environmental sustainability explore the contexts, costs and benefits of a burgeoning population on our economic, social and environmental systems.

The Colloquium is a seminar series at Kellogg College, Oxford.

Poppy is a 2nd year DPhil student at the department of Oncology. She completed her BSc Biochemistry at the University of Southampton and did a ‘sandwich’ year at AstraZeneca working on pre-clinical cancer drugs which is where she became fascinated by cancer biology. Poppy is also Secretary of OxFEST which supports women in STEM.

Public Seminar: Thinking About the Brain

With speakers: Professor Chris Kennard; Professor Glyn Humphreys; Professor David Lomas; Dr Joshua Hordern; Dr Ayoush Lazikani; Dr Matthew Broome; Dr Chrystalina Antoniades

Thursday 20 November, 5.30-8.30pm
Ashmolean Education Centre

The evening will offer an opportunity to explore current research into the brain and the mind from a wide range of perspectives, from medieval literature to contemporary art and neuroscience.

Thinking About the Brain is a public seminar, forming part of the developing collaboration between the Ashmolean Museum’s University Engagement Programme and Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences. It is being co-organised by Dr Jim Harris, Andrew W Mellon Foundation Teaching Curator at the Ashmolean, and Dr Chrystalina Antoniades, Lecturer in Medicine at Brasenose College and Senior Research Fellow in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences.

Open to all and free of charge. To ensure a place, please follow this link to e-mail Dr Jim Harris (at jim.harris @ ashmus.ox.ac.uk), or telephone 01865 288 287.

Interested in nano research combining physics, chemistry, engineering and materials science? The following talk may be of interest:

Nanoscience is the science of the very small. But why is that interesting? Alexandra Grigore and Tarun Vemulkar, both PhD students at ‘the other place’, will talk about their experience working in this multidisciplinary field and what the future could hold for someone working in the area. Things that they will talk about will include DNA origami and nanopores for faster genetic sequencing, nanomagnetic devices, photonic structures in butterfly wings, latest solar cell technologies, 3D metamaterials and more. If you are considering a PhD, this is also a chance to ask them questions about their interdisciplinary 4 year MRes + PhD programme at the Nano Doctoral Training Centre (NanoDTC) in Cambridge, in addition to your other questions about nanotechnology.

Introduction to Anthropology. Sunday 30th November. 10 – 5pm

The Knowledge Project is exciting and innovative workshops this November. For one day, you will be introduced to a subject by an Oxford postgraduate with bags of specialist knowledge in that area. The courses are designed to be open to all, with plenty of opportunities to ask questions and push the subject matter to its limit. Classes are taught in small groups of a maximum of ten, and are based around lively and sociable discussion. Importantly, all our proceeds go to children’s charity Jacari – that means ALL of the money you pay goes directly to helping children struggling with English as a second language.

Daniel has spent over 2 years in Amazonia studying the Amerindian peoples who reside there. He specialises in traditional medicine, shamanism, violent assault sorcery and has plenty of stories to tell. This course focuses on the principles of anthropology, grounded in real cultural examples of religion, gender, literacy and more.

This course runs from 10am – 5pm on Sunday 16th November.

For more details, and to sign up go to knowledgeproject.co.uk, or email alison@knowledgeproject.co.uk

The Colloquium is a seminar series at Kellogg College, Oxford.

Sophie Haines is a Research Member of Common Room and James Martin Fellow at the Institute for Science, Innovation, and Society (InSIS). Her research interests address the interface of environment, science and society, including infrastructure development, natural resource politics, and the role of anticipation and uncertainty in decision-making in the UK and Belize. She is currently collaborating with colleagues in the Physics department, as part of an Oxford Martin School project about the usability of weather/climate forecasts for resource stewardship.

Medieval Scottish Gothic: Glory and Excess
With Tim Porter, lecturer

(ticket includes tea & cake!)
Friday 5 December, 2–4pm
Ashmolean Museum Lecture Theatre

With the 2014 referendum for Scottish independence, the historic relationship between Scotland and England has recently been a prevalent topic of political discussion. This year also marks the 700th anniversary of the battle of Bannockburn, a significant Scottish victory in the First War of Scottish Independence. These lectures explore three key aspects of the Anglo-Scottish relationship during the Middle Ages.

Tickets are £9/£8 concessions (includes tea & cake), and booking is recommended as places are limited.

Part of a Medieval Scotland Afternoon Tea Lecture Series.
http://www.ashmolean.org/events/Lectures/?id=132

Would you like to learn more about how beliefs and customs shape your own life and the lives of others? And be made aware of the strangeness of your own culture by delving into the cultures of others?

The Knowledge Project presents a series of eight evening classes taught by postgraduate Carlo Ferri, who has just returned from conducting fieldwork in China.

The Knowledge Project is a unique social enterprise that engages postgraduates to teach evening classes, with all proceeds going to children’s charity Jacari. We believe firmly in community education, and as such make our classes engaging, social and open to all.

To find out more and browse our other subjects, visit: www.knowledgeproject.co.uk

Three academics, at different stages of research will be speaking on the subject on ‘Shocks’, from the perspective of seismology, neuroscience and anthropology. The President’s Seminars provide an opportunity to network with members of Wolfson College, and to hear how other researchers plan, conduct and complete their research projects. We meet each term on Mondays of 3rd Week at 5.30pm to hear very brief presentations by a graduate student, a research fellow and a senior fellow at Wolfson, and continue with lively discussion over wine, followed by dinner in hall.

Zena McGreevy, Senior Assistant Curator, talks about the stages involved in selecting and researching the objects for the Nigerian Mask and Masquerade display. There is never enough room to include everything. What influences the choices of what to include? What doesn’t make it and why? This illustrated talk gives an insight into what goes on behind the scenes during the development of a new display, as well as shedding light on some of the complex uses and meanings of these stunning Nigerian masks.

OUAS Speaker Event:
The Oxford University Archaeological Society invites you to our final speaker event of the term! Dr Elizabeth Key-Fowden will be joining us from the University of Cambridge. She is currently writing a book on the Parthenon Mosque, the use of the Parthenon as a centre for religious workshop by the Islamic Culture in the Ottoman period. Please join us for what will be a very interesting evening!

Free for OUAS Members, for non-members the cost is £2.

Andrew Hughes, VERVE project conservator, talks about some interesting findings and difficult challenges whilst preparing objects for display in the new Hide and Leather working case. Leather has a multitude of uses from shoes to saddles, water carriers to writing material. The museum collection houses leather from Ancient Egypt to the present day, made from the skin from mammals, reptiles, birds and fish.
This varied material presents a conservator with many different problems. What are the needs of historic leather? What stories can conservation work reveal about these objects and what new questions have they raised?

What the World is losing in Iraq

A special talk with Dr Paul Collins, Curator of the Ancient Near East Collections at the Ashmolean Museum

Thursday 2 April, 1-2pm, Lecture Theatre

Ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) is where the world’s first cities emerged along with the invention of writing, the codification of laws, and the creation of extensive empires. This talk explores the recent destruction of museums, libraries, archaeological sites, mosques, churches and shrines across northern Iraq to highlight the unique heritage that is being lost.

This talk in the Lecture Theatre is FREE and no booking is required.

Simon Clements is a wood carver & sculptor. His talk will be an exploration of how one maker uses the Museum collection to inform his practice. How do ideas generated by the collection come to be pieces of sculpture and how does the character and history of the object affect the final outcome. Tea/coffee offered on arrival from 6p.m. Enter through the Robinson Close entrance, just off Park Road, Oxford OX13PP

Robin Dunbar is Prof. of Evolutionary Psychology at Oxford University. ” We are members of the ape family yet something happened in the course of our evolution to radically change how we behave. The result was cities, states, literature, religion, science, music.. Archaeologists gave traditionally focussed on the stones and bones of human evolution but the real story of human evolution lay in our social and cognitive evolution.”
Tea/coffee available prior to the talk from 18.00 in the staff room. Entrance through Robinson Close, off South Parks Road Oxford OX13PP

Join us at the Museum of Natural History for an evening of talks and networking to celebrate the research behind our new exhibition,‘Biosense’.
The exhibition features contemporary research, including how bacteria sense their micro-world, why oxygen sensing could revolutionise human medical treatment, and the way that the light around us affects our behaviour.

Enter a lost world of music and poetry as more than 300 years of Mughal rule approached its end at the hands of the British in 1857. William Dalrymple, award-winning historian, in performance with the celebrated North Indian vocalist Vidya Shah, takes us back to the bygone era of matchless splendour, bringing to life a world of emperors, courtesans, politics, bayonets, intrigue and love, through words and music. Doors open at 17.45. Food and drinks in the Pitt Rivers Museum till 9p.m. after the lecture. Signed copies of ‘The Last Mughul’ and ‘Return of the King’ available after the lecture.

Refugee Studies Centre 2015 Annual Elizabeth Colson Lecture

Speaker:

Professor Miriam Ticktin (The New School for Social Research)

With the grounding assumption that innocence plays a central role in the politics of forced migration and asylum, this lecture will delve into the idea of innocence, trying to understand it and render its workings more legible, and arguing that it is a political – not simply a religious or moral – concept. By examining the figure of the child, the trafficked victim, the migrant, asylum seeker, the enemy combatant and the animal, Professor Ticktin will suggest that innocence sets up hierarchies of humanity, all the while feeding an expanding politics of humanitarianism. Ultimately, she will ask if innocence is a concept we want to protect.

About the speaker:

Miriam Ticktin is Associate Professor of Anthropology at The New School for Social Research and co-director of the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility. She received her PhD in Anthropology at Stanford University, in co-tutelle with the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, France, and an MA in English Literature from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. Before coming to the New School, Miriam was an Assistant Professor in Women’s Studies and Anthropology at the University of Michigan, and also held a postdoctoral position in the Society of Fellows at Columbia University.

Professor Ticktin’s research has focused in the broadest sense on what it means to make political claims in the name of a universal humanity. She has been interested in what these claims tell us about universalisms and difference, about who can be a political subject, on what basis people are included and excluded from communities, and how inequalities get instituted or perpetuated in this process. She is the author of Casualties of Care: Immigration and the Politics of Humanitarianism in France (University of California Press, 2011; co-winner of the 2012 William A. Douglass Prize in Europeanist Anthropology) and co-editor (with Ilana Feldman) of In the Name of Humanity: the Government of Threat and Care (Duke University Press, 2010), along with many other articles and book chapters. She is a founding editor of the journal Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism and Development. Next year she will be a fellow at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study.

Join us for an after-hours exclusive guided tour of the Museum, where you will be taken around by one of our expert guides and then browse the galleries at your leisure away from the busy daily crowds.
Explore remarkable collections of hand-made objects from every continent and throughout human history.

Heather Richardson, Head of Conservation at the Pitt Rivers Museum, will talk about a temporary exhibition on the Museum’s lower gallery, showcasing original repairs found on objects in the Pitt Rivers collections. Part of a conservator’s role is to determine at what stage a repair to an object has been made and it is something they strive to preserve. Finding examples of repairs from originating communities can give the object a deeper resonance while also raising various questions. Why was this object repaired by its original owners rather than replaced? Is it a fine example of craftsmanship or is it a sacred object?

What the World is Losing, a talk with Dr Paul Collins, Dr Robert Bewley & Dr Emma Cunliffe

A special talk with Dr Paul Collins, Curator of the Ancient Near East Collections at the Ashmolean Museum, as well as Dr Robert Bewley and Dr Emma Cunliffe from the University of Oxford School of Archaeology

Saturday 25 July, 10.30am‒12pm
Ashmolean Museum Lecture Theatre

FREE entry. No booking required.

*** Spaces limited. Please arrive early to secure your seat. ***

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Middle Eastern cultural heritage is under threat as never before. These talks highlight what the world is losing in Iraq and Syria, as well as talking about Oxford University’s ‘Endangered Archaeology of the Middle East and North Africa’ project.

Dr Paul Collins spoke in April this year about the recent destruction of museums, libraries, archaeological sites, mosques, churches and shrines across northern Iraq to highlight the unique heritage that is being lost.

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This is a free Festival of Archaeology Talk. See the full programme of events at: http://www.ashmolean.org/events/Festival/