A talk by Seán Donlon, the former Irish ambassador to the United States.

Come listen to a curator with the Smithsonian Institute, Dr. Ellen Feingold, talk about the ongoing fascinating ‘Money in Arica’ project at the British Museum, which aims to piece together African monetary history and its cultural and political impact. Dr. Feingold will also speak on her own focus of counterfeit currencies in colonial East and West Africa. The lecture will be held at the Ioannou (Classics) Centre on St. Giles.

This event should interest you if:

• you wish to know more about various numismatics research projects;
• you wish to know more about a unique and rare field of numismatics (African numismatics);
• you wish to know more about using numismatics as a source for research.

Speaker profile: http://americanhistory.si.edu/profile/1159
Abstract:

During the interwar period, international counterfeiting schemes originating in West Africa presented a new threat to British colonial and national currencies. The institutions responsible for the West African monetary system – the Colonial Office and West African Currency Board – believed these plots had the potential to generate high quality forged currency and thus considered them to present a greater risk than local counterfeiting practices. This paper argues that colonial officials were also alert to this illicit activity because the schemes presented a new challenge to British law enforcement in the colonies, set off disputes between national and imperial institutions in London, and required the British to collaborate with other nations to thwart. The emergence of these international counterfeiting schemes demonstrates that while the creation of a colonial monetary system for West Africa facilitated British imperial economic aims, it also created new and unanticipated challenges to British rule.

Please contact qaleeda.talib@some.ox.ac.uk for more information.

Free for members; a £2 fee applies for non-members. Please contact the Secretary at kim.zhang@wadh.ox.ac.uk if you wish to be a member and sign up to the mailing-list. Membership is free.

“This is a good day for businesses…” says Dan Kelly, President, CEO and Chair, Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Maybe so, but CETA, like other trade-deals, is bad news for equality, democracy and the environment.
In early 2016, CETA, the Canada-EU trade deal is due to be debated and voted on in the European parliament. Like TTIP, CETA allows corporations to sue governments in secret courts over decisions they don’t like.
As part of the growing movement against corporate trade deals and to try to stop final agreement of CETA, we’re planning a speaker tour.
The speakers will be:
• Maude Barlow, chair of citizens’ group the Council of Canadians
• Yash Tandon, Ugandan trade expert and author of Trade is War
• Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now

Join us for this term’s ‘Oxford’s Questions’ – an event for postgraduate students, with guest speaker Jonathan Brant. The title of the talk is ‘The Character of Success: What’s the Make-up of the Ones who Make It? Come for dinner at 7.30pm (£3), and the talk will be followed by an opportunity for Q&A.

Speaker bio: The Revd Dr Jonathan Brant has been the Chaplain for the Oxford Pastorate, working with postgraduate students, since 2008. He wrote a DPhil in Theology at Trinity College, Oxford which drew upon systematic theology, film theory and qualitative research in considering the potential religious impact of contemporary Latin American cinema. The monograph has been published by Oxford University Press. Prior to coming to Oxford, Jonathan worked for Anglican churches in London and South America. Jonathan is the award-winning author of fiction and non-fiction books which introduce young people to the joys and the mysteries of the Christian faith. He is married to Tricia and has a fourteen year-old son, Isaac.

Talk, Q&As, and discussion. You’re welcome to come along just to listen, or to take part actively in the discussion. There’s no need to book: just come along on the day.

Mr Richard Guy, Mr Roel Hompes and Mr Bobby Bloemendaal from the Colorectal Department at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will be presenting: “Surgery for advanced rectal cancer – crossing the boundaries”.

In this Inaugural Gaza Lecture, Professor Karma Nabulsi, Assiociate Professor in Politics and International Relations from University of Oxford, will explore the politics, history and current predicaments faced by Palestinians in Gaza – particularly in the field of education.

In doing so, the lecture will illustrate the many extraordinary capacities and qualities of the Palestinian people that have come to the fore despite the extreme situation they are living in and how they have become an exemplar of democratic and universal values.

Gaza is commonly seen as a place of humanitarian catastrophe requiring emergency assistance, but Karma will instead show what the Palestinians of Gaza give to us.

Mass Circulation: Writing about Art in a Daily Newspaper

With Richard Dorment, art critic, and Dr Alexander Sturgis, Director, Ashmolean Museum

A special Ashmolean evening In Conversation event

Wednesday 18 November
6‒7pm
Lecture Theatre

As The Daily Telegraph’s chief art critic from 1986‒2015, Richard Dorment CBE covered exhibition subjects ranging from the Ice Age to the Turner Prize. He talks to Ashmolean Director, Dr Alexander Sturgis, about art history, art criticism, and the popular press.

Tickets £12/£10 concessions. Booking is essential.
https://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/ticketsoxford/#event=20239

o mark Inter Faith Week 2015 (15 – 21 November) and the 150th anniversary of Oxford Brookes University, the University Chaplaincy will host a panel discussion on the role of faith, belief, and non-belief in 21st century higher education.
This discussion between some of the university Chaplains will explore the importance of building good relationships and working partnerships between people of different faiths and beliefs and the cultural, social and educational implications.

Mansfield Lecture Series, Convener Baroness Helena Kennedy QC.Laurie Taylor is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of York and
Visiting Professor in Politics and Sociology at Birkbeck. He is the author of 14
books on crime, deviance, personal identity and the nature of contemporary
celebrity. He presents the weekly social science programme Thinking Allowed
on BBC Radio Four.

Sir David Tang will reflect on recent developments in Chinese society and on the UK’s changing relationship with the Asian super-power. As a pre-eminent figure in fashion, hospitality, media and the arts, in both the UK and across Asia, Sir David will share his unique insights on this complex and fascinating topic.
The evening will be hosted by Ken Hom OBE, chef, author and broadcaster and honorary graduate of Oxford Brookes University.

**OxPolicy and #periodpositive are ready to launch their report on the state of menstruation education in the United Kingdom!**

Join us on the evening of November 30th for a bloody good time (haw haw). We’ll be discussing our findings and making suggestions on how to improve the provision of menstruation education in UK schools, ways of teaching period positivity, and how to lessen menstrual stigma both for young people and generally. Featuring the wonderful Chella Quint – comedian and founder of #periodpositive!

Drinks to follow at the Lamb and Flag (St Giles) after the event.

Blasphemy and Apostasy exist in many countries in the world, commonly within the Middle East and North Africa. Pakistan’s blasphemy laws were first codified by India’s British rulers in 1860 and were inherited by Pakistan in 1947. The law (section 295-C of Pakistan Penal Code) states that blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad is to be awarded a fixed death penalty, with no leeway. Mass support of the law through promotion by legal and socio-political institutions of religious authority has led to its use as a tool for oppression and persecution. In 2014 alone, over 90 people were accused of blasphemy.

Join OUPakSoc and South Asia Research Cluster, Wolfson College, for a discussion on Blasphemy Laws where we explore their history, religious basis and impact in Pakistan and beyond.

Date: 2nd December, 2015
Time: 5.30 pm
Venue: Leonard Wolfson Auditorium, Wolfson College, OX2 6UD
Moderator: Matthew McCartney

Debate from the floor: There will be an opportunity for the audience to contribute in the form of short speeches. Please send us an email at secretary@oupaksoc.net if you would like to participate in the event.

Panellists:
Dr Jan-Peter Hartung – the Department of Religions and Philosophies at SOAS
Tehmina Kazi – Director of Media, Outreach and Lobbying, British Muslims for Secular Democracy
Arafat Mazhar – Engage Pakistan, a non-profit research and advocacy organization working to reform Pakistan’s blasphemy law from within the framework of law.
Bob Churchill – Director of Communications, International Humanist and Ethical Union, Head of End Blasphemy Laws campaign
Khalid Zaheer – Vice -President AlMawrid institute Lahore (Foundation for Islamic Research and Education)
Reema Omer- international legal advisor for Pakistan for the International Commission of Jurists, member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
Ali Usma Qasmi – Assistant Professor (History) at LUMS, author of ‘Questioning the Authority of the Past: The Ahl al-Qur’an Movements in the Punjab’ and ‘The Ahmadis and the Politics of Religious Exclusion in Pakistan’ (Karachi Literary Festival Peace Prize).

For much of the last nearly 200 years, a huge amount of work has been undertaken to record, analyse and characterise gait – the patterns of movement when we walk. The common objectives were to enlighten clinical understanding and to improve the quality of life of many thousands of children, veterans and people challenged by disability.

An unintended consequence of this work has been its us in the entertainment sectors. Tom will take you on a visual journey into the world of blockbuster movies, music videos and advertisements populated by amazing creatures animated characters and imaginary environments.
He will describe the techniques used to capture human motion and how to place animated characters and objects into real backgrounds.

Ten years after the creation of the world’s first statutory-based national ombudsman service for higher education, Rob Behrens will mark his forthcoming departure from the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) with a frank appraisal of what has been achieved, how universities, student unions and complainants have reacted and what issues remain to be addressed.

He will explore the journey from ‘adjudicator’ to outward-facing ombudsman service and evaluate the OIA’s contribution to the current regulatory scene, assessing the impact of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 which brings private suppliers into the scheme on an equal footing with universities.

Members of AUA are very welcome to attend this event.

Rob Behrens is Independent Adjudicator and Chief Executive of the OIA, the ombudsman service for students in higher education in England and Wales. He is a member of the Regulatory Partnership Group for higher education.

He is also a non-executive member of the Bar Standards Board (BSB) in England and Wales, and Chair of the BSB Qualifications Committee.

The use of data capture and visualisation technologies has grown dramatically, embracing the needs of researchers, stakeholder communities, cultural resource managers, tourists and the general public. This paper previews the types of techniques being used by Australian archaeologists and collaborators in a range of study areas. The digital acquisition and visualisation of archaeological sites using photographic techniques (hardware and software), 3D reconstruction, laser scanning and other methods, along with novel methods for presentation provide us with opportunities not available even 5 years ago. The challenge for researchers is to maintain the theoretical impetus in the face of a plethora of new technologies and opportunities. Methods to enhance recording and to facilitate research methodologies are explored and the potentials for cultural resource managers and stakeholder communities to manage their heritage (e.g. with tourists in interpretive displays, websites and other virtual media) are highlighted.

Professor Alistair Paterson is an archaeologist at the University of Western Australia where he has been Head of the School of Social Sciences (2013-15) and Archaeology Discipline Chair (2010-2012). He is currently a visiting researcher at the Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford. His research and teaching covers culture contact, historical archaeology in maritime and terrestrial settings, European colonization, historical rock art, digital scholarship, and archaeological and historical methodology. Much of his work is located in Western Australia and the Indian Ocean exploring the uses of coast and offshore islands in colonial and pre-colonial settings, and early colonial settlements across the state (in collaboration with the Western Australian Museum, iVec@UWA).

“We all have something of each other’s lives in the palms of our hands” (Martinsen 2006).
The connected nature of caring relationships is well-established in nursing theory and indeed nurses in Oxfordshire have historically been at the forefront of much of this theory generation. More recently, nursing education in the UK has been criticised for losing its base essential values of caring, despite a strong person-centred discourse in healthcare policy and strategy.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) have responded with new standards and a code of practice, whilst school of nursing have felt increasingly ‘regulated’ with a focus on compliance

When the Fat Lady Sings: Leadership and Creativity in Opera

In the world of opera, many experts work together to create an amazing show: everyone from costume and lighting to singers and conductor need to align their creativity to make a final product that audiences love. There are many valuable lessons to be learned from these relationships that illustrate how leadership works.

Leadership involves coordinating different functions and communicating effectively both inside and outside an organisation. This talk will explore just that: how a system of shifting leadership works to pull together the creativity of the skilled experts in order to generate value for diverse stakeholders.

Expect practical demonstrations from a top-class singer!

Please arrive at 12.15pm for a prompt 12.30pm start. Lunch will then be provided and the lecture will commence at 1pm.

This free one-day workshop will bring together participants from academia, the public sector, national infrastructure organizations and social enterprises. We’ll explore how best to build capacity in the social enterprise sector in a way that improves organizations’ ability to participate in commercial and public sector supply chains, on equal terms with other SMEs.

As researchers, we aim to develop knowledge that will improve the human condition. This goal is hampered, however, if research is not consumed, interrogated, and used by those implementing policy. How then does research enter the policy process in practice?

This panel brings together decades of experience working at the intersection of education research and policy and will attempt to answer this key question. Drawing from their considerable experience, the panellists will describe their view of how research informs policy, and share perspectives on how researchers can better communicate and interact with policy makers and what researchers typically miss when thinking about how policy is made.

Featuring:

Tom Mcbride
Head of Strategic Analysis, UK Department for Education

Alex Scharaschkin
Director of Research, AQA; Director, AQA Centre for Education Research and Practice

Ewart Keep
Director, Oxford University Centre on Skills, Knowledge & Organisational Performance (SKOPE)

Nothing is different but everything has changed

While the landscape of marketing is no doubt changing, the importance of cultivating and keeping diverse, creative talent remains as important today as it has been for centuries. This creative talent is at the heart of good marketing and no matter how the world shifts the consumption of media, creativity will remain key to making good ads.

FCB Worldwide CEO Carter Murray will discuss where he thinks the world of advertising is heading and how marketing is breaking new ground by sticking to the basics – awesome creative, great account management and a culture that allows it all to thrive.

The seminar will take place at Saïd Business School on 28 January 2016. Please arrive at the School from 5.15pm for a prompt 5.30pm start.

The talk will be followed by a short networking drinks reception until c19:30 hrs.

Driving Business Performance

Peter Tufano and Antony Jenkins will discuss how leadership and culture drives business performance, including the tools that leaders can deploy to improve performance. They will also examine how technology is profoundly affecting business and society, including how to win in a new and very different world.

The seminar will take place at Saïd Business School on 4 Febrauary 2016. Please arrive at the School from 5pm for a prompt 5.30pm start.

The talk will be followed by a short networking drinks reception until c19:30 hrs.

Millions of people worldwide are affected by natural hazards ranging from devastating but localised events such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis to the more subtle but global effects of climate change. It is therefore in our interests to be able to accurately predict these hazards, assess their risks and communicate this information quickly and effectively to those affected so that major loss of life can be avoided. Exactly how this should be done, and the extent to which certain natural hazards can even be predicted are key questions that need to be addressed. Less obvious but of equal importance are the roles that governments and charities should play in communication and prevention, and how different communities perceive the risks associated with natural hazards in the first place. These questions will be debated by a diverse panel of speakers from a variety of different backgrounds to be announced shortly. There will be a free drinks reception afterwards. So come on down, you might just learn something*!

*Or you can just come for the free wine

This is a free event, please register at the link below

‘What’s aught but as ‘tis valued?’: Shakespeare’s value

This talk considers a number of different ways to value Shakespeare: personal, educational, economic, aesthetic – by focusing on the life stories of the first collected edition of his plays, the First Folio of 1623. This book was sold for 15 shillings on publication; copies now fetch millions of pounds. A book that often shows marks of casual use – wine-ring stains, doodling, even pet paw prints – is now treated as a relic.

The cultural geographer Tim Cresswell argues that ‘value is produced by the passage of things in and out of different regimes of value… objects have biographies that are formed as they pass through these regimes of value’. Tracing the biography of the book via its different regimes of value gives a new way to understand questions of Shakespeare, worth, and value.

The seminar will take place at Saïd Business School on 17 February 2016. Please arrive at the School from 12:15pm for a prompt 12.30pm start. Lunch will be provided and then the lecture will commence at 1pm.

Developments of the critical discursive tradition within social psychology offer both a conceptualisation of a gendered contemporary subject and an analytic approach to talk and text data, including media representations. In this paper I discuss representations which centre on a new worker as a gendered variant of two other idealised figures, the entrepreneur and the creative artist. The figure of the entrepreneur, eager to pursue opportunities and take risks, is central to the market-driven accounts of economic development associated with neoliberalism. The image of the artist following a creative vocation underlies many of the now-established understandings of careers and work practices in the contemporary cultural and creative industries (CCI), a global sector first identified in the late 20th century. I argue that the discursive drift between enterpreneurship and creative work valorises the new worker as a feminised, though not inevitably female, figure. I suggest that media representations invite identification with this new worker figure through a ‘new mystique’, promising autonomy and creative fulfilment as compensation for the precariousness and difficulty of freelancing and self-employment on the margins of contemporary economies.

Stephanie Taylor is the author of Narratives of Identity and Place (Routledge, 2010), Contemporary Identities of Creativity and Creative Work (Ashgate 2012, with Karen Littleton) and What is Discourse Analysis? (Bloomsbury, 2013). Her research employs a narrative-discursive approach to explore identification and a complex gendered subject, following theoretical and methodological work in narrative and discursive psychology. She has presented her innovative work on research methods and conducted methodology workshops in Turkey, Switzerland, Finland, Ireland and the UK, including at the ESRC Research Methods festival in Oxford (2011, 2012) http://www.ncrm.ac.uk/TandE/video/stats.php http://www.ncrm.ac.uk/TandE/video/stats.php.

The Oxford Children’s Rights Network invites you to join us for a lunch time seminar with Jonathan Herring, Professor of Law at the University of Oxford.

Abstract:
Those who argue that children should not have the same rights as adults typically emphasise the vulnerability of children. It is commonly argued that their vulnerability provides a powerful reason why children need to be protected from harms in ways adults do not. Supporters of the claim that children should have equal rights to adults typically respond by challenging the claim that children are especially vulnerable, arguing that children are far more autonomous than is commonly assumed. In this paper I will argue that a more convincing response is not that children are less vulnerable than is commonly assumed, but rather that adults are more vulnerable than is commonly assumed. In short, the case for equal rights for all people, is better premised on the claim we should treat adults like children, than on the claim we should treat children like adults.

Jonathan Herring has written extensively on criminal, family and medical law and has recently analyzed legal disputes over contact between children and parents and issues surrounding children’s rights.

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RSVP is kindly requested for catering purposes; please visit http://bit.ly/ocrnlunch to indicate your attendance and preferences. To guarantee lunch, please ensure you fill in this form no later than 12PM the day before (for Thursday seminars) or 12PM the Friday before (for Monday seminars).

How to create growth companies in a no growth world

Vernon Hill’s clarion call “Fans not Customers” stems from his belief that your competitive edge comes down to service. The better it is the more likely your customers are to become fans and promoters of the enterprise – and to create yet more fans. For those who have got tired of sloppy, slow, unfriendly and inefficient service, Vernon Hill’s business model is a huge breath of refreshing air – and a wake-up call for business.

You can register to attend the event here.

We look forward to welcoming you to the Main School Foyer from 17:15 on Thursday 18 February for a prompt 17:30 start.

The talk will be followed by a short networking drinks reception until c19:30 hrs.

In recent years there has been much interest in the origins of religion, with prominent commentators supporting accounts that appeal to indoctrination. At one level these accounts must be true, as no child is born to be a specific faith. But this is only part of the story. What about secular beliefs that are not linked to religion – where do these come from?

Join experimental psychologist Bruce Hood as he describes an approach that addresses the role of natural misconceptions as one possible factor in our tendency to believe the impossible.

Bruce Hood is Professor of Developmental Psychology in Society at the University of Bristol. In 2011 he presented the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, and in 2015 he founded Speakezee – a new platform bringing together event organisers and academic speakers.

The event will be held at St Aldates Tavern, and tickets are only £5, and £3 for students (price of a pint!).

Join the Oxford Children`s Rights Network, in association with the Refugee and Migration Law Discussion Group at Oxford, for a lunch time seminar with Jason Pobjoy, Barrister at Blackstone Chambers.

Abstract:
The Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the best interests principle codified in Article 3 in particular, is playing an increasingly significant role in decisions involving the admission or removal of a child from a host State. The talk will discuss the extent to which the best interests principle may provide an independent source of international protection. That protection may, for instance, proscribe the removal of a child from a host State notwithstanding that the child is ineligible for protection as a refugee or protection under the more traditional non-refoulement obligations in international human rights law.

Jason Pobjoy is a barrister at Blackstone Chambers and a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge, where his research explores the relationship between international refugee law and international law on the rights of the child. He is the founding Chair of the Cambridge Pro Bono Project. Jason is also an Australian qualified lawyer and practiced for several years as a litigation solicitor. Jason completed a Masters in Law at the University of Melbourne and a Bachelor of Civil Law at the University of Oxford, and he has also been a Research Associate at the Refugee Law Project at Makerere University in Kampala and a Hauser Visiting Doctoral Researcher at New York University School of Law.
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A sandwich lunch will be provided. RSVP is kindly requested, for catering purposes; please visit http://bit.ly/ocrnlunch to indicate your attendance and preferences. To guarantee lunch, please ensure you fill in this form no later than 12PM the day before (for Thursday seminars) or 12PM the Friday before (for Monday seminars).