How do we best teach children to have a sceptical and questioning attitude? Can pupils learn everything they need to know from first principles? Are there some things they just need to take on trust? If pupils do need to depend on authority, how can we also teach them to be sceptical of authority? And what does scientific evidence have to tell us about this – how do we think and learn, and is it even possible to teach critical thinking and scepticism?

Daisy Christodoulou is the Head of Assessment at Ark Schools. Before that, she trained as a secondary English teacher through the Teach First programme and taught in two London comprehensives. Her book, Seven Myths about Education, was published in March 2014. She has been part of government commissions on the future of teacher training and assessment.

7.30PM start, everyone is welcome, and entry is free with donations encouraged to cover speaker expenses. Join the Facebook event and invite your friends: https://www.facebook.com/events/757649587712973/

For the seventh year in a row, St Hilda’s College Media Network presents its own dedicated day at the Oxford Literary Festival.

Yang-May Ooi talks about her book ‘Bound Foot Blues, and one-woman West End show of the same name, about the history of women’s lives in China.

Booking required.

For the seventh year in a row, St Hilda’s College Media Network presents its own dedicated day at the Oxford Literary Festival.

4pm: THE IMPROBABILITY OF LOVE
Hannah Rothschild, Chair of the Board of the National Gallery, discusses her novel about the discovery of a lost Watteau.

Booking required

6pm: CATALLUS’S BEDSPREAD
Daisy Dunn on her biography: Catallus’s Bedspread: The Life of Rome’s Most Erotic Poet and her new translations of his poems

Planning has been wholly devolved to the Scottish Government since devolution in 1999. Since then, the Scottish planning system has seen significant change, improvement and review.

In this lecture, John will describe the evolution of the system, key achievements in process and will look forward to future challenges facing planning and the system in Scotland.

About the speaker
JOHN MCNAIRNEY, CHIEF PLANNER, SCOTLAND

John McNairney was appointed the Scottish Government’s Chief Planner in July 2012. He currently leads the Government’s Planning and Architecture division where priorities include promotion of Scotland’s third National Planning Framework, the associated Scottish Planning Policy performance and improvement of the planning system and the implementation of the Creating Places agenda.

The Oxford Hub of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers invites you to a new lecture with Saif Kamal (Founder of Toru & Curator of the Dhaka Hub of the Global Shapers). Saif is visiting Oxford to speak at the Skoll World Forum and has kindly agreed to give another lecture on the challenges and opportunities of building social innovations in the developing world.

Saif has been a leader in the transformation of innovations to social enterprises in Asia, having founded the first social innovation hub in Bangladesh that connects development sector challenges to young innovators and incubates them on design and sustainability to transform ideas to social enterprises. Has has had an illustrious global career in knowledge management, consumer goods and media. Saif returned to Bangladesh to empower youth and help local innovation ecosystem thrive. He is also a Cordes fellow and founder of the British High Commission’s Young Leaders Bangladesh. For his work in building an integrated social innovation ecosystem, Saif was recently awarded as a New Champion (2015 -16) at World Economic Forum’s Summer Davos China.

Venue: Seminar room, Oxford Internet Institute, 1 St Giles, OX1 3JS (note the change of venue!)
Date: 14. April 2016, 12:30-13:30

You can read a recent interview with Saif Kamal here:
http://icebusinesstimes.net/transforming-innovations-into-social-enterprises/

Find out more about Toru’s innovation ecosystem:
http://toru-bd.org/

The Global Shapers Community is an initiative of the World Economic Forum – a network of Hubs developed and led by young people who are exceptional in their potential, their achievements and their drive to make a contribution to their communities.

IN[SCI]TE is a new interdisciplinary science, technology, and engineering conference, which will take place on Monday and Tuesday of 0th Week Trinity Term 2016. IN[SCI]TE is run by undergrads, and the talks will be both delivered by and aimed at undergrads.

The aims for IN[SCI]TE are to broaden the knowledge and awareness of science undergrads outside their field of study, to provide a setting for undergrads to give a talk at a scientific conference during their degree, and to inspire future scientists to enter areas of work that cross the boundaries in science.

We are now accepting applications for speakers! Submit an application at inscite.co/speakers/, or send the facebook page a message if you have any questions.

To keep up to date with the conference, like us on facebook.com/insciteco, and follow us @insciteco.

The second session in on-going seminar series on Building capacity on disability in low- and middle-income countries will be given my Prof. Charles Newton and Dr. Melissa Gladstone. The theme of this session is the Identification, diagnosis and management of neurodisabilities in LMICs.

Details of the two talks are provided below.

Neurodisability in Resource Poor Countries
Prof. Charles Newton

Bio: Professor Charles Newton is the Cheryl & Reece Scott Professor of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and St John’s College, University of Oxford, and the Scientific Director of the Muhimbili-Wellcome Programme, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania as well as the Head of Neurosciences, KEMRI-Wellcome Collaborative Programme, Kilifi Kenya. Professor Newton conducts research on the epidemiology and behavioural consequences of children experiencing a range of adversities in the low-income countries of insults, in particular the association of autism and developmental disorders with infections of the central nervous system (particularly malaria, HIV and bacterial meningitis).

Early childhood screening and surveillance for developmental disorders in low income settings
Dr. Melissa Gladstone, Institute of Translational Medicine, University of Liverpool

Abstract
Developmental delay is common in low income settings. More than 200 million children have developmental delay. Structured programmes in high income settings recommend surveillance programmes with the use of developmental tools to assess children to support health workers to make decisions about when children might be likely to need support. Evidence as to the efficacy of these programmes in terms of their specificity and sensitivity is very limited. The most efficacious programmes at present are those for hearing screening and blood spot screening for certain neonatal disorders which cause developmental delay. Furthermore, programmes supporting parents most at risk are most efficacious.

In low income settings, the tools to assess children are not well validated, often not simple to use and are in no way universal. Furthermore, the structures for these programmes are not in place and there are limited services for rehabilitation. Without these structures, children may be identified but no support provided. This may be distressing for families and cause them to spend resources that they do not have hunting for services which do not exist.

Integrated programmes to support developmental stimulation, early communication and nutrition have been shown to be effective in improving short term developmental and long term psychosocial and cognitive outcomes in later life although for these to be effective they will also require infrastructure, funding and clear supervisory structures. Children with disabilities could be incorporated into these programmes and can benefit from these programmes. These do not rely on the developmental age of the child but purely look at provision of support to families. This is likely to be more effective.

A shift from surveillance and screening to provision of integrated support programmes from infancy for children at risk is likely to make the biggest inroads to reducing developmental delay and for supporting parents of children with disabilities. These require good training, supportive supervision and effective integration into systems of care which have adequate resources to enable this.

Bio: Dr Melissa Gladstone is a Senior Lecturer in Paediatric Neurodisability at the Institute of Translational Medicine, University of Liverpool. Her focus is in improving low cost interventions and outcomes for children with neurodevelopmental disorders in low income settings. Together with her team she has developed the Malawi Developmental Assessment Tool (MDAT), a tool to assess child development in rural African settings that has been applied widely in Africa.

About the seminar series
This interdisciplinary seminar series, organised by the Oxford Network on Health Care Training, Social Justice & Technology aims to bring together scholars and stakeholders from across disciplines working on research related to disability and mental health disorders in low resource settings. The network is supported by the Learning & New Technologies Research Group, Department of Education, University of Oxford and funded by the University of Oxford John Fell Fund.

Humanitas Weidenfeld Visiting Professorship in Comparative European Literature Lecture
Marina Warner is an award winning novelist, short story writer, historian and mythographer, who works across genres and cultures exploring myths and stories. Recent work has focused particularly on the magic of fairy tales and the Arabian Nights, including Stranger Magic (2011), and Once Upon a Time (2014). In Fly Away Home: Stories (2015) she draws on mythic predecessors, translating them into contemporary significance. In 2015 she was awarded the prestigious Holberg Prize, and was also Chair of the judging panel for the Man Booker International Book Prize. She is a Quondam Fellow of All Souls, and Professor of English and Creative Writing at Birkbeck College, University of London.

All are welcome to attend and no booking is required. Seats will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

To stabilise the climate, net global carbon dioxide emissions must be reduced to zero. Yet fossil carbon has never been cheaper: the market capitalisation of Peabody Energy values its coal reserves (30 years’ production at current rates) at less than 3 cents per tonne of buried carbon. Either the market is assuming the vast bulk of those reserves will never be used at all, or (more likely) the market isn’t thinking about the next 30 years. The fossil fuel industry is likely to emerge from its current crisis largely under new ownership. Will the new owners be even more opaque and defensive on environmental issues than the old, or does this represent an opportunity for environmentally conscious investors to ensure the industry in future plays a constructive role in the transition to a net zero carbon economy?

This lecture will present some of the work of the Oxford Martin Net Zero Carbon Investment Initiative, which is exploring the role investors can play in enabling the transition to a stable climate while minimising the risks associated with asset stranding or locking in emissions that exceed a safe cumulative total. Professor Myles Allen will argue that stabilising global temperatures depends on the development of “backstop” technologies to allow fossil carbon to be used without net dumping of CO2 into the atmosphere, and that until the fossil fuel industry itself takes on this challenge, we cannot hope to solve the problem.

Registration required.

Robin Dunbar (Professor of Evolutionary Psychology, University of Oxford), Lorna Hughes (Professor in Digital Humanities, University of Glasgow) and Max Saunders (Professor of English and Director of the Centre for Life-Writing Research, Kings College London) explore whether life-writing can survive in the digital age. Chaired by David Robey (Arts and Humanities Consultant, Oxford e-Research Centre).
The discussion will be followed by a drinks reception. Free, all welcome. Please register using the link below to guarantee a seat.
This event is organised in collaboration between TORCH and the Oxford Centre for Life Writing.
Image: Faulkner’s Portable Typerwiter via Wikimedia Commons.

The discussions held within reading groups (or book clubs) typically involve participants sharing, comparing and co-creating responses to literary texts. While reading is often thought of as a solitary process, reading groups constitute a form of social reading. In this paper, Sara Whiteley (University of Sheffield) will consider the nature of the talk produced during a reading group in relation the stylistic features of the text under discussion, and will explore the ways in which the interpretative activity is produced and displayed in discourse and is contingent upon the interactional context.

Humanitas Weidenfeld Visiting Professorship in Comparative European Literature Lecture
Marina Warner is an award winning novelist, short story writer, historian and mythographer, who works across genres and cultures exploring myths and stories. Recent work has focused particularly on the magic of fairy tales and the Arabian Nights, including Stranger Magic (2011), and Once Upon a Time (2014). In Fly Away Home: Stories (2015) she draws on mythic predecessors, translating them into contemporary significance. In 2015 she was awarded the prestigious Holberg Prize, and was also Chair of the judging panel for the Man Booker International Book Prize. She is a Quondam Fellow of All Souls, and Professor of English and Creative Writing at Birkbeck College, University of London.

All are welcome to attend and no booking is required. Seats will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

The world’s oceans are a global commons that provide a wealth of services vital to human and societal wellbeing. As global demands on these services increase, and pressure grows from multiple threats such as climate change, pollution, and resource extraction, we examine some of the tools and approaches that may prove useful in designing a sustainable future for our oceans.

The lecture will introduce the work of the Oxford Martin Programme on Sustainable Oceans and the novel approach it is taking to management of the oceans.

David Scourfield (Maynooth) delivers the second annual joint Classics and English Lecture.

Free public lecture, all welcome, no booking required.
Lecture followed by Q&A and refreshments.

Is international governance facing a pivotal moment? Seventy years on from the creation of the UN, the list of issues requiring international co-operation is lengthy and complex, ranging from the conflict in Syria to infectious disease outbreaks, and from nuclear weapons threats to food security. Even where concord has been achieved, as with the recent COP21 climate agreement, the road ahead will be long, hard and fraught with conflicting needs and desires.

With considerable humanitarian and environmental challenges facing the world, Baroness Amos, Director of SOAS, will draw on her distinguished career in development to look at how the international community can work together, what the UN could and can do, and at the likely obstacles to overcome on the road to helping secure global peace and security.

Registration required.

Humanitas Weidenfeld Visiting Professorship in Comparative European Literature Lecture
Marina Warner is an award winning novelist, short story writer, historian and mythographer, who works across genres and cultures exploring myths and stories. Recent work has focused particularly on the magic of fairy tales and the Arabian Nights, including Stranger Magic (2011), and Once Upon a Time (2014). In Fly Away Home: Stories (2015) she draws on mythic predecessors, translating them into contemporary significance. In 2015 she was awarded the prestigious Holberg Prize, and was also Chair of the judging panel for the Man Booker International Book Prize. She is a Quondam Fellow of All Souls, and Professor of English and Creative Writing at Birkbeck College, University of London.

All are welcome to attend and no booking is required. Seats will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Mitigating climate requires a transition to low carbon energy systems and renewable energy looks increasingly likely to play a key role, but the most important resources are intermittent.

This lecture will describe the research of the Oxford Martin Programme on Integrating Renewable Energy, on how intermittency and related challenges can be addressed, technically and in markets and policy.

Registration required

Stefan Collini is Professor of Intellectual History and English Literature at the University of Cambridge. His research interests include the relation between literature and intellectual history from the early 20th century to the present.

Professor Ian Goldin, Director of the Oxford Martin School, looks at what we mean by development and what citizens, governments and the international community can do to encourage it.

Goldin explains how the notion of development has expanded from the original focus on incomes and economic growth to a much broader interpretation. He considers the contributions made by education, health, gender and equity, and argues that it is also necessary take into account the rule of law, the role of institutions, and sustainability and environmental concerns.

There will be a book signing and drinks reception after the talk, all welcome.

Registration required.

In this talk Professor Daniel Kammen, Oxford Martin Visiting Fellow at INET Oxford, will discuss the strategies emerging to cost-effectively decarbonise energy systems worldwide. This work integrates elements of the science and engineering of energy systems, regional and global energy and environmental policy, and mandates and mission objectives that have emerged from the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, and energy and climate planning in both developed and developing nations.

As Science Envoy for the US Secretary of State, Kammen will also examine opportunities that have arisen as result of the Paris Climate Accord, and US and Chinese climate agreement.

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

Registration required.

Prevention and management of infectious diseases remains one of this century’s biggest challenges. As drugs and vaccinations have proliferated, protection from disease has increasingly been seen as an individual problem, requiring individual action. But due to the evolution of anti-microbial resistance, vaccine refusal and rapid disease transmission through global trade and travel, the impact of the drugs and vaccines that we have come to take for granted is undermined.

This lecture will explore the importance of understanding the ‘Human Factor’ in disease management, looking at the effects of policy on individual and group behaviour and at the role psychology plays in developing a new understanding of collective moral responsibility for infectious disease. The lecture is an introduction to the Oxford Martin Programme on Collective Responsibility for Infectious Disease, an interdisciplinary team from zoology, history, philosophy, psychology and medicine.

Registration required.

For the third lecture of the Trinity Term Annual Lecture Series on ‘Global Education’, Dr Mary Robinson, will discuss ‘Educating for climate justice after the Paris climate agreement’.
Speaker
Dr Mary Robinson founded The Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, which aims to be ‘a centre for thought leadership, education and advocacy on the struggle to secure global justice for those many victims of climate change who are usually forgotten – the poor, the disempowered and the marginalised across the world.’ She also served as the first female President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, from 1997 to 2002.

As we can’t help but be aware, Shakespeare died 400 years ago. But does the Bard haunt Balliol? A behind-the-scenes talking tour of Balliol’s spring exhibition will elucidate. The talk will last about 30 minutes followed by questions and a final chance to look at the exhibition, ‘I suppose they thought I was dead’: Shakespeare at Balliol in five acts.

Professor Ian Goldin, Director of the Oxford Martin School, and fellow author Chris Kutarna preview their forthcoming book about the risks and rewards of a new Renaissance taking place in our modern world. They will show how we can achieve our own golden age, given the will. But many of the factors that undid the first Renaissance are rising once again: warring ideologies, fundamentalism, climate change, pandemics. Can we weather the crises and seize the moment to leave the world a legacy it will still celebrate, 500 years later?

There will be a book signing and drinks reception after the talk, all welcome.

Registration required.

Many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are characterised by an acute shortage of trained doctors and nurses, and a strong reliance on community health workers. In this talk, drawing on recent research in urban and rural Kenya, we explore whether mobile technologies can help overcome barriers to health care training, leading to improved provision and delivery of health care services for marginalised populations. Analysing the barriers to care experienced by mothers of children with disabilities, we ask how technology can contribute to the more equitable provision of health care, the challenges of integrating mobiles into existing health care structures and implications for future research agendas.

There’s a whole world of wonderful literature out there to enjoy. From Scandi success stories Stieg Larsson, Jo Nesbø, and Jonas Jonasson to the Japanese bestselling author Haruki Murakami, readers are devouring translated fiction from across the globe at an ever growing rate.

Publishers are always on the lookout for the next gem and are finding that the world is their oyster when it comes to acquiring fresh and exciting new stories.

Come and join us at 7pm on Wednesday 25th May for a discussion on the rise and rise of international literature, and the very art of translation itself.

We will be joined by Meike Ziervogel, Publisher with Peirene Press, Patrick McGuinness, acclaimed novelist, poet, critic, translator, and Chair for this year’s Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize and Nichola Smalley from And Other Stories.

For most of the world’s toughest challenges, there exists a tension between the needs of an individual and what is best for the common good. Income derived from fishing may be vital to one country’s economy but overfishing depletes stocks to dangerously low levels. Low income countries need to develop in order to lift people out of poverty but this increases demand for fossil fuels at a point where global efforts to reduce carbon emissions have become critically important.

Some of Oxford’s leading thinkers on how to manage global commons and shared resources come to together for a lively panel debate to address the tension between individual rationality and collective responsibility, drawing on examples from the four lectures in this term’s series.

Panellists:

Professor Ian Goldin, (Chair), Director, Oxford Martin School
Professor Richard Bailey, Co-Director, Oxford Martin Programme on Sustainable Oceans
Professor Nick Eyre, Co-Director, Oxford Martin Programme on Integrating Renewable Energy
Professor Cameron Hepburn, Co-Director, Oxford Martin Net Zero Carbon Investment Initiative
Professor Angela McLean, Co-Director, Oxford Martin Programme on Collective Responsibility for Infectious Diseases

Registration required.

In the fourth and final lecture of the Trinity Term Annual Lecture Series on ‘Global Education’, Prof Stefan Dercon will discuss ‘Education and jobs as a response to the Syrian refugee crisis’.
Speaker
Prof Stefan Dercon is Professor of Economic Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government and the Economics Department, Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economics and Chief Economist at the UK Department of International Development. His research at Oxford University relates to the application of microeconomics and statistics to problems of development.

How has humanities scholarship influenced biomedical research and civil liberties and how can scholars serve the common good? Entrepreneur and scholar Donald Drakeman will discuss his new book exploring the value and impact of the humanities in the 21st century with:

– Stefan Collini (Professor of Intellectual History and English Literature, University of Cambridge and author of What Are Universities For?)
– Richard Ekins (Tutorial Fellow in Law, St John’s College, University of Oxford)
– Jay Sexton (Associate Professor of American History, University of Oxford)

Chaired by Helen Small (Professor of English Literature, University of Oxford and author of The Value of the Humanities)

Free, all welcome. Join us for a sandwich lunch from 12:30, with discussion from 13:00 to 14:00. No booking required, seats will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

About the book

An entrepreneur and educator highlights the surprising influence of humanities scholarship on biomedical research and civil liberties. This spirited defence urges society to support the humanities to obtain continued guidance for public policy decisions, and challenges scholars to consider how best to fulfil their role in serving the common good.

The event is part of Book at Lunchtime, a fortnightly series of bite size book discussions, with commentators from a range of disciplines.