The Technology and Management Centre for Development at the Department of International Development will be hosting two research seminars in the coming weeks – The afternoons of May 19 and June 1st.

We invite researchers currently researching topics relating to our centre’s work to present and stir discussion. These research seminars are intended to connect active researchers and students on the topics of innovation, technology and management for development. This is a chance to exchange ideas, learn and connect not just with TMCD staff, researchers and fellows but also the innovation research community at large at Oxford. These afternoons are a great opportunity to seek feedback from our peers and gain new perspective on our own work.

Light food and beverages will be provided given the lunch time start.

Presentations for June 1st

Guillermo Casasnovas “How is ambiguity resolved in the early stages of market formation? Insights from the UK social investment market.”
Kaihua Chen “How can we measure innovation systems? From sciento-metrics to inno-metrics.”
Yawen Li “When do firms undertake international open innovation?”
Hao Xu “Social network and knowledge transfer in MNEs.”

How good is your metadata? Helping readers find the content they want in a well-organised way, is fundamental to selling more books online. There are set rules aimed at standardizing how publishers, booksellers and others describe each book. Kieron Smith (Digital Director, Blackwells Bookshops) will walk us through what we should be thinking about and what will ultimately lead to more online sales. An unmissable talk for commercially minded publishing teams to attend.

In such a competitive and fast-moving industry, what measures can publishers take to remain fresh and unique? Today, innovation in publishing goes far beyond the e-book.

From crowdfunding to creating book apps, to interacting directly with book-buyers, digital publishers are doing some inventive and original things to get their books to the top of your reading list. Xander Cansell, Head of Digital at Unbound and Anna Jean Hughes, Founder and Editorial Director of The Pigeonhole join us on the 8th June to discuss the importance of innovation in publishing, and reveal some of the exciting new ways to publish and connect with readers. Come along and discover what the future of publishing looks like!

Welcome to Future Debates, a series of public events supported by the British Science Association.

A genome is an entire set of DNA; all the instructions for making every part of a living thing. Research into our genomes could improve our understanding of diseases, cancers and passing on certain traits. The application of this research through genomic medicine is at the cutting edge of science. There’s large potential for the technology to help us create new treatments and preventative approaches.

Someone’s genome can explain lots of things about them, and we don’t yet understand all of what the genetic code means. Genome data is being collected from a group of patients with rare diseases and cancers across the UK, as part of the Genomics England 100,000 Genomes Project. This information needs to be collected and stored securely, interpreted by experts and viewed in a way that protects the donor’s identity. There have been discussions among scientists about the implications of genomic medicine for privacy and the NHS, and the British Science Association believes that it is vital to open that conversation up to the public.

Come and join our panel of scientists and other experts to discuss who should have access to this data. Should genomic data be used outside medicine? Should private companies share any profits they make from genomic data with participants? Does the right to privacy outweigh the societal benefit of genomic research?

Doors open from 6.00 pm, and the debate will run from 6.30 pm until 8.00 pm.

Future Debates events are part of the British Science Association’s work to make science a fundamental part of British society and culture. We want to empower many more people – not just scientists – to constructively engage in debates over the applications and implications of science in their lives, their local economy and the UK’s future.

Follow us on twitter @LivingWellOx @HumanGeneticsOx @BritSciAssoc and use the event hashtag #FutureDebates

We’ve all heard of genes – they make your eyes blue, hair curly or nose straight. But how do they actually work and why do siblings look so different when they share much of their genetic makeup? Kat Arney, author of ‘Herding Hemingway’s Cats’, and her sister, comedian Helen Arney, set aside their shared genetic quirks and sibling rivalry to explain the latest thinking, telling stories with their trademark flair and wit about cats with thumbs, fish with hips and wobbly worms.

Date/Time: Saturday 25 June, 15:00
Venue: Oxford Town Hall, Long Room
Admissions: £5/£4(conc.)/£16(fam.)
Suitability: 14+
Book here:
http://www.oxfordshiresciencefestival.com/sat-opening-weekend.html

Neural implants, nanomedicine, brain enhancing drugs, genetic engineering…
Many human enhancement technologies are emerging and raise ethical and legal
challenges. This interactive event will present scenarios and take you on a
journey to the edge of technologies and ethics.

In the era of the development of technologies like robotics and artificial intelligence, machines are more and more capable of outperforming human beings at work tasks. What will be the decline of today’s professions? What are the prospects for
employment, and how will professions like doctors, teachers, architects, the clergy, lawyers, and many others adapt to this emerging world? What could be the new models to produce and distribute expertise in society?

Book here: http://www.oxfordshiresciencefestival.com/monday.html

Britain’s most famous mathematician explores the limits of human knowledge, to probe whether there is anything we truly cannot know. Are there limits to what we can discover about our physical Universe? Is time before the Big Bang a no go arena? Are there ideas so complex that they are beyond the conception of our finite human brains? Are there true statements that can never be proved true? Prepare to be taken to the edge of knowledge to find out what we cannot know.

‘Gene-editing’ sounds like science fiction, but today it is an emerging reality. This raises hope for treating medical problems, but also opens ethical quandaries about equality, privacy, and personal freedom. Discuss these questions with a panel of experts including geneticist Andy Greenfield, science fiction author Paul McAuley and science policy advisor Elizabeth Bohm. Lisa Melton, Senior News Editor at Nature Biotechnology, will moderate the event, with Ben Davies, Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, presenting technical background.

Book here: http://www.oxfordshiresciencefestival.com/wednesday.html

Date/Time: Sunday 3 July, 19:00
Venue: Amey Theatre, Abingdon School, Abingdon-on-Thames
Admissions: £7/£5(conc.)/£22(fam.)
Suitability: 16+
Book here: http://www.oxfordshiresciencefestival.com/grand-finale.html

What are the next steps for human evolution? Natural changes or technologies? Combining gene splicing and trans-humanism, medical advancement and surgical enhancement, biology and ambition, Level Up Human takes a light hearted look at what it means to be human, and what the alternatives might be. Join science writer and TV presenter Simon Watt, and his guests, for the live recording of an exciting podcast series.

We are delighted to be welcoming back to the bookshop the incredibly talented The Bookshop Band. The Bookshop Band write songs inspired by books and play them in bookshops and at book festivals all around the country. Their beautiful lyrics and music are not to be missed, so book your tickets now to join us for this very special evening.
For more information about The Bookshop Band please check out their website.
Tickets cost £6 and can be purchased from our customer service department or by calling 01865 333623. For enquiries about this event, please email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk

Jonathon Porritt and Shaun Chamberlin celebrate the launch of the late Trinity alumnus David Fleming’s extraordinary book, ‘Surviving the Future: Culture, Carnival and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market Economy’.

This intimate event will be held in the Sutro Room at Trinity College, Oxford University, and will be recorded for a short film. Various themes in Fleming’s wonderfully diverse work – from carnival to climate change, religion to resilience, manners to markets – may be explored in response to the interests of those present.

Interview with Shaun Chamberlin on David Fleming, Brexit and the book: http://www.darkoptimism.org/2016/08/21/interview-on-david-fleming-music-and-hippos/

More information on David Fleming’s books:
http://www.chelseagreen.com/surviving-the-future
http://www.chelseagreen.com/lean-logic

Copies of both books will be on sale on the day.

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“David Fleming was an elder of the UK green movement and a key figure in the early Green Party. Drawing on the heritage of Schumacher’s Small Is Beautiful, Fleming’s beautifully written and nourishing vision of a post-growth economics grounded in human-scale culture and community—rather than big finance—is both inspiring and ever more topical.”
~ Caroline Lucas MP, co-leader, Green Party of England and Wales; former Member of the European Parliament

“I would unreservedly go so far as to say that David Fleming was one of the most original, brilliant, urgently-needed, underrated, and ahead-of-his-time thinkers of the last 50 years. History will come to place him alongside Schumacher, Berry, Seymour, Cobbett, and those other brilliant souls who could not just imagine a more resilient world but who could paint a picture of it in such vivid colours. Step into the world of David Fleming; you’ll be so glad you did.”
~ Rob Hopkins, cofounder of the Transition Network

“Why do some of the truly great books only emerge and exact their influence upon us after the death of their authors? Perhaps it takes a lifetime to accrue and refine the necessary wisdom. Or perhaps it simply takes the rest of us too long to catch up. Like Thoreau, Fleming’s masterpiece brims not only with fresh insight into every nook and cranny of our culture and what it means to be human, but with such wit and humour that its challenging ideas and radical perspectives become a refreshing delight. If we’re to have a future worth surviving, this book demands to be read, re-read, and—ultimately—acted upon.”
~ Mark Boyle, author of The Moneyless Manifesto and Drinking Molotov Cocktails with Gandhi

Dr Duncan Green of Oxfam will launch his new book on global problems ‘How Change Happens’ at Oxford Brookes.This book bridges the gap between academia and practice, bringing together the best research from a range of academic disciplines and the evolving practical understanding of activists to explore the topic of social and political change. Drawing on many first-hand examples from the global experience of Oxfam, one of the world’s largest social justice NGOs, as well as the author’s insights from studying and working on international development, it tests ideas on How Change Happens and offers the latest thinking on what works to achieve progressive change.

‘An indispensable guide for activists and change-makers everywhere’ Francis Fukuyama
‘A landmark, a must-read book to return to again and again to inform and inspire reflection and action. I know no other book like it.’ Robert Chambers
A splendid treatise on how to change the actual world – in reality, not just in our dreams’ Amartya Sen

Dr Duncan Green, a Brookes PhD alumnus, is Senior Strategic Adviser at Oxfam GB and author of From Poverty to Power: How Active Citizens and Effective States can Change the World. He also authors the From Poverty to Power blog.

Copies of the book will be on sale for £10.00 after the event

Refreshments will be available after the book launch.

Predicting the shape of our future populations is vital for installing the infrastructure, welfare, and provisions necessary for society to survive. There are many opportunities and challenges that will come with the changes in our populations over the 21st century.

Professor Sarah Harper, Director of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, will dispel myths such as the fear of unstoppable global growth resulting in a population explosion, or that climate change will lead to the mass movement of environmental refugees; and instead considers the future shape of our populations in light of demographic trends in fertility, mortality, and migration, and their national and global impact.

This talk will be followed by a book signing and drinks reception, all welcome.

The event is organised in collaboration with the International Gender Studies Centre based at Lady Margaret Hall and whose Patron is St Hugh’s alumna Aung San Suu Kyi (PPE 1964). Sylvie Brieu’s new book portraying the voices of female activists in Myanmar will be available to discuss and purchase.

Sophie Marnette is Professor of Medieval French Studies, Fellow of Balliol College. A senior staff editor at the National Geographic Magazine in France, Sylvie Brieu has been covering cultural diversity issues and minority rights for almost 20 years.

Her recently published book, “When our voices rise From the Andes to the Amazon, a journey through native lands” will be available.

This event is part of the series A Festival of Anniversaries.

Elain Harwood will look at David Roberts’s work in Cambridge and Oxford, and will place it in the context of the growth of higher education in the 1950s and 1960s, and the development of a modern style for university buildings.

Elain Harwood is Historic England’s specialist on post-war architecture and an acknowledged expert on and champion for Modernist architecture.

This event is part of the series A Festival of Anniversaries.

One of the world’s leading inequality economists, Professor Branko Milanovic, presents a bold new account of the dynamics that drive inequality on a global scale. Drawing on vast data sets and cutting-edge research, he explains the benign and malign forces that cause the rise and fall of inequality within and among nations. He also reveals who has been helped the most by globalisation, who has been held back, and what policies might tilt the balance toward economic justice.

Professor Branko Milanovic’s book, Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization, will be available to buy after the lecture.

Julian Savulescu has argued for the duty to create the best children one can. Jeff McMahan has written of the benefits of prenatal diagnosis and selective termination. I suspect that neither has an adequately understanding of what disability is, and whether or not it is compatible with a good life. In this talk, I will outline the empirical evidence about what goes well, and what goes less well, in the lives of disabled people, and which barriers impact on their chance of flourishing. I will accept the right of prospective parents to have prenatal diagnosis, and to terminate affected pregnancies. But I also suggest that there can be no duty to use these technologies, at least in the majority of disability cases, and that the priority is for society to accept and support disabled children.

This summer St Anne’s College and The Danson Foundation jointly supported an Incubator Project to help three teams of students start their own businesses. As well as receiving working capital and accommodation, the teams were offered dedicated mentoring from The Danson Foundation and St Anne’s alumnae. At the Incubator Showcase on Thursday 20 October, the teams will present their business’s progress to date and discuss their plans for the future. All St Anne’s alumnae are very welcome to attend and learn more about the student’s projects. The event will also include time for networking.

What is really happening in the Catholic Church in North America? Are parishes thriving or dying? Is dissatisfaction among Catholics growing or are they becoming more engaged in the evangelizing mission of the Church?

Professor William E Simon Jr is a businessman, lawyer and philanthropist, who presently serves as Co-Chairman of the William E Simon Foundation and Parish Catalyst, which he founded to provide support for parish life. He is Adjunct Professor at the School of Law and at the Department of Economics at the University of California, Los Angeles. His most recent publication, Great Catholic Parishes, was published by Ave Maria Press on 26 September 2016.

Professor Michael Ignatieff: “Human Rights, Global Ethics and the Ordinary Virtues” Since 1945, human rights has become the dominant global ethic of international law and state practice around the world. In this lecture reporting on research supported by the Uehiro Foundation and Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, Michael Ignatieff asks a new question about human rights: what has been its impact upon the ordinary virtues of daily life? Do human rights figure in the languages that ordinary people use to confront their most urgent moral dilemmas, or do human rights remain an elite discourse of states and politicians, more honored in the breach than in the observance?

An unwinnable battle?

Zika and Ebola. Two viruses that are emerging as huge global threats to human health.

What can we learn from the past? How must we approach the future? Some of Oxford’s leading scientists host an exciting day of lectures, seminars and films providing insight into how the world should respond to these threats.

Join the Richard Doll Society for our annual conference! For ticket reservations, timetable information and poster abstract submissions, please visit the registration site.

The deadline for poster abstarct submission is Friday, 14th October: https://goo.gl/forms/YBDDVO7bIFS3l2F82

The Lady English Lecture Series marks St Hilda’s College’s continuing commitment to the education and advancement of women and promotes the contributions made by women to the University and to public life more generally.

Haydar Zaki is outreach officer for the Quilliam Foundation and works extensively on projects that aim to promote values integral to Quilliam’s ethos, such as universal human rights.

His outreach work primarily involves working with universities and university societies. This includes establishing Quilliam university societies with students dedicated to upholding values of human rights and freedom of speech, through pro-freedom of speech campaigns such as #Right2Debate campaign. All university outreach is conducted with the intended aim of both keeping freedom of speech in universities intact, and challenging extremist narratives through an empowered student community.

He has participated in many outreach events at universities and schools with his main area of expertise being the role ideology plays in influencing the psychological outlook of an individual and their environment. He is also an avid campaigner for global democracy, social justice, secular democracy in Iraq and ending intra-Muslim discrimination.

This talk will discuss the role of identity politics and some of the dangers it poses.

‘In 2012, the International Labour Organisation estimates that there were 5.5 million children in slavery’. From the cotton industry in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan to shrimp fishing in SE Asia, Aidan McQuade, Director of the charity Anti-Slavery International will be looking at the persistence of slavery among children and adults worldwide, the conditions which currently allow it, and what we can do to to bring it to an end.

During his tenure as Director of Anti-Slavery International, Dr. Aidan McQuade’s achievements have included holding the state of Niger to account in an international court for failing to protect its citizens from slavery, ensuring the inclusion of a target to end modern slavery in the Sustainable Development Goals, obtaining a new statute in British law proscribing forced labour and mounting a series of investigations identifying where forced labour is used in the developing world for the production of goods for western markets as well as exposing human trafficking activity in the UK.
In 2010, Aidan was awarded a doctorate for his thesis entitled, “Doing the right thing: human agency and ethical choice-making in professional practice.”

Engaging with the Humanities: Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology
Dr Mallica Kumbera Landrus and Dr Giovanna Vitelli
Wednesday 9 November 2016, 12.15 – 1.15pm

Oxford Saïd is pleased to welcome the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology back to the School on Wednesday 9 November as part of our Engaging with the Humanities series.

Dr Mallica Kumbera Landrus
Textiles, a motif and fashionistas
This talk explores the history of a decorative motif, the trade of a particular commodity from the east to the west, and the role of strong women leaders in the story.
Dr Mallica Kumbera Landrus examines intersections of religion, politics and social life in the history of art and architecture in India. At Oxford her work involves working within and around the accepted pedagogical modes and the application to them of a rigorous and imaginative cross-disciplinary instruction grounded in her specialist knowledge and teaching experience. Mallica contributes lectures towards various core and option courses at Oxford in various departments, including History of Art, Archaeology, History, International Development, Geography and Oriental Studies. She also contributes towards courses in the MBA, EMBA and DipSi at the Said Business School, where she is an Associate Fellow.

Dr Giovanna Vitelli
Old Objects, New Subjects: Museum artefacts and their place in contemporary debates
We swim in a sea of material things; we discriminate countless times a day between different “things”, and make choices about which objects we interact with, from smart phones to coffee mugs. Our behaviour is not new: for centuries, we have communicated through objects, creating things to exchange, to create wealth, to build trust, to foster identity and community, to judge and exclude. Using these objects to think with can transform them into powerful analytical tools, and can enrich our understanding of how the world works. Through examples from the Ashmolean Museum’s collections from the Pacific Islands, 17th and 18th century Europe, and the Americas, today’s session highlights the value-added of bringing in material resources to address such contemporary issues as transparency in financial networks, information flows, and consumerism and identity.
Dr Giovanna Vitelli is the Director of the University Engagement Programme, an Ashmolean Museum initiative funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Registration
Please remember that registration is required to attend this event. The seminar is open for anyone to attend and will take place at Saïd Business School.
Registration will open at 11.45am with lunch served from 11.45-12.15pm; the talk will begin promptly at 12.15pm and conclude by 1.15pm.

Lecture 1: Consequentialism for Cows.
Much contemporary writing on animal ethics is “egalitarian” in the sense that otherwise similar harms (or goods) for people and nonhuman animals are thought to count equally. In this sense, animals and people can be said to have the same moral status (“pain is pain”). In these lectures, however, I will explore an alternative, hierarchical approach, according to which animals differ from people, and from one another, in terms of the moral significance of their lives, their goods and bads, and the various rights that they possess. I’ll sketch what a hierarchical approach might look like in a consequentialist framework, and–more complicatedly–in a deontological one, closing with some thoughts about the position of animals in foundational moral theories.

Lecture 2: Deontology for Dogs
Much contemporary writing on animal ethics is “egalitarian” in the sense that otherwise similar harms (or goods) for people and nonhuman animals are thought to count equally. In this sense, animals and people can be said to have the same moral status (“pain is pain”). In these lectures, however, I will explore an alternative, hierarchical approach, according to which animals differ from people, and from one another, in terms of the moral significance of their lives, their goods and bads, and the various rights that they possess. I’ll sketch what a hierarchical approach might look like in a consequentialist framework, and–more complicatedly–in a deontological one, closing with some thoughts about the position of animals in foundational moral theories.

Lecture 3: Foundation for Frogs

Distinguished Speaker Seminar: Michael Bloomberg
Michael Bloomberg in conversation with Peter Tufano
Thursday 17 November 2016, 5.45 – 6.45pm

Oxford Saïd is excited to announce that Michael R. Bloomberg, Founder of Bloomberg LP and former Mayor of New York City, will be speaking at the School, on Thursday 17 November.
We are extremely fortunate that Mr Bloomberg will be visiting Oxford and anticipate this event will sell out very quickly. Registration is essential so please use the ‘Book now’ link above to confirm your attendance at your earliest convenience.

About the speaker
Michael R. Bloomberg is the founder of Bloomberg LP, philanthropist, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change, World Health Organization Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases, and three-term mayor of New York City.
He is an entrepreneur and philanthropist who served as mayor of New York City from 2002-2013 after leading the company he started in 1981 for 20 years. Since leaving City Hall, he has resumed leadership of Bloomberg LP.
A lifelong philanthropist, Bloomberg founded Bloomberg Philanthropies, which focuses on five main areas: public health, education, the environment, the arts, and government innovation. He also leads a number of bi-partisan coalitions on urgent issues, including climate change, illegal guns, immigration reform, and infrastructure investment.

Registration
Please remember that registration is required to attend this event. The seminar is open for anyone to attend and will take place at Saïd Business School followed by a short networking drinks reception until around 7.30pm.

Please note that filming, live streaming and photography will be taking place during this event. By entering and participating you are giving your permission to be recorded and for the School to us the media in future.