Giles Dawson: curator’s talk. As part of the centenary celebrations in 2017, Giles Dawson has put together an exhibition at St Cross about the life and work of George Malcolm (1917-1997), harpsichordist and conductor.

Unlocking Archives is an interdisciplinary graduate seminar series of illustrated lunchtime talks about current research in Balliol College’s historic collections. The Historic Collections Centre in St Cross Church is next door to Holywell Manor and across the road from the English & Law faculties on Manor Road. These talks are free and open to the public. Feel free to bring your lunch. The talk will last about half an hour, to allow time for questions and discussion afterwards, and a look at the exhibition, drawn from George Malcolm’s extensive archive at Balliol College.

Although criteria for identifying autism have been established based on behavioral factors, researchers are still exploring and developing models to describe the cognitive and affective differences that lead to the known behaviors. Some of these models offer competing ways of understanding autism; some simply describe characteristics of autism. Significantly, these models tend to involve cognitive functions that are also cited in accounts of moral responsibility. This suggests that autism may be a reason not to blame an autistic person for some actions that transgress social, ethical, or legal expectations even when we would certainly blame a neurotypical person for the same action. Whether to treat autism as exculpatory in any given circumstance appears to be influenced both by models of autism and by theories of moral responsibility. This talk will focus on a limited range of theories: autism as characterized in terms of executive function deficit, and moral responsibility based on access to appropriate reactive attitudes. In pursuing this particular combination of ideas, I do not intend to endorse them. The goal is, instead, to explore the implications of this combination of influential ideas about autism and about moral responsibility. These implications can be quite serious and practical for autists and those who interact directly with autists, as well as for broader communities as they attend to the fair, compassionate, and respectful treatment of increasing numbers of autistic adults.

Public event, all welcome. Booking essential.

2:00 pm, Registration

2:30 – 4:00 pm, Choral workshop

An opportunity to enjoy choral singing in a welcoming and friendly environment. John Warner (Oxford Conducting Institute) and Joshua Asokan (Junior Conducting Scholar) will lead a rehearsal of some well-known madrigals and choral songs by Morley, Finzi, Stanford, Vaughan-Williams, and others. To include the St Anne’s College Grace, composed by Dr John Traill in 2016.

2:30 – 4:00 pm, St Anne’s Camerata Open Rehearsal

Ahead of their evening recital, see the St Anne’s Camerata in rehearsal, conducted by Dr John Traill.

4:00 – 4:30 pm, Tea and coffee break

4:30 – 5:30 pm, Lectures

Professor Martyn Harry: ‘My Exercise Book and other projects’
Dr Alexandra Buckle: ‘Reburying Britain’s most notorious king: music, liturgy and practicalities’

5:30 – 6:00 pm, Tea and coffee break

6:00 – 6:45 pm, Recital: St Anne’s Camerata

A varied programme that mixes traditional repertoire with St Anne’s strengths in composition. The programme will include works by Elgar, Grieg, Sibelius, Martyn Harry (Tutorial Fellow), and Richard English (2nd year undergraduate). Conducted by Dr John Traill.

6:45 – 7:15 pm, Drinks reception

7:15 – 9:15 pm, Dinner

The cost for the drinks reception and dinner is £40 per person and guests are very welcome. As this event is taking place in term time, we are unfortunately not able to offer accommodation at St Anne’s. However, the Experience Oxfordshire website (http://experienceoxfordshire.org/stay) has information on accommodation options in Oxford.

You can book to attend this event at http://tinyurl.com/StAnnesMusic2017 or please call 01865 284517 to book over the phone.

By 2050, a quarter of humanity will be African. The continent is in profound transition, the scale of which matters not just for the citizens of Africa’s 54 nations, but for the world. It is the fastest urbanising continent, and experiencing rapid industrialisation.

Its economic growth has outperformed Latin America and most developed economies over recent years, yet 55% of Africa’s labour force today is still employed in agriculture, and the challenges of peace and security continue to occupy the headlines about the continent. Six hundred million of its citizens live without access to electricity, yet by 2014 more than 80% of the population had a mobile phone.

The facts about Africa’s growth and development leave no doubt about its unique trajectory, but how will the continent navigate these changes, and how will the world engage with this unprecedented scale and pace of change?

In Oxford, new approaches are being forged to studying and understanding Africa, including the Africa-Oxford Initiative and the inclusion of Africa within Oxford Martin School’s new research theme ‘Great Transitions’. Join us on 7 March to hear from Winnie Byanyima, the Executive Director of Oxfam International, Dr Carlos Lopes, former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and current Oxford Martin Visiting Fellow, and Achim Steiner, Director of the Oxford Martin School, and be part of the debate as they discuss the range of African futures that could emerge over the coming decades.

This panel discussion will be followed by a drinks reception, all welcome

The fifth annual Ockenden International Prize for excellence in self-reliance projects among refugees and displaced people will be presented by Lord Alfred Dubs, Labour peer, on Tuesday 7th March 2017. Projects in Uganda, Egypt and Nepal will compete for the $100,000 prize. The two runners-up will each receive $25,000.

Semantics and the Resurgence of Populism

Dr Timothy Michael is a Tutorial Fellow in English Literature at Lincoln, whose research explores the intersection of literary and intellectual history in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. His first monograph – British Romanticism and the Critique of Political Reason (2016) – offers a groundbreaking analysis of how writers such as Mary Wollstonecraft and Percy Bysshe Shelley critique the faculty of reason in its political capacities to test the kinds of knowledge available to it. His current project explores the rise of philosophical criticism in the long-eighteenth century, examining how developments in rhetorical and literary theory gave rise to the institution of criticism itself.

After completing a degree in mathematics at Lincoln, Kate Smurthwaite became a political activist and award-winning stand-up comedian. Kate has performed in comedy venues around the world, and in 2013 her long running Edinburgh Fringe show – ‘The News at Kate’ – won the prestigious Three Weeks Editor’s Choice Award. She has published journalism in The Guardian and Cosmopolitan, and frequently appears on major news shows to discuss her campaign work for groups such as No More Page Three and the National Secular Society. She is also the Vice Chair and Media Spokesperson for Abortion Rights UK, and teaches stand-up comedy through the City Academy in London

David Rochat will be examining the resurgence of populism through the lens of contemporary literary theory. David completed his undergraduate degree at the University in Lausanne, Switzerland, with a year at the University of Canterbury, before working as an academic intern at the Embassy of Switzerland in Qatar. He then came to Oxford to complete his MSt in Modern Languages, and develop his research interests in postcolonialism, life-writing and theories of literature.

Africa currently has the highest disease burden of any region of the world and the least resources in terms of health personnel and health systems. But things are changing rapidly, many countries are in the process of major epidemiologic transitions with falling childhood mortality and the prospects of controlling many of the traditional infectious causes of ill health. At the same time the combined effects of economic development and rapid demographic expansion against a background of increasing urbanisation will pose enormous new challenges for the health of African populations.

In this talk Kevin Marsh, Professor of Tropical Medicine at the University of Oxford, will examine the possible trends for the health of the continent.

Come and hear J.S.Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No.6, the work which put the sound-world of two violas on the map. Discover the Russian performer-composers Vadim Borisovsky and Fyodor Druzhinin (who inspired many of Shostakovich’s chamber works) and the British performer-composer Lionel Tertis, three viola superstars whose virtuosity sparked many new compositions for the instrument.

This concert will introduce you to a wide range of works from an important chamber tradition, some familiar, others only recently unearthed, all of them innovative, energetic, and completely engaging. You are guaranteed a journey of discovery.

We look forward to seeing you there.

J.S.Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No.6
E. Rubbra: Meditations on a Byzantine Hymn
Schubert-Tertis: Allegretto
G. Jacob: Sonatina
–INTERVAL–
Benda-Borisovsky: Sonata in D major
F. Druzhinin: Sinfonie a Due

Violas: Peter Mallinson & Matthias Wiesner
Piano: Evgenia Startseva

Rio gold medallist, Grace Clough, will talk about the experience of competing at sport’s highest levels. When not studying towards an MSc in Sociology, Grace is a member of the British Rowing Squad and won gold in rowing at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio. Grace will describe the unique training regime undertaken by British paralympic athletes with the aid of a short Team GB video. Join us to find out about the Rio experience, from the gruelling preparations to the exhilaration of competing and ultimately winning. There will be ample opportunity to ask questions.

Grace visits schools to advocate better integration of disability and to encourage students to persist in the face of obstacles. Her academic research looks at the media portrayal of disability and its impacts. Her own story is inspirational. She only took up rowing in late 2013, yet in an impressive unbeaten run she was a member of the LTA mixed coxed four that won gold at the 2014 and 2015 World Championships, then won gold again at the Paralympic Games at Rio 2016. In recognition of this, Grace was honoured with the award of the MBE in the New Year’s Honours list.

Join Grace in the Mawby Room at Kellogg College from 17:30 for refreshments. The seminar will begin at 17:45. It is free and open to all, and there is no need to book.

The Diseases of Modern Life project is hosting an event on ‘Germs Revisited’.

Bad germs? Friendly bacteria? Do we need to rethink our relationships with the microscopic world? Join us for an interdisciplinary lunch time talk. All welcome. Lunch provided.

Using past and present ideas drawn from medicine, fiction, and art, Dr Emilie Taylor-Brown (Faculty of English), Dr Jamie Lorimer (School of Geography and the Environment), and Dr Nicola Fawcett (Medical Sciences Division) come together to discuss new ways of thinking about human-microbe relationships in dialogue with developing trends in microbiome studies.

The Diseases of Modern Life is supported by the European Research Council.

Jeffrey Aronson presents a light-hearted talk on spelling in systematic reviewing.

Jeff is a Consultant Physician and Clinical Pharmacologist at the Oxford University Department for Primary Health Care.

His research expertise includes methods of classifying, detecting, and reporting adverse drug reactions, including systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

This talk is part of the Meta-analysis course which is one of our Postgraduate modules in Evidence-Based Health Care.

This is a free event and members of the public are welcome to attend by registering

The Oxford Psalms Network is pleased to announce the second instalment of an ongoing series of public lectures ‘New Perspectives on the Psalms’, bringing into conversation contemporary artists, illustrators and musicians with speakers from a range of academic disciplines, including theology, literature, music and art. From the rich tradition of rabbinic commentary through the exegesis of the Church Fathers to contemporary popular song, the Psalms have always been at the core of Judaeo-Christian culture and belief. Lectures will cover topics from the earliest evidence for the singing of the Psalms in ancient Hebrew, Greek and Latin, through medieval and early Modern translations into English, French, German and other languages and intersections with other cultures and faiths, to modern responses in visual culture and music.

All lectures will take place at 6.15pm (arrival from 6.00) in the Ursell Room, Pusey House, St Giles, Oxford, followed by a drinks’ reception.

This is a public event – all are welcome!

Reuters Institute seminars “The business and practice of journalism”
The following seminars will be given at 2pm on Wednesdays, normally in the Barclay Room, Green Templeton College.
Convenors: James Painter, Richard Sambrook

Rima Marrouch, freelance journalist for Reuters, BBC, CBS, and Al Jazeera
26 Apr: ‘The enemy of my enemy is still my enemy: the polarized media landscape in Syria’

This talk will outline some of the challenges of mixed methods research and illustrate how they can be addressed in health psychology and other health research. Felicity will critically reflect on mixed methods research that she has conducted and discuss the philosophical and technical challenges of mixed methods, grounding the discussion in a brief review of methodological literature.

Mixed methods research is characterized as having philosophical and technical challenges; the former can be addressed by drawing on pragmatism, the latter by considering formal mixed methods research designs proposed in a number of design typologies. There are important differences among the design typologies which provide diverse examples of designs that health researchers can adapt for their own mixed methods research. There are also similarities; in particular, many typologies explicitly orient to the technical challenges of deciding on the respective timing of qualitative and quantitative methods and the relative emphasis placed on each method. Characteristics, strengths, and limitations of different sequential and concurrent designs are identified by reviewing a series of mixed methods projects each conducted for a different purpose.

Adapting formal mixed methods designs can help health psychologists and other health researchers address the technical challenges of mixed methods research and identify the approach that best fits the research questions and purpose. This does not obfuscate the need to address philosophical challenges of mixing qualitative and quantitative methods.

Dr Felicity Bishop is a health psychologist leading an interdisciplinary programme of mixed methods research around complementary therapies and placebo effects in health care within Psychology at the University of Southampton.

This talk is part of the Mixed Methods in Health Research module, which is part of the MSc in Evidence-Based Health Care.

This is a free event and members of the public are welcome to attend.

As part of the Surgical Grand Rounds Lecture Series, Professor François Pattou will be presenting ‘Gastric bypass; from intestinal glucose transport to diabetes. What is the expected duration?’.

François Pattou is Professor of Surgery at the Faculty of Medicine of Lille, France, and Head of the Department of General and Endocrine Surgery at Lille University Hospital. Professor Pattou also leads a research group at the University of Lille, INSERM U1190, devoted to the clinical development of biotherapies for treating diabetes and a funding member of the LABEX European Genomic Institute for Diabetes (EGID).

Reuters Institute / Nuffield College Media & Politics seminars
The following seminars will be given at 5pm on Fridays, normally in the Butler Room, Nuffield College.
Convenors: Andrew Dilnot, David Levy, James Painter

Jane Green, professor of political science, University of Manchester, and co-director of the 2015 British Election Study
28 Apr: ‘How the global financial crisis is shaping political upheavals: Reflections on UKIP, Brexit and Trump.’

The Oxford Psalms Network is pleased to announce the second instalment of an ongoing series of public lectures ‘New Perspectives on the Psalms’, bringing into conversation contemporary artists, illustrators and musicians with speakers from a range of academic disciplines, including theology, literature, music and art. From the rich tradition of rabbinic commentary through the exegesis of the Church Fathers to contemporary popular song, the Psalms have always been at the core of Judaeo-Christian culture and belief. Lectures will cover topics from the earliest evidence for the singing of the Psalms in ancient Hebrew, Greek and Latin, through medieval and early Modern translations into English, French, German and other languages and intersections with other cultures and faiths, to modern responses in visual culture and music.

All lectures will take place at 6.15pm (arrival from 6.00) in the Ursell Room, Pusey House, St Giles, Oxford, followed by a drinks’ reception.

This is a public event – all are welcome!

Reuters Institute seminars “The business and practice of journalism”
The following seminars will be given at 2pm on Wednesdays, normally in the Barclay Room, Green Templeton College.
Convenors: James Painter, Richard Sambrook

Esra Dogramaci, senior digital editor, Deutsche Welle
3 May: ‘Why Facebook matters, and what you might be getting wrong about it’

As part of the Surgical Grand Rounds lecture series, Mr James Gilbert (Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust) and Dr Simon Knight (Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, Oxford University) will discuss innovations in access surgery.

Reuters Institute / Nuffield College Media & Politics seminars
The following seminars will be given at 5pm on Fridays, normally in the Butler Room, Nuffield College.
Convenors: Andrew Dilnot, David Levy, James Painter

Isabel Oakeshott, political journalist and commentator, and author of ‘Call me Dave’
5 May: ‘From black and white to read all over – political reporting in a digital age’

Reuters Institute seminars “The business and practice of journalism”
The following seminars will be given at 2pm on Wednesdays, normally in the Barclay Room, Green Templeton College.
Convenors: James Painter, Richard Sambrook

Suzanne Franks, professor of journalism, City University, London
10 May: ‘The use of women experts in the media’

Who’s listening? Communicating research in a noisy world

Dan Richards-Doran, Communications Manager, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford

The proliferation of social and digital media tools, combined with the availability of camera-equipped smartphones, means anyone can set themselves up as an online channel. Scientists looking to disseminate their research findings now no longer have to simply rely on their press office or publisher, they have at their finger-tips a fancy toolbox of tactics to broadcast their evidence to the world, but with the increasingly crowded media landscape how can they ensure their message gets through to the right audience?

This talk will discuss who the “public” actually are and what media they consume when it comes to science. Applying basic communications planning theory, it will briefly overview how to develop a plan before embarking on any communication activity, highlighting the opportunities for getting the most out of social and traditional media and the importance of dialogue to support science communication with impact.

Dan is Communications Manager at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford. He is responsible for communicating the Department’s research communications and supporting researchers to communicate their work.

This talk is part of the Knowledge into Action module, which is part of the MSc in Evidence-Based Health Care.

This is a free event and members of the public are welcome to attend.

Women are seriously underrepresented as composers, engineers, scholars and creators. In academia, for instance, 90% of applicants for undergraduate music technology courses were reported to be male (Born & Devine, 2015). Indeed, similar figures persist throughout all quarters of the music industry, as seen for instance at the Proms where over 90% of composers programmed are typically male (Women in Music, 2016).

Our talk explains how all-women spaces provide a possibility for change. We introduce socioculturally-framed research on collaborative learning (e.g., Claxton & Wells, 2002) and collaborative creativity (e.g., John-Steiner & Mahn, 2002), and relate stories of community orientated interventions for confidence building, risk taking and learning which led to the creation of the Yorkshire Sound Women Network in 2015. We subsequently outline the measurable achievements, narratives and insights gained from an all-women approach as a meaningful portal for change.

Dr Amy V Beeston

I am a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Sheffield, working in the ‘Speech and Hearing’ and ‘Music Mind Machine’ research groups. I develop tools to extract meaningful data from audio signals, and am particularly interested in using principles of human audition to improve the performance of machine listeners in everyday environments.

Dr Liz Dobson

I am a senior lecturer in music technology at the University of Huddersfield with an OU PhD in education and social psychology. My academic work examines relationships between community, learning and creative practice in music technology, leading me to create informal communities for knowledge sharing.

Reuters Institute / Nuffield College Media & Politics seminars
The following seminars will be given at 5pm on Fridays, normally in the Butler Room, Nuffield College.
Convenors: Andrew Dilnot, David Levy, James Painter

Frances Stead Sellers, senior writer, Washington Post
12 May: ‘Talking to Trump’

Reuters Institute seminars “The business and practice of journalism”
The following seminars will be given at 2pm on Wednesdays, normally in the Barclay Room, Green Templeton College.
Convenors: James Painter, Richard Sambrook

Tom Standage, deputy editor, the Economist
17 May: ‘News in the digital age, and how The Economist fits in’

Reuters Institute / Nuffield College Media & Politics seminars
The following seminars will be given at 5pm on Fridays, normally in the Butler Room, Nuffield College.
Convenors: Andrew Dilnot, David Levy, James Painter

Kate O’Regan, director of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, Faculty of Law, and former constitutional court judge in South Africa
19 May: ‘Media freedom and free speech in South Africa’

Trials registries are a relatively new phenomenon and are there to ensure that a complete view of research is accessible to all. Yet, half off all trial results go unreported.

The talk will discuss the important of registries the evidence in the registry that matters and discuss how the CEBM and EBM Datalab are working with the WHO to improve clinical trial transparency

Professor Carl Heneghan is an advisor to the World Health Organization’s International Clinical; Trial Registry Platform and co-founder of AllTrials.

CANCELLED

Reuters Institute seminars “The business and practice of journalism”
The following seminars will be given at 2pm on Wednesdays, normally in the Barclay Room, Green Templeton College.
Convenors: James Painter, Richard Sambrook

Jim Waterson, deputy editor, BuzzFeed UK
24 May: ‘How BuzzFeed covers news’

A book colloquium featuring Stuart H Newberger, an international lawyer who represented victims of the terrorist plot hatched by Colonal Qaddafi that brought down French Airlines Flight 772. His latest book The Forgotten Flight: Terrorism, Diplomacy and the Pursuit of Justice tells the story of how he fought for justice for seven of the 170 people killed in one of the deadliest acts of terrorism in history.

This real-life legal thriller combines the international intrigue of le Carré with the courtroom drama of John Grisham, and asks how we can bring leaders of sovereign nations to account for their crimes.

For the first time, Stuart Newberger reveals how French investigators cracked the case and takes us inside the courtroom to witness the litigation against the Libyan state that followed. In the age of globalization, The Forgotten Flight provides a fascinating insight into the pursuit of justice across international borders.

Stuart H. Newberger is a senior partner at international law firm Crowell & Moring. His practice handles complex international disputes, many involving the actions of governments. He lives in McLean, Virginia.

Praise for The Forgotten Flight:

“Gripping, shocking, forensic: a true legal thriller that captured me entirely.”
Philippe Sands, author of East West Street

“In the war against terrorism, lawyers can make a difference. A must read for all those interested in how the rule of law can be an important weapon in the ongoing struggle.”
Kenneth Feinberg, former Special Master of the Federal September 11th Victim Compensation Fund

Launch and discussion of Mari Mikkola’s new book, ‘The Wrong of Injustice: Dehumanization and its Role in Feminist Philosophy’