Dani Linton has coordinated box checks looking for bat roosts rather than bird nests across Wytham Woods for over a decade, amassing a dataset of over 2500 day roosts, containing seven species and c.18,000 bat occupations. This talk will provide an introduction to her research on the social organisation, breeding ecology, and population dynamics, of woodland bats.

Dr Jim Harris will discuss ways of breaking down the overwhelming experience of the large-scale museum in order to make it not only manageable, but enjoyable and useful.

For 30 years, Professor John Runions has used microscopes to explore myriad miniature realms. His research into how cells function reveals the hidden beauty of the natural world in striking detail.

Now we are faced with the problem of feeding an ever-growing world population. John’s research is shedding light on how plants perceive pathogen threats so that we are better able to ensure a food supply for future generations.

John is Professor in the Department of Biological and Medical Sciences at Oxford Brookes University.

The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism is pleased to invite you to join us for a panel discussion to mark the launch of a new UN-published handbook designed to tackle the global “disinformation war” – a “war” in which journalists and journalism have become prime targets.

Featuring guest speakers:
Alan Rusbridger, Principal of Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford, and former Editor in Chief of the Guardian
Inga Thordar, Executive Editor (Digital) CNN International
Julie Posetti, Co-author Journalism, ‘Fake News’ & Disinformation (UNESCO 2018), Senior Research Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford
Professor Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford
Thomas Hughes, Executive Director, Article 19

In a global-first act of collaborative research and knowledge sharing involving leading international experts, the UN has published a new handbook that aims to help equip journalism to tackle the scourge of ‘information disorder’. The book, Journalism, ‘Fake News’ & Disinformation, was edited by Julie Posetti, Senior Research Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, and Cherilyn Ireton, Executive Director of the World Editors Forum.

The handbook was commissioned by the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in the context of growing international concern about a “disinformation war” — a “war” in which news reporters are now targets. This targeting — by “strongman” politicians and deceptive corporate actors, from Trump to Duterte, Cambridge Analytica to Bell Pottinger — makes fighting back against weaponized information mission critical for journalism.

The book is free to download here.
You can read about the book at Nieman Lab.

Timings:
17:30 – 19:00 Panel Discussion
19:00 -19:30 Drinks Reception

Prime numbers have intrigued, inspired and infuriated mathematicians for millennia. Dr Vicky Neale (University of Oxford) explores the very different ways in which prime number breakthroughs are made.

Amanda Jewell will take you on a tour of our exhibition:

‘Contrasting Arabia’

A contemporary photographic and film journey through the Zaatari Refugee Camp photographed by Anthony Dawton and Jim McFarlane – filmed by Mais Salman and Zaid Baqaeen in contrast with the mid 20th century photographs of Wilfred Thesiger”

Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin is a master of collage, and has made a treasure trove of films that testify to his profound knowledge and love of cinema, and of re-purposing found footage. Originally commissioned by the Documentary Channel, My Winnipeg tells the story of Maddin’s home city from the point of view of a narrator who is desperate to leave the snow and nostalgia of its clutches. This talk explores the ways in which myth, folklore and urban legend contribute to a portrait of the city that is both true and false. It follows the red herrings, the reconstructions and pathways through Winnipeg as narrated by Darcy Fehr who plays Maddin on screen. It considers the gaps and fissures in the dialogue, and the ways in which voice-over narration enters the realm of fantasy while adhering to documentary conventions. What, we might ask, of the ‘rejected narration’? All will be revealed. Finally the talk will discuss the collage of sound and image in provoking emotional and phenomenological reactions to spaces, both real and imagined.

How does consciousness come about, and how can the brain create a world even when it is disconnected from the environment? Consciousness never fades when we are awake. However, when awakened from sleep, we sometimes recall dreams and sometimes recall no experiences. Traditionally, dreaming has been identified with rapid eye-movement (REM) sleep, characterized by wake-like, globally ‘activated’, high-frequency EEG activity. However, dreaming also occurs in non-REM (NREM) sleep, characterized by prominent low-frequency activity. Recent work using no-task, within-state paradigms has identified a ‘posterior hot zone’ where the EEG must be activated for subjects to experience dreams. Localized, content-specific activations occur depending on whether one dreams of faces, places, movement, and speech. These findings highlight the likely neural substrate of our own experiences and suggest some of the necessary and sufficient conditions for consciousness.

We are all entitled to participate fully in society, but people with disabilities routinely face barriers which can make this an insurmountable challenge. Ossie and Alex will explore, with the audience, how to turn rights into reality for people with disabilities.
Some of the questions they will be addressing are:
Where are the disabled leaders?
How do we think of leadership and disability?
How can organisations shift the mindset and culture in how leadership is viewed and understood?
Ossie is an Equality & Diversity Consultant with several years’ experience as a trainer and specialist adviser. Alex is a founding director of the Oxford University Disability Law and Policy Project.
This event is part of Disability History Month 2018 at Brookes.

‘Noh’ is classical Japanese theatre, which combines elements of dance, drama, music and poetic text into a highly aesthetic form of art that has been performed continuously for 650 years. In contrast to its minimalist stage, ‘noh’ uses elaborate costumes and exquisitely carved wooden masks such as those acquired at Pitt Rivers Museum from master mask-maker Hideta Kitazawa. This illustrated talk by Jannette Cheong is designed to introduce the key elements of classical ‘noh’. It will be followed by a reading of Jannette’s new ‘noh’ ‘Between the Stones’, which is being prepared for performance, to give a close up and interactive experience of the challenges of developing a new ‘noh’ ‘from page to stage’, using traditional techniques.
Come and join us for this fascinating opportunity to get ‘under the skin’ of this rare UK artist’s work. As the first British person to write a ‘noh’ using traditional techniques, Jannette will unravel the mysteries of this exquisite classical theatre form as she begins her third collaboration with Richard Emmert, and second collaboration with members of the Oshima Noh Theatre family.

Featuring a range of speakers and artists, and a showing of the film ‘The Proud Valley’.

Unpacking the mysteries of film and broadcast finance and distribution with Oxford’s award winning Producer, Victor Glynn in conversation with his Producer son Phin Glynn. The talk will be followed by a Q & A.

Victor muses:

“My, how times times have changed. It is so much easier these days for a would be film maker given the generally accessible technology. There are so many platforms to choose between – from Netflix and Amazon to You Tube and i-tunes. Who needs the major studios and broadcasters anymore?

Really?”

The father and son producers will share their experiences and thoughts in what we know will be an entertaining and informative way.

Victor is a Prix Europa award-winning film producer whose work has been regularly distributed by companies such as Sony, Warner’s and Universal and shown on HBO, CBS, BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and more recently Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Phin has produced six films in the last two years – the first, “Mad to be Normal”, from director Robert Mullan, starred David Tennant and Elisabeth Moss, and won best international film at the Galway Film Festival. The most recent “Waiting for Anya” was an adaptation of the Michael Morpurgo novel of the same name starring Jean Reno, Anjelica Huston and Stranger Things’ Noah Schnapp.

Stand-ups and experts look at the funnier side of Bacteria

In case you missed this sellout show in the Autumn as part of the Museum of Natural History’s Bacteria exhibition our comedians and experts will be bringing you their deepest and funniest thoughts on microbes, disease, and of course bacteria (again). Hosted by Alex Farrow “An engaging and entertaining pairing of learning and good humour!” ★★★★ The Latest. “Jaw achingly funny” ★★★★ Oxford Mail “A roaring success at creating vibrant comedy shows across Oxfordshire” ★★★★ The Oxford Times

This is a one-off repeat of the show at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History in Autumn, although the line up may be subject to slight

‘Making decisions and choices about health and social care need access to high-quality evidence from research. Systematic reviews provide this by both highlighting the quality of existing studies and by themselves providing a high-quality summary’.- Mike Clarke and Iain Chalmers [1]

Iain Chalmers, Carl Heneghan and Kamal Mahtani will talk about the history and development of systematic reviews, their current delivery and the shortcomings in current review production and the future directions of systematic reviews, including the launch of CEBM’s Evidence Synthesis Toolkit.

Sir Iain Chalmers: James Lind Library and Fellow of CEBM
Kamal Mahtani: Associate Professor and Director of the MSc in Systematic Reviews
Carl Heneghan: Professor of EBM and Director CEBM

This talk is being held as part of the Practice of Evidence-Based Health Care course which is part of the Evidence-Based Health Care Programme. This is a free event and members of the public are welcome to attend.

[1] Clarke M, Chalmers I Reflections on the history of systematic reviews. BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine 2018;23:121-122.

Blackwell’s are delighted to be hosting a very special event with Tom Kibasi on Prosperity and Justice: A Plan for the New Economy. The Final Report of the IPPR Commission on Economic Justice.

The UK economy is broken. It no longer provides rising living standards for the majority. Young people face an increasingly insecure future. The gap between rich and poor areas is widening. Meanwhile the rise of giant digital companies, the advance of automation, and catastrophic environmental degradation challenge the very foundations of our economic model.

This important book analyses these profound challenges and sets out a bold vision for change. The report of a group of leading figures from across British society, it explains how the deep weaknesses of the UK economy reflect profound imbalances of economic power. Its radical policy agenda for the 2020s includes new missions to drive productivity and innovation, an overhaul of our financial system, and reforms to improve wages, job quality and the redistribution of wealth.

Ten years after the financial crisis, as the UK confronts the challenge of Brexit, this is an urgent and compelling account of the reforms needed to build a new economy of prosperity, justice and environmental sustainability. It will set the terms of political and economic debate for years to come

Tom Kibasi is Director of the Institute for Public Policy Research, Chair of the IPPR Commission on Economic Justice and a principal author and editor of the Commission’s final report, ‘Prosperity and Justice: A Plan for the New Economy’. Under Tom’s leadership, IPPR has had significant impact in areas ranging from the real choices on Brexit, recasting the relationship between tech and society, and the funding and reform of the health and care system. Prior to joining IPPR, Tom spent more than a decade at McKinsey and Company, where he was a partner and held leadership roles in the healthcare practice in both London and New York. Tom helped government institutions with healthcare reform across a dozen countries in five continents and served international institutions, such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and international foundations including the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Tickets cost £5. The doors will open at 6:45pm where there will be a bar with a selection of drinks to purchase until 7pm. For all enquiries please email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk or call our Customer Service Department on 01865 333623.

Come and hear Rachel Sanderson, Land Officer from the Oxford Preservation Trust talk about how the flood alleviation scheme might help cycling. In theory this could be the cycling route from Botley to Sandford and so very valuable to us. This talk is in advance of the the planning application for the Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme which is being considered by Oxfordshire County Council. The planning application closes on 22nd so this talk will help inform our submission.

As part of our ‘For Learning. For Life’ series we will be hosting three weekly Oxford University Press Very Short Introduction talks, starting on Wednesday 16th January with Paul Luna ‘Typography – A Very Short Introduction’.

Typography, the art of designing printed words, touches our life now more than ever. The widespread use of mobile phones, tablets and social media means that we are regularly asked to make decisions about the fonts, sizes, and layouts we use in our writing. We now see typography as a way to express our personalities rather than just make our writing legible. Paul Luna offers a broad definition of typography as design for reading, whether in print or on screens, where a set of visual choices are taken to make a written message more accessible, more easily transmitted, more significant, or more attractive.

Professor Ian Goldin, Director of Oxford Martin Programme on Technological and Economic Change, will identify the economic impact of migration and examine how the contribution that migrants make has been overwhelmed by the politics. As Chair of the www.core-econ.org initiative to reform economics, Ian will locate the economics of migration within the broader need to reform economics.

Talk followed by questions and discussion. All welcome.

This is the first of a series of weekly talks. The full list is:

Brexit: archaic techniques of ecstasy
Thursday 17 January: 7:30pm–9:00pm
Wesley Memorial Church (New Inn Hall St)

Shamanism: taking back control
Thursday 24 January: 7:30pm–9:00pm
Wesley Memorial Church (New Inn Hall St)

Tithe, timber, and the persistence of the ancien régime
Thursday 31 January: 7:30pm–9:00pm
Oxford Town Hall (St Aldates)

Hegelian dialectics and the prime numbers (part 2)
Thursday 7 February: 7:30pm–9:00pm
Wesley Memorial Church (New Inn Hall St)

Christopher Caudwell (1907–1937) and ‘the sources of poetry’
Thursday 14 February: 7:30pm–9:00pm
Wesley Memorial Church (New Inn Hall St)

Television: remote control
Thursday 21 February: 7:30pm–9:00pm
Wesley Memorial Church (New Inn Hall St)

Fascism and populism: can you spot the difference?
Thursday 28 February: 7:30pm–9:00pm
Wesley Memorial Church (New Inn Hall St)

The epos of everyday life
Thursday 7 March: 7:30pm–9:00pm
Wesley Memorial Church (New Inn Hall St)

As part of the Surgical Grand Rounds lecture series, hosted by the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, Professor Amir Ghaferi from the University Michigan in the USA, will discuss ‘Communication in Healthcare: A Failure in Need of Rescue?’

Blackwell’s are delighted to be hosting Roger Riddell for the launch of his latest book and debut novel Tapestries of Difference.

Tapestries of Difference is a gripping love story starting and ending in contemporary London but which journeys to Africa, where it captures the alluring beauty and harshness of today’s Zimbabwe and uncovers deceptions about the past which in all other circumstances ought to be forgotten. It is also a tale of both personal identity and what it means to be British today as the country confronts issues of faith and religion, race and ethnicity as it strives to weave a tapestry of core values to bind people together.

Roger Riddell lived in Zimbabwe for many years, chairing the first Presidential Economic Commission after Independence in 1980. After returning to England, Roger worked at the Overseas Development Institute before becoming a Director of Oxford Policy Management to which he is still affiliated. From 1999 to 2003 he was the International Director of Christian Aid. He has published widely on Zimbabwean and wider development issues. His most recent academic book, Does Foreign Aid Really Work? (Oxford University Press, 2008), has sold in excess of 15,000 copies.

All attendees are entitled to a complimentary glass of wine after which there will be a bar available to purchase drinks.

This event is free to attend, but spaces are limited, so please do register your interest. Doors will open at 6.45pm. For all enquiries please email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk or call our Customer Service Department on 01865 333623.

Animal studies, biblical ecology, ecofeminism, animism and more… Our Religious Ecologies and New Materialisms reading group will be continuing this term on Mondays of even weeks (12-1.30pm), starting next Monday with Ken Stone’s recent book ‘Reading the Hebrew Bible with Animal Studies’. Texts provided and feel free to bring your lunch.

The advent of super-resolution microscopy has created unprecedented opportunities to study the mammalian central nervous system, which is dominated by anatomical structures whose nanoscale dimensions critically influence their biophysical properties. I will present our recent methodological advances 1) to analyze dendritic spines in the hippocampus in vivo and 2) to visualize the extracellular space (ECS) of the brain. Using a two-photon–STED microscope equipped with a long working distance objective and ‘hippocampal window’ to reach this deeply embedded structure, we measured the density and turnover of spines on CA1 pyramidal neurons. Spine density was two times higher than reported by conventional two-photon microscopy; around 40% of all spines turned over within 4 days. A combination of 3D-STED microscopy and fluorescent labeling of the extracellular fluid allows super-resolution shadow imaging (SUSHI) of the ECS in living brain slices. SUSHI enables quantitative analyses of ECS structure and produces sharp negative images of all cellular structures, providing an unbiased view of unlabeled brain cells in live tissue.

If you’re planning to make some changes in the New Year, then we have the perfect talk for you. Blackwell’s are delighted to be welcoming Marianne Power to the shop to give a talk on her new book, Help Me!

Marianne Power was stuck in a rut. Then one day she wondered: could self-help books help her find the elusive perfect life?

She decided to test one book a month for a year, following their advice to the letter. What would happen if she followed the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People? Really felt The Power of Now? Could she unearth The Secret to making her dreams come true?

What begins as a clever experiment becomes an achingly poignant story. Because self-help can change your life – but not necessarily for the better…

Help Me! is an irresistibly funny and incredibly moving book about a wild and ultimately redemptive journey that will resonate with anyone who’s ever dreamed of finding happiness.

Abstract:
This presentation explores two workforces at the bottom of the coercive apparatus of the colonial state in Bengal in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These are police constables, and village watchmen, also called chaukidars. The two workforces presented a stark contrast. The colonial constabulary was always a thin presence in Indian society, while a much larger workforce of chaukidars existed throughout the countryside. However, chaukidars were never absorbed as direct employees of the government in the way the constables were. While constables were paid salaries out of the budget of the provincial government, chaukidars were paid salaries out of a locally raised chaukidari tax. Constables had a substantial number of upper caste workers in their ranks. All chaukidars were lower caste workers. In this presentation, I will explore how this segmentation of security work emerged in the apparatus of colonial policing and what it reveals about the nature of the colonial police.

About the Speaker:
Partha Pratim Shil is a Junior Research Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge. He is interested in labour history and state formation in South Asia.

Learn something new for the New Year with our ‘For Learning, For Life’ series. As part of this we will be hosting three weekly Oxford University Press Very Short Introduction talks, continuing with Laura Marcus, ‘Autobiography: A Very Short Introduction’.

Autobiography is one of the most popular of written forms. From Casanova to Benjamin Franklin to the Kardashians, individuals throughout history have recorded their own lives and experiences. These records serve as invaluable resources to historians, psychologists and literary critics. Laura Marcus explores what we mean by ‘autobiography’ and how it overlaps with other literary forms such as letters, essays and even fiction. Learn about the autobiographical consciousness and how autobiography interacts with psycholanalysis.

Talk by Dr Thea Gomelauri

Social housing has it’s roots in the recognition of housing as a human right. However, for almost a Century now, this has been overshadowed by its use as a political football. Successive governments have used social housing to win votes, control publics, demonise groups along lines of class and race and to line their own pockets.

As the cost of renting or owning a home on the open market soars, support for the poorest citizens does not. The freeze in local housing benefit until 2020 means that the private rental market is increasingly out of reach and households are increasingly turning to the Council in need of affordable housing.

In the grip of a homelessness crisis, there is an increasing recognition in Oxford that homelessness is a housing issue. So how about housing as a human right and what is the role of social housing in Oxford today?

Join us at Open House Oxford from 19.30 – 21.00 with speakers John Boughton, Kate Wareing, Eileen Short and Shaista Aziz to explore the history of social housing, the current situation in Oxford and what the future might look like.

Our speakers
John Boughton is author of Municipal dreams, an excavation of housing histories in Britain which draws on ideas from the past to knit together fresh narratives on how building more social housing can offer a way through the current housing crisis.

Municipal Dreams was selected by The Guardian’s architecture critic Rowan Moore as one of the best books of 2018. The book explores many of the great debates on housing in the UK including housing as a human right, the role of the state, the development of estates, the role of the planner and the legacy of Right to Buy.

As Chief Executive of SOHA (South Oxford Housing Association), Kate Wareing is at the forefront of providing affordable housing in and around Oxfordshire. With a career including time spent as Director of the UK Poverty Programme at Oxfam GB, Kate has an expert knowledge of both the struggle that Oxford’s poorest citizens face in trying to make this city their home and the challenges housing providers face in building homes available for social rent.

Eileen Short is part of the Defend Council Housing Campaign which works to keep council housing under local authority control. She is a fierce advocate for the rights of social tenants.

The evening will be chaired by Shaista Aziz, labour councillor for Rose Hill and Iffley, Co-Vice Chair of the Fabien Women’s Network and Co-Founder of Intersectional Feminist Foreign Policy and the Uninvited Women Journal.

Tickets are free but you must register to attend.

You can read our accessibility guidance on our website but please do not hesitate to contact us directly if you have any specific needs or if there is anything we can do to make your visit more comfortable. As with all events at Open House we are happy to pay bus fare for anyone who needs it, please just let one of our volunteers know.