There seems to be a growing consensus that previous assumptions about the long term consequences of China’s rise have turned out to be misplaced. Rather than China becoming ‘socialised’ into the liberal global order (and democratising at home), a China challenge to that order is instead being identified. This is seen not just as a challenge to the distribution of power within the current system, but to some of the fundamental norms and principles that underpin it, as well as to the theories and concepts that are used to try to understand it and predict future behaviour.  Of course, some always expected it to be this way; however, others now see a Chinese ability and willingness to promote alternatives that they didn’t envisage even a decade ago.
This presentation explores how what were originally designed as defensive norms and theories for China itself have transformed into putative platforms that might have salience and utility for others outside China. The paper suggests that the Chinese position may better be understood as a critique of universalism rather than the basis of an alternative world order. It also asks whether there is more than just an aspirational dimension to new Chinese thinking on international relations built on a form of “Occidentalism”, or if we can identify a real and distinct Chinese approach to both its own international relations and the nature of the world order itself.
—
Shaun Breslin is Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick and a leading British academic expert on Chinese politics and economy, globalization, regionalism, global governance, and International Political Economy. Professor Breslin is also an Associate Fellow of the Asia Research Centre based at Murdoch University and an Honorary Professorial Fellow at the Centre for European Studies, Renmin University. In 2010, he became an Associate Fellow in the Asia Programme of Chatham House. Professor Breslin is Co-Editor of The Pacific Review and sits on the Editorial Committee of the Review of International Studies, China and World Economy, and the Fudan Review of International Relations.

– GPES Seminar Series – Oxford Brookes

We are delighted to welcome Professor Greg Claeys, lecturer from Royal Holloway University, and author of “Dystopias: A Natural History” to speak at the Classics Centre about Dystopian Fiction. He will speak between 3.30 – and 4pm, followed by questions, drinks, and an opportunity to look at ideas for utopian and dystopian fiction created by our Year Eight students, who have been exploring ideal and dystopian societies from Plato’s Republic onwards.

From 4.30 – 6.15pm, we will then have a community viewing of the 2010 dystopian romantic drama “Never Let Me Go”, based on the award-winning novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. This film has a 12 rating.

Abstract:
Current commentary in legal and political philosophy conceptualises political parties either as private organisations, immune from legal regulation in their internal affairs, or as quasi-public institutions, where the state may justifiably mandate certain internal regulations. I argue that, in jurisdictions with anti-defection laws, neither conception accounts for the normative status of the political party. Instead, the party ought to be conceptualised as a legislative actor. This paper then examines how conceptualising the party in this way can affect the way in which we understand the relationship between the law and a party. I explore three possible avenues of legal regulation of parties: the process of candidate selection, the selection of party leaders, and interaction between a party and its parliamentary wing. I argue that conceptualising the party as a legislative entity has the most salient implications for the third of these: the interaction between the extra-parliamentary organisation and the parliamentary party.
About the Speaker:
Udit Bhatia is a Junior Research Fellow in Politics at Jesus College and Lecturer in Political Theory at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford. His research interests lie at the intersections of democratic theory, social epistemology and constitutional law. He is currently working on the ethics of partisanship and the regulation of political parties.

Two-thousand and nineteen marks the centenary of the Addison Act, the housing legislation which realised Lloyd-George’s ‘Homes fit for Heroes’ and the start of a nationwide system of state-owned housing that has lasted most of the 20th Century. Half a million homes were promised and a system of open-ended Treasury grants were made available to local councils to build.

One hundred years have now passed since local authorities in the UK where given the responsibility and the resource to provide decent housing for the working person. Whilst the responsibility remains, the conditions under which housing is to be provided have undergone a seismic shift.

Join us from 19.30 – 21.00 on Thursday 21st February as we explore how the cities of London and Oxford are working to meet this responsibility and provide decent housing for working class people.

We’ll be joined by Sian Berry, Co-Leader of the Green Party, Local Councillor for Camden and Chair of the London Assembly’s Housing Committee and Stephen Clarke, Head of Housing and Property Services for Oxford City Council.

Tickets are free but you must register to attend.

We strive to make all events at Open House as accessible as possible. You can read more about the venue on our website. If there is anything we can do to make your visit more comfortable then please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Talk followed by questions and discussion

All welcome

This is the latest in a series of eight 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)

The day will consist of a range of events, hosted by speakers from different areas of STEM and industry. Expect to hear from keynote speakers, engage with panel discussions, and get hands on experience in smaller workshops focusing on entrepreneurship, outreach, disabilities and more.

Don’t miss out on hearing from a range of speakers, including: Dr. Chonnettia Jones, Director of Insight and Analysis at the Wellcome Trust; Prof. Daniela Bortoletto, Professor of Physics at Brasenose; plus Oxford’s own Vice Chancellor, Louise Richardson.

Everyone is welcome, regardless of gender, year and subject.

For more information visit OxFEST’s facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/294126621288050/

An afternoon of celebration and debate marking the legacy of former Cabinet Secretary Jeremy Heywood.

– GPES Seminar Series, Oxford Brookes University

Talk followed by questions and discussion

We need to talk about Brexit. This crisis which affects all our lives is now evolving day by day, in the balance between danger and hope. Our actions can still affect the outcome. Join us to discuss how.
Oxford for Europe, while now preparing for what may be the greatest ever UK public demonstration on March 23rd, is hosting the latest in its series of high-profile public panel debates on Brexit, the impact of Brexit and how Brexit can be stopped.

Chief Philologist of the Oxford English Dictionary Edmund Weiner will be presenting his talk, “Thew Grew out of their Name” to the Oxford Tolkien Society

Entry free for members, £2 for non-members

“Many words and names in Tolkien’s words seem to have had a complex inner history in his own mind. This talk will look at how Tolkien’s creative philological mind worked. It will be an unhasty ramble around Ent country, looking at names and topics of language construction and language theory, with even a quick visit to Humpty Dumpty!”

This is a joint lecture with The Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health at the Oxford Martin School

Cooling is critical for many of the sustainable development goals, including those relating to health, shelter, livelihoods, education and nutrition. As the world’s population grows, as disposable incomes grow and as urban areas grow, the need for cooling is booming. However cooling uses super polluting gases and large amounts of energy and is therefore a significant cause of climate change. More efficient, clean cooling has the potential to avoid up to a degree of warming by the end of the century and recently all governments came together to agree action to try to maximize this opportunity. Cooling sits at the intersection of the UNFCCC, the SDGs and the Montreal Protocol, but can these forces ensure success?

Dan Hamza-Goodacre will explain the risks and possibilities in the search for sustainable cooling for all.

This talk will be followed by a drinks reception, all welcome

ScreenTalk Oxfordshire proudly presents an evening with British Producer Jeremy Thomas. Jeremy has worked with renowned directors including Bertolucci, Nicolas Roeg, Jonathan Glazer and Ben Wheatley producing such great films as ‘The Last Emperor’, ‘Crash’, ‘Sexy Beast’ and ‘High-Rise’.

On Tuesday 5th March at the Lounge Bar, Curzon, Westgate Centre in Oxford, local producer Carl Schoenfeld will be talking to Jeremy Thomas about Directors, Actors, Crews as well as films he has produced and what he has learnt throughout his career.

Join us from 18:15 for a drink and chat in the bar, then at 19:00 with Carl Schoenfeld (ScreenTalk Co-Founder and Steering Group Member) in conversation with Jeremy Thomas (Recorded Picture Company).

There will be a Card/Cash Bar so join us after the talk to catch up and network.

ScreenTalk events are an opportunity to forge and strengthen contacts in Film, TV and Associated Media. For further information and to sign up to our mailing list please email screentalkoxfordshire@gmail.com

We expect this event to be popular and can only take pre-booked (free) tickets for entry.
Tickets: http://bit.ly/2GnlZhi

This talk has been cancelled. Sorry.

Talk followed by questions and discussion

VAL MCDERMID – A Life Of Crime, chaired by Nicolette Jones (The Sunday Times)
Dubbed the Queen of Crime, Val McDermid has sold over 15 million books to date across the globe and is translated into over 40 languages. She is perhaps best known for her ‘Wire in the Blood’ series, featuring clinical psychologist Dr Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan, which was adapted for television starring Robson Green. She has written three other series: private detective Kate Brannigan, journalist Lindsay Gordon and, most recently, cold case detective Karen Pirie. She has also published in several award-winning standalone novels, two books of non-fiction, two short story collections and a children’s picture book, ‘My Granny is a Pirate’.

The Global Politics, Economy and Society (GPES) Research Centre at Oxford Brookes will be hosting its first annual lecture, given by the writer and activist George Monbiot. All welcome, but please book via the registration link.

St Hilda’s Writers’ Day 2019 marks its 10th year as the only College to hold its own day of lectures at the Oxford Literary Festival. All authors are College members or alumnae.

CLAIRE HARMAN – Murder By The Book: A Sensational Chapter In Victorian Crime. chaired by Claire Armitstead (The Guardian and the Observer)
When the accused murderer of Lord William Russell blamed the crime on his reading, he fueled an ongoing debate about the appalling damage ‘low’ books could do. This fascinating study details the controversy around William Harrison Ainsworth’s Jack Sheppard, the murder of Russell and the way it affected many of the leading writers of the day, including Dickens and Thackeray. Harman unpacks the evidence, reveals the gossip and the surprisingly literary background to this gory crime.

Chair: Claire Armitstead (The Guardian and the Observer)

KIRSTY GUNN – Action Writing, chaired by Claire Armitstead (The Guardian and the Observer)
Kirsty Gunn is an internationally awarded writer who published her first novel with Faber in 1994 and since then eight works of fiction, including short stories, as well as a collection of fragments and meditations, and essays. Her latest novel is the acclaimed ‘Caroline’s Bikini’. She is Professor of Writing Practice and Study at the University of Dundee.

TESS STIMSON – From Adultery to Murder: A Shorter Journey Than You Think, chaired by Nicolette Jones (The Sunday Times)
Tess Stimson is the British author of ten novels, including top-ten bestseller ‘The Adultery Club’. In 2002, she was appointed Professor of Creative Writing at the University of South Florida. She is transitioning into writing psychological suspense fiction, writing as TJ Stimson. Her first novel in this genre, ‘Picture of Innocence’, is to be published by Avon in Spring 2019.

Anthony Horowitz will be talking about his latest James Bond novel Forever and A Day at Blackwell’s Westgate on Tuesday 9th April at 7pm.

Anthony will be talking about talking about 007 and taking up the Ian Fleming mantle as well as his many other novels. He has written over 40 books including the bestselling teen spy series Alex Rider.

Tickets include a copy of Forever and a Day and are on sale now.

Organised by Oxford Civic Society @oxcivicsoc. Should we prioritise the Green Belt or new homes for Oxford? In this, the first of a series of public debates to mark the 50th anniversary of Oxford Civic Society, Bob Price, former leader of the City Council, will argue that the release of Green Belt land to meet housing need can benefit the common good without undermining the enduring purposes of the Green Belt. His view will be keenly contested by Mike Tyce, Trustee of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) Oxfordshire. The audience will have a chance to have their say before the two opposing speakers wind up the debate.

Doors open 7.00pm; debate starts 7.30pm. Tickets required – no entry on the door.

Tickets for this event are £7 via Eventbrite – see https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-battle-for-the-green-belt-tickets-54594574843

Blackwell’s are delighted to be hosting one of Britain’s most influential literary critics, Terry Eagleton, to talk about his latest book, Humour.

A compelling guide to the fundamental place of humour and comedy within Western culture-by one of its greatest exponents

Written by an acknowledged master of comedy, this study reflects on the nature of humour and the functions it serves. Why do we laugh? What are we to make of the sheer variety of laughter, from braying and cackling to sniggering and chortling? Is humour subversive, or can it defuse dissent? Can we define wit?

Packed with illuminating ideas and a good many excellent jokes, the book critically examines various well-known theories of humour, including the idea that it springs from incongruity and the view that it reflects a mildly sadistic form of superiority to others. Drawing on a wide range of literary and philosophical sources, Terry Eagleton moves from Aristotle and Aquinas to Hobbes, Freud, and Bakhtin, looking in particular at the psychoanalytical mechanisms underlying humour and its social and political evolution over the centuries.

Blackwell’s are delighted to once again invite you to Short Stories Aloud. Listen to actors perform short stories written by Stacey Halls and Jess Kidd. Afterwards, author Sarah Franklin will be interviewing both authors about their latest publications, The Familiars and Things in Jars before taking questions from the audience.

The Lecture will analyse the phenomenon of Donald Trump’s presidency against the backdrop and contrast of the European Enlightenment’s influence on the Founders of the United States. It will also explain why his stark antithesis to Enlightenment values was a winning strategy in the 2016 presidential election and how it resonates with a shift from liberalism to populism, nativism, and authoritarianism. Finally, the lecture will examine political forces in the U.S. that are opposing Trump as he ramps up his campaign for a second term.

Talk followed by questions and discussion. All welcome.

Tuesday 7th May 2019: The Violet Postage Stamp
Thursday 9th May 2019: Landscape in Chains
Tuesday 21st May 2019: The Aerial Warfare of Images
Thursday 23rd May 2019: For the Dying Calves
The lectures will explore the way history impinges on ordinary lives and finds its way
into the literary imagination. Anyone born in the twentieth century – this century of
wars and divisions – will have found themselves already historicised even as a child.
These lectures consciously take account of, and reflect, the breaks and discontinuities
of German history. True to the modus operandi of the author’s own poems, they
employ a collage technique that demands the imaginative collaboration of reader and
audience alike.

In a recent anthropological discussion on the concept of person in Ancient Israel R. Di Vito claimed that in the Old Testament the person is “lacking … ‘inner depths’” and is “’authentic’ precisely in their heteronomy”. However, in a culture where people lack ‘inner depths’ or experience themselves as heteronomous and dependent on others, explicit interior communication within the person is difficult. This paper contributes to this anthropological discussion by dealing with soliloquy in the Psalms. In contrast to the psychological phenomenon of self-talk, soliloquy is a literary device that is widespread in ancient Near Eastern and Old Testament narrative, usually marked by introductory formulas, while explicit passages in the Psalms are not so frequent. This talk gives an overview of the major psalms where a speaker is talking to his “heart” (leb) or “soul” (nefesh) and takes a closer look on their contents and contexts. These psalms dramatize the inner life of the speaker and demonstrate that in their struggles with foes, illness, social isolation, divine absence or wrath they are not alone and their communication with their inner soul is a counterbalance to this.

Tuesday 7th May 2019: The Violet Postage Stamp
Thursday 9th May 2019: Landscape in Chains
Tuesday 21st May 2019: The Aerial Warfare of Images
Thursday 23rd May 2019: For the Dying Calves
The lectures will explore the way history impinges on ordinary lives and finds its way
into the literary imagination. Anyone born in the twentieth century – this century of
wars and divisions – will have found themselves already historicised even as a child.
These lectures consciously take account of, and reflect, the breaks and discontinuities
of German history. True to the modus operandi of the author’s own poems, they
employ a collage technique that demands the imaginative collaboration of reader and
audience alike.

Saïd Business School is pleased to welcome Freya Stewart, Fine Art Group’s in house lawyer to talk on Art and Law.

About the talk

Art-secured financing is not new, but leverage in the art market is a ‘hot’ topic and here to stay. A niche-credit service increasingly used by high net worth collectors to unlock valuable capital from their art assets for other investment or personal finance purposes.

Schedule

17:15 – Registration opens
17:45 – Event starts
18:45 – Drinks reception
19:45 – Close
The talk is open for anyone to attend, registration is essential so please use the register button to confirm your attendance.

About the Speaker:

Freya Stewart is CEO of The Fine Art Group’s art-secured lending business. The Fine Art Group is a market-leading international art advisory, investment and finance firm, who provide competitive art finance solutions to borrowers on a global basis. Freya also supports The Fine Art Group as General Counsel.

Prior to joining The Fine Art Group Freya was senior Legal Counsel at Christie’s Auction House, where she advised on all aspects of art lending, auction and private sales. Previously Freya spent 10 years at Linklaters LLP and Barclays Capital as a structured finance, derivatives and prime brokerage lawyer in London, New York, Hong Kong and São Paulo.

Freya obtained a First Class BA in History from Manchester University and completed her legal qualifications at Oxford Institute of Legal Practice.