As part of the Oxford Brookes Think Human Festival 2020, Pegasus Theatre presents this discussion around creativity and empowering young people in the arts.
Is to be creative to be human? Join a panel of young people from East Oxford, professionals and academics to debate this and discuss what the power of creativity means in our lives.
What could it look like in the future? How can we create opportunities for creativity in all aspects of life? Hear the panel’s response to provocations and accept our invitation to formulate your own personal pledge to encourage creativity for future generations.
This is a free event, but booking is essential to secure your place.
Running time approx. 1 hour

A panel exploring how universities can best support new students as they transition to University

This seminar is part of our public seminar series on ‘Exclusion from School and its Consequences’, led by the Department of Education and convened by Harry Daniels (Professor of Education) and Ian Thompson (Associate Professor of English Education & Director of PGCE).

Speaker: Mina Fazel (University of Oxford)

Seminar Abstract: This talk will discuss the latest understanding of mental health needs in adolescent populations in the UK and the potential role that mental health services in schools can play. An example of current research alongside clinical service development will be discussed. The opportunities and challenges of mental health services working in schools will be explored, including how to navigate some of the ethical complexities of working in this areas as well as some of the main unanswered research questions that can be addressed through schools-research. A particular focus will be on how this relates to excluded children- what we know about their mental health needs and the role of services.

Open to all and free to attend. Registration required at: http://www.education.ox.ac.uk/events/exclusion-and-mental-health-exploring-the-role-of-improved-provision-in-schools/

This seminar is part of our public seminar series on ‘Exclusion from School and its Consequences’, led by the Department of Education and convened by Harry Daniels (Professor of Education) and Ian Thompson (Associate Professor of English Education & Director of PGCE).

Speaker: Lucinda Ferguson (University of Oxford)

Seminar Abstract: The House of Commons’ Education Committee (2019) criticised the education system’s treatment of children with disabilities on the following terms:

“[C]hildren and parents are not ‘in the know’ and for some the law may not even appear to exist. Parents currently need a combination of special knowledge and social capital to navigate the system, and even then are left exhausted by the experience. Those without significant social or personal capital therefore face significant disadvantage. For some, Parliament might as well not have bothered to legislate.”

In this presentation, I combine legal analysis, theory, and evidence from practice to argue that the law is ill-equipped to support children at risk of permanent exclusion from school, particularly children with disabilities or other additional needs. I focus on the English experience, which is quite distinctive from that of other nations in the UK. I first outline the reality of permanent exclusion and introduce the legal framework.

I then consider the extent to which children’s rights arguments might support improvements in practice for these vulnerable children. I proceed to argue that much of the difficulty lies in our current conceptions of the nature of childhood, how we regard children compared to other ‘minority’ groups, and the implications of this for the legal regulation of their lives. I consider whether an intersectional perspective might assist here, and offer some concluding thoughts on how to bring about the necessary cultural shift and make the law work for vulnerable children at risk of exclusion from school.

Open to all and free to attend. Registration required at: http://www.education.ox.ac.uk/events/law-and-exclusion-from-school/

This seminar is part of our public seminar series on ‘Exclusion from School and its Consequences’, led by the Department of Education and convened by Harry Daniels (Professor of Education) and Ian Thompson (Associate Professor of English Education & Director of PGCE).

Speakers: Jill Porter and Ruth Moyse (University of Reading)

Seminar Abstract: Government statistics indicate that children and young people with special educational needs are five times more likely to be excluded from secondary schools, and account for just under half of excluded pupils. This seminar will explore the process of formal and informal exclusion from the macro, meso and micro level to understand some of the complex interactions between policy, school and individual factors. The significance of these on the lives of young people will be illustrated with reference to data drawn from the topical life histories of autistic girls. These portray the experience of having ones’ needs continually underestimated or misunderstood coupled with a lack of in-school support.

Open to all and free to attend. Registration required at: http://www.education.ox.ac.uk/events/from-inclusion-to-exclusion-from-school-transforming-the-lives-of-young-people-with-special-educational-needs-and-disabilities/

A disciple of Bonnard and Cézanne, Józef Czapski was a Polish painter, author, and critic notable for his singular pursuit of the world around him. He was witness to much of the upheaval of the 20th century. Gain an insight into his approach and his struggles to be true to himself.

The Life and Works of Jozef Czapski (1896–1993)
A Weekday Talk with Eric Karpeles, Author

Tue 25 Feb, 1–2pm
Ashmolean Museum Lecture Theatre

Tickets are: £8 (Full Price) / £7 (Concession) / £6 (Members)
https://www.ashmolean.org/event/the-life-and-works-of-jozef-czapski

Rembrandt and the Crying Boy: A Question of Method
An After Hours Talk with Martin Royalton-Kisch, former Curator of Dutch and Flemish drawings, British Museum

Fri 28 Feb, 6–7pm
Ashmolean Museum Lecture Theatre

Join Martin Royalton-Kisch as he discusses the attribution of a newly discovered drawing, and explore how decisions on authenticity are currently reached in the fraught field of Rembrandt scholarship.

Tickets £8/£7/£6 Full, Concession, Members
www.ashmolean.org/event/rembrandt-and-the-crying-boy-a-question-of-method

Professor Sir Adam Roberts, Senior Research Fellow in International Relations, University of Oxford, will deliver a lecture on the contemporary decline of the liberal order, and call for a rethinking of liberal ideas and practices. The Keynote Lecture will open a workshop the following day.

The term ‘liberal international order’ has become widely used – generally to refer to the international system that developed in the years after the end of the Cold War in 1989, or even to the whole period since the end of the Second World War in 1945.

Although the term itself is relatively new, the ideas and practices that comprise it are not. They include multi-party democracy, the growth of international law and institutions, recognition of human rights, freedom of religious belief, the removal of barriers to international trade.

All of the above have been advocated as means of reducing the incidence of war between states. This is not an elegy for a liberal international order that is now under threat, but rather a call for rethinking it, especially in light of its long, diverse, and troubled history.

Adam Roberts is Senior Research Fellow in International Relations at Oxford University and a Fellow of Balliol College. In 2009–13 he was President of the British Academy, the UK national academy for the humanities and social sciences. He was awarded a knighthood in 2002 for services to the study and practice of international relations, and has given expert advice to parliamentary committees, governments and non-governmental bodies in the UK and overseas.

His numerous books include (co-edited.) Civil Resistance in the Arab Spring: Triumphs and Disasters, Oxford University Press, 2016. He is currently working on a book on the history of the idea of liberal international order.

A workshop to scrutinize the transformation of the contemporary international order, encompassing its social, political, legal, economic, and technological dimensions. The workshop will serve as an in-depth examination of the issues outlined in Professor Sir Adam Roberts’ lecture of the previous day.

It is plain that shifts in the organization and structure of the international order, and the social relationships within these, are experiencing stress and strain and being reconceived and redesigned in reaction to deeper forces.

Among the factors driving this change and revision, even transformation, include:

relations among nations;
the rise of social movements in response to changing attitudes to authority and established ideas and institutions;
altered dispositions towards international law and international and regional institutions;
challenges to the liberal order;
scepticism about human rights, universal principles, and the power of the courts to uphold them;
new economic perspectives, revised business and financial relations and practices; and
the rapid development of technology, the dawn of the digital age, and the consequences.
Participants include:
Denis Galligan, Professor of Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford

Mary Bartkus, Special Counsel, Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP

Ralph Schroeder, Professor of Social Science of the Internet, Oxford Internet Institute

David Vines, Professor of Economics, Oxford

Music has taken many forms during China’s long cultural history and many traditions have endured to this day. In this talk, Paul Bevan will look at a selection of the paintings in the Ashmolean collection that reflect China’s rich musical and theatrical heritage.

Music and Musical Instruments in the Ashmolean’s Chinese Paintings Collection
A Weekday Talk with Dr Paul Bevan, Ashmolean Museum

Fri 6 Mar, 1–3pm
Ashmolean Museum

FREE, booking recommended.
Book by contacting chinesepaintingsprogramme@ashmus.ox.ac.uk
https://www.ashmolean.org/event/music-and-musical-instruments-in-the-ashmoleans-chinese-paintings-collection

Explore the work of Dame Paula Rego, who is revered for her unflinching images of women, often living under oppressive political conditions. She draws upon the real and imagined, using her own experiences and references to folklore and literature.

An Afternoon Tea Talk for International Women’s Day 2020
Paula Rego
With Alice Foster, Art Historian

Includes a break with tea and biscuits

Tue 10 Mar, 2–4pm
Ashmolean Museum Lecture Theatre

Tickets are: £12 (Full Price) / £11 (Concession) / £10 (Members)
https://www.ashmolean.org/events

The Scythians were warlike nomadic horsemen who roamed the steppe of Asia in the first millennium BC. Using archaeological finds from burials and texts, Barry Cunliffe reconstructs the lives of the Scythians, exploring their beliefs, burial practices, love of fighting and their flexible attitude to gender.

The Scythians: Nomad Warriors of the Steppe
Wed 18 Mar, 1–2pm
A weekday talk with Barry Cunliffe, Emeritus Professor of European Archaeology, University of Oxford

Booking essential.
Tickets are: £8 (Full Price) / £7 (Concession) / £6 (Members)
https://www.ashmolean.org/event/the-scythians-nomad-warriors-of-the-steppe

The Phoenicians were famously great traders who, from their base in modern-day Lebanon, traded their wares around the Mediterranean and beyond. Learn about their culture, art, achievements, and cities at home in the Levant and abroad, including Byblos, Tyre, Eshmoun and Carthage.

The Phoenicians Phoenicia Part 1: the Land of the Phoenicians
An Afternoon Tea Talk (with tea and biscuits included)
With Linda Farrar, Archaeologist and Lecturer

Thu 19 Mar, 2–4pm
Ashmolean Museum Lecture Theatre

Tickets are: £12 (Full Price) / £11 (Concession) / £10 (Members)
https://www.ashmolean.org/event/the-phoenicians-part-i-the-land-of-phoenicians

Moran’s ‘Autumn Afternoon, the Wissahickon’ pictures 19th-century America at its most bucolic and pastoral. It was painted, however, amidst a conflict that threatened to tear the young country apart. Examine Moran’s landscape as an allegory of contested national identity.

A Nation at a Crossroads: The United States in Thomas Moran’s ‘Autumn Afternoon, The Wissahickon’
A weekend talk with Madeleine Harrison, PhD Candidate, The Courtauld Institute of Art

Sat 21 Mar, 11–12pm
Ashmolean Museum Lecture Theatre

Booking essential.
Tickets are: £8 (Full Price) / £7 (Concession) / £6 (Members)
https://www.ashmolean.org/event/a-nation-at-a-crossroads-the-united-state-in-thomas-morans-autumn-afternoon-the-wissahickon

Learn about the vast trade network of the Phoenicians, the goods traded and their trading partners, who included the Greeks and Etruscans, as well as people in Sardinia and southern Spain.

The Phoenicians Phoenicia Part 2: The Phoenicians in the West
An Afternoon Tea Talk (tea and biscuits included)
With Linda Farrar, Archaeologist and Lecturer

Thu 26 Mar, 2–4pm
Ashmolean Museum Lecture Theatre

Booking essential.
Tickets are: £12 (Full Price) / £11 (Concession) / £10 (Members)
https://www.ashmolean.org/event/the-phoenicians-phoenicia-part-ii-the-phoenicians-in-the-west

Both worked on the outskirts of Pre-Raphaelitism and aestheticism, tackling ambitious subjects of love, spirituality, and time, to create beautiful artworks. Join De Morgan Curator, Sarah Hardy, to discover the previously ignored professional and personal relationship between these artists.

Evelyn de Morgan and Edward Burne-Jones: Friends or Foes?
An afternoon talk with Sarah Hardy, De Morgan Curator

Fri 27 Mar, 1–2pm
Ashmolean Museum Lecture Theatre

Booking essential.
Tickets are: £8 (Full Price) / £7 (Concession) / £6 (Members)
https://www.ashmolean.org/event/evelyn-de-morgan-and-edward-burne-jones-friends-or-foes

The city of Hereford stands a couple of hours from Oxford along one of the most scenic train rides in England. Follow the Medieval Pilgrim trail, discovering a landscape alive with holy wells, sacred shrines, ancient mysteries and miraculous saints.

Become a Medieval Tourist: Herefordshire Pilgrimages
With Tim Porter, Historian

Wed 15 Apr, 2–4pm
Ashmolean Museum Lecture Theatre

Tickets are: £12 (Full Price) / £11 (Concession) / £10 (Members)
Includes a break for tea and biscuits
https://www.ashmolean.org/event/become-a-medieval-tourist-herefordshire-pilgrimages

One of the great triumvirate of High Renaissance masters, Raphael is famous for his calm serenity in even the most dramatic of his paintings. This year marks the 500th anniversary of his death, and Alice Foster re-evaluates the work of this celebrated artist.

Raphael
An Afternoon Tea Talk with Alice Foster, Art Historian

Wed 22 Apr, 2–4pm
Ashmolean Museum Lecture Theatre

Tickets are: £12 (Full Price) / £11 (Concession) / £10 (Members)
Includes a break for tea and biscuits
https://www.ashmolean.org/event/raphael-tea-talk

Learn about the young Rembrandt’s rise to fame. A major breakthrough happened when the Prince of Orange, Frederick Henry, began to commission works from the artist, some of which are on display in the Young Rembrandt exhibition and are considered Rembrandt’s first masterpieces. This talk is part of our Young Rembrandt After Hours event.

Rembrandt and Orange
An after hours talk with Christiaan Vogelaar, Curator of Old Master Paintings and Sculpture, Museum De Lakenhal in Leiden, Netherlands

Fri 24 Apr, 6–7pm
Ashmolean Museum Lecture Theatre

Tickets are £8 (Full) / £7 (Concession) / £6 (Members)
https://www.ashmolean.org/event/rembrandt-and-orange

A window into the intimate world of their makers, users and collectors, 18th- and 19th-century Greek embroideries have many stories to tell. Explore some of them through a selection of highlights on display in Gallery 29.

Mediterranean Threads: 18th- and 19th- Century Greek Embroideries
A Weekday Talk With Dr Francesca Leoni, Curator of Islamic Art

Fri 1 May, 1–2pm
Ashmolean Museum Lecture Theatre

Tickets are: £8 (Full Price) / £7 (Concession) / £6 (Members)
https://www.ashmolean.org/event/mediterranean-threads-18th-and-19th-century-greek-embroideries

Towards the end of the 15th century, Florence had become a centre of artistic achievement. Ghirlandaio, a master of both the fresco and innovative oil techniques, ran a prestigious workshop in which the young Michelangelo studied his unique style.

Ghirlandaio: A Florentine Master
Sat 2 May, 11–12pm
Ashmolean Museum Lecture Theatre
With Juliet Heslewood, Art Historian and Author

Tickets are: £8 (Full Price) / £7 (Concession) / £6 (Members)
https://www.ashmolean.org/event/ghirlandaio-a-florentine-master

The Story of a Neglected Book: Hokusai’s Illustrated Tang Poetry of 1880
Mon 4 May, 5–6pm
Ashmolean Museum Lecture Theatre
With Dr Ellis Tinios, Visiting Researcher, Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University

Learn about a deluxe book, designed by Hokusai in the 1830s but not published until 1880, that demonstrates his extraordinary powers of composition, unerring sense of line, and ability to offer fresh and exciting visualisations of Chinese texts.

Booking essential.
RSVP at eastern.art@ashmus.ox.ac.uk
https://www.ashmolean.org/event/51st-cohn-memorial-lecture

Life-Writing Beyond Words is a research network and termly series of public events, hosted by Felix Appelbe, the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing, and Ocean Ambassadors, that explores how we move between words and the non-verbal.

Life-writing is the study of lives, through letters, diaries, performance, memoir, autobiography and biography. But it frequently has to negotiate the non-verbal, for instance when describing the creative minds of composers, choreographers or artists, capturing the sound and light of childhood, or eavesdropping on the world of animal experience. How can these worlds be captured in words?

We are addressing this challenge by convening a network that spans many disciplines, bringing together academics, practitioners and performers who would otherwise not meet. Free-thinking lectures and laboratories will forge new pathways between the verbal and the non-verbal, journeying towards innovative experimental and performative methodologies.

5 – 5:10 Introduction by Felix Appelbe

5:10 – 5:50pm Louise Cournarie, Rameau le Moderne. Throughout his unusually long life, Jean Philippe Rameau has left an unerasable mark in Music, Theory, Science, Philosophy, and History. The composer/theorist, often referred to as the ‘father of modern harmony’, and who hated being called a composer, left behind him a forever changed view on music and a large body of work. In a time hugely influenced by the philosophy of Descartes, or the conferences of LeBrun, restlessly attacked by Rousseau, supported by D’Alambert and Voltaire, Rameau the musician and theorist underwent a long evolution. Through his keyboard pieces, this Lecture recital will attempt in having a closer look to the effect of this rich history on both the practice of Jean Philippe Rameau and his theory ideas.

5:50 – 6:30pm Alyn Shipton, How can we explore life-writing that does not use words? One possible answer is to examine both visual art and music for the ways in which we might see or hear biographical ideas. An obvious historical example would be the cycle of self-portraits by Rembrandt, that chronicle every stage of his life, and tell us through peripheral detail not only about the physical changes to Rembrandt the man, but to the environment in which he paints himself, and the clothes he wears. In his new book The Art of Jazz, Alyn Shipton explores the connections between the visual arts and jazz in the first hundred years of the music. Drawing on this unique body of research, Alyn explores how the lives of those in the jazz world have been depicted in music and in painting, drawing, graphics and sculpture. We can see how the image of Miles Davis changed over time, including his own work as a painter; we see how different photographers presented the “Empress of the Blues” Bessie Smith and how she translated the African American experience into song, and using excerpts from his work as an oral historian, Alyn shows how Sonny Rollins used the personal experience of racism in the housing market to inspire his “Freedom Suite”.

6:30 – 7:30pm Roundtable discussion, chaired by Kate Kennedy, on the theme Never the same twice

The FinCEN Files investigation, coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, exposed more than $2 trillion in suspicious deals.

Criminals, politicians and others sent money through the world’s major banks, which initially ignored red flags or reported the money as potentially dirty after weeks, months or years of delay. Billions of dollars in suspicious deals moved from Africa into Europe, the United States, the Middle East and secretive tax havens, including payments to and from politicians and family members, state-owned oil and gas companies, arms companies and many others.

Join William Fitzgibbon and Augustin Armendariz, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and Taiwo Hassan Adebayo, Premium Times Nigeria, as they discuss with Professor Ricardo Soares de Oliveira what the FinCEN Files investigation has uncovered and the implications.

How do you build inclusion from the ground up?

People with albinism face discrimination across the globe but are often left out of activist efforts around diversity and inclusion.

In this episode, we speak to representatives of Sesame Street Workshop, who have been championing diversity for years. With a breadth of expertise in the art of embracing diversity, this insightful look into the world of Sesame Street gives us new ways of approaching our goals. Supermodel and activist Diandra Forrest also joins the conversation. Fellow guest speaker Stephan Bognar, Executive Director of New York Dermatology Group Foundation, completes the line-up. They worked together previously on the Colorfull campaign, which was conceived by NYDG to highlight the prejudice that albinism attracts.

Join the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences for their annual research lecture, delivered by Dame Professor Louise Robinson. The biggest risk factor for developing dementia is age, with dementia now the most common cause of death in women over 65 years of age in the United Kingdom (UK). Our ageing populations mean that the number of people with dementia globally is predicted to rapidly increase, although research from the UK and Europe has shown that modification of key lifestyle factors may positively influence this. Over the last decade, the UK has had a strong policy focus on dementia, initially via a National Dementia Strategy and followed by Prime Minister’s National Dementia Challenge. This led to the creation of the unique £200 million UK National Dementia Research Institute, with a main focus on finding the ‘cure’ and/or novel dementia drug therapies. Professor Robinson will discuss why future research should be as equally focused on improving the quality of dementia care and targeting future prevention as exploring the elusive cure.

This event is for: Everyone

The ethnographic museum is full. Clothes, objects and tools fill the walls and floors. But where is the love?
The three speakers take the exhibition ‘Losing Venus’ as their starting point to discuss how emotion, intimacy, care and love can be brought back into the ethnographic museum and radiate out from its collections.

This event will run on Zoom, and will be available to view after the event. A link to the event will be emailed to you via Eventbrite within 48 hours of the event starting.

Lecture by Jane Owen, preceded by OGT’s Christmas drinks party.
Jane Owen, Founder Member of OGT, avid gardener, garden historian and
previously Deputy Editor of the Financial Times, gives us her personal take on
garden history – not to be missed! Doors open 6.30pm for wine or juice (inc), for lecture at 7pm. Book online or pay at the door.
door