In this lecture, in honour of Edward Greene, Donald Meek will describe the fascinating process of Gaelic Bible translation in Scotland and Ireland. Beginning with the standard Gaelic Bible, translated between 1767 and 1804, Donald will explain its creation, and its debts to the work of earlier translators and revisers, including the Rev. Robert Kirk of Aberfoyle (who produced ‘Kirk’s Bible in 1690), but pre-eminently to the foundational labours of the translators of the Bible into Classical Gaelic in Ireland in the earlier seventeenth century. Both the principal translators of that period – Bishop William Ó Dómhnaill and Bishop William Bedell – studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where they were trained in biblical languages by the first Master of Emmanuel, Lawrence Chadderton. By way of comparison and contrast, brief reference will be made to the somewhat different histories of Bible translation into Manx and Welsh. The lecture will conclude with some discussion of the profound influence of the Gaelic Bible on the development of modern Scottish Gaelic literature, and its enduring legacy

Hella Pick is one of the trailblazers for the modern female foreign correspondent. She worked across three continents and covered the death of Yugoslavia’s leader, President Tito. Yugoslavia was always the saving grace of covering the Soviet bloc,” she remembers. “While in East Germany you were followed and listened to all the time, but Tito’s regime was a symbol of independent communism. Even the American ambassador was predicting the country would survive beyond Tito. Of course, we were all wrong.” Pick will talk about her incredible career, the stories she has covered and the current challenges facing journalism.
Neal Ascherson went to King’s College, Cambridge, where he read history. The historian Eric Hobsbawm was his tutor and described him as “perhaps the most brilliant student I ever had. I didn’t really teach him much, I just let him get on with it.” After graduating he he chose a career in journalism, first at The Manchester Guardian and then at The Scotsman, The Observer and The Independent on Sunday.He contributed scripts for the documentary series The World at War (1973–74) and the Cold War (1998). He has also been a regular contributor to the London Review of Books. Ascherson has lectured and written extensively about Polish and Eastern Europe affairs.

Ask the candidates where they stand on issues related to war and peace, terrorism, defence policy, Trident, etc.

When the UK joined the EU in 1973 all previous trade barriers with the EU were abolished, which led to a strong intensification of trade with the European continent.

This situation will soon be a thing of the past, however, as new trade barriers will be erected with the withdrawal. Since the food self-sufficiency rate in the UK is particular low newly invoked trade barriers will significantly affect how food is produced and consumed in the UK.

Please register via the link provided.

Bomberg and Kitaj – Two Types of Jewish Agony in Paint
With Sir Simon Schama, Art Historian, Author and BBC Presenter

Sat 14 Dec, 12–1pm
Mathematical Institute, Woodstock Road (Venue changed)

Tickets are FREE. Booking is essential:
ashmolean.org/event/beauforest-lecture-2019

Although separated by a generation, artists David Bomberg (b. 1890) and R. B. Kitaj (b.1932) shared a passionate intensity in their work that was marked by their response to the deeply troubled century in which they lived, and in particular, the rise of antisemitism. Learn how both painters expressed the power of art to mirror the darkness of the contemporary world.

This event is the 2019 Beauforest Lecture.
www.ashmolean.org/event/beauforest-lecture-2019

Blackwell’s is delighted to be welcoming Alex J. Bellamy to explore his new book ‘World Peace (And How We Can Achieve It) as part of our ‘For Learning, For Life’ series.

Synopsis

For as long as there has been war, there have been demands for its elimination. The quest for world peace has excited and eluded political leaders, philosophers, religious elders, activists, and artists for millennia. With war on the rise once again, we rarely reflect on what world peace might look like; much less on how it might be achieved.

World Peace aims to change all that and show that world peace is possible. Because the motives, rationales, and impulses that give rise to war – the quest for survival, enrichment, solidarity, and glory – are now better satisfied through peaceful means, war is an increasingly anachronistic practice, more likely to impoverish and harm us humans than satisfy and protect us. This book shows that we already have many of the institutions and practices needed to make peace possible and sets out an agenda for building world peace. In the immediate term, it shows how steps to strengthen compliance with international law, improve collective action such as international peacekeeping and peacebuilding, better regulate the flow of arms, and hold individuals legally accountable for acts of aggression or atrocity crimes can make our world more peaceful. It also shows how in the long term, building strong and legitimate states that protect the rights and secure the livelihoods of their people, gender equal societies, and protecting the right of individuals to opt-out of wars has the potential to establish and sustain world peace. But it will only happen, if individuals organize to make it happen.

New technologies have always provoked panic about workers being replaced by machines.

In the past, such fears have been misplaced, and many economists maintain that they remain so today. Yet in A World Without Work, Daniel Susskind shows why this time really is different. Advances in artificial intelligence mean that all kinds of jobs are increasingly at risk.

Susskind will argue that machines no longer need to reason like us in order to outperform us. Increasingly, tasks that used to be beyond the capability of computers – from diagnosing illnesses to drafting legal contracts – are now within their reach. The threat of technological unemployment is real.

So how can we all thrive in a world with less work? Susskind will remind us that technological progress could bring about unprecedented prosperity, solving one of mankind’s oldest problems: making sure that everyone has enough to live on. The challenge will be to distribute this prosperity fairly, constrain the burgeoning power of Big Tech, and provide meaning in a world where work is no longer the centre of our lives.

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

Lord Sumption will discuss the impact on our constitution and political system of the referendum of 2016 and its aftermath.

Part of the Oxford Martin Lecture Series: ‘Shaping the future’

St Benet’s Hall marks a special exhibition of The Rule of St Benedict MS. Hatton 48, fols. 14v-15r at the Weston Library, with a series of lectures on aspects of the mediaeval Benedictine contribution to scholarship, libraries and spirituality.

The lecture programme takes place at the Weston Library, Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3BG

14:30-15.30
Living the Rule of Saint Benedict in England, from the Middle Ages to the Reformation
Professor James Clark, Professor of History, University of Exeter

15.30-16.20
Benedictine Libraries in Medieval England: a Changing Perspective
Professor Richard Sharpe FBA, Hon. MRIA, Professor of Diplomatic, Wadham College, University of Oxford

16.30-17.20
The Rule as a Living Document
The Very Rev. Oswald McBride, OSB, Prior, St Benet’s Hall, University of Oxford

A drinks reception follows the final lecture, from 17:30 to 18:10.

Booking is essential, for each lecture.

Those attending the lectures are welcome to join Vespers at St Benet’s Hall, 38 St Giles, OX1 3LN at 6.30pm.

Come and take a role in a simulation of our world between now and 2030. It’s a challenging time and other people will have different objectives to yours.
How can business and society create the world we all want?
Can the UN Sustainable Development Goals help?

Hear a whole phD in just three minutes!
Can you understand a whole phD in just three minutes? Perhaps you are an Undergraduate or Masters student who is aiming for a future PhD?
Join Humanities and Social Sciences PhD students as we challenge them to boil down their whole PhD to just three minutes and one slide – in a way that makes sense to everyone!

Compassion is a state of mind, a wish for beings to be free from suffering. When compassion is present in the heart there is no place for anger or hatred. In that moment a wish to harm simply cannot arise because compassion overpowers it. Although compassion may arise naturally towards those we love and who have cared for us, it can also be cultivated so that it arises even towards our enemies. To develop it fully, we begin by cultivating for ourselves, then extend it gradually to others. When linked with understanding, compassion brings both inner and outer peace.

This talk is delivered by Dr Dechen Rochard, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Bristol and Research Fellow, The Dalai Lama Centre for Compassion, Oxford.

Dechen Rochard studied for several years at a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in India and then completed a PhD at the University of Cambridge. She translates Buddhist texts and is currently working on a project for His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Lecture by Jinny Blom who has created over 250 gardens and landscapes, Laurent-Perrier garden which gained a Gold at Chelsea. Artist in Residence for Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, she is author of The Thoughtful Gardener: An intelligent approach to garden design (2017). Pay at the door; registration not required.

This book colloquium will discuss Shoshana Zuboff’s The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, her influential account of the challenges to humanity posed by the digital future, specifically, how the commodification of personal information threatens our core values of freedom, democracy, and privacy.

In this masterwork of original thinking and research, Shoshana Zuboff provides startling insights into the phenomenon that she has named surveillance capitalism. The stakes could not be higher: a global architecture of behaviour modification threatens human nature in the twenty-first century just as industrial capitalism disfigured the natural world in the twentieth.

Zuboff vividly brings to life the consequences as surveillance capitalism advances from Silicon Valley into every economic sector. Vast wealth and power are accumulated in ominous new “behavioural futures markets”, where predictions about our behaviour are bought and sold, and the production of goods and services is subordinated to a new “means of behavioural modification”.

The threat has shifted from a totalitarian Big Brother state to a ubiquitous digital architecture: a “Big Other” operating in the interests of surveillance capital. Here is the crucible of an unprecedented form of power marked by extreme concentrations of knowledge and free from democratic oversight. Zuboff’s comprehensive and moving analysis lays bare the threats to twenty-first century society: a controlled “hive” of total connection that seduces with promises of total certainty for maximum profit – at the expense of democracy, freedom, and our human future.

With little resistance from law or society, surveillance capitalism is on the verge of dominating the social order and shaping the digital future – if we let it.

Participants include:
Dr Christopher Decker, Economist and Research Fellow, Faculty of Law, Oxford

Denis Galligan, Professor of Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford

Ivan Manokha, Lecturer in Political Economy, Oxford

Praise for The Age of Surveillance Capitalism:
“Easily the most important book to be published this century … this generation’s Das Kapital.”
— Zadie Smith

Professors Ayman Agbaria and Daniel Statman from the Shalom Hartman Institute and Haifa University, will be speaking about : “‘From the Wells’– A Jewish-Arab Educational Initiative Toward A Shared Society.
This programme aims to transform the study of traditions, civilizations, faiths and religions in the Israeli public education system, promoting equality for all — Jews and Arab-Palestinians, Muslims and Christians — through the joint study of foundational texts from the Muslim, Christian, and Jewish traditions in an intellectual environment that promotes critical yet empathetic engagement with the texts and among the participants.

Traditionally, healthcare and spirituality have been considered separate areas of human life. This talk will challenge the separation of healthcare and spirituality and ask if what we know about human spirituality can be used to deepen our healthcare for the benefit of both patients and practitioners.

Rev. Dr. Guy Harrison is the Head of Spiritual and Pastoral Care, Consultant in Staff Support and Director of the Oxford Centre for Spirituality & Wellbeing (OCSW) within an NHS trust covering five counties and employing 6,300 staff.

‘Job insecurity at the end of the 20th century has given way to income insecurity at the start of the 21st.’ – Andy Haldane, July 2019

Join us for a stimulating morning of talks exploring the current challenges of income insecurity, with keynote speaker Andy Haldane, Chief Economist at the Bank of England. We will discuss labour market precarity, pay volatility and income insecurity issues in the UK and more widely, and their implications for the labour market and the structure of the social security system.

Programme:

Welcome and introduction by Charles Godfray, Director, Oxford Martin School
Keynote address: Andy Haldane, Chief Economist at the Bank of England
‘Pay volatility and income insecurity: what role for social security?’ by Jane Millar, Professor of Social Policy, University of Bath
‘Measuring economic insecurity: Why and How?’ by Matteo Richiardi, Professor of Economics and Director of EUROMOD, University of Essex, INET Associate
Panel discussion and Q&A: chaired by Brian Nolan, Professor of Social Policy at Oxford, with speakers and Fran Bennett, Senior Research and Teaching Fellow, Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford
This event is free, but registration is essential to ensure your place.

You are welcome to bring lunch with you.

This series of talks is organised by the Oxford Martin School, Department of Social Policy and Intervention & Institute for New Economic Thinking, University of Oxford

Talk, followed by walking tour of the park. Jane Kilsby, local historian shares her
recent research into this well-loved 19th century public park. Maximum 20

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

Lecture 2: The case for collective defined contribution (CDC)
On any sensible approach to the valuation of a DB scheme, ineliminable risk will remain that returns on a portfolio weighted towards return-seeking equities and property will fall significantly short of fully funding the DB pension promise. On the actuarial approach, this risk is deemed sufficiently low that it is reasonable and prudent to take in the case of an open scheme that will be cashflow positive for many decades. But if they deem the risk so low, shouldn’t scheme members who advocate such an approach be willing to put their money where their mouth is, by agreeing to bear at least some of this downside risk through a reduction in their pensions if returns are not good enough to achieve full funding? Some such conditionality would simply involve a return to the practices of DB pension schemes during their heyday three and more decades ago. The subsequent hardening of the pension promise has hastened the demise of DB. The target pensions of collective defined contribution (CDC) might provide a means of preserving the benefits of collective pensions, in a manner that is more cost effective for all than any form of defined benefit promise. In one form of CDC, the risks are collectively pooled across generations. In another form, they are collectively pooled only among the members of each age cohorts.

Lecture 3: The case for an unfunded pay as you go (PAYG) pension

The previous two lectures grappled with various challenges that funded collective pension schemes face. In the final lecture, I ask whether an unfunded ‘pay as you go’ (PAYG) approach might provide a solution. With PAYG, money is directly transferred from those who are currently working to pay the pensions of those who are currently retired. Rather than drawing from a pension fund consisting of a portfolio of financial assets, these pensions are paid out of the Treasury’s coffers. The pension one is entitled to in retirement is often, however, a function of, even though not funded by, the pensions contributions one has made during one’s working life. I explore the extent to which a PAYG pension can be justified as a form of indirect reciprocity that cascades down generations. This contrasts with a redistributive concern to mitigate the inequality between those who are young, healthy, able-bodied, and productive and those who are elderly, infirm, and out of work. I explore claims inspired by Ken Binmore and Joseph Heath that PAYG pensions in which each generation pays the pensions of the previous generation can be justified as in mutually advantageous Nash equilibrium. I also discuss the relevance to the case for PAYG of Thomas Piketty’s claim that r > g, where “r” is the rate of return on capital and “g” is the rate of growth of the economy.

Lecture by Linda Farrar, a freelance researcher, lecturer and author of Ancient Roman Gardens. The art of gardening has a long history, with gardens being used in most ancient cultures to enhance living areas, and even public spaces. We will look at examples from a range of ancient societies. Pay at the door or book online

Tea/coffee, biscuits on arrival in the Committee Room. Introductory talk from Sophie Huxley, Gardener, LMH, followed by tour of the garden. Parking for 5 cars only (priority to Blue Card holders). Maximum 20 persons

The COVID-19 pandemic is having an unprecedented impact on societies around the world.

As governments mandate social distancing practices and instruct non-essential businesses to close to slow the spread of the outbreak, there is significant uncertainty about the effect such measures will have on lives and livelihoods. While demand for specific sectors such as healthcare has skyrocketed in recent months, other sectors such as air transportation and tourism have seen demand for their services evaporate. At the same time, many sectors are experiencing issues on the supply-side, as governments curtail the activities of non-essential industries.

Which industries will suffer most from demand-side or supply-side shocks resulting from the pandemic? Which workers are most of risk of unemployment or reduced wage income? Who will be the winners and losers?

Professor Doyne Farmer and Maria del Rio-Chanona will talk about their recent paper which estimated these shocks would threaten around 22% of the US economy’s GDP, jeopardise 24% of jobs and reduce total wage income by 17% – while the potential impacts are a multiple of what was experienced during the global financial crisis, and perhaps comparable to the Great Depression. Aggressive fiscal and monetary policies are needed to minimise the impact of these shocks but the avoidance of endangering public health must be the priority.

This talk is in conjunction with The Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford and the Oxford Review of Economic Policy.

To register and watch this talk live and participate in the Q & A: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/supply-and-demand-shocks

To watch later: https://youtu.be/5wtNm6ETuLQ

It is no coincidence that countries with mission-driven governments have fared better in the COVID-19 crisis than those beholden to the cult of efficiency.

Join Mariana Mazzucato, UCL professor and author of The Entrepreneurial State and The Value of Everything, in conversation with Oxford Martin School Director, Sir Charles Godfray, to discuss why states must invest again in dynamic capabilities and capacity – not only to govern more effectively during the pandemic, but to ultimately build back better.

This talk is in partnership with The Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford and the Oxford Review of Economic Policy.

To register and watch this talk live: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/professor-mariana-mazzucato

The talk will also be streamed via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRMlPVgR7x0

Friday 23 October

Lecture by Advolly Richmond. Thomas Birch was a trained botanist, and
head gardener at Orwell Park, Ipswich, before travelling to the Gold Coast.
He became part of the international network of correspondents and plant
collectors relied upon by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. This talk aims to
reveal the true extent of Birch Freeman’s horticultural and botanical legacy.
Pay at the
door: £5 (members) £8 (guests

Lecture by Hanna Zembrzycka-Kisiel, Principal Major Applications Officer at
South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse Councils. Hanna uses the research
insights of her recent MA Thesis to explore the reality of poor urban design
and the benefits of green spaces in our living environments, drawing on local
and international urban design projects for inspiration. Book online or pay at the door.

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

What does our calling to be disciples of Christ mean for our life as students, academics, and thoughtful professionals? What are some of the promises and pitfalls of the academic life? How can postgraduate students and academics serve and relate to the wider body of Christ, the Church? Explore these questions and more at the first of two DCM conferences here in Oxford.

Who? Postgraduates, postdocs and academic staff at Oxford and Oxford Brookes University are welcome to attend this virtual conference.

Where/When? Subject to Covid-restrictions we hope to run this as a one day conference on Saturday 30th January focused on discussion groups (in-person or on Zoom) and live Q&A sessions with speakers Three talks will be pre-recorded to watch prior to the conference either on your own or by joining an optional ‘viewing party’ on Friday 29th January.
Alumni will all be assigned to virtual discussion groups.

Speakers include: N.T. Wright (Theology), Stephen Tuck (History) and Katherine Blundell (Astrophysics).

Early bird standard registration is £10 and includes lunch.
*Alumni registrants are encouraged to offer a donation towards their conference fee.

Note: If we cannot meet in-person in groups of 6 and the entire conference has to take place via Zoom then we will give participants the option of a refund for the price of their ticket and we will adjust the format of the conference accordingly.

Oxford Interfaith Discussion on the topic of The Creation Story.

The contributors of the discussion include:

Lord Alderdice, Patron of Oxford Interfaith Forum and Chair of Advisory Board, Freedom of Religion or Belief Leadership Network.

Revd Nevsky Everett, Chaplain of Keble College, the University of Oxford.

Revd Dr John Goldingay (DD, Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth), the David Allan Hubbard Professor Emeritus of Old Testament in the School of Theology of Fuller Theological Seminary in California, but lives in Oxford, England. He was previously principal and professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at St. John’s Theological College in Nottingham, England. His books include An Introduction to the Old Testament, A Reader’s Guide to the Bible, Reading Jesus’s Bible, and commentaries on Psalms, Isaiah, and Daniel. He has also authored a Biblical Theology, the three-volume Old Testament Theology and the seventeen-volume Old Testament for Everyone series, and has published a translation of the entire Old Testament called The First Testament: A New Translation.

Ustadah Yomna Helmy, Teaching Associate at The Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge. She taught and developed a range of courses including, Tafseer, Hadith, Islamic law, Salafism, Arabic Syntax, Morphology, Quranic Arabic, and Spoken Arabic. Yomna is interested in Social Islamic thoughts and ethics within the fields of Hadith and Quranic Studies.

Rabbi David Wolpe, the Max Webb Senior Rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, California. He was named the most influential rabbi in America by Newsweek Magazine and one of the 50 most influential Jews in the world by the Jerusalem Post. He previously taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, Hunter College, and UCLA.