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

Blackwell’s are delighted to announce that we will be joined by award-winning science writer and broadcaster, Marcus Chown, who will be talking about his new book, The Magicians:The Visionaries Who Demonstrated the Miraculous Predictive Power of Science.

How does it feel to know something about the universe that no one has ever known before? And why is mathematics so magically good at revealing nature’s secrets?

This is the story of the magicians: the scientists who predicted the existence of unknown planets, black holes, invisible force fields, ripples in the fabric of space– time, unsuspected subatomic particles, and even antimatter.

The journey from prediction to proof transports us from seats of learning in Paris and Cambridge to the war-torn Russian front, to bunkers beneath nuclear reactors, observatories in Berlin and California, and huge tunnels under the Swiss– French border. From electromagnetism to Einstein’s gravitational waves to the elusive neutrino, Marcus Chown takes us on a breathtaking, mind-altering tour of the major breakthroughs of modern physics and highlights science’s central mystery: its astonishing predictive power.

Marcus Chown is an award-winning science writer and broadcaster. Formerly a radio astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, he is now cosmology consultant for the New Scientist. He is the author of Solar System for iPad, which won a Bookseller Award for Digital Innovation. His acclaimed books include What a Wonderful World, Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You, We Need to Talk about Kelvin and The Ascent of Gravity, which was a Sunday Times Science Book of the Year.

This is a free event, but please do register if you plan on attending. This event will be held in our Philosophy Department, which is accessible via a small flight of stairs. Seating is unallocated, so please arrive early if you would like a chair. For more information, please contact our Customer Service Department on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk

Join us as we hear from Prof Martin Bureau (University of Oxford) about his research on Supermassive black holes.

‘Supermassive black holes are now known to lurk at the centre of most
galaxies. They are also believed to play a key role in the evolution
of galaxies, by regulating the supply of the gas necessary to form
stars. Here, I will present key results from the mm-Wave
Interferometric Survey of Dark Object Masses (WISDOM), a high
resolution survey of molecular gas in galaxy nuclei. I will first show
that carbon monoxide (CO) can be used to easily and accurately measure
the mass of these supermassive black holes. I will then discuss
substantial ongoing efforts to do this, and present many new
spectacular measurements from the Atacama Large
Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA), the largest ground-based
telescope project. This effort opens the way to literally hundreds of
measurements across galaxies of all morphological types, both active
and non-active, with a unique method. It thus promises to
revolutionise our understanding of the co-evolution of galaxies and
black holes.’

FREE entry

Drinks and snacks provided. (Non-alcoholic and vegetarian/vegan dietary requirements provided for. For other diets please get in touch in advance)

For more information email emil.ostergaard@stcatz.ox.ac.uk. There is wheelchair access. There is padded seating, and an accessible toilet. There is blue badge parking by request at the event.

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

Elevating science from the lab to the stage, we bring you the FameLab Regional Final. Our brave and brilliant finalists tread the boards to electrify us with their scientific stagecraft: they have just three minutes to explain a scientific concept or idea without the use of Powerpoint – armed only with their wit and a few props. Previous topics have included climate change, neuroscience and particle physics. There’s not a moment to be missed at the FameLab Oxfordshire Regional Final as our challengers aim for the performance of their lives and compete to represent Oxford at the UK final.

Famelab is an international science communication competition designed to find the talented new voices of science and engineering.

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

Leadership in Extraordinary Times: SmartSpace: the new frontier

How will the commercialisation of space impact our everyday lives?

The world faces many challenges, climate change, racism and the pandemic. There are also many great opportunities that will benefit us all. How can business harness the enormous potential the commercialisation of space offers, and what will it deliver in terms of benefits here on earth?

We have brought together experts in the field to share their experience where business, innovation and entrepreneurship meet. They will look at what the future holds for those who work in this area or are about to embark on a career in it.

The event will be hosted by Marc Ventresca, Associate Professor of Strategic Management and the panel will be moderated by Lucas Kello, Associate Professor of International Relations at Oxford and an expert in space, and cyber governance.

Panel

Eamonn Molloy, Associate Fellow Oxford, expert in major programs
Renee Rottner, Assistant Professor UC Santa Barbara, expert in NASA innovation
Dan Sola, Space entrepreneur and Oxford Said alumni
Lucy Edge, Chief Operating Officer of Satellite Applications Catapult
Greg Autry, Vice President of Space Development, and Board member at the National Space Society

Visit https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/oxford-answers/smartspace-new-frontier at the specified time to watch the live stream. A recording will be posted on the website when the broadcast finishes.

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 COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in unprecedented disruptions to urban mobility systems across the globe yet also presented unique opportunities for people to drive less, walk/cycle more and reduce carbon emissions.

Join Professor Tim Schwanen (Director of the Transport Studies Unit and Lead Researcher on the Oxford Martin Programme on Informal Cities), Dr Jennie Middleton (Senior Research Fellow in Mobilities and Human Geography in the Transport Studies Unit, University of Oxford) and Professor Jim Hall (Professor of Climate and Environmental Risk, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford) as they discuss post-pandemic mobility futures in relation to the re-imagining of transport systems across different geographical scales and contexts.

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.

Daniel Burt presents the board games created — and played with the public — during the Literary History of Medicine project, looks at the wider process of creating games, and reveals how they can be used to engage everyone with what we discover through academic research.

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

Supporting local campaigns and campaigners
Tues 15th December
7:30-9:30pm
Duncan Dollimore, Cycling UK’s Head of Campaigns and Advocacy, will steel our resolve for 2021 by showing us how campaigners in Oxfordshire can benefit from Cycling UK’s knowledge and experience. Cycling UK launched the Cycle Advocacy Network in September this year.

What can we call a science? And what makes it science? Dr Taha Yasin Arslan of Medeniyet University, Istanbul challenges us to rethink the history of science, proposing new definitions for the term “science”.

Join us — and share your ideas.
​​​​​​

‘Microscopy and Magnetic Materials: Exploring Energy Landscapes at the Nanoscale’ by Professor Amanda Petford-Long FREng (Argonne National Laboratory and Northwestern University.

The Department of Materials is delighted to host this virtual event by our alumna, Professor Petford-Long. Please email communications@materials.ox.ac.uk to register, and to receive the Team Live link to log-on to this free event.

The first discussion in the Oxford Net Zero Series, hosted by the Oxford Martin School, hones in on the fundamental motivation of the research programme: ‘Why net zero?’.

Join the Oxford Net Zero Initiative’s Research Director, Professor Sam Fankhauser; Director, Professor Myles Allen; Net Zero Policy Engagement Fellow, Kaya Axelsson as they discuss with the Chair, Executive Director. Dr Steve Smith, the meaning of the word ‘net’ in net zero, reviewing what is needed to mitigate global warming, as and before we fully phase out activities that generate greenhouse gas emissions.

The discussion will explore the framing opportunities and challenges that the term ‘net-zero’ offers for science, policy, and advocacy informing effective climate action, as well as the innovation required at scale to achieve the global goal.

To register and watch this talk live: www.crowdcast.io/e/net-zero-when-and-how

The talk will also be streamed via YouTube here: https://youtu.be/z6049wR0tfE, but please note you will not be able to take part in the interactive Q&A session unless you join the talk on CrowdCast.

Covid-19 killed around two million people in 2020. At the same time, the social and economic impact of the pandemic led to an 8% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, the biggest one-year decline on record.

As the pandemic is brought under control from 2021 onwards, by supplementing current control methods with vaccination, there are big opportunities to sustain the benefits of lower emissions for health and well-being. The direct benefits are fewer droughts, floods, heatwaves, storms and wildfires, and cleaner air. Indirect health benefits are expected from better nutrition, safe sanitation, energy-efficient health services, and jobs in the green economy, among others.

In this conversation, Sir Andy Haines (Professor of Environmental Change and Public Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine) and Chris Dye (Professor of Epidemiology, University of Oxford) consider how better health and well-being are an both argument for, and a consequence of, making progress towards “net zero” carbon emissions.

To register and watch this talk live: www.crowdcast.io/e/building-back-healthier

The talk will also be streamed via YouTube here: https://youtu.be/xy3xkB9q8Ds, but please note you will not be able to take part in the interactive Q&A session unless you join the talk on CrowdCast.

The failure to stem the tide of biodiversity loss, or to address the deeply related issue of climate change, demands we quickly find more ambitious and more coherent approaches to tackling these challenges.

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are one such family of approaches that has recently gained prominence in international policy and business discourse. Broadly defined as actions that involve working with nature to address societal goals, NbS are being widely hailed as a win-win for addressing biodiversity loss and climate change. However, this win-win scenario is not guaranteed.

Some NbS – particularly those involving planting trees in naturally treeless habitats – can have negative outcomes for climate change mitigation, biodiversity and local peoples’ livelihoods. There are also critical questions around the timeframes over which NbS can help tackle the biodiversity and climate crises given the negative impacts of warming on the health of the biosphere.

In the second discussion in the Oxford Net Zero Series, hosted by the Oxford Martin School, Professor Nathalie Seddon, will bring together interdisciplinary researchers and practitioners to explore the value and limits of working with nature to address climate change and why NbS must both support biodiversity and be implemented with, by and for people, if they are to provide benefits over the longterm.

To register and watch this talk live: www.crowdcast.io/e/nature-climate-change

The talk will also be streamed via YouTube here: https://youtu.be/Ka7Sc5d1v3k, but please note you will not be able to take part in the interactive Q&A session unless you join the talk on CrowdCast.