A practical guide for the enquiring mind. Fake is real; from the Chernobyl apocalypse to cancer cures, how to know the truth behind the headlines? Join medical science communicator Catarina Amorim and mathematician Joana Andrade form the Storytelling Science Project for a fun afternoon on how to be a curious and critical thinker. We can’t promise you’ll never be tricked again but we can try. Alternatively, come for the bingo…

How do we make the best policy choices for our families when resources are stretched to breaking point? Join Mary Daly and Aaron Reeves (University of Oxford) and Sasha East and Deborah McIlveen (Blackbird Leys CDI) explore how shifts in government policy create new opportunities and challenges for families. What lasting changes might we make or consider as a community to help raise a healthy child?

IF Oxford is operating a Pay What You Decide (PWYD) ticketing system. This works by enabling you to pre-book events without paying for a ticket beforehand. Afterwards, you have the opportunity to pay what you decide you want to, or can afford. If you prefer, you can make a donation to IF Oxford when you book. All funds raised go towards next year’s Festival.

Geographers have long been interested in the spaces brought into being by the internet. In the early days of the Web, digital technologies were seen as tools that could bring a heterotopic cyberspace into being: a place beyond space de-tethered from the material world.

More recent framings instead see digital geographies as always-augmented, hybrid, and ontogenetic: integrally embedded into everyday life.

Against that backdrop, Professor Mark Graham will present findings from three large research projects about digital platforms. First, a large-scale digital mapping project that looks at how digital inequalities can become infused into our urban landscapes. Second, a study about the livelihoods of platform workers in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Finally, early results from a new action research project (the Fairwork Foundation) designed to improve the quality of platform jobs.

In each case, the talk explores why understanding the ways that platforms command digital geographies is a crucial prerequisite for envisioning more equitable digital futures.

Please register via the link provided. This talk will be followed by a drinks reception, all welcome.

Blackwell’s are honoured to be joined by Chelsea Kwakye and Ore Ogunbiyi, to talk about their hugely important book, Taking Up Space: The Black Girl’s Manifesto for Change.

Synopsis

As a minority in a predominantly white institution, taking up space is an act of resistance. Recent Cambridge grads Chelsea and Ore experienced this first-hand, and wrote Taking Up Space as a guide and a manifesto for change.

“FOR BLACK GIRLS:Understand that your journey is unique. Use this book as a guide. Our wish for you is that you read this and feel empowered, comforted and validated in every emotion you experience, or decision that you make.FOR EVERYONE ELSE:We can only hope that reading this helps you to be a better friend, parent, sibling or teacher to black girls living through what we did. It’s time we stepped away from seeing this as a problem that black people are charged with solving on their own.It’s a collective effort. And everyone has a role to play.”

Featuring honest conversations with students past and present, Taking Up Space goes beyond the buzzwords of diversity and inclusion and explores what those words truly mean for young black girls today.

Chelsea Kwakye is a first-class honours History graduate from Homerton College, Cambridge. Whilst at Cambridge she was the only black girl in her year group of around 200 to read History. In her final year, she was Vice-President of the African-Caribbean Society and competed in a Cambridge vs. Oxford Varsity Athletics match. She is currently studying at the University of Law in preparation for a training contract with a city law firm in London.

Ore Ogunbiyi is a Nigerian-British Politics and International Relations graduate from Jesus College, Cambridge. Whilst at Cambridge she pioneered the Benin Bronze Repatriation campaign, the #BlackMenofCambridgeUniversity campaign and was President of the African-Caribbean Society. She has since completed a Masters in Journalism at Columbia University, New York and is currently working as a Special Assistant and Speechwriter to the Vice President of Nigeria.

#Merky Books was set up by publishers Penguin Random House and Stormzy in June 2018 to find and publish the best writers of a new generation and to publish the stories that are not being heard. #Merky Books aims to open up the world of publishing, and this year has launched a New Writer’s Prize and will soon be launching a #Merky Books traineeship.

This event is free to attend, but please do register if you plan on coming. The talk will be held in our Philosophy Department, which is only accessible by a short flight of stairs. For more information please contact our Customer Service Desk on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk.

Dr David Nabarro, former Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Food Security and Nutrition, will give a talk on what implications there will be for the planet and us in linking nature, food and the climate.

Please register via the link provided. Followed by a drinks reception, all welcome

Blackwell’s is thrilled to be welcoming Erling Kagge to discuss his new book ‘Philosophy for Polar Explorers’.

Synopsis
Erling Kagge was the first man in history to reach all of the Earth’s poles by foot – the North, the South, and the summit of Everest. In ‘Philosophy for Polar Explorers’ he brings together the wisdom and expertise he has gained from the expeditions that have taken him to the limits of the earth, and of human endurance.

This is the essential guide to the art of exploration. In sixteen meditative but practical lessons – from cultivating an optimistic outlook, to getting up at the right time, to learning to find focus and comfort in solitude – Erling Kagge reveals what survival in the most extreme conditions can teach us about how to lead a meaningful life. Wherever we may be headed.

Erling Kagge is a Norwegian explorer who was the first in history to reach the ‘three poles’ – North, South and the summit of Everest. He now lives in Oslo where he runs a publishing house. He is the author of multiple books, including ‘Silence’, which is published in 38 languages, and ‘Walking’.

Tickets for this event are £5. Doors will open at 6.45pm when there will be a small bar available to purchase drinks. For more information, please contact our Customer Service Desk on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk

Migration is present at the dawn of human history – the phenomena of hunting and gathering, seeking seasonal pasture and nomadism being as old as human social organisation itself.

The flight from natural disasters, adverse climatic changes, famine, and territorial aggression by other communities or other species were also common occurrences.

But if migration is as old as the hills, why is it now so politically sensitive? Why do migrants leave? Where do they go, in what numbers and for what reasons? Do migrants represent a threat to the social and political order? Are they none-the-less necessary to provide labour, develop their home countries, increase consumer demand and generate wealth? Can migration be stopped? One of Britain’s leading migration scholars, Robin Cohen, will probe these issues in this talk

Please register via the link provided.

This talk will be followed by a book sale, signing and drinks reception, all welcome. Copies available at half price — £10 — to cash buyers only.

A growing middle class in the developing world, as well as increasing concerns about the healthfulness, environmental footprint and inhumaneness of conventional livestock production have given rise to neo-Malthusian concerns about how to address what seems insatiable demand for protein.

While some have doubled down on calls for reducing meat consumption, so far the most visible response has been a huge wave of innovation in a variety of what are now being called “alternative proteins.” Designed to capture the “flexitarian” market, these include insect-based foods, protein-rich “superfoods,” simulated plant-based meat and dairy substitutes, and cellular/bioengineered meat.

Their rapid development begs two crucial questions, however. How did protein become the macronutrient of concern to begin? Will protein’s new substantiations be any more nutritious and ecological than that which it substitutes? In this talk, Guthman will elaborate on what is being done in the name of protein and provide provisional answers to these questions.

Please register via the link provided.

Join us for a special lecture with St Cross alumna Lisa Downing, who will discuss the research behind her new book: Selfish Women. This event will be followed by a drinks reception.

Lisa Downing is Professor of French Discourses of Sexuality at the University of Birmingham, UK. She is a specialist in interdisciplinary sexuality and gender studies, critical theory, and the history of cultural concepts, focusing especially on questions of exceptionality, difficulty, and (ab)normality. Recent books include: The Subject of Murder: Gender, Exceptionality, and the Modern Killer (2013); Fuckology: Critical Essays on John Money’s Diagnostic Concepts (co-authored with Iain Morland and Nikki Sullivan, 2015); and After Foucault (as editor, 2018), as well as Selfish Women. Her next book project will be a short manifesto entitled Against Affect.

We are entering the fourth revolution of healthcare.

The first revolution was Public Health with sanitation, cleaner air and better housing. The second is medical healthcare with the advancement of diagnostics and treatment with a focus on disease cure. The third is personalised health, through individual knowledge, technology, behaviour change and precision medicine.

However, these revolutions have left three major problems unresolved; unsustainable healthcare, rising health inequalities and climate change driven by unsustainable living.

So, we enter the fourth revolution in healthcare which builds on the previous three. This is based on communities rather than individuals, supporting a sustainable active lifestyle, eating local produce and using culture, art and contact with nature to create purpose and connections to each other, leading to greater resilience and wellbeing. It is a revolution when Smart Cities become central to the delivery of health and when advanced technology becomes almost invisible encouraging a lifestyle closer rather than further from nature.

In this talk Dr Bird will explain how we are already delivering this future and how biological changes such as chronic inflammation, epigenetics, mitochondrial dysfunction and telomere shortening can provide the scientific link between wellbeing and disease.

Inaugural event in our new events series focusing on responsible leadership: Driving Diversity and Inclusion Seminar Series.

Progress on diversity in the UK civil service and why it matters. How the dial only really shifted on gender, and why the focus is now on inclusion and addressing bullying and harassment. What the good leaders are doing?

Dame Sue Owen will give a talk followed by a Q&A with the audience moderated by Sue Dopson, Rhodes Trust Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Fellow of Green Templeton College, Deputy Dean of Saïd Business School.

Event Schedule:
17:15 – Registration opens
17:45 – Event starts
18:45 – Drinks reception
19:45 – Close

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

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.

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?

It’s such a strange experience: you’re in the place you want to be, researching a topic of great interest to you, you have time and space for research that senior academics often envy, and yet for (sometimes long) periods of time, you find yourself able to do almost anything other than your research.

Sound familiar? You’re not alone! Come along to this meet-up to try to put your finger on what’s triggering your procrastination, and to develop and commit to a personalised approach to addressing it.

Series background

As PhD and early career researchers, we all have ups and downs. If and when the downs get very bad, it might become clear to us that we need support. But there’s a world of space between being happy and fulfilled in our work, and that point at which we might, finally, admit there’s a problem and seek help.

Many – perhaps even most – researchers are working in that space. Most of us live with conditions and experiences that can have profound impacts on our capacities as researchers.

Experiences like imposter syndrome and academic anxieties are incredibly common. Common enough that we should be talking about them. A lot. So why the silence?

The Thriving Researcher is a new initiative that creates space and time for researchers to come together and break the silence. We’ll be building an inclusive community, discussing our shared experiences, and learning how to work – and how to thrive – in the face of challenges that can feel overwhelming and isolating.

These are free, informal, supportive events, with a focus on validating your experiences, reflecting on your responses to common challenges, and arming you with practical tips and tools to help you feel better equipped to do what you do best.

In modern high-tech health care, patients appear to be the stumbling block.

Uninformed, anxious, noncompliant individuals with unhealthy lifestyles who demand treatments advertised by celebrities and insist on unnecessary but expensive diagnostics may eventually turn into plaintiffs. But what about their physicians? About ten years ago, Muir Gray and Gerd Gigerenzer published a book with the subtitle “Envisioning health care 2020”. They listed “seven sins” of health care systems then, one of which was health professionals’ stunning lack of risk literacy. Many were not exactly sure what a false-positive rate was, or what overdiagnosis and survival rates mean, and they were unable to evaluate articles in their own field. As a consequence, the ideals of informed consent and shared decision-making remain a pipedream – both doctors and patients are habitually misled by biased information in health brochures and advertisements. At the same time, the risk literacy problem is one of the few in health care that actually have a known solution. A quick cure is to teach efficient risk communication that fosters transparency as opposed to confusion, both in medical school and in CME. It can be done with 4th graders, so it should work with doctors, too.

Now, in 2020, can every doctor understand health statistics? In this talk, Gerd Gigerenzer will describe the efforts towards this goal, a few successes, but also the steadfast forces that undermine doctors’ ability to understand and act on evidence. Moreover, the last decade has seen two new forces that distract from solving the problem. The first is the promise of digital technology, from diagnostic AI systems to big data analytics, which consumes much of the attention. Digital technology is of little help if doctors do not understand it. Second, our efforts to make patients competent and to encourage them to articulate their values are now in conflict with the new paternalistic view that patients just need to be nudged into better behaviour.

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

Joint event with: The Oxford–Berlin Research Partnership

With the UK population predicted to grow nearly 20% by 2050 (circa 77 million people), over 65s making up around 25% of the population and more and more demands being put on the healthcare system what does the future hold?

Professor Chris Whitty, England’s Chief Medical Officer, will discuss predictions for the future advancement of healthcare in the UK and how these advancements will monitor, diagnose and treat us and how this will change our healthcare system.

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

‘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

We all arrive at the experience of academic culture shock via different routes: the transition from a taught model of study to one driven only by ourselves; returning to study after a long break and finding the academic landscape vastly changed; moving universities and encountering differing academic and support structures; and, of course, moving to the UK from a country with a different culture of doctoral and post-doctoral development.

Academic culture shock often results in feelings of disorientation, confusion, disengagement and demotivation. Sound familiar? Join us to explore your expectations and assumptions about the doctoral / Early Career Researcher experience, whether your lived experiences are different from your expectations, and how you can effectively manage the situation and your response(s) to it.

Series background

As PhD and early career researchers, we all have ups and downs. If and when the downs get very bad, it might become clear to us that we need support. But there’s a world of space between being happy and fulfilled in our work, and that point at which we might, finally, admit there’s a problem and seek help.

Many – perhaps even most – researchers are working in that space. Most of us live with conditions and experiences that can have profound impacts on our capacities as researchers.

Experiences like imposter syndrome and academic anxieties are incredibly common. Common enough that we should be talking about them. A lot. So why the silence?

The Thriving Researcher is a new initiative that creates space and time for researchers to come together and break the silence. We’ll be building an inclusive community by discussing our shared experiences, and learning how to work – and how to thrive – in the face of challenges that can feel overwhelming and isolating.

These are free, informal, supportive events, with a focus on validating your experiences, reflecting on your responses to common challenges, and arming you with practical tips and tools to help you feel better equipped to do what you do best.

Do you ever have the feeling that you don’t really deserve to be doing the PhD or research project you’re working on? Feel like everyone else is coping and progressing in a way that you’re not? Does academic criticism really cut you to the core, and make you question yourself and your capacity to complete your project?

Imposter Syndrome is rife in academia, and equally common among male and female academics. In this meet-up, we’ll look briefly at what Imposter Syndrome is, before concentrating on sourcing expert support and developing strategies for remaining productive in the face of this very common challenge.

As PhD and early career researchers, we all have ups and downs. If and when the downs get very bad, it might become clear to us that we need support. But there’s a world of space between being happy and fulfilled in our work, and that point at which we might, finally, admit there’s a problem and seek help.

Many – perhaps even most – researchers are working in that space. Most of us live with conditions and experiences that can have profound impacts on our capacities as researchers.

Experiences like imposter syndrome and academic anxieties are incredibly common. Common enough that we should be talking about them. A lot. So why the silence?

The Thriving Researcher is a new initiative that creates space and time for researchers to come together and break the silence. We’ll be building an inclusive community by discussing our shared experiences, and learning how to work – and how to thrive – in the face of challenges that can feel overwhelming and isolating.

These are free, informal, supportive events, with a focus on validating your experiences, reflecting on your responses to common challenges, and arming you with practical tips and tools to help you feel better equipped to do what you do best.

Organised by Oxford Civic Society @oxcivicsoc. Gordon Mitchell, the City’s Chief Executive, takes a broad look at the many challenges and pressures facing the city and describes what the City Council is doing in response. Some of these challenges relate to climate change — and the city can claim to be something of a pioneer.

The AGM follows at 8:00.

Programme

What happens when new artificial intelligence (AI) tools are integrated into organisations around the world?

For example, digital medicine promises to combine emerging and novel sources of data and new analysis techniques like AI and machine learning to improve diagnosis, care delivery and condition management. But healthcare workers find themselves at the frontlines of figuring out new ways to care for patients through, with – and sometimes despite – their data. Paradoxically, new data-intensive tasks required to make AI work are often seen as of secondary importance. Gina calls these tasks data work, and her team studied how data work is changing in Danish & US hospitals (Moller, Bossen, Pine, Nielsen and Neff, forthcoming ACM Interactions).

Based on critical data studies and organisational ethnography, this talk will argue that while advances in AI have sparked scholarly and public attention to the challenges of the ethical design of technologies, less attention has been focused on the requirements for their ethical use. Unfortunately, this means that the hidden talents and secret logics that fuel successful AI projects are undervalued and successful AI projects continue to be seen as technological, not social, accomplishments.

In this talk we will examine publicly known “failures” of AI systems to show how this gap between design and use creates dangerous oversights and to develop a framework to predict where and how these oversights emerge. The resulting framework can help scholars and practitioners to query AI tools to show who and whose goals are being achieved or promised through, what structured performance using what division of labour, under whose control and at whose expense. In this way, data work becomes an analytical lens on the power of social institutions for shaping technologies-in-practice.

Critical feedback is a central component of academic work, and learning to engage constructively with it – and derive the maximum benefit from it – is a skill we need to develop as researchers if we are to thrive. This can be challenging, particularly at the doctoral stage when our academic work often feels profoundly tangled up with our sense of self-identity.

In this supportive meet-up, we’ll be reflecting on how we have interpreted and engaged with feedback in the past, and what the impact of such a response has been, before working together using a Harvard-generated model to plan and practise an approach rooted in the idea of a growth-mindset.

Series background

As PhD and early career researchers, we all have ups and downs. If and when the downs get very bad, it might become clear to us that we need support. But there’s a world of space between being happy and fulfilled in our work, and that point at which we might, finally, admit there’s a problem and seek help.

Many – perhaps even most – researchers are working in that space. Most of us live with conditions and experiences that can have profound impacts on our capacities as researchers.

Experiences like imposter syndrome and academic anxieties are incredibly common. Common enough that we should be talking about them. A lot. So why the silence?

The Thriving Researcher is a new initiative that creates space and time for researchers to come together and break the silence. We’ll be discussing our shared experiences, and learning how to work – and how to thrive – in the face of challenges that can feel overwhelming and isolating.

These are informal, supportive events, with a focus on validating your experiences, reflecting on your responses to common challenges, and arming you with practical tips and tools to help you feel better equipped to do what you do best.

We all know networking is important – crucial, even – to successful academic development. And yet, for many researchers, networking doesn’t come easily or naturally. Don’t panic! Networking is a skill we can develop – it may never be your favourite activity, but it can certainly become a far less daunting and exhausting prospect.

Join us at this meet-up to pinpoint exactly what it is that you dread about networking, and develop a personal map tailored to your research project, stage and circumstances, for the next steps in growing your network.

Series background

As researchers, we all have ups and downs. If and when the downs get very bad, it might become clear to us that we need support. But there’s a world of space between being happy and fulfilled in our work, and that point at which we might, finally, admit there’s a problem and seek help.

Many – perhaps even most – researchers are working in that space. Most of us live with conditions and experiences that can have profound impacts on our capacities as researchers.

Experiences like imposter syndrome and academic anxieties are incredibly common. Common enough that we should be talking about them. A lot. So why the silence?

The Thriving Researcher is a new initiative that creates space and time for researchers to come together and break the silence. We’ll be discussing our shared experiences, and learning how to work – and how to thrive – in the face of challenges that can feel overwhelming and isolating.

These are informal, supportive events, with a focus on validating your experiences, reflecting on your responses to common challenges, and arming you with practical tips and tools to help you feel better equipped to do what you do best.

Many researchers live with an incredible amount of uncertainty. This can be a source of considerable stress, pulling our energy, concentration and even time away from our work, family, friends and other interests.

So, how do we manage uncertainty and our responses to it in a sustainable way as researchers? Perhaps as importantly, what have you tried that didn’t work? In this supportive and open session, we will use a combination of guided discussion, exercises and reflection to map our own uncertainties and tolerances to them. You’ll leave with new contacts who are having similar experiences, and some new perspectives and practical tips to try in your daily life.

Series background

As PhD and early career esearchers, we all have ups and downs. If and when the downs get very bad, it might become clear to us that we need support. But there’s a world of space between being happy and fulfilled in our work, and that point at which we might, finally, admit there’s a problem and seek help.

Many – perhaps even most – researchers are working in that space. Most of us live with conditions and experiences that can have profound impacts on our capacities as researchers.

Experiences like imposter syndrome and academic anxieties are incredibly common. Common enough that we should be talking about them. A lot. So why the silence?

The Thriving Researcher is a new initiative that creates space and time for researchers to come together and break the silence. We’ll be building an inclusive community by discussing our shared experiences, and learning how to work – and how to thrive – in the face of challenges that can feel overwhelming and isolating.

These are free, informal, supportive events, with a focus on validating your experiences, reflecting on your responses to common challenges, and arming you with practical tips and tools to help you feel better equipped to do what you do best.

The world faces many challenges, climate change, systemic racism, a crisis of leadership and the pandemic. As governments, business and organisations pivot to survive can the social impact sector do the same? What’s changed and what hasn’t in this vitally important space?

We have brought together experts in the field to share their experience and shine a light on the way forward. To reflect on any changes to their approach to social impact work, to share what they are seeing around the world, what’s worked and what the future holds for those who work in this area or are about to embark on a career in it.

Join Marya Besharov and our panel of experts for an interesting discussion.

Marya Besharov – Professor of Organisations and Impact, Saïd Business School

The panel:

• Shivani Garg Patel, Chief Strategy Officer, Skoll Foundation
• Meng Zhao, Associate Professor, NTU Singapore
• Francois Bonnici, Director and Head, Schwab Foundation
• Marc Ventresca – Associate Professor of Strategic Management, Saïd Business School

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.

In this talk Professor Gina Neff, Oxford Internet Institute and Professor Ian Goldin, Oxford Martin School, will examine publicly known “failures” of AI systems to show how this gap between design and use creates dangerous oversights and to develop a framework to predict where and how these oversights emerge. The resulting framework can help scholars and practitioners to query AI tools to show who and whose goals are being achieved or promised through, what structured performance using what division of labour, under whose control and at whose expense. In this way, data work becomes an analytical lens on the power of social institutions for shaping technologies-in-practice.

In 2020, Governments around the world made the decision to lock down their country to help stop the spread of Covid-19. This led to teaching, meetings, conferences, contacting family and more being conducted from home via the internet.

How did this affect data being used across the world? Did the systems already in place stand-up to the pressure? Was our privacy compromised. As companies and families grapple with how much data they need, we find ourselves in the midst of these important moral deliberations. The pandemic is revealing just how complex the data inter-dependencies are when we need to respond effectively.

Join Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, and Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt, leading researcher in Artificial Intelligence (AI), as they discuss what we have learnt and in what new directions we need to head in the world of data architecture.