The Oxford Israel Forum, Oxford PPE Society and Oxford International Relations Society are delighted to host Dan Meridor, former Deputy Prime Minister of Israel. Mr Meridor will be discussing the current political situation in Israel and the wider Middle East, including the peace process, recent developments in diplomacy and the future of the region.

Dan Meridor has served the Israeli Government in various distinguished positions, including as Minister of Justice, Minister of Finance, Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy and as Deputy Prime Minister. In power during the Obama administration and a collapsed peace process attempt under Kerry, Meridor has been at the centre of the Israeli Government through pivotal times. He is now the President of the Israel Council on Foreign Relations.

The talk will be followed by a Q&A and drinks reception. All three are free to attend, simply click ‘going’ on our Facebook event to register: https://www.facebook.com/events/143239079681080/

This event is kindly facilitated by the Pinsker Centre.

In conjunction with Oxford International Women’s Festival , Oxford Community-led Housing* research project and Transition by Design is organising a session on “Taking Control of our Housing: Women Leading the Charge”, to celebrate the efforts of a number of women pioneering community-led housing in various forms in Oxfordshire. In line with the festival’s broader theme of “Winning the Vote: Women’s Suffrage 100 Years On”, the session aims to raise awareness around community-led housing and an opportunity to gain fresh interest and broaden the movement.

Join us in the much needed discussion to highlight that affordable, safe and secure housing is a basic human right. The session will champion the idea that women can and are taking action to tackle the housing crisis in Oxford, and to generate discussion that homes and housing shape our identity as women and as human beings. We’re also very keen to find out more about the challenges you’re facing with the housing market. And to top it up, let’s celebrate the efforts of women in community-led housing.

Event format:

Interactive panel discussion

Panel speakers from Kindling Housing Coop, Edge Housing, Dragonfly Housing Coop, Oxford Fairer Housing Network, Oxford Housing Crisis Group and many more!

For more info or queries, please contact katie@transitionbydesign.org

*Oxford Community-Led Housing research project is a new partnership project by Oxford Community Foundation, Community First Oxfordshire and Oxford Community Land Trust. We have been commissioned by Oxford City Council to conduct a research project on how community-led housing could be delivered sustainably in Oxford. Community Led Housing (CLH) is about local people playing a leading and lasting role in solving local housing problems, creating genuinely affordable homes and strong communities in ways that are difficult to achieve through mainstream housing.

Afua Hirsch is an author and journalist and will be discussing her new book: Brit(ish) about being black and British

In conjunction with the 16th Annual Oxford Human Rights Festival, Oxford Community-led Housing* research project is organising a session on “Identity and [Affordable] Housing”, with a focus on self-build housing. The session will screen the BBC documentary ‘The House that Mum and Dad Built’ (1982), that captures the stories of families involved in the first Walter Segal self-build project, Segal Close. The project, a collaboration between local authority, self-builders and local community, highlights a strong theme that promotes self-empowerment through building one’s own home, and alleviating poverty through the process.

The film screening will be followed by a diverse and interactive panel discussion session with experienced speakers including Professor Nabeel Hamdi, one of the pioneers in participatory planning and author of “Small Change”, Lesley Dewhurst, CEO of Restore Oxford and former Cheif Executive of Oxford Homeless Pathways, and others.

Join us in the much needed discussion to highlight that affordable, self and secure housing is a basic human right. The session will also highlight the role of community-led housing in alleviating poverty, promoting self-empowerment, and hopefully together, we can gain a deeper understanding of how alternative options to Oxford’s unaffordable rents, poor housing conditions and lack of control in one’s living condition can make significant changes.

*Oxford Community-Led Housing research project is a new partnership project by Oxford Community Foundation, Community First Oxfordshire and Oxford Community Land Trust. We have been commissioned by Oxford City Council to conduct a research project on how community-led housing could be delivered sustainably in Oxford. Community Led Housing (CLH) is about local people playing a leading and lasting role in solving local housing problems, creating genuinely affordable homes and strong communities in ways that are difficult to achieve through mainstream housing.​​​​

Sir Muir Gray and Lucy Abel debate: Is value-based health care nothing more than health econimics re-packaged or is health economics nothing more than only one of the six contributors to value-based healthcare?

Health economics is concerned with how to allocate resources in healthcare to optimise outcomes. Health economists have developed a variety of methods to evaluate whether the cost of providing healthcare interventions is worth the benefits. In other words, whether they are good value. These are based on preferences expressed by wider society relating to the value of increasing the length and quality of life. These values can be applied to an intervention by linking them via clinical outcomes.

Value-based healthcare’s concern with technical, personal, and allocative value are defined as, respectively, whether an intervention improves clinical outcomes; whether those clinical outcomes are meaningful for patients; and whether those improved outcomes are worth the costs. In this way it covers the same core principles as health economics, while ignoring over 50 years of research in this field.

Recent attempts to implement value-based healthcare have ignored issues such as interaction between interventions and fully considering opportunity cost. As a result, value-based healthcare adds little to the existing body of research, and diverts investment from proven methods, which risks reducing the value achievable in the NHS.

Sir Muir Gray is now working with both NHS England and Public Health England to bring about a transformation of care with the aim of increasing value for both populations and individuals and published a series of How To Handbooks for example, How to Get Better Value Healthcare, How To Build Healthcare Systems and How To Create the Right Healthcare Culture.

His hobby is ageing and how to cope with it and he has published books for publish a book for people aged seventy called Sod 70! one for the younger decade called Sod 60! This with Dr Claire Parker, and his book for people aged 40-60, titled Midlife, appeared in January 2017. Other books in series on Sod Ageing are Sod it, Eat Well, with Anita Bean and Sod Sitting, Get Moving with Diana Moran, the Green Goddess. For people of all ages Dr Gray’s Walking Cure summarises the evidence on this wonderful means of feeling well, reducing the risk of disease and minimising disability should disease strike.

Lucy Abel is a health economist working within the field of primary care and is part of the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford. She collaborates with research groups to bring the tools of economic evaluation to primary care health science research.

This talk is being held as part of the Practice of Evidence-Based Health Care course which is part of the Evidence-Based Health Care Programme. This is a free event and members of the public are welcome to attend.

Distinguished modern historian and former Warden of St Antony’s College, Professor MacMillan recently became an Honorary Fellow of LMH. She is a Companion of the Order of Canada, and will be this summer’s BBC Reith Lecturer. Her area of particular interest is the tangled history of war and society, our feelings towards conflict, and those who engage in it.

As part of Think Human Festival, this one-off pop-up event is a unique opportunity for visitors of all ages to interact with leading academics from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Oxford Brookes University. The academics will act as ‘human books’ from a range of perspectives; historic, literary, political, legal and educational for 15 minutes per ‘book loan’ against the back drop of revolution. ‘RESIST! REMAIN!’ will provide the chance to engage with and access humanities and social science disciplines in a fun, original and inspiring way, and aims to create a lasting impression of how these subjects can help to understand what it is to be human.

Please note that this event is free, open to all ages and there is no need to book ahead. Please come to Bonn Square and start a interesting conversation around revolution!

Join us for live music in the Forum of the John Henry Brookes Building from 17:00 before the panel discussion in the John Henry Brookes Lecture Theatre at 18:00.

Most political movements are accompanied by protest songs. This Think Human Festival event aims to explore their rich tradition and assess their meaning and impact over time. Peggy Seeger, Andrew Scheps, Dr Angela McShane and Professor John Street will shed light on the historical context of protest songs, their production and sound, their political meaning and power, and their personal performance.

Our panel will examine the historical roots of protest songs, explore their impact on social and political movements, and explain what makes a song effective as protest. They’ll also discuss whether protest music is a dead or thriving art, and ask how far gender plays a role in their creation and performance.

Peggy Seeger is a celebrated singer of traditional Anglo-American songs and activist songmaker whose experience spans 60 years of performing, travel and songwriting. Dr Angela McShane leads the Research Development Team for the Wellcome Collection, an expert on early modern protest songs. Andrew Scheps is a Grammy award winning mix engineer, recording engineer, producer, and record label owner. John Street is Professor of Politics at the University of East Anglia and specialises in the politics of popular music.

Join us for live music in the John Henry Brookes Building – Forum before the panel discussion at 18:00 in the Lecture Theatre.
Most political movements are accompanied by protest songs. This Think Human Festival event aims to explore their rich tradition and assess their meaning and impact over time. Peggy Seeger, Andrew Scheps, Dr Angela McShane and Professor John Street will shed light on the historical context of protest songs, their production and sound, their political meaning and power, and their personal performance.

Our panel will examine the historical roots of protest songs, explore their impact on social and political movements, and explain what makes a song effective as protest. They’ll also discuss whether protest music is a dead or thriving art, and ask how far gender plays a role in their creation and performance.

Peggy Seeger is a celebrated singer of traditional Anglo-American songs and activist songmaker whose experience spans 60 years of performing, travel and songwriting. Dr Angela McShane leads the Research Development Team for the Wellcome Collection, an expert on early modern protest songs. Andrew Scheps is a Grammy award winning mix engineer, recording engineer, producer, and record label owner. John Street is Professor of Politics at the University of East Anglia and specialises in the politics of popular music.

The international Psychiatry film festival, Medfest, is back again for another year. This time, through three bespoke short films, we hope to challenge your ideas and perceptions on the concept of ‘silence’. After each showing, the film will be discussed by a panel of distinguished experts, before the floor is opened to the audience.

All are welcome to join us for this FREE event.
The showing will be followed by a complimentary wine and nibbles reception.

Our confirmed panellists include:
Professor Matthew Broome: Chair in Psychiatry and Youth Mental Health, Director of the Institute for Mental Healthin Birmingham. He has also previously been the Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Warwick and Senior Clinical Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. His interests include the philosophy and ethics of mental health and neuroscience, early psychosis, delusions and cognitive instability.
Dr Maria Grazia Turri: A psychiatrist and theatre scholar. As a lecturer of MSc Creative Arts and Mental Health she teaches on psychoanalysis, theatre history and theories, and the intersection between psychiatry and the arts. She also works part-time as a Consultant Psychiatrist in Medical Psychotherapy in the NHS.
Dr Gerti Stegen: Director of Medical Education for the Oxford School of Psychiatry. She is also a consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy.

For more information on our panellists and the films being shown visit our facebook event page https://www.facebook.com/events/2061930723857857/

Do you want to learn about artificial intelligence? Have you been put off by technical jargon or fears of terminator robots?

Come along to this evening course for beginners run by the AI consultancy Oxford Insights.

No previous experience or knowledge of AI is required.

The course will cover important definitions, developments and debates in AI today, to help you answer three questions:

what is AI?

who is doing what?

why should we care?

Our teachers are AI experts and great communicators who will bring technical discussions to life.

This will be a small group to leave space for lots of discussion. We are charging the very low introductory price of £15 for this evening only!

Interested in gender equality and diversity in research? Interested in the impact of science, entrepreneurship and innovation in international engagement? Come along to our panel discussion event!
We are delighted to announce a tremendous collaboration between St Anne’s College and the SIU and OxFEST to discuss and promote gender equality and diversity in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine).
Speakers will discuss the status and future of women in STEMM, the key findings of Elsevier’s report: Gender in the Global Research Landscape, as well as the importance of developing entrepreneurial skills to undertake initiatives like the African Science Academy, a girls science and technology school based in Ghana.
Join us to discuss your experience, challenges and how we can encourage and develop
equality, diversity and inclusivity in STEMM.

The esteemed ceramicist Claudia Clare is an artist who uses this traditionally domestic medium to present social commentary, often on issues of trauma, sexuality, and revolution. Having been subjected to censorship by public art institutions, Claudia joins us to speak not only about her work but also about the fight against bureaucracy and institutional politics. www.claudiaclare.co.uk

This talk is part of the FAR (Fine Art Research) Guest Lecture series, supported by the School of Arts at Oxford Brookes University. All talks are free to attend, and everyone is welcome to join us. Booking is essential: www.eventbrite.com/e/artists-talk-claudia-clare-subversive-ceramics-tickets-50921796464

This lecture series was established in honour of our alumna, Sue Lloyd-Roberts, an award-winning broadcast journalist whose uncompromising and courageous documentaries highlighted humanitarian issues across the world.

We are delighted that our speaker this year will be world-renowned, award-winning Lyse Doucet, Chief International Correspondent and Senior Presenter for BBC World News television and BBC World Service Radio. Lyse was a BBC foreign correspondent with postings in Jerusalem, Amman, Tehran, Islamabad, Kabul and Abidjan for 15 years, before becoming a presenter in 1999. She was paramount in the coverage of the “Arab Spring” across the Middle East and North Africa and, for the past 20 years, has continued to cover all major stories in this area.

The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception. Both are free, but please register to attend. Booking deadline: 21 January.

Join 6 young people from 6 different countries to debate: ‘This House believes countries should restrict immigration to preserve national culture’ chaired and presented by the BBC’s Jonny Dymond (former BBC Correspondent Brussels, Istanbul and Washington) Book a place on eventbrite.

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

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

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

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

Brands across the UK are missing an opportunity to add up to $1bn to their brand value by failing to meaningfully reflect, represent and champion women in their marketing and advertising efforts.

In this session, we will present the findings from a research study carried out by Kantar as part of the of the What Women Want? initiative. Kantar set out to explore the concept of empowerment – what it means to women in the UK today and how brands and advertising can better connect with women. We will take a future-focused view of marketing to women discussing the Hold Her Gaze project conducted by Kantar Consulting. This work builds on the cultural conversations of today to inspire the marketing landscape of tomorrow.

You will hear from Kantar’s partners from What Women Want Steering Committee – Philippa Snare, EMEA CMO, Facebook and Justine Roberts, Founder and CEO, Mumsnet and Gransnet. In this interactive panel session, Snare and Roberts will reflect on what it takes to drive change and how it effects their brands performance, and there will be a chance for the audience to ask questions. Guided tours of the exhibition will be available both before and after the presentation.

Schedule:
18:15 – Registration opens
18:45 – Event starts
20:00 – Drinks reception (closes at 9pm)
21:00 – Close

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

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

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

Jennifer Eberhardt, associate professor at Stanford University, joins us for the next in our Let’s Discuss series. She will be discussing unconscious racial bias in the context of her new book Biased. The talk will be followed by an extended time for audience Q&A so that you can really become part of the debate.

From one of the world’s leading experts on unconscious racial bias comes a landmark examination of one of the most culturally powerful issues of our time.

We might think that we treat all people equally, but we don’t. Every day, unconscious biases affect our visual perception, attention, memory and behaviour in ways that are subtle and very difficult to recognise without in-depth scientific studies.

Unconscious biases can be small and insignificant, but they affect every sector of society, leading to enormous disparities, from the classroom to the courtroom to the boardroom.

But unconscious bias is not a sin to be cured, but a universal human condition, and one that can be overcome.

In Biased, pioneering social psychologist Professor Jennifer Eberhardt explains how.

Organised by Oxford Civic Society @oxcivicsoc. Council proposals to allow only electric taxis, cars, light commercial vehicles and buses to enter parts of central Oxford from 2020 proved controversial. In this second debate to mark the 50th anniversary of Oxford Civic Society, the speakers will debate when central Oxford should become a Zero Emission Zone, and what should be done about pollution in the rest of the City. How could the various ways of reducing pollution be combined and what will be the impact on people’s lives? Councillor Paul Harris, who drew attention to the problems of introducing a ZEZ very quickly, and Chris Church of Friends of the Earth, will offer their alternative proposals on 16 May. The audience will have a chance to have their say before the two opposing speakers wind up the debate.. https://www.oxcivicsoc.org.uk/programme/

The 5th Annual Oxford Business and Poverty Conference will feature a diverse range of speakers addressing the Paradoxes of Prosperity. Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/5th-annual-oxford-business-poverty-conference-tickets-57733957822
Hosted at the Sheldonian Theatre, the conference will feature keynotes by:
Lant Pritchett: RISE Research Director at the Blavatnik School of Government, former Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development
Efosa Ojomo: Global Prosperity Lead and Senior Researcher at the Clayton Christensen Institute
John Hoffmire: Director of Center on Business and Poverty and Research Associate at Kellogg Colleges at Center For Mutual and Employee-owned Business at Oxford University
Ananth Pai: Executive Director, Bharath Beedi Works Pvt. Ltd. and Director, Bharath Auto Cars Pvt
Laurel Stanfield: Assistant Professor of Marketing at Bentley College in Massachusetts
Grace Cheng: Greater China’s Country Manager for Russell Reynolds Associates
Madhusudan Jagadish: 2016 Graduate MBA, Said Business School, University of Oxford
Tentative Schedule:
2:15-2:20 Welcome
2:20-2:50 Efosa Ojomo, co-author of The Prosperity Paradox, sets the stage for the need for innovation in development
2:50-3:20 John Hoffmire, Ananth Pai and Mudhusudan Jagadish explain how the Prosperity Paradox can be used in India as a model to create good jobs for poor women
3:20-3:40 Break
3:40-4:10 Laurel Steinfeld speaks to issues of gender, development and business – addressing paradoxes related to prosperity
4:10-4:40 Grace Cheng, speaks about the history of China’s use of disruptive innovations to develop its economy
4:40-5:15 Break
5:15-6 Lant Pritchett talks on Pushing Past Poverty: Paths to Prosperity
6:30-8 Dinner at the Rhodes House – Purchase tickets after signing up for the conference
Sponsors include: Russell Reynolds, Employee Ownership Foundation, Ananth Pai Foundation and others

Organised by Oxford Civic Society @oxcivicsoc. Government proposals for significant growth in Oxfordshire in coming decades include an Expressway and several new communities. Are these needed or can growth be directed elsewhere? Can growth be ‘intelligent’, leading to prosperity without compromising the quality of life? In the third and final debate to mark the 50th anniversary of Oxford Civic Society, Councillor Ian Hudspeth, Leader of Oxfordshire County Council, and Danny Dorling, Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography in the University of Oxford will contest the issues.. https://www.oxcivicsoc.org.uk/programme/

Kajal Odedra has always been passionate about helping other people affect change.
She is Executive Director of Change.Org and author of ‘Do Something: Activism for Everyone’. Change.org is the world’s largest petition platform with 15 million UK users and 200 million globally.

How do our minds and bodies alter as we age? Can attitudes change from one generation to the next? How have the built and natural environments around us changed in the last 200 years? What are our hopes and fears for the future and how different will it be? Join researchers at the Bodleian’s Weston Library to look into the past, present and future. This event includes hands-on activities all day and a Living Library of researchers and talks in the evening.
The shop and cafe will be open until 9pm.

Joris Luyendijk was born in Amsterdam and studied in Kansas, Amsterdam, and Cairo. He is a writer, journalist and anthropologist. He has written about the Middle East, the banking crisis and Brexit.

Are we witnessing a new, more toxic kind of politics around the world? If so, what is the alternative? Should we lament a supposedly lost civility, or is the emergence of more forthright and angry disagreements in fact a good thing? What is the line between passionate disagreement and toxic bile? Who gets to decide what are acceptable and unacceptable forms of discourse? Ultimately, how do we live together when we disagree profoundly on major issues?
Topic: Politics
Format: Debate and Q&A session

Organised by Oxford Civic Society @oxcivicsoc. The Society’s Louise Thomas and Ian Green discuss the history of the city centre, emerging trends and their implications and present a vision which seizes opportunities and mitigates threats.. https://www.oxcivicsoc.org.uk/programme/

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

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

6 speakers from 6 countries debate the proposition – chaired by Sir Trevor McDonald. All welcome.