Architectural designer and TV presenter Charlie Luxton joins Oxford based architecture and design cooperative Transition by Design for a talk on sustainable architecture and how Oxford can meet the need for affordable housing whilst limiting the impact on the natural environment.

Following the talk, there will be a panel discussion and Q&A.

This event is for anyone who is interested in or currently building, renovating, converting or extending their home. The panel will include experts on architecture, housing and low-energy design in discussion on low-carbon materials and energy efficiency as well as co-housing, community-led design and other models of housing.

This event is part of Oxford Green Week 2019

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/

Dr Larkman is a retired Oxford biologist who has been chairman of OOS for the last 5 years. His main interest is the precipitous decline in the UK’s small, seed-eating farmland birds over the last 50 years.

For this event, 12 artists from all over the country will be presenting work that they have been making as part of the Sound Diaries open call.

The presenting artists are:

Richard Bentley, Hannah Dargavel-Leafe, Aisling Davis, Atilio Doreste, Marlo De Lara, Beth Shearsby, Kathryn Tovey, Jacek Smolicki, James Green, Lucia Hinojosa, Sena Karahan, Fi.Ona

Sound Diaries expands awareness of the roles of sound and listening in daily life. The project explores the cultural and communal significance of sounds and forms a research base for projects executed both locally and Internationally, in Beijing, Brussels, Tallinn, Cumbria and rural Oxfordshire.

Inspirational talk with finger buffet and hot drinks

The ability to accurately identify and interpret Track and Sign rests on a body of traditional knowledge that previous generations of naturalists would have regarded as fundamental. Sadly, now it is largely unknown and untaught, but with the upsurge of Citizen Science, it is perhaps more relevant than ever.

Architectural historian Professor James Stevens Curl is best known as the Editor of the Oxford Dictionary of Architecture. He also has uncompromising views on modern architecture which he sets out in his latest book, Making dystopia. Tonight’s talk for Oxford Civic Society marks his return to Oxford where he was the Society’s first Chairman in 1969. His talk is part of the Society’s 50th anniversary celebrations.

Slime moulds thrive in damp woodlands and normally spread over rotting logs eating bacteria and fungi. They are also unusual in being single giant cells that show remarkably sophisticated behaviour considering their humble form. This talk presents a little vignette of the science behind these curious beasts and how it has led to better understanding of other networked systems, and even the origins of civilisation.

In a talk for Oxford Civic Society, Liz Woolley, and a representative of the company, talk about the history of one of the city’s great family firms. Kingerlee has constructed many of the best known buildings in and around Oxford such as the Jam Factory.

Bernard Tucker Memorial Lecture – Joint with Oxford Ornithological Society

Blackwell’s are delighted to be hosting a celebration in honour of the launch of Matthew Rice’s beautiful new book, Oxford.

Oxford is one of the jewels of European architecture, much loved and much visited. The city offers an unparallelled collection of the best of English building through the centuries. Matthew Rice’s Oxford is a feast of delightful watercolour illustrations and an informed and witty text, explaining how the city came into being and what to look out for today.

While the focus is on architectural detail, Rice also describes how the city has been shaped by its history, most of all by generations of patrons who had the education and the resources to commission work from the greatest architects and builders of their day, an astonishing range of which still stands.

More than anywhere else in England, it is possible in Oxford to take in the history of English architecture simply by walking today’s streets, lanes, parks and meadows.

This is a free event, but please register if you would like to attend. The evening will include a short speech from Matthew Rice, followed by a chance to buy the book, get it signed and then enjoy the evening with the refreshments provided. For more information, please call our Customer Service Desk on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk.

David Miles, former Chief Archaeologist at English Heritage and former Director of the Oxford Archaeological Unit, will be with us here at Blackwell’s to discuss his latest book, The Land of the White Horse: Visions of England.

Synopsis

The White Horse at Uffington is an icon of the English landscape – a sleek, almost abstract figure 120 yards long which was carved into the green turf of the spectacular chalk scarp of the North Wessex Downs in the early first millennium bc. For centuries antiquarians, travellers and local people speculated about the age of the Horse, who created it and why. Was it a memorial to King Alfred the Great’s victory over the heathen Danes, an emblem of the first Anglo-Saxon settlers or a prehistoric banner, announcing the territory of a British tribe? Or was the Horse an actor in an elaborate prehistoric ritual, drawing the sun across the sky? The rich history of this ancient figure and its surroundings can help us understand how people have created and lived in the Downland landscape, which has inspired artists, poets and writers including Eric Ravilious, John Betjeman and J.R.R. Tolkien.

The White Horse itself is most remarkable because it is still here. People have cared for it and curated it for centuries, even millennia. In that time the meaning of the Horse has changed, yet it has remained a symbol of continuity and is a myth for modern times.

This event will take place in the History Department on the second floor. It is free to attend, but please do register to let us know you are coming. For more information call our Customer Service Department on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk

Sarah Weir OBE, Chief Executive, Design Council, will lecture on ‘Designing the Future: Who is doing it?’ She will consider the question of what design is – a mindset and skillset; critical thinking and creativity combined; much more than aesthetics.

The Lady English Lecture Series marks the College’s continuing commitment to the education and advancement of women and promotes the contributions made by women to the University and to public life more generally.

Join Erín Moure for a workshop on translating poetry, part of the QTE Residency and Poets Translating Poets series.

You will learn about the movement of meaning across languages, and how it’s not just dictionaries that determine meaning, but also cadence and structure.
Foreign language knowledge is not essential. Curiosity is the big prerequisite..

Sign up on the Eventbrite page to register!

The talk will provide an overview of dragonflies and their life cycles and habitats as well illustrating a number of species that occur in England including those that are currently colonising from the Continent and increasing in numbers.

Mindfulness: Ancient Wisdom meets Modern Psychology in the Contemporary World
Willem Kuyken
University of Oxford

Inspiring talk with hot drinks and buffet.

Do you want to improve your digital security? Do you keep putting it off? We’re a group of cybersecurity researchers and activists, and we want to help you access free tools and resources to protect your data. Join us for a *free*, practical, hands-on workshop exploring how digital security affects your life. This project is a form of “action research”—a type of research which combines research with activism to understand a problem and find solutions. In other words, we want cybersecurity to be more open, fair, and inclusive, and we’re “learning by doing.”

No prior experience or knowledge of cybersecurity required! As a feminist organisation, we want to *reconfigure* the assumption that digital security is for technical experts only. While the workshop is open to all, we particularly welcome women and other groups which are underrepresented in cybersecurity discussions.

Pizza and drinks will be provided!

Presenting 101 is an interactive workshop designed to help you flex your presenting muscles. Whether you have been presenting to the public for a long time or have just started, this workshop will help you hone the skills you need to be able to perfect your style and adapt to different situations. Presenting 101 also gives you the opportunity to network with other presenters in your local area, so you can share your best and worst practice. There will also be an opportunity to explore the exhibits in our brand new science centre!

The session will consist of a one hour facilitated workshop followed by a one-hour facilitated group discussion.

PLEASE NOTE: This event is open to members of The Presenter Network only. If you are not a member, but are actively involved in presenting in museums, science and discovery centres, visitor centres, educational institutes, other public spaces and in the media, you can join for FREE here: https://scienceoxford.com/the-presenter-network/

Warburg Memorial Lecture – Joint with BBOWT
Volunteer-based botanical monitoring has been a mainstay of British and Irish botany for decades, but only recently has a recording scheme for plant communities been established. Dr Pescott outlines the history of this new National Plant Monitoring Scheme, with a particular focus on the challenges and rewards that have been associated with establishing this novel approach in the UK.

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.

A talk from Homeless Oxfordshire about how they strive to be effective and appropriately challenge perceptions, how they are responsive to need and compassion to fellow human beings, and brave enough not to give up on people that society has left behind. This talk is free and open to all.

This talk is delivered by Mackenzie Aspell. Mackenzie is a Senior Fundraiser at Homeless Oxfordshire who believes advocacy to be the most powerful tool for change. Mackenzie also has a background working with mental health charities.

Talk with finger buffet and hot drinks

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

Organised by Oxford Civic Society @oxcivicsoc. The contest between modern architecture and its alternatives may never be resolved, but Alan Powers, academic and writer, makes the case for greater tolerance and renewed understanding of the ways in which buildings contribute to our enjoyment of places.. https://www.oxcivicsoc.org.uk/programme/

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

Identification, ecology and conservation of amphibians found in Oxfordshire.

To enhance our natural environment, we need to put the environment
back into the heart of the economy. Using natural capital as the
guiding principle, we can leave a better environment for future
generations, implementing a bold 25 year environment plan, thereby
restoring rivers, greening agriculture, putting nature back into towns
and cities, and restoring the uplands and our marine ecosystems. We
can put the carbon back into the soils, encourage natural carbon
sequestration, rebuild our biodiversity and improve our mental and
physical health. This is the prize – a Green and Prosperous Land – and
it is much more economically efficient than the dismal proposed of
business-as-usual and allowing the declines of the last century to
continue.

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.

Sir Edward Maufe (1882-1974) was one of the 20th century’s most prolific British architects. His best known work, Guildford Cathedral, was completed in 1962. He also designed many churches and country houses, and made significant additions to Oxford and Cambridge colleges. Maufe was a major architect for the reconstruction of the war-damaged Inns of Court. During WWII he became Principal Architect to the Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission, designing British Memorials, including the Air Forces Memorial to the Missing at Runnymede.

Juliet Dunmur is an Oxford University geography graduate, who after working in town planning at the LCC, completed a research degree in conservation and planning. In her subsequent career, she has edited and written for health publications and was a member of the Mental Health Tribunal Service for twelve years, as well as serving a term on the Council of the BMA. Juliet is the grand-daughter of architect Edward Maufe. The completion of Guildford Cathedral was a constant presence in the life of the family, and from her unique position, Juliet provides an intimate and well-researched perspective on the work and life-style of her accomplished grandparents.