Author and cyclist Max Gaskin explores the science of cycling from hydrogen to helmets!
6.30pm – 7.30pm £8/£5 concessions

International table tennis player, broadcaster and writer, Matthew Syed will reflect on the psychology of performance.

My European citizenship rights…and why I don’t want to lose them.

We warmly invite you to a public meeting, followed by a reception to launch New Europeans in Oxford.

For details and speakers, please visit the event page on the New Europeans website.

“This is a good day for businesses…” says Dan Kelly, President, CEO and Chair, Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Maybe so, but CETA, like other trade-deals, is bad news for equality, democracy and the environment.
In early 2016, CETA, the Canada-EU trade deal is due to be debated and voted on in the European parliament. Like TTIP, CETA allows corporations to sue governments in secret courts over decisions they don’t like.
As part of the growing movement against corporate trade deals and to try to stop final agreement of CETA, we’re planning a speaker tour.
The speakers will be:
• Maude Barlow, chair of citizens’ group the Council of Canadians
• Yash Tandon, Ugandan trade expert and author of Trade is War
• Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now

It’s been a terrible time for the glorious game: corruption, escalating prices and shrinking grass roots involvement. Could a more scientific approach to everything from the offside rule to deciding who hosts World Cups make it fairer and more watchable? Join hardcore Arsenal fan Marcus du Sautoy, Leeds supporter Jim Al-Khalili and statistician David Spiegelhalter as they’re refereed by follower of Grimsby Town and Manchester City Quentin Cooper to see if science really can save football…

Science Oxford staff will be on hand at half-time with oranges and a little hands-on fun.

Three high-profile SPC alumni return to their college to discuss the impending EU Referendum in a forum chaired by the Master, Mark Damazer CBE.

Join the Editor of the Sunday Times, Martin Ivens (BA Modern History – 1977), the Deputy Editor of the New Statesman, Helen Lewis (BA English – 2001), and the BBC’s Political Correspondent Ben Wright (BA Modern History – 1996) for a panel discussion in which they will cut through the rhetoric surrounding this most controversial of issues in contemporary British politics, and who will then face your questions.

Drawing upon sociology of culture and digital rhetoric literature, this talk will illuminate the persuasive function of hashtags in the context of the UK EU membership referendum. What makes a hashtag more influential, or more successful?

The hashtag is not just a category or community marker—it has also become a vehicle through which rhetorical strategies are being used to influence thoughts and feelings. Many scholars have explored hashtag success by examining popularity and longevity. This talk presents an expanded definition of success that takes hashtag hijacking into account. The data that will be presented are being gathered live from the Twitter Streaming API; over two hundred hashtags and usernames relating to the EU referendum are being tracked. The talk will also highlight the challenges and opportunities afforded by big ‘linguistic’ data on social media.

Yin Yin Lu is a DPhil Candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) and Balliol College, as well as a Clarendon Scholar. She is fascinated by the intersection between language and technology, and her research focuses on the hashtag, one of the most notable sociotechnical phenomena of the 21st century. Prior to joining the OII, Yin obtained a Masters in English Language from the University of Oxford (Lincoln College) and a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University. Between these degrees, she worked at Pearson Education and 10 Speed Labs, a digital media agency in Manhattan. She is the founder and co-convenor of the #SocialHumanities network at TORCH, and her ultimate objective is to reinvent the novel—along with the very acts of reading and writing—through new media technologies.

Writer Robert Penn discusses his love affair with cycling and how the journey to build his dream bike ended in a freewheeling pilgrimage.

Legendary British athlete Roger Black MBE discusses lessons learned throughout his career as well as his thoughts on Team GB’s prospects at Rio 2016.

Leopold Eyharts flew on the Atlantis Shuttle to the International Space Station in 2008. Part of his mission included the installation of the Colombus Space Laboratory, the main contribution of Europe to the International Space Station. In 1998, Leopold flew
on a Soyouz Space Shuttle to the Russian MIR station. Engage in a conversation about his adventures and the future of manned exploration of space. Chaired by Valerie Jamieson, Editorial Content Director, New Scientist.

Speakers:
-Jonathan Scheele (Senior Member, St Antony’s College and Head of Representation at the European Commission Representation in the UK, 2010-12)

-Michael Weatherburn (Imperial College and Foundation for European Progressive Studies)

-Lise Butler (Pembroke College and Vice-Chair, Oxford Fabian Society)

Jonathon Porritt and Shaun Chamberlin celebrate the launch of the late Trinity alumnus David Fleming’s extraordinary book, ‘Surviving the Future: Culture, Carnival and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market Economy’.

This intimate event will be held in the Sutro Room at Trinity College, Oxford University, and will be recorded for a short film. Various themes in Fleming’s wonderfully diverse work – from carnival to climate change, religion to resilience, manners to markets – may be explored in response to the interests of those present.

Interview with Shaun Chamberlin on David Fleming, Brexit and the book: http://www.darkoptimism.org/2016/08/21/interview-on-david-fleming-music-and-hippos/

More information on David Fleming’s books:
http://www.chelseagreen.com/surviving-the-future
http://www.chelseagreen.com/lean-logic

Copies of both books will be on sale on the day.

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“David Fleming was an elder of the UK green movement and a key figure in the early Green Party. Drawing on the heritage of Schumacher’s Small Is Beautiful, Fleming’s beautifully written and nourishing vision of a post-growth economics grounded in human-scale culture and community—rather than big finance—is both inspiring and ever more topical.”
~ Caroline Lucas MP, co-leader, Green Party of England and Wales; former Member of the European Parliament

“I would unreservedly go so far as to say that David Fleming was one of the most original, brilliant, urgently-needed, underrated, and ahead-of-his-time thinkers of the last 50 years. History will come to place him alongside Schumacher, Berry, Seymour, Cobbett, and those other brilliant souls who could not just imagine a more resilient world but who could paint a picture of it in such vivid colours. Step into the world of David Fleming; you’ll be so glad you did.”
~ Rob Hopkins, cofounder of the Transition Network

“Why do some of the truly great books only emerge and exact their influence upon us after the death of their authors? Perhaps it takes a lifetime to accrue and refine the necessary wisdom. Or perhaps it simply takes the rest of us too long to catch up. Like Thoreau, Fleming’s masterpiece brims not only with fresh insight into every nook and cranny of our culture and what it means to be human, but with such wit and humour that its challenging ideas and radical perspectives become a refreshing delight. If we’re to have a future worth surviving, this book demands to be read, re-read, and—ultimately—acted upon.”
~ Mark Boyle, author of The Moneyless Manifesto and Drinking Molotov Cocktails with Gandhi

Pen Hadow is one of the world’s leading polar explorers; in 2003 he made history and became the first, and so far only, person to trek solo without resupply from Canada to the North Pole. It was an astonishing achievement that included traversing huge boulder fields of broken ice and swimming open water in the arctic ocean, completely alone, whilst hauling a sledge weighing up to 125kg.

Just months later he became the first Briton to make unsupported journeys to both the North and South poles. Pen’s experiences in the polar regions haven’t just been limited to adventurous journeys; he developed a keen focus on scientific return and was the driving force behind the vision for the 2009-11 Catlin Arctic Surveys. Pen’s efforts surveying sea ice thickness, alongside Ann Daniels and Martin Hartley, led to them being named TIME magazine “Heroes of the Environment”.

Join us to hear Pen’s extraordinary journey as a polar explorer first hand. From his record breaking expeditions to stories of fending off a polar bear with a saucepan – it promises to be a fantastic evening.

Image Credit: Martin Hartley

Brookes Centre for Global Politics, Economics and Society seminar series

Centre for Global Politics, Economics and Society seminar series

This July, a team of four from Oxford travelled high into the Arctic Circle to ski from East to West across the island of Spitsbergen.

For the first time in ninety-three years they retraced the route of a groundbreaking 1923 expedition that pioneered the exploration of this remote polar land.

Over the course of thirty-two entirely unsupported days they tracked down and repeated the photos from 1923, conducted scientific surveys and pursued mountaineering objectives old and new whilst capturing it all in film for an upcoming feature documentary.

Hosted by the Oxford University Exploration Club, join the Spitsbergen Retraced team to learn more about a journey into one of the last truly wild corners of our increasingly crowded planet.

svalbard2016.com

Free entry to members of the OUEC and, for this week only, OUMC members too. OUEC membership can be bought on the night.

8 countries, 50 days, 2300km, countless encounters – Between March and May of this year Christian cycled from Munich along the Western Balkan refugee route to Athens. Attempting to understand what European and national politics meant for people fleeing their homes, he engaged with NGOs, border guards and refugees along the route. He described and portrayed his fascinating encounters and experiences bilingually under https://chrisbikes.wordpress.com/ and on Facebook (www.facebook.com/chrisbikestoathens/).

On Thursday, 17 November, Chris will talk about his insightful tour, his touching impressions and the lessons to be drawn from his journey in the context of European and national migration and border policies.

Internationally acclaimed mountaineer Stephen Venables is one of the best-known climbers of his generation. In 1988 he became the first Briton to summit Everest without supplementary oxygen, pioneering a new route up the huge Kangshung Face in Tibet. Stephen summited alone and was then forced to bivouac in the open at around 8,600m during the descent, before finally returning to the South Col the following day.

However, Stephen’s exploits over a 40-year career go well beyond Everest – from pioneering climbs across the Himalaya to first ascents in Patagonia. He is a past president of both the Alpine Club and the South Georgia Association and has authored multiple books which have gone on to win a number of awards, including the prestigious Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature.

Stephen is a well-regarded public speaker with a fantastic ability to entertain and his lectures always feature a stunning collection of photography. His talk takes the name from his autobiography “Higher Than The Eagle Soars” and will focus on the early days of his mountaineering career, through first ascents in Himalaya before culminating in his Everest expedition.

Image Credit: Ed Webster

An award-winning travel writer, Elsa Hammond has sailed from Samoa to Fiji, unicycled across England, carried out conservation work in the jungles of Borneo, and spent 51 days rowing alone on the Pacific Ocean. Whilst rowing on the Pacific in 2014 she worked as a citizen scientist in partnership with Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation, taking samples of seawater for research into microplastics. She swims outdoors all year round, and is exploring different ways of writing about these experiences. In 2015 she co-authored the award-winning Wild Guide to Southern and Eastern England, and is currently writing poetry about her time on the Pacific.

Come and hear Elsa speak about spending almost two months ‘alone on a wide, wide sea’ in a small rowing boat. Expect stories of strange marine visitors, terrible weather, boat disasters, and (of course) albatrosses.

From Lesotho Rock art to Peruvian orchids, multi-award winning fine art photographer Quintin Lake will share his highlights from visiting over 70 countries.

Quintin will speak on his approach to expedition photography having photographed for expeditions to Greenland, Iran, Peru, Namibia and closer to home on various UK walks. This includes his ongoing project, The Perimeter, to walk the 10,000 km of coast around Britain, through which he has come to understand that exotic locations are not a prerequisite for adventure and discovery.

Cyclist and author Emily Chappell has been travelling by bicycle for many years. Here she shares some of her more noteworthy adventures, from surviving the frozen Alaska Highway to winning the 4,000km Transcontinental Race across Europe.

Broken Spoke Bike Co-op and The Adventure Syndicate invite you to a two-day festival celebrating the many wonderful ways in which women and bicycles are changing the world. Women & Bicycles will be the largest event of its kind the UK has ever seen!
With a glittering cast of speakers, including cycling celebrities and up-and-coming heroes, practical workshops to help you put your cycling ambitions into action, guided rides for all levels, yoga classes for the flexible and inflexible, delicious food, a chance to try out clothing and accessories especially designed for women, and dozens of new friends, allies and riding buddies.
Speakers will include author and veteran cycle tourer Josie Dew, children’s bicycle revolutionary Isla Rowntree of Islabikes, award-winning cycle trainer Maryam Amatullah, designer and founder of Findra clothing Alex Feechan, founder of the Cycle Touring Festival Laura Moss, and creator of Cycle Sprog Karen Gee.

Rio gold medallist, Grace Clough, will talk about the experience of competing at sport’s highest levels. When not studying towards an MSc in Sociology, Grace is a member of the British Rowing Squad and won gold in rowing at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio. Grace will describe the unique training regime undertaken by British paralympic athletes with the aid of a short Team GB video. Join us to find out about the Rio experience, from the gruelling preparations to the exhilaration of competing and ultimately winning. There will be ample opportunity to ask questions.

Grace visits schools to advocate better integration of disability and to encourage students to persist in the face of obstacles. Her academic research looks at the media portrayal of disability and its impacts. Her own story is inspirational. She only took up rowing in late 2013, yet in an impressive unbeaten run she was a member of the LTA mixed coxed four that won gold at the 2014 and 2015 World Championships, then won gold again at the Paralympic Games at Rio 2016. In recognition of this, Grace was honoured with the award of the MBE in the New Year’s Honours list.

Join Grace in the Mawby Room at Kellogg College from 17:30 for refreshments. The seminar will begin at 17:45. It is free and open to all, and there is no need to book.

Oxford International Relations Society has the pleasure of welcoming Lord David Owen CH FRCP to give a talk about his illustrious career in British politics. Foreign Secretary from 1977-1979, Owen was involved in overseeing and developing the creation of independence for certain African states, and in the promotion of human rights. A staunch centrist having held a lot of previous support for the European Union, Owen made headlines when he announced that he intended to Vote Leave in the Referendum of 2016.

In 1981, Owen became one of the ‘Gang of Four’, leaving the Labour Party to found the Social Democratic Party, of which he was leader from 1983-1987 and which eventually transformed into the Liberal Democrats. Made a life peer in 1992, he now sits in the House of Lords, changing his status from ‘crossbencher’ in 2014, to ‘independent social democrat’.

Lord Owen will be sharing his thoughts on ‘Brexit – An amicable divorce from the E.U.?’

This event is FREE for members and £3 for non-members, with a special offer of £20 for lifetime membership of the Society available for a limited time.

Featuring Professor Glen O’Hara (Oxford Brookes) and more TBC.

Speakers:

Ivor Crewe (Master, University College, Oxford)

Anne Deighton (Emeritus Professor of European International Politics, St Antony’s College, Oxford)

Stephen Fisher (Associate Professor of Political Sociology, Trinity College, Oxford)

Iain McLean (Emeritus Professor of Politics, Nuffield College, Oxford)

Chair

Ben Jackson (Associate Professor of Modern History, University College, Oxford)

All are welcome.

Join us at LMH for an In Conversation with Gary Lineker and Alan Rusbridger
Gary Lineker OBE was one of England’s top football strikers in the 1980s and early 1990s, and holds England’s record for goals in FIFA World Cup finals, with 10 scored. In a career which has spanned 16 years and 567 competitive games, he scored a total 330 goals. Gary was awarded an OBE in January 1992 for services to Association Football and has presented the flagship programme Match of the Day since the late 1990s.

The Oxford Guild is delighted to welcome a very special, high profile and unique guest for what will be one of the biggest and most exciting events of the year – Valtteri Bottas, the Formula 1 Grand Prix Winning Mercedes driver from Finland (they just won this year’s world championship again), currently 3rd in the World Drivers Championship and the teammate of the World Champion Lewis Hamilton and previously Felipe Massa. Valtteri Bottas is flying specially to Oxford to speak to you this Thursday 2nd November at 7.30pm just before the season is over with the final two races of the season coming up, which is unprecedented! We are delighted to have specially secured him as a keynote guest speaker for you and the talk and Q&A session will take place in the Oxford Town Hall, one of the largest venues in the city. THE EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO ALL – REGISTER HERE ASAP FOR YOUR PLACE! https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/valtteri-bottas-mercedes-f1-grandprix-winning-racer-talk-the-oxfordguild-tickets-39342911708This will undoubtedly be one of the biggest and most fascinating events of the year – do not miss out on your seat!

This is a truly unique and unprecedented opportunity to hear from and ask questions of such a high profile and prestigious speaker and one of the biggest names in sport and the high octane world of F1 with such a fascinating story in racing. DO NOT MISS OUT ON WHAT PROMISES TO BE A HIGHLY INTERESTING, INSIGHTFUL AND EXCITING TALK AND OCCASION where you can hear from and ask questions of the man who has won the World Constructors’ Championship in 2017, won Grands Prix, raced with huge figures such as teammate Lewis Hamilton and stands 3rd in the World Drivers Championship at the moment! Get an inside look into the glitzy, glamourous and high stakes world of Formula One and hear the unique insider stories from Valterri! A wonderful way to spend a Thursday evening in Oxford before 5th week looms!

The will be an opportunity for questions and if you would like to ballot for the chance to meet Valtteri Bottas and speak to him directly over drinks and take photos in a private reception please ballot using the form here: https://tinyurl.com/MeetBottasBallot and email president@theoxfordguild.com ASAP.

WHEN: 7.30pm, Thursday 2nd November 2017 (4th week)
WHERE: Oxford Town Hall, St Aldate’s, OX1 1BX
RESERVE YOUR PLACE FOR FREE NOW HERE: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/valtteri-bottas-mercedes-f1-grandprix-winning-racer-talk-the-oxfordguild-tickets-39342911708

Valtteri is considered to be one of the most exciting racers and young talents in Formula 1 and has recently renewed his Mercedes contract as Lewis Hamilton’s teammate, having previously raced for Williams. He has consistently been a high performer and is known for his ice cool composure, nimble driving style and ability to learn quickly which makes him stand out from his racing peers. Born in August 1989 in Nastola, Finland, he was entered for his very first kart race at the age of six and over the ensuing decade, the karting circuits of Finland and Europe would become his home from home. He won numerous races and Championships and was a member of the Finnish national karting squad for seven years In 2007, at the age of 17, he made the step up to single-seater racing. Valtteri made his Formula One debut at Albert Park, Melbourne, in the 2013 Australian Grand Prix, thereby becoming the ninth driver from Finland to compete at this level. His debut season turned out to be a difficult one – but he at least outscored his team-mate Pastor Maldonado by four points to one. The era of the Hybrid Power Units in Formula One began in 2014. After a change of engine supplier at Williams, Valtteri was back in a Mercedes-powered vehicle for the first time since his spell in Formula 3. He registered his best season so far in the highest echelon of the sport, making six podium appearances and scoring 186 championship points to finish the campaign in fourth position, behind the Silver Arrows duo of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg and three-time race winner Daniel Ricciardo. That year, Valtteri and his team-mate Felipe Massa secured third place for Williams in the Constructors’ Championship. His best results were two runner-up spots in the British and German Grands Prix. In the 2015 season, Valtteri once again outscored his team-mate Felipe Massa, despite missing out on the start of the season due to a back injury. He made two podium appearances and finished the year with 136 points. In the 2016 season, his fourth in Formula One, Valtteri secured his team’s sole podium finish, which came in the Canadian Grand Prix. He again came out on top in the internal contest against team-mate Felipe Massa by a score of 85 to 53 points. For the 2017 season, Valtteri signed to race for Mercedes, as teammate to Lewis Hamilton, replacing Nico Rosberg who retired after winning the 2016 Championship. This made him the 11th driver to compete in Formula One with the Silver Arrows, following in the footsteps of the great Juan Manuel Fangio, Sir Stirling Moss, Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. He stands currently 3rd in the World Drivers Championship after having won 2 races (Russia & Austrian Grands Prix 2017) and received 10 podium places.

This is yet another in a series of incredibly high profile speakers the Guild has lined up – we have been working industriously behind the scenes and would recommend you watch this space! Following one of the biggest speakers in the last 15 years in the form of Kanye West, and other great guest speakers such as Stormzy, Woody Harrelson, Nobel Prize winning Professor Yunus, Lil Jon, Martin Garrix to name a few, the illustrious and award winning Oxford Guild Society, after a great deal of hard work and extensive negotiations, is excited to bring you another huge figure from and one of the biggest speakers of the year. DO NOT MISS OUT ON ONE OF THE MOST EXCITING AND ENTERTAINING EVENTS OF TERM!

Come to the Oxford Town Hall at 7.30pm on Thursday 2nd November to learn about Valtteri Bottas’ fascinating life journey, and the exciting world of Formula 1 and hear his unique stories during the course of his career! THE EVENT IS 100% FREE AND OPEN TO ALL!

Abstract: This presentation will consider the ethical dimensions of Brexit. Specifically the case will be made that there are profound ethical questions posed by Brexit that have not properly been considered. The focus of the public debate has been largely on the pragmatic, economic and political reasons for and against Brexit. It is important to supplement these with a consideration of the ethical questions raised by it. In a book he edited entitled Political Restructuring in Europe: Ethical Perspectives (1994) Chris Brown made a case for constitutive theory as a way of approaching the ethical issues involved in proposals for restructuring Europe in the wake of the break-up of Yugoslavia. In this talk his analysis will be extended, illustrating how constitutive theory produces surprising, enlightening and important results that have so far been absent from the debate. The insights point to a set of political imperatives that ought not to be ignored.

Mervyn Frost is Professor of International Relations in the Department of War Studies at King’s College, London. Publications include: Towards a Normative Theory of International Relations (CUP, 1986), Ethics in International Relations (CUP, 1996), Constituting Human Rights: Global Civil Society and the Society of Democratic States (Routledge, 2002) and Global Ethics: Anarchy, Freedom and International Relations (Routledge, 2009). He edited a 4 volume reference work entitled International Ethics (Sage 2011). His recent work, with Dr Silviya Lechner, is focused on the “practice turn” in International Relations. Their book Practice Theory and International Relations is to be published by CUP in 2018.

The Oxford Fabian Society host the Fabian Society regional conference.

Embracing Change: Socialism for a Brave New World

Outline programme

9:00-9:30: registration

9:30: Welcome: Oxford and the Fabian Society. Michael Weatherburn (Secretary, Oxford Fabians)

9:45-10:15: Opening plenary. Kate Green MP (Chair, Fabian Society) and Andrew Harrop (General Secretary, Fabian Society)

10:15-11:15: Panel 1, Taking Our Place: workers affecting workplace change. Annaliese Dodds MP (Oxford East), Melanie Simms (Leicester University), & Caroline Raine (Area Organiser, UNISON). Facilitator: David Yates (Vice-Chair, Oxford Fabians)

11:45-12:45: Panel 2, New Channels of Influence. Shaista Aziz (journalist, writer), Ann Black (Labour NEC), Richard Fletcher (Reuters Institute, Oxford University), Dan Iley-Williamson (Labour city councillor, Holywell & Oxford Momentum). Facilitator: Nick Fahy (Oxford Fabians).

12:45-13:30: Lunch (not provided)

13:30-14:30: Panel 3, The Defence of the Realm. Alex Donnelly (Changing Character of War Programme, Oxford University), Sophy Gardner (RAF, Exeter University), Michael Pryce (Centre for Defence Acquisition, Cranfield University), Chris Williams (Open University). Facilitator: Rosemary Preston (Oxford Fabians).

14:45-15:45: Discussion, Does Socialism Need Patriotism? Facilitated by the Young Fabians.

15:45-16:45: Panel 4, The Local Elections, May 2018. Shaista Aziz (2018 Labour candidate, Rose Hill), Steven Curran (Labour councillor, Iffley Fields), Alex Donnelly (Labour candidate, Hinksey Park 2018), Bob Price (Labour councillor, Hinksey Park), Martyn Rush (Labour candidate, Barton and Sandhills 2018), Christine Simm (Labour councillor, Cowley and Deputy Lord Mayor). Facilitator: Elsa Dawson (Oxford Fabians).

16:45-17:00: Closing remarks, Oxford: Local Politics, Big Picture, 1980-2050. Bob Price (Leader of Oxford City Council, Leader of the Labour Group, and Labour Councillor, Hinksey Park).