Wikipedia is the 5th most visited website in the world… but is it biased? Join us on International Women’s Day in the new Makerspace at the Oxfordshire County Library.

We’ll have a short talk on the gender gap on Wikipedia, learn how to edit, and then work on improving articles about and of interest to women!

Talk is at 10:30, followed by the editathon from 11:00am – 2:00pm. If you are planning on attending the editathon, please bring a laptop. If you don’t have a laptop please let us know in advance and we may be able to provide one.

Emma had an exciting international career in finance, but a deep seated desire to enquire into the deeper aspects of what it is to be a human being was brought to the surface following a life-changing visit to Jakarta. She resigned from her financial career and began travelling and exploring yoga and meditation. Emma will be talking about her journey and signing copies of her book, Set Free, which details her inspirational story. Proceeds from the book will be donated to the charity Opening Your Heart to Bhutan.

Professor Susan Brooks will take you on a personal journey beginning in breast cancer research and leading to a passionate commitment to supporting and developing the next generation of researchers.
Susan discovered that a chemical from the edible snail was able to distinguish between cancers that are able to spread from their original site to other parts of the body, and those that cannot. It recognises altered sugar chains on cancer cells that are involved in them being able to crawl through tissues and enter the blood stream and allows them to stick to the lining of blood vessels at distant sites.

The emergence of Islamic liberalism in Southeast Asia over the last two decades has been characterized by its highly uneven reception across and within national contexts. In Malaysia, liberalism is a thoroughly negative category in political and religious discourse. In part the mobilization of anti-liberal reaction is the product of two important trends in Malaysian politics: the proliferation and growing power of Malaysia’s Islamic bureaucracy and the increased public activism of a broad array of Islamic NGO’s. These two trends reinforce each other in generating the controversies over Islamic practice or religious diversity that have punctuated Malaysia politics over the last ten years. In spite of these recurring controversies, Malaysia maintains an international reputation among North Atlantic governments as a “moderate Muslim” nation. Prime Minister Najib Razak’s efforts to craft a state Islamic ideology of moderation (wasatiyyah) is viewed by the Malaysian state, however, precisely as a bulwark against the further spread of liberalism within domestic politics. This seminar will examine such ideological inversions at work in Malaysian politics located in the concepts of Islamic liberalism and moderation.

Harriet Harman was elected MP for Peckham in 1982. Elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 2007-2015, Shadow Deputy Prime Minister 2010-2015 and has twice served as Interim Labour Leader in 2010 and 2015. She has been in politics a prominent champion for women’s rights and as a minister in the Labour Government introduce the National Childcare Strategy and the Equality Act, changing the law on domestic violence and increasing female representation. She was the first woman Labour politician to answer Prime Minister’s Questions. In 2017 she became the longest serving woman MP.

The 2017-18 Humanitas Weidenfeld Visiting Professorship in Comparative European Literature will be held by Elif Shafak, an award-winning novelist and the most widely read woman writer in Turkey. She is also a women’s rights activist and an inspirational public intellectual and speaker.

Wednesday 2 May: Strong Words in a Liquid World

Defending the Art of Fiction in the Age of Post-Truth

What is the role of literature in our increasingly fractured and fast-changing world? Is it possible to write a-politically or do writers have a responsibility to speak out – and, if so, how? Can fiction address political issues in a way that ordinary public discourse cannot? Elif Shafak will explore these questions in three lectures and an open discussion.

After each lecture there will be the opportunity to ask questions, and all are welcome to join in the closing discussion.

Book launch followed by reception and performance by Worcester College Choir – all welcome!

As part of our Every Woman series, Blackwell’s presents an evening with Lyndall Gordon, who will be exploring her book ‘Outsiders’, an exciting and provocative look at the women who wrote the novels that changed the literary world.

Outsiders tells the stories of five novelists – Mary Shelley, Emily Brontë, George Eliot, Olive Schreiner, Virginia Woolf – and their famous novels. We have long known their individual greatness but in linking their creativity to their lives as outsiders, this group biography throws new light on the genius they share. ‘Outsider’, ‘outlaw’, ‘outcast’: a woman’s reputation was her security and each of these five lost it. As writers, they made these identities their own, taking advantage of their separation from the dominant order to write their novels.

Lyndall Gordon is the prize-winning author of seven biographies, including ‘The Imperfect Life of T. S. Eliot’; ‘Virginia Woolf: A Writer’s Life’; ‘Vindication: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft’; and ‘Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family’s Feuds’ and her memoir ‘Divided Lives: Dreams of a Mother and Daughter’. She is a Fellow of St Hilda’s College, Oxford and the Royal Society of Literature.

The Blackwell’s Every Woman Series

From February 2018, Blackwell’s Broad Street will launch a year-long series of events in conjunction with the Centenary of Women’s Suffrage in the UK.

The 1918 Representation of the People Act gave women of property over the age of 30 the right to vote – not all women, therefore, could vote. It was a step, but it was not the whole journey. And many would argue that we are still a long way from stepping the journey’s full distance towards gender equality in this country and worldwide. Blackwell’s Centenary events programme will focus around the following questions:

1) How much does the vote mean today?

2) How far are we still from achieving gender equality?

3) How can we recognise intersectional privilege and oppression, and platform those demographics of people who weren’t acknowledged by this achievement 100 years ago, and are still under-represented and undervalued today?

For all enquiries please email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk

Despite the non-recognition of caste identity by the Pakistani state, caste relations are a pervasive feature of everyday life, particularly in small-town and rural Pakistan. Using the case of the transformation of a formerly lower caste of potters into an important mercantile group in Pakistani Punjab, the speaker argues how changes in caste relations manifest themselves as processes of cultural change occurring at an everyday level. These changes are best understood through the intersection of processes of economic mobility, Islamic piety and emulation of certain high caste practices, encapsulated in the concept of Ashrafization, the Muslim equivalent of Sanskritization.

Join St Cross alumna Kristina Lunz (MSc Global Governance and Diplomacy, 2014), co-founder of the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy, for a panel discussion on diplomacy, feminist foreign policy and social entrepreneurship. Joining her will be CFFP co-founder Marissa Conway, head of CFFP in the UK, and Dr Jennifer Cassidy, Editor of “Gender and Diplomacy” (Routledge, 2017) and Lecturer in International Relations, University of Oxford (St Peter’s College).

This talk is free to attend, all welcome.

About CFFP

The Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy (CFFP) is a research and advocacy organisation promoting a feminist approach to foreign policy. With its vision to challenge the status quo of foreign policy, the CFFP puts people instead of special interest at the core of policy initiatives.

CFFP was founded in 2016 by Marissa in London, where she is heading the UK section of CFFP. Kristina, a St Cross alumna (2014-2015), joined Marissa as a co-founder and also brought the organisation to Germany, where she is heading the German team. Dr Jennifer Cassidy joined CFFP’s Advisory Council recently.

Film Screening with Director: Kit Hung’s Soundless Wind Chime (無聲風鈴)

The Shulman Auditorium, The Queen’s College, Oxford
*Multilingual dialogue with English subtitles
Open and free of charge for all, please register on Eventbrite

Supported by: Oxford Chinese Studies Society (OCSS)

OCSS is proud to present our big film screening event of the term: Kit Hung’s Soundless Wind Chime! The film has a unique place in queer Asian cinema as it interweaves multiple journeys of identity and love together. The central figure of the young handsome migrant from mainland China, his intricate relationship with a Swiss expat, as well as Hong Kong as a kaleidoscopic space where all these take place, form the elements that guarantee the critical reflections this film provokes in the audiences. This event will be of interest to those of you in queer culture, translation studies, migration, Hong Kong, and film studies in general. The film is 110 minutes long and will be followed by a conversation between Director Kit Hung and Dr. Victor Fan from King’s College London, and we will leave plenty of time for critical dialogues, Q & A and discussions.

Synopsis of Soundless Wind Chime:

Soundless Wind Chime is the poetic journey of Ricky, searching for the lost soul and the past of his deceased Swiss lover – Pascal. The film shows a battle of love, lust, reality, memory and illusions and the grief everybody bears every day. The two young men Pascal and Ricky are both foreigners living in Hong Kong. While Pascal, a Swiss, ekes out a living from street theatre and petty crime, Ricky, who comes from Beijing, is a dependable helper in a humble restaurant. One fateful day their paths cross and they fall head over heels in love with each other and boldly decide to move in together. But their love is soon put to the test – the fickle Pascal makes high demands on gentle Ricky. Years later, long after their relationship comes to a sudden end, Ricky sets off in search of his former lover, and not far from Lucerne he meets a young man who looks just like Pascal. Like the broken melody of a wind chime, the secret of this poetic love story is gradually revealed in brief flashbacks. Archaic images of an austere Switzerland with its rugged mountains and rustic restaurant culture reflect not only the loneliness and pain of the lovelorn protagonist Ricky, they also stand in stark contrast to the vitality and colourfulness of life in Hong Kong where, transcending all cultural barriers, the couple experienced moments of profound happiness. (from the Chinese Visual Festival)

Speaker biography:

Kit Hung (洪榮傑) graduated with an M.F.A. from the Department of Film, Video and New Media, School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Lecturer of the Academy of film, Hong Kong Baptist University, his films have won numerous international awards and were screened at over 120 international film festivals. His debut feature Soundless Wind Chime was nominated for the Teddy Award at the Berlin International Film Festival, released in more than 16 countries in 6 languages. He is currently a research student in the department of Media and Communication in the Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK.
Dr. Victor Fan (范可樂) graduated with a Ph.D. from the Film Studies Program and the Comparative Literature Department of Yale University, and an MFA in Film and Television Productions at the University of Southern California. He was Assistant Professor at McGill University, Department of East Asian Studies between 2010 and 2012, where he was also Chair of the Equity Subcommittee on Queer People. Fan has publications in peer-reviewed journals and anthology including The World Picture Journal, Camera Obscura, A Companion to Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Journal of Chinese Cinemas, Screen, Film History and CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture. Further, his monograph Cinema Approaching Reality: Locating Chinese Film Theory was published by University Of Minnesota Press in 2015. In addition, his thesis film from USC, The Well (2000), was screened in the Anthology Film Archives, São Paolo International Film Festival, the Japan Society (NYC) and the George Eastman House. It also won the third prize in the Long Narrative category in the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival.

This workshop, facilitated by journalist Shaista Aziz, will introduce and explore the notions of ‘intersectional’ identities. Intersectionality may be defined as the way in which people’s experiences are shaped by their ethnicity, class, sex, gender, and sexuality all at the same time and to varying degrees. For example, if being middle-class brings with it a set of shared experiences and expectations, how might those experiences and expectations become altered by being a member of the black middle-classes? Intersectionality is a way in which such terms as class or ‘race’ can retain some usefulness without oversimplification or stereotype.

As a city, Oxford is also prey to stereotype: white, scholarly, privileged, elite even. But Oxford is also the product of its intersectional histories, cultures and inhabitants and we perhaps need to do more to recognise and understand the complex inter-relations that have always defined it and continue to shape it. Understanding Intersectional Oxford is a session devoted to opening up and exploring the experiences that make up intersectional Oxford.

Shaista Aziz is a freelance journalist and writer specialising in identity, race, gender and Muslim women. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, Globe and Mail, New York Times, BBC and Huffington Post. She’s a broadcaster and political commentator and the founder of The Everyday Bigotry Project seeking to disrupt narratives around race, Islamophobia and bigotry. She’s a former Oxfam and MSF aid worker and has spent more than fifteen years working across the Middle East, East and West Africa and across Pakistan with marginalised women impacted by conflict and emergencies. Most recently she was working in Borno state, North East Nigeria. She is also a member of the Fabian Women’s Network Executive Committee.

Dr Tahir Zaman is a Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Sussex. His research focuses on refugees and forced migration with particular reference to Iraq and Syria, transnationalism, diaspora contributions to conflict transformation and peace-building, sociology of religion, and faith-based humanitarianism. His book ‘Islamic Traditions of Refuge in the Crises of Iraq and Syria’ was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2016.

Blackwell’s is delighted to announce an event with Laura Bates, where she will be in discussion on her latest book ‘Misogynation’ in the Sheldonian Theatre.

In this collection of essays, originally published in the Guardian, Laura Bates uncovers the sexism that exists in our relationships, our workplaces, our media, in our homes and on our streets, but which is also firmly rooted in our lifelong assumptions and in the actions and attitudes we explain away, defend and accept. Often dismissed as one-offs, veiled as ‘banter’ or described as ‘isolated incidents’, ‘Misogynation’ joins the dots to reveal the true scale of discrimination and prejudice women face.

A bold, witty and incisive analysis of current events, Misogynation makes a passionate argument for stepping back, opening our eyes and allowing ourselves to see the bigger picture.

Laura Bates is a pioneering feminist, activist and the bestselling author of ‘Everyday Sexism’ and ‘Girl Up’. Laura has given voice to hundreds of thousands of women through her international Everyday Sexism Project. She has written for the Guardian, the Independent, the New Statesman, Red Magazine and Grazia among others. Laura is also contributor at Women Under Siege, a New-York based organisation working to combat the use of sexual violence as a tool of war in conflict zones worldwide. In 2015, Laura was awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) in the Birthday Honours for services to gender equality.

Tickets for this event cost £8. Seating is allocated on a first come first seated basis. Doors will open at 6:30pm. For all enquiries please email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk.

Ed Clarke discusses his poetic versions of the Psalms.

As part of our Every Woman Series, Blackwell’s presents an evening with Caitlin Davies where she will be discussing her fascinating new book ‘Bad Girls’, which explores the history of a century of women, punishment and crime in HM Prison Holloway.

Those who defied expectations about feminine behaviour have long been considered dangerous and unnatural, and ever since the Victorian era they have been removed from public view, locked up and often forgotten about. Many of these women ended up at HM Prison Holloway, the self-proclaimed ‘terror to evil-doers’ which, until its closure in 2016, was western Europe’s largest women’s prison.

First built in 1852 as a House of Correction, Holloway’s women have come from all corners of the UK – whether a patriot from Scotland, a suffragette from Huddersfield, or a spy from the Isle of Wight – and from all walks of life – socialites and prostitutes, sporting stars and nightclub queens, refugees and freedom fighters. They were imprisoned for treason and murder, for begging, performing abortions and stealing clothing coupons, for masquerading as men, running brothels and attempting suicide. In ‘Bad Girls’, Caitlin Davies tells their stories and shows how women have been treated in our justice system over more than a century, what crimes – real or imagined – they committed, who found them guilty and why. It is a story of victimization and resistance; of oppression and bravery.

Caitlin Davies is a novelist, non-fiction writer, journalist and teacher, and many of her books are inspired by forgotten women from history. She is the author of six novels and six non-fiction books,.

The Blackwell’s Every Woman Series

From February 2018, Blackwell’s Broad Street will launch a year-long series of events in conjunction with the Centenary of Women’s Suffrage in the UK.

The 1918 Representation of the People Act gave women of property over the age of 30 the right to vote – not all women, therefore, could vote. It was a step, but it was not the whole journey. And many would argue that we are still a long way from stepping the journey’s full distance towards gender equality in this country and worldwide. Blackwell’s Centenary events programme will focus around the following questions:

1) How much does the vote mean today?

2) How far are we still from achieving gender equality?

3) How can we recognise intersectional privilege and oppression, and platform those demographics of people who weren’t acknowledged by this achievement 100 years ago, and are still under-represented and undervalued today?

Tickets for this event cost £5. Please note doors for this event open at 6.45pm, there will be a bar offering range of alcoholic and soft drinks that can be purchased before the event. For all enquiries please contact events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk.

Abstract: The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an independent Australian federal government research agency. CSIRO is actively participating in two key Government funded (National Innovation Statement) initiatives: the Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) program, and the Male Champions of Change (MCC) STEM.

In 2014, 140 leaders and policy representatives from Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM) in Australia voted to pilot the Athena SWAN program that had been running successfully in the UK for the past decade, as a partnership between the Australian Academy of Science and the Academy of Technology and Engineering. The pilot, Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE), was met with overwhelming demand, with 95% of Australian Universities and a number of research organisations opting in. Australia’s national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) was in the first tranche of the pilot and submitted its application for a SAGE Athena SWAN Bronze Award in March 2018. In this talk, Dr Megan Osmond will describe the approach CSIRO took in developing its application and SAGE Action Plan, challenges along the way, and key early outcomes arising from the work.

The Male Champions of Change (MCC) strategy is a global coalition of men advocating for gender equality. The founding Male Champions of Change was established in 2010. Commencing with 8 Australian leaders, the group has since grown to 100 CEOs, Board Directors, Government Department, University and Military leaders. The focus of the MCC group is working together to achieve a significant and sustainable improvement in the unacceptably low levels of women in leadership by supporting peer groups of influential male leaders, to step up beside women, and drive actions to fast track gender parity. The MCC STEM was established in 2016, with CSIRO’s Chief Executive Dr Larry Marshall as Male Champion of Change. Larry committed to lead and influence real change in women’s representation not only in CSIRO but and across STEM. The collaboration between MCC STEM and SAGE provides a unique opportunity to influence change and challenge the systems and stereotypes in STEM that hold women back. CSIRO’s role in the MCC group will support and expedite outcomes of the SAGE program into the future. In this talk, Kerry Elliott will describe the actions, achievements and impact of the MCC STEM group and CSIRO’s approach to supporting males to step up and lead gender initiatives.

Biography: Dr Megan Osmond, Research Scientist, SAGE Project Manager, CSIRO

Megan joined the CSIRO in 2008 as a Post-doctoral Fellow, later converting to an on-going position as a Research Scientist. In mid-2016, Megan took on the role as manager for CSIRO’s Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) program, as part of a nation-wide pilot, and commenced a second PhD focusing on gender equity in STEM. Prior to that, Megan’s scientific research focused on the biological safety of nanomaterials in consumer products, such as carbon nanotubes, and metal oxide nanoparticles in sunscreens.

Biography: Kerry Elliott: Manager Diversity and Inclusion, CSIRO

Kerry has an extensive background in HR, Organisation Development, Diversity and Inclusion and Cultural change in both the public and private sectors. In her role as Manager of Diversity & Inclusion, Kerry leads the CSIRO Diversity and Inclusion Strategy which includes, the Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) program and the Male Champions of Change (MCC) initiative. Kerry plays a pivotal role in the drive by Australia’s pre-eminent science organisation to achieving best practice, innovative solutions to remedying gender inequity not only within CSIRO but across the STEM industry.

All welcome.

Refreshments will be available.

Blackwell’s is delighted to welcome back to the bookshop Shashi Tharoor to discuss his latest book ‘Why I Am a Hindu’.

Hinduism is one of the world’s oldest and greatest religious traditions. In captivating prose, in ‘Why I Am a Hindu’ Shashi Tharoor untangles its origins, its key philosophical concepts and texts. He explores everyday Hindu beliefs and practices, from worship to pilgrimage to caste, and touchingly reflects on his personal beliefs and relationship with the religion.

Not one to shy from controversy, Tharoor is unsparing in his criticism of ‘Hindutva’, an extremist, nationalist Hinduism endorsed by India’s current government. He argues urgently and persuasively that it is precisely because of Hinduism’s rich diversity that India has survived and thrived as a plural, secular nation. If narrow fundamentalism wins out, Indian democracy itself is in peril.

Shashi Tharoor served for twenty-nine years at the UN, culminating as Under-Secretary-General. He is a Congress MP in India, the author of sixteen previous books and has won numerous literary awards, including a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. His Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India was a Sunday Times bestseller and was named as a Financial Times book of the year.

Join us for what is going to be an extraordinary event, tickets are free to attend but please register your interest in advance. For all enquiries please email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk or call 01865 333623.

Shashi Tharoor served for twenty-nine years at the UN, culminating as Under-Secretary-General. Tharoor, who also served as Minister of State for External Affairs in India, is oresently a Congress MP. The author of sixteen previous books, he has won numerous literary awards, including a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. His Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India was a Sunday Times bestseller and was named as a Financial Timesbook of the year.

阴道之道l 牛津·女权话剧

Our Vaginas, Ourselves l Chinese Vagina Monologues at Oxford
The play will be performed in Chinese with English subtitles.

The Vagina Monologues is an episodic play written by Eve Ensler based on interviews with more than 200 women from different social-cultural backgrounds. Ensler wrote the piece to “celebrate the vagina”.

In 1996, The Vagina Monologues premiered at HERE Arts Center, Off-Off-Broadway in New York, and it was awarded the Obie Award for ‘Best New Play’ that same year. Ensler’s play has since been translated to more than 40 languages, and performed on the stages of over 140 countries.

In 2012, a drama-focused group, BCome, inspired by the Vagina Monologues, created an original episodic play, Our Vagina, Ourselves, based on interviews with Chinese women. The play is around an hour and a half in length, and the scripts .draw from interviews as well as the personal experiences and opinions that BCome members have on social issues.

In Our Vagina, Ourselves, women are not treated as victims, but as active subjects who have autonomy and agency. It therefore proposes an alternative reading of gender violence and integrates anger and grief with joy, satire and humour. It also challenges the marginalization of “the others” and brings forward the rights of LGBTs, and it cares deeply about intersectionality, especially among gender, sexuality and class.

On March 20, 2018, Our Vagina, Ourselves was performed in the lecture theatre of SOAS by a group of performers consisting mainly of oversea Chinese students.

On June 12, 2018, it will be performed again at Oxford!
See you then, when we will tell you all about Our Vaginas, Ourselves.

Organizing bodies：VaChina, OCSS (Oxford Chinese Studies Society), and BPCS (British Postgraduate Network for Chinese Studies)

Acting Crew: VaChina
VaChina, established in September 2017, is a UK-based Chinese feminist network officially registered at SOAS with members from various higher education institutions including in SOAS，LSE，Oxford，Cambridge，UCL，UAL, and Essex. VaChina aims to create a supportive and friendly environment for all gender and sexualities, advocates for justice within the field of gender, and promotes gender equality via different means, including theatre.

Scripts ：BCome
Founded in 2012, BCome is a feminist group based in Beijing. Led by the youth, the BCome group initiates campaigns for women’s rights and against gender-based violences.

Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/358499304639795/
Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/our-vagina-ourselves-at-oxford-tickets-45627591354?aff=efbeventtix

In this event, we invite Professor Park Yu-ha, who is at the center of controversy over the publication of ‘Comfort Women of the Empire’, to talk about her work on Korean comfort women. The talk will be followed by a panel discussion, which may help us revisit our understanding of not only Japan’s war guilt and the comfort women issue, but also wider gender and ethical issues in the world, which Professor Park Yu-ha claims in the book to be the fundamental causes of the comfort women issue. This event is open to the public, and we welcome anyone who would like to learn more about a broad range of socio-political and historical issues, including not only comfort women in Asia but also gender equality, ethics, imperialism, and historical in/justice.

Geshe Gelek Rabten is one of the few internationally renowned teachers of Buddhism actually based in Tibet. Originally trained at Drepung Loseling College, he studied subsequently at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamsala. A follower of the rimed non-sectarian approach to Buddhism, he speaks Tibetan, English and Chinese fluently. He has travelled to many countries including America, China and Europe providing teachings on Buddhism to many institutions and universities.

Geshe will deliver a talk on managing positive and negative emotions in a daily life. There will be an opportunity for Q & A after the lecture.

The numbers of tickets are limited.

A presentation on natural history covering kingfishers, butterflies, insects, and many mammals.

The Preeces have been photographing wildlife for about 18 years after taking early retirement and have had their work published in many magazines.

Rupert sheldrake is a pioneer in the reintegration of science and spirituality.
Although traditional religion has declined in Europe, recent studies have shown that spiritual experiences are surprisingly common even among those who are non-religious, including near-death experiences and spontaneous mystical insights. Meanwhile, the effects of spiritual practices are now being investigated scientifically as never before, and many studies have shown that such practices generally make people happier and healthier. Rupert Sheldrake will discuss several practices which are part of all religions, and which are also open to people with no religious affiliation, including meditation, chanting, rituals and pilgrimage.

Talk followed by questions and discussion. This is part of a series of eight meetings on Thursday evenings, each one beginning at 7:30 and ending at 9pm.

11 October
The right to say untrue and damaging things
Wesley Memorial Church, New Inn Hall St

18 October
Flat earth: a Marxist critique
Wesley Memorial Church, New Inn Hall St

25 October
Tithe, timber, and the persistence of the ancien régime
Wesley Memorial Church, New Inn Hall St

1 November
The dream of human life: art in the Italian Renaissance
Oxford Town Hall, St Aldates

8 November
Antisemitism: more geese than swans
Wesley Memorial Church, New Inn Hall St

15 November
Marcus Aurelius and the self-help movement
Wesley Memorial Church, New Inn Hall St

22 November
Hegelian contradiction and prime numbers
Wesley Memorial Church, New Inn Hall St

29 November
Aleksandr Bogdanov (1873–1928) and the general science of organization
Wesley Memorial Church, New Inn Hall St

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

A talk by Thea Gomelauri.