Women in Africa are congregated in poorly paid and precarious work (ILO, 2016) and have very high rates of school dropout, mortality and childhood morbidity. This is crucially linked to their role in childbirth and child-care. Women and girls still perform the bulk of unpaid domestic and care work, severely limiting their access to work with fair working conditions. Empowering women and achieving decent work is a vital element in developing a dynamic economy that includes the full political and social citizenship of African women, while supporting their care-giving roles.

This lecture focuses on young women (aged 15-24), who are at the cusp of reproduction and production. Drawing on the rich data sets collected by Young Lives, Professor Jo Boyden, Director of Young Lives, & Professor Sandra Fredman, Director of the Oxford Human Rights Hub, examine transitions of adolescent girls and boys from education to labour markets and how their opportunities are shaped by other intersecting transitions (family formation, marriage and parenthood). On the basis of this evidence, they will consider the role of legal frameworks in obstructing or facilitating women’s access to decent working conditions, the social support for care-giving roles, and ways of interrupting intergenerational transmission of poverty.

Research has established that there are improved outcomes for children in OOHC who have continuing involvement and positive relationships with parents and family. This is the case no matter how long children stay in care. Positive relationships between parents, workers and carers is also linked to positive outcomes such as higher rates of restoration and improved child safety. However, little is known about parents’ experiences of child removal and the broader child protection and out of home care service system.
Parent perspectives are especially important as they are currently a relatively silent group in the policy discourse in Australia. Policy and legislative reform in child protection and out of home care is underway or has occurred in most Australian jurisdictions focused on permanency and stability and on improving the long term outcomes of children and young people. All Australian jurisdictions continue to see increasing numbers of children and young people being removed by child protection authorities. There is an important opportunity to learn from parent perspectives and to improve practice and children’s outcomes.
This presentation outlines qualitative research being undertaken in New South Wales, Australia by a collaboration of researchers from the University of Newcastle and a large NGO and OOHC provider, Life Without Barriers. The research used semi-structured interviews and focus groups to understand parents’ experiences of legal and social services during their child’s removal and placement. The findings of this research will contribute to conceptualising and describing family inclusive practice in OOHC. Practitioners in practice, policy, management and research roles in child protection and OOHC systems can use the findings to reflect on ways to develop meaningful relationships with parents of children in OOHC. This may ultimately assist parents and children to maintain positive relationships within and beyond the OOHC context.

CARU | Arts re Search Annual Conference 2017

“What does it mean to research art / to research through art?”

CARU brings together artists and researchers for yet another day of cross-disciplinary exploration into arts research! The event will consist of an exciting mixture of talks and performances from a variety of creative and academic disciplines, including Fine Art, Live Art, Social Practice, Art History, Anthropology, Education, Science and Technology, to question and debate various areas of arts research, such as themes, material/form, documentation and practice methodology.

Keynote talk: ‘Resonances and Discords’
Speaker: Prof. Kerstin Mey
PVC and Dean, Westminster School of Media, Arts and Design, University of Westminster
“The presentation will explore research in art at the interface to other epistemological systems and approaches. Drawing on case studies, it will explore key strategies and tactical manoeuvres of knowledge making in order to explore the hermeneutics of practice led inquiry in the space of art.”

Presentations include:

“The artist in the boardroom: Action research within decision-making spaces”

“Exploring the Art space as fluid cultural site through the immediacy of the performance and its inherent collaborative ethos”

“Chapter 1 (draft): Using text in performance: a range of strategies”

“Memory and identity within Bosnia’s Mass Graves”

“Fermenting conversations”

“Arcade Interface Art Research”

“Making sounds happen is more important than careful listening (with cups)”

“Shadow:Other:myself / photographic research from 2010”

“Un-knowing unknowing in painting as research”

“Developing an artistic epistemology”

Register at: www.ars2017.eventbrite.co.uk

Driverless cars are hitting the road, powered by artificial intelligence; robots can climb stairs, open doors, win Jeopardy, analyse stocks, work in factories, find parking spaces and advise oncologists. In the past, automation was considered a threat to low-skilled labour. Now, many high-skilled functions, including interpreting medical images, doing legal research, and analysing data, are within the skill sets of machines. How can higher education prepare students for their professional lives when professions themselves are disappearing?

Join Northeastern University’s President Joseph Aoun in conversation as he discusses new ways to educate the next generation of university students to invent, to create, and to discover – to fill needs in society that even the most sophisticated artificial intelligence agent cannot.

There will be a drinks reception and book signing following the talk, all welcome

Professor Fabrizio Schifano studied at the University of Padua, qualifying in both psychiatry and clinical pharmacology. He spent several years as a consultant in the Italian health service before moving to the UK to lecture at St George’s University of London. In 2006 he joined the University of Hertfordshire as Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics – a role he combines with part-time work as an addiction psychiatrist for the Hertfordshire NHS Trust.

Given that, according to statistics, between 15% and 25% of Oxbridge students take or have at some point taken cognitive enhancers, it is becoming increasingly vital to have an informed conversation about their effects, risks and benefits. Professor Fabrizio Schifano, the Chair in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the University of Hertfordshire, is an expert on drug abuse and novel psychoactive substances, having worked closely with the EU to address the issues of legal highs, cognitive enhancers and other grey area compounds often taken recreationally.

£2 on the door for non-members. Membership allows you to enter any of our regular talks for free, and is available on the door for purchase:
£10 a year or £20 for life. Also includes membership of the Cambridge University Scientific Society.

Revd. Kate Seagrave studied linguistics here at Oxford before becoming ordained, leading to her return to work with the postgrads at St Aldates and the Oxford Pastorate. In this research presentation we will get to hear more about an academic hero of hers: Jan Amos Comenius. More than an educational theorist, he was also a noteworthy theologian and hymn writer.

As anyone who has started to look into U.S. universities will know, a successful application requires strong knowledge of a host of different areas, from choosing the right college to picking the right extra-curricular activities. Charlie Cogan, formerly the Associate Director of Admissions at Northwestern University and Assistant Dean of Admissions at Carleton College, will share invaluable insights into what makes a successful application and what you can do to maximise your chances of success.

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.

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.

Workshop on the theory and practice of compassion by Emma Slade, a Buddhist nun living in Bhutan.

A lecture on compassion by Alexander Norman, the author of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama biographies and the President of Help Tibet.

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.​​​​

Beautiful Japanese Teas
Open your mind and palate as we introduce you to classic examples of the finest Japanese teas.

We will be sharing a hand-picked selection of stunning teas sourced directly from Japan’s tea gardens. The teas will include classic examples of green, shaded, black and roasted teas – with some unique surprises to complement the classics.

We will also be sharing ceremonial grade Matcha and you will learn how to prepare, serve and store Matcha to bring out its distinct and delicious flavour.

Traditional Tea Gathering
Teas will be prepared and served in traditional Japanese teaware – houhin, kyusu and chawan.

The right choice of teaware optimises the flavour and aroma of high quality teas, so you will be enjoying them at their best. We will give you brewing tips, and advice on how to source and buy Japanese teas.

It promises to be a fun, sensory adventure through modern Chinese tea culture that will entertain, educate and inspire.

No experience required. Just bring curiosity and a love of tea.

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.

To celebrate the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018, Master of St Cross Carole Souter and Alfredo Pérez de Armiñán, President of Patrimonio Nacional, will be talking about the challenges faced by the preservation of heritage, both in Spain and in England.

Patrimonio Nacional is the Spanish entity that manages 19 palaces – among them the Royal Palace of Madrid – and royal foundation monasteries, as well as 135,000 works of art and 21,000 hectares of parks, mountains and gardens. One of the greatest challenges entrusted to its president has been the new Museum of Royal Collections, considered the most important State museum project in recent decades in Spain.

Alfredo Pérez de Armiñán has been president of the Patrimonio Nacional Board since 2015. Before that, he was Deputy General Director of Culture of UNESCO and has held different public positions in the field of Spanish cultural heritage.

Carole Souter is the current Master of St Cross College, and has also held important positions in the field of cultural heritage, as Chief Executive of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Heritage Lottery Fund, and is currently a Trustee of Historic Royal Palaces and Chair of the Board of Visitors of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

In this presentation, Professor Howard provides an overview of a 4-year global ethnography of the lessons students are taught through global citizenship education about their place in the world, their relationships with others, and who they are at secondary schools in six countries: Australia, Chile, Denmark, Ghana, Jordan, and Taiwan. Specifically, this talk focuses on the learning process of the student researchers and the 4 R’s (relationship, relevance, reflection, and responsibility) of the framework that shaped and guided that process. At the conclusion, Pat Dickert, Professor Howard’s research assistant, identifies some of his learning from this process and from traveling to three of six schools involved in this study.

Adam Howard is Professor of Education and Director of the Education Program at Colby College (USA). His research and writing focus on social class issues in education with a particular focus on privilege and elite education. He is author of Learning Privilege: Lessons of Power and Identity in Affluent Schooling and Negotiating Privilege and Identity in Educational Contexts, and his co-edited collections include Educating Elites: Class Privilege and Educational Advantage (with Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández).

Possibilities and Limitations of Global Citizenship
Adam Howard, Director and Professor of Education, Colby College

*** All Are Welcome ***

Please RSVP here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/presentation-possibilities-and-limitations-of-global-citizenship-tickets-44381238479?aff=es2

Adam Howard is Professor of Education and Director of the Education Program at Colby College (USA). His research and writing focus on social class issues in education with a particular focus on privilege and elite education. He is author of Learning Privilege: Lessons of Power and Identity in Affluent Schooling and Negotiating Privilege and Identity in Educational Contexts, and his co-edited collections include Educating Elites: Class Privilege and Educational Advantage(with Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández).

In this presentation, Professor Howard provides an overview of a 4-year global ethnography of the lessons students are taught through global citizenship education about their place in the world, their relationships with others, and who they are at secondary schools in six countries: Australia, Chile, Denmark, Ghana, Jordan, and Taiwan. Specifically, this talk focuses on the learning process of the student researchers and the 4 R’s (relationship, relevance, reflection, and responsibility) of the framework that shaped and guided that process. At the conclusion, Pat Dickert, Professor Howard’s research assistant, identifies some of his learning from this process and from traveling to three of six schools involved in this study.

Alex Farrow: Philosophy, Schools and British Values

Alex Farrow is a philosophy teacher and stand-up comedian who will be exploring what he learnt from teaching philosophy in a 6th form college to Muslim and Christian teenagers in East London

What place do philosophy and scepticism have in the school classroom?

What is the “British values agenda” and are British values under attack?

What is the role of the teacher in creating, challenging and shaping the ethical and social opinions of young people?

Alex has been invited to perform stand-up comedy about philosophy everywhere from Mervyn Stutter’s pick of the Edinburgh Fringe, the National Museum of Scotland, music festivals, comedy clubs around the UK and the Oxford University Teaching Awards. He was also Farmington Fellow at Harris Manchester College, Oxford in 2015 researching Philosophy in Schools

He is the host of Jericho Comedy Oxford. Jericho Comedy raised £8,700 for the mental health charity Oxfordshire Mind last year for more information about them visit www.tighfive.org/jerichocomedy/

“witty, positive and talented” – DailyInfo Oxford “An engaging and entertaining pairing of learning and good humour!” – **** The Latest, Brighton

Join the Facebook event and invite your friends: https://www.facebook.com/events/441710752915635/

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7.30PM start at St. Aldates Tavern, and entry is free, although we do suggest a donation of around £3 to cover speaker expenses.

We tend to get busy, so arrive early to make sure you get a seat. If you have difficulty standing, send us a message and we’ll make sure we reserve a chair for you.

Come along and say hello! All welcome.
http://oxford.skepticsinthepub.org/Event.aspx/16578/Philosophy-Schools-and-British-Values

After a short introduction to the session’s four sub-topics; custom-splitting, Oxford Community-Led Housing’s research project, co-housing and Homemaker Oxford; an interactive discussion will involve participants in the discussion of how we can work with housing providers to enable delivery of alternative housing models like community-led housing in and around Oxford.

The session is designed to engage with those who are housing providers (both small and large scale), or have the potential to provide housing, in and around the city of Oxford. What barriers, if any, do these groups and individuals experience when thinking about or actively engaging in community-led housing projects? Further, what can Oxford Community-Led Housing and similar groups do to break down these barriers and engage with housing deliverers to provide alternative housing models like community-led housing as a viable, sustainable and affordable housing model in Oxford?

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!

This is the second in a series of lunchtime workshops to think about teaching/research through different (and intersectional) lenses, with the goal also of capturing interdisciplinary and intergenerational perspectives.

This time we want to explore ways in which research deploys a queer lens to transform, disrupt and challenge fields of scholarship, and how that productive dislodging of perspective informs teaching (and could do so more profoundly), at both an individual and a more systemic level. Our specific focus is on the interface between research/teaching (in art, ancient world philology and musicology) and activism/performance – both within and outside ‘the academy’. This workshop is timed to fall within a few days of the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Bi-Phobia.

The panellists are Oreet Ashery (Ruskin School of Art), Jacob Mallinson Bird (Music) and Richard Parkinson (Oriental Studies).

This workshop will be chaired by Jane Garnett (Tutor in Modern History, Faculty of History).

Lunch will be available from 12.30pm. Attendance is free but booking is essential.

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.

Kei Miller is a poet, novelist, essayist, short story writer, broadcaster and blogger. His many books include the novel Augustown (2016) and poetry collection The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion, which won the Forward Prize (Best Poetry Collection of 2014). In 2010, the Institute of Jamaica awarded him the Silver Musgrave medal for his contributions to Literature. He is currently a Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Exeter.

Kei’s work challenges the way we think about and perceive the world and its history through vibrant, compelling language and imagery. Come and hear one of the country’s most sought-after readers in an event organized by Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre for Think Human Festival.

Sinéad Morrissey is the author of six poetry collections, including Parallax (2013), winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize. In 2017 she was awarded the Forward Prize for her most recent collection, On Balance, and is currently Director of the Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts at Newcastle University.

Sinéad often writes of her native Northern Ireland, but her poetic gaze ranges much more widely and frequently interrogates the act of looking itself. Her poems are resonant with meaning and beautifully crafted, provoking the reader or listener into further thought. Join Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre at Think Human Festival to hear one of the most critically-acclaimed poets in the UK read from a selection of her most recent as well as older work.

The mental health and wellbeing of children and young people is increasingly recognised as a national priority, as issues related to behavioural and emotional disorders within society have escalated over recent years. Particular focus has been on how the education system, schools and colleges could better support mental health and wellbeing, including the suggestion that every school and college should have a designated lead in mental health by 2025*.

This raises important questions: How can educational settings best support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people? How can professionals be trained to do this? How can they work effectively with other professionals? How can they work with families and communities and what are the challenges? How can they foster emotional resilience for all children and young people in their settings?

As part of Think Human Festival a panel of distinguished experts from the education and allied professional sectors will consider and debate the opportunities for, and the challenges to, effective practice to strengthen emotional resilience and support positive mental health and wellbeing amongst our children and young people.

*gov.uk 2017: Transforming children and young people’s mental health provision: a green paper

In this exciting event organized by Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre for Think Human Festival, the celebrated poet, editor and translator Clare Pollard will join us to read from her work and talk about the ‘thrill of entering a new way of thinking’ when we read and translate poetry from another language. How does translation break down boundaries between cultures? Can the translation of poetry help to make us more empathetic or even more human?

Clare has published five collections of poetry with Bloodaxe, the latest of which is Incarnation (2017). Her translation projects include a version of Ovid’s Heroines (2013), which she toured as a one-woman show, and a co-translation of Asha Lul Mohamud Yusuf’s The Sea-Migrations (2017) which was The Sunday Times Poetry Book of the Year. She is the new editor of Modern Poetry in Translation.

Saturday drop In session for everyone.
Think art is just about looking? Think again! Join this session to find out how hearing, taste, smell and touch are activated in our encounters with painting and sculpture.

Professor Mary Wild will bring a welcome dose of evidence-based argument to the debate on the future of education.

Education develops the potential and talent of individuals to thrive and succeed in future economic and societal contexts that are often fast-changing and uncertain. Yet in many respects education policy and popular opinion suggest that the answer to tomorrow’s opportunities and challenges should be rooted in past structures and practices. Of course history can be a good guide to the future – but only where the perception of that history is well-informed.

So, was there ever a “golden age” of education – and even if there was, should it be the blueprint for the future? Mary will explore the evidence and lay out her conclusions.

Join Transition by Design & guests for an interactive session on green building and sustainable architecture. A short panel discussion with experts on planning, building, managing and living in low-impact housing will be followed by an interactive Q&A for anyone who is interested in or currently building, renovating, converting or extending their home.

The panel will include experts on Passivhaus, low-carbon materials and energy efficiency as well as co-housing, cooperatives and other alternative models of housing.

We’ll discuss how your house interacts with the environment around it, what questions to ask if you’re planning a build, the latest materials and technologies for low-impact design and what the current opportunities are in Oxford for community housing, self build, cooperatives and other alternative models of housing that put people and the planet before profit.