Talk followed by questions and discussion

As part of the Surgical Grand Round lecture series, Professor David Cranston from the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences at the University of Oxford will discuss ‘Medicine in Art’.

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.

A public lecture by Nurit Yaari (Tel Aviv University). Free, all welcome, no booking required.

We are now in the Anthropocene – human activity has become a major influence on the climate and ecosystems of the earth. It has never been more important that the public are aware of the human impact on the environment, and that scientific research about the state of the earth is communicated accurately and truthfully.

Yet we are now in the Post-Truth World where objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief. The question we want to address in this panel discussion is: What does the post-truth world mean for the future of our environment?

This seminar is part of the University of Oxford Environmental Research DTP’s Grand Challenge Seminar Series, and is open to all.

We will be releasing speaker announcements in the run up to the seminar.

Please join us for a drinks reception afterward to discuss the topic further and speak with the panel. Drinks will be provided.

Reserve your free ticket on Eventbrite

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!

As part of the Surgical Grand Rounds lecture series at the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, Ms Shannon Gunawardana, Ms Kathryn Ford and Professor Kokila Lakhoo will present ‘Global Surgery: Paediatric Surgical Team’.

Ms Shannon Gunawardana (student) will talk about ‘Explore’
Ms Kathryn Ford (trainee) will speak on ‘Trainees and global surgery’
Professor Kokila Lakhoo (consultant) will discuss ‘Global initiative for children’s surgery’

Edmund Weiner: They Grew out of Their Name

“Numerous words and names in Tolkien’s works seem to have a complex inner history in his own mind. In this talk, Edmund Weiner will take another look at the way Tolkien’s creative philological imagination worked. This talk aims to be an unhasty ramble around Ent country, looking at names and topics of language construction and language theory, with perhaps a quick glance at Humpty Dumpty…”

Edmund Weiner was co-editor of the Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary and has become the dictionary’s Chief Philologist. It was his initial analysis of the structure of the dictionary text which enabled the Oxford English Dictionary to be first handled and searched by computer in 1987. He co-authored a book on Tolkien: The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary analysing the relationship between J.R.R. Tolkien and the OED. He also contributed a chapter on Tolkien’s invented languages to From Elvish to Klingon.

Free entry, refreshments will be served after the talk

The Paris Agreement has provided an opportunity to strengthen the global action on climate change. The Paris Agreement emphasizes for limiting global temperature at 2°C and even at 1.5°C above pre-industrial conditions to avoid the potential adverse impact of climate change. Recent studies showed that holding warming to 1.5°C versus 2°C can significantly reduce the potential loss due to climate change. People in South Asia, where people’s livelihoods are highly dependent on water resources, can be affected disproportionally under the warming world. The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) river system plays a key role in the survival and development of more than 670 million people in South Asia.

In this talk, Professor Islam, Oxford Martin visiting Fellow, will show how freshwater availability and climate extremes such as floods and droughts of the GBM river basins in Bangladesh will likely be affected by global warming at different specific warming levels. An analysis of the flows in the GBM river systems using a semi-distributed hydrological model forced by the multi-model ensembles bias-corrected regional climate projections will be presented. This study will assist for the understanding of the potential implications of climate change and adaptation options for agricultural and water management of these three river systems in Bangladesh.

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.

The talk will focus on the view from inside Pyongyang, and the daily course of life in the midst of the current crisis. HE Morgan will also address challenges and opportunities ahead of the US-NK summit and the mood on the ground, and he will reflect on the geopolitical dynamics among North Korea’s neighbours, as well as how major powers in East Asia can work together to address the North Korean problem.

HE Alastair Morgan took up his current appointment as British Ambassador to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in December 2015. He served as Consul-General, British Consulate-General Guangzhou, from 2010 to 2014. From 1991 to 1996 he was First Secretary (Trade Policy) and from 2002 to 2006 he was Counsellor Trade Policy and Director of Inward investment in the British Embassy, Tokyo. He studied English Literature at Trinity College, Cambridge University and speaks Japanese, Mandarin and Korean.

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.

You are a German citizen living under the Nazi regime led by Adolf Hitler—do you resist or comply? Featuring dramatic monologues and explanatory interludes this event introduces the audience to two real-life historical characters: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Christian theologian, and Adolf Eichmann, a member of the Nazi bureaucracy.

Bonhoeffer was executed in 1945, having served time in prison for his staunch opposition to Nazism. Eichmann was executed in 1962 in Israel for helping to organise the deportation of Jews to killing centres and sites during the Holocaust. We meet both men during their time in captivity and watch as they ponder their actions and seek to make sense of the horrors unleashed by the Nazis.

Bonhoeffer is clearly a good man. But what was it that inspired his heroic resistance to the Nazis—why, when so many other Christians chose not to act, did he put his life on the line? Eichmann is clearly a villain. And yet, as he himself protested, he was only doing his job. He followed rather than made orders and he was not directly responsible for the death of anyone. Is he, as the philosopher Hannah Arendt once argued, a terrifying instance of “the banality of evil?”

Based on the writings of Bonhoeffer and the records of the police and court interrogations of Eichmann, this event offers a unique portrait of good and evil during one of the darkest moments of the twentieth century.

The digital revolution marks a profound transformation of society, on par with the great general purpose technologies of the past two centuries: the steam engine, internal combustion engine, and electrification. Each reshaped the economy, nature of work, geography of human settlements, and politics. So too is the digital revolution reshaping 21st century society. Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs’ talk will focus on the basic economics of the digital revolution and the implications for jobs and the distribution of income. Professor Sachs will discuss several key economic policy implications of the digital era.

The growth of populism has led to a widening of rights and power of the people to question all elites – those holding leading positions not only in politics, but also in the media, arts and science. It is essential that those working in science and academia facilitate a deeper public understanding of the complexities of evidence. This is particularly acute given the increasing use of rhetoric or unrealistic proposals, including the questioning of scientific evidence, by those wishing to gain and retain popularist power.

With climate change being demoted to “weather events” by the US administration and Bank of England economic forecasts being labelled “Project Fear”, public understanding of the scientific process, the complexities of data analysis, and the often ambiguous, even opaque nature of scientific findings, is needed more than ever.

In the first of two panels exploring these complex issues, Emily Wilson, Editor of the New Scientist and Katherine Mathieson, Chief Executive, British Science Association will discuss and debate with Prof Sarah Haper, Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, and the audience on communicating science in an era of increasing populism.

Our IB Information Evening is for future students, parents, teachers, advisers or anyone who wants to be better informed about the IB Diploma.

Talk followed by questions and discussion

As part of the Surgical Grand Rounds lecture series, Mr Bruce George, Dr Roel Bolckmans, Dr Keshara Ratnatunga and Dr Sandeep Singh from the Department of Colorectal Surgery at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will discuss ‘Preventing recurrence after Crohn’s disease surgery’.

Craft Activism: Collaborative crafting as activism, the search for justice & the creation of emotional objects’

This event explores crafting as a form of activism by setting it in its historical, social, and gendered context. Speakers will piece together the ways in which craft gives the powerless a voice to seek justice, to publicise injustice, memorialise victims, create identities, and work through different emotional states. As well as investigating craftivism through time and place, collaborative crafters and their creations will be analysed to understand their power and legacy.

Two quilts and a textile panel will be exhibited as a focus for the day’s talks.

Speakers/exhibitors include:

Dr Richard Huggins, Principal Lecturer in Criminology, sociology and politics, Oxford Brookes University

Professor Joanne Begiato, historian of emotions, material culture and gender, Oxford Brookes University

Dr Sally Holloway, historian of emotions and material culture in Britain, Oxford Brookes University

Roxanne Ellis, Labour & Cooperative Councillor, founder of The Women’s Quilt

Professor Janet Read, expert on the human rights of disabled children and adults and their families

Dr Karen Nikkell, Visual Artist and lecturer on the history and theory of textiles

Dr Bridget Long, historian of textiles, domestic needlework and patchwork in Britain

Claire Goodall, Artist and Tutor with The Workers Educational Association

Booking essential at https://www.brookes.ac.uk/think-human/whats-on/
This event is part of Think Human Festival which showcases the exciting and relevant work of Oxford Brookes University’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Think Human events are designed to share teaching and research to demonstrate the value and significance of the humanities and social sciences for everyone. A full programme of free talks, debates, activities, and performances covering topics as diverse and divisive as Brexit, criminality in the internet age, protest songs, and craft-activism can be found online!

The year is 1964 and ten defendants are on trial for their lives in South Africa in what is widely perceived as a politically motivated proceeding. The defendants include many prominent campaigners against apartheid, notably Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Govan Mbeki. Across the world there is widespread condemnation, and criticism of the apartheid regime is frequently aired by states in the United Nations. Multiple resolutions are passed by the General Assembly and Security Council calling for South Africa to end the trial and to release all political prisoners.

On Friday 25 May 2018, members of the Oxford Brookes Model United Nations Society will be staging a re-enactment of a Security Council debate about the Rivonia trial in South Africa.  The Security Council delegates have agreed to meet with interested bystanders, over tea, coffee and cake, between 12 noon and 1pm in Headington Hill Hall and will be available to discuss about what their countries hope to achieve in a resolution about the Rivonia trial.

Please join us for what will be a fun event set in a fascinating time in history with the Cold War, anti-colonial movements and the rise of ideas of racial equality and human rights all playing a role in how apartheid was discussed within the United Nations.

Please register for this event on the Think Human Festival website.

Leading academics, at the forefront of their disciplines, will talk about what inspired them to become researchers in the humanities and social sciences and the highways and byways that brought them to their current areas of interest and research activity. These shorts talk will culminate with news of our academics most recent publications and an opportunity for discussion with the audience.

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.

Selected manuscripts from Marquette’s J. R. R. Tolkien Collection appear in the upcoming exhibit, Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth. Join the curator of Marquette’s collection, William Fliss, as he describes its vast collection of Tolkien manuscripts, explains how they came to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, and shares details about an ambitious project to digitally reprocess the manuscripts for The Lord of the Rings. Plus, learn how you can contribute to a new collection at Marquette—the Tolkien Fandom Oral History Collection.

Christ Church’s Lecture Room 2. Refreshments will be served during the talk

Are we really living in a post-truth world where everyone is addicted to fake news? If so, what are the implications for communicating science and expert knowledge? The Frameworks Institute has harvested the most up-to-date understanding of how people think and what affects their thinking from across the social sciences. Their research methods identify the words and ideas that shift public attitudes – along with those that backfire or fail to drive change. Nicky Hawkins will share insights drawn from FrameWorks’ research on communicating a wide range of scientific and social issues including early childhood development, climate change and inequality.

To what extent what we perceive is real? How does experience affect our perception of the world? Dr Matthew Parrott, Prof Brian Rogers and Dr Kerry Walker are ready to take you for a captivating journey through perception, from philosophy to neuroscience! Come find out whether we are or not just a brain in a jar!

We are delighted to announce our free series of monthly philosophy talks, Philosophy in the Bookshop. This month, host Nigel Warburton will be in discussion with Galen Strawson.

Galen Strawson philosopher and literary critic who works primarily on philosophy of mind and metaphysics. He has been a consultant editor at The Times Literary Supplement for many years, and a regular book reviewer for The Observer, The Sunday Times, The Independent, the Financial Times and The Guardian. Together they will discuss Galen’s latest book, ‘Things that bother me’.

Please note, this event takes places in our Philosophy Department which is only accessible via stairs. Seats are allocated on a first come first seated basis, to ensure you have a seat please arrive early. For all enquiries please email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk or call our Customer Service Department on 01865 333623.

All welcome. Registration essential. For further information and to register, please contact global@history.ox.ac.uk

Francis Bacon once opined: “Augustus Caesar would say, that he wondered that Alexander feared he should want work, having no more worlds to conquer: as if it were not as hard a matter to keep as to conquer.” Many societies have found that the process of converting military success into a consolidated conquest was harder than they expected. Oddly, historians have not spent that much time on the problem either, preferring to focus more on the battles than the ensuing garrisons. In this sweep through world military history, strategy, and logistics, Lee explores the “four pillars” of conquest (the titular governor, priest, tax man and garrison) and he then compares how those same pillars worked in non-state societies on the Eurasian steppe and in the Native American woodlands.

Wayne E. Lee is the Dowd Distinguished Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, where he also chairs the Curriculum in Peace, War, and Defense. He is the author of Waging War: Conflict, Culture, and Innovation in World History (2016), Barbarians and Brothers: Anglo-American Warfare, 1500-1865 (2011), and Crowds and Soldiers in Revolutionary North Carolina (2001) as well as two edited volumes on world military history and many articles and book chapters. Lee has an additional career as an archaeologist, having done field work in Greece, Albania, Hungary, Croatia, and Virginia, including co-directing two field projects. He was a principal author and a co-editor of Light and Shadow: Isolation and Interaction in the Shala Valley of Northern Albania, winner of the 2014 Society for American Archaeology’s book award. In 2015/16 Lee was the Harold K. Johnson Visiting Professor of Military History at the U.S. Army War College.

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.

One of the biggest failings of European governments over the past 25 years has been their unwillingness to explain to their electorates the profoundly changing dynamics of the global economy and the pressures this will place on their economic future. European welfare systems and other aspects of the socio-economic contract have become increasingly unsustainable in this international context. Yet governments have tended to underplay the extent of the challenge, avoided or postponed necessary structural responses, and constructed fair-weather institutions to disguise the gaps between policy choices and needed reforms. The result has been deep popular resentment to the halting reform process, which is seen as helping preserve the riches of the few rather than creating fair opportunities in the future, and an erosion in public trust in established parties.

Can parties, politicians and governments recover in the coming years, and what will they need to do? What is the balance of responsibilities at the national and EU institutional levels? What risks might throw them off course?