Some face-to-face events are returning. Check carefully for any requirements.
China is facing severe water challenges. Many parts of the country suffer from chronic water scarcity. Pollution is affecting the health of hundreds of waterways and public concern is increasing. Floods and droughts are a constant threat, especially as climate change increases uncertainty over rainfall patterns. Freshwater biodiversity is declining, with aquatic species such as the Yangtze river dolphin facing extinction.
The Chinese authorities have recognised that tackling these challenges is a matter of national priority and have significantly increased the resources available to water managers, emphasising ‘three red lines’ of improved water quality, increased water efficiency and more sustainable water allocations.
So how can China meet its aspirations for a water secure future which aids its continued economic development while enhancing environmental quality? This seminar will explore the current and potential future water situation in China, the response of China to these challenges drawing on global experiences, and risks to critical water infrastructure.
Current and future water challenges in China
Prof Li Yuanyuan, Vice President, General Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Planning and Design, Ministry of Water resources, PR China
Strategic principles and frameworks for water management in China and beyond – lessons from a global review
Dr David Tickner, Chief Freshwater Advisor, WWF-UK
Infrastructure vulnerability to water-related risks in China
Prof Jim Hall, Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University
Professor of Caribbean Literature and Culture at Goldsmiths University, Joan Anim-Addo brings us her voice on Black Women’s Writing and the place of the Black figure in the Humanities. This event will be hosted in connection with Oxford ACS.
Writer of autobiography, poetry, fiction and journalism and Professor of Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths University Blake Morrison brings some of his latest work and interesting discussion to St. Anne’s.
Progress to increase gender diversity in leadership roles across most sectors has been slow. Are quotas the answer to increase the number of women in leadership? What is the role of Business Schools in developing women’s leadership? Does entrepreneurship provide an alternative for women to realise their full-potentials? These questions will be debated by a panel of business leaders and academics:
– Professor Barbara Allan of Westminster Business School;
– Ann P Francke, Chief Executive of the Chartered Management Institute;
– Helen Hammond, Managing Director at Elephant Creative;
– Sally Rowley-Williams of Rowley Williams Limited.
– Simonetta Manfredi, Professor of Equality and Diversity Management and Director of the Centre for Diversity Policy Research and Practice
Alyse Nelson is President and CEO of Vital Voices Global Partnership, the preeminent non-governmental organization (NGO) that identifies, trains and empowers emerging women leaders and social entrepreneurs around the globe, enabling them to create a better world for us all.
Alyse has worked with women leaders to develop training programs and international forums in over 140 countries and has interviewed more than 200 international leaders. Under her leadership, Vital Voices has tripled in size and expanded its global reach to serve a network of over 14,000 women leaders in 144 countries.
Join English PEN (the literary network which works to defend and promote free expression) for an evening of poetry and debate, with discussion about how publishing and human rights campaigns can join forces to help writers from across the world (ages 15+).
As part of the Oxford Brookes University Festival, Outburst, at Pegasus, 6-10 May 2014. #OutBurst2014
Novelist Ali Smith, author of Artful, Hotel World, and The Accidental, returns to St. Anne’s after holding the Weidenfeld Visiting Professorship in European Comparative Literature in 2012.
Between the artist and the museum
Friday 9 May 2014, 5-6.30pm (doors will open at 4.45pm)
Ashmolean Museum Headley Lecture Theatre
A symposium with Michael Govan (Humanitas Visiting Professor in Museums, Galleries & Libraries at Oxford University) and Vik Muniz (Artist). Chaired by Paul Hobson (Director, Modern Art Oxford).
Free admission but booking is essential.
http://www.humanities.ox.ac.uk/humanitas/museums-galleries-libraries
Step inside the parlour and drawing room of an eighteenth-century home, and together with Dr Nicole Pohl (Oxford Brookes University) and musicians, enjoy readings, music, and the authentic sewing session of a ‘huswif’!
Part of the Oxford Brookes University OutBurst festival at Pegasus, 6-10 May 2014. #OutBurst2014
A collaboration between the Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre and the Archway Foundation (an Oxford-based mental health charity), this event will feature writing produced by the Archway Foundation’s services during workshops with Brookes’ creative writing students.
In this lecture series, Naomi Richman explores the evolution of the ideas central to major global belief-systems such as Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and Marxism, and their status in the modern world from a social-scientific and secular perspective.
6 Lectures run on Mondays starting the 12th May.
6-7pm, Roy Griffiths Room. ARCO Building, Keble College.
Free, open to all, and followed by discussion.
Weeks 1 and 2: Christianity and Secularisation. Week 3: Buddhism. Week 4: Judaism. Week 5: Islam. Week 6: Marxism, Nationalism and Scientific Humanism
For more information, contact Dr Bea Prentiss,
A view from the Pacific: re-envisioning the art museum
Tuesday 13 May 2014, 5-6.30pm (doors will open at 4.45pm)
Ashmolean Museum Headley Lecture Theatre
A lecture by Michael Govan (Humanitas Visiting Professor in Museums, Galleries & Libraries at Oxford University). Chaired by Professor Christopher Brown (Director, Ashmolean Museum). The event will be followed by a drinks reception to which members of the audience are warmly invited.
Free admission but booking is essential.
http://www.humanities.ox.ac.uk/humanitas/museums-galleries-libraries
Are you interested in developing your personal or organisational self?
Would you like to experience a new way to develop this insight, within a broader social and ecological framework?a one day experiential workshop, introducing mapping our personal or professional development through systemic constellations. This course is suitable for those both new to constellations work as well as those with some previous experience.
Please do contact us for more information or to book:
or Email: thenatureeffect@gmail.com
You ever wanted to understand more about climate change? Is it real? what are the consequences?
Come join us for an expert panel from Oxford University who will shed some light on this highly debated subject
When is a volcano going to erupt and how do you measure that?
What is Magma and how can we start studying it?
These questions and more will be explained by top academics from Oxford University.
More details on our website.
OULC and LGBTQ Society are delighted to jointly welcome Peter Tatchell for an event at the Corpus Auditorium. A prolific human rights campaigner, Peter is particularly known for his work with LGBTQ movements. Famously, he attempted a citizen’s arrest on Robert Mugabe in 1999 and 2001.
Peter is also a former Labour Party parliamentary candidate, and a more recent supporter of the Green Party. On Monday, he will join us to discuss LGBTQ rights in the context of both domestic politics and international affairs. There will be a Q&A session after his speech, in which the audience can explore his wide-ranging interests and expertise. We hope to see you there.
How can we rewild animals to today’s environment?
How does the future of lethal viruses is going to be? Are they going to stick around with us as long as humanity exists
On Thursday 22nd at 6pm the Simpkins Lee will host a panel discussion exploring the battle for women’s education. Featuring a heavyweight line-up of Jane Robinson (author of the bestselling ‘Bluestockings’), Sarah Pine (OUSU VP for Women), Lyndall Gordon (alumni and Fellow of St. Hilda’s College) and Tim Whitmarsh (Head of ‘Women and the Humanities’ at TORCH), it promises to be a smashing 45 minute insight into the world of women’s colleges, the battle for equality, and why ‘women’s studies’ deserves a place on the curriculum.
Speaker: Judy Webb
The Lye Valley, formally known as Hogley Bog, is a surprising and little known hot spot of wildlife biodiversity, a habitat for stunning wildflowers and spectacular insects in the centre of the City of Oxford. Beautiful marsh helleborine orchids are thriving here, within just a few metres of housing, and an important, historic, population of Grass-of-Parnassus is recovering to good numbers. Oxford botanists since the 1650s have loved this site and it was a favorite of photographer Henry Taunt, whose description of the Grass of Parnassus is quoted in the title. This is the story of a rare, ancient, wetland fen community, which has been fed by lime-rich spring water for thousands of years. It is one of the most important heritage sites within the city.
All Summer Lectures start at 6.30pm in the Daubeny Lecture Theatre (at
the front of the Botanic Garden) and are followed by a drinks reception in the Botanic Garden. Ticket cost £8 per talk or £36 for the series of 5.
For more details, visit: http://www.botanic-garden.ox.ac.uk/whatson
onathon Porritt, Co-Founder of Forum for the Future, is an eminent writer, broadcaster, environmentalist and commentator on sustainable development. He will be talking at Cerberus about his new book, ‘The World We Made’, in which he sets out to counter the doom and gloom that surrounds today’s debates about sustainability. Come and listen for a positive and exciting account of what the future could look like.
OxTET is happy to welcome Riva-Melissa Tez – lecturer at the DAB university in Berlin, founder of the Berlin Singularity, Associate Director of Longevity Intelligence Communications, and co-runner of Kardashev Communications. Riva will be speaking on obstacles that emerging technology businesses face, analysing factors causing shortfalls in funding, social mistrust, and political dysfunction, and offering recommendations for dealing with these obstacles.
Join us at Freud this Wednesday as we consider how the collections, interpretations and rituals of our cultural institutions shape society today. Paul Hobson, director of Modern Art Oxford and Dr Christopher Brown, director of The Ashmolean will present two short talks before a question and answer session, followed by drinks. The Edgar Wind Society hopes that this will be a novel opportunity to exchange ideas and knowledge about art within an informal atmosphere. All are welcome.
Speaker: Tom Price
The archipelago of Japan is defined as one of the World’s 34 biodiversity hotspots. Learn how staff from the Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum are conducting expeditions to Japan to collect and document the native flora to improve the plant collections held by the University, promote biodiversity conservation and communicate research conducted by the Department of Plant Sciences, Oxford to a wider audience.
All Summer Lectures start at 6.30pm in the Daubeny Lecture Theatre (at
the front of the Botanic Garden) and are followed by a drinks reception in the Botanic Garden. Ticket cost £8 per talk or £36 for the series of 5.
For more details, visit: http://www.botanic-garden.ox.ac.uk/whatson
Speaker: Susie Orbach
Psychotherapist, psychoanalyst, writer and social critic. Her books include Fat is a Feminist Issue and Bodies. A convenor of Anybody, an organisation that campaigns for body diversity. Co-founder of Antidote which works for the emotional literacy and Co-founder of Psychotherapist and Counsellors for Social Responsibility. Part of the Mansfield Lecture Series, convener Baroness Helena Kennedy QC
On Friday 13th June, the Oxford Left Review will be launching OLR Issue 13. Come along to get your copy and chat with the writers and editors. This issue was partially themed on ‘Science, Technology and the Left’, and contains articles, interviews, reviews and fiction on topics including fracking, devolution, Wikileaks, the pharmaceuticals industry and Pakistan, as well as many more. Drinks will be provided.
Al Jazeera host Mehdi Hasan will challenge Bernard Kouchner, co-founder of Medecins sans Frontieres and former French Foreign Minister, on France’s military interventionism. Are the country’s motives altruistic or do they respond to a neo-colonialist agenda? And is there a tipping point when intervening becomes essential? Syria, Mali, Libya, Kosovo and more.
This debate will be filmed and aired on Al Jazeera English at a later date. Audience members will be invited to participate in a Q&A section during the second half of the conversation.
Order free tickets here: http://bernardkouchner.eventbrite.co.uk
RANDY RETTBERG, President of iGEM
Randy Rettberg is the man behind iGEM, the global competition for undergraduates and high school students in designing brand new biological parts, or “genetically engineered machines”. An engineer by trade he is the President of the iGEM Foundation, which operates the Registry of Standard Biological Parts, a continuously growing library of genetic parts that can be mixed and matched to enable easier construction of synthetic biology devices.
Dr. RICHARD KELWICK, Researcher at CSynBI, Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation (Imperial College)
Richard has been scientific advisor and project manager of three successful iGEM teams, 2011-2013. Most recently, he was the lead advisor for the iGEM team Plasticity, at Imperial College London, which came third out of over 200 teams at the world final, held at MIT.
Dr. JAREK BRYK, National Centre for Biotechnology Education University of Reading
Jarek works at the National Centre for Biotechnology Education on a project to facilitate teaching of synthetic biology on an undergraduate level. He develops experimental kits that will be incorporated in synthetic biology curricula.He currently mentors the iGEM Reading team.
The circular economy is rapidly gaining the attention of businesses, government and the next generation as a framework for re-thinking and designing the future economy.
Join us on 19 June 2014 to debate this topic and address a number of challenging questions:
Can a circular economy really decouple growth from resource constraints?
Is the so-called resource crunch really happening or in reality do we still have an abundance of materials and energy?
Is achieving a restorative, circular economy even possible within today’s financial operating system?
What strategic options do CEOs need to pursue to prepare for competitive advantage in a circular economy?
How can business leaders engage consumers and encourage a ‘demand-led’ transformation?
Speakers: Mr. Jamie Butterworth, CEO, Ellen MacArthur Foundation and SSEE Business Fellows – and – Mr. Peter Lacy, Managing Director, Strategy and Sustainability APAC at Accenture, and SSEE’s Business Fellow.
The use of GM technologies is growing beyond agricultural crops. GM vaccines and GM animals are available and their use may need different regulatory considerations. In this talk, Dr Michael Bonsall from the Dept of Zoology, University of Oxford, will cover some of the scientific, policy and regulatory issues that challenge the use and implementation of GM organisms.
Speaker: Guy Horwood
In 2013, Harcourt Arboretum arborist Guy Horwood was awarded a travel bursary to join the prestigious International Dendrology Society on their study tour of the Czech Republic. The tour of this diverse and unspoilt country started and ended in Prague and visited botanic gardens and natural forests. In this talk, Guy will take you on a virtual version of the tour and share his experiences with you.
All Summer Lectures start at 6.30pm in the Daubeny Lecture Theatre (at
the front of the Botanic Garden) and are followed by a drinks reception in the Botanic Garden. Ticket cost £8 per talk or £36 for the series of 5.
For more details, visit: http://www.botanic-garden.ox.ac.uk/whatson