The Art of Witnessing War
With Dr Sue Malvern, Reading University

Thursday 5 June, 2-3pm, Headley Lecture Theatre

Sue Malvern looks at the role of war artists and photographers as witnesses to conflicts and wars. Starting with WWI, the lecture looks at how the work of artists such as Paul Nash, C.R.W. Nevinson and Stanley Spencer came to be seen as authentic visions of the actuality of the war. It will then consider the iconic status of works such as Picasso’s Guernica (1937), the role of war photographers, and the contemporary issues for artists who give visual witness to war and conflict.

Tickets £5/£4
http://www.ashmolean.org/events/Lectures/?id=132

Why have we become obsessed with squeezing the most out of every minute? What’s wrong with wasting time?

Fr. Timothy Radcliffe OP, Dominican Friar and international writer and speaker, explores the delights and trials of sitting in silence, waiting for God to speak. Timothy Radcliffe was Master of the Order of Preachers from 1992-2001.

This talk forms part of the University Church’s Trinity term series for students and 20-somethings. Wine, cheese and juice will be in ample supply.

As part of the Oxford University Shakespeare Festival, singers from across the university will present settings of Shakespeare texts for solo voice and choir.

Solo settings by Quilter, Gurney and Finzi will be followed by choral works including Vaughan Williams’ Three Shakespeare Songs – settings from The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream – and his stunning Serenade to Music which sets text from The Merchant of Venice; a piece which has been hailed as one of the most beautiful works ever written!

Tickets: £5 (including refreshments!)

Available here: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/276207

experimentsandethics.wordpress.com

experimentsandethics.wordpress.com

The Psalms in England
With Prof M J Toswel, University of Western Ontario

Tuesday 10 June, 2-3pm, Headley Lecture Theatre

This lecture introduces the Anglo-Saxon psalter, and especially the interlinear vernacular versions in Latin psalters which were a unique feature in Europe at the time, and asks whether these provide evidence for greater engagement with the psalms in English than has generally been acknowledged.

Tickets £5/£4
http://www.ashmolean.org/events/Lectures/?id=132

Tour: Joseph Beuys & Jörg Immendorff
With Colin Harrison, Senior Curator of European Art

3–3.45pm on Wednesday 14 May and Wednesday 11 June

Tours are free, no booking is required. Please meet in Gallery 2.

http://www.ashmolean.org/exhibitions/details/?exh=92

This lecture is hosted by the Oxford Martin School and the International Migration Institute, an Oxford Martin School Institute

If Democrats and Republicans in the US Congress can agree that eleven million unauthorized immigrants are proof of a broken immigration system, why does Congress repeatedly fail to enact comprehensive immigration reform that might stand a chance of reducing illegal migration?

One reason offered by Rey Koslowski is that too many members of Congress are fixated on appropriating money for more Border Patrol Agents and fencing to stop people from crossing the US-Mexico border between ports of entry. Koslowski argues that each additional dollar spent at the border is a dollar that may have been spent elsewhere to a much greater effect in reducing illegal migration, for example, on worksite inspections to enforce employer sanctions against hiring unauthorized migrant workers. After President Obama was reelected with 72% of the Latino vote, Senate Republicans eagerly joined Democrats to forge a comprehensive immigration reform bill but it took throwing $44 billion at border fencing and more Border Patrol agents to secure enough Republican votes to pass the bill with a filibuster-proof majority.

Koslowski argues that this border security overkill is not only bad policy; it failed to attract majority support for comprehensive immigration reform among House Republicans as intended, leaving it unlikely that any immigration legislation will become law before the November 2014 elections.

This lecture will be followed by a drinks reception, all welcome

‘Syria Speaks’ Lecture:
Palmyra: City of Palms
With Linda Farrar, archaeologist and lecturer

Friday 13 June, 2-4pm, Headley Lecture Theatre

Famed for its hauntingly beautiful architectural remains, the ancient city of Palmyra in central Syria was an oasis and important stop on the caravan route across the Syrian desert. Linda Farrar talks about Palmyra’s tombs and archaeological remains, and the powerful figure who dominated its history, Queen Zenobia.

Tickets £5/£4
http://www.ashmolean.org/events/SpecialEvents/?id=148

‘On Form’ Sculpture Tour

3-5pm Friday 13 June, Gallery 21

Sculptors from ‘on form’, the exhibition of stone sculpture at the childhood home of the Mitford sisters, Asthall Manor, will be giving tours of selected galleries, discussing the influence of the collections on their own work.

Free, no booking required.

http://www.ashmolean.org/events/Talks/?id=105

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.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a complex autoimmune disease affecting up to 1% of the population, causing a disabling inflammatory arthritis. The disease has two clinical similar subsets: autoantibody positive or seropositive disease, and autoantibody or seronegative disease. Recent advances in high-throughout SNP genotyping has resulted in the identification of >100 risk loci, in addition to well-known associations at the MHC. However, understanding the link between genetic loci and disease mechanism, is contingent on investigators identifying causal alleles and elucidating how they function to modify disease susceptibility. Furthermore, the mechanistic relationship between the seropositive and seronegative rheumatoid arthritis clinical subsets is still unclear. We are now just starting to make progress in this direction. Here we present recent work on (1) efforts to localize MHC effects to functional amino acid sites within HLA genes, (2) methodological advances to connect non-MHC loci to functional alleles that influence gene regulation in a cell-specific manner, and (3) how genetics is giving us a clear picture on the heterogeneity of the genetic bases of the two clinically similar conditions of seronegative and seropositive rheumatoid arthritis.

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.

Dr Jonathan Jong, a researcher at the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford, explores how time is all “in the mind”. Philosophers disagree about the nature of time: does it really flow from the past to the future through the present? There is a good chance that it doesn’t, and that our perception of time is illusory. But why do we experience time as we do?

This talk is part of the University Church’s Trinity term discussion series for students and 20-somethings, ‘A Waste of Time’, critiquing our cultural fetishizing of efficiency. As well as a guest speaker, there will be Q&A and group discussion over wine and cheese.

This event is free and open to all in the students and 20-somethings bracket.

The Self-Portrait: a Cultural History
With James Hall, author

Saturday 21 June , 2-3pm, Headley Lecture Theatre

Recounting the history of the self-portrait, this lecture offers insights into artists’ psychological and creative worlds. James Hall talks about the medieval ‘mirror craze’, the confessional self-portraits of Titian and Michelangelo, and the multiple selves of contemporary artists such as Claude Cahun and Cindy Sherman.

Tickets £5/£4
http://www.ashmolean.org/events/Lectures/?id=132

Early cyberspace theorists predicted that the digital world would be a world of plenty. But today’s Internet users are faced with many kinds of artificially scarce virtual markers, from online game items and digital currencies to likes and followers on social media and reward points in question and answer sites. Many such markers are traded online for significant sums of money and have spawned entire cottage industries for their production. Vili Lehdonvirta, author of Virtual Economies: Design and Analysis (MIT Press 2014, with Edward Castronova), argues that these “virtual economies” shape digital media in important ways, and that understanding them is vital for both practitioners and scholars of digital media and entertainment.

In this session, Lehdonvirta will also discuss and debate with economist Greg Taylor about what virtual economies could teach traditional national economies and the economists who run them.

Copies of the book will be available for purchase. The discussion will be followed by book signing and a drinks reception.

Oxford Transitional Justice Research is pleased to invite you to its 2014 Summer Conference ‘Borders and Boundaries in Transitional Justice’.

This year’s conference, hosted with the support of the Planethood Foundation, Law Faculty, and the Centre for Criminology, will explore the issue of how borders and boundaries affect transitional justice processes across the world. The conference is organised around four panels:

The interplay between local, regional, and foreign transnational processes;
The role of diaspora and stateless communities in transitional justice;
The ways in which international law is dealing with cross-border transitional justice concerns; and
How local, national, and global approaches are affecting the theory and practice of transitional justice.

Registration is now open and we encourage all potential participants to register as soon as possible. Spaces are limited. We particularly welcome graduate students and early career researchers working on issues of transitional justice. A small registration fee includes tea and coffee and a light lunch.

A TORCH day conference including keynotes from Terry Eagleton and George Pattison and parallel session papers on theodicy, evil in literature, film and TV, German philosophy (Hegel and Fichte), death and technology, Aristotle, the Akedah, and more.

As part of ‘LoveFriday’, a late night opening at the Ashmolean museum, join us for gallery talks on love, sex, gender, and poetry in the ancient world. Talks will be 15 minutes and given on a rolling basis

‘Love, sex and gender in ancient Egypt’ with Ed Scrivens

‘Latin Love Poetry’ with Sharon van Dijk

‘Love in the Ramayana, Krishna, and the Gopis’ with Nayan Bedia

‘Love, Sex and Tragedy in Japanese Literature and History’ with Lyman Gamberton

‘Sex, gender and power in Imperial China’ with Alex Nachescu

LoveFriday welcome the summer LiveFriday to the Ashmolean for an evening dedicated to Love. Visitors will be invited to seek out love in the museum’s collection; through musical and theatrical performances and interactive workshops. Offering a shared journey, whether as a pre-existing couple or about to be acquainted, you can look forward to exploring the Museum and meeting like-minded people.

As part of our Discover Archaeology day, we are delighted to welcome Dr Liam McNamara and Dr Senta German of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum.

Dr Liam McNamara will speak on ‘Discovering Tutankhamun at the Ashmolean Museum’. Dr McNamara is currently involved in the preparation of this exciting exhibition, set to open this summer. Previously Dr McNamara has worked on several British Museum projects, having been inspired to pursue a career in Egyptology from the young age of 11. He now specialises in the archaeology of the late Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods.

Dr Senta German will speak on the illicit antiquities trade. She is currently working in the Ashmolean as an Andrew W. Mellon Teaching Curator in the University Engagement Programme and has a particular interest in performance, gender and the impacts of the illicit antiquities trade and forgeries in the study of history.

This is set to be a fascinating afternoon of archaeological talks by passionate experts in their fields.

What do St. Augustine, Kafka, Samuel Johnson, William James, Susan Sontag, Douglas Adams, Hitler, and Hamlet all have in common? PROCRASTINATION. If it isn’t ‘the quintessential modern problem’ (New Yorker), it is certainly familiar to all who have picked up a pen, both within and outside academia.

Through papers from a variety of disciplines, the speakers will chart the phenomenon of procrastination, and the fraught moral and political claims it provokes. Who procrastinates, how, and why? Is the concept a moral universal, the product of particular contexts, or unique to the anglophone world? What ‘cures’—and what unexpected defences—have various writers proposed?

In 2014 Barnett House is celebrating its centenary. The celebrations culminate with the Reunion Weekend on 12-13 July 2014.

This includes:
– Keynote talk from Magdalena Sepulveda, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.
– The 100th birthday tea party (the V-C Andrew Hamilton will cut the birthday cake!)
– A talk on the history of Barnett House and the launch of the book on the history.
– Open house at the department with displays of historic material and current research.
– Drinks and dinner with an after dinner talk from Prof Jonathan Bradshaw.
– Showing of the film Rich Man, Poor Man based on research carried out by Robert Walker and Elaine Chase with a discussion with the director of the film.

How do you find your own inner peace whilst living your own busy life?

How do you become the person who you truly are and honour your responsibilities?

How do you integrate and refine your soul’s purpose into your life?

An evening with Leon arts; Modern Day Alchemist, Dad, Visionary, Author, Social Innovator, Top Chef, Philanthopreneur, Traveller and Explorer of Consciousness.

To find the way to your own true self it helps to have a guide, it can be challenging to do it on your own. As the transformation of a cocoon into the butterfly is challenging and can feel like a struggle, it is easier in to do in the presence of another person with experience of the struggle.

When you change your inside world, the outside reality will follow suit: “As Within, So Without”.

OBR would like to invite you to our next event in Oxford on Wednesday 16th July at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

Since the completion of the Human Genome Project, the birth of next-generation sequencing (NGS) has brought exponentially faster and cheaper nucleic acid sequencing methods to scientists, and takes us tantalisingly closer to an era of personalised medicine.

The scope for clinical applications of NGS seems boundless, and this event will provide deeper insights into how academia, established industry and budding start-ups can benefit from the latest advances in the field.

Panellists/Speakers
Gordon Sanghera – CEO of Oxford Nanopore
Stephen Little – CEO of Premaitha Health &
VP of Personalised Healthcare at QIAGEN
Neil Ward – UK District Marketing Manager at Illumina
Anna Schuh – Head of the Molecular Diagnostics Centre at University of Oxford

Join our expert panel from academia and industry speakers to discuss the most crucial challenges in next generation sequencing and its potential applications.

Informal networking drinks will follow the main event.

Kenan Malik will be discussing ‘What can the history of morality tell us about the nature of morality’.

The World Humanist Congress is taking place from Friday 8th August until Sunday 10th August in Oxford. Held every three years in different locations around the world, this years theme of the meeting is ‘Freedom of Thought and Expression’. We are pleased to announce during the conference period, 10 world-class speakers will be visiting the bookshop for a series of free 20 minute talks taking place in the Norrington Room. You do not need tickets to attend any of the talks but seating is limited, so please arrive early to get a ensure your place.

Sue Bolton and Fiona Ruck, smoking cessation specialists, look at the effects of passive smoking and their campaign for smoke-free homes and cars across Oxfordshire.

The talk will include myth-busting statistics and facts covering the effects of passive smoking on both adults and children, as well as a detailed look into what is in the cigarette smoke that is causing the adverse effects. Sue and Fiona will also look at local and national responses to this public health issue, including the Smoke Free Homes and Cars Pledge project.

Our speakers have worked as registered nurses and health visitors and worked for years in smoking cessation, including as a smoking and pregnancy specialist and as a smoking and young person’s specialist for Oxford Smoking Advice Service.

Join us for an evening at Corpus Christi College with the composer Robert Saxton, as he discusses his lifetime achievements in music with his fellow composer Thomas Hyde.

Robert Saxton has worked with many experts in the field, composed for the BBC and London Symphony Orchestra, amongst other ventures.

William Buckland: Geologist, theologian, palaeontologist.

What rules the world? The stomach, according to William Buckland. He’s the man who described the first dinosaur from a jaw bone found in Oxfordshire and named it the Megalosaurus. He pioneered the study of cropology (the study of fossil poo) and he’s the man who set about sampling every animal in existence, even the heart of a King. As part of the Oxford Playhouse’s season of Radical Thinking, come Professor Jim Kennedy introduces the man behind the discoveries, the ambition and most importantly the food.