During a speech in 1957, Prime Minister Harold MacMillan declared “our people have never had it so good”. Now, more than half a century later, are we fundamentally any better off? Through discussion of technological advances, social changes, political reforms, and economic shocks and recessions, this panel will seek to question whether the world we currently live in is indeed a better place than it was in the 1950s.

Chaired by Professor Brian Nolan, Professor of Social Policy, the panel will consist of:

*Dr Max Roser, James Martin Fellow at The Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School
*Dr Anders Sandberg, James Martin Fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute
*Professor Robert Walker, Professor of Social Policy

A drinks reception will follow, all welcome.

St Catherine’s College student Daniel Shao (2013, Music) has organised a music concert in aid of the Oxford branch of Crisis (the national charity for single homeless people). The concert will showcase a wealth of musical talent, and St Catz alumni will perform alongside current students.

St Catz alumni performing include Philip Gault (1997, Music) who is a Baritone at Scottish Opera, Catherine Groom (2004, Music) a recorder player, early harpist and mezzo-soprano, and artist and composer Tom Phillips CBE RA (1957, English).

St Catz student performers and composers include violinist Makoto Nakata (2012, Music) the winner of the 2013 Oxford Philomusica Concerto Competition, flautist Daniel Shao (2013, Music) a 2014 BBC Young Musician of the year Wind Finalist, composer and pianist Joshua Hagley (2013, Music) the winner of the Royal Opera House Fanfare Competition, Tomos Nicholls (2012, Music) a former National Youth Orchestra GB Composer, and James Orrell (2014, Music) the current New Chamber Opera/Catz Répétiteur Scholar.

Tickets £5/10 available on the door or online.

This is a one-day event providing an in-depth look at at the world of documentary production in TV, Radio and Film, with five sessions exploring the areas of observational documentaries, wildlife, radio, feature-length and how to make a documentary.

Our speakers have a wealth of experience in these genres and include: Bill Oddie (TV presenter), Clio Barnard (Director, ‘The Arbor’, ‘The Selfish Giant’), Simon Elmes, (Former Creative Director for BBC Radio Documentaries), Nicolas Kent (Creative Director, Oxford Film and TV), Mike Brett (Director, ‘Next Goal Wins’) and many more.

The conference is being organised by the St Hilda’s Media Network, an alumnae group for media professionals, and is intended for a broad audience, from those with a general interest, to students, to those already working in the media.

Tickets (including lunch and all refreshments):
£45 Standard Admission
£32 St Hilda’s Alumnae
£20 Full-time Students
To book please go to: www.sthildasdocumentaryday.eventbrite.co.uk
Please see the Eventbrite link for full details and for further information please e-mail sthildasdocumentaryday@gmail.com.

As former European Commissioner for Climate Action and as host Minister of the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Connie Hedegaard has been at the sharp end of global agreements. While the Copenhagen talks ended with a breakthrough recognition of the scientific case for restraining temperature rises to no more than 2°C, the accord failed to achieve commitments to reducing emissions. The outcome frustrated many and Hedegaard has subsequently described the eight-draft, 115-country process as a ‘nightmare’. Hedegaard refused to give up.

Two years later in Durban, she made a stand against fierce opposition to push through a timetable for new negotiations, this time designed to create a global pact on emissions reductions. The 2015 UNFCCC in Paris is the culmination of that timetable and the global pact, if it is achieved, will come into force in 2020. Presiding over the European 2030 Climate and Energy Framework, which commits to a 40% reduction in emissions, Hedegaard said: “We have sent a strong signal to the rest of the world. We have now done our homework and now it’s up to other big economies to do theirs”.

This symposium offers an innovative and exciting ‘coming together’ of language teachers and teachers of the creative arts, asking the questions:
What does creativity mean to me? What do I do about it as a teacher? Why does it matter?
It will offer exciting new ideas for teaching language through dance, poetry, art and play; and will give participants opportunities to share and try out creative teaching ideas that connect language with other ‘intelligences’.
The plenary speakers are world-class creative educators both within and beyond the TESOL profession, including Jean Clark (dance educator), John Daniel (poet), Charlie Hadfield, Jill Hadfield, Chris Lima, Alan Maley, Amos Paran, Rachel Payne (art educator), Rob Pope, Jane Spiro and Nick Swarbrick (specialist in children’s play).

Fees include gourmet Friday evening meal & Saturday tapas lunch for all delegates.

New College Chapel presents Paradise Lost: a staged reading of Milton’s epic poem in 3 parts, directed by Professor Elisabeth Dutton (Fribourg), featuring new settings of Milton’s hymns by the Organist, Robert Quinney, and anthems by Byrd, Weelkes and Purcell. There will be a pre-performance talk by Dr Will Poole on Friday 22nd May, 7.15, in the Conduit Room.

Wed 20 May: Books 1-4, The Parliament in Hell
Thurs 21 May: Books 5-8, The War in Heaven
Fri 22 May: Books 9-12, The Fall
Each part can be viewed individually.

Tickets on the door: £10/£5 students; £25/10 for all 3 nights. All proceeds will go to Sight Savers, who work to treat and prevent blindness in the developing world.

As part of this year’s community outreach program, Oxford Brookes University’s 150th anniversary, and as a way showing our appreciation to all participants, clinicians, researchers, members of the public and organisations that have supported our work, we will be holding an open day on Saturday, 30th of May 2015. Over the past decade, the Movement Science Group, which now falls within the Centre for Rehabilitation at Oxford Brookes University, has conducted extensive research on a variety of topics related to rehabilitation and physical activity. Topics include measuring and understanding movement in those with movement difficulties, exercising benefits in people with neurological conditions, and developing novel rehabilitation strategies.

Enter a lost world of music and poetry as more than 300 years of Mughal rule approached its end at the hands of the British in 1857. William Dalrymple, award-winning historian, in performance with the celebrated North Indian vocalist Vidya Shah, takes us back to the bygone era of matchless splendour, bringing to life a world of emperors, courtesans, politics, bayonets, intrigue and love, through words and music. Doors open at 17.45. Food and drinks in the Pitt Rivers Museum till 9p.m. after the lecture. Signed copies of ‘The Last Mughul’ and ‘Return of the King’ available after the lecture.

So many of us are desperately busy doing what’s immediately in front of us rather than the things that make a real difference.

Ben will tell the story of the GB men’s rowing 8+ in the build up to the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where they won the gold medal, and how they challenged everything to make the boat go faster. For Ben it was the culmination of nine years in the national team.

Ben’s story is a call to action, challenging you to examine how you spend your time in a way that ensures you are travelling in the direction that you want to go.

About the Speaker
Ben Hunt-David MBE
BEN HUNT-DAVIS MBE

Former Brookes student, Ben Hunt- Davis is a performance coach, speaker and author. Ben has been involved in five Olympic Games – three as a competitor and two as a member of the headquarters team. He was also Chairman of the Organising Committee for both the 2011 World Rowing Junior Championships and the 2013 Rowing World Cup. He now runs a performance consulting company helping companies to make their ‘boats go faster’. His first book is entitled Will It Make The Boat Go Faster?

Twenty minute talk, Q&As, and an hour of discussion. Free entry, no need to book. You’re welcome to come along just to listen, or to take part actively in the discussion.

Part of a series of one-day conferences held by the Centre for the History and Philosophy of Physics (HAPP).

Arguably the First World War saw the greatest advent of new science and technology and the role of science in warfare than any conflict hitherto. On land the innovations of barbed wire, machine guns and eventually, tanks changed the nature of land battles. At sea, radio communications changed operation of surface fleets and the introduction of submarine warfare changed the nature of war at sea. This war saw also the advent of aerial warfare which was to change the nature of all future wars. This conference seeks to review the key ways in which physics and its mathematics changed the nature of conflict from various points of views: technical, historical and sociological.
Confirmed speakers include:

Professor David Edgerton (King’s College London) – The Sciences and the Great War: Myths and Histories

Dr Elizabeth Bruton (Museum of the History of Science, Oxford) – Hydrophones and Piezoelectricity: Ernest Rutherford and Anti-submarine Innovations in the Royal Navy during World War I

Professor Adrian Smith (University of Southampton) – Warfare and Wind Tunnel: Engineers, Physicists and the Evolution of Combat Aircraft (1914-1918)

Dr Arne Schirrmacher (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) – On the (Self-)Mobilization of Scientists in Germany, France and Britain: The Impact on Physics in War and thereafter

There will be a conference dinner at St Cross in the evening following the end of the conference. Although the conference itself is free of charge, the dinner carries a cost of £35 to attend – booking a place for dinner can be done here; http://www.oxforduniversitystores.co.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=1&catid=2188&prodid=10126

Human-caused global warming has been making headlines for over two decades, but people’s opinions on it often depend on what headlines they’re reading. How is it that a scientific theory has become so politicised? Join us to hear Adam Levy (Nature, University of Oxford; @ClimateAdam), a climate change scientist and YouTuber, discuss the key scientific evidence behind climate change, and explain why perspectives on climate change shouldn’t be a matter of belief.
twitter @oxfordscibar
facebook ‘British Science Association Oxfordshire Branch

Two hour cycle ride with Max as he reveals some surprising facts about the science of cycling. Ride and demonstration.
Please show up 10 minutes before departure at The Story Museum. The ride will finish back at The Story Museum.

Author and cyclist Max Gaskin explores the science of cycling from hydrogen to helmets!
6.30pm – 7.30pm £8/£5 concessions

International table tennis player, broadcaster and writer, Matthew Syed will reflect on the psychology of performance.

A one day conference exploring Seamus Heaney’s relationship with the Classics.
Registration will be £20 (or £15 for students) – the registration fee includes lunch and a drinks reception. Please see the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama’s website for full details of the programme: www.apgrd.ox.ac.uk/events/2015/04/bann-valley-muses-seamus-heaney-and-the-classics

Part 2 of a three-part mini-series on notation: Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic.

Part 1 (July 16th) was Reading Slough and London Paddington: the persistent lure of spelling reform. Also coming up… Arithmetic: a study in the irreversibility of human progress (September 24th).

Free entry, no need to book. You’re welcome to come along just to listen, or to take part actively in the discussion. The meeting room will be indicated on the display screen just inside the Town Hall entrance lobby.

This conference will consider the various ways in which libraries have served as generators of professional knowledge, and examine how they succeeded in doing so.

Keynote Address by Anthony Watkinson, Honorary Lecturer (UCL) and Principal Consultant (CIBER Research)
The growth in numbers, cost and importance of journals in the later twentieth century and how this has impacted on the role of academic libraries

Other addresses:

Folios, hedgehogs, sketches and pickles: the traffic of books, specimens and drawings between physicians in Restoration England, Lucy Gwynn
The role of manuscripts in the acquisition of professional knowledge for the seventeenth century clergy, Helen Kemp
The Library of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, Jennifer Hillyard
A Pioneer Regional Professional Association for Librarians in the UK, John Tiernan
‘For the last many years in England everybody has been educating the people, but they have forgotten to find them any books’. The Mechanics’ Institute in Britain, Martyn Walker
Building a natural history library: the collection of Willoughby Gardner, Kristine Chapman
Mind, Body, and Spiritualism: a case study of the personal collections of Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome and Harry Houdini, Daniel Gooding
The National Library of Wales’s Duplicates Section, Julie Mathias

Leo Cadogan (http://www.leocadogan.com/) will be displaying a selection of antiquarian books from his collection along with an illustrated hand-out for participants.

The Oxford Architecture Society lecture series

Lisa Finlay is coming to speak to us from Heatherwick Studio.
Established by Thomas Heatherwick in 1994, Heatherwick Studio is recognised for its work in architecture, urban infrastructure, sculpture, design and strategic thinking. At the heart of the studio’s work is a profound commitment to finding innovative design solutions, with a dedication to artistic thinking and the latent potential of materials and craftsmanship. In the twenty years of its existence, Heatherwick Studio has worked in many countries, with a wide range of commissioners and in a variety of regulatory environments.

To avoid dangerous climate change will require not only very steep cuts in emissions, but also the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Most of the models that avoid dangerous climate change do so by assuming that it will be possible to deploy a technique called biomass energy with carbon capture and storage (or BECCS for short) at a very large scale. But is this realistic?

Please join us for a public discussion to explore this issue. To what extent may it be possible to use biomass as a way of both generating electricity and removing carbon dioxide from the air? What are the likely impacts of such an approach – on climate change, on food supply, on biodiversity and on the will to reduce emissions.

The Oxford Martin School has brought together four excellent speakers with expertise in this field. Dr Craig Jamieson has explored the potential of using waste material from rice production for BECCS, Professor Tim Lenton has modelled how much biomass could be used for BECCS given projected population growth and dietary habits, Professor Nick Pidgeon is an expert on the social acceptability of new technologies and Dr Doug Parr is the Chief Scientist and Policy Director at Greenpeace.

Demographic changes across the world pose one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. Longer lifespans and shifting fertility rates bring with them an array of global health issues. In this lecture, Professor Sarah Harper, Co-Director of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, will talk about the causes and effects of population change and the global age structural shift, and Professor Robyn Norton, Co-Director of The George Institute for Global Health, will address the implications of these changes on global health.

Oxford Centre for Life-Writing
Nicoletta Demetriou will discuss her attempt to record the stories of Cyprus’s last surviving traditional fiddlers. She will talk about what musicians’ life stories can tell us about the music and society we are looking at, and about the importance of letting biographical subjects tell their own story, in their own words.

This event is free of charge and open to all. Sandwiches will be provided.

Renewable energy is a strong component in the race to mitigate climate change, and solar power is a particularly cheap and viable green energy option. Considering current technologies, cost, markets and infrastructure, Professor Henry Snaith, Co-Director of the Programme on Solar Energy: Organic Photovoltaics, and Professor Malcolm McCulloch, Head of the University of Oxford’s Electrical Power Group and Co-Director of The Oxford Martin Programme on Integrating Renewable Energy, will debate whether solar is indeed the answer to the urgent question of irreversible climate change.

This interdisciplinary workshop examines the impact of music on the brain from the point of view of different disciplines (medicine/physiology, psychology, philosophy).

Following a series of short talks by St Hilda’s Fellows and expert guest speakers, there will time for questions. Tea and coffee will be available.

Professor Nick Bostrom, Director of the Future of Humanity Institute, will explore the huge technological, scientific and environmental shifts that have led to humanity’s current state, and consider the choices that will determine our long-term future.

Philip Ross Bullock is Professor of Russian Literature and Music at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Wadham College. He is the author of a number of books and articles on various aspects of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russian literature and music, and has recently completed a short critical life of Tchaikovsky, to be published by Reaktion in 2016.
This event is free of charge and open to all.

Federico Trillo-Figueroa is a prominent politician and Spain’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom. He was formerly the President of the Spanish Congress of Deputies and the Minister of Defense during Spain’s missions in Afghanistan and Irak. He holds a Doctorate in Law from the Complutense University of Madrid and he has written a number of books and articles on law, history and political thought, such us El poder político en los dramas de Shakespeare (Political Power in Shakespeare’s Dramas) and Memoria de entreguerras. Mis años en el ministerio de defensa (2000-2004).

The Ambassador will lecture on the past and future relations between Europe, Spain and the Ibero-American Community of Nations.