David Scourfield (Maynooth) delivers the second annual joint Classics and English Lecture.

Free public lecture, all welcome, no booking required.
Lecture followed by Q&A and refreshments.

Is international governance facing a pivotal moment? Seventy years on from the creation of the UN, the list of issues requiring international co-operation is lengthy and complex, ranging from the conflict in Syria to infectious disease outbreaks, and from nuclear weapons threats to food security. Even where concord has been achieved, as with the recent COP21 climate agreement, the road ahead will be long, hard and fraught with conflicting needs and desires.

With considerable humanitarian and environmental challenges facing the world, Baroness Amos, Director of SOAS, will draw on her distinguished career in development to look at how the international community can work together, what the UN could and can do, and at the likely obstacles to overcome on the road to helping secure global peace and security.

Registration required.

Humanitas Weidenfeld Visiting Professorship in Comparative European Literature Lecture
Marina Warner is an award winning novelist, short story writer, historian and mythographer, who works across genres and cultures exploring myths and stories. Recent work has focused particularly on the magic of fairy tales and the Arabian Nights, including Stranger Magic (2011), and Once Upon a Time (2014). In Fly Away Home: Stories (2015) she draws on mythic predecessors, translating them into contemporary significance. In 2015 she was awarded the prestigious Holberg Prize, and was also Chair of the judging panel for the Man Booker International Book Prize. She is a Quondam Fellow of All Souls, and Professor of English and Creative Writing at Birkbeck College, University of London.

All are welcome to attend and no booking is required. Seats will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Mitigating climate requires a transition to low carbon energy systems and renewable energy looks increasingly likely to play a key role, but the most important resources are intermittent.

This lecture will describe the research of the Oxford Martin Programme on Integrating Renewable Energy, on how intermittency and related challenges can be addressed, technically and in markets and policy.

Registration required

An introductory talk of about twenty minutes, followed by Q&As and an hour or so’s discussion among the audience. You’re welcome to come along just to listen, or to take an active part in the discussion.

Professor Ian Goldin, Director of the Oxford Martin School, looks at what we mean by development and what citizens, governments and the international community can do to encourage it.

Goldin explains how the notion of development has expanded from the original focus on incomes and economic growth to a much broader interpretation. He considers the contributions made by education, health, gender and equity, and argues that it is also necessary take into account the rule of law, the role of institutions, and sustainability and environmental concerns.

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

Registration required.

In this talk Professor Daniel Kammen, Oxford Martin Visiting Fellow at INET Oxford, will discuss the strategies emerging to cost-effectively decarbonise energy systems worldwide. This work integrates elements of the science and engineering of energy systems, regional and global energy and environmental policy, and mandates and mission objectives that have emerged from the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, and energy and climate planning in both developed and developing nations.

As Science Envoy for the US Secretary of State, Kammen will also examine opportunities that have arisen as result of the Paris Climate Accord, and US and Chinese climate agreement.

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

Registration required.

Prevention and management of infectious diseases remains one of this century’s biggest challenges. As drugs and vaccinations have proliferated, protection from disease has increasingly been seen as an individual problem, requiring individual action. But due to the evolution of anti-microbial resistance, vaccine refusal and rapid disease transmission through global trade and travel, the impact of the drugs and vaccines that we have come to take for granted is undermined.

This lecture will explore the importance of understanding the ‘Human Factor’ in disease management, looking at the effects of policy on individual and group behaviour and at the role psychology plays in developing a new understanding of collective moral responsibility for infectious disease. The lecture is an introduction to the Oxford Martin Programme on Collective Responsibility for Infectious Disease, an interdisciplinary team from zoology, history, philosophy, psychology and medicine.

Registration required.

As we can’t help but be aware, Shakespeare died 400 years ago. But does the Bard haunt Balliol? A behind-the-scenes talking tour of Balliol’s spring exhibition will elucidate. The talk will last about 30 minutes followed by questions and a final chance to look at the exhibition, ‘I suppose they thought I was dead’: Shakespeare at Balliol in five acts.

Dr Barghouti will talk about the situation in Palestine, concentrating on the Palestinian strategy of non-violent resistance, and the exposure of the grave violations of human rights in occupied Palestine.

Speaker:
Dr Mustafa Barghouti, General Secretary, Palestine National Initiative (Mubadara), Ramallah, Palestine

Chair:
Dr Avi Shlaim, Senior Research Fellow, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford

Speaker: Dr Rita Giacaman, Founding Director, Institute of Community and Public Health, Birzeit University, Palestine

Rita Giacaman will present research findings on the impact of the 2009 and 2014 assaults on the health of the population of Gaza.

Speaker: Miri Weingarten, Physicians for Human Rights–Israel

Miri Weingarten will link the attempts made by Israeli and Palestinian groups to seek accountability for Palestinians in international fora and the punitive responses of the Israeli government.

Introductory Speaker and Chair:

▪Karl Sabbagh, British-Palestinian writer, documentary maker, and publisher

Panel members:

▪ Mustafa Barghouti, Palestine National Initiative (Mubadara), Ramallah, Palestine

▪ Rita Giacaman, Birzeit University, Palestine

▪ Jeremy Moodey, Embrace the Middle East

▪ Karma Nabulsi, St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford

▪ Naomi Wayne, Jews for Justice for Palestinians

Short film and panel discussion with:

▪ Sir Stephen Sedley – one of the authors of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office report ‘Children in Military Custody’ (2012) which was discussed this January in Parliament

▪ William Parry – journalist/documentary film maker ‘Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Jails’

▪ Oxford Ramallah Friendship Association visitors who attended a juvenile court in the West Bank

(Event run by Oxford Ramallah Friendship Association – ORFA)

Professor Ian Goldin, Director of the Oxford Martin School, and fellow author Chris Kutarna preview their forthcoming book about the risks and rewards of a new Renaissance taking place in our modern world. They will show how we can achieve our own golden age, given the will. But many of the factors that undid the first Renaissance are rising once again: warring ideologies, fundamentalism, climate change, pandemics. Can we weather the crises and seize the moment to leave the world a legacy it will still celebrate, 500 years later?

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

Registration required.

There’s a whole world of wonderful literature out there to enjoy. From Scandi success stories Stieg Larsson, Jo Nesbø, and Jonas Jonasson to the Japanese bestselling author Haruki Murakami, readers are devouring translated fiction from across the globe at an ever growing rate.

Publishers are always on the lookout for the next gem and are finding that the world is their oyster when it comes to acquiring fresh and exciting new stories.

Come and join us at 7pm on Wednesday 25th May for a discussion on the rise and rise of international literature, and the very art of translation itself.

We will be joined by Meike Ziervogel, Publisher with Peirene Press, Patrick McGuinness, acclaimed novelist, poet, critic, translator, and Chair for this year’s Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize and Nichola Smalley from And Other Stories.

For most of the world’s toughest challenges, there exists a tension between the needs of an individual and what is best for the common good. Income derived from fishing may be vital to one country’s economy but overfishing depletes stocks to dangerously low levels. Low income countries need to develop in order to lift people out of poverty but this increases demand for fossil fuels at a point where global efforts to reduce carbon emissions have become critically important.

Some of Oxford’s leading thinkers on how to manage global commons and shared resources come to together for a lively panel debate to address the tension between individual rationality and collective responsibility, drawing on examples from the four lectures in this term’s series.

Panellists:

Professor Ian Goldin, (Chair), Director, Oxford Martin School
Professor Richard Bailey, Co-Director, Oxford Martin Programme on Sustainable Oceans
Professor Nick Eyre, Co-Director, Oxford Martin Programme on Integrating Renewable Energy
Professor Cameron Hepburn, Co-Director, Oxford Martin Net Zero Carbon Investment Initiative
Professor Angela McLean, Co-Director, Oxford Martin Programme on Collective Responsibility for Infectious Diseases

Registration required.

In the fourth and final lecture of the Trinity Term Annual Lecture Series on ‘Global Education’, Prof Stefan Dercon will discuss ‘Education and jobs as a response to the Syrian refugee crisis’.
Speaker
Prof Stefan Dercon is Professor of Economic Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government and the Economics Department, Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economics and Chief Economist at the UK Department of International Development. His research at Oxford University relates to the application of microeconomics and statistics to problems of development.

How has humanities scholarship influenced biomedical research and civil liberties and how can scholars serve the common good? Entrepreneur and scholar Donald Drakeman will discuss his new book exploring the value and impact of the humanities in the 21st century with:

– Stefan Collini (Professor of Intellectual History and English Literature, University of Cambridge and author of What Are Universities For?)
– Richard Ekins (Tutorial Fellow in Law, St John’s College, University of Oxford)
– Jay Sexton (Associate Professor of American History, University of Oxford)

Chaired by Helen Small (Professor of English Literature, University of Oxford and author of The Value of the Humanities)

Free, all welcome. Join us for a sandwich lunch from 12:30, with discussion from 13:00 to 14:00. No booking required, seats will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

About the book

An entrepreneur and educator highlights the surprising influence of humanities scholarship on biomedical research and civil liberties. This spirited defence urges society to support the humanities to obtain continued guidance for public policy decisions, and challenges scholars to consider how best to fulfil their role in serving the common good.

The event is part of Book at Lunchtime, a fortnightly series of bite size book discussions, with commentators from a range of disciplines.

Simon will investigate class and literature ranging across British writers from the early 19th century through to the present day.

Across poetry and fiction, Simon will present works – classic and not so well-known – which foreground issues of social and economic power, work and wealth, language and accent, region and property.

This lecture asks what happens when literary pursuits turn to working-class lives and what happens when working-class people write themselves into these traditions? Is there a continuity, say, between the ‘peasant poet’ John Clare an the Booker-winning Glaswegian novelist James Kelman? Should we even care about class when we read? Is there such a thing as working-class literary tradition?

Is there anything wrong with putting a price on health, education, citizenship, and the environment? Where do markets serve the public good, and where do they not belong?

Join us for a lively discussion with Professor Michael J. Sandel about money, markets, and the good things in life.

Registration required

In such a competitive and fast-moving industry, what measures can publishers take to remain fresh and unique? Today, innovation in publishing goes far beyond the e-book.

From crowdfunding to creating book apps, to interacting directly with book-buyers, digital publishers are doing some inventive and original things to get their books to the top of your reading list. Xander Cansell, Head of Digital at Unbound and Anna Jean Hughes, Founder and Editorial Director of The Pigeonhole join us on the 8th June to discuss the importance of innovation in publishing, and reveal some of the exciting new ways to publish and connect with readers. Come along and discover what the future of publishing looks like!

A one-day conference, with Professor Dame Marina Warner and featuring a rehearsed reading of Roberto Cavosi’s Bellissima Maria (after Phaedra/Hipploytus). Registration is £25, or £20 for students, and includes: lunch, refreshments, a drinks reception and confirms a place at the evening’s rehearsed reading (in the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, St Hilda’s). See the website for the full line-up of speakers and papers.

Where poetry meets science creative sparks fly, so come along and hear ideas catch fire at SciPo – a day of talks, panel discussions and readings with the distinguished Welsh poet, Tony Curtis, Director of Medicine Unboxed, Samir Guglani, multi-award-winning poet Lesley Saunders and St Hilda’s College’s own resident science poet – Sarah Watkinson. The event will be introduced by Jenny Lewis of the Poet’s House, Oxford.

Welcome to Future Debates, a series of public events supported by the British Science Association.

A genome is an entire set of DNA; all the instructions for making every part of a living thing. Research into our genomes could improve our understanding of diseases, cancers and passing on certain traits. The application of this research through genomic medicine is at the cutting edge of science. There’s large potential for the technology to help us create new treatments and preventative approaches.

Someone’s genome can explain lots of things about them, and we don’t yet understand all of what the genetic code means. Genome data is being collected from a group of patients with rare diseases and cancers across the UK, as part of the Genomics England 100,000 Genomes Project. This information needs to be collected and stored securely, interpreted by experts and viewed in a way that protects the donor’s identity. There have been discussions among scientists about the implications of genomic medicine for privacy and the NHS, and the British Science Association believes that it is vital to open that conversation up to the public.

Come and join our panel of scientists and other experts to discuss who should have access to this data. Should genomic data be used outside medicine? Should private companies share any profits they make from genomic data with participants? Does the right to privacy outweigh the societal benefit of genomic research?

Doors open from 6.00 pm, and the debate will run from 6.30 pm until 8.00 pm.

Future Debates events are part of the British Science Association’s work to make science a fundamental part of British society and culture. We want to empower many more people – not just scientists – to constructively engage in debates over the applications and implications of science in their lives, their local economy and the UK’s future.

Follow us on twitter @LivingWellOx @HumanGeneticsOx @BritSciAssoc and use the event hashtag #FutureDebates

Local songwriter and Shelley specialist John Webster’s new DVD ‘Shelley’s Golden Years in Italy’ takes Shelley from the printed page and into the flux of contemporary culture. Teaming up with poet, playwright and Shelley admirer Benjamin Zephaniah, who provides context to the Shelley songs performed by John’s group Brindaband, it is an unrivalled guide to the poet, introducing around 20 of his key poems, highlighting important aspects of his thinking and describing his final dramatic years in Italy.

John will be introducing and playing the 43 minute-long film – expect an evening touching on some of life’s ‘fundamental things’, illuminated by a great poet’s unique perspective, and leaving an afterburn of hope.

Light refreshments, with an Italian flavour, will be provided.

To confirm your attendance please email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk or call the Customer Service Department on 01865 333623.

A special postcolonial seminar with Professor Brinda Bose and Professor Prasanta Chakravarty (University of Delhi). This event is CHCI funded and supported by TORCH, the English Faculty Postcolonial Seminar, and Rhodes House.

Leopold Eyharts flew on the Atlantis Shuttle to the International Space Station in 2008. Part of his mission included the installation of the Colombus Space Laboratory, the main contribution of Europe to the International Space Station. In 1998, Leopold flew
on a Soyouz Space Shuttle to the Russian MIR station. Engage in a conversation about his adventures and the future of manned exploration of space. Chaired by Valerie Jamieson, Editorial Content Director, New Scientist.

Visualise the world in the 21st century in seven new maps! Geographers Ben Hennig and Danny Dorling present some of the key challenges and questions relating to the future of people across the world, using a series of seven thought-provoking maps about our lives on the planet.