Some face-to-face events are returning. Check carefully for any requirements.

Apr
18
Wed
SciBar: The OpenScience @ St Aldates Tavern (The Blue Room)
Apr 18 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Dr Simone Sturniolo will talk about How computational science helps us understand the world and how you can try it too.

Apr
26
Thu
SIU Career Sessions 1: The path to industry @ New Biochemistry Building
Apr 26 @ 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
SIU Career Sessions 1: The path to industry @ New Biochemistry Building | England | United Kingdom

What if I like research but not teaching? What if I do not like any of them? What alternatives to academia do I have?

We would like to introduce the “SIU Career Sessions”, a termly round of talks focusing on alternative careers for PhD students and postdocs, which will definitely help you with these questions. Get ready to hear from experts and explore new career paths! If you are not sure what is next after your PhD or would just like to be aware of your options, these events are for you!

Our first session will focus on a promising field for PhD-level scientists: industry. In this event, attendees will have the opportunity to hear from high profile speakers from two pharmaceutical companies with different focuses: Novo Nordisk and Immunocore. The speakers will bring not only information about the attributes they seek in potential employees, but also the daily life in industry and opportunities for a successful and stable career in big pharmaceutical companies. We will also learn from their first-hand experience how they took the career transition path to industry.

Is industry for you? Come find out with us!
As always, this event is completely free and everyone is welcome.

What are Quantum Materials? Prof. Andrew Boothroyd – the inaugural Quantum Materials Public Lecture. Followed by drinks reception. @ Martin Wood Lecture Theatre, Clarendon Laboratory
Apr 26 @ 6:00 pm – 7:15 pm
What are Quantum Materials? Prof. Andrew Boothroyd - the inaugural Quantum Materials Public Lecture. Followed by drinks reception. @ Martin Wood Lecture Theatre, Clarendon Laboratory |  |  |

The Inaugural Quantum Materials Public Lecture will be presented by Professor Andrew Boothroyd. Please join us for an exploration of quantum materials – what they are, what they can do, and why they are so profoundly interesting!

The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception in the Martin Wood Lecture Theatre Foyer.

Solid matter contains unimaginably large numbers of electrons which determine many of the material’s properties. Although lots of materials can be described by treating these electrons as independent, research has uncovered an increasing number of ‘quantum materials’ that display non-trivial and often spectacular phenomena, resulting from many electrons acting in unison. In this lecture, Professor Andrew Boothroyd will introduce the field of quantum materials and discuss two themes which are becoming increasingly important: ‘emergence’ and ‘topology’. He will draw upon recent work in Oxford, and describe how modern experimental techniques are making it possible to unpick complex ordered phases and identify exotic emergent particles.

When dinosaurs ruled the imagination @ Oxford Town Hall
Apr 26 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
When dinosaurs ruled the imagination @ Oxford Town Hall | England | United Kingdom

Talk followed by questions and discussion

May
1
Tue
‘Organic chemistry’s role in the future of screens and energy conversion’ with Prof Seth Marder @ Oxford Martin School
May 1 @ 12:15 pm – 1:15 pm

Plastics (polymers) and other organic materials are typically thought of as insulating materials that surround conducting metals (e.g. copper) to protect us from shocks. However, through careful design, a class of so-called “pi-conjugated” organic compounds and polymers can be both semiconducting and conducting, and can be processed as flexible and in some cases stretchable thin films. In addition, these materials can be tuned to absorb and emit light across the visible spectrum. These pi-conjugated materials have been incorporated into devices such as organic light emitting diode (OLED) based displays common in cell phones (e.g. Samsung phones and the iPhone X) and now televisions (LG). OLEDs are now a multi-billion dollar market (> $10 billion expected in 2018), that is forecasted to grow rapidly over the next decade. OLEDs are now under active development for a variety of high efficiency light applications, with high-end lumenaires being marketed by a variety of companies. In addition, these materials have found use in organic solar cells, and also as components in a new class of highly efficient “perovskite” solar cells.

In this presentation, Professor Seth Marder, Visitor to Oxford Martin Senior Fellow, Professor Henry Snaith, will provide a brief introduction to how chemists develop these materials, introduce the basic working concepts of OLEDs and photovoltaics, show how organic compounds have been used in these technologies, and touch on both the strengths and weaknesses of organic materials for these various applications.

May
7
Mon
Book Launch with Author and Translator: The Chilli Bean Paste Clan, by Yan Ge & translated by Nicky Harman @ Ho Tim Seminar Room, China Centre, Oxford
May 7 @ 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Book Launch with Author and Translator: The Chilli Bean Paste Clan, by Yan Ge & translated by Nicky Harman @ Ho Tim Seminar Room, China Centre, Oxford | United Kingdom

Book Launch with Author & Translator: Yan Ge (顏歌)’s The Chilli Bean Paste Clan, translated by Nicky Harman

https://www.facebook.com/events/605485149803274/

2018/May/07 Monday 5-7PM Ho Tim Seminar Room, China Centre, St Hugh’s College, Oxford

Open and free of charge for all

Supported by: Oxford Chinese Studies Society

To welcome everyone back to Oxford in this Trinity Term, we have invited one of the most important writers of China’s post-1980 generation, Yan Ge, to share with us her experiences as a young writer in China and abroad. She will bring her seminal work, The Chilli Bean Paste Clan (《我們家》in Chinese, published in 2013), and discuss issues of family, language, morality, capitalism and more, with the novel’s English translator Nicky Harman. The Chilli Bean Paste Clan the English translation will be published by Balestier Press and available on the market from the 1st of May, 2018, adding a fresh voice in the growing field of literature in translation.

Synopsis of The Chilli Bean Paste Clan:

Set in a fictional town in West China, this is the story of the Duan-Xue family, owners of the lucrative chilli bean paste factory, and their formidable matriarch. As Gran’s eightieth birthday approaches, her middle-aged children get together to make preparations. Family secrets are revealed and long-time sibling rivalries flare up with renewed vigour. As Shengqiang struggles unsuccessfully to juggle the demands of his mistress and his wife, the biggest surprises of all come from Gran herself……

Professor David Der-wei Wang 王德威 of Harvard University has commented on Yan Ge and her work and hinted that she might signal a generational shift in the Chinese literary scene:
“She writes about her hometown. The stories in a small Sichuanese town are greatly done. She has her own worldviews, and frankly speaking, she is of a very fortunate generation. What she may have encountered as she grew up is not as tumultuous or adventurous as the writers that came before her, and therefore the factor of imagination has gradually come to matter more than experiences in reality.
她写她的故乡,四川一个小城的故事,写得很好。她有她的世界观,但坦白地讲,他们都是有幸的一代,在她成长的过程里面,她所遭遇的不如过去那辈作家有那么多的坎坷或者冒险性,所以,想象的成分已经逐渐地凌驾了现实经验的体会。”

This event will be of interest to those of you who work on contemporary China, Chinese literature, translation studies, and publishing. The conversation between Yan Ge and Nicky Harman will last around 30 minutes and we will leave plenty of time for critical dialogues, Q & A and discussions.

Books available for purchase at a discounted rate.

Speaker biography:

Yan Ge was born in Sichuan Province, China in 1984. She is a writer as well as a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature. Publishing since 1994, she is the author of eleven books in Chinese. Her works have been translated into English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Hungarian. She was a visiting scholar at Duke University from 2011 to 2012 and a residency writer at the Cross Border Festival in Netherlands in November 2012. Named by People’s Literature magazine as one of twenty future literature masters in China, she is now the chairperson of China Young Writers’ Association and a contract writer of Sichuan Writers’ Association. She recently started writing in English. Her English stories could be seen on Irish Times and Stand Magazine. She lives in Dublin with her husband and son.

Nicky Harman is a British translator of Chinese literature, and one of the most influential figures in the field. She is co-Chair of the Translators Association (Society of Authors) and co-founded Paper Republic 纸托邦, one of the most important online forums for Chinese literatures in translation. She taught on the MSc in Translation at Imperial College until 2011 and now translates full-time from Chinese. The authors she has translated include Jia Pingwa贾平凹,Yan Geling 严歌苓,Chan Koon-chung 陈冠中,Annibaobei 安妮宝贝,Chen Xiwo陈希我,Yan Ge颜歌,and Han Dong韩东, to name just a few. She has won several awards with her translations.

Science, Medicine and Culture in the Nineteenth Century Seminars in Trinity Term 2018 @ St Anne's College
May 7 @ 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
Science, Medicine and Culture in the Nineteenth Century Seminars in Trinity Term 2018 @ St Anne's College | England | United Kingdom

Professor Harriet Ritvo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Gone but not Forgotten: Coming to Grips with Extinction
5.30—7.00, Seminar Room 3, St Anne’s College

Extinction is a timely and controversial topic now, as it has been for centuries. That is not, of course, to say that the focus of contention has remained constant. At first the main question, couched at least as much in theological as in scientific terms (that is, in terms resonant with later debates about evolution), was whether it could happen. Localized anthropogenic extinctions, most famously that of the dodo, were noticed by European travelers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (the intentional extermination of undesirable animals like wolves at home did not figure in such debates). The dwindling and disappearance of more populous and widespread species, including the passenger pigeon, the quagga, and (nearly) the American bison, in the nineteenth century sparked a different kind of concern among the overlapping communities of hunters, naturalists, and conservationists, which helped to inspire the earliest national parks and wildlife reserves.

May
8
Tue
St Cross Talk: Feminist Foreign Policy @ West Wing Lecture Theatre, St Cross College
May 8 @ 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
St Cross Talk: Feminist Foreign Policy @ West Wing Lecture Theatre, St Cross College |  |  |

Join St Cross alumna Kristina Lunz (MSc Global Governance and Diplomacy, 2014), co-founder of the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy, for a panel discussion on diplomacy, feminist foreign policy and social entrepreneurship. Joining her will be CFFP co-founder Marissa Conway, head of CFFP in the UK, and Dr Jennifer Cassidy, Editor of “Gender and Diplomacy” (Routledge, 2017) and Lecturer in International Relations, University of Oxford (St Peter’s College).

This talk is free to attend, all welcome.

About CFFP

The Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy (CFFP) is a research and advocacy organisation promoting a feminist approach to foreign policy. With its vision to challenge the status quo of foreign policy, the CFFP puts people instead of special interest at the core of policy initiatives.

CFFP was founded in 2016 by Marissa in London, where she is heading the UK section of CFFP. Kristina, a St Cross alumna (2014-2015), joined Marissa as a co-founder and also brought the organisation to Germany, where she is heading the German team. Dr Jennifer Cassidy joined CFFP’s Advisory Council recently.

May
9
Wed
Sweet voice and round taste: Cross-sensory metaphors and linguistic variability by Francesca Strik Lievers @ Jesus College - Ship Centre Lecture Theatre
May 9 @ 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm

How do we define a sound or a taste for which our language does not have a dedicated word?

Typically, we borrow words from another sensory modality. Wines, for example, are often described by words that belong to other sensory perceptions: a “soft flavour” borrows the adjective soft from the domain of touch, and a “round taste” borrows the adjective round from the domain of sight.

It remains an interesting open issue to what extent these cross-sensory metaphors are universal across languages, and to what extent they are language-specific.

Dr Francesca Strik Lievers will address these questions and provide an overview of the latest scientific discoveries in the field, using examples taken from different languages. Her talk will be followed by an opportunity for questions.

The event is organised and hosted by Creative Multilingualism in collaboration with TORCH. Creative Multilingualism is a research programme led by the University of Oxford and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council as part of the Open World Research Initiative.

Participation is free and open to the public. We provide FREE LUNCH to all participants.

12.30-13.00 – lunch and mingling

13.00-14.00 – talk and discussion

May
10
Thu
“Government needs to get better at policy-making; more open and connected with people” with Dr Andrea Siodmok @ Oxford Martin School
May 10 @ 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

In today’s fast changing, highly interconnected, culturally diverse world our current approaches to policy need to become more responsive to change. Currently the dominant mode of policy making is still based on what we might term ‘intelligent choice’. This retains the premise that problems can be resolved through ‘best practice’ evidence-based approaches using empirical methods. We need to move however to ‘next practice’ a method which seeks to create entirely new propositions and then testing them in context so that we may learn, adapt and actively shape our understanding of the problem-solution space itself.

New methods are at the heart of some of that Lab’s latest projects, including a unique collaboration with the Government’s Office for Science, applying Speculative Design and advanced visualisation in the run up to the Industrial Strategy Ageing Grand Challenge.

The Future of Mobility: How and why will we transport ourselves in the next decades @ St Cross College
May 10 @ 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm

Speaker: Carlo van de Weijer

Digitisation has entered the mobility arena. The car has evolved from a mechanical device into a “data producing embedded software platform”, and the internet is quickly linking the supply and demand to effectively fulfil our transport needs. And just like every industry that is confronted with digitisation, the changes come faster than most traditional players can prepare for. Yet, with all unpredictability that comes along with disruption there are some fixed rules that one can prepare for. This makes mobility a real example of an industry in the midst of disruption. Carlo van de Weijer will highlight the most important future trends within mobility, from uberization to self driving vehicles, electrification and the impact on cities and society.

May
14
Mon
Cyber crime fighters – Pint of Science Festival @ St Aldates Tavern
May 14 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

“3.5 million cyber-crimes recorded, true figure could be 20.5 million” – this is just one of the headlines that exemplify how significant cybercrime is today.

Cybercrime has been ruthless, victimising everyone from corporations to charities and the elderly. In this light-hearted talk, Jason examines the topic of cybercrime with a focus on how criminals target individuals and exploit how we think, reason and behave. This touches on the fields of computer science and psychology. Additionally, Jason provides some tips and tricks for how you can protect yourself and your families online.

If you’ve ever wondered about cybercrime, come along tonight – Jason guarantees that fun (honest!) will be had by all!

May
15
Tue
The Anthropocene and the Post-Truth World @ Jesus College Ship Street Centre
May 15 @ 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm
The Anthropocene and the Post-Truth World @ Jesus College Ship Street Centre | England | United Kingdom

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

May
16
Wed
Think Human Library: RESIST! REMAIN! @ Bonn Square
May 16 @ 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm

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!

May
17
Thu
Goldilocks’ Window? Revisiting the social discipine window. @ The Mint House
May 17 @ 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Lunchtime talk and discussion led by Pete Wallis of Oxfordshire’s Youth Justice Service at the Mint House, Oxford Centre for Restorative Practice. Refreshments from 12.45.

‘Science on the front line: getting good quality evidence into the news’ with Fiona Fox @ Oxford Martin School
May 17 @ 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

For many people science in the media is lovely science stories like gravitational waves, the God particle and incredible discoveries about our natural history. But science is also to be found in messy, politicised and contentious stories like the coverage of climate-gate, Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans and rows about the safety of statins, e-cigarettes and anti-depressants. And it is essential that the wider public and policy makers have access to the best evidence when these controversies rage on our front pages.

How can scientists get their voices heard more loudly on these sensitive and contested issues? Is science in the headlines an opportunity or a threat? How can we help the public to assess where the weight of good evidence lies on issues when the media’s love of ‘balance’ and the maverick make it look like science is divided. The Science Media Centre sits on the front line between the research community and the 24 hour news media. Its remit is to get the media to do science better by getting scientists to do the media better. The CEO Fiona Fox will describe the philosophy of the Centre and show through real case studies how scientists changed what the public saw by engaging.

May
21
Mon
Dangerous Speech and Images: Criminality in the Internet Age @ Chakrabarti Room (JHB208)
May 21 @ 11:00 am – 2:00 pm

Since 2015 a group of research-active academics from Oxford Brookes School of Law have been investigating how the criminal law can, and should, tackle speech and images on the internet which are dangerous or offensive.

For Think Human Festival Chara Bakalis, Chris Lloyd, and Mark O’Brien will run a workshop with short talks on ‘cyberhate,’ ‘sexting,’ and the ‘dark web’ respectively. These talks aim to engage audiences in intellectual questions about the issues society faces in the internet age and how the law can engage with these pressing topics. This workshop is for anyone interested in issues of criminal law, internet regulation, the affects of social media, and the wider digital world of the 21st century.

Lunch will be provided at this event.

May
22
Tue
The Genetic Legacy of Kings and Commoners in the Iberian Peninsula @ Oxford University Museum of Natural History
May 22 @ 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Our DNA holds clues to the demographic history of our ancestors. Dr Clare Bycroft presents recent work looking at the genetic history of the Iberian Peninsula.

May
23
Wed
Can Computers Replace Humans in Biological Research? @ Lecture Theatre B Department of Computer Science
May 23 @ 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm

The adoption of big data, machine learning, and simulation software in biology and drug discovery have allowed for rapid progress in these fields. So far these technologies have aided discoveries, but can they eventually replace human effort and experiments? We are inviting a panel of experts at the forefront of these technologies to answer this titular question, and evaluate the role of computers in the future of biology and medicine.

Time: 5:30 pm on 23rd May
Venue: Lecture Theatre B, Department of Computer Science 15 Parks Road

Limited spots available.
There will be a networking & drinks reception after the event.
As always, this event is free and everyone is welcome!

About the speakers:

Professor Blanca Rodriguez

Professor of Computational Medicine

Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in Basic Biomedical Sciences

Blanca was born in Valencia, Spain, where she attended the Lycee Francais de Valencia, and graduated as an Electronics Engineer from the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Spain, in 1997. She then started a PhD in the Integrated Laboratory of Bioengineering supervised by Prof. Chema Ferrero and at the same time became an Assistant Professor in Electronics and Biomedical Instrumentation at the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia. During her PhD studies, she investigated the causes of extracellular potassium accumulation during acute ischaemia using a mathematical model of single cell action potential. After graduating in 2001, she joined Prof. Natalia Trayanova’s group at Tulane University in New Orleans (now at Johns Hopkins University), as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Her research focused on the mechanisms of cardiac vulnerability to electric shocks in normal and globally ischemic hearts. In 2004, she won the First Prize in the Young Investigator Award Competition in Basic Science of the Heart Rhythm Society. After spending two years in New Orleans, she joined Oxford University in August 2004, as a Senior Postdoctoral Fellow with Prof. David Gavaghan, funded by the Integrative Biology Project. From 2007 to 2013, Blanca Rodriguez held a Medical Research Council Career Development fellowship and she has also been awarded funding by European Comission, Royal Society, EPSRC, Wellcome Trust, BHF and Leverhulme Trust. She is currently a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in Basic biomedical Science and Professor of Computational Medicine.

Dr. Romain Talon

XChem Senior Support Scientist

Romain joined the Structural Genomics Consortium Oxford in 2014, where his initial role was to contribute to the Diamond Light Source X-ray fragment screening facility XChem: “X-ray structure-accelerated, synthesis-aligned fragment medicinal chemistry”. He test-drove the new experiment with real-life SGC projects, stress-tested the XChem throughput and established what was required for XChem team to be open to external users. He then made sure that XChem was used as a routine experiment to carry out X-ray fragment screening at the SGC. Romain thus became an “XChem Liaison Scientist” for the SGC. Over the past two years, he has coordinated and provided his expertise in crystallography for a total 27 fragment screening campaigns at the SGC. This number includes three fragment screening projects he carried out himself. Romain moved to the Diamond Light Source synchrotron to be a Senior Support Scientist for XChem. On top of his user support role, Romain is now improving his knowledge in computational chemistry and expertise that to provide for XChem users at Diamond.

May
24
Thu
‘Putting science at the heart of society and culture’ – Panel discussion @ Oxford Martin School
May 24 @ 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

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.

Science on Your Doorstep: Allergies and Immunity with Berne Ferry @ Windmill Primary School
May 24 @ 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Science on Your Doorstep: Allergies and Immunity with Berne Ferry @ Windmill Primary School | England | United Kingdom

Our immune system keeps us healthy and safe – it’s a fantastic internal bodyguard that, like any good soldier, is well organised and disciplined. It’s our defence against infectious organisms and germ invaders. But what happens when it goes wrong? Why can some of us scoff peanuts or devour a plate of pasta with no ill effects while others are left feeling bloated, fatigued or, at worst, go into life-threatening anaphylactic shock.

Join immunologist and Headington resident Berne Ferry to find out what the immune system actually is, where it is in our bodies, how it works, why it sometimes gets confused and how this affects us.

Often in science, it is by studying what happens when systems don’t work that we begin to understand how they actually do function. So can our immune cells really get hoodwinked into thinking that parts of the body are dangerous and start to attack them? What would happen if we had no immune system at all? It’s all systems go as Berne explores this fascinating, complex and life-protecting network of organs and cells.

Professor Berne Ferry has been intrigued by the immune system since she was a student and has devoted much of her working life to studying this remarkable system. Berne is Head of the National School of Healthcare Science in Birmingham, before which she was the Lead Scientist in the Oxford Universities Hospital Trust where she set up the NHS Translational Immunology Research Laboratory.

Science on Your Doorstep is our new series of events showcasing the scientists who live and work in the Headington area.

The event is free to attend, but you are invited to make a donation towards a fund to support schools’ travel costs to our new science education centre opening in Headington in 2019.

May
25
Fri
The Rivonia Trial Model UN Committee – “Save these lives!”: Apartheid and the United Nations @ The Green Room, Headington Hill Hall
May 25 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

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.

May
29
Tue
Science and Politics Discussion @ Jesus College Conference Centre
May 29 @ 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Science and Politics Discussion @ Jesus College Conference Centre | England | United Kingdom

In this seminar we will discuss the current challenges facing science and politics. Drawing from the speaker’s experience, we will reflect on the current status of science involvement in the decision-making process and highlight potential solutions to bridging the science-policy gap.

May
30
Wed
“Outsourcing Border Control: The Politics and Practice of Contracted Visa Policy in Morocco” with Dr Federica Infantino @ Refugee Studies Centre @ Oxford Department of International Development, Seminar Room 3
May 30 @ 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm

Federica Infantino is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Group for Research on Ethnic Relations, Migration and Equality at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Her project ‘Practicing Immigration Detention and Deportation in the EU. Actors, Organizations and Transnational Policymaking from Below’ is funded by the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS-FRS). In 2015, she was Wiener-Anspach postdoctoral fellow and visiting academic at COMPAS, University of Oxford. Federica holds a PhD in political and social sciences from Université Libre de Bruxelles and a PhD in political science, comparative political sociology, from Sciences Po Paris. Her main research interests focus on the practices of migration and border control in comparative perspective, transnational actors and dynamics of policy change, the involvement of non-state actors in governments’ functions. She is the author of the book Outsourcing Border Control. Politics and Practice of Contracted Visa Policy in Morocco (Palgrave MacMillan), the co-editor of the 2014 Security Dialogue’s special issue ‘Border Security as Practice’ and the author of several articles about the day-to-day filtering work of borders that is achieved via visa issuing.

May
31
Thu
‘Stats and studies are not enough: how to gain people’s trust in scientific authority’ with Nicky Hawkins @ Oxford Martin School
May 31 @ 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

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.

Crime, Sovereignty, and the State: On the Metaphysics of Global Disorder, with Jean and John Comaroff @ Investcorp Lecture Theatre, St Antony's College
May 31 @ 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Crime, Sovereignty, and the State: On the Metaphysics of Global Disorder, with Jean and John Comaroff @ Investcorp Lecture Theatre, St Antony's College | England | United Kingdom

This lecture explores the global preoccupation with criminality in the early twenty-first century, a preoccupation strikingly disproportionate, in most places and for most people, to the risks posed by lawlessness to the conduct of everyday life. Ours in an epoch in which law-making, law-breaking, and law-enforcement are ever more critical registers in which societies construct, contest, and confront truths about themselves. It argues that, as the result of a tectonic shift in the triangulation of capital, the state, and governance, the meanings attached to crime and, with it, the nature of policing, have undergone significant change; also, that there has been a palpable muddying of the lines between legality and illegality, between corruption and conventional business – even between crime-and-policing, which exist, nowadays, in ever greater, hyphenated complicity.

Is what you perceive real? @ St Aldates Tavern (The blue room)
May 31 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm

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!

Jun
8
Fri
A Life in Law. Rather His Own Man. Talk by Geoffrey Robertson, QC @ Sir Joseph Hotung Auditorium, Hands Building, Mansfield College
Jun 8 @ 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Founder and co-head of Doughty Street Chambers, Europe’s largest human rights practice. He has argued leading cases in constitutional law, criminal law and media law. Author.

Jun
12
Tue
‘Taming the sun: innovations to harness solar energy and power the planet’ with Dr Varun Sivaram (Joint event with Oxford Energy @ Oxford Martin School
Jun 12 @ 5:00 pm – 6:15 pm

Solar energy, once a niche application for a limited market, has become the cheapest and fastest-growing power source on earth. What’s more, its potential is nearly limitless – every hour the sun beams down more energy than the world uses in a year. But Varun Sivaram, Fellow for science and technology at the Council on Foreign Relations, former Oxford researcher, and author of a new book, Taming the Sun, warns that the world is not yet equipped to harness erratic sunshine to meet most of its energy needs. And if solar’s current surge peters out, prospects for replacing fossil fuels and averting catastrophic climate change will dim.

Innovation can brighten those prospects, Sivaram will argue. Financial innovation is already enticing deep-pocketed investors to fund solar projects around the world, from the sunniest deserts to the poorest villages. Technological innovation could replace today’s solar panels with coatings as cheap as paint and employ artificial photosynthesis to store intermittent sunshine as convenient fuels. And systemic innovation could add flexibility to the world’s power grids and other energy systems so they can dependably channel the sun’s unreliable energy. Unleashing all this innovation will require visionary public policy: funding researchers developing next-generation solar technologies, refashioning energy systems and economic markets, and putting together a diverse clean energy portfolio.

This talk will be followed by a drinks reception and book signing, all welcome.

Jun
13
Wed
Reinterpreting Confucius’ Ideas on Law, Justice and Society @ Wolfson College
Jun 13 @ 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Reinterpreting Confucius’ Ideas on Law, Justice and Society @ Wolfson College | England | United Kingdom

It is generally thought that China and the West have developed historically along different lines, each with its own understanding of society and the ideas and concepts on which society is founded.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the legal and jurisprudential context, where it is conventionally assumed that the two major civilizations proceeded according to wholly different understandings of society, relations among its members, and between the people and government.

The writings of Confucius seem to confirm this sense of separation. While we have all heard of Confucius; have probably at some time quoted from him, nevertheless he epitomizes the Chinese way of thought, which is taken to be a matter of curiosity but of no special interest.

In this lecture, Dr Ying Yu, Research Fellow of Wolfson College Oxford, will challenge these assumptions and offer the basis for a wholly new approach.

Through a close analysis of Confucius’ ideas, based on the original script, Dr Yu will show how similar they are to the jurisprudential foundations of western societies. In doing so, Dr Yu will pay particular attention to understandings of justice, both substantive and procedural.

Dr Ying Yu is a Research Fellow in Law Justice and Society at Wolfson College, Oxford, and a member of the Faculty of Law in the University of Oxford.

Ying’s main research interest is the rights of consumers and their legal protection, building on her former work on international trade, maritime law and private international law.