Join us for a new season of Science on Your Doorstep, where we shine a spotlight on fascinating people living and working in Headington around the site of our new Science Oxford Centre opening later this year. This February 2019 we welcome the eminent Keith Willett, Medical Director for Acute Care and Emergency Preparedness to NHS England, Professor of Orthopaedic Trauma Surgery at the University of Oxford and Headington resident, who will be talking to us about his role in transforming the NHS, terrorism, trauma surgery and much, much more.

Biography

An NHS consultant surgeon for 24 years, Keith has extensive experience of trauma care, driving service transformation and healthcare management. He has taught surgery and leadership extensively across the NHS and internationally.

In 2003 he founded the Kadoorie Centre for Critical Care Research and Education focusing on the treatment of critically ill and injured patients. This year IMPS, a children’s safety charity he launched, celebrated 20 years and over 250,000 children trained in risk awareness, first aid and life support.

Keith was the co-founder of the unique 24-hour consultant-resident Oxford Trauma Service at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford in 1994. Building on that model, in 2009 he was appointed the first National Clinical Director for Trauma Care to the Department of Health and was charged with developing and implementing government policy across the NHS to radically improve the care of older people with fragility hip fractures and to establish Regional Trauma Networks and Major Trauma Centres. By 2012 both re-organisations and care pathways were successfully in place and are now credited with marked improvement in patient care and survival.

In his current role he has the national medical oversight of acute NHS services ranging from pre-hospital and ambulance services, emergency departments, urgent surgery, acute medicine, children’s and maternity, armed forces, and health and justice services and national major incidents. He is now leading the transformation of the urgent and emergency care services across the NHS in England.

He was awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the New Years Honour’s List in 2016 for services to the NHS. On receiving this honour he said “I have been exceptionally privileged to build a career as part of the collective commitment of so many dedicated individuals and friends who are our NHS”.

The event is free to attend, but you are invited to make a donation towards a special fund we’re setting up to support disadvantaged schools across the region. The fund will help these schools with their travel costs, to enable them to come and enjoy the new Science Oxford Centre.

Newspapers often feature studies that sound too good to be true and often they aren’t – they are myths.

Some myths may be harmless but the phenomenon affects most kinds of research within evidence-based science. The good news is that there’s a new movement tackling misleading and unreliable research and instead trying to give us results that we can trust.

Using his research in to human pheromones as an example, Tristram will discuss how and why popular myths, including power-posing, are created and how efforts have been made to address the ‘reproducibility crisis’.

Tristram Wyatt is an emeritus fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford and formerly Director of Studies in Biology at OUDCE. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford. He’s interested in how animals of all kinds use pheromones to communicate by smell. His Cambridge University Press book on pheromones and animal behaviour won the Royal Society of Biology’s prize for the Best Postgraduate Textbook in 2014. His TED talk on human pheromones has been viewed over a million times. His book Animal behaviour: A Very Short Introduction was published by Oxford University Press in 2017.

Open to all. The talk is designed for researchers from all disciplines and is open to the public.

– GPES Seminar Series – Oxford Brookes

“Prevention is better than cure”, and yet only 3% of health expenditure in OECD countries is spent on prevention and public health while more than 90% is spent on curative, rehabilitative and long-term care. How can that paradox be explained? What are the obstacles and opportunities for greater investment in staying healthy?

Abstract:
Although early modern artistic connections between India and Ethiopia are reasonably well documented, there is little or no epigraphic or textual evidence for earlier histories of circulation across the Indian Ocean. Yet, architectural and other material from the Horn of Africa suggests a certain intensity of contacts with western Indian in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Highlighting the ‘archival’ value of extant artifacts and monuments, this lecture explores the role of medieval Ethiopia as a nexus between the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean.

About the Speaker:
Finbarr Barry Flood is director of Silsila: Center for Material Histories and William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of the Humanities at the Institute of Fine Arts and Department of Art History, New York University. His publications include The Great Mosque of Damascus: Studies on the Makings of an Umayyad Visual Culture (2000), Objects of Translation: Material Culture and Medieval “Hindu-Muslim” Encounter, (2009), awarded the 2011 Ananda K. Coomaraswamy Prize of the Association for Asian Studies, and the 2-volume Blackwell Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture (2017), co-edited with Professor Gülru Necipoğlu of Harvard University. He is currently completing a major book project, provisionally entitled Islam and Image: Beyond Aniconism and Iconoclasm, which will form the basis of the 2019 Slade Lectures at the University of Oxford.

The challenges of setting up a business in the art world.

Philip Hoffman Founder and CEO of The Fine Art Group, will discuss changing attitudes around art as an asset class. He will discuss the growth of art investment funds and the emergence of art financing and how The Fine Art Group has responded to the evolving art market to better suit their clients’ needs.

Hoffman is Founder and CEO of The Fine Art Group. The Fine Art Fund was the first fund of its type to invest in art. Since then, Hoffman has developed the business into a market leader in both art investment and art advisory. Before launching The Fine Art Group, he spent 12 years working for Christie’s auction house. He joined from KPMG, where he became the youngest member of the Management Board, later serving as the Deputy CEO of Europe. Philip is also on the Development Boards for The National Portrait Gallery, London, and CW+, the charity for Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

Schedule:
17:15 – On-site registration
17:45 – Talk commences
18:45 – Post-talk drinks
19:45 – Event close

The seminar is open for anyone to attend, registration is essential so please use the register button to confirm your attendance.

Abstract:
Current commentary in legal and political philosophy conceptualises political parties either as private organisations, immune from legal regulation in their internal affairs, or as quasi-public institutions, where the state may justifiably mandate certain internal regulations. I argue that, in jurisdictions with anti-defection laws, neither conception accounts for the normative status of the political party. Instead, the party ought to be conceptualised as a legislative actor. This paper then examines how conceptualising the party in this way can affect the way in which we understand the relationship between the law and a party. I explore three possible avenues of legal regulation of parties: the process of candidate selection, the selection of party leaders, and interaction between a party and its parliamentary wing. I argue that conceptualising the party as a legislative entity has the most salient implications for the third of these: the interaction between the extra-parliamentary organisation and the parliamentary party.
About the Speaker:
Udit Bhatia is a Junior Research Fellow in Politics at Jesus College and Lecturer in Political Theory at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford. His research interests lie at the intersections of democratic theory, social epistemology and constitutional law. He is currently working on the ethics of partisanship and the regulation of political parties.

From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, UN agencies, NGOs and the Red Cross / Crescent work to save lives and protect rights in the wake of natural disasters and armed conflict. How effective is the $27Billion sector? And what challenges does it face? The Oxford launch event of the State of the Humanitarian System report, with expert panel and Q and A

Two-thousand and nineteen marks the centenary of the Addison Act, the housing legislation which realised Lloyd-George’s ‘Homes fit for Heroes’ and the start of a nationwide system of state-owned housing that has lasted most of the 20th Century. Half a million homes were promised and a system of open-ended Treasury grants were made available to local councils to build.

One hundred years have now passed since local authorities in the UK where given the responsibility and the resource to provide decent housing for the working person. Whilst the responsibility remains, the conditions under which housing is to be provided have undergone a seismic shift.

Join us from 19.30 – 21.00 on Thursday 21st February as we explore how the cities of London and Oxford are working to meet this responsibility and provide decent housing for working class people.

We’ll be joined by Sian Berry, Co-Leader of the Green Party, Local Councillor for Camden and Chair of the London Assembly’s Housing Committee and Stephen Clarke, Head of Housing and Property Services for Oxford City Council.

Tickets are free but you must register to attend.

We strive to make all events at Open House as accessible as possible. You can read more about the venue on our website. If there is anything we can do to make your visit more comfortable then please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Jeff Koons’s recent works explicitly reference appropriate works of art of the ancient or more recent past. This special talk, with Ashmolean Director Dr Xa Sturgis, will explore the work of Jeff Koons throughout his career and consider how he has drawn on, challenged and adopted different traditions and strategies.

From monumental balloon dogs to subversive large-scale paintings, contemporary artist Jeff Koons is known for pushing the boundaries of art. Curated with Koons himself, the Ashmolean’s spring exhibition Jeff Koons at the Ashmolean features 17 major works, from the 1980s to today, 14 of which have never been to the UK before. They include some of his most well-known series such as Equilibrium, Banality, Antiquity and his recent Gazing Ball paintings and sculptures.
Jeff Koons and the art of the Past
With Xa Sturgis, Ashmolean Director
Lecture Theatre
Fri 22 Feb, 5.45–6.45pm

Tickets for this talk are £8/£7/£6 (Full, Concessions, Members) and booking is essential.

Join us at Teddy Hall next week for a fantastic event on the ‘Neuroscience of Dance’ brought to you by the Centre for the Creative Brain!

Science, dance and wine – what more could you want for a Saturday afternoon?

A few (free) tickets are still available, so be quick!

https://www.seh.ox.ac.uk/discover/research/centre-for-the-creative-brain

The 2019 Dementia Awareness Day will be held at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford on the morning of Saturday March 2nd. The Oxford ARUK Network Centre organise this event to discuss current dementia research taking place within the network centre, which includes the University of Oxford, Oxford Brookes University and University of Reading.

The event is open to the public and features several short talks from scientists on a range of topics in dementia.

We will also invite those who support people living with dementia and carers who will host information stands during the break. There will also be information on how you can get involved with dementia research.

This is a joint lecture with The Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health at the Oxford Martin School

Cooling is critical for many of the sustainable development goals, including those relating to health, shelter, livelihoods, education and nutrition. As the world’s population grows, as disposable incomes grow and as urban areas grow, the need for cooling is booming. However cooling uses super polluting gases and large amounts of energy and is therefore a significant cause of climate change. More efficient, clean cooling has the potential to avoid up to a degree of warming by the end of the century and recently all governments came together to agree action to try to maximize this opportunity. Cooling sits at the intersection of the UNFCCC, the SDGs and the Montreal Protocol, but can these forces ensure success?

Dan Hamza-Goodacre will explain the risks and possibilities in the search for sustainable cooling for all.

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

Currently limited tools exist to accurately forecast the complex nature of disease spread across the globe. Dr Moritz Kraemer will talk about the dynamic global maps being built, at 5km resolution, to predict the invasion of new organisms under climate change conditions and continued unplanned urbanisation.

This book talk is co-organised with the Oxford Martin Programme on Collective Responsibility for Infectious Disease

Vaccination raises ethical issues about the responsibilities of individuals, communities, and states in preventing serious and potentially life-threatening infectious diseases. Such responsibilities are typically taken to be about minimising risks for those who are vaccinated and for those around them. However, there are other ethical considerations that matter when defining the responsibilities of different actors with regard to vaccination. Such ethical considerations are not often given due considerations in the debate on vaccination ethics and policy.

Thus, in this talk Dr Alberto Giubilini aims at offering a defence of compulsory vaccination taking into account not only the importance of preventing the harms of infectious diseases, but also the value of fairness in the distribution of the burdens entailed by the obligation to protect people from infectious diseases. He will offer a philosophical account of the key notions involved in the ethical debate on vaccination, of the types of responsibilities involved, of the possible types of vaccination policies ranked from the least to the most restrictive, and of the reasons why compulsory vaccination is, from an ethical point of view, the best policy available, as it is the most likely to guarantee not only protection from infectious diseases, but also a fair distribution of the burdens and responsibilities involved.

The talk will be followed by a drinks reception, all welcome

Ever wondered how cancer works, what treatments are out there, how
to spot reliable medical information, or just want an opportunity to ask questions? Join us for a (very) informal afternoon with oncologists from Oxford University.
Spaces are limited, pls register

Professor Bill (KWM) Fulford, Fellow of St Catherine’s College and Member of the Philosophy Faculty, University of Oxford, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and Mental Health, University of Warwick, Director of the Collaborating Centre for Values-based practice, St Catherine’s College, Oxford, and Founder Editor and Chair of the Advisory Board, Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology.
Abstract:
The widely held belief that the diagnosis of mental disorder is a matter exclusively for value-free science has been much reinforced by recent dramatic advances in the neurosciences. In this lecture I will use a detailed case study of delusion and spiritual experience to indicate to the contrary that values come into the diagnosis of mental disorders directly through the language of the diagnostic criteria adopted in such scientifically–grounded classifications as the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual). Various competing interpretations of the importance of values in psychiatric diagnosis will be considered. Interpreted through the lens of the Oxford tradition of linguistic-analytic philosophy, however, diagnostic values in psychiatry are seen to reflect the complex and often conflicting values of real people. This latter interpretation has the direct consequence that there is a need for processes of assessment in psychiatry that are equally values-based as evidence-based. A failure to recognise this in the past has resulted in some of the worst abusive misuses of psychiatric diagnostic concepts. In the final part of the presentation I will outline recent developments in values-based practice in mental health, including some of its applications to diagnostic assessment, and in other areas of health care (such as surgery)

Duncan Dollimore, Head of Campaigns, Cycling UK wants to hear our views on local cycle campaigning
Cycling UK has spent the last few months considering how to work with local campaign groups. Duncan is coming to Oxford because he was impressed by the energy at our conference 15 months ago. This is our chance to influence how Cycling UK relates with local groups like Cyclox.

Chief Arts Correspondent Will Gompertz: “The importance of Art and Museums”

We’d like to invite you to join our Oxford group to share some food and hear a thought-provoking talk by Leah Maclean on Intuitive Eating.

INTUITIVE EATING: freedom from diet mentality

Intuitive Eating is a process to help you get out of your head when it comes to food and body image and tune into the signals your body is sending. It helps break down arbitrary food rules and restrictions and external influences over what you can and can’t eat so you can focus on internal cues. You learn to stop determining your value based on what you’ve eaten, how much you’ve moved, or a number on the scale.

ABOUT MAHWE
Mahwe brings together people who have a keen interest in personal development and who want to share ideas and enjoy meaningful conversations. Our events are relaxed and friendly, we share a meal, often hear a talk that leads to a group conversation. You will meet open-minded people who want to learn and be the best version of themselves. £25 including your meal.

Dung beetles in the British Isles are a vital part of their associated ecosystems but have been historically rather overlooked probably due to their chosen habitat. Now our native dung beetles are finally beginning to get some of the invertebrate limelight due to an emphasis on ecosystem services and a much more environmentally friendly farming future. However we are lacking on a great deal of base data about these vitally important species and surveying is the one of the best ways to get information. This means getting into dung and discovering these unsung heroes

For many good reasons, semi-structured interviews, focus groups, thematic analysis, and realist tales have become key tools within the qualitative researcher’s methodological toolkit. In this presentation, Dr Cassandra Phoenix invites the audience to consider the extent to which they may have (inadvertently) become the only tools within their toolkit.

Drawing on examples from across the social sciences, she considers how else we might collect, analyse and represent qualitative data within health research, asking what it means and involves to truly advance qualitative research methods in this field.

Dr Cassandra Phoenix is a Reader in the Department for Health at the University of Bath. Her research examines ageing, health and wellbeing from a critical/socio-cultural perspective. She has authored numerous publications on topics including the social and cultural dimensions of: physical activity in mid and later life; the lived experiences of chronic conditions (e.g. late onset visual impairment, vestibular disorders); and engagement with nature. Cassandra’s work is supported by a range of funders including ESRC, Wellcome Trust, Leverhulme Trust, WHO and the NIHR.

This talk is being held as part of the Advanced Qualitative Research Methods course which is part of the Evidence-Based Health Care Programme. This is a free event and members of the public are welcome to attend.

Please note this event will now take place on Thursday (instead of Wednesday).

The Global Politics, Economy and Society (GPES) Research Centre at Oxford Brookes will be hosting its first annual lecture, given by the writer and activist George Monbiot. All welcome, but please book via the registration link.

Professor Carl Heneghan has extensive experience of working with the media. In this talk he will discuss some recent case examples, working with the BBC amongst others. This talk will discuss how using an evidence-based approach can help overcome the growing problem of fake news, and provide insights on how to work with the media to ensure your message is not distorted, and will discuss why academics should engage more with the media and the wider public.

Professor Carl Heneghan is Director of CEBM, and an NHS Urgent Care GP, and has been interested for over twenty years in how we can use evidence in real world practice.

This talk is being held as part of the Practice of Evidence-Based Health Care module which is part of the MSc in Evidence-Based Health Care and the MSc in EBHC Systematic Reviews. Members of the public are welcome to attend.

Writer and campaigner Nicci Gerrard will be in conversation with doctor and author, Rachel Clarke on her latest book, which examines dementia and how it effects both those who live with it and those who care for them.

Past Times, Blackwell’s series of free history talks, continues with Mark Honigsbaum discussing his new book The Pandemic Century: One Hundred Years of Panic, Hysteria and Hubris.

Ever since the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic, scientists have dreamed of preventing catastrophic outbreaks of infectious disease. Yet, despite a century of medical progress, viral and bacterial disasters continue to take us by surprise, inciting panic and dominating news cycles. From pneumonic plague in LA and ‘parrot fever’ in Argentina to the more recent AIDS, SARS and Ebola epidemics, the last 100 years have been marked by a succession of unanticipated outbreaks and scares. Like man-eating sharks, predatory pathogens are always present in nature, waiting to strike; when one is seemingly vanquished, others appear in its place. The Pandemic Century exposes the limits of science against nature, and how these crises are shaped by humans as much as microbes.

The ecology and history of one of the largest atolls in the world. Aldabra, situated in the South West Indian Ocean, supports the largest population of giant tortoises worldwide. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is a stronghold for wildlife in a region that is besieged by threats.

Professor Dave Carter reveals how understanding intercellular communication could improve healthcare.

Saïd Business School is pleased to welcome Freya Stewart, Fine Art Group’s in house lawyer on Art and Law – provenance, title and all various things that come with that.

[Originally scheduled for 15th November 2018]

Saïd Business School is pleased to welcome Freya Stewart, Fine Art Group’s in house lawyer to talk on Art and Law.

About the talk

Art-secured financing is not new, but leverage in the art market is a ‘hot’ topic and here to stay. A niche-credit service increasingly used by high net worth collectors to unlock valuable capital from their art assets for other investment or personal finance purposes.

Schedule

17:15 – Registration opens
17:45 – Event starts
18:45 – Drinks reception
19:45 – Close
The talk is open for anyone to attend, registration is essential so please use the register button to confirm your attendance.

About the Speaker:

Freya Stewart is CEO of The Fine Art Group’s art-secured lending business. The Fine Art Group is a market-leading international art advisory, investment and finance firm, who provide competitive art finance solutions to borrowers on a global basis. Freya also supports The Fine Art Group as General Counsel.

Prior to joining The Fine Art Group Freya was senior Legal Counsel at Christie’s Auction House, where she advised on all aspects of art lending, auction and private sales. Previously Freya spent 10 years at Linklaters LLP and Barclays Capital as a structured finance, derivatives and prime brokerage lawyer in London, New York, Hong Kong and São Paulo.

Freya obtained a First Class BA in History from Manchester University and completed her legal qualifications at Oxford Institute of Legal Practice.