Dr Larkman is a retired Oxford biologist who has been chairman of OOS for the last 5 years. His main interest is the precipitous decline in the UK’s small, seed-eating farmland birds over the last 50 years.

Travis Jay presents his brand new, emotional roller-coaster of a show. It recounts Travis’s hilarious journey from childhood to fatherhood, and the many hiccups in-between.

Nominated for The Leicester Mercury Comedian of the year in 2016, Travis Jay is a stand-up, actor and radio presenter who has been performing on the comedy circuit since 2009.

Travis also writes and performs spoken word, and has featured on BBC Radio 1’s ‘First words’ poetry series alongside George The Poet. A creative, animated, and intelligent performer, Travis has built a reputation as being an entertaining and sometimes controversial story teller.

Doors at 5.30pm/Show at 6pm

The art market is one of the most visible, yet least understood industries in the world. And it is in the midst of a digital transformation that is redefining what and how art is transacts every day.

During this talk, Sotheby’s Senior Vice President of Data & Strategy, Edouard Benveniste gives an introduction to the art market with a focus on how data and emerging technologies are shaking up an industry long known for its opacity.

Benveniste, has spent the past decade at the world’s leading auction houses in roles spanning sales and technology, will share lessons from the transformation of the art world that can apply to any industry at the time of disruptive innovation.

Schedule:
17:15 – Registration opens
17:45 – Event starts
18:45 – Drinks reception (optional)
19:45 – Event close
About the event

The seminar is open for anyone to attend
Spaces are limited and tickets are non-transferable so registration is essential so please use the Register button above to confirm your attendance
Please note once the main room is full you will be directed to an overflow room to watch the a livestream of the event, so please arrive early to avoid disappointment

For this event, 12 artists from all over the country will be presenting work that they have been making as part of the Sound Diaries open call.

The presenting artists are:

Richard Bentley, Hannah Dargavel-Leafe, Aisling Davis, Atilio Doreste, Marlo De Lara, Beth Shearsby, Kathryn Tovey, Jacek Smolicki, James Green, Lucia Hinojosa, Sena Karahan, Fi.Ona

Sound Diaries expands awareness of the roles of sound and listening in daily life. The project explores the cultural and communal significance of sounds and forms a research base for projects executed both locally and Internationally, in Beijing, Brussels, Tallinn, Cumbria and rural Oxfordshire.

The ability to accurately identify and interpret Track and Sign rests on a body of traditional knowledge that previous generations of naturalists would have regarded as fundamental. Sadly, now it is largely unknown and untaught, but with the upsurge of Citizen Science, it is perhaps more relevant than ever.

A conference exploring how we can get people who used to cycle, or have never cycled, onto bikes, and the role of virtual reality cycling.

Come and join us for a day full of informative talks, interactive workshops, cycle tours, an expert panel and demos and rides on ebikes and adapted bikes!

Ticket price includes lunch and refreshments.Who is this event for?

Council officers, elected councillors, transport and environmental campaign groups (local and national), Cyclox members, community organisations interested in transport, active travel and health, local businesses and educational institutions, academic, other professional experts, and interested members of the public (whether you cycle or don’t cycle).

By the end of the conference you will know how to:

> Create an age friendly locality, as a low traffic neighbourhood
> Share best practice case studies of effective interventions for active travel linking soft and hard measures
> Communicate the benefits of eBikes and how they can get people back cycling
> Convey the opportunities virtual reality can play in increasing activity for people who are housebound
> Contribute to the post-conference guide to promoting uptake of cycling

The conference is organised by Cyclox, the cycle campaign for Oxford, and Oxford Brookes University; it follows on from the University’s cycle BOOM research and current Co-CAFE project (www.cycleboom.org , www.co-cafe.org).

Sculpt, Mould, Cast: The Art of Cast Making
THREE DAY WORKSHOP AT THE ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM

Follow in the footsteps of ancient Greek and Roman sculptors to create your own pint-sized plaster statue. You’ll be given special entry to the hidden Lower Cast Gallery, a space not normally open to the public, to gain inspiration from the full Ashmolean collection. Under the guidance of an expert artist, you’ll produce a sketch of your piece, then transform your creation from pencil to clay before casting it in plaster. No previous artistic experience necessary.

Wed 25 Sep, Wed 9 & 23 Oct, 10.30am–4pm
Ashmolean Museum Learning Studio
With Francesca Shakespeare (Artist) and Abbey Ellis (Researcher)

Tickets: £170/£160/£150 – Full/Concession/Members

BOOK ONLINE: https://www.ashmolean.org/event/sculpt-mould-cast-course

Slime moulds thrive in damp woodlands and normally spread over rotting logs eating bacteria and fungi. They are also unusual in being single giant cells that show remarkably sophisticated behaviour considering their humble form. This talk presents a little vignette of the science behind these curious beasts and how it has led to better understanding of other networked systems, and even the origins of civilisation.

We cannot end poverty without ending energy poverty. Ever since the world’s first power plants whirred to life in 1882, we have seen how electricity is the lynchpin for development in all of its forms.

Manufacturing and industrial productivity, agriculture and food security, nutrition, hygiene, water, public health, education, even community engagement, in other words, daily life in a modern economy, demand access to reliable energy.

And yet despite significant progress over nearly 140 years, more than 800 million people around the world live without access to electricity, and hundreds of millions more struggle with unreliable or unaffordable service. Families are deprived of the means to labour productively and their quality of life and status in extreme poverty goes unchanged.

We need urgently to fast-track sustainable power solutions, investments, and partnerships across the globe to catalyze an energy transformation and accelerate sustainable, reliable and modern electrification for economic development.

Kajal Odedra has always been passionate about helping other people affect change.
She is Executive Director of Change.Org and author of ‘Do Something: Activism for Everyone’. Change.org is the world’s largest petition platform with 15 million UK users and 200 million globally.

The Ashmolean Museum is treasured by local people and visitors alike for its eclectic and fascinating mix of exhibits and special exhibitions, all set within a superb building. Xa Sturgis reflects on five eventful years as the Director of the world-famous museum.

Globally acclaimed Artist and Social Historian Nicola Green will discuss her role as witness to some of the most seminal events of our times. Green will share her experiences gaining remarkable access to iconic figures from the worlds of religion, politics, and culture, including Pope Francis, President Obama and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Green will discuss the intersection of art, heritage and power, and how she captured this in her seminal works In Seven Days… and Encounters.

Art at Oxford Saïd:
A programme that explores the interconnections between art and business and sets out to delight and inspire the School community and reflect our values.

Event Schedule:
17:15 – Registration opens
17:45 – Event starts
18:45 – Drinks reception
19:45 – Close

About the Speaker:
Nicola Green is an artist with a career spanning 25 years. Her work combines painting, drawing, collage, silk screen printing, gilding, photography and textile design. Green is a powerful story-teller known for her legacy and heritage art works, and she has established an international reputation for her ambitious projects that change perceptions about identity and power; exploring themes of race, spirituality, gender, sexuality and leadership.

Driven by her belief in the power of the visual image to communicate important human stories, Green frequently assumes the role of witness to momentous occasions taking place across the globe. Inspired by her own mixed-heritage children and multi-faith family, she is committed to creating and preserving religious, social, and cultural heritage for future generations.

Green gained unprecedented access to Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign producing her acclaimed work In Seven Days… She co-founded, directed and exhibited in the Diaspora Pavilion, an initiative delivering mentoring and professional development for emerging artists and curators from racially and culturally diverse backgrounds. Green’s most recent project Encounters is a ground-breaking exhibition of over fifty portraits of the world’s most prominent religious leaders. Encounters is accompanied by a significant academic book Encounters: The Art of Interfaith Dialogue with essays by leading global scholars, theologians and art historians.

About the event:
The seminar is open for anyone to attend
Spaces are limited and tickets are non-transferable so registration is essential so please use the Register button above to confirm your attendance
Please note once the main room is full you will be directed to an overflow room to watch the a livesream of the event, so please arrive early to avoid disappointment

Photography and filming may take place at Saïd Business School for promotional purposes. This is especially likely and normal at our events where live streams and instant social media posts can be part of the event delivery. Wherever possible we will let you know when photography and filming is to be active via in-venue signage and event communications. For individuals who may wish to opt out of image capture at an event please contact corporate.events@sbs.ox.ac.uk.

The poppy as a recurring image in poetry and art, and as a symbol of wartime loss, is powerfully resonant in our culture. Dr Andrew Lack, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Biology at Oxford Brookes University, will talk about the poppy plant and its ancient and more recent historical associations.

Tenor Mark Padmore is preparing to take on the role of Aschenbach in David McVicar’s production of Benjamin Britten’s Death in Venice at the Royal Opera House. Join Mark and a panel of experts, including Colin Matthews, Ray Ockenden, John Hopkins, Henry Bacon, and Philip Bullock to explore this many-faceted character through literature, film, and opera.

In this book talk the Author, Carl Benedikt Frey, will discuss how the Industrial Revolution was a defining moment in history, but how few grasped its enormous consequences at the time. Now that we are in the midst of another technological revolution how can the lessons of the past can help us to more effectively face the present?

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

2019 marks the 100th anniversary of the Brazilian composer Claudio Santoro (1919-1989), one of the major figures in twentieth-century Brazilian music. His musical legacy includes nearly five hundred compositions. Among them there are fourteen symphonies, several chamber works, concertos, vocal compositions, one opera, film scores, and seventy-three known works for piano solo. Beginning with his very first compositions, his intense and extremely idealistic personality, always searching for new ideas and new musical expressions, led him to explore diverse idioms in his music. This unmissable lecture recital will be presented by the composer’ son Alessandro Santoro, acclaimed harpsichordist and pianist, Brazilian soprano Gabriella Di Laccio and Dr Vinicius Mariano de Carvalho, Lecturer in Brazilian Studies, King’s College London. The concert will present some of Santoro Love Songs – an exquisite cycle written in partnership with Brazilian poet Vinicius de Moraes – as well some of Santoro’s piano preludes.

Edward Higginbottom was Director of Music at New College from 1976 – 2014. In a talk for Oxford Civic Society he reflects on music making in the University and how, sometimes in spite of itself, it has fostered musical talent. He observes that there are some aspects of this story that depend on ‘the genius of the place’.

Data-driven micro-targeted campaigns have become a main stable of political strategy. As personal and societal data becomes more accessible, we need to understand how it can be used and mis-used in political campaigns and whether it is relevant to regulate political candidates’ access to data.

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

Visual Artist Dr Clair Chinnery interprets the ‘shapeshifting’ capabilities of human bodies as they emerge, grow, mature and die, informed by the physical materials left behind when such changes occur. With Digital Developer Gerard Helmich she has produced giant 3D printed sculptures of infant milk teeth and has also collaborated with the Parkinson’s Brain Bank at Imperial College London, working with microscopic images of diseased neurons. Discover how this ‘autoethnographic’ project reaches forwards and backwards in time, considering the irretrievable pasts and unknowable futures of ‘intergenerational’ experiences.

How people become unrecognisable depends on who’s viewing. Contouring, volumised lashes and a smokey eye change a look, but can it trick facial recognition software? Explore makeup artistry from Charlotte Tilbury and City of Oxford College to see how much faces can change. People are more than just selfie, so join Niki Trigoni from the University of Oxford Cyber Physical System Group for the latest in multimodal recognition that can combines faces with voice and walking gait to help spot the whole person.

Is it our social responsibility to vaccinate? Vaccination has eradicated deadly diseases from our world and saved millions of lives; but why do some people refuse to vaccinate? This event, presented in partnership with the Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities will explore how medicine, ethics, history and social science can encourage wider debate and a better understanding of the role vaccination plays in improving global human health.
Panelists include Alberto Giubilini (Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities), Samantha Vanderslott (Oxford Vaccine Group), Erica Charters (Associate Professor of Global Medicine and the History of Medicine), and Andrew Pollard (Professor of Paediatric Infection and Immunity).

Bernard Tucker Memorial Lecture – Joint with Oxford Ornithological Society

Michael Obersteiner will present new insights from co-producing a set of new sustainability scenarios.

Major sectoral transitions will be presented to achieve development targets in line with improved ecosystem and human health. He will conclude with an outlook on new ways to socialise findings from such global assessments.

This talk is part of the Oxford Martin School Lecture Series ‘Food futures: how can we safeguard the planet’s health, and our own?’

Big data and AI are starting to feature in cancer research today, and will will play an even greater role in the future. Join researchers from Cancer Research UK to discover the technologies and methods they use to help find, prevent and treat cancer, and what big ideas they have for the future.

IF Oxford is operating a Pay What You Decide (PWYD) ticketing system. This works by enabling you to pre-book events without paying for a ticket beforehand. Afterwards, you have the opportunity to pay what you decide you want to, or can afford. If you prefer, you can make a donation to IF Oxford when you book. All funds raised go towards next year’s Festival.

We are honoured to announce that Elif Shafak will give this year’s Annual Blackwell’s Lecture on Thursday 24th October 2019 at 7.30pm in the Sheldonian Theatre.

Elif Shafak will deliver this year’s Annual Blackwell’s Lecture on the subject of literature, social change and politics.

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish novelist and the most widely read female author in Turkey. She writes in both Turkish and English, and has published seventeen books, eleven of which are novels, including the bestselling ‘The Bastard of Istanbul’, ”The Forty Rules of Love’, and ‘Three Daughters of Eve’. Her latest book is ’10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World.’

Her work has been translated into fifty languages, published by Penguin/Random House and represented by Curtis Brown globally. She was awarded the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. In 2017 Elif was chosen by Politico as one of the twelve people who would make the world better.

Elif Shafak is also a political scientist and an academic. She holds a degree in International Relations, a masters’ degree in Gender and Women’s Studies and a PhD in Political Science and Political Philosophy. She has taught at various universities in Turkey, the UK and the USA, including St Anne’s College, Oxford University, where she is an honorary fellow.

Elif Shafak is a member of Weforum Global Agenda Council on Creative Economy and a founding member of ECFR (European Council on Foreign Relations). An advocate for women’s rights, LGBT rights and freedom of speech, Shafak is an inspiring public speaker and twice a TED Global speaker, each time receiving a standing ovation.

Her writing has been longlisted for the Orange Prize, MAN Asian Prize; the Baileys Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Award, and shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and RSL Ondaatje Prize. She judged numerous prestigious literary prizes.

Tickets cost just £5 are available from the Blackwell’s Eventbrite website or from Blackwell’s Bookshop, 50 Broad Street, Oxford.

Scientists need your help! As we get more information about the Universe, we risk becoming overwhelmed but – as Oxford astronomer Chris Lintott explains in his new book, you can help. Hear from Oxford scientists who have worked with volunteers to find planets, and to count penguins, and even hunt aliens.

IF Oxford is operating a Pay What You Decide (PWYD) ticketing system. This works by enabling you to pre-book events without paying for a ticket beforehand. Afterwards, you have the opportunity to pay what you decide you want to, or can afford. If you prefer, you can make a donation to IF Oxford when you book. All funds raised go towards next year’s Festival.

Blackwell’s are delighted to be hosting a celebration in honour of the launch of Matthew Rice’s beautiful new book, Oxford.

Oxford is one of the jewels of European architecture, much loved and much visited. The city offers an unparallelled collection of the best of English building through the centuries. Matthew Rice’s Oxford is a feast of delightful watercolour illustrations and an informed and witty text, explaining how the city came into being and what to look out for today.

While the focus is on architectural detail, Rice also describes how the city has been shaped by its history, most of all by generations of patrons who had the education and the resources to commission work from the greatest architects and builders of their day, an astonishing range of which still stands.

More than anywhere else in England, it is possible in Oxford to take in the history of English architecture simply by walking today’s streets, lanes, parks and meadows.

This is a free event, but please register if you would like to attend. The evening will include a short speech from Matthew Rice, followed by a chance to buy the book, get it signed and then enjoy the evening with the refreshments provided. For more information, please call our Customer Service Desk on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk.

A practical guide for the enquiring mind. Fake is real; from the Chernobyl apocalypse to cancer cures, how to know the truth behind the headlines? Join medical science communicator Catarina Amorim and mathematician Joana Andrade form the Storytelling Science Project for a fun afternoon on how to be a curious and critical thinker. We can’t promise you’ll never be tricked again but we can try. Alternatively, come for the bingo…

How do we make the best policy choices for our families when resources are stretched to breaking point? Join Mary Daly and Aaron Reeves (University of Oxford) and Sasha East and Deborah McIlveen (Blackbird Leys CDI) explore how shifts in government policy create new opportunities and challenges for families. What lasting changes might we make or consider as a community to help raise a healthy child?

IF Oxford is operating a Pay What You Decide (PWYD) ticketing system. This works by enabling you to pre-book events without paying for a ticket beforehand. Afterwards, you have the opportunity to pay what you decide you want to, or can afford. If you prefer, you can make a donation to IF Oxford when you book. All funds raised go towards next year’s Festival.

Geographers have long been interested in the spaces brought into being by the internet. In the early days of the Web, digital technologies were seen as tools that could bring a heterotopic cyberspace into being: a place beyond space de-tethered from the material world.

More recent framings instead see digital geographies as always-augmented, hybrid, and ontogenetic: integrally embedded into everyday life.

Against that backdrop, Professor Mark Graham will present findings from three large research projects about digital platforms. First, a large-scale digital mapping project that looks at how digital inequalities can become infused into our urban landscapes. Second, a study about the livelihoods of platform workers in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Finally, early results from a new action research project (the Fairwork Foundation) designed to improve the quality of platform jobs.

In each case, the talk explores why understanding the ways that platforms command digital geographies is a crucial prerequisite for envisioning more equitable digital futures.

Please register via the link provided. This talk will be followed by a drinks reception, all welcome.