Blackwell’s is pleased to be hosting the launch of Lisa Cybaniak’s, Survivor to Warrior.

Synopsis
As a survivor of ten years of child abuse, Lisa gently walks you through effective strategies to help you reframe your experiences and reconnect with your Higher Self to help you rebuild your life on your own terms.

Lisa Cybaniak is a Transformational NLP Coach and Child Abuse Survivor. Survivor to Warrior is her first book and is published by Conscious Dreams Publishing.

This event is free but please do register if you plan on attending. There will be complimentary food and drink available on the evening, as well as the opportunity to network and get your book signed by the author. For more information please contact our Customer Service Department on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk

Blackwell’s are delighted to be hosting a special event with Dr Matthew L. Tompkins on his fantastic book, The Spectacle of Illusion.

Professional magician-turned experimental psychologist Dr. Matthew L. Tompkins investigates the arts of deception as practiced and popularized by mesmerists, magicians, and psychics throughout history.

Matt, the author of The Spectacle of Illusion: Magic, the paranormal and the complicity of the mind, will discuss how illusions perpetuated by magicians and fraudulent mystics can not only deceive our senses but also teach us about the inner workings of our minds, and how modern scientists are increasingly turning to magic as a tool for exploring human perception, memory, and belief.

Join Matt as he mixes historical stories with magical scientific demonstrations to reveal how our everyday cognitive processes can be much weirder than we imagine – and how complicit our own minds can be in the success of illusions. This talk will feature true stories of ghost rapping, mind reading, lethal autopsies, full-body-cavity ghost hunts, death defying stunts, and death…obeying stunts (i.e., stunts where the performers accidentally died for real, so literally the opposite of ‘death defying’).

Matt Tompkins is a freelance writer, speaker and consultant with a doctorate from the University of Oxford’s Department of Experimental Psychology. Before his academic studies he worked as a professional magician and has combined both these passions in his latest publication.

This is a free event, but please do register if you plan on attending. For more information contact our Customer Service Department on 01865 333 623 or email us at events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk.

Inspirational talk with buffet

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.

How do our minds and bodies alter as we age? Can attitudes change from one generation to the next? How have the built and natural environments around us changed in the last 200 years? What are our hopes and fears for the future and how different will it be? Join researchers at the Bodleian’s Weston Library to look into the past, present and future. This event includes hands-on activities all day and a Living Library of researchers and talks in the evening.
The shop and cafe will be open until 9pm.

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

Joris Luyendijk was born in Amsterdam and studied in Kansas, Amsterdam, and Cairo. He is a writer, journalist and anthropologist. He has written about the Middle East, the banking crisis and Brexit.

The seminar (12-1pm) is going to be followed by a workshop (1-2.30pm). No tickets required but please confirm your attendance.

Seminar (12-1pm): How questionnaires shape answers. On validity and performativity of ‘the data’ in psychotherapeutic research
In psychotherapy research, data is collected using self-report questionnaires, to gain evidence on treatment efficacy. In this talk, I question whether ‘the data’ itself is valid to serve as input for such evidence. Based on a qualitative case comparison study, I discuss how questionnaire administration can become performative towards the symptoms under study. That is, actual patients participating in our randomized controlled psychotherapy study (The Ghent Psychotherapy Study, Meganck et al., 2017) reported how questionnaires changed their experienced complaints, albeit in opposing ways. I discuss why this performativity poses a vital threat to the validity of data that is used as ‘evidence’ of treatment efficacy, and I argue for the need to open up our validity terminology to capture the ‘validity of data’ at all.

Workshop (1-2.30pm): How valid is our understanding of validity? Discussion on the practical use and the limits of validity terminology in psychotherapy research.
Following the talk arguing that the dominant way of understanding validity in psychology may be insufficient to capture the broad range of validity issues that psychotherapy researchers encounter in research practice, the audience is invited to verbalize and discuss day-to-day experiences of validity issues in their research and/or clinical practice. Psychology scholars, researchers, clinicians and others using questionnaires are invited to join the discussion, to derive multiple perspectives on the usefulness and the limits of current validity terminology to derive sound and useful evidence in psychotherapy research. Given the goal-orientation of medical and psychotherapy research and the increasing influence of scientific evidence on the organization of clinical practice, it is vital to discuss how and where validity issues are encountered and how these can be evaluated by the current understanding of validity terminology. Topics of discussion will include:
Where do working medical and psychotherapy researchers encounter validity issues in their work?
How could validity terminology be broadened to capture research practice sufficiently, without losing the rigor of terms?
What does ‘valid evidence’ and ‘valid research’ mean to clinicians in their daily work?
How could an insufficient consideration of validity affect daily clinical practice?
What aspects would be suggested by clinicians to increase ‘valid’ research and valid evidence that is useful towards clinical practice?

Michaelmas term’s topic of the popular St Hilda’s ‘Brain and Mind – from concrete to abstract’ series of workshops is ‘Creativity and the Brain’.
Professor Jane Mellanby (Oxford), Dr Lambros Malafouris (Oxford), and Dr Matthew Kiernan (Leeds) will address this topic from the points of view of neuroscience, psychology and philosophy respectively.
There will be a break with refreshments.

Are we witnessing a new, more toxic kind of politics around the world? If so, what is the alternative? Should we lament a supposedly lost civility, or is the emergence of more forthright and angry disagreements in fact a good thing? What is the line between passionate disagreement and toxic bile? Who gets to decide what are acceptable and unacceptable forms of discourse? Ultimately, how do we live together when we disagree profoundly on major issues?
Topic: Politics
Format: Debate and Q&A session

Mindfulness: Ancient Wisdom meets Modern Psychology in the Contemporary World
Willem Kuyken
University of Oxford

Since a change in planning rules in 1990, there has been a huge amount of archaeological work on development sites all over England. This work is required by planning permissions and paid for by the developers. The results have been astonishing. Thousands of important discoveries have been made, and views of England’s past are bring transformed by these. This talk will explain how archaeology on development sites takes place, and highlight some of the most interesting or unusual finds, from the Ebbsfleet prehistoric elephant (400,000 BC) to a Roman chariot-racing arena in Colchester and a Victorian communal toilet in York.

Roger Thomas is a professional archaeologist who has lived in Abingdon for much of his life. He spent many years working for English Heritage (now Historic England), where he was closely involved in many important national archaeological projects. He is a past chairman of AAAHS, and is an Honorary Research Associate in the School of Archaeology, University of Oxford.

Visitors are very welcome to attend meetings at a cost of £3.
If you want to join the AAAHS, there’s a Membership Form on our website.

Organised by Oxford Civic Society @oxcivicsoc. The Society’s Louise Thomas and Ian Green discuss the history of the city centre, emerging trends and their implications and present a vision which seizes opportunities and mitigates threats.. https://www.oxcivicsoc.org.uk/programme/

A panel exploring how universities can best support new students as they transition to University

This seminar is part of our public seminar series on ‘Exclusion from School and its Consequences’, led by the Department of Education and convened by Harry Daniels (Professor of Education) and Ian Thompson (Associate Professor of English Education & Director of PGCE).

Speaker: Mina Fazel (University of Oxford)

Seminar Abstract: This talk will discuss the latest understanding of mental health needs in adolescent populations in the UK and the potential role that mental health services in schools can play. An example of current research alongside clinical service development will be discussed. The opportunities and challenges of mental health services working in schools will be explored, including how to navigate some of the ethical complexities of working in this areas as well as some of the main unanswered research questions that can be addressed through schools-research. A particular focus will be on how this relates to excluded children- what we know about their mental health needs and the role of services.

Open to all and free to attend. Registration required at: http://www.education.ox.ac.uk/events/exclusion-and-mental-health-exploring-the-role-of-improved-provision-in-schools/

6 speakers from 6 countries debate the proposition – chaired by Sir Trevor McDonald. All welcome.

Beacons of the Past is a three and a half year project part funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Chiltern Society, and the National Trust , amongst others. Its purpose is to engage and inspire communities to discover, conserve, and enjoy the Chilterns’ Iron Age hillforts and their prehistoric chalk landscapes. Now at the project’s midpoint, Project Manager Wendy Morrison will present on the some of the results of the UK’s largest bespoke archaeological LiDAR survey, the project’s outreach programmes, and what comes next.

Dr Wendy Morrison currently works for the Chilterns Conservation Board as Project Manager of the HLF funded Beacons of the Past Hillforts project. She also is Senior Associate Tutor for Archaeology at the Oxford University Dept for Continuing Education. Wendy’s research areas are Prehistoric European Archaeology and Landscape Archaeology. She has over a decade’s excavation experience in Southern Britain, the Channel Islands, and India.

The AAAHS organises monthly lectures by acknowledged authorities on topics related to history and archaeology and to those of Abingdon in particular.
Visitors are very welcome to attend meetings at a cost of £3.

A talk on underground in the Roman town of Herculaneum

The Scythians were warlike nomadic horsemen who roamed the steppe of Asia in the first millennium BC. Using archaeological finds from burials and texts, Barry Cunliffe reconstructs the lives of the Scythians, exploring their beliefs, burial practices, love of fighting and their flexible attitude to gender.

The Scythians: Nomad Warriors of the Steppe
Wed 18 Mar, 1–2pm
A weekday talk with Barry Cunliffe, Emeritus Professor of European Archaeology, University of Oxford

Booking essential.
Tickets are: £8 (Full Price) / £7 (Concession) / £6 (Members)
https://www.ashmolean.org/event/the-scythians-nomad-warriors-of-the-steppe

The Phoenicians were famously great traders who, from their base in modern-day Lebanon, traded their wares around the Mediterranean and beyond. Learn about their culture, art, achievements, and cities at home in the Levant and abroad, including Byblos, Tyre, Eshmoun and Carthage.

The Phoenicians Phoenicia Part 1: the Land of the Phoenicians
An Afternoon Tea Talk (with tea and biscuits included)
With Linda Farrar, Archaeologist and Lecturer

Thu 19 Mar, 2–4pm
Ashmolean Museum Lecture Theatre

Tickets are: £12 (Full Price) / £11 (Concession) / £10 (Members)
https://www.ashmolean.org/event/the-phoenicians-part-i-the-land-of-phoenicians

Moran’s ‘Autumn Afternoon, the Wissahickon’ pictures 19th-century America at its most bucolic and pastoral. It was painted, however, amidst a conflict that threatened to tear the young country apart. Examine Moran’s landscape as an allegory of contested national identity.

A Nation at a Crossroads: The United States in Thomas Moran’s ‘Autumn Afternoon, The Wissahickon’
A weekend talk with Madeleine Harrison, PhD Candidate, The Courtauld Institute of Art

Sat 21 Mar, 11–12pm
Ashmolean Museum Lecture Theatre

Booking essential.
Tickets are: £8 (Full Price) / £7 (Concession) / £6 (Members)
https://www.ashmolean.org/event/a-nation-at-a-crossroads-the-united-state-in-thomas-morans-autumn-afternoon-the-wissahickon

Learn about the vast trade network of the Phoenicians, the goods traded and their trading partners, who included the Greeks and Etruscans, as well as people in Sardinia and southern Spain.

The Phoenicians Phoenicia Part 2: The Phoenicians in the West
An Afternoon Tea Talk (tea and biscuits included)
With Linda Farrar, Archaeologist and Lecturer

Thu 26 Mar, 2–4pm
Ashmolean Museum Lecture Theatre

Booking essential.
Tickets are: £12 (Full Price) / £11 (Concession) / £10 (Members)
https://www.ashmolean.org/event/the-phoenicians-phoenicia-part-ii-the-phoenicians-in-the-west

The city of Hereford stands a couple of hours from Oxford along one of the most scenic train rides in England. Follow the Medieval Pilgrim trail, discovering a landscape alive with holy wells, sacred shrines, ancient mysteries and miraculous saints.

Become a Medieval Tourist: Herefordshire Pilgrimages
With Tim Porter, Historian

Wed 15 Apr, 2–4pm
Ashmolean Museum Lecture Theatre

Tickets are: £12 (Full Price) / £11 (Concession) / £10 (Members)
Includes a break for tea and biscuits
https://www.ashmolean.org/event/become-a-medieval-tourist-herefordshire-pilgrimages

Just an hour by train, discover one of the great lost buildings of England, an ancient centre of pilgrimage and scholarship. Discover what unique artworks and architectural gems survive within the townscape and further afield.

Become a Medieval Tourist: Evesham Abbey
An Afternoon Tea Talk (including tea and biscuits)
With Tim Porter, Historian

Thu 30 Apr, 2–4pm
Ashmolean Museum Lecture Theatre

Tickets are: £12 (Full Price) / £11 (Concession) / £10 (Members)
https://www.ashmolean.org/event/become-a-medieval-tourist-evesham-abbey

Using images and eye-witness accounts, David Stuttard paints a vivid picture of the classical Greek Games – a thousand years of speed trials, brawn and horsemanship underpinned by religious ritual, lavish feasting, political chicanery and (of course) athletic nudity.

Games for Zeus: The Ancient Greek Olympics
Sat 2 May, 2–3pm
Ashmolean Museum Lecture Theatre
With David Stuttard, Classical Historian and Author

Tickets are: £8 (Full Price) / £7 (Concession) / £6 (Members)
https://www.ashmolean.org/event/games-for-zeus-the-ancient-greek-olympics

Join us on Facebook and find out when and where the magnificent specimen of the Ichthyosaur was discovered in Abingdon. Local Archaeologist Jeff Wallis talks about his find with Palaeobiologist Megan Jacobs.
The find originally classified as Ophthalmosaurus is questioned by Megan in her doctoral paper, join them to see the story develop…
There will be three sessions throughout Saturday 24th July, followed by a Q&A session:

11am Part one – Discovering the Ichthyosaur
12pm Part two – Illustration and colour?
1pm Part three – The classification
These sessions will be streamed on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/abingdonmuseum

2pm – Live Q&A with Megan (Zoom)
Please visit abingdonmuseum.com to get the link to join the Zoom meeting.