Inspirational talk with finger buffet and hot drinks

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.

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.

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.

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.

Charles Babbage has been called the ‘great-uncle’ of modern computing, a claim that rests simultaneously on his demonstrable understanding of most of the architectural principles underlying the modern computer,band the almost universal ignorance of Babbage’s work before 1970. There has since been an explosion of interest both in Babbage’s devices and the impact they might have had in some parallel history, and in Babbage himself as a man of great originality who had essentially no influence at all on subsequent technological development.

In all this, one fundamental question has been largely ignored: how is it that one individual working alone could have synthesised a workable computer design over a short period, designing an object whose complexity of behaviour so far exceeded that of contemporary machines that it would not be matched for over one hundred years?

Our Leverhulme funded project Notions and notations: Charles Babbage’s language of thought investigated the design methods that Babbage used, and their impact on subsequent design practice. As part of that work we constructed a steam-driven difference engine to Babbage’s outline design.

In this general interest talk, we shall describe some aspects of Babbage’s designs and design methods, and demonstrate the difference engine.

Join Erín Moure for a workshop on translating poetry, part of the QTE Residency and Poets Translating Poets series.

You will learn about the movement of meaning across languages, and how it’s not just dictionaries that determine meaning, but also cadence and structure.
Foreign language knowledge is not essential. Curiosity is the big prerequisite..

Sign up on the Eventbrite page to register!

Blackwell’s is thrilled to be welcoming Erling Kagge to discuss his new book ‘Philosophy for Polar Explorers’.

Synopsis
Erling Kagge was the first man in history to reach all of the Earth’s poles by foot – the North, the South, and the summit of Everest. In ‘Philosophy for Polar Explorers’ he brings together the wisdom and expertise he has gained from the expeditions that have taken him to the limits of the earth, and of human endurance.

This is the essential guide to the art of exploration. In sixteen meditative but practical lessons – from cultivating an optimistic outlook, to getting up at the right time, to learning to find focus and comfort in solitude – Erling Kagge reveals what survival in the most extreme conditions can teach us about how to lead a meaningful life. Wherever we may be headed.

Erling Kagge is a Norwegian explorer who was the first in history to reach the ‘three poles’ – North, South and the summit of Everest. He now lives in Oslo where he runs a publishing house. He is the author of multiple books, including ‘Silence’, which is published in 38 languages, and ‘Walking’.

Tickets for this event are £5. Doors will open at 6.45pm when there will be a small bar available to purchase drinks. For more information, please contact our Customer Service Desk on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk

This talk will describe a class of machine learning methods for reasoning about complex physical systems. The key insight is that many systems can be represented as graphs with nodes connected by edges. I’ll present a series of studies which use graph neural networks–deep neural networks that approximate functions on graphs via learned message-passing-like operations– to predict the movement of bodies in particle systems, infer hidden physical properties, control simulated robotic systems, and build physical structures. These methods are not specific to physics, however, and I’ll show how we and others have applied them to broader problem domains with rich underlying structure.

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

Bomberg and Kitaj – Two Types of Jewish Agony in Paint
With Sir Simon Schama, Art Historian, Author and BBC Presenter

Sat 14 Dec, 12–1pm
Mathematical Institute, Woodstock Road (Venue changed)

Tickets are FREE. Booking is essential:
ashmolean.org/event/beauforest-lecture-2019

Although separated by a generation, artists David Bomberg (b. 1890) and R. B. Kitaj (b.1932) shared a passionate intensity in their work that was marked by their response to the deeply troubled century in which they lived, and in particular, the rise of antisemitism. Learn how both painters expressed the power of art to mirror the darkness of the contemporary world.

This event is the 2019 Beauforest Lecture.
www.ashmolean.org/event/beauforest-lecture-2019

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.

Inspiring talk with hot drinks and buffet.

Do you want to improve your digital security? Do you keep putting it off? We’re a group of cybersecurity researchers and activists, and we want to help you access free tools and resources to protect your data. Join us for a *free*, practical, hands-on workshop exploring how digital security affects your life. This project is a form of “action research”—a type of research which combines research with activism to understand a problem and find solutions. In other words, we want cybersecurity to be more open, fair, and inclusive, and we’re “learning by doing.”

No prior experience or knowledge of cybersecurity required! As a feminist organisation, we want to *reconfigure* the assumption that digital security is for technical experts only. While the workshop is open to all, we particularly welcome women and other groups which are underrepresented in cybersecurity discussions.

Pizza and drinks will be provided!

Presenting 101 is an interactive workshop designed to help you flex your presenting muscles. Whether you have been presenting to the public for a long time or have just started, this workshop will help you hone the skills you need to be able to perfect your style and adapt to different situations. Presenting 101 also gives you the opportunity to network with other presenters in your local area, so you can share your best and worst practice. There will also be an opportunity to explore the exhibits in our brand new science centre!

The session will consist of a one hour facilitated workshop followed by a one-hour facilitated group discussion.

PLEASE NOTE: This event is open to members of The Presenter Network only. If you are not a member, but are actively involved in presenting in museums, science and discovery centres, visitor centres, educational institutes, other public spaces and in the media, you can join for FREE here: https://scienceoxford.com/the-presenter-network/

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

It’s such a strange experience: you’re in the place you want to be, researching a topic of great interest to you, you have time and space for research that senior academics often envy, and yet for (sometimes long) periods of time, you find yourself able to do almost anything other than your research.

Sound familiar? You’re not alone! Come along to this meet-up to try to put your finger on what’s triggering your procrastination, and to develop and commit to a personalised approach to addressing it.

Series background

As PhD and early career researchers, we all have ups and downs. If and when the downs get very bad, it might become clear to us that we need support. But there’s a world of space between being happy and fulfilled in our work, and that point at which we might, finally, admit there’s a problem and seek help.

Many – perhaps even most – researchers are working in that space. Most of us live with conditions and experiences that can have profound impacts on our capacities as researchers.

Experiences like imposter syndrome and academic anxieties are incredibly common. Common enough that we should be talking about them. A lot. So why the silence?

The Thriving Researcher is a new initiative that creates space and time for researchers to come together and break the silence. We’ll be building an inclusive community, discussing our shared experiences, and learning how to work – and how to thrive – in the face of challenges that can feel overwhelming and isolating.

These are free, informal, supportive events, with a focus on validating your experiences, reflecting on your responses to common challenges, and arming you with practical tips and tools to help you feel better equipped to do what you do best.

Talk with finger buffet and hot drinks

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