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

Jul
2
Tue
Farmland birds, insects and wild flowers: a case for joined-up thinking? – Dr Alan Larkman @ St Margaret's Institute 30 Polstead Road, Oxford
Jul 2 @ 8:00 pm – 9:15 pm
Farmland birds, insects and wild flowers: a case for joined-up thinking? - Dr Alan Larkman @ St Margaret's Institute 30 Polstead Road, Oxford

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.

Sep
3
Tue
Track and Sign – the naturalist’s forgotten skill – Bob Cowley @ St Margaret's Institute 30 Polstead Road, Oxford
Sep 3 @ 8:00 pm – 9:15 pm
Track and Sign - the naturalist's forgotten skill - Bob Cowley @ St Margaret's Institute 30 Polstead Road, Oxford

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.

Sep
21
Sat
Lord Nuffield’s great generosity to Oxford colleges @ St Peter's College Chapel
Sep 21 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Lord Nuffield’s great generosity to Oxford colleges @ St Peter's College Chapel

St Peter’s College welcomes you to a talk about Lord Nuffield, a leading figure in St Peter’s early history.

William Morris, Lord Nuffield, probably did more than any other individual to transform Oxford in the twentieth century, physically, economically and socially. His success as an industrialist allowed him to become one of Britain’s most generous benefactors; he gave away the equivalent of £1.5 billion in today’s money, to causes including health, education and academic research. This talk looks specifically at Lord Nuffield’s vital support to various Oxford colleges, including the saving of St Peter’s from closure, andhttps://interestingtalks.in/Oxford/# the founding of the college which bears his name, Nuffield College. It also explores his complex and sometimes difficult relationship with the university.

St Peter’s College Chapel
Free to attend
All welcome

Oct
1
Tue
From Slime to Society – Professor Mark Fricker @ St Margaret's Institute
Oct 1 @ 8:00 pm – 9:15 pm
From Slime to Society - Professor Mark Fricker @ St Margaret's Institute

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.

Oct
8
Tue
Kaja Odedra, Change.Org; author of Do Something: Activism for Everyone @ Simpkins Lee Theatre, Lady Margaret Hall
Oct 8 @ 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Kaja Odedra, Change.Org; author of Do Something: Activism for Everyone @ Simpkins Lee Theatre, Lady Margaret Hall

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.

Oct
18
Fri
Life Times: experiencing change through mind, body and place @ Weston Library
Oct 18 @ 12:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Life Times: experiencing change through mind, body and place @ Weston Library

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.

Oct
22
Tue
Joris Luyendijk In Conversation with Alan Rusbridger @ Monson Room, Lady Margaret Hall
Oct 22 @ 5:45 pm – 6:45 pm
Joris Luyendijk In Conversation with Alan Rusbridger @ Monson Room, Lady Margaret Hall

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.

Oct
23
Wed
Turtle Doves, trial plots and Trichomonas: understanding and conserving the UK’s rarest dove. – Dr Jenny Dunn @ Exeter Hall
Oct 23 @ 6:45 pm – 9:15 pm
Turtle Doves, trial plots and Trichomonas: understanding and conserving the UK’s rarest dove. - Dr Jenny Dunn @ Exeter Hall

Bernard Tucker Memorial Lecture – Joint with Oxford Ornithological Society

Nov
28
Thu
Battle of Ideas Satellite – The Rise of Toxic Politics – Can we be civil? @ Andrew Wiles Building
Nov 28 @ 6:00 pm – 7:15 pm
Battle of Ideas Satellite - The Rise of Toxic Politics - Can we be civil? @ Andrew Wiles Building

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

Dec
3
Tue
Dragonflies in Focus – Brian Walker @ St Margaret's Institute
Dec 3 @ 8:00 pm – 9:15 pm

The talk will provide an overview of dragonflies and their life cycles and habitats as well illustrating a number of species that occur in England including those that are currently colonising from the Continent and increasing in numbers.

Dec
6
Fri
Dr Karen Roemer on The Complexity of Balance @ Oxford Brookes University
Dec 6 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

The regulation of posture is relevant in a health and clinical context – including falls prevention, healthy ageing, and obesity. Balance and therefore postural control involves attentional processes and the application of internal or external attentional foci that have been linked with accuracy and quality of a movement while executing the skill. Measuring balance accurately and deriving meaningful information from it could aid health professionals to develop and design interventions accordingly. Hence, the topic of this talk is around applying new concepts to understand control mechanisms of balance.

Jan
13
Mon
On the Trail of the Leopard @ OU Museum of Natural History
Jan 13 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
On the Trail of the Leopard @ OU Museum of Natural History

Tara Pirie recalls her three years living in a tent, while tracking and gathering data on these elusive, but beautiful big cats. She is now one of the world’s leading experts on Leopard ecology and conservation.

Feb
3
Mon
A vision for Oxford city centre @ Rewley House
Feb 3 @ 8:00 pm – 9:15 pm

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/

Feb
4
Tue
Flexibility and rigour in the “unconscious tradition of compromise” – the first five years of the National Plant (and habitat) Monitoring Scheme – Dr Oli Pescott @ St Margaret's Institute
Feb 4 @ 8:00 pm – 9:15 pm
Flexibility and rigour in the "unconscious tradition of compromise" - the first five years of the National Plant (and habitat) Monitoring Scheme - Dr Oli Pescott @ St Margaret's Institute

Warburg Memorial Lecture – Joint with BBOWT
Volunteer-based botanical monitoring has been a mainstay of British and Irish botany for decades, but only recently has a recording scheme for plant communities been established. Dr Pescott outlines the history of this new National Plant Monitoring Scheme, with a particular focus on the challenges and rewards that have been associated with establishing this novel approach in the UK.

Feb
6
Thu
Think Human 2020 – Mind the gap: the jump from school to university @ Glasgow Room, Harcourt Hill Campus, Oxford Brookes University
Feb 6 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

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

Feb
19
Wed
DEBATE: This House believes gender should be abolished @ Oxford Town Hall
Feb 19 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

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

Feb
27
Thu
Disaster By Choice with Ilan Kelman @ Science Oxford Centre theatre
Feb 27 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Disaster By Choice with Ilan Kelman @ Science Oxford Centre theatre

We speak of earthquakes, floods, and fires as wild and untameable disasters – natural phenomena that spring unexpectedly from a hostile landscape and challenge our trust in the safety of our homes. But Ilan Kelman states otherwise. Join him as he challenges the inevitability of these disasters, suggesting that human decisions to build on flood plains, deforest territories, and impose upon the environment for social, political or economic reasons create or exacerbate these disasters. And he has some suggestions on how we can and should act to stop people suffering when nature unleashes its powers.

Ilan Kelman is Professor of Disasters and Health at University College London and a Professor at the University of Agder, Kristiansand in Norway. His overall research interest is linking disasters and health, including the integration of climate change into disaster research and health research. Suitable for ages 14+

Twitter @IlanKelman

Mar
14
Sat
The origin and evolution of People’s Park, Banbury @ Friends Meeting House
Mar 14 @ 1:45 pm – 4:00 pm
The origin and evolution of People’s Park, Banbury @ Friends Meeting House

Talk, followed by walking tour of the park. Jane Kilsby, local historian shares her
recent research into this well-loved 19th century public park. Maximum 20

Apr
7
Tue
Saving Oxford’s Wetland Wildlife – Eleanor Mayhew @ St Margaret's Institute
Apr 7 @ 8:00 pm – 9:15 pm
Saving Oxford's Wetland Wildlife - Eleanor Mayhew @ St Margaret's Institute

How the Freshwater Habitats Trust’s ‘Saving Oxford’s Wetland Wildlife’ project is helping to improve and monitor Oxford’s valuable freshwater areas, and protect the species they support.

May
5
Tue
Long-term changes in invertebrate biodiversity: Are we approaching insectageddon? – Dr Nick Isaac @ St Margaret's Institute
May 5 @ 8:00 pm – 9:15 pm
Long-term changes in invertebrate biodiversity: Are we approaching insectageddon? - Dr Nick Isaac @ St Margaret's Institute

In recent years there have been some alarming media stories about declines in insect populations. This talk provides an overview of trends in British insect populations over the past four decades.

Jul
7
Tue
Green and Prosperous Land: A Blueprint for Rescuing the British Countryside – Professor Dieter Helm @ St Margaret's Institute
Jul 7 @ 8:00 pm – 9:15 pm
Green and Prosperous Land: A Blueprint for Rescuing the British Countryside - Professor Dieter Helm @ St Margaret's Institute

To enhance our natural environment, we need to put the environment
back into the heart of the economy. Using natural capital as the
guiding principle, we can leave a better environment for future
generations, implementing a bold 25 year environment plan, thereby
restoring rivers, greening agriculture, putting nature back into towns
and cities, and restoring the uplands and our marine ecosystems. We
can put the carbon back into the soils, encourage natural carbon
sequestration, rebuild our biodiversity and improve our mental and
physical health. This is the prize – a Green and Prosperous Land – and
it is much more economically efficient than the dismal proposed of
business-as-usual and allowing the declines of the last century to
continue.

Sep
12
Sat
Talk and guided tour, Lady Margaret Hall Gardens Oxford @ Lady Margaret Hall
Sep 12 @ 10:30 am – 1:00 pm
Talk and guided tour, Lady Margaret Hall Gardens Oxford @ Lady Margaret Hall

Tea/coffee, biscuits on arrival in the Committee Room. Introductory talk from Sophie Huxley, Gardener, LMH, followed by tour of the garden. Parking for 5 cars only (priority to Blue Card holders). Maximum 20 persons

Oct
23
Fri
The Revd Thomas Birch Freeman: Victorian Botanist and Plantsman @ Kellogg College
Oct 23 @ 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
The Revd Thomas Birch Freeman: Victorian Botanist and Plantsman @ Kellogg College

Friday 23 October

Lecture by Advolly Richmond. Thomas Birch was a trained botanist, and
head gardener at Orwell Park, Ipswich, before travelling to the Gold Coast.
He became part of the international network of correspondents and plant
collectors relied upon by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. This talk aims to
reveal the true extent of Birch Freeman’s horticultural and botanical legacy.
Pay at the
door: £5 (members) £8 (guests

Oct
29
Thu
Athlete Z: Where will we draw the line on athlete welfare in sport? @ Online
Oct 29 @ 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Athlete Z: Where will we draw the line on athlete welfare in sport? @ Online

We are please to announce this s really important symposium on athlete welfare and the Duty to Care in sport with @oxford_brookes @OBUSportCourses in partnership with
@_UKCoaching

Speakers to include Tanni) Carys Davina Grey-Thompson, Baroness Grey-Thompson
Cath Bishop, rower and Olympic silver medallist and Andy Burns (commonwealth athlete and English Institute of Sport.

This is a free virtual event but booking is essential http://bit.ly/athlete-z

Apr
28
Wed
Restorative Justice and cases of sexual violence @ Online
Apr 28 @ 12:15 pm – 1:30 pm
Restorative Justice and cases of sexual violence @ Online

We are pleased to reschedule this talk by Dr Estelle Zinsstag (Edinburgh Napier University/University of Oxford) which was originally planned for March 2020 and postponed due to COVID-19.

Dr Zinsstag will present her research on restorative justice and cases of sexual violence.

This event will be held online via Zoom (link TBA). Please contact joy@minthouseoxford.co.uk for more information.

Jun
9
Wed
Restorative Just Culture: the story of Mersey Care NHS Trust @ Online
Jun 9 @ 12:15 pm – 1:30 pm
Restorative Just Culture: the story of Mersey Care NHS Trust @ Online

Amanda Oates (Executive Director of Workforce, Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust) and Dr Kristina Brown (Senior Lecturer, Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University) will be speaking on the story of the Just and Learning Culture at Mersey Care NHS Trust.

In recent years, Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust has undergone a radical shift in workplace culture and organisational procedures. They have gone from a blame culture to a culture where staff feel empowered and supported to learn from incidents. Numbers of disciplinary and suspension cases went down, staff reporting of adverse incidents went up, and there were positive effects on staff retention and levels of sickness absence.

Restorative justice was integral to these changes, termed the ‘Just and Learning Culture’. Amanda Oates and Kristina Brown will reflect on the impact of the restorative just culture at Mersey Care and help us to understand how other organisations can adopt a similar approach.

This event will be held online via Zoom (link TBA). Please contact joy@minthouseoxford.co.uk for more information.

You can register for this this event on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/restorative-just-culture-the-story-of-mersey-care-nhs-trust-tickets-146564629753