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Laketown, or How a mythology for Switzerland came to contribute to a Mythology for England

Denis Bridoux (past editor of Mallorn, founder of the 1992 Tolkien centenary conference committee, convener of the Amon Sul branch of the Tolkien Society) will be visiting Oxford to give his talk entitled “Laketown, or How a mythology for Switzerland came to contribute to a Mythology for England”

Refreshments will be served after the talk

Synopsis:
“Laketown is one of the most iconic places in The Hobbit, but where did Tolkien get the idea? The concept of palafites (lacustrian dwellings), whereby people lived on platforms built on wooden stakes and piles above lake waters in prehistoric times, was first identified in Switzerland in the 1850s. It was soon included in all history schoolbooks , and it is indeed most probably the source for Laketown, but might not Tolkien have had a more personal inspiration? Denis Bridoux’s slideshow entitled Laketown, or How a mythology for Switzerland came to contribute to a Mythology for England, will attempt to answer those questions.”

The visualization of the circulation of books over time and space—Cristina Dondi

Cristina will present 15cV, a powerful tool for the visualization of the movement of 15th-century printed books, from the time and place where they were printed to where they are today, via the many places and people who distributed, purchased, owned, and annotated them over the following 500-year period. Unanswered historical queries on the impact of printing on early modern society can now be addressed for the first time. Cristina will illustrate how the project which is making visualization possible—probably one of the largest collaborative enterprises in the humanities—was set up and keeps growing.

Cristina Dondi is Oakeshott Senior Research Fellow in the Humanities at Lincoln College, and Secretary of the Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL).

She is the Principal Investigator of the 5-year project 15cBOOKTRADE, funded by the European Research Council (ERC), which started in April 2014.

Cristina was one of the editors of the Bodleian catalogue of incunabula, Bod-inc (OUP 2005), and the creator of the international databases Material Evidence in Incunabula (MEI) and TEXT-inc.

Pakistan and Ireland: Exploring Comparative Constitutional Perspectives on Decolonisation, Dominion Status, & Beyond

In this seminar Dr Malagodi and Dr McDonagh examine the Dominion Constitutions of Pakistan and Ireland from a comparative perspective. While the two countries could be described as being dramatically different from one another in some ways – e.g. in terms of geography, size of economy, population size – in fact as countries that gained independence in the 20th century from the British Empire via Dominion status they share some important and under-explored political and constitutional similarities, including: (i) in political terms, the legacy of the British ‘Westminster’ model of government and its emphasis on executive authority; (ii) in legal terms, the impact on the legal system of the subversion of the terms of the Dominion constitutions in each state, particularly with regard to the role of the judiciary and the status of constituent assemblies; and (iii) in relation to questions of religion and nationalism, the dramatic legacy of partition. By exploring these areas from a comparative perspective Dr Malagodi and Dr McDonagh shine a light on the legal and political challenges of the post-colonial experience in two key states that emerged from the British Empire.

Anti-Slavery International: a conversation with Aidan McQuade

‘In 2012, the International Labour Organisation estimates that there were 5.5 million children in slavery’. From the cotton industry in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan to shrimp fishing in SE Asia, Aidan McQuade, Director of the charity Anti-Slavery International will be looking at the persistence of slavery among children and adults worldwide, the conditions which currently allow it, and what we can do to to bring it to an end.

During his tenure as Director of Anti-Slavery International, Dr. Aidan McQuade’s achievements have included holding the state of Niger to account in an international court for failing to protect its citizens from slavery, ensuring the inclusion of a target to end modern slavery in the Sustainable Development Goals, obtaining a new statute in British law proscribing forced labour and mounting a series of investigations identifying where forced labour is used in the developing world for the production of goods for western markets as well as exposing human trafficking activity in the UK.
In 2010, Aidan was awarded a doctorate for his thesis entitled, “Doing the right thing: human agency and ethical choice-making in professional practice.”

OUEC – Wilderness Medicine Evening

Ready to go on an expedition? Your health is of the utmost importance! OUEC is dedicated to provide you with a wealth of information for any expedition and wilderness medical advice or training! Our speaker, Dr Tariq Qureshi, has been an expedition advisor to Oxford University for many years. Last year he traveled to Greenland on an exploratory mountaineering expedition, including three first ascents.

He is also an instructor for Wilderness Medical Training, a rapidly evolving field providing vital emergency care in remote environments. Wherever you’re planning to go, this is your first stop! 🙂

Tuesday October 25th
7.30pm – Department of Earth Sciences
Members: Free
Non-Members: £5

As always, you can get your OUEC membership by speaking to a member of the committee before or after our talks in Earth Sciences. Life membership is £30, Year is £15, Term £7. We take cheque and cash 🙂

Compassionate Use Access to Investigational Medicines: A Pioneering Industry-Academia Partnership Model

The ethical dilemmas of compassionate use of investigational drugs are under fresh scrutiny by patients and other stakeholders. Legal permission to apply for access to trial medicines does not provide for just process: access routes tend to favour those with resources or privileged contacts with decision-makers. In 2015, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and New York University Langone Medical Centre partnered to pioneer a compassionate use model that prioritises justice and fair decision-making: The Compassionate Use Advisory Committee (CompAC). In its first year, the CompAC reviewed compassionate use applications from around the world for an experimental drug treatment for multiple myeloma. Companies, patient advocates, IRBs and policymakers have expressed interest in extending the CompAC model into other settings and agents. Dr Amrit Ray, Chief Medical Officer of pharmaceuticals at J&J and Prof Arthur Caplan, NYU Professor of Bioethics tell the story of why CompAC was formed and how it works. They will provide a frank evaluation of its outcomes and challenges and forecast the future implications of the model for IRBs, industry, academia and health policy. Respondents will provide perspectives on the CompAC model from the UK patient/carer community and from health law and policy.

Tech Nirvana: why gardens at the office are good for you

Helena Chance, author of The Factory in the Garden: A History of Corporate Landscapes from the Industrial to the Digital Age (Manchester University Press, 2017), discusses the evolution of corporate landscapes following the Second World War and the gardens of today’s giant ‘tech’ companies which, in a bid to attract ambitious employees, have made some interesting outdoor spaces at their campuses.