The Oxford Centre for Intellectual History Graduate Conference will take place on Thursday 5 June 2025. The conference will be run as a hybrid event, with the opportunity for all attendees to join us online or in person at Keble College, in the HBAC Lecture Theatre. This year's theme is Anachronism and History. 09:00-09:30: Conference Registration (tea and coffee provided) Opening remarks by Laura del Alisal (Reuben College) 09:30-11:00: Time Chaired by Jack Jacobs (Oriel College) Riccardo Brighenti, ‘Which Came First? Anachronistic Chronologies in Late Renaissance Italy: Two Case Studies’ George Noel Mariam, ‘Anachronism as Method: Ambedkar, Buddhism, and the Struggle Against Time’ Avery Jayne Benton, ‘The Anachronism of American Political Identity: Founding Myths & Sacred Texts of the United States of America’ 11:20-12:50: Power Chaired by Sam Miller (Jesus College) Sofía Sanabria de Felipe, ‘Legitimising Monarchical Power: History as aesthetic, discursive signifier in the French Restoration 1814-1830’ Michael O’Connor, ‘Melian Anachronisms’ Apeike Umlu, ‘Patriotism and Anachronistic Claims of Nineteenth Century Pan-Africanism’ 12:50-14:00: Lunch (sandwich lunch provided) 14:00-15:30: Tradition Chaired by Ivi Fung (Exeter College) Thomas Sherman, ‘Imperial Liberalism? Property and Empire in the Thought of John Locke and James Mill’ Cheugn Wai Chung (Douglas), ‘(Mis)placing Chinese traditions: Tang Yue唐鉞and the Debates On Science and Metaphysics科玄論戰 in China’ Mrinalini Sisodia Wadhwa, ‘The History of ‘History and Tradition’: Feminism, Anachronism, and the Codification of Family Law’ 16:00-17:15: Keynote Address Speaker: Tania Shew (Wolfson College) Registration required: https://forms.office.com/e/6V3VKtmXzR
COURSE DETAILS The session will cover preparing for interviews, creating a question line, finding your authentic voice and active listening. Participants will be paired up and asked to conduct short interviews with a fellow participant which will be recorded over Zoom. As a group we'll listen back to them and workshop the interviews for constructive feedback. This course is aimed at anyone looking at working on interviewing skills as a presenter but is also useful to those asked to be a guest on a podcast. LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this session you will have: Increased your awareness of strategies for effectively planning an interview. Explored principles of good practice for interview hosts. Explored the components of a good interview question.
Do you need help managing your references? Do you need help citing references in your documents? This online session will introduce you to EndNote, a subscription software programme which can help you to store, organise and retrieve your references and PDFs, as well as cite references in documents and create bibliographies quickly and easily. On completing the workshop you will be able to: understand the main features and benefits of EndNote; set up an EndNote account; import references from different sources into EndNote; organise your references in EndNote; insert citations into documents; and create a bibliography/reference list. Intended audience: Students, staff and researchers from MSD and OUH.
Björn Schumacher1 1 Institute for Genome Stability in Aging and Disease, Medical Faculty, Cologne Excellence Cluster for Cellular Stress Responses in Ageing-Associated Diseases (CECAD) Research Centre and Centre for Molecular Medicine (CMMC), University of Cologne, Joseph-Stelzmann-Str. 26, 50931 Cologne, Germany Aging is the biggest risk factor for chronic diseases ranging from dementia to cancer. Prevention of age-related diseases is a prerequisite for healthy aging and requires an understanding of the mechanisms of the aging process. The nuclear DNA cannot be replaced and is hence critically dependent on constant DNA repair. Defects in DNA repair such as nucleotide excision repair can accelerate aging in humans and give rise to a wide spectrum of age-related pathologies during childhood. To better understand the intricate role of genome stability in the aging process, we investigated the consequences of chronic DNA damage in the nematode C. elegans. This in vivo model enabled us to investigate the distinct genome stability mechanisms in terminally differentiated and thus irreplaceable somatic cell such as neurons and immortal germ cells that indefinitely perpetuate the genetic information. In addition, we identified systemic DNA damage response mechanisms that operate between the germline and somatic tissues. We found that the genome quality control in germ cells is influenced by somatic stress responses, which could integrate germline signals with environmental influences. We employed the nematode as discovery tool to identify the first master regulator of somatic DNA repair, which might provide novel geroprotective therapeutic strategies for human longevity. Longevity itself might be determined by the accumulation of stochastically occurring damage as indicated by our ability to predict biological age purely based on the amount of accumulated stochastic variation in biological parameters. Deeper insight into the mechanisms of genome maintenance will provide the basis for a better mechanistic understanding of the organism’s aging process and new perspectives for healthy human aging.
Luminescence contains information about the structural state of metals and defects at ultradilute concentrations. Furthermore, minerals have geological timescales over which to achieve perfect states of defect order, making them ideal materials in which to study luminescence. In principle, light emission is a powerful tool for determining defect structure, but interpreting such data is challenging since we have an incomplete understanding of luminescence in many minerals, and how features such as coordination state and symmetry are encoded within it. Here we present data on two spectroscopic methods in quartz and feldspar. We have measured the light emitted during implantation by ions, known as ion beam luminescence (IBL) or ionoluminescence (IL). We model closely the implantation using Monte-Carlo simulations and, by changing acceleration potential, current and nature of the ions (i.e. H+, He+, N+), we change implantation depth (i.e. bulk vs surface responses) and the relative proportions of ionisation, vacancy and phonon formation. Comparing ions (H+) and molecules (H2+) contrasts luminescence from excitation of ground states with excitation of excited states, i.e. double excitation. We also monitor the change in luminescence as a function of implantation dose. This allows us to determine whether the changes are consistent with the proposed nature of the luminescence centres. Since most natural minerals have significant radiation damage, we also gain insights into how luminescence of real minerals differs from synthetic mineral analogues. The development of synchrotron radiation allows advances in x-ray excited optical luminescence (XEOL, also known as radioluminescence, RL). X-irradiation results in ionisation but not atomic displacements, in contrast to IBL. By comparing IBL and XEOL we deconvolute responses that derive from vacancy formation and atomic recoils.
From postcolonial Angola to a Tudor estuary via a French riverbank, come and hear three scholars of rivers talk about the stories rivers tell and the methodological challenges they trace. Dorothée Boulanger (Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies) 'Rivers as sources of Angola’s postcolonial identity' Katherine Ibbett (Modern Languages) 'Riverain: the French early modern river' Tom Johnson (History) 'Downward with the stream: flows of testimony on a Tudor river' Chaired by Joe da Costa (Modern Languages)
Join Zoom Meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84565535337?pwd=uSoG97z96qUZSc4waQ4nHPjkyx3oB5.1 Meeting ID: 845 6553 5337 Passcode: 562042
Narrative CVs are being adopted by many funders, nationally and internationally, to give researchers the opportunity to showcase a wider range of skills and experience than is possible in a traditional academic CV; an example is the UKRI Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI). Writing a narrative CV requires a different way of thinking about and describing your skills, experience and contributions to research and innovation compared to a traditional CV. Writing your first narrative CV will take some time and effort; you might not be sure about what activities to include, and how to describe their quality, relevance, and your involvement in them. This presentation will try to demystify and simplify narrative CVs by providing advice, prompts and suggestions for how to write one. Speakers Tanita Casci Director, Research Strategy & Policy Unit Mary Muers Research Culture Facilitator, MSD Kanza Basit Senior Research Facilitator, SSD Gavin Bird Head of Research Facilitation and Support, SOGE, SSD Susan Black, Careers Adviser, Oxford Careers Service Everyone welcome, please register to receive the TEAMS link for this event If you are a student or researcher with a CareerConnect account, please register "here":https://oxford.targetconnect.net/leap/event.html?id=22404&service=Careers%20Service All other staff register "here":https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=G96VzPWXk0-0uv5ouFLPke7xLB0LNIFKuA055EWF9ZtUNEZKNUxEUUk2Qjk4SEZHT1oyMVRaMTFUMC4u the joining link will be in the registration confirmation email
The myriad stories told about the University of Oxford, coupled with its status as an ancient, elite university, are often grand yet most actively exclude the experiences of women of colour students. I argue that by exploring the intersections of race and gender alongside other axes of oppression, a more comprehensive current history of Oxford can be told by and for women of colour students. My doctoral research explores the lived experiences of women of colour students through their participation in and engagement with student activism movements. Through a mixed qualitative methods study using narrative interviews with 47 former and current women of colour students and critical ethnography with two student organisations, this project foregrounds the voices of women of colour students and how they view their interactions and leadership within student activism that then shape their emerging identities. The research examines key themes of feminist action, spatial politics, identity and meaning-making, and the inherent possibilities forged through solidarities committed to social justice. I posit that there is strength in collective action and solidarities in service of change within and beyond the higher education academy in the United Kingdom. Given the recent global wave of action across universities for Palestinian liberation, including at Oxford, the need to challenge the University's traditional patriarchal and colonial foundations is essential. My research seeks to situate women of colour students as central actors in critical junctures of social change that have wide-ranging impacts on the broader UK higher education sector. This research aimed to find out the differences in how students (with a baseline knowledge of calculus from school) understand and approach calculus depending on whether or not they have studied preliminary courses in Analysis and Calculus. In this seminar, I focus on the use of cognitive interviews to assess students’ understanding of calculus-related keywords, but also how they approach some calculus problems. In the first, I sought to establish what they think of when they hear/read the keywords and what they relate to in their minds, and for the second I wanted to see what tools they have to tackle calculus problems and what their thought process is. This approach combines a set of fixed questions, prompts, and clarifications to try and obtain as detailed responses as possible, drawing on ideas from think-aloud interview techniques. The calculus context raises a particular challenge for the use of cognitive interviews as this mathematics is more easily communicated through symbols, and thinking aloud processes are generally combined with written notes that do not have a linear form (cannot be read from left to right) and can appear messy and chaotic to others. As a student who is blind, I worked with a support worker to carry out these interviews and some of the analysis, this included developing gestures to communicate participant activity in the interviews, developing ways to make the written data accessible for analysis, supporting with transcription of data, and practical assistance with use of analysis software. I will also present some of my findings arising from the Thematic Analysis, as described by Braun & Clarke, of the accessible forms of the data from my interviews and draw conclusions of an overall picture and a comparison of students with different levels of calculus education. Join in-person or online: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_OWI2M2ZjODItNjMyMC00ZjkwLWE5ZDgtYTE5Y2U3MzJlMzY3%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%225f581465-1def-4d51-8d4c-45a3b26b5b58%22%7d
Lesson of the week, clinical cases and research. All clinical and academic staff and students welcome. Coffee, Tea and Cake will be served.
Curious about extended reality, AI, and the Metaverse? Come and experience cutting-edge technology first-hand and meet the researchers and innovators behind it. a one-day showcase of cutting-edge technologies at the interface of extended reality and artificial intelligence. The event will take place on 5 June 2025, starting at 1:30pm at the Digital Hub of Jesus College, Oxford, and is organized by the Oxford X-Reality Hub and the Digital Hub of Jesus College, Oxford, in partnership with Utrecht University. Now in its sixth year, Immers-eXpo continues to bring together Oxford’s academic and tech communities to explore the cutting edge of mixed reality and AI. This year’s event offers a dynamic mix of lightning talks, hands-on demonstrations, and exhibitor stalls, creating space for conversation and discovery.
Maintaining well-organised data is essential for researchers to ensure the accuracy, integrity, and long-term usability of their work. Effective data management strategies can vary widely depending on factors such as the type, volume, and format of the data, as well as the platforms and systems used for collection and analysis. For example, while cloud storage can be a practical solution for researchers working with large datasets, it may not be the most suitable option for those conducting fieldwork or research in remote locations. Likewise, researchers working with archival materials, secondary sources, or big data may need to adopt tailored approaches to organise and safeguard their data effectively. In this panel discussion, researchers who have successfully completed their data collection will share their insights and experiences of managing data throughout the research process, from planning through to post-collection. Topics covered will include: • Best practices for storing, organising, and updating data across both online and offline platforms. • Preparing for data management in the pre-collection phase, ensuring data collection is set up for success. • Common challenges and pitfalls encountered in post-collection data management, and strategies for addressing them. • Practical tools and techniques for backing up data and securing it against loss or corruption. While our focus in Trinity Term will be on developing robust data management plans prior to data collection, this session is open to doctoral students and academics, regardless of primary research methods, at any stage of their research journey, whether in the planning phase, actively collecting data, or working with data already gathered. The panel will be interactive, with ample opportunities for questions and discussion. You will have the chance to engage directly with our expert panellists, connect with fellow researchers, and learn from each other’s experiences and strategies for navigating the complexities of research data management. Refreshments will be provided. Panellists Lena Easton-Calabria (DPhil, Geography and the Environment) Dr Russell Kapumha (Postdoctoral Researcher, School of Archaeology) Guanlin Wu (DPhil, Area Studies) Moderator Keiko Kanno
Why do well-meaning developmental policies so often fail? Consider the recent collapse of the well-constructed peace agreement between the Colombian government and FARC guerillas. Likewise, privatizing former Soviet assets in Russia engendered authoritarian kleptocracy. In such cases, self-interested activity of powerful agents undermines policy initiatives. Alas, achieving inclusive development entails resolving dense collective-action problems of forging cooperation among agents with disparate resources, interests, and understandings. Resolution requires functional configurations of inclusive informal and formal institutions. Yet, powerful actors shape institutional evolution in their favor—because they can. How to proceed? In this seminar, I will outline elements of a conceptual framework for policy-relevant inquiry into such dilemmas. I will open with background for systematically conceptualizing power, social dilemmas, and four types of agency: leadership, following, brokerage, and institutional entrepreneurship. I will focus on the latter. Institutional entrepreneurs invest resources into discovering narratives and actions in efforts to influence the political-economic and normative understandings that underlie strategic interactions. Such interactions influence trajectories of institutional evolution. By extension they condition prospects for resolving developmental dilemmas. Moreover, these dynamics operate within specific social contexts that are framed by identifiable distinctions in configurations of power. Policymakers beware. This systematic approach to power, and agency facilitates inquiry into the roots and consequences of context-specific developmental dilemmas. As such, it offers conceptual foundation for developmental policy inquiry and analysis.
Postgraduate students, fellows, staff and faculty from any discipline are welcome. This group aims to foster frequent interdisciplinary critical dialogue across Oxford and beyond about the political impacts of emerging technologies. Please contact Elisabeth Siegel at elisabeth.siegel@politics.ox.ac.uk or Brian Kot at brian.kot@politics.ox.ac.uk in advance to participate or with any questions. Remote attendance is possible, but in-person attendance is prioritized (and provided refreshment). About the speaker: Renan Araujo is a Research Manager at the Institute for AI Policy and Strategy (IAPS), where he leads the research workstream on international AI governance and the IAPS AI Policy Fellowship. His work focuses on the implications of advanced AI on international relations, with a focus on US-China, and what institutional models might be conducive to international cooperation on AI, such as AI Safety Institutes. Previously, Renan was a researcher on AI governance and emergent technologies at Rethink Priorities and the Institute for Law and AI. He has experience leading global capacity-building programs, especially in LMIC, and conducting comparative policy research. He is also a co-founder and adviser of the Condor Initiative, an educational nonprofit that supports Brazilian students in shaping AI research and policy globally. He also advises the Vista Institute for AI Policy. In a previous life, he was the youngest chief of staff of a Justice of Appeal at the State Court of Pernambuco, Brazil, where he worked for five years. He’s a lawyer by training with an MSc from the London School of Economics.
Bio: Dr. Adriana Tomic is an Assistant Professor at Boston University, with appointments in Virology, Immunology & Microbiology, and Biomedical Engineering. She leads a Systems Immunology group at the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) and is the developer of SIMON, an open-source knowledge discovery platform. Her research focuses on defining immunological signatures of protective immunity and accelerating vaccine development through novel systems immunology and AI approaches. Dr. Tomic received her Ph.D. in Infection Biology from Hannover Medical School, Germany, for which she was awarded a Hannover Medical School Award, and completed her postdoctoral training at Stanford University School of Medicine. A recipient of multiple honors, including the prestigious Marie Curie Fellowship, Dr. Tomic leads significant projects for international consortia such as the NIAID-funded Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Response (CEIRR), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and the Medical Research Council HIC-Vac network. Dr. Tomic is also actively involved in science communication and outreach. Reflecting her commitment to open science, she established a community to further develop and apply machine-learning tools for biomedical data analysis. We hope you will be able to join us for what promises to be an engaging and thought-provoking lecture. Nibbles and drinks will be provided afterwards – so also a great networking opportunity!
Following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024, the question of Syrian refugee return has surged to the forefront of public and policy debates. While international frameworks continue to emphasise safety, dignity, and voluntariness as core principles, such standards often fail to reflect the complex lived realities of return. Return is rarely a singular or linear process. It is fragmented, conditional, and shaped by ongoing calculations of risk, shifting circumstances, and diverse individual experiences. Hence, this event interrogates the notion of return not by asking whether Syria is “safe,” but rather: safe for whom? Dr Jasmin Lilian Diab, Director of the Institute for Migration Studies at the Lebanese American University, will present her latest research findings on the complex dynamics of refugee return from Lebanon to Syria. Drawing on recent fieldwork with marginalised groups, including Syrian female-headed households, LGBT refugees, and Palestinian refugees from Syria, Dr Diab will engage in a moderated conversation with Professor Dawn Chatty and Professor Nicholas Van Hear, exploring the broader political landscape surrounding return. Together, the speakers will reflect on what “return” means in contexts of political transition, social change, and structural precarity. The discussion aims to explore dominant policy narratives that treat return as a fixed endpoint and calls for more flexible, nuanced frameworks that recognise the multidimensional nature of displacement, identity, and belonging. Keynote Speaker: Dr Jasmin Lilian Diab is the Director of the Institute for Migration Studies (IMS) at the Lebanese American University, where she also serves as an Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Migration Studies at the Department of Communication, Mobility and Identity. In 2025, her research was awarded the Lisa Gilad Prize from the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM). Dr. Diab is a Research Affiliate at the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University and a Global Fellow at Brown University’s Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies. As of 2024, she is a Visiting Professor in Migration Studies at Sciences Po Lyon. Panelists: Professor Dawn Chatty, Emerita Professor of Anthropology and Forced Migration and former Director of the Refugee Studies Centre is a social anthropologist whose ethnographic interests lie in the Middle East, particularly with nomadic pastoral tribes and young refugee young people. Her research interests include a number of forced migration and development issues such as conservation-induced displacement, tribal resettlement, modern technology and social change, gender and development and the impact of prolonged conflict on refugee young people. Professor Nicholas Van Hear is an Emeritus Fellow at COMPAS and the School of Anthropology & Museum Ethnography (SAME). With a background in anthropology and development studies, he has worked on issues related to forced migration, conflict, development, diaspora, and transnationalism and has field experience in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, North America, and Europe. His main contributions have been in the areas of force and choice in migration, the relationship between mobility and immobility, migration and development, diaspora formation and engagement in conflict settings, including post-war recovery, and migration and class. Moderator: Josiane Matar is a Rhodes scholar and a DPhil candidate in Migration Studies at the University of Oxford. Her research examines refugee governance in times of crisis, with a particular focus on Syrian displacement in Lebanon. She explores how the Lebanese state maintains order amidst prolonged instability and how refugees navigate liminality, negotiate survival, and manage their interactions with host communities. Josiane is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Migration Studies at the Lebanese American University and serves as the Corresponding Editor of the Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford (JASO).
In this online workshop you will be shown the functionality of Zotero, which is a free-to-use software programme used to manage references and create bibliographies. Zotero will be demonstrated on a Windows PC but users of MacOS or Linux computers will be able to follow the demonstration. The workshop will cover: understanding the main features and benefits of Zotero; setting up a Zotero account; importing references from different sources into Zotero; organising your references in Zotero; inserting citations into documents; and creating a bibliography/reference list. Intended audience: students, staff and researchers from MSD and OUH.
The Difference-in-Differences (DiD) method is a powerful quasi-experimental research design widely used for estimating causal effects in policy research. In recent years, a growing body of literature has highlighted important limitations of traditional DiD approaches and proposed solutions to address them. This talk aims to equip social policy researchers with up-to-date tools for implementing DiD designs effectively and credibly in real-world applications. It will begin with a review of the basic 2×2 DiD design and its generalized form, the Two-Way Fixed Effects (TWFE) model. The talk will then demonstrate how TWFE estimators can produce biased results when treatment effects are heterogeneous—that is, when they vary across groups or over time. To address these challenges, the presentation will introduce heterogeneity-robust DiD estimators developed in recent years, including those proposed by Callaway and Sant’Anna (2021) and Borusyak, Jaravel, and Spiess (2024). The final section will cover additional concerns relevant to applied researchers, such as testing for parallel trends and incorporating covariates. Booking is required for people outside of the Department of Social Policy and Intervention (DSPI). DSPI Members do not need to register.
This session has been organised in collaboration with DECIDE (Digitally Enabled Care in Diverse Environments), an NIHR-funded centre for rapid evaluation of technology-enabled remote monitoring in health and care settings. The panel will outline the current policy landscape underpinning the digital shift in care services, describing a remote monitoring initiative in care homes by the local authority and Integrated Care Board for falls prevention, and the development of remote monitoring services to support independent living that DECIDE is evaluating nationally. We will then discuss the framing of these technologies in relation to how people define ‘good care’, relating to previous work undertaken within the Care Initiative. This hybrid event is run by Green Templeton’s long-running Care Initiative, led by Professor Mary Daly. The talk will be followed by drinks in the Stables Bar.
This panel-symposium brings together four eminent scholars who will use their expertise to illuminate the recent political and moral economy of the United States and the rise of what some have called a new American oligarchy; and others have termed populist authoritarianism. The event will not only discuss how the United States arrived at its current state of politics, but pathways toward an alternative political-economic order. Speakers are Melinda Cooper (Australian National University), author of Counter-Revolution and Family Values; Kristin Kobes Du Mez (Calvin University), author of Jesus and John Wayne; Joel Suarez (Harvard University), author of Labor of Liberty, forthcoming; and Noam Maggor (Queen Mary University of London), author of Brahmin Capitalism. Topics include economic elites and governance, labor and the working class, and evangelicals and white Christian nationalism.
Handle with Care: The Oldest Translations of the Bible in English - 4.30 pm on Thursday 5th June 2025 in the Lecture Theatre with Professor Francis Leneghan The translation of the Bible into English did not begin, as is often thought, with the King James Bible. In fact, parts of the Bible were translated into English as early as the eighth century when the Venerable Bede began a translation of the Gospel of John. During the ninth and tenth centuries, the translation of scripture into English gathered pace as vernacular versions of the Gospels and the first seven books of the Old Testament (the Heptateuch) were produced, as well as a multitude of English glosses on Latin Bibles and homilies and biblical paraphrases. With these translations, the Bible was becoming increasingly available for the first time to readers outside of the walls of the monastery: noble laymen and women could now read parts of the Bible in their own homes. At the same time Benedictine monks such as Abbot Ælfric of Eynsham were pushing back against this widening access to scripture, fearing that lay readers might be confused and led into sin by unsupervised exposure to some of the Bible’s more contradictory and complex elements, especially the Old Testament. This talk will tell the story of the earliest translations of the Bible in the English language, demonstrating how the Bible played a central role in the emergence of English national identity during this transformational period. If you'd like to attend, please register at: https://www.stx.ox.ac.uk/event/handle-with-care
In October 1962, the Library of Congress, with the support of the Bollingen Foundation and Poetry magazine, convened a three-day event called “The National Poetry Festival,” which aimed to be the largest-ever gathering of poets in the history of the United States. As fate would have it, the Festival happened to coincide with the Cuban Missile Crisis. My talk, drawn from the conclusion to my forthcoming monograph, Institutionalized Lyric: American Poetry at Midcentury, will briefly summarize my book’s argument and then examine the confluence of these events, poetry festival and international crisis, in order to pose a series of questions about that argument’s stakes: How did the Festival demonstrate the consequences of poetry’s institutional position, of its sense of its own audience and power, especially as its institutional commemoration was abruptly forced to accommodate an international crisis that was being managed within neighboring halls of state? How did the Festival’s theme, “Fifty Years of American Poetry,” imagine a relationship between the modernism of the century’s first half and the poetry of midcentury? Just two years earlier, Robert Lowell, while accepting the National Book Award for Life Studies, had described the legacy of modernism as a crisis for midcentury poetry. What shape did that crisis take as the representative poets of the century’s first and second halves shared a stage, and how did the pressure applied by the sudden emergence of an existential, global threat reveal the stakes of midcentury poetry’s investment in the institutionalized lyric? Finally, if, as I will argue, the gathering at the National Poetry Festival ultimately failed to imagine a kind of poetry that could take measure of the prospect of nuclear war, what would be immediate legacy of the period’s characteristic poetics?
The conference 'Christian Humanism and the Black Atlantic' (June 6-7) will open with the annual McDonald Public Lecture being given by Paul Gilroy. Winner of the highly prestigious Holberg Prize in 2019, Gilroy is an eminent public intellectual and one of the world’s leading scholars of race and racism. Professor Gilroy will reflect on the need to recover a notion of shared humanity and what he calls “reparative humanism.” A reception at St Cross, adjacent to Pusey House, follows the lecture. Given space limitations, attendance at this free, public lecture requires registration.
President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is remaking the Egyptian republic. This involves a double rupture with the First Republic: radical redefinition of the social contract that was established in the decade following the overthrow of the monarchy in 1952 into an ethos of “nothing for free,” and transformation of the presidential system to concentrate Sisi’s powers to normalize a juridical state of exception and recast the republic in the mould of permanent military guardianship. The Second Republic is further characterized by a constant striving to eliminate public politics, and by reliance on an ersatz ideology and the blurring of boundaries between public and private capital to compensate for the deliberate avoidance of organic class alliances. This is why, arguably, Sisi’s new republic cannot achieve social hegemony, setting in contrast with otherwise analogous experiences spanning the 20th century, from fascism in Italy and Spain to the Latin American “bureaucratic authoritarian” states.
As part of a conference on the role of the media in the peace process and coverage of ongoing legacy issues, John Alderdice will convene a panel of senior journalists and academics.
The last few decades have seen East Asian governments provide increasing support for startups—new, high-growth, technologically oriented firms. This “startup capitalism”—an economic and political system in which startups contribute to employment, innovation, and growth—can take multiple forms. Startups can be envisaged as disruptors, as engines for catalysing new industries and technologies, or as resources for large incumbent firms. In Schumpeterian logic, startups can foster creative destruction, or they can fuel oligopolistic competition. This talk explores how and why startup policies vary across China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. It emphasizes how the Taiwanese government approach has tended to conceive of startups for their ability to foster new technologies, such as biotech and greentech, rather than as boosters for established sectors. This is distinct from the Japanese and Korean approach, which has often worked to embed startups in open innovation systems led by big business. The talk will explore the ways in which the different approaches to startup capitalism reflect each locale’s institutional logics. About the Speaker Dr Robyn Klingler-Vidra is Vice Dean, Global Engagement, and Reader in Political Economy & Entrepreneurship at King’s Business School, King's College London. She is the author of The Venture Capital State: The Silicon Valley Model in East Asia (Cornell University Press, 2018), Inclusive Innovation (with Alex Glennie and Courtney Savie Lawrence, Routledge, 2022), and Startup Capitalism: New Approaches to Innovation Strategies in East Asia (with Ramon Pacheco Pardo, Cornell University Press, 2025). Her research focuses on entrepreneurship, innovation, and venture capital and has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, including International Affairs, International Studies Quarterly, New Political Economy, Regulation & Governance, Socio-Economic Review, and World Development. Robyn obtained her BA in Political Science at the University of Michigan and her MSc and PhD in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Dr Bo-jiun Jing, Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, will be hosting the event.
Please contact "$":mailto:sarah.apetrei@campion.ox.ac.uk for the Teams link to join remotely.
This lecture offers attendees the opportunity to hear Professor Graham Ward examine the work of the Holy Spirit in the operation of salvation. It treats the formation and salvation of persons, and how the Latin persona becomes important. It treats the difference, though not in a derogatory way, between spiritual formation and well-being, building upon the Pauline distinctions between the body (soma), the mind (psychê) and the spirit (pneuma). Drawing upon Scripture and evolutionary biology, Professor Graham Ward describes the educational process involved in being formed, showing that form is an emergent property as it is in evolutionary biology. It is not something that can either be predicted or prescribed. The Spirit works upon us at profound emotional and dispositional levels, beneath cognition and language so we have to come to terms with all that is hidden (mystêrion). Suffering plays an important pedagogical role in that. Biographies play a role in that. They are the means by which we are “sounded through”, and in being “sounded through” we come into our distinctive personhood in Christ.
Please see website for programme and FAQs: www.history.ox.ac.uk/event/early-modern-history-in-the-making-the-j-h-elliott-history-forum-inaugural-symposium
The current epizootic of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is unprecedented in scale, duration, and ecological reach. While often framed narrowly as a veterinary or virological concern, the spread of this virus among wild birds, domestic poultry, and a growing range of mammalian hosts—including sporadic spillover into humans—raises broader questions about how pandemics emerge and evolve. In this lecture, I explore the ecology of pandemic risk through the lens of the ongoing HPAI epizootic, focusing on how environmental context shapes the transmission, impact, and apparent severity of emerging pathogens. Drawing on recent data, I examine the striking variation in observed case fatality rates and argue that such measures reflect not only viral properties but also the ecological and social systems in which outbreaks unfold. The case of HPAI invites us to reconsider how we define, detect, and prepare for pandemics—and to recognize that risk is rarely evenly distributed or solely biological in origin.
Join the Provost David Isaac in conversation with His Highness Tengku Amir Shah Ibni Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, the current Raja Muda (Crown Prince) of the Malaysian state of Selangor. Prince Amir is a philanthropist, youth empowerment advocate and has a passion for sports. In 2016, Prince Amir set up an NGO, Selangor Youth Community that works in partnership with the King’s Trust International to provide opportunities for youth development and is a Royal Patron of the Raja Muda Selangor Foundation. He also currently serves as the Pro-Chancellor of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), a public research university focusing on agricultural science and related fields and is the Chancellor of its Putra Business School. He recently summited Mount Kilimanjaro for charity, raising funds for the Raja Tun Uda library for better accessibility for the hearing impaired. Prince Amir is a keen sailor and a Royal Patron of The Raja Muda Selangor International Regatta that has been running for over 30 years. Prince Amir is also an elected President of the Football Association of Selangor and the Chairman of Selangor FC. He is an alumnus of the Wellington College and Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the United Kingdom. He serves in the 17th Battalion, Royal Malay Regiment of the Malaysian Army as Captain. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Ecology and Environmental Biology at the University of Leeds, graduating in 2014.
Please join us for a film screening and fundraiser for mutual aid in Gaza at the St Antony's College Buttery on 5 June from 6-8pm. Trailer: https://www.palestinefilminstitute.org/en/pfp/archive/resistance-why In 1970, at the initiative of Soraya Antonius (Fifth of June Society), Christian Ghazi and Noureddine Chatti met with a number of Arab political figures, in particular Palestinians residing in Lebanon. In the documentary produced, Ghassan Kanafani, Sadiq Jalal El-Azm, Nabil Shaath and others share their vision of the Palestinian revolution, tracing its history back to the early 20th century. These testimonies describe the strikes and popular protests that took place in Palestine under the Ottoman occupation, followed by British colonization and the settlement of the Jewish state in 1948. They enumerate the objectives of the struggle, emphasizing the necessity for a free and democratic Palestine, defended through armed or non-armed struggle by all its citizens, men and women of various affiliations.
Coming soon
*Lord Eric Pickles*, PC was appointed the UK Government Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust issues 2015-2025. He is a British Conservative Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Brentwood and Ongar from 1992 to 2017, served in David Cameron's Cabinet as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government from 2010 to 2015, served as Chairman of the Conservative Party from 2009 to 2010 and was later the United Kingdom Anti-Corruption Champion from 2015 to 2017. He stood down as an MP at the 2017 general election, but continued in his role as Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust issues under Prime Ministers Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. He is the chairman of Conservative Friends of Israel in the House of Lords as of 2023. Buffet reception 19:00; RSVP https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScYaQeIX_Mv8soYoQEwseik4nJx-3QRtmMyb1uC7vrHEIK0gQ/viewform Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87307159065?pwd=syNbPDOeey1gqN2JfVo0OvkS06p8bt.1 Meeting ID: 873 0715 9065 / Passcode: 105654 All are welcome!
The Chief Medical Officer has confirmed that attendance at the Surgical Grand Rounds can count toward internal CPD, with 1 point awarded per hour. Please note that in-person attendance is required, and you will need to sign the attendance register. Please email Louise King (louise.king@nds.ox.ac.uk) if you would like to attend online.
'Christian Humanism and the Black Atlantic' explores Christian humanism, its theological and moral roots, and its articulation in the context of what Paul Gilroy calls the ‘Black Atlantic’. It examines the shape and focus of Christian humanism as it emerges from the history that connects Europe, the Caribbean, Africa, and the Americas in a tangled web of material, cultural, and religious ties from the 15th century onwards. Whether it is the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the Atlantic slave trade, modern imperialism, industrialisation, the Westphalian order of nation-states, or the creation of modern banking and monetary systems, the afterlife of this world lives on in our world, and indeed as our world. The conference challenges reductive narratives of Christianity's history, exploring its emergence as a ‘creolized’ faith, one formed through varied often brutal interactions in the Atlantic basin. It addresses the complex, contested interpretations of Christianity's past, and aims for nuanced theological reflection on its impacts. An ongoing question the conference will explore is whether Christian humanism represents a constructive alternative to the use of Christianity to support forms of ethno-religious nationalism in the contemporary Atlantic context.
Join us at the Oxford Latin American Business Summit on June 6th! This one-day summit will bring together top investors, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and students from across Europe to explore how Latin America is shaping the future of business, innovation, and sustainability — and how it connects with the UK and Europe. 🗓️ Date: June 6, 2025 📍 Location: Oxford Saïd Business School 🎟️ Tickets are now available! Secure your tickets at https://www.oxfordlatamsummit.com/ 🌟 Here's Why You Want To Attend This Summit: High-impact panels and networking with speakers from across Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, the US, UK, & EU) Private sector and public sector perspectives A celebration of Latin talent, vision, and leadership Come, learn about investment in Latin America from business and political leaders from across the region. Here’s a glimpse at some of our confirmed speakers: 🔹 Carlos Garcia Ottati CEO and Founder, Kavak Kavak is an online marketplace for preowned vehicles and the first Mexican startup tech company to achieve unicorn status with a current valuation of ~$3BN. Carlos received his MBA from the Said Business School here at Oxford and will share his journey to founding Kavak. 🔹 Victor Herrera Gonzalez President, Farmacias Similares Farmacias Similares is the largest pharmaceutical chain in Mexico. As President, Victor Herrara has led the company's social impact initiatives providing access to key medications to the underserved. He is a current investor on SharkTank Mexico and a member of the International Council, UNICEF. 🔹 Juan Terán Jurado Head of Corporate Affairs, Canning House, Former Trade Commissioner of Ecuador Juan served as the Former Trade Commissioner of Ecuador and as commercial attaché for the country in Panama (2012), the UK (2015), Switzerland (2019), and Germany (2020). As Head of Corporate Affairs at Canning House, he directs corporate strategy and connections between the UK, Latin America, and Iberia. 🔹 Florian Kemmerich Managing Partner at KOIS and Co-Founder of Resilienture KOIS is a firm specialized in impact investing across health, education and the living environment with a presence in Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Resilienture, based in Puerto Rico, aims to mobilize global efforts in coastal resilience by leveraging the expertise of its teams and partners to drive nature-based solutions (NbS). 💻 Follow us and share this with other Latinos or allies who want to be part of this meaningful event! 👉 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oxfordlatamsummit/ 👉 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/oxford-latam-summit
Exploration of Genomic Medicine career pathways in the NHS
This workshop examines the impact of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on global and regional security. The event will open with a roundtable exploring interactions between Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel in the context of global instability. In the afternoon, we will first consider the role of the EU and NATO in securing Ukraine’s borders, as well as explore Ukraine’s responses to rising cybersecurity challenges. We will then examine the domestic dimension of the full-scale war, addressing civil-military dynamics during wartime, challenges of force generation, and veteran politics. 10:10-12:00 Roundtable: Ukrainian Security in a Global Perspective: Post-Traumatic Sovereignty in Eastern Europe, East Asia, and the Middle East Dr Jaroslaw Kuisz (Kultura Liberalna, Warsaw; University of Oxford) Professor Karolina Wigura (Kultura Liberalna, Warsaw; University of Oxford) Professor Yaacov Yadgar (University of Oxford) Dr Bo-Jiun Jing (University of Oxford) Chair: Dr Zbigniew Wojnowski 13:00-15:00 Panel I: Ukraine and Geopolitical (In)Security Dr Henrik Larsen (Center for European Policy Analysis), ‘Ukraine’s Uncertain Path to EU: between Western Conditionality and Elite Resistance’ online Professor Mark Webber (University of Birmingham), ‘NATO’s eastern direction – with or without America?’ Olga Tokariuk (Institute for Strategic Dialogue), 'Information Warfare as part of Russia's Strategy to Undermine Ukraine' Chair: Yevhen Yashchuk (University of Oxford) Discussant: Professor Roy Allison (University of Oxford) 15:30-17:30 Panel II: Domestic Security Developments and Challenges Dr Taras Fedirko (IWM / University of Glasgow), ‘Military voluntarism and the Transformation of the Ukrainian Nation-State’ Professor Jan Willem Honig (King’s College London / Netherlands Defence Academy), ‘The Use of Volunteers in War: Political and Military Implications’ Dr Erin McFee (Corioli Institute and Atlantic Council), ‘Securing the Return: Veteran Reintegration and Domestic Stability in Post-2022 Ukraine’ online Chair and discussant: Dr Marnie Howlett (University of Oxford)
The J H Elliott History Forum has the objects to preserve, promote and disseminate the intellectual legacy of Sir John Elliott, Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford between 1991 and 1997, by means of supporting individuals and institutions engaged in the fields of his research, and encouraging future generations to share an interest in history and an awareness of its role in shaping global events. The Inaugural Symposium of the J H Elliott History Forum will focus on some of the main directions in current research that intersect with the contribution of Sir John Elliott to the field of early modern history. It will provide a unique opportunity to engage with cutting-edge scholarship with special reference to Atlantic and Mediterranean history. Participants will include leading early modern historians as well as early career researchers, including some of the past and present Sir John Elliott Fellows in Oxford and at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. The Symposium is sponsored by the J H Elliott History Forum, the Faculty of History of the University of Oxford, and Exeter College, Oxford. *_Please see website for programme and FAQs_*: https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/event/early-modern-history-in-the-making-the-j-h-elliott-history-forum-inaugural-symposium
Can life-writing, centred on human experience as it is, be ecological? Or is the genre fundamentally (even deleteriously) ‘egocentric’? Do we pay enough attention to representations of the more-than-human when we write and read life-writing, especially in the searing light of climate catastrophe? And how does a conception of ‘life-writing’ shift from the standpoint of philosophical systems or Indigenous cultures whose definitions of ‘life’ may be more capacious than ours? In this seminar, we’ll consider life-writing from various ecocritical angles, to interrogate these questions and more. Debates around the anthropocentrism or otherwise of nature writing, an enduringly popular genre, will frame our discussions as we weigh the importance of appraising ecology in our encounters with life-writing. Speaker Details: Riley Faulds is a writer who grew up in unceded Whadjuk, Bindjareb and Wadandi Noongar Country. His undergraduate degree was in Agricultural Science and English, and he worked as an environmental scientist before starting his MSt (and now DPhil) in World Literatures at Oxford. His poems have been published in various of Australia's best journals and have won prizes both at home and in the UK—but he saves his best work for birthday cards. He misses eucalypts on the daily. Preparation: Participants are encouraged to come with some thoughts about representations of the environment in their favourite works of life-writing. Further Details and Contacts: This is an in-person event and will not be recorded. Registration is required and will close one week before the event (5:30 pm on 30 May). Confirmations of successful registration will be sent out one week before the event. Please note that this event is exclusively open to current members of the University of Oxford. Workshop places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, with priority given to members of the English Faculty. Queries regarding this event should be addressed to OCLW Events Manager, Dr Eleri Anona Watson.
This conference brings together papers that rethink how the 'South' is conventionally being approached and articulated in Chinese Studies. Bringing a diverse set of southern encounters into dialogue with existing discourses about Nanyang, China's Southwest and the Sinophone South, this workshop seeks to explore newer ways of conceptualizing cultural regionalities in Chinese Studies. 'Apocalypse from the Borderland: Fengwu, Routes, and the Topopoetics of Tong Mo’s Southwest Narrative' Jannis Chen Ji Zhou (Asst. Prof, Chinese University of Hong Kong) 'An Exotic Turn: The emergence of Nanyang-as-Other in Hong Kong Cinema' Yeo Min Hui (Asst. Prof, Nanyang Technological University) 'Caught between Homelands: Wang Xiaoping and the Anti-bildungsroman' Jessica Tan Li Wen (Asst. Prof, Lingnan University) 'Enacting a Global Contemporary: Wang Anyi and Regional Intimacies in the Sinophone South' Chan Cheow Thia (Asst. Prof, National University of Singapore) 10:30: Panel 1 10:30-10:35: Opening Remarks 10:35-11:00: Apocalypse from the Borderland: Fengwu, Routes, and the Topopoetics of Tong Mo’s Southwest Narrative (Jannis Chen Ji Zhou) 11:00-11:25: An Exotic Turn: The emergence of Nanyang-as-Other in Hong Kong Cinema (Yeo Min Hui) 11:25-11:55: Q&A 11:55-13:00: Lunch for speakers only 13:00: Panel 2 13:00-13:25: Caught between Homelands: Wang Xiaoping and the Anti-bildungsroman (Jessica Tan Li Wen) 13:25-13:50: Enacting a Global Contemporary: Wang Anyi and Regional Intimacies in the Sinophone South (Chan Cheow Thia) 13:50-14:20: Q&A 14:20-15:00: Roundtable + Closing remarks 15.00: Coffee and cake for speakers and attendees
Keen to explore your personal career strategy and learn how to get the most of your tine at Oxford? Join us for the Postdoc* Power Hour (*=and other research staff) in-person special to mark the PoPoH 2-year anniversary. We will run a session on how to assess and maximise your career happiness and goals, followed by 'speed-dating' with several careers advisers who will share their expertise and answer specific questions you may have. To join the event, please book in "here":https://oxford.targetconnect.net/leap/event.html?id=22590&service=Careers%20Service
Our visual perception of the world heavily relies on sophisticated and delicate biological mechanisms, and any disruption to these mechanisms negatively impacts our lives. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) affects the central field of vision and has become increasingly common in our society, thereby generating a surge of academic and clinical interest. I will present some recent developments in the mathematical modeling of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) in the retina in the context of AMD; the RPE cell layer supports photoreceptor survival by providing nutrients and participating in the visual cycle and “cellular maintenance". Our objectives include modeling the aging and degeneration of the RPE with a mechanistic approach, as well as predicting the progression of atrophic lesions in the epithelial tissue. This is a joint work with the research team of Prof. M. Paques at Hôpital National des Quinze-Vingts.
Dr Nakamura is a Consultant Medical Oncologist and Clinician Scientist from Japan, who will be working on molecular markers of colorectal cancer behaviour with Prof David Kerr and Prof Ian Tomlinson.
This paper proposes econometric methods for studying how economic variables respond to function-valued shocks. Our methods are developed based on linear projection estimation of predictive regression models with a function-valued predictor and other control variables. We show that the linear projection coefficient associated with the functional variable allows for the impulse response interpretation in a functional structural vector autoregressive model under a certain identification scheme, similar to well-known Sims' (1972) causal chain, but with nontrivial complications in our functional setup. A novel estimator based on an operator Schur complement is proposed and its asymptotic properties are studied. We illustrate its empirical applicability with two examples involving functional variables: economy sentiment distributions and functional monetary policy shocks.
This talk provides an overview of research that seeks to understand how water quantity and quality respond to climate and other drivers of change. Such hydrological knowledge is imperative to unravel interacting processes, to assess uncertainties in space-time projections, and to develop sustainable water policies and adaptation strategies for the betterment of ecosystems and society in a changing world.
Join Zoom Meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81346522576?pwd=IjT6yrcaUt31V0yKNUvNHNlR5JIU0P.1 Meeting ID: 813 4652 2576 Passcode: 681498
Join an expert panel, in-person or online, to launch the Young Lives Hub on Climate Change and Environmental Shocks. This event will showcase the power of matching environmental data to longitudinal cohort studies, to investigate the long-term and inter-generational impacts of extreme weather events on vulnerable young people in the Global South. Speakers: Marta Favara, Director of Young Lives Welcome and overview of event; Introduction to the Young Lives Hub on Climate Change and Environmental Shocks and evidence to date from Young Lives Neven Fuckar, University of Oxford Overview of environmental data currently available (e.g. rainfall, temperature and air pollution data) and showcasing the power of matching environmental data with longitudinal and household survey data. Jisung Park, University of Pennsylvania Presenting own research on the impact of rising/extreme temperatures on human capital. He will highlight how better availability of longitudinal data would have/could strengthen the key evidence emerging from his research. Kath Ford, Young Lives Deputy Director and Head of Policy and Partnerships Informal panel discussion reflecting on the impact of the Hub for: 1. informing policies and programmes relating to achievement of the SDGs and climate adaptation strategies and 2. capacity building and supporting the next generation of researchers in the Global South. Along with panel discussants: Sarah Lane Smith / Camilla Pankhurst (FCDO) Oliver Fiala (Save the Children) Representative from The Africa Oxford Initiative (TBC) This panel event is free and open to all. Coffee and tea from 12:00-12:15, session to start at 12:15. There may be a photographer and/or videographer at the event; if you do not wish to be included in the photographs or video footage, please make the photographer or videographer aware at the event. This event is part of the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit, as part of the Oxford Local Programme of events themed around climate change, human rights, and climate justice.
Agents attempting to acquire information often lack exogenous information technologies of their own and thus rely on experts conveying cheap talk messages. To address this gap, I examine a model of costly search in which an uninformed receiver sequentially consults randomly drawn cheap-talking experts. Crucially, the pool of experts is heterogeneous, and the receiver cannot observe the sender's motives. The dynamic nature of search creates a potential time inconsistency problem for the receiver, so the receiver searches weakly too much. In particular, low search costs make the receiver strictly worse off whenever i) senders’ preferences are sufficiently opposed and ii) there is a high enough incidence of ‘informative’ senders. Applying this model to social media regulation generates a key insight: maximally informative social media algorithms discriminate across users.
Oxygen homeostasis has been a constant challenge to life on earth for at least the last ~600 million years, for which a number of distinct solutions have likely separately evolved. In mammals, the current repertoire of oxygen sensing mechanisms appears insufficient to explain the complexity of responses observed, which vary enormously in timing, magnitude and sensitivity. Our group is interested in defining new molecular mechanisms of oxygen sensing and matching these with unresolved physiological responses to hypoxia. In this talk I will cover our discovery of a new oxygen sensing pathway transduced through enzymatic N-terminal cysteine dioxygenation, and our efforts to better understand its role in integrated mammalian physiology, focusing on the regulation of cardiovascular system in response to hypoxia. SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY I received a B.Sc. in Physiology from King’s College London, where I then undertook a Ph.D. in vascular physiology with Giovanni Mann, exploring responses to low oxygen conditions in endothelial cells. I then joined Peter Ratcliffe’s lab in the Nuffield Department of Medicine in Oxford in 2018 to work on novel hypoxia signalling pathways. In 2020, I took up a Junior Research Fellowship in medical sciences at St. Catherine’s College, and in 2025 I moved to DPAG to start my own lab, funded by a BHF Intermediate Basic Sciences Research Fellowship and Wellcome Discovery Award.
Join us for a frank and honest discussion about what it means to be ‘brave’ as academics and activists. This discussion has been inspired by a message sent into Race & Resistance by BAF scholar, Cerise Jackson, who is now reaching the end of their PhD journey and is exploring what bravery means for them, as a Black(ish) person in academia, as well as questioning what there is to gain from it. We also want to hear your personal experiences and opinions on the matter. Cerise Jackson (she/they) is a third-year doctoral candidate in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. Their current ‘Black Anime’ project uses multi- and transdisciplinary methods, combining translation studies, critical race theory, and Japanese studies to explore the relationship between Japanese and Black identities in popular culture. Her doctorate specifically examines ‘Black Anime’ as a genre form emerging from digital and physical, fan and creator networks of solidarity and resistance. ---- Bluesky: raceresistance.bsky.social Subscribe to our mailing list by sending a blank email to: race-and-resistance-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk.
Professor Paul Kubes is at the forefront of real-time imaging of the immune system. He has pioneered the use of intravital microscopy to study leukocyte recruitment and trafficking, published over 400 original papers and has received numerous awards for his work on dissecting mechanisms of neutrophil and macrophage behaviour in the vasculature and tissue
FROM FILM THEORY TO FILM REALITY: A PRACTICAL TOOLKIT FOR PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY WANT TO MAKE MOVIES This session is a fast-paced, practical crash course in the real-world process of getting a film made—from pitch deck to picture lock. In his 25 years of producing dozens of films that grossed over $3 billion at the international box office, Micheal Flaherty has met two kinds of producers. One works in the “talking about making movies” business. The other works in the making movies business. This seminar is for people in the second camp. Flaherty won’t just talk about movies—he’ll equip you with the tools you need to actually get them made. From budgets and casting to production timelines and distribution strategy, this is a hands-on, practical session for anyone ready to move from academic theory to on-set reality.
A talk that looks at how political and social forces have contributed and reinforced gender roles, inequalities and power dynamics down the years for Myanmar. It will travel back to the past to explore the structures of patriarchy and socialization which restricted women from attaining centralized leadership roles in the twin public domains of politics and religion, assess the messages of both female-empowerment and disempowerment that was represented by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as focus on the present - how women are taking the current political crisis as an opportunity to reshape the narrative of women’s role in society in addition to opposing the military takeover. Trends and pitfalls of the new era of female activism will be discussed and important insights into the debate on gender and political change in societies affected by conflict will be offered.
A principal needs to decide which of two parties deserves a prize. Each party privately observes the state of nature that determines which of them deserves the prize. The principal presents each party with a text that truthfully describes the conditions for deserving the prize and asks each of them what the state of nature is. The parties do not behave strategically and can lie by applying a cheating procedure which is known to the principal. We say that the principal “magically implements” his goal if he can come up with a pair of texts satisfying that in any dispute, he will recognize the cheater by applying the following rule: the truth is with the party satisfying that if his statement is true, then the other party (using the cheating procedure) could have cheated and made the statement he is making, but not the other way around. Several examples are presented to illustrate the concept
On 13-14 May, over 130 countries came together in Berlin for the UN Peacekeeping Ministerial to discuss the future of peacekeeping and to make concrete pledges to fund and support it. This panel will look at the outcomes of the Ministerial in the wider context of current international political and financial turbulence. It will consider: - How geopolitical tensions are impacting UN peacekeeping - What specific challenges the UN is facing and whether and how it can adapt to them - How key conflicts can be addressed going forward - What we can learn from member state engagement at the Ministerial
This talk will deal with optimization problems in a statistical learning setup where the learner has no access to unbiased estimators of the gradient of the objective function. It includes stochastic optimization with zero-order oracle, continuum bandit and contextual continuum bandit problems. I’ll give an overview of recent results on minimax optimal algorithms and fundamental limits for these problems.
Dr Yun earned a BSc in Molecular Biology from the University of Buenos Aires and a PhD in Genetics and Biochemistry from Cambridge University at the MRC-Laboratory of Molecular Biology, where she focused on the mechanisms underlying genome stability. During her doctoral studies she became interested in the control of cellular plasticity and thus joined Jeremy Brockes’ lab (University College London) where she begun to explore the mechanisms underlying regeneration of complex structures using salamanders as model organisms. Since September 2017 she is a group leader at CRTD-Center for Regenerative Therapies TU Dresden and Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Germany. Her current research leverages the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) and the Iberian ribbed newt (Pleurodeles waltl) systems to uncover fundamental principles of regeneration and ageing.
See https://www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/event/the-jowett-society-friday-week-6-tt25 for updates.
The Center for Digital Scholarship at the Weston Library can be accessed through the Gallery in the Reading Room on the first floor of the Weston Library. *_Booking is not required for those who have a Bodleian Library Reading Card._*
Join us at the Caribbean Oxford Initiative Showcase 2025, an exciting event celebrating the launch of the newly established Caribbean Oxford (CaribOx) Initiative. Guests will: Learn more about the vision and mission of CaribOx Meet the inaugural CaribOx Fellows and hear about the projects they are collaborating on at Oxford University Network with colleagues and guests over drinks TORCH is managing the pilot phase of the initiative, and has been excited to welcome the first recipients to Oxford this term. The visiting fellows this year are Professor Brandon Bethel, a marine oceanographer and Dr Grace Turner, an archaeologist and the Travel Grant recipient is Dr Nekeisha Spencer, an economist. At this event you will be able to hear about their research and what the fellowship has meant to them and their Oxford collaborators. While celebrating the start of the new scheme, there will be drinks and a chance to network.
TORCH is managing the pilot phase of the initiative, and has been excited to welcome the first recipients to Oxford this term. The visiting fellows this year are: *Professor Brandon Bethel*, a marine oceanographer *Dr Grace Turner*, an archaeologist *Dr Nekeisha Spencer*, an economist At this event you will be able to hear about their research and what the fellowship has meant to them and their Oxford collaborators. While celebrating the start of the new scheme, there will be drinks and a chance to network. Join us to: * Learn more about the vision and mission of CaribOx * Meet the inaugural CaribOx Fellows and hear about the projects they are collaborating on at Oxford * Find out more about upcoming opportunities * Network with colleagues and guests over drinks
As we listen to speech, our brains actively compute the meaning (semantics) of individual words. Inspired by the success of large language models (LLMs), we hypothesized that the brain employs vectorial coding principles for semantics. Just as LLMs represent meaning using patterns of numbers, we wondered if the brain might do something similar - using patterns of activity across many neurons to represent what words mean. To test this, we recorded from hundreds of individual neurons in the human hippocampus, a brain area known to support memory and meaning, while people listened to stories. We found that groups of neurons respond differently depending on a word’s meaning, especially when the meaning depends on the context of the sentence – just like how language models like BERT work. In contrast, models that ignore context, like Word2Vec, didn’t match brain patterns as well. Interestingly, we also saw that when two words are very similar in meaning, the brain sometimes makes their patterns more different, possibly to keep them from being confused. This kind of contrastive coding may help the brain sharpen subtle differences. We also found that words with more than one meaning (like “bank”) evoked a wider range of brain responses, highlighting the role of context even more. Overall, our results suggest that the human hippocampus encodes meaning using flexible, context-sensitive patterns similar to the vector-based systems used in modern AI.
Primary: William Morris, News from Nowhere (1890): Chapters 19-23 Supplementary: William Morris, ‘Makeshift’ (1894)
The Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit will be held by The University of Oxford and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Oxford from 4th to 7th June 2025. The summit seeks to place climate justice and human rights at the heart of global climate action by engaging activists and youth as pivotal agents of change. As part of this initiative, the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development and Somerville College will host a special event exploring the impact of climate change in conflict zones, with a particular focus on firsthand accounts from South Asia, Middle East and North Africa. The event is titled, In Between Climate Chaos and War and it will be held on 6th June 2025, Friday at the Flora Anderson Hall, Somerville College OX2 6HD. Our platform will deliberately shift from the rhetoric of 'climate change' to confront the stark reality of 'climate chaos'—acknowledging that we face a difficult transition through an unprecedented turbulence that defies conventional control. We will examine how climate chaos interweaves with human rights in our world's most vulnerable spaces. We turn our scholarly attention to regions where environmental devastation compounds human conflict—from Afghanistan to recently freed Syria —recognizing that climate chaos acts as both a catalyst and amplifier of human suffering in these fragile contexts. The event will feature three speakers who will bring their lived experience and expertise in addressing how climate chaos manifests itself in geopolitically fragile regions. Speakers: 1. Zodiac Maslin-Hahn, Director, Programme Development - Impact and Learning, Afghan Aid Zodiac is a programme development specialist with a Master of Social Science degree in Peace and Conflict Research. She has worked in relief and development in several conflict-affected countries in project management, monitoring, and research roles. Zodiac has been with Afghanaid since 2015, and has led the development of projects for our institutional donors including FCDO, the EU, UN agencies, SDC, and the World Bank. She says, “It is a privilege to work with colleagues who are so dedicated to delivering high quality programmes. Afghanaid’s commitment to innovation, impact measurement, and learning enables our department to develop new projects that build on past work, reflect the particular needs of the communities in which we work, and adapt to the evolving context in Afghanistan. 2. Dr Ammar Azouz, British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Somerville College, Oxford Ammar is a Research Fellow at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford. He is the Principal Investigator of Slow Violence and the City, a research project that examines the impact of violence on the built environment at the time of war and peace. Azzouz studied architecture in the city of Homs, Syria, where he was born and raised. Since the start of the Syrian Revolution, over half of the neighbourhoods of Homs has been destroyed. In 2011, he moved to the UK to complete his postgraduate studies and received his PhD from the University of Bath. Azzouz's first book, Domicide: Architecture, War and the Destruction of Home in Syria (Bloomsbury, 2023), offers fresh insights into the role of the architects during time of war. It explores how architecture is contested and weaponised during years of conflicts, and how the future reconstruction of cities should mirror the wants and needs of local communities. He visited Syria in 2025, after fourteen years and brings a perspective of how the nation recovers from a brutal regime’s rule and a region where world’s most powerful countries fight a proxy war. 3. Omnia Ibrahim Hafez El Omrani, Candidate for Master’s in Public Policy, University of Oxford Omnia is an Egyptian medical doctor with nine years of experience working on the intersection of climate change and health. She served as the first official Youth Envoy for the UN Climate Summit (COP27) to the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs, facilitating the participation of thousands of youth in climate negotiations, and was then appointed as the Health Envoy for COP28 UAE, where she co-chaired the first Ministerial on Climate and Health. Omnia has been a Climate and Health Policy Fellow at the Climate Cares Centre at Imperial College London, focusing on climate and mental health. She co-leads the Equity Group of the Lancet Commission on Viral Spillover Prevention and serves on two other Lancet Commissions. 'Apolitical' named Omnia one of 50 Gender Equality Gamechangers of 2024, and she was selected as the 2023 Women of the Future, 50 Rising Stars in ESG. Fast Company ME recognized Omnia as one of 35 Most Creative People in Business 2023. She has published 30 research papers and serves on advisory boards with philanthropies and policy. Omnia is a Reuben-Blavatnik scholar.
We are pleased to announce the schedule for the Oxford Tolkien Seminar in Trinity Term 2025. The seminar will be held at Magdalen College on Fridays at 5pm, in the Sophia Sheppard Room, except week 8 (see below). Please ask the porters for directions. Week 1: Grace O’Duffy (University of Oxford) ‘Middle-Earth Post-#MeToo’’ Week 2: Jolina Bradley (University of Oxford) ‘Tolkien and Arthurian Romance: The Interlace Structure of The Lord of the Rings’ Week 3: Gabriel Shenk (Signum University) ‘J.R.R. Tolkien at the BBC’ Week 4: Andoni Cossio (Basque Country) ‘Trees, Tales, and Tolkien: A Growing Environmental Consciousness from The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings’ Week 5: Giuseppe Pezzini (University of Oxford) ‘Tolkien and the Mystery of Literary Creation’ (Book launch) Week 6: Tom Emanuel (University of Glasgow) ‘Tolkien the post-Christian? A Proposition’ Week 7: Eliot Vale (University of Oxford) ‘Imitative Translations of Beowulf: Tolkien, Lehmann, and McCully’ Week 8: [SUMMER COMMON ROOM] Christopher Snyder (Mississippi State University) ‘The Sub-Creation Theory of J.R.R. Tolkien: Literary Criticism or Theology?’ We are also happy to let you know that the recordings of the MT and HT seminars are now are available on YouTube and/or The Fantasy Literature Podcast. For more information: tolkien50.web.ox.ac.uk/event/tolkien-50th-anniversary-seminar-series
Since the founding of the republic, India has been the largest democracy in the world. In many respects it was considered a model democracy owing to its ideals, such as a non-partisan Election Commission and free dialogue and debate. Its abiding features have been non-discriminatory management of diversity, concern for an equitable and equal society, and a profound reverence towards the country's founding document, the Constitution. Over the years, the tussle between historical reality and theoretical idealism ensured that at times the social contract was disrupted, with conflicts obstructing a complete achievement of democracy. Former chief election commissioner S.Y. Quraishi will discuss his recent book, India's Experiment With Democracy, which examines key questions that face India today: What foundational principles must be definitive to our ideas of nationhood, citizenship and democracy? How may we enliven our national discourse with a renewed spirit of inquiry and imaginative erudition, and mid-course correction? Ultimately, the underlying thrust of this book is to posit reasoned argumentation, objective enquiry, secularism, civil liberty and compassion as indispensable features of a democracy. About the speaker: Dr S. Y. Quraishi served as the 17th Chief Election Commissioner of India from July 30, 2010, to June 10, 2012. A 1971-batch officer of the Indian Administrative Service, he has held several key positions in the Government of India. Dr Quraishi was featured in The Indian Express list of the 100 Most Powerful Indians in 2011 and 2012, and in India Today’s High and Mighty Power List in 2012. Before joining the Election Commission, he served as Secretary in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, and as Special Secretary (Health) and Director General of the National AIDS Control Organization. He pioneered India’s biggest AIDS awareness and IEC campaign, ‘Universities Talk AIDS’. Dr Quraishi has represented India as an international observer over the years in elections held in South Africa, Russia, Azerbaijan, Mozambique, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Kenya. In 2018, he was appointed Global Ambassador of Democracy by International IDEA (Institute of Democracy and Electoral Assistance), alongside the late Kofi Annan. He has authored numerous books and articles on democracy, elections, HIV/AIDS, family planning, social marketing, women and child development, and youth. His acclaimed book An Undocumented Wonder: The Making of the Great Indian Election is now in its seventh edition. He is currently Chancellor Emeritus of IILM University, Gurgaon.
Talk: “Counterrevolutionary Subordination in Trump’s America” The speaker will reflect on how the Trump Administration’s current crackdowns on voices of dissent in the United States reflect an approach to politics that is “counterrevolutionary” in nature. To do so, he will draw on the political thought and writings of former United Nations Diplomat and Irish Statesman, Conor Cruise O’Brien (1917-2008), a critic of similar forms of censorship in his time. He will suggest that Trump’s attacks on higher education and protestors might have more in common with Maoism – and other forms of subversive revolutionary practice – than they do with any coherent tradition of conservative political thought. (Certainly, any kind that can seriously be traced back to Edmund Burke, the fiercest critique of the French Revolution, from whom the conservative tradition apparently evolves.) Trump’s actions are, in fact, anti-conservative in a way that illuminates the current state of de-definition under which the Trump Administration labours to the contradiction of American liberalism; construed, as it can be, as being about restraints on arbitrary power. Speaker biography: Jack Jacobs is pursuing DPhil in Intellectual History, generously supported by a Ramsay Postgraduate World Scholarship from Australia. His research examines why and how Western intellectuals engaged with the possibilities (and limitations) of Gandhian non-violence before the rise of totalitarianism as the world-problem of the 1930s. Beyond academic life, Jack hosts “In Conversation with Jack Jacobs,” exploring the intersection of intellectual history and contemporary politics. Previous guests include: David Bromwich, John Dunn, Linda Colley, Sylvana Tomaselli, Michael Ignatieff, Iain McGilchrist, Richard Bourke, and Uday Mehta. Jack is a writer and contributes to literary and political magazines worldwide. He regularly shares his ongoing work—including his podcast interviews and essays—on his Substack. The talk will be in the Mawby room, Kellogg College in person. If you are unable to attend, please email events@kellogg.ox.ac.uk If you have any questions please email the MCR Diversity and Inclusion Officer sharvi.maheshwari@theology.ox.ac.uk
With Emilie Capulet (Keble College and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance) John Rogers (viola and violin) Sandra Porter (mezzo-soprano) The Corsican-French composer Henri Tomasi (1901-1971) lived through some of the most momentous political, social and technological upheavals of the 20th century. Born into the Corsican diaspora of Marseille, torn by the tragedies and destruction of war, campaigning against the ravages of oppression, passionate about the redemptive and cathartic power of music in the struggle for the liberation of the human condition, Tomasi dedicated himself throughout his life to fighting for the freedom of the human spirit through music and art. In this lecture-recital, we will discover his multifaceted character and wide-ranging interests, reflected in the diversity of the genres and styles he engaged with in his extensive compositional output, including operas, orchestral works, concertos, ballets, choral scores, instrumental music, chamber music, radiophonic works and film scores. Organised in collaboration with Keble College.
Join Chantal Meza and renowned art critic and journalist Will Gompertz as they discuss the meaning behind her latest exhibition and the possibilities for art when facing atrocity and the disappearance of worlds. The launch will be officially opened by the Master of Pembroke College, The Rt Hon Sir Ernest Ryder. The Disappearance of Worlds exhibition will showcase the work of Mexican painter Chantal Meza, whose work for the past decade has confronted the violence, terror, and the complexities of disappearance in both a human and ecological context. Complementing the exhibition will be a series of public talks from world-leading authorities exploring the multiple ways disappearance occurs and the possibilities for response. The programme is led by the Pembroke College JCR Art Collection; Pembroke College, University of Oxford; The FOUND Project; the Centre for the Study of Violence at the University of Bath; and the Oxford Festival of the Arts, in partnership with other supporting global partners and institutions.
Designed for present and past medical students, doctors in training and other healthcare professionals, this seminar will focus on personal qualities and managing services. It will also include developing self-awareness, managing yourself, building and maintaining relationships, developing networks, working with teams and managing people.
This conference will examine the history of measurement, starting from the ancient world and following the evolution of measuring methodologies and the development of measuring instruments over the eras up to the present day. It will discuss the establishment of the metric system and consider examples of famous experiments across the centuries. The conference will conclude with a philosophical perspective on measurement. All details and weblinks to register for the conference to attend in person or online are given on the webpage here: https://www.stx.ox.ac.uk/event/happ-one-day-conference-measure-for-measure
The issue of disappearance has a devastating impact on families and entire communities. Often it is left up to loved ones to conduct the searches, in the absences of state action and response. In this talk we will hear from Lizet and Carmen Cardona of the Mexican organisation, Corazones Robados Searching Mothers' Collective, who will speak of the struggles and challenges search collectives face in their attempts to find those taken and search for justice. The Disappearance of Worlds exhibition will showcase the work of Mexican painter Chantal Meza, whose work for the past decade has confronted the violence, terror, and the complexities of disappearance in both a human and ecological context. Complementing the exhibition will be a series of public talks from world-leading authorities exploring the multiple ways disappearance occurs and the possibilities for response. The programme is led by the Pembroke College JCR Art Collection; Pembroke College, University of Oxford; The FOUND Project; the Centre for the Study of Violence at the University of Bath; and the Oxford Festival of the Arts, in partnership with other supporting global partners and institutions.
IDEAL 2025 is an exciting event where experts in the field will come together to discuss the latest advancements in surgical research. Join us at the Houston Methodist Research Institute for a day filled with insightful presentations, interactive workshops, and networking opportunities. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or a student interested in the field, this event is perfect for anyone looking to stay up-to-date with the latest trends in surgical research. Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to learn from the best in the industry!
9th-11th June 2025 Registration is now open Queen Mary University of London The Erlangen AI Hub conference will bring together leading minds from across the UK’s mathematical, algorithmic and computational communities to advance the application of pure mathematics in AI. Join us at Queen Mary University of London from 9th-11th June and be a part of our exciting programme that aims to unite and revolutionise the field, to establish the mathematical foundations of AI and to then unlock new and improved AI systems. Registration includes access to a series of plenary and short talks across the three-day event. Lunch and refreshments will also be provided. We are inviting submissions for poster presentations for a limited number of posters. They will be presented on the 1st day of our conference, Monday 9th of June. Poster topics should be accessible to both academia and industry and ideally, will showcase unconventional mathematical techniques applied to problems in machine learning theory and AI practice. You will be required to print and bring your own poster (standard A0 size, in portrait layout). The organising team will set them up in the morning of the 10th of June (or earlier, if you plan to attend the whole conference) and they will be visible throughout the day (or whole conference). The poster session will take place from 4pm-5pm on the 9th of June where poster presenters will be expected to stand by and present their work. Please send a title and abstract of your poster to erlangenhub@cs.ox.ac.uk. Deadline for submissions: Monday 19 May 2025. The conference will take place in the Maths Building, Queen Mary University of London from 9-11 June 2025.
Are you looking to learn about the ways in which to transmit scientific ideas and make your research accessible to a non-specialist audience through a variety of mediums? This session will serve as an introduction to science communication and how it can be successfully incorporated into our roles. By the end of this session you will be able to: define science communication and provide a list of examples; explain why science communication is important for both our CPD and the public; and list ways in which we can all get involved in science communication. Intended audience: Students, staff and researchers from MSD and OUH.
The chairs of the latest Lancet One Health Commission report, Prof Andrea Winkler and Prof John Amuasi, are visiting Oxford to pre-launch the Lancet One Health Commission report. The event will offer an opportunity to explore some of the gaps, questions, and emerging priorities in One Health. The event will bring together experts and practitioners for an open and engaging conversation on how current approaches to health can evolve to better respond to the complex realities we face today. The event will encourage participants to reflect on what is missing in current One Health thinking and practice, where deeper integration is needed, and how future efforts can build more inclusive, responsive, and impactful solutions. AGENDA 10.00-10.05: Welcoming remarks Andrew Farlow, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, organiser of the symposium Craig Maclean, Professor of Evolution and Microbiology, Senior Research Fellow, All Souls College 10.05-10.15: Introductory remarks to frame the symposium Andrea Winkler, Co(joint)-Chair of the Lancet One Health Commission John Amuasi, Co(joint)-Chair of the Lancet One Health Commission 10.15-11.00: PANEL 1, Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, One Health genomics, burden measurement and dynamics Moderator: Sir Peter Horby, Director, Pandemic Sciences Institute, Oxford Gunnveig Grødeland, University of Oslo, Centre for Pandemic and One-Health Research Lothar Wieler, Hasso Plattner Institute, Potsdam, Germany, Digital Health Cluster David Aanensen, University of Oxford, Pandemic Sciences Institute, and Centre for Genomic Pathogen Surveillance John Amuasi, Co(joint)-Chair of the Lancet One Health Commission Ben Cooper, University of Oxford, Nuffield Department of Medicine 11.00-11.45: PANEL 2, One Health approaches to infection prevention and control, One Health surveillance, drivers of risk across all One Health sectors Moderator: John Amuasi, Co(joint)-Chair of the Lancet One Health Commission Tim Eckmanns, Robert Koch Institute (RKI) Berlin, and WHO Collaborating Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance, Consumption and Health Care-Associated Infections Christiane Dolecek, University of Oxford, Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health Nicole Stoesser, University of Oxford, Nuffield Department of Medicine, Experimental Medicine Division Rachel Tanner, University of Oxford, Department of Biology Koen Pouwels, University of Oxford, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences 11.45-12.30: PANEL 3, One Health perspectives on the value of nature for human health, non-communicable diseases, food, nutrition and well-being Moderator: Andrew Farlow, University of Oxford Chioma Achi, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Mahmoud Eltholth, Royal Holloway, University of London Henry Dimbleby (online), Author National Food Strategy, and ‘Ravenous’ (2023) Jennifer Cole, Royal Holloway University of London, Department of Health Studies Barbara Haesler, Royal Veterinary College, University of London 12.30-13.30: Lunch break in town 13.30-14.15: PANEL 4, Climate change, air and water quality, impacts on microbiomes and the health of animals and humans Moderator: Andrea Winkler, Co(joint)-Chair of the Lancet One Health Commission Paul Kadetz, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, Institute for Global Health and Development William Gaze, University of Exeter, Environment and Sustainability Institute, and Department of Public Health and Sport Sciences Hermine Mkrtchyan, University of West London, School of Biomedical Sciences, Centre for Innovation in Genomics and Microbiome Sciences Alan Stein, University of Oxford, Blavatnik School of Government 14.15-15.00: PANEL 5, Governance – operationalisation, implementation, and institutionalisation of One Health approaches, including gender equity in One Health Moderator: Lothar Wieler, Chair of the Digital Health Cluster, Hasso Plattner Institute, Potsdam, Germany, and Former President of Robert Koch Institute, Germany Kirsty Sands, University of Oxford, Department of Biology Tamarie Rocke (online), AMR Division, WHO, Geneva Switzerland Yuzana Khine Zaw, University of Oxford (associated) Andrea Winkler, Co(joint)-Chair of the Lancet One Health Commission 15.00-15.30: Discussion across all themes covered today, with wrap-up conclusions and observations from the Chairs of the Lancet One Health Commission 16.00 onwards: Conversations and collaboration-building We will disburse to a local pub, or pubs, which will be announced on the day according to weather conditions.
This paper studies the relationship between economic prosperity and religion through the lens of social norms. In a social equilibrium framework, where a society is one realization of many possible equilibria, we model how the Albanian government increased female participation in education and employment by changing the social equilibrium through credibly committing to communist ideals. This shift was accomplished by declaring Albania the First Atheist country in the world in 1967 and the de-sanctification of its religious buildings, excluding those deemed national cultural monuments 20 years prior. Exploiting this unique natural experiment, we use this variation in spared buildings to measure the credibility of the government’s commitment to female emancipation in each municipality. In doing so, our main focus is on citizens’ faith in the state’s commitment, rather than their faith in religion. Using forty years of hand-transcribed administrative data, we show that in the decades following the reform, municipalities in which all religious buildings were de-sanctified experienced higher growth in female schooling, labor market participation, and production. Supplementary analysis, exploiting the Demographic and Health Survey data on social norms, shows that the reform has had lasting improvement of female empowerment. We argue that the Albanian government changed social norms through the banning of religion to achieve their policy goals.
Recording cell–cell interactions in vivo and isolating live interacting cell partners for downstream analysis holds immense potential for understanding how the immune system engages with tumours. Application of LIPSTIC (Labelling Immune Partnerships by SorTagging Intercellular Contacts) in tumour-bearing models has revealed a previously uncharacterised subpopulation of dendritic cells (DCs). These DCs engage directly with T cells, display a distinct transcriptomic signature, and possess enhanced T cell priming capacity. Notably, this subset also shows heightened responsiveness to immune checkpoint blockade therapy, underscoring its critical role in shaping effective anti-tumour immunity. As tumour–immune interactions can also promote immunosuppression, ongoing work employs LIPSTIC to map the tumour–immune interactome, offering insights into immune evasion and guiding strategies to enhance anti-tumour responses.
Drawing on a comparative study of four world-historical cohorts of resistance movements, and building upon research across the social sciences and humanities, I offer a new theoretical model of resistance movements as a distinctive object of social scientific study, showing how they can be meaningfully differentiated from other contentious political phenomena by their programmatic objectives and processual patterns, and how we can generate useful scholarly knowledge using this differentiation. Tracing and comparing the African anti-colonial movements of the turn of the 20th century, the anti-Fascist movements of the mid 20th century, and the anti-Soviet movements of the latter 20th century, as well as contemporary resistance to democratic authoritarianism, the I analyse three distinctive structural tendencies which have routinely characterised the ‘modern resistance movements’ of the past century and a half: pervasiveness, irregularity, and volatility. Please join either in person or online. For in-person attendees, the talk will be preceded by a light lunch at 12.15pm. Please email comms@sociology.ox.ac.uk with any questions.
To optimise learning in education remains an ongoing challenge. This study aims to identify an indicator for learning from physiological data, developing a quantitative video data analysis to link sensory input and movement to learning through sympathetic activation. Such measures are believed to help improve teaching quality by enabling assessment of different instructional activities, even within one lesson, due to the high temporal resolution. More specifically, this is done by quantifying brightness, brightness change, loudness, and AI-estimated movement from video data and validating their predictive power for electrodermal activity (EDA). EDA is a well-known indicator of sympathetic activation, i.e., the system behind the ‘fight or flight’ response. To this end, pre/post-tests, video, and EDA data were collected from 12 students (17-18 y) taking part in a physics lesson where instructional activities were varied and in a laboratory experiment with 100 students (12-21 y) watching two different versions of one instructional video, which only differed in strength of sensory input. Findings indicate a causal relationship between sensory input and sympathetic activation. Moreover, an EDA variable correlating with learning was identified and found to vary according to different instructional activities and could be predicted by sensory input strength but not movement. These findings imply that video data can be used to assess sensory input and movement, whilst EDA measures can inform research on student learning. Both measures work on short timescales, making them appropriate for comparing different instructional activities within school lessons. Join on Teams: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_OTNiZGM1MzItOTcwOS00YThjLWJmYTAtZGFjZGM1YzkyNjQw%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%2275f39f15-fefd-45cf-b904-2e2174db4aa1%22%7d
THIS MEETING WILL BE POSTPONED DUE TO SPEAKER AVAILABILITY. This is a hybrid meeting, in person in the Richard Doll Lecture Theatre and via Zoom. To join via Zoom, please register in advance for this meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/d0XUvPTxTIyyxMUXYYyOSw After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
We’re delighted to have two speaker’s for this year’s OII Pride lecture! Please join us at Wadham College or via Zoom for talks by Dr Madeleine Steeds and Dr Rebecca Swift. Schedule 1:00-2:00pm Keynote Speech: “Queer Joy as a Digital Good: Centring Joy in Research” by Dr Madeleine Steeds 2:00-2:30pm Tea/coffee break 2:30-3:30pm “Visual depictions of genders – Is advertising imagery getting any better?” by Dr Rebecca Swift 3:30-4:30pm Drinks reception and nibbles Queer Joy as a Digital Good: Centring Joy in Research The expression of joy, particularly for queer and otherwise marginalised groups, can serve as an act of resistance in an increasingly divisive political landscape. Our project “Queer Joy as a Digital Good” foregrounds joy as a practice of personal and collective resistance, and we seek to understand how this is platformed and facilitated in online platforms. This talk will discuss our findings on how queer joy is expressed in online spaces, and the barriers to that expression. We’ll also discuss experiences of conducting joyful research in the current political landscape. Dr Madeleine Steeds is an assistant professor in the school of Information and Communication Studies at University College Dublin. Their research explores how identities expressed online. They are also interested in how identity is assigned to technology, and how associations made with these identities may bias cognitive processes. Visual depictions of genders – Is advertising imagery getting any better? Dr Swift will present the global research that we are conducting at Getty Images into how gender is represented using data analysis and content analysis. The talk will cover the historical view (where representation has evolved from) to the present day (where we are now) and will share the results of our multi-year research into depictions of masculinity, recent research into depictions of the LGBTQ+ community and how the research is being adopted in commercial practice. Dr Rebecca Swift is a world-leading creative expert who has pioneered visual insights. As Senior Vice President, Creative, at Getty Images, Rebecca directs the company’s creative insights and creation of imagery and video used in award-winning advertising, design and editorial around the world. Working closely with creators, art directors and creative researchers globally, Rebecca plays a critical role in ensuring that Getty Images is continually providing fresh, relevant creative content and insights, which in turn engages and inspires creatives and marketers around the world. Her foresight into cultural and societal trends that shape visual communications drives Getty Images’ creative offering. Rebecca joined the photography industry over 20 years ago and was one of the founding members of the creative research team at Getty Images, introducing visual research methodology to the industry. One area of visual communication Rebecca is particularly passionate about is evolving visual representation. Rebecca is personally responsible for driving change in visual language depicting women and girls, which she has done by rewriting the visual standards of commercial imagery depicting this group and briefing Getty Images’ contributing photographers against these new visual standards. Most recently she has turned her attention to addressing authentic and diverse representations of people with disabilities and moving the visual language about aging forward. In 2020, Rebecca was recognized as one of AdAge’s “20 Women to Watch” and is Campaign magazine’s Female Frontier honouree. She was awarded the “Most Influential Leader in UK Visual Media” in 2020 at the Corporate Excellence Awards. Rebecca has a PhD in Photography. Her research expertise is in commercial creativity and the evolution of visual trends in advertising.
Tuberculosis (TB) has claimed more than 1 billion human lives in the past 250 years and remains the leading cause of death from an infectious disease. TB was the first disease for which combination therapy was adopted and the current standard of care, introduced in the 1980s, is a four-drug regimen administered for 6 months for drug-susceptible TB. This regimen is menaced by wide-spread resistance and drug-related side-effects. Drug-resistant TB previously required an ad hoc treatment lasting 18 months or more, however, a better, shorter treatment became available thanks to the approval of bedaquiline, a new drug with a novel mechanism of action. There are currently 20 TB drug candidates in clinical trials and the hope of a new combination treatment for all forms of TB is thus real. This hope will be reviewed and critically appraised in my presentation. Bio Professor Sir Stewart Cole KCMG FRS Institut Pasteur, Paris AND Ineos Oxford Institute Stewart Cole is an internationally renowned microbiologist working in global health. He has made outstanding contributions to HIV and HPV genomics, and antimicrobial resistance research. However, he is most highly acclaimed for his pioneering work on the pathogenicity, evolution and genomics of the mycobacteria responsible for tuberculosis (TB) and leprosy. His team harnessed genome-derived information to accelerate TB drug and vaccine discovery and development. Candidate drugs that arose from his work are currently in clinical trials. Throughout his career he has strived to translate findings from his discovery research into interventions that benefit human health. Professor Cole is a past president of the Institut Pasteur, Paris, having previously led the Global Health Institute at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. He is currently the executive chair of the Ineos Oxford Institute for antimicrobial research and academic leader of the IHI-funded consortium, ERA4TB, the European regimen accelerator for tuberculosis.
Religion, Speech, Vulnerability: A Transatlantic Conference Bringing together leading experts from politics, philosophy, and law from both the USA and Europe, this conference will explore a range of pressing normative issues regarding the interactions between religion, speech, and political and social vulnerability. The conference follows on from highly successful predecessors held in 2023 and 2024. Places are limited, so please register if you wish to attend, by completing the form here: https://forms.gle/EZMpkGr3cNH4zVRV8 Speakers: Larry Sager (Texas), Nelson Tebbe (Cornell), Rebecca Aviel (Denver), Amy Sepinwall (Pennsylvania), Maxime Lepoutre (Reading), Gideon Elford (Oxford), Steven T. Collis (Texas), Corey Brettschneider (Brown), Louise Melling (Yale), Susanna Mancini (Bologna), Emily McTernan (UCL), David H. Schraub (Lewis & Clark), Nicholas Hatzis (Nottingham) Any queries should be directed to the conference assistant, Jacob Williams (jacob.williams@gtc.ox.ac.uk)
Curious about AI but don’t code? 🤔 Join us for a hands-on workshop exploring AI for Humanists – no programming required! Learn how no-code/ low-code tools can help transcribe manuscripts, analyse interviews, and unlock new research possibilities in the humanities. Discover how AI can power your next project – and help you pitch it too. 📍 Hosted by Digital Scholarship @ Oxford
Let $K(n)$ be the complete 2-dimensional simplicial complex on $n$ vertices. Give each triangle of $K(n)$ a uniformly random area in [0,1], independently from other triangles. What is the (random) total area of a subcomplex of $K(n)$ that contains all vertices and is homeomorphic to the 2-sphere? We determine its order of magnitude, but many questions remain. This problem can be thought of as the 2-dimensional analogue of the Random Travelling Salesman Problem. But unlike its 1-dimensional counterpart, the area-minimiser comes with interesting geometry: it defines a random triangulation of the 2-sphere. Such random geometries have attracted a lot of interest from mathematicians and physicists following deep results of Angel & Schramm, Le Gall, Miermont, Miller & Sheffield, and others. I will survey this area and pose some open problems connecting the latter with our model. Joint work with John Haslegrave and Joel Larsson Danielsson.
Peter Ly received his B.A. in Biology from Baylor University and Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from UT Southwestern Medical Center. During graduate training with Jerry Shay and Woodring Wright, he studied how aneuploidy – an abnormal number of chromosomes – promotes malignant transformation. He conducted postdoctoral training at the University of California San Diego and Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research with Don Cleveland, where he developed chromosome-specific mis-segregation approaches to reconstruct the mechanisms leading to complex genomic rearrangements. In 2019, Dr. Ly joined the faculty of UT Southwestern Medical Center as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology and CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research. He holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Cell Biology and is a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center as part of the Cellular Networks in Cancer Program. He has been a member of the American Society for Cell Biology since 2013.
The overlapping incidence of poverty and climate damages globally raises the question of whether and how poverty makes people more vulnerable to worsening weather shocks. To study this question, we overlay high-resolution, satellite-based drought and flood measures on household survey panel data from the randomized evaluation of a flagship anti-poverty graduation program in Bangladesh. The comparison of households that were equally poor before a randomly chosen group of them were given the graduation program reveals that the poorest bear the brunt of negative consumption impacts from unpredictable weather shocks. Those lifted out of poverty by the program do not reduce consumption and this protection is sustainable because it is achieved by diversifying labor activities rather than divesting assets. Programs that diversify income generating activities are thus a promising means of enhancing the climate resilience of the extreme poor and avoiding adding to their numbers in the future.
Do you want to make sure your work is ‘REFable’ per the new REF open access requirements? In this focused online briefing, we will: step you through the changes and new requirements; provide links to further REF information and guidance; let you know where to find help at Oxford; and answer as many questions as we can. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers, other staff.
ABSTRACT: When interacting with complex environments, humans can rapidly adapt their behavior in response to changes in task or context. To facilitate this adaptation, people often spend substantial periods of time contemplating possible futures before acting. In this talk, I will present empirical and modeling work exploring the critical balance between thinking and acting, and the factors affecting the content of our thoughts when we are making a decision. First, I'll introduce a recurrent neural network model that learns when planning is beneficial, explaining variations in human thinking times and patterns observed in rodent hippocampal activity during navigation. Second, I'll discuss how meta-learning enables neural networks to discover human-like planning strategies that blend elements of tree search and rollout algorithms. Finally, I'll examine how working memory constraints shape reward encoding during sequential planning, revealing how humans strategically allocate cognitive resources based on decision relevance. Across these studies, recurrent neural networks emerge as powerful models for capturing the dynamic, iterative nature of human planning processes and their implementation in brain circuits ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Prof Marcelo Mattar is an Assistant Professor at New York University's Department of Psychology and the Neuroscience Institute. He holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, where he also earned a Master's in Statistics. His academic journey includes a Bachelor's in Electronics Engineering from the Aeronautics Institute of Technology in Brazil. Prior to his current role, Prof. Mattar was a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University under the mentorship of Nathaniel Daw and at the University of Cambridge's Department of Engineering, working with Mate Lengyel. His research integrates neuroscience, psychology, and computational modelling to explore how the brain supports flexible decision-making. Focusing on the interplay between learning, memory, and planning, Prof Mattar's work aims to understand how the brain learns internal models from experience and simulates future scenarios to guide decision-making.
Speakers: Anupam Debashis Roy (Department of Sociology, University of Oxford), Arif Sohel (Ex-Member Secretary, Students Against Discrimination), Taposhi Dey Prapti (Independent Student Leader), Umama Fatema (Students Against Discrimination) Chair: Dr David Jackman (ODID)
This talk challenges two myths about Indian liberalism. The first is that Indian liberalism is "a sensibility rather than a theory." The second is that Indian liberals "collaborated" with the British Raj. Both of these views are mistaken, as I will show by examining Letters to an Indian Raja (1891), the first work of political theory published in modern India. This long-lost work reveals that Indian liberalism was a form of liberal perfectionism—the view that political authority should be exercised paternalistically to promote a liberal vision of human flourishing. This vision sought to liberate individuals from various debilitating forces, including unthinking tradition, gross ignorance, and destructive greed. Furthermore, far from justifying British rule, Letters to an Indian Raja aimed to make the Native States less susceptible to both domineering Britons and despotic Maharajas. In sum, this talk suggests that the two myths surrounding Indian liberalism are the result of scholars focusing on the wrong people and the wrong place. By focusing on the grievances raised and compromises made by liberals in British India, they have overlooked what Indian liberals imagined and tried to do in Indian India. Rahul Sagar is a Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Professor at Princeton University and Global Network Associate Professor at NYU Abu Dhabi. His most recent books include The Progressive Maharaja: Sir Madhava Rao’s Hints on the Art and Science of Government (2022) and Krishna Kumari: The Tragedy of India (2024).
In medieval universities, astronomy and astrology were taught as part of the mathematical sciences (_quadrivium_) in the Faculty of Arts curriculum. As shown by the official statutes, there was a relative marginalization of the teaching of mathematics compared to natural philosophy at the University of Paris and Oxford. However, this does not accurately reflect the actual transmission of scientific knowledge within the university setting at that time. As will be demonstrated in this paper, a teaching did take place, but outside of the established framework and encompassed two types of learning. The first type was confined to introductory or elementary texts and was predominantly intended for the Faculty of Arts. Concurrent with this propaedeutic learning was the more expert practice of the science of the stars by masters experienced in the subject and pursuing studies in one of the three higher faculties, most often the faculties of theology and medicine. These medieval scholars collaborated with one another, transmitting their knowledge to disciples and producing astronomical and astrological texts of a high level of expertise. This paper will examine the ways in which astronomy and astrology were learned and practiced in these two different settings, with a special focus on groups of medieval scholars, experts in the _cientia stellarum_. *Dr Laure Miolo* is currently the Lyell Fellow in Latin Palaeography and Dilts Fellow at Lincoln College. She teaches Latin and French palaeography, diplomatic and manuscript studies at the University of Oxford. Her research concentrates on manuscript production and use, their scribes, scripts and contents, and the history of medieval libraries, with a particular focus on scientific books and practices. She is particularly interested in the production and circulation of scientific manuscripts in medieval universities. She has published a number of articles on the subject. Amongst her more recent publications is the co-edition of a special issue of the Cahiers de recherches médiévales et humanistes dedicated to the relationship between astronomy and astrology in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Her book on the scientific collection of the early collège de Sorbonne (1257–1500) will be published in 2026 by Brepols.
Understanding how brain activity is related to animal behavior requires measuring multi-area interactions on timescales ranging from milliseconds to months. However, methods to perform long-term, electrical recordings are not optimized to record from many brain areas simultaneously. Here, we introduce the indie (independent dovetail implants for electrophysiology), a novel approach for multi-probe chronic probe implantation that enables flexible, simultaneous interrogation of neural activity from many brain regions during head restrained or freely moving behavior. The approach enables repeated retrieval and reimplantation of probes and can be combined with other modalities such as skull clearing for cortex wide optical access and optic fibers for optogenetics. Using the indie, we implanted 6 probes chronically in one hemisphere of the mouse brain and obtained stable single-unit recordings for over 1 year. The implant is lightweight, allows flexible targeting with different implantation angles, and offers enhanced stability. We validate the approach by comparing longitudinal drift and unit yield with acute recordings and irretrievably cemented probes. In a freely moving preparation, we implant up to 4 probes in freely moving mice without impacting open-field exploratory behaviors. We then performed multi-region, chronic recordings as mice learned a visual decision-making task and characterized the evolution of choice information and inter-region interactions over learning. Thus, our approach broadens the applications of chronic recording while retaining its main advantages over acute recordings (superior stability, longitudinal monitoring of activity and freely moving interrogations) and provides an appealing venue to study processes not accessible by acute methods, such as the neural substrate of learning across multiple areas.
A wide range of items are now recognised as “dual use”, capable of being employed for both civil and military purposes. From drones, robots, and software including AI to chemical and biological tools, the term has evolved beyond its original post-World War 2 meaning as a category of nuclear materials that could serve both the energy sector and the development of nuclear weapons. Today, anything is a weapon and may be used as such, especially in hybrid warfare. We live in an era when countless technologies can be used with benign or hostile intent, and when the governance mechanisms of global trade are being shaken under heightened geopolitical tensions. Under such circumstances, innovation, application, and regulation all become increasingly fraught. Businesses may find themselves drawn into new dilemmas if their technology is turned to malign ends, or seek opportunities that arise from a new era of dual use. Governments must act judiciously in an age when many items may be weaponised against them…or by them. Kathleen M. Vogel is Professor at Arizona State University’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society and a Senior Global Futures Scientist. With a Ph.D. in bio-physical chemistry from Princeton, she has served as a Jefferson Science Fellow and William C. Foster Fellow at the U.S. Department of State. Her research focuses on knowledge production in security and intelligence. Taskeen Ali is a Space Market Development Expert at the European Space Agency and a recognized thought leader across institutions including the UK Parliament, UN, and OECD. She also teaches in executive programs and the MBA at the University of Oxford. Peter Scoblic is the Sam Nunn Distinguished Fellow at the Nuclear Threat Initiative and is writing a history of decision-making. A senior fellow at New America and associate at CSIS, he was previously executive editor of The New Republic and Foreign Policy, and served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Ryan Ramsey is COO of First Light Fusion, a UK inertial fusion company. A former Royal Navy submarine captain, he has held senior roles at National Grid and Shell, and has worked with the US and Dutch navies and counter-terrorism forces. Moderator: Dr. Matt Finch is an Associate Fellow at Oxford’s Saïd Business School and adviser to the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group for Future Generations. He served on ENISA’s Strategic Foresight group and is part of Australia’s National Security College Futures Council.
Baillie Gifford Distinguished Speaker Series In this talk, Sir Danny Alexander will discuss lessons from establishing the AIIB. Drawing on his experience in the UK government and 9 years in Beijing founding and leading the Bank, he will discuss the process of establishing the AIIB, how it has become established as an international institution and as a financier, and the lessons from this for the development of the multilateral system and for meeting current global development challenges. Sir Danny Alexander joined HSBC in November 2024 and is CEO of HSBC Infrastructure Finance and Sustainability, Corporate and Institutional Banking. In this role, Sir Danny leads on infrastructure and export finance and project finance advisory opportunities with a focus on the transition to net zero in HSBC’s strategic markets. He also leads on sustainable finance and clean tech initiatives and oversees partnerships such as Pentagreen Capital, HSBC’s joint venture with Temasek that targets marginally bankable clean energy and adaptation projects in Southeast Asia. Previously Sir Danny was Vice President, Policy and Strategy, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). He joined the AIIB – the first new multilateral development bank of the 21st century and the first to be headquartered in Beijing ‒ at its inception in 2016 and led the Bank through its start-up and growth phases. Sir Danny was responsible for AIIB’s strategic direction, including its thematic sectoral and country priorities. He led the Bank’s ambitious climate agenda and oversaw AIIB’s environmental and social and other operational policies. He represented AIIB at the G20 Finance Ministers meetings, climate COPs, and other international meetings. He led the Bank’s partnership with the World Bank and other multilateral, bilateral, and private sector partners. From 2010-2015, Sir Danny was Chief Secretary to the Treasury in the United Kingdom Cabinet. He led the Liberal Democrat negotiating team that established the Coalition that governed in that period, and was one of the four member ‘Quad’ that provided the core political leadership of that government. In government, he was responsible for the UK’s deficit reduction, pension reform, and national infrastructure plan. He was a member of the National Security Council. He was MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey from 2005 to 2015. He was Knighted by Her Majesty the Queen in 2015 for his services to government. He holds a BA in philosophy, politics and economics from the University of Oxford and is an honorary fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford. He was born and brought up in the Highlands and islands of Scotland.
The departure of the UK from the European Union in January 2020 has had a profound effect on the UK’s higher education sector. This has been particularly marked in relation to the international mobilities of students – both into the UK, and from the UK to other nations. The UK left the European Union’s Erasmus+ mobility programme, replacing it with its own ‘Turing Scheme’, while EU students moving to the UK, to study for the whole of a degree, became liable for full international fees (rather than the much lower ‘domestic’ fees that they paid prior to Brexit). Drawing on various sources of empirical data, this lecture will explore the nature and impact of ‘post-Brexit’ student mobilities. It will consider changing patterns of inward and outward mobility – as part of short-term schemes as well as for the whole of a degree – and how these articulate with government policy and discourse. It will also document the rise of various new mobility infrastructures related to post-Brexit student mobilities. Register here for online attendance: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/f01a78e2-bff3-461e-8cd4-6bbb4ce4179f@cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91
Join us for a feast of ideas about the future of food, and a discussion about the diverse research skills needed to drive forward the next food revolution. We'll be hearing from Future of Food professionals - from researchers to founders and key players in the Food Tech industry – at pioneering companies including, Multus Media, Hoxton Farms, FermTech and Ivy Farms. Whether you're a student, researcher, or simply curious about what to expect on your dinner plate in the next 5-years, everyone is welcome. After the panel discussion, you’ll have chance to sample some of Somerville’s finest vegan/vegetarian food and network with speakers to hear about careers at the frontier of food science. 17:30-19:15 Talks and panel discussion 19:15-20:00 Canapés and careers networking Expect a tantalising conversation on innovative marketing, sustainability, and the science behind tomorrow’s dinner plates. Don’t miss it, sign up now!
Join Steve Crawshaw in conversation with David Isaac as he discusses his latest book on the pursuit of international justice. Steve Crawshaw studied Russian and German at Worcester College and went on to become Russia & East Europe Editor, Chief Foreign Correspondent and other roles at the newly formed Independent. In 2002 he joined Human Rights Watch as the organisation’s first UK director, and moved from there to join Amnesty International in 2010. He has written books on Russia, Germany and creative protest. His latest book is Prosecuting the Powerful: War Crimes and the Battle for Justice — including observations from his travels on the front lines of justice in Ukraine, Israel/Palestine and at The Hague in recent years. Baroness Helena Kennedy described Prosecuting the Powerful as “a brilliant call for justice”. BBC News World Affairs Editor John Simpson said the book had “all the force of a well crafted thriller”. Steve will be in conversation with David Isaac, Provost of Worcester College, on some of the extraordinary stories of how international justice has built up over recent years and beyond — despite the dramatic challenges posed by those who are determined to continue or deepen the double standards of the past. Can those dangerous double standards be confronted? If so, how?
This talk will provide an overview of the iCT-SAD programme for treating adults with social anxiety. It will outline a series of empirical studies conducted in the UK, Hong Kong, and Japan evaluating the efficacy, effectiveness, and cross-cultural suitability of the programme. It will offer reflections on using the programme as a therapist and supervisor, considering how this might contract with traditional in-person therapy approches. This seminar will be hosted as part of a two-part seminar in the Department of Psychiatry Seminar room and online. To join online, please use the Zoom link below: zoom.us/j/92620728590?pwd=s1JefrGff6bN0nZZcHSTBkCw8Z1RlT.1 Meeting ID: 926 2072 8590 Passcode: 196542
Chris Garcia is the Younger Family Professor and Professor of Structural Biology at the Departments of Molecular and Cellular Physiology and Structural Biology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a member of the National Academies of Science and Medicine. The Garcia Lab research integrates structural biology, biochemistry, and protein engineering approaches to understanding how cell surface receptors detect, integrate, and propagate signalling upon engagement of extracellular ligands. His Lab aims to elucidate the structural and mechanistic basis of receptor activation, including the T cell receptor. For more information: https://med.stanford.edu/garcialab.html
SHAPE is a brief, telephone-based coaching intervention which was developed during the COVID-19 pandemic to support healthcare workers experiencing PTSD and depression. Drawing on cognitive therapy for PTSD (CT-PTSD) and research into cognitive and behavioural risk factors in healthcare workers, the intervention was tailored to address the specific challenges of frontline healthcare roles. The session will summarise findings from the pilot study, including symptom outcomes across assessment points and recovery rates. it will also reflect on the practical application of CT-PTSD techniques in a coaching format, and consider the translation into an RCT. This seminar is part of a two-part talk hosted in the Department of Psychiatry Seminar Room and online. To join online, please use the joining link below: zoom.us/j/92620728590?pwd=s1JefrGff6bN0nZZcHSTBkCw8Z1RlT.1 Meeting ID: 926 2072 8590 Passcode: 196542
This session provides doctoral students in the third year and above with information about the viva, guidance on planning a proactive approach to it, and opportunities to practise. COURSE DETAILS The course will look at the rules and expectations of the viva exam and identify and practise practical ways to prepare. LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of the session participants will be able to: Develop their awareness and understanding of the rules and expectations of the viva exam. Use tools and strategies to prepare for the exam. Develop an awareness of the examiner's perspective. Know what to expect of the exam.
COURSE DETAILS Issues covered will include work-life balance, planning, prioritising, the need to differentiate between importance and urgency, and using a range of strategies and time-saving ideas. LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this session you will understand more about: A range of time saving techniques. Time wasting activities and learn how to deal with them. The difference between important and urgent. The importance of planning and setting time aside.
Ever since the discovery that the degeneration of midbrain DA neurons (mDANs) projecting to the striatum underlies bradykinesia (i.e., slowness of movement) in Parkinson’s disease (PD), DA has become synonymous with motor vigor. However, the mechanisms through which DA contributes to the speed and amplitude of individual voluntary movements are still debated. Initial investigations suggested a somewhat slow or permissive role for DA, but recent experiments in rodents proposed a stronger and faster role for DA in the dynamic control of the gain of motor commands. In this presentation, I will describe our attempts at better understanding how dopamine contributes to motor vigor through the study of release patterns, lesions, and optogenetic and pharmacological manipulations. Our findings call into question the widely-held view that phasic fluctuations in extracellular dopamine control the vigor of ongoing movements, constraining the kinds of mechanisms and timescales that dopamine likely acts on to modify behavior.
Abstract In this talk, I will claim that conflicting value systems between healthcare providers (HCPs) and surrogate decision-makers (SDMs) lie at the root of many intractable end-of-life treatment disputes. I categorize these disparate value systems as Weberian “Ideal Types” to provide a framework for navigating this species of conflict. I argue that the most prevalent value system of HCPs might be understood as a “Best Interest Values” (BIV) hierarchy and that this value system is irreconcilable with the set of “Life-Continuation Values” (LCV) held by a sizable number of families who comprise a “normative minority.” I believe that HCPs facing seemingly intractable conflict with SDMs would be aided by understanding their BIV values framework as just one of other cogent values systems in the context of ethical pluralism. I worry that there is a pervasive hegemony by the dominant BIV values system against the normative minorities who hold an LCV worldview, and I argue that this hegemony is neither fair nor constructive. While my analysis is focused on American society, I am eager to engage with the audience about this framework’s applicability in the UK context. Zoom: https://medsci.zoom.us/j/96708411632
Our ability to pursue self-generated goals over extended timeframes is central to human cognition and behaviour. However, scientific studies of these higher-order action processes have traditionally fallen into two isolated research domains. On one hand, executive function research has uncovered a great deal about how our brain coordinates complex action sequences to solve multi-step problems. On the other hand, research on volition has begun to unravel the neural mechanisms that enable us to initiate actions independent of immediate external stimuli. However, to date both camps have neglected the intimate connections between these two processes: many complex problems can be solved in multiple ways, and thus choosing and generating our own path is central to reaching an effective solution. In this talk, I will present findings from behavioural, neuroimaging (fMRI), and EEG studies that examine how volition and problem solving are interconnected in the human brain. In combination, these results reveal new connections between the brain mechanisms underpinning problem solving and volitional action – and suggest that the ability to generate our own courses of action is more central to problem solving than we might usually appreciate.
Maria Montt is Associate Professor at the Institute of History, member of the Asian Studies Center, and Vice President of International Affairs at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Her research examines the historical and cultural dimensions of China–Latin America relations, with particular emphasis on transnational intellectual networks, migration, public diplomacy, and the bilateral relationship between Chile and China. She is author of the Representations of China in Latin American Literature (1987-2016), and co-author, with Carol Chan and Elvira Ríos, of Chineseness in Chile.
This symposium explores how we might make stories with and about the more-than-human. It brings together artists, scholars, filmmakers and scientists to consider storytelling practices that engage with nonhuman presences, agencies, and materials. Examples include animals, plants, waste, and digital and tactile objects such as a crocheted coverlet and the only book ever printed in Antarctica. The event asks how stories can be made through more-than-human entanglements and what this means for research, practice, and collaboration across disciplines.
This symposium explores how we might make stories with and about the more-than-human. It brings together artists, scholars, filmmakers and scientists to consider storytelling practices that engage with nonhuman presences, agencies, and materials. Examples include animals, plants, waste, and digital and tactile objects such as a crocheted coverlet and the only book ever printed in Antarctica. The event asks how stories can be made through more-than-human entanglements and what this means for research, practice, and collaboration across disciplines. Speaker Details: Details to follow. About the ‘Antarctica’s More-Than-Human Stories’ Research Project: Extractivism is the mass removal of the Earth’s resources for profit, an exploitative approach in which our global economic system, unfortunately, remains deeply rooted. A key obstacle to challenging this extractive approach is the prevailing ethos which divides the world into two groups, ‘human’ and ‘other’, with the latter encompassing animals, land, minerals, and other nonhuman entities, all primarily treated as resources for the human. These assumptions also pervade much academic research, and nowhere is this more conspicuous than in Antarctica, the only continent without an indigenous human population. Our research aims to support collaboration between the arts, humanities, and natural sciences in developing climate interventions, via a creative practice-led methodology based on making ‘more-than-human’ stories. Stories provide connection and convey complex ideas in ways that resonate deeply with emotions and values as well as the intellect, and thus, without instrumentalising stories or artistic practice, we believe story-making can enhance how we make and value knowledge about the world. More-than-human story-making emphasises the relationship between human and non-human elements such as ice, water, rock, scientific data and equipment, animal lives, historical artefacts, and technologies. Further Details and Contacts: The symposium will take place over two days: Day 1 (10/06/2025) will be a hybrid event, taking place in The Buttery, Wolfson College and online. Day 2 (11/06/2025) will only take place online. Registration is required. To help cover the costs of running the event, we ask for a contribution of £10. When booking, you may choose: £10 contribution Free place with bursary Bursaries are available on a self-declared basis for anyone who would otherwise be unable to attend due to cost. No explanation is required. This event will be recorded and made available on the OCLW website. There is no need to register to receive the recording. Any queries regarding this event should be addressed to OCLW Events Manager, Dr Eleri Anona Watson.
Virtual option: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_OTA2YjAxMWUtZWNjMS00MjU1LTk1NzgtNjhkOWFlYTAzODky%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22f1c122b2-641a-4768-b31a-d09074055f12%22%7d
Meher Bhalla: Paediatric rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), a rare and often ultra-rare malignancy, demands more precise and adaptable treatment strategies. This project develops a next-generation bivalent nanobody-drug delivery system, integrating genomic landscape mapping, click chemistry, and nanochemistry. Using nPEG linkers, the platform enables dual-antigen targeting with simultaneous delivery of therapeutic and imaging agents. Designed for high specificity, reduced toxicity, and real-time monitoring, these bivalent constructs represent an evolution toward third-generation therapeutics. By bridging tumour genomics with nanoscale design, this approach advances precision therapy for RMS and establishes a versatile framework for treating other rare paediatric cancers. Jasmine Liu: Pediatric glioblastoma (p-GBM) is an aggressive, high-grade glioma for which no standardised treatment currently exists. The blood–brain barrier (BBB) significantly limits the delivery efficiency of most chemotherapeutic agents used in the treatment of p-GBM. This study developed two novel platinum-based nanoparticles with distinct core sizes—platinum nanoclusters (PtNCs, ~2 nm) and platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs, ~10 nm)—functionalised with ankyrons and rabies virus glycoprotein (RVG) peptides to facilitate active targeting of p-GBM and enhance drug delivery efficiency. Both Pt-based formulations demonstrated potent anticancer activity and induced DNA damage in p-GBM cells. Notably, only the ultra-small PtNCs were capable of eliciting oxidative stress within tumour cells. The nanoparticles are designed for administration via intranasal inhalation, a route that enhances patient compliance, particularly in pediatric populations. More importantly, this work opens the possibility of using ultra-small nanoclusters to treat various cancer treatment or brain diseases.
‘The Nomos of the Earth’ is a later work by Schmitt and develops key concepts on geopolitics and international law. Through an idiosyncratic understanding of the definition of nomos, Schmitt constructs a genealogy of public international law and state development. We will examine Schmitt’s theory of state development through the tripartite constitution of nomos as appropriation, distribution, and production. In addition, the seminar will also explore Schmitt’s account of the development of public international law from Ancient Egypt to the Treaty of Versailles, his imperialist notions of grossraum, and his concept of the katechon. Handout: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u98TaB06sTmEAmYRVGl2t2-nRsEPq7yKrnF6DFGpQ54/edit?usp=sharing
This presentation, "From Thermograms to Concepts: Using Post hoc Concept Bottleneck Models (PCBMs) to Balance Accuracy and Interpretability in Clinical AI Thermography," will explore the critical role of interpretable AI in clinical settings, particularly within the evolving field of thermography. The discussion will introduce the core idea of concept-based models (CBMs), highlighting their inherent interpretability while acknowledging the practical limitations they face in real-world deployments. Building on this, we present Post hoc Concept Bottleneck Models (PCBMs), demonstrating how they overcome these challenges. We'll discuss PCBMs' two primary approaches to reveal decision pathways and biases The discussion then centers on the specific complexities of clinical thermography. Given its evolving potential and the multifactorial risk factors that necessitate longitudinal clinical trials, we will illustrate how PCBMs can provide a crucial tool for understanding which predefined, guideline-driven concepts genuinely inform stratified risk assessments. Finally, Practical implementation is addressed by highlighting how PCBMs can be applied to thermographic data across longitudinal outcome studies. And how this approach not only supports outcome validation but also strengthens clinician engagement. By enabling healthcare professionals to interrogate, validate, and even influence the model’s conceptual focus. Teams link: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_NGY2OWZmMWMtN2I1My00ODJkLWI1MmEtNDdiMzYwOTIzNjlj%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22ecdf56c5-98aa-4971-b0e3-75dcdb719f12%22%7d Bio: Mustafa Alghali is the Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Amplifai Health, a Saudi-based healthcare technology company established in 2023. With a background in computer science and a focus on applied artificial intelligence, Mustafa has contributed to cutting-edge AI research at Mila – Quebec AI Institute and developed large-scale AI systems at Unity Technologies. As a technical visionary, he now leads the R&D team at Amplifai Health in building TFScan an AI-powered thermal imaging system designed for the early detection of diabetic foot ulcers.
Admiral Munsch, a former Rhodes Scholar (Hertford) and current commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa and NATO Joint Force Commander - Naples, will argue that achieving lasting peace in the 21st century demands a fundamental shift in how we wage war. This new approach must prioritize the deliberate building of peace as our core strategy, moving beyond simply winning battles. He will explain how a conveyor belt of innovation, supported by strong partnerships, are essential to securing our collective future in our changing world.
A recent review of Australian higher education advocated bold new targets for system growth and equity. Arguing that 90 per cent of future jobs would require postsecondary qualifications, the Australian Universities Accord sought parity of participation for groups such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, and people from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds, by 2050. Widening participation in higher education relies on multiple policy reforms, including greater financial support and more effective outreach. However, university expansion also relies on school reform. While resourcing inequities between private and public schools have been well-documented, the practices of streaming, or tracking, students within schools have received less attention. Drawing on recent analysis of state and territory government data, I will highlight the extent of streaming within secondary schools, and the way that such streaming inhibits attempts to widen university participation. In some states, around half of senior secondary students are streamed into vocational pathways, and very few of those students subsequently transition directly to higher education. Students over-represented within vocational streams typically include low SES, Indigenous, Māori and Pasifika students, as well as those in out-of-home care. The high proportion of marginalised secondary students in vocational streams requires new university approaches to outreach and engagement. The session will highlight how universities can develop new pathways, dual enrolment offerings, and place-based approaches to increase the participation of marginalised students. I will also address the broader policy implications of the 2025 election result for widening participation.
This workshop outlines some of the key principles to bear in mind when working with sensitive or restricted research; whether collected yourself or obtained from a third-party source such as a data archive. Issues of confidentiality, informed consent, cybersecurity and data management will be covered. Examples of scenarios or concerns drawn from the research of participants are particularly welcome. The role of support services at Oxford will also be outlined and in particular the role of the Bodleian Data Librarian who will lead the session. Follow up consultations with the Data librarian or other subject consultants are also offered. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers and other staff.
COURSE DETAILS The supervisory relationship is key to the success of your DPhil and we know that positive and effective relationships contribute to the timely completion of the doctorate. As with many things, the more you put into the relationship with your supervisor, the more you will benefit from it. There is much you can do to be proactive and play and active role in the relationship. LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of the session participants will be able to: Find information about University, divisional and departmental regulations and the supervisory relationship. Be aware of the student's areas of responsibility in the relationship. Take appropriate responsibility within the relationship. Develop a range of skills and strategies to manage relationships effectively. Find and make appropriate use of additional sources of help and support.
Faculty Presentations
Kadir Akdemir, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Neurosurgery at MD Anderson. Dr Akdemir has been part of the several international genomic efforts such as the International Cancer Genome Consortia’s pan-cancer whole-genome analyses initiative and NIH’s 4Dnucleome comprehensive chromatin profiling initiative. He holds multiple foundation grants. He is collaborating with the world-renowned brain cancer researchers by being a part of the MD Anderson’s SPORE in Brain Cancer Program, GBM Moonshot program and the Break Through Cancer’s GBM program. His lab has developed a large set of techniques to study mechanisms and patterns of chromatin folding and somatic rearrangements that occur in cancer genomes during neoplastic transformation.
Convened by Pierre Bocquillon (University of East Anglia), Emmanuelle Santoire (CNRS/UMR 8134 LATTS), Louis de Fontenelle (Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour), & Pascal Marty (MFO) To attend this event, please register here. Context: As the UN Nice Conference on the Oceans takes center stage in 2025, it is an opportune moment to reflect on the role of maritime spaces in the energy transition, which has increasingly attracted the attention of policymakers, legal professionals and social scientists. The Geo-legal Working Groupe of the European Research Platform on Energy and Climate law has identified this timely issue as the focus of its work in 2025. The symposium will gather contributions from law, social and environmental sciences to address governance challenges related to energy development in marine environments, focusing on the North of Europe (North Sea, Irish Sea, Baltic Sea). These areas are strategic for oil and gas production in Norwegian waters and UK waters and are rapidly becoming key sites for offshore wind under the North Seas Energy Cooperation 'NSEC). The aim is to explore how legal frameworks can adapt to the specific challenges of these spaces. Main challenges: The discussions will examine zoning systems, space-sharing practices, and marine spatial planning – including marine protected areas - as tools requiring reorganization of legal and spatial frameworks. These developments raise tensions between national and international law, particularly in cross-border infrastructure. The symposium will map existing frameworks and explore how to better integrate them across scales to support sustainability and mitigate tensions. The symposium will also focus on new bilateral cooperations in cross-border investments, questioning the roles of actors, power imbalances and risk sharing. Key themes will include energy justice, governance of common poll resources, and the rights of future generations. It will also interrogate legal definitions of ownership and appropriation and whether maritime spaces can be treated as common goods in support of sustainability goals. The presentation of these topics will consider whether these challenges reflect a shift in maritime governance or reproduce existing tensions, raising the question of new "blue legalities" (Braverman & Johnson, 2020). Finally, the symposium will highlight the need for methodologies that capture adaptive interdisciplinary approaches to the energy transition. Programme: https://mfo.web.ox.ac.uk/event/symposium-energy-transitions-and-marine-environments-conflicts-cooperation-and-international
Efforts to use genome-wide assays or brain scans to diagnose autism have seen diminishing returns. Yet the clinical intuition of healthcare professionals, based on longstanding first-hand experience, remains the gold standard for diagnosis of autism. We leveraged deep learning to deconstruct and interrogate the logic of expert clinician intuition from clinical reports to inform our understanding of autism. After pre-training on hundreds of millions of general sentences, we finessed large language models (LLMs) on >4,000 free-form health records from healthcare professionals to distinguish confirmed versus suspected autism cases. By introducing an explainability strategy, our extended language model architecture could pin down the most salient single sentences in what drives clinical thinking toward correct diagnoses. Our framework flagged the most autism-critical DSM-5 criteria to be stereotyped repetitive behaviors, special interests, and perception-based behaviors, which challenges today’s focus on deficits in social interplay, suggesting necessary revision of long-trusted diagnostic criteria in gold-standard instruments.
Governments around the world are struggling to keep pace with rapid technological change, from escalating cyber threats to breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Emerging technologies are reshaping global markets, transforming security structures, and redefining how power is exercised. Amidst intensifying geopolitical competition, these advances are testing the resilience of public institutions and integrity of international norms. How can governments and industry build capacity to innovate responsibly at the digital frontier? In an increasingly open-source era, what strategies can organisations adopt to balance security concerns with the imperative to lead in the global diffusion of new technologies? Join Jen Easterly, former Director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Margrethe Vestager, former Vice President of the European Commission, and Michael Wooldridge, Ashall Professor of the Foundations of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Oxford, for an expert panel covering how societies cope with rapid technological change, competition, regulation, and security. The panel will be moderated by Ciaran Martin, Professor of Practice at the Blavatnik School of Government. This event is part of the Global Tech Policy Seminar Series hosted by the Oxford Programme for Cyber and Technology Policy.
We study the impact of financial aid on upward mobility. An unprecedented financial aid reform in Colombia dramatically increased the enrollment of academically successful students of low socioeconomic status (SES) in high-quality universities. We leverage the policy's stringent eligibility criteria and population-wide administrative microdata, using regression discontinuity (RD) and difference-in-difference (DD) methodologies to estimate causal effects on later-life educational and labor-market outcomes. The program notably boosted attendance of low-SES high-achievers at colleges with high value-added, increasing their returns to ability. Low-SES students are more likely to obtain bachelor's degrees from these colleges, especially in STEM fields, and they achieve higher scores in the college graduation exam. Nine years later, their earnings are 18 log points higher, with a greater likelihood of being in the top 1%, reflecting increased upper-tail mobility. The policy successfully narrowed socioeconomic gaps in college quality, attainment, skill development, earnings, and the returns to ability.
Reducing inequality of incomes and combating poverty are commonly regarded as the central objectives of welfare states (Saunders, 2021). Most analysis of impacts of the welfare state focus on effects on the distribution of income, but it can also be expected that welfare states structure the level and distribution of wealth, but these effects are not straightforward – and may take a long time to work through. It has long been argued that social security reduces the level of savings for retirement and thus the level of private wealth (Feldstein, 1974, 1980), but more recently critics of the welfare state such as the US Cato Institute (Edwards, 2019) argue that larger welfare states actually increase the inequality of wealth. This approach cites research by the European Central Bank (Fessler and Schürz, 2019) which shows that the measured inequality of wealth is higher in European countries with relatively more developed welfare states. This paper analyses the relationship between the size and structure of welfare state spending and the size and distribution of private and public pension wealth. In the context of increasing concerns about increasing inequality of wealth, particularly in access to housing, the paper also analyses the vulnerability of different welfare state designs to differing risks, including the reliability of public pension wealth due to population ageing and the insecurity of private pension wealth due to market volatility. Speaker bio: Peter Whiteford (FASSA) is a Professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University, Canberra. He is the Director of the Social Policy Institute and a Fellow of the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute in the Crawford School. His research focus is on international comparisons of social security policies, and on inequality and redistribution. He has previously worked for the Australian government, at the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales in Sydney and in the Social Policy Research Unit at the University of York in the United Kingdom, as well as in the Directorate of Employment, Labour and Social Affairs of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris. In 2008, he was appointed by the Australian government to the Reference Group for the Harmer Review of the Australian pension system. In 2018 he was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. In 2022 he was appointed to the Australian Government Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee.
1. Flourishing as a Practice (Nate Harding) In a world struggling to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, we face the sobering reality that systemic transformation is essential for meaningful progress. This presentation explores how such transformation requires not only policy changes but a deeper examination of the values that drive both individual and collective action. Using the systems thinking "iceberg model," I illustrate how visible outcomes are merely symptoms of underlying structures, which themselves emerge from our societal mindsets and individual values. Drawing from personal experience and training with life coaching, I demonstrate how clarifying one's core values serves as a foundation for purpose-driven systems change, and how doing so requires skills often under-emphasized in traditional education settings. The presentation will then introduce Spark, an EdTech venture Nate is co-founding to address this critical gap in education: teaching the skills needed to identify, articulate, and live in accordance with one's values. By framing flourishing as an ongoing practice rather than a destination, Spark posits that developing these capabilities is central to both personal well-being and our collective ability to create sustainable social change. Through this lens, the seemingly disparate goals of individual fulfillment and global sustainable development reveal themselves as deeply interconnected pursuits requiring similar foundational skills. 2. EndEndoSilence: Fighting for a National Endometriosis Strategy in Germany (Veronika Denner) Endometriosis affects approximately 10% of the female reproductive-aged population, yet remains severely underdiagnosed, under-researched, and underfunded—leading to diagnostic delays, inadequate care, and preventable suffering. In Germany, as in many other countries, patients often face a diagnostic delay exceeding eight years, despite the condition’s profound physical, mental, and socioeconomic impact. In response to these systemic gaps, EndEndoSilence, an initiaitve founded by German political activist Theresia Crone and co-led by Veronika Denner, has been at the forefront of national advocacy efforts to institutionalise a strategic response to endometriosis. Through social media and political roundtables, EndEndoSilence advocates for increased funding for research, improved clinical pathways, and better education for healthcare professionals. This presentation will highlight the organisation’s policy work, including stakeholder engagement across political parties, strategic partnerships with organisations beyond Germany, and the development of a proposed national endometriosis strategy.
Suffering is strongly associated with war, but not with its aftermath. In spite of its ambiguity the post-war period represents a transformation from humanitarian crisis to development and peacebuilding. Consequently references to suffering are replaced by political, economic, social ‘challenges’ and ‘issues’ that fail to accurately and fully represent the experience of most war survivors, especially women who often make up a larger percentage of the population. Responding to this gap, this presentation conceptualises ‘compounded suffering’ as the complex amalgamation of multiple forms of suffering: mental, physical and emotional; grief, pain, agony, torture, hurt, trauma, anxiety, stress, difficulty, produced by the unique conditions of the post-war context, which in coming together, aggravates and intensifies. The post-war context produces a typology of suffering that is distinct in form and extent fundamentally because it is shaped through an acute, real and continuing threat to human life and security, preceded by the trauma and experience of extensive death, loss and destruction. Suffering is compounded by women’s ‘entanglement’ with power specific to the post-war context, where structural and other forms of violence are pervasive and ideologies and methods of war remain amidst the pretext of change and transformation. In conceptualising, the talk seeks to acknowledge and recognise compounded suffering and, through this, to contribute to a more genuine and accurate understanding, analysis and response to women’s post-war experience. Dr Farah Mihlar is a British-Sri Lankan activist scholar who specialises in transitional justice and minority rights. She is a senior lecturer in human rights at Oxford Brookes University (OBU) and is the lead investigator of a British Academy project on women's justice struggles in Lebanon and Sri Lanka. Before joining OBU she was a lecturer in conflict studies for the Department of Politics at the University of Exeter. Prior to academia, Farah had a longstanding career in human rights practice, working for international organisations including the United Nations, International Crisis Group and Minority Rights Group International.
Description: The seminar will explore issues at the intersection of philosophy, AI, and technological innovation, co-taught by a philosopher and a technologist. The seminar will welcome a variety of visiting discussants from philosophy, computer science, and the technology industry throughout term. The focus will be on how a concern for human flourishing can be embedded in the global technology development pipeline, and on exploring how broader bridges can be built between philosophy and technology. The seminar is primarily aimed at philosophy graduate students and computer science graduate students but participants from other levels and areas are welcome. Topics include: truth-seeking AI, privacy, collective intelligence, decentralization in science and AI, and approaches to human autonomy. The seminar culminates in a clinic to facilitate grant applications for independent summer projects on the themes of the seminar. Fast grants: New for this year, Cosmos Ventures has established a dedicated funding pool that seminar participants can apply to for independent summer building projects on related themes. Prerequisites: please email HAI Lab philipp.koralus@philosophy.ox.ac.uk no later than April 27th with a (very) brief explanation of your interest in the seminar to reserve a spot, and the subject line “TT Seminar”. Space limited to maintain quality of discussion. Readings: ● Humboldt, The Sphere and Duties of Government, Ch. 2, “Of the Individual Man and the Highest Ends of his Existence” ● Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Volume 2, Part 4, Ch. 6, “What Kind of Despotism Democratic Nations Have to Fear” ● Maples, “Designing for Human Autonomy in an Age of AI” (presentation of research and framework for design)
The British Way of Warfare has become a point of debate and discussion in military history and strategy. Basil Liddell Hart first wrote about the 'British Way in Warfare' in 1932, and these ideas have been updated and challenged in the work of Michael Howard and David French. However, if the crucial role of Empire and Commonwealth in this story has been noted, it is too often a footnote. The social history of this story, from the perspective of colonised and decolonised peoples, is still emerging. This lecture from Professor Yasmin Khan will think about British warfare from the other end of the telescope by considering Asian non-combatants and camp-followers in the 19th and 20th centuries. This free lecture is part of the Rewley House Lecture Series, coordinated by the Director of Research Dr Nihan Akyelken. These lectures provide an opportunity to experience the extraordinarily diverse research interests of academics from across and beyond the Department, and to participate in multidisciplinary debate. Professor Yasmin Khan is a historian whose research focuses on the history of the British in India, the British Empire, South Asian decolonization, refugees and the aftermath of empire. She has also written about the Second World War and the imperial dimensions of the conflict. Yasmin is the Course Director of our part-time MSt in Historicial Studies.
This paper challenges the notion that the military revolution of the sixteenth century was the crucial determinant in the emergence of centralized fiscal-military states in central Europe. Instead, it argues that warfare in the sixteenth and seventeenth century is best characterized by the notion of the ‘contractor state’ which relied on professional military enterprisers (“mercenaries”) to wage war. It does so by investigating the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) which was one of the largest and most destructive conflicts of pre-industrial Europe involving nearly all of its major powers. Based on novel, granular data the paper proves that urban financial contributions were extracted by military enterprisers and that these exceeded centrally-collected imperial contributions. In consequence, average household wealth declined by 37 percent during this period and urban debt crippled long-run investment. *If you would like to meet the speaker before the seminar, please sign up here: https://tinyurl.com/23druvdp*
Tareq Baconi is author of Hamas Contained: A History of Palestinian Resistance (Stanford University Press: 2018, 2024). He was the senior analyst for Palestine/Israel at the International Crisis Group, based in Ramallah. His writing has appeared in the New York Review of Books, the London Review of Books, the New York Times, among others. He is president of the board of Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network.
This paper challenges the notion that the military revolution of the sixteenth century was the crucial determinant in the emergence of centralized fiscal-military states in central Europe. Instead, it argues that warfare in the sixteenth and seventeenth century is best characterized by the notion of the ‘contractor state’ which relied on professional military enterprisers (“mercenaries”) to wage war. It does so by investigating the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) which was one of the largest and most destructive conflicts of pre-industrial Europe involving nearly all of its major powers. Based on novel, granular data the paper proves that urban financial contributions were extracted by military enterprisers and that these exceeded centrally-collected imperial contributions. In consequence, average household wealth declined by 37 percent during this period and urban debt crippled long-run investment.
Three grand political dreams have upended the existing geopolitical order in the twenty-first century, posing new global challenges: Trump’s inward-looking dream to ‘Make America Great Again’; Putin’s outward-looking dream of Russian imperialist expansion; and Xi Jinping’s ‘China Dream’ with its global ambitions. Three key factors have turned these dreams into Taiwan’s nightmare: first, the ‘no-limits friendship’ pledge between Russia and China at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics; second, Russia’s subsequent full-scale invasion of Ukraine; and third, America’s ensuing global realignment. Western media frequently portray Taiwan as a potential flashpoint ‒ a ‘new Ukraine scenario’. While recent scholarship has examined these issues through the lenses of politics, economics and international relations, little attention has been paid to cultural and unofficial perceptions in both China and Taiwan. This study seeks to redress this shortfall by analysing visual artworks and online poetry on Sinophone social media to reveal vernacular voices from China, Hong Kong and both Han and Indigenous cultures in Taiwan. Drawing on the concept of ‘China’s vernacular cultures’ (Dudbridge 1996) ‒ in contrast to state-sanctioned narratives ‒ this research aims to provide rare unofficial insights into Chinese and Taiwanese perceptions of Russia’s war against Ukraine. It responds to the urgent need for a deeper understanding of competing cultural discourses across China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. By exploring the themes of utopia and anti-utopia in these narratives, this study sheds new light on the dreams, fears and nightmares of citizens and netizens across the Taiwan Strait ‒and on their contested visions of the future. Daria Berg, DPhil (Oxon), is the Inaugural Chair Professor of Chinese Culture and Society at the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland, and an Affiliated Professor at the Centre for Intercultural Competence, St.Gallen Institute for Management in Asia, Singapore. She is currently a Visiting Fellow at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. She studied Sinology, English Literature and Japanese Studies in Munich, Shanghai, Taipei, Tokyo and Kyoto, and received her doctorate in Chinese Studies from the University of Oxford in 1995. She was the Cannon Graduate Scholar at St. Hugh’s College, Oxford, and the Randall-MacIver Junior Research Fellow at St. Anne’s College, Oxford. Before moving to Switzerland in 2011, she taught at the Universities of Oxford, Durham and Nottingham, UK.
With the impacts of climate change increasingly evident, actions by key institutions of society ebb and flow. Governments need to use carrots and sticks so that we internalize the harms we are doing to others and to future generations. But business needs to innovate and change its practices to lower our burden on the planet and to help us adapt to the hardships we will face coping with extreme weather, sea level rise, and more. The last decade has seen the emergence of business alliances devoted to addressing various aspects of climate change. They are denounced from the left as mere greenwashing and attacked from the right for being anti-competitive. Missing from this debate is evidence. In May's Balliol Online Lecture, Professor Peter Tufano will explain what business alliances seek to achieve and how they operate. With lawsuits mounting, especially in the US, he will ask: have they changed management practices, reduced emissions, violated antitrust laws, harmed shareholders, or been subterfuge for anti-climate lobbying? Peter Tufano is Special Supernumerary Fellow at Balliol and Emeritus Peter Moores Professor of Finance at Saïd Business School, which he also led as Dean from 2011 to 2021. He is a Baker Foundation Professor and Senior Advisor to the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard Business School. Between 1989 to 2011, he oversaw Harvard Business School’s tenure and promotion processes, campus planning, and university relations and was the founding co-chair of the Harvard i-lab. His research focuses on climate finance, climate alliances, and the financial impact of climate on households. His body of work also spans financial innovation, financial engineering, and household finance, which has been credited with influencing several major US policy initiatives, including the creation of a new class of savings products.
In a world powered by renewables, battery energy storage systems (BESS) are emerging as the ‘must-have’ asset class that will hold things together – bridging the physics of grids and the economics of markets. And with the associated operational & financial complexities of batteries comes the necessity (and the opportunity) to harness the power of data-driven software solutions. Rapid advances in AI/ML and in digital infrastructure are enabling these green energy infrastructure assets to be relied upon as ‘the new normal’ around the globe. A real-world example of this will be unpacked to help showcase hidden complexities and sources of value that be created through technology.
Friedrich Merz, the new German Chancellor, has come into office at a time of political uncertainty and economic stagnation. His coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD is a pragmatic one, but will it prove to be more stable than the "traffic light" coalition of Olaf Scholz, his predecessor? In the election of February 2025, the right wing extremist AfD doubled its share in the election - (how) will Merz manage to curb its growing influence? And with Germany’s once famously robust economy flatlining for more than three years, what reforms are necessary to lead Germany out of economic recession - and will the new government implement them? Lastly, will Germany's path change with respect to Ukraine and the transatlantic relationship? These are the key questions the talk will focus on, aiming at a broad discussion of the incoming German government in the light of what is so far known about its priorities.
This colloquium contributes to current conversations on the potential for participatory music-making to promote sustainable human coexistence. We attend to the experiences and collaborative learning practices of teachers working in a community music school and outreach initiative known as the King’s Music Academy, based in Southwark, London. In order to interrogate how teachers make sense of their experience at the Academy, qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed through interpretative phenomenological analysis. Findings suggest that participation in the Academy facilitates processes of self-reflection, personal growth and cultural exchange among teachers. Teachers become part of an organic network where innovative pedagogical practices are discussed and adopted. We conclude that the development of certain ‘rhizomatic’ attitudes and structures in the context of the classroom can contribute to imagining alternative ways of thinking about the self, music-making and society at large.
Join us for the third Massada Annual Lecture with Professor Mouna Maroun. Professor Maroun is a distinguished Arab-Israeli neurobiologist with a PhD in psychobiology from the University of Haifa and a postdoc from Paris XI Orsay, France. Since October 2024, she has served as the Rector of the University of Haifa – the first Arab to lead a higher education institution in Israel. She has been a faculty member for over 20 years and has held several official positions within and outside the university, including as Chair of the Neurobiology Department and Chair of the National Steering Committee for Expanding Access to Higher Education for Arabs, Druze, and Circassians. Registration is open to all members of the University of Oxford and is based on adherence to the principles of promoting freedom of speech as detailed in the terms and conditions of attendance. Please remember to bring your University Card or other form of photo ID to the event.
All welcome; refreshments provided
What does it mean to lead a national institution today? Join prominent cultural leaders for a candid conversation about balancing history with innovation and holding the tension between tradition and change. How do personal values sit in relationship with the responsibilities of institutional leadership? Guest speakers include Maria Balshaw, Director of Tate; John McGrath, Factory International Artistic Director & Chief Executive; Professor Michael Smets, Senior Research Fellow of Green Templeton College and Professor of Management at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Chaired by Kate McGrath.
Abeer Al-Saud is a dynamic explorer, multilateral expert, peace builder, cultural professional, and artist whose work bridges environmental conservation, scientific exploration, and cultural heritage preservation. She's also an Explorer's Club EC50 2025 alumni, Explorer’s Club Fellow (the first female member from the region), RGS Fellow, The Karman Project Fellow, HB6 Alumni, first Saudi Arabian Desert Odyssey "Incense Road Expedition" team member, third pole expedition member at Ecosyva, a member of the Oxford University Exploration Club (OUEC), a flag carrier at WINGS Women of Discovery, and a member of the Advisory Council to the Scientific Exploration Society (SES). In November 2023, she became the first Saudi explorer Antarctic Ambassador with IAATO and the first female from the region to visit the southernmost part of Antarctica. She also spearheaded and was mandated to lead the first peacebuilding unit under MENA in 2018–2019, where she hosted 7 workshops, training 80+ young Saudi cadets, 40% of whom were women, to activate UN Resolution 1325 on Women in Peace. 📅 Event Date: Tuesday 10ᵗʰ June, 2025 📍 School of Geography and Environment, Oxford University 🎟 Free for OUEC Member £5 for non-members
COURSE DETAILS This introductory session, tailored to those new to policy engagement, is designed to support MPLS researchers, DPhil students, and professional services staff, in transforming their motivations for impact into a structured understanding of how to get started in academic-policy engagement. LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this session you will have: A better understanding of the differences between policy influence, impact, and engagement. An enhanced understanding of the policy process at different levels of government (local, regional, national and international). An increased awareness of practical tools and strategies to start creating a policy engagement plan.
The human brain consists of numerous networks distributed over space and connected over time to orchestrate meaningful interaction with the external world. Neurological disorders interrupt this interaction, and in some cases, they lead to involuntary tremors and tic disorders. My research focuses on identifying neural signatures of these disorders in the basal ganglia-thalamocortical networks and electromyographic activity in patients with essential tremor and Tourette Syndrome who are undergoing deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy. Bidirectional neurostimulators allow for biomarker identification for symptoms, and responsive stimulation overcomes many downsides of continuous DBS therapy to regain control of movement. We have shown the feasibility and safety of bidirectional therapy, i.e., closed-loop stimulation.
How do we navigate the gap between what we know and how we live? This workshop offers a space to reflect on our sense of responsibility and agency around environmental topics. Through small group discussions and exercises, we will explore how individual behaviour intersects with broader systems, and what influence we each hold. The session invites curiosity and self-reflection to explore how our behaviour and influence can contribute to a more sustainable future.
This session is aimed particularly at early career researchers. We will discuss the key requirements of research grants most commonly applied for by ECRs in the department. We will highlight some of the important characteristics that distinguish fundable research applications and identify some common application pitfalls.
Artificial intelligence technologies have the potential to lead to substantial economic growth and prosperity. To achieve these objectives, we need to ensure the larger-scale adoption and diffusion of these technologies in a way that maximises their economic value for corporations, consumers and the industrial production. In this talk, Professor Petropoulos will explore bottlenecks that prevent us from grasping the full benefits of the artificial intelligence revolution and will discuss a mix of policy actions that can help us achieve a brighter and all-inclusive economic future.
Revolutionary democratic movements seek to overturn autocratic institutions and transform the underlying distribution of political power. In this paper, we provide evidence on how inclusive revolutionary dynamics reinforce de jure democratic reforms and strengthen state capacity. We study Nepal’s People’s War, which overthrew a 240-year caste-based monarchy and established a federal democracy. Using a spatial regression discontinuity design, we show that wartime exposure to a rebel government increased political knowledge and engagement, especially among citizens belonging historically excluded indigenous groups (Janajatis). We document implicit bias against Janajati leadership among upper-caste party leaders and show that in areas exposed to wartime rebel governance structures, there are more Janajati party leaders, and subsequently more Janajati candidates. By the second post-revolution election, Janajatis achieved proportional mayoral representation. Consistent with their electoral success reflecting competence, Janajati mayors delivered more post-earthquake aid than elite-caste counterparts, especially in municipalities where Janajatis were electoral minorities. Lastly, rebel-governed municipalities have higher state capacity and raise more tax and grant revenue.
Join us for the second event of the exciting new Purposeful Entrepreneurship Programme, run by the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment (SSEE). We'll explore social innovation and entrepreneurship through a series of video case studies, resources, and discussion prompts. Don't miss out on this fantastic opportunity to learn about innovative solutions to societal challenges and connect with like-minded individuals! WHEN: Wednesday 11th June 2025, 12:30-13:15 WHERE: Diversity Room, School of Geography and the Environment WHO: Open to all students, staff and friends of the School of Geography and Environment CATERING: Light refreshments will be provided, but please feel free to bring your lunch along. HOSTS: Bethan Adams, Programme Coordinator & Dr Alex Money, Founder in Residence. Agenda: 12:30-12:35: Welcome & Refreshments. 12:35-12:45: Introduction to social innovation, social enterprise, SSEE's Purposeful Entrepreneurship Programme, and the Skoll Award for Social Innovation. 12:45-13:00: Video showcase - inspiring examples from the 2025 Skoll Award. 13:00-13:15: Discussion, brainstorming & resources sharing. Participants are welcome to stay after 13:15 to continue the discussion (maybe on a walk if it is sunny!) If you have any accessibility requirements or questions that you wish to discuss in advance, please feel free to contact the event organiser at bethan.adams@smithschool.ox.ac.uk.
This symposium explores how we might make stories with and about the more-than-human. It brings together artists, scholars, filmmakers and scientists to consider storytelling practices that engage with nonhuman presences, agencies, and materials. Examples include animals, plants, waste, and digital and tactile objects such as a crocheted coverlet and the only book ever printed in Antarctica. The event asks how stories can be made through more-than-human entanglements and what this means for research, practice, and collaboration across disciplines.
Chemical probes are essential tools to interrogate biological systems with high spatiotemporal resolution. Over the last decade, our group has made important contributions to 1) the fundamental behaviour of chemical fluorophores and the rational design of innovative optical imaging technologies, 2) the development of targeted probes to visualize disease-relevant subpopulations of immune cells in inflammatory diseases and cancer as well as the mechanisms of action of advanced therapeutics - such as antibody-drug conjugates -, and 3) the translation of healthcare technologies - including imaging agents and bedside tests - in collaboration with industrial partners, clinical teams, NHS and regulatory bodies. A selection of recent references from our team are listed below. On fluorescence chemistry innovation Mendive-Tapia, L. et. al. Nat. Commun. 2016, 7, 10940. Kaplaneris, N. et al. Nat. Commun. 2021, 12, 3389. De Moliner, F. et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2023, 62, e202216231. Cheng, Z. et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2024, 63, e202404587. On targeted biosensors and probes for imaging immune cells and therapeutic action Barth, N. et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2022, e202207508. Reese et al. ACS Cent. Sci. 2024, 10, 143. Bertolini et al. JACS 2024, 146, 30565. Kuru et al. Nat. Commun. 2024, 15, 7531. Nadal-Bufi et al. JACS 2025, 147, 7578. On translational research Barth N. et al. Nat. Commun. 2020, 11, 4027. Scott, J. et al. Nat. Commun. 2022, 13, 2366. Scott, J. et al. Nat. Biomed. Eng. 2025, accepted. Marc Vendrell is Professor of Translational Chemistry and Biomedical Imaging at the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine in Edinburgh. His team has pioneered the design of smart chemical fluorophores for high-resolution optical imaging (>150 papers) and built an ambitious research programme linking physical and biomedical sciences through competitive funding -over £10M as PI (>£40M as co-I), including prestigious European ERC Consolidator and EIC Transition grants-. Vendrell is co-inventor of 12 patents, PI for 9 licensed technologies and collaborative projects with industry and Pharma, and he has contributed to founding two spin-out companies on therapeutics (InPepcide) and diagnostics (IDxSense). Vendrell has a strong record of mentoring and training the next generation of translational scientists, with several alumni holding independent positions in academia and industry. He has won some awards and distinctions, the latest being the Bader Prize for eminence in Organic Chemistry by The Royal Society of Chemistry in 2023 and elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Scottish national academy, in 2024. Vendrell currently heads the IRR Chemistry Hub at the College of Medicine in Edinburgh as one of the first global hubs for collaborative non-siloed chemical research to catalyse innovation in biomedical sciences and accelerate translational outputs.
For our next talk, in the Digital Phenotyping seminar series, we will hear from Dr Rebecca Richmond, Senior Research Fellow in Molecular Epidemiology in the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol, on Wednesday 11 June, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm, at the Big Data Institute (BDI). Title: Examining the causal role of circadian rhythms and sleep in physical and psychological health Date: Wednesday 11 June 2025 Time: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm Venue: BDI/OxPop, Seminar Room 0; followed by refreshments in the atrium Abstract: Circadian rhythms are endogenous near- 24-hour rhythms which regulate physiological processes. When healthy, they are entrained to the external world. When the circadian clock is misaligned, this manifests as disruptions to the sleep-wake cycle and sleep disorders. Poor sleep is a common phenomenon with approximately one third of adults reporting regular sleep problems. Sleep characteristics have been associated with a number of physical and mental conditions but whether this represents a causal role of sleep is often unclear. My research harnesses detailed sleep and circadian measures from self-reported questionnaires, 24-hour actigraphy and electronic health records in large-scale biobanks which can be linked with genomic and molecular data and disease outcomes. I use a range of methodologies (e.g. Mendelian randomization, longitudinal analyses, natural experiments, family-based designs) to evaluate the causal role of sleep and circadian rhythm disruption in the development of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, neurodegenerative disease and some forms of cancer. My research also aims to uncover underlying molecular mechanisms and to identify potential public health, behavioural and therapeutic targets for intervention. Bio: I am a Senior Research Fellow in Molecular Epidemiology in the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol. I am currently undertaking a secondment as a Genomic Epidemiologist in the Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre theme in "Better Sleep". My research aims to: 1) highlight the relative importance and inter-relationships of sleep and circadian rhythms with other health behaviours for prioritization in disease prevention strategies and 2) identify molecular pathways which could serve as targets for intervention. My major areas of focus are on the large-scale integration of molecular data in population-based and clinical health science as well as the development and application of causal inference methods, including Mendelian randomization. Hybrid Option: Please note that these meetings are closed meetings and only open to members of the University of Oxford. Please respect our speakers and do not share the link with anyone outside of the University. The purpose of these seminars is to foster more communication among employees throughout the University, so we strongly advise in-person attendance whenever feasible. Microsoft Teams meeting Join the meeting now Meeting ID: 337 102 353 162 2 Passcode: 7Qs3Qd6Q If you wish to know more or receive information related to trainings and events at BDI, please subscribe by emailing bdi-announce-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk. You'll then receive an email from SYMPA and once you reply you'll be on the list!
COURSE DETAILS The session will cover: What makes a good DPhil Planning to write up your DPhil – structure, content and what makes good writing What the viva will explore What the examiners are asked to consider FAQs and Q&A LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of the session participants will be able to: Engage productively with the final stages of the DPhil. Apply a range of time management techniques. Identify and apply the characteristics of effective writing. Apply effective structure to the thesis. Understand what is required in the viva. Take opportunities to raise and discuss concerns.
Are you an early career researcher, fixed-term lecturer, or doctoral student trying to get some writing done? Do you research on a topic related to health, medicine, the body, or mind using Humanities or Social Sciences approaches? The Medical Humanities Writing Group is an inclusive, interdisciplinary and casual gathering, encouraging writing as well as meeting others: all are welcome. We have timed writing blocks and coffee/tea/light refreshments, and are focused on setting writing goals and getting work done in a positive and supportive environment. Attendance is free and you are welcome to join us for anything from a single session, to a few, or even the whole term.
Event date 11 June 2025 Event time 15:30 - 17:00 Oxford week TT 7 Venue Faculty of Law - Seminar Room F Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex was published 1949, at the end of a turbulent decade in France. In July 1943 Marie-Louise Giraud was the last woman to be put to death by guillotine—by the Vichy government, for performing abortions. In 1944, French women gained the right to vote; in 1945 they first voted. On 27 October 1946 the constitution of the Fourth French Republic was approved—including a new declaration of rights. And in 10 December 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Paris. When Simone de Beauvoir introduced The Second Sex, she described it as an attempt “to take stock of the current state” of women in France after “an era of muddled controversy”. Although it has become a commonplace in feminist theory to criticize or dismiss this work as insufficiently intersectional, whether it is depends on what we take its aims and scope to be. These, I argue, are better understood in view of its historical situation. Beauvoir’s moral and political philosophy assigns an absolute value to each human being. But she was not triumphalist about rights: in The Second Sex we read “Even when rights are recognized in the abstract,” she writes, “a long habit prevents them finding concrete expression in customs.” Bringing The Second Sex into dialogue with Montesquieu’s distinction between law and custom in The Spirit of the Laws, this presentation will draw on my paper ‘Femininity, love, and alienation’ to outline the customs Beauvoir believed perpetuated injustice for women and the value theory by which she condemned them." Kate Kirkpatrick is Fellow in Philosophy at Regent’s Park College, Oxford. She is the author of several books and articles on twentieth-century French philosophy, especially the works of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. Her acclaimed biography of Simone de Beauvoir, Becoming Beauvoir: A Life (Bloomsbury, 2019) has been translated into eleven languages. In 2021 she was awarded a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship for her current project, a philosophy commentary on The Second Sex. Microsoft Teams Need help? Join the meeting now Meeting ID: 355 637 018 723 1 Passcode: b99ag9XT
Please join us for a hybrid book launch to celebrate the co-edited volume Japan in the Early Modern World. Religion, Translation, and Transnational Relations. There will be a brief introduction to the book and a short panel discussion with the volume’s editors and authors. All are welcome.
There will be a hybrid book launch event at Blackfriars Hall to celebrate the release of Japan in the Early Modern World: Religion, Translation, and Transnational Relations, co-edited by Dr Pia Joliffe, Prof. Yoshimi Orii and Prof. Katja Triplett and hosted by Dr Alessandro Bianchi (former Head of the Bodleian Japanese Library). There will be a brief introduction to the book and a short panel discussion with the volume’s editors and authors over drinks and nibbles. All are welcome!
In this paper Simon, Townley reflects on what a local history approach can offer to the study of medieval society. Over many years Simon has researched, written and edited dozens of parish histories for the Oxfordshire VCH, a county-based research programme which is attached to the nationally organised Victoria County History project, famous for its 'big red books'. The VCH method involves detailed archival and landscape research into all facets of local history, including landownership and local government organization as well as economic, social and religious history. Such investigation 'on all fronts' often reveals connections and trends which are less apparent from more prescribed research focusing on particular topics or periods. When looked at with an eye to larger patterns and contexts the VCH-type approach can add a valuable dimension to understanding changing medieval societies in particular places.
Mini Poster Exhibition on Hiroshima & Nagasaki & Language Lecturers Committee (LLC) Workshop presents: A Talk on Japanese Atomic Bomb Literature (原爆文学, Genbaku Bungaku) The Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (FAMES) presents a mini poster exhibition celebrating the Japan Atomic and Hydrogen Bomb Victims Council's (Nihon Hidankyō) 2024 Nobel Peace Prize Award. 'Determination to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons' 被団協ノーベル平和賞を祝して - 核兵器廃絶への決意 Japanese Atomic Bomb Literature by Dr Juliana Buritica Alzate 5.00-p.m. on 11 June (week 7) Followed by Q&A and Refreshments. Basement Teaching Room One 1 Pusey Lane, OX1 2LE All Welcome! Come and fold an origami crane at the café in the basement, and donate it to the faculty! For any inquiries, please email: emine.cakir@ames.ox.ac.uk, hiroe.kaji@ames.ox.ac.uk
The UK and the U.S. facing the common challenge of a rising China acknowledge they need to cooperate, but how successfully have they put this agreement into action? Since returning to power, Donald Trump has created significant uncertainty in U.S. foreign policy, the transatlantic alliance, and global stability. What does Trump’s return mean for UK-China relations? As Britain's long-awaited audit of relations with China is expected to be released, join the panel of scholars, Oxford International Relations Society, and Oxford China Policy Lab to discuss the alignment of UK and U.S. policies toward China, and to explore the future of the “special relationship” and UK’s China strategy in Trump 2.0 era. Speakers: Professor Todd Hall: Professor of International Relations at the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford, Tutorial Fellow in Politics at St Anne's College, and Director of the University of Oxford’s China Centre. Professor Kerry Brown: Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College, London. Ruby Osman: Policy Advisor and China expert at Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
Join via Microsoft Teams here: https://tinyurl.com/5d5s7x5k
This talk addresses the concept of “Living Archives," which has evolved from Professor Allan's ongoing research as an ethnographer, filmmaker and archivist working with Palestinian refugee communities in Lebanon. It builds on the Nakba Archive – a grassroots testimonial initiative that has documented histories of forced expulsion of 1948 – and is premised on the reimagining of archive as a creative, participatory practice that resists fixity and centers process. It draws inspiration from recent shifts in how Palestinian scholars, writers, and artists are rethinking mnemonic and documentary witness practices, and explores camp spaces as stateless archives, mnemonically embodied rather than institutionally housed. The talk will be preceded at 4pm by a showing of Partition, a documentary directed by Professor Allan which brings together colonial films from British Mandate Palestine with recordings from the Nakba Archive.
*Professor Ava Chin*, the award-winning author of *_Mott Street: A Chinese American Family's Story of Exclusion and Homecoming_*, addresses the joys and challenges of tackling large societal issues like immigration and belonging through the lens of four generations of her family. This talk provides a toolkit for life-writers. *About _Mott Street:_* ‘Essential reading for understanding not just Chinese American history but American history—and the American present’ * Celeste Ng, bestselling author of _Little Fires Everywhere_ ‘The _Angela’s Ashes_ for Chinese Americans’ * Miwa Messer, _Poured Over_ podcast As the only child of a single mother in Queens, Ava Chin found her family’s origins to be shrouded in mystery. She had never met her father, and her grandparents’ stories didn’t match the history she read at school. Mott Street traces Chin’s quest to understand her Chinese American family’s story. Over decades of painstaking research, she finds not only her father but also the building that provided a refuge for them all. Breaking the silence surrounding her family’s past meant confronting the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882—the first federal law to restrict immigration by race and nationality, barring Chinese immigrants from citizenship for six decades. Chin traces the story of the pioneering family members who emigrated from the Pearl River Delta, crossing an ocean to make their way in the American West of the mid-nineteenth century. She tells of their backbreaking work on the transcontinental railroad and of the brutal racism of frontier towns, then follows their paths to New York City. In New York’s Chinatown, she discovers a single building on Mott Street where so many of her ancestors would live, begin families, and craft new identities. She follows the men and women who became merchants, ‘paper son’ refugees, activists, and heads of the Chinese tong, piecing together how they bore and resisted the weight of the Exclusion laws. She soon realises that exclusion is not simply a political condition but also a personal one. _Mott Street_ uncovers a legacy of exclusion and resilience that speaks to the American experience, past and present. *Ava Chin* is an author, journalist, and Professor of Creative Nonfiction at the City University of New York (Graduate Centre, where she is the head of American Studies, and the College of Staten Island). She is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing, University of Oxford. She is the author of the award-winning memoir _Mott Street_ (Penguin Press, 2023), winner of the CALA Best Book Award and a PEN/Open Book Award Finalist, and _Eating Wildly_ (Simon & Schuster, 2014), which won the M.F.K. Fisher Book Award for excellence in food writing. _Mott Street_, an ALA Notable Book and one of _People_ magazine’s top books by Asian American authors, was a Best Book of the year in _TIME_, the _San Francisco Chronicle_, _Library Journal_, _Kirkus Reviews_ and _Elle_. Ava has appeared on NPR, PBS, and CSPAN, among others. Ava Chin’s writing has appeared in _The New York Times_ (“Urban Forager”), _Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Village Voice, Marie Claire_, and _SPIN_. She is the recipient of fellowships from the New York Public Library’s Cullman Centre for Scholars & Writers, Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, New York Foundation for the Arts, Asian American Writers’ Workshop, MacDowell, and the New York Institute for the Humanities, where she is a board member. A former slam poet, she has performed on numerous stages such as Joe’s Pub, the Knitting Factory, the Nuyorican Poet’s Café, and Woodstock ‘94, and contributed lyrics to Soul Coughing’s El Oso. _The Huffington Post_ named her one of ‘Nine Contemporary Authors You Should Be Reading’.
Professor Ava Chin, the award-winning author of Mott Street: A Chinese American Family's Story of Exclusion and Homecoming, addresses the joys and challenges of tackling large societal issues like immigration and belonging through the lens of four generations of her family. This talk provides a toolkit for life-writers. About Mott Street: ‘Essential reading for understanding not just Chinese American history but American history—and the American present’ —Celeste Ng, bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere ‘The Angela’s Ashes for Chinese Americans’ —Miwa Messer, Poured Over podcast As the only child of a single mother in Queens, Ava Chin found her family’s origins to be shrouded in mystery. She had never met her father, and her grandparents’ stories didn’t match the history she read at school. Mott Street traces Chin’s quest to understand her Chinese American family’s story. Over decades of painstaking research, she finds not only her father but also the building that provided a refuge for them all. Breaking the silence surrounding her family’s past meant confronting the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882—the first federal law to restrict immigration by race and nationality, barring Chinese immigrants from citizenship for six decades. Chin traces the story of the pioneering family members who emigrated from the Pearl River Delta, crossing an ocean to make their way in the American West of the mid-nineteenth century. She tells of their backbreaking work on the transcontinental railroad and of the brutal racism of frontier towns, then follows their paths to New York City. In New York’s Chinatown, she discovers a single building on Mott Street where so many of her ancestors would live, begin families, and craft new identities. She follows the men and women who became merchants, ‘paper son’ refugees, activists, and heads of the Chinese tong, piecing together how they bore and resisted the weight of the Exclusion laws. She soon realises that exclusion is not simply a political condition but also a personal one. Mott Street uncovers a legacy of exclusion and resilience that speaks to the American experience, past and present. Speaker Details: Ava Chin is an author, journalist, and Professor of Creative Nonfiction at the City University of New York (Graduate Centre, where she is the head of American Studies, and the College of Staten Island). She is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing, University of Oxford. She is the author of the award-winning memoir Mott Street (Penguin Press, 2023), winner of the CALA Best Book Award and a PEN/Open Book Award Finalist, and Eating Wildly (Simon & Schuster, 2014), which won the M.F.K. Fisher Book Award for excellence in food writing. Mott Street, an ALA Notable Book and one of People magazine’s top books by Asian American authors, was a Best Book of the year in TIME, the San Francisco Chronicle, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews and Elle. Ava has appeared on NPR, PBS, and CSPAN, among others. Ava Chin’s writing has appeared in The New York Times (“Urban Forager”), Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Village Voice, Marie Claire, and SPIN. She is the recipient of fellowships from the New York Public Library’s Cullman Centre for Scholars & Writers, Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, New York Foundation for the Arts, Asian American Writers’ Workshop, MacDowell, and the New York Institute for the Humanities, where she is a board member. A former slam poet, she has performed on numerous stages such as Joe’s Pub, the Knitting Factory, the Nuyorican Poet’s Café, and Woodstock ‘94, and contributed lyrics to Soul Coughing’s El Oso. The Huffington Post named her one of ‘Nine Contemporary Authors You Should Be Reading’. Further Details and Contacts: After the event, join us for a complimentary wine reception and book sale by Caper (@caperoxford ). This event is free and open to all; however, registration is recommended. This is an in-person event, but will be recorded and made available soon after on the OCLW website. Registration will close at 10:30 am on 11 June 2025.
COURSE DETAILS The session will introduce approaches to podcasting, present inspiration from a range of different podcast styles, and take you step-by-step through the basic technical skills of recording, editing and publishing audio files. You’ll have the chance to develop an idea and have a go recording it with support and feedback during the day. LEARNING OUTCOMES Upon completion of this course students will have an: Understanding of what podcasting is and its benefits in relation to communicating science to wider society. Ability to identify, develop and create narratives for the purposes of podcasting. Understanding of the skills required to record and edit audio, including making use of music and sound effects. Increased awareness of platforms for publishing podcast material.
In a big place like Oxford, it’s not always easy to find out about what’s available and how to make the most of your time here. This event is for new research staff to welcome you to our wonderful university and introduce you to the many opportunities and resources. People who attend are typically postdocs, research fellows and research assistants at Grades 6 to 8. Event objectives: Identify resources and support for your professional and career development. Know how to widen your social network through the Oxford Research Staff Society, Oxford University Newcomers Club. Start to effectively plan your coming months at Oxford. Pre-Requisites: No pre-requisites required.
The RecQ DNA helicase WRN was identified as a synthetic lethal target in MSIhigh tumors by several genetic screens. Despite recent advances in the treatment of MSIhigh tumors by immune checkpoint inhibitors, a significant proportion of patients still fails to respond to or relapses after single agent anti-PD1 or combination of anti-PD1 plus anti-CTLA4 treatments. We will present the biochemical, cellular and pharmacological characterization of the first potent and selective WRN helicase inhibitor, HRO761. We will show that HRO761 is an allosteric WRN inhibitor that binds at the interface of the D1 and D2 helicase domains, thus locking WRN in an inactive conformation. We will further show that pharmacological inhibition of WRN by HRO761 recapitulates the phenotype observed by WRN genetic suppression, leading to activation of the DNA damage response and inhibition of tumor cell growth selectively in MSIhigh but not in MSS cells. In addition, we will show that WRN inhibition leads to WRN protein degradation only in MSIhigh tumor cells and give insights into the mechanism of WRN degradation upon DNA damage response induction. A phase 1 clinical trial with HRO761 is currently ongoing to assess the safety, tolerability and preliminary anti-tumor activity in patients with MSIhigh colorectal cancer and other MSIhigh solid tumors
The flow of red blood cells (RBCs) in heterogeneous biological porous tissues such as the human placenta, remains poorly understood despite the essential role the microvasculature plays in maintaining overall health and functionality of tissues, blood flow and transport mechanisms. This is in great part because the usual description of blood as a simple fluid breaks down when the size of RBCs is similar to that of the vessel. In this study, we use a bespoke suspension of ultra-soft microcapsules with a poroelastic membrane, which have been previously shown to mimic the motion and large deformations of RBCs in simple conduits [1], in order to explore soft suspension flows in planar porous media. Our planar porous devices are Hele-Shaw channels, where the capsules are slightly confined within the channel depth, and in which we increase confinement by adding regular or disordered arrays of pillars. We perform experiments that relate the global resistance of the suspension flow through the porous media to the local distributions of capsule concentration and velocity as a function of volume fraction, capillary number Ca, the ratio of viscous to elastic forces, and geometry. We find that the flow patterns in Hele-Shaw channels and ordered porous media differ significantly from those in disordered porous media, where the presence of capsules promotes preferential paths and supports anomalous capsule dispersion. In contrast, the flows in ordered geometries develop intriguing shear-banding patterns as the volume fraction increases. Despite the complex microscopic dynamics of the suspension flow, we observe the emergence of similar scaling laws for the global flow resistance in both regular and disordered porous media as a function of Ca. We find that the scaling exponent decreases with increasing volume fraction because of cooperative capsule mechanisms, which yield relative stiffening of the system for increasing Ca. [1] Chen et al. Soft Matter 19, 5249- 5261.
This paper is part of the first chapter of my dissertation, which looks at the impact of nonhuman animals on the institution of slavery in the American South. It examines multispecies entanglements within the plantation complex and argues for the centrality of nonhuman animals to methods of control exerted by enslavers, as well as strategies of resistance developed by the enslaved. In particular, it will focus on how enslavers weaponized the threat of non-domesticated animals living beyond the plantation in creating a geography of containment while also using domesticated animals—especially dogs and horses—as living embodiments of surveillance and recapture in a calculated process to enforce spatial control and limit the movement of enslaved persons. In this way, the plantation is viewed as a highly manipulated social and environmental ecosystem that linked the exploitation of human and nonhuman animals to the broader framework of capitalism, monoculturalism, and the maintenance of power. Join online via Microsoft Teams: https://tinyurl.com/bdhmjvn7
This study examines the digital literacy experiences of first-year students at a South African university, focusing on understanding the challenges and support mechanisms that shape their ability to use technology effectively. These insights aim to inform the design of a comprehensive digital literacy course that better meets the diverse needs of first-year students in higher education. Data were collected through focus group discussions; participants from various facilities, such as the business and engineering faculty and mixed faculty participants, explored their definitions of digital literacy, initial learning experiences, frequency of computer use, and support. The findings reveal that while students generally define digital literacy as the ability to use technology, many face significant challenges, including language barriers, technical difficulties, and inadequate support, particularly in academic assignments and presentations. Participants overwhelmingly prefer face-to-face instruction for digital literacy due to concerns over network reliability and the quality of direct guidance. Moreover, the study highlights a critical gap in the existing digital literacy curriculum, with students calling for an expanded course encompassing diverse academic skills such as report writing and investigative research. These insights provide valuable implications for designing a comprehensive digital literacy course that can better equip students to meet the demands of a rapidly digitalizing educational landscape. The study concludes with recommendations to update technological infrastructure, enhance digital literacy training, and provide targeted support for under-resourced students. Join in-person or online: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_OWI2M2ZjODItNjMyMC00ZjkwLWE5ZDgtYTE5Y2U3MzJlMzY3%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%225f581465-1def-4d51-8d4c-45a3b26b5b58%22%7d
LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of the session, participants will be able to: Develop effective communication strategies for presenting complex research concepts to non-specialist audiences. Explore different learning and engagement theories and how they can inform effective public engagement strategies. Learn to adapt engagement techniques based on different audiences. Learn how to assess the effectiveness of engagement approaches and refine them accordingly.
Using large-scale recordings from frontal decision-making regions in rats performing a perceptual decision-making task, we recently discovered an internally-timed signal, coordinated across simultaneously recorded neurons, that indicates the moment when the subject makes up their mind, or in other words, commits to a decision. This moment, which we refer to as “nTc”, for “Neurally-inferred Time of Commitment,” can occur covertly, many hundreds of milliseconds before, and independently of, the moment when the subject overtly reports their decision. In a further set of experiments, using 8 Neuropixels probes to record from thousands of neurons in tens of brain regions simultaneously across the brain, we discovered that decision-related neural activity is tightly coordinated across brain regions. Remarkably, the activity coordination across these regions, and across both hemispheres, is dominated by a single one-dimensional variable. Furthermore, the frontally-defined nTc marks a major state change in decision-related neural activity across the brain: in all recorded regions, choice-prediction accuracy abruptly stops growing, and cross-region coordination drops drastically, after nTc. This suggests that detection of nTc, a purely internal, neurally defined moment, will be critical for appropriately parsing decision-related neural activity into states with entirely different functional properties and significance. Going beyond decision-making, we point out that the overwhelming bulk of variance in neural activity is of unknown origin or meaning, yet is known to be structured across neurons. This is exactly what nTc looked like before we discovered it. We propose that, similar to nTc, most neural activity may consist of internally-timed and internally-defined signals. Such signals would induce structure in neural activity across neurons yet, if their timing and characteristics are unknown, would otherwise look like noise. We further propose that modern AI techniques, combined with large-scale recordings, provide unprecedented opportunities to detect, parse, and characterize that structure. We believe this characterization will provide fundamental clues towards understanding internal signals and thus towards elucidating the inner conversation of the mind. SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY Born and raised in Mexico City, Carlos Brody did his Ph.D. in the Computation and Neural Systems Program at Caltech. He then did a postdoc in Ranulfo Romo's lab in Mexico, analyzing and modeling data from monkeys performing working memory and decision-making tasks. This was followed by a short postdoc at NYU in Tony Movshon's lab, after which he took his first faculty position at Cold Spring Harbor Labs, working in computational neuroscience. After a few years at CSHL, he started doing experiments with behaving rats. He then moved to Princeton University, where his lab pursues both computational and experimental neuroscience. Brody is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
In order to attend this reading group via Zoom, please register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/cY6DLzecRhO6plMcEncQdA
Lesson of the week, clinical cases and research. All clinical and academic staff and students welcome. Coffee, Tea and Cake will be served.
Poetry, Delyricised: The Formal and Moral Stakes of Claudia Rankine’s Poetic Address (Sara L. Borga, University of Oxford): If the subtitle (An American Conversation) of Claudia Rankine’s Just Us (2020), the third volume in her American Lyric trilogy, signals a retreat from the lyric while still holding onto its vestiges, how does this shift redefine the stakes of Rankine’s poetic address? While the trilogy’s reception as formally innovative has largely focused on its intertextual effects or the wayward lyricism of Citizen (2014), it often sidesteps an in-depth engagement with how the volumes relate to one another, particularly Rankine’s distancing from the ‘lyric’ as a defining category. This talk will focus on how this transition aligns with Rankine’s deepening concern with the intersection of language, accountability, and ethics evident in her dialogic exploration of racial justice in Just Us as an intimate, everyday practice. The book’s title—echoing Richard Pryor’s pun on ‘justice’ as ‘just us’—captures this tension, exposing how historical failures of justice permeate, and segregate, intimate and systemic interactions. I will discuss my current research on how the aesthetic potential of Rankine’s poetics might be most fully realised by tracing her lyric’s journey away from itself. George R. Stewart and the Post-Apocalyptic American Eden (Maya Hollander, University of Oxford): This talk proposes a tradition of biblical reception in post-apocalyptic American fiction centred on the creation story of Genesis 1-3, focusing on George R. Stewart’s Earth Abides (1949) as a representative example of this tradition. For Stewart, the apocalypse becomes a setting for Edenic regeneration and the emergence of a new American Adam, an agent of light, order, and civilisation. The tradition of the post-apocalyptic American Eden, which can be traced as far back as Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ‘The New Adam and Eve’ (1843), resurfaces across myriad speculative renderings of American landscapes, including novels by Walter M. Miller, Angela Carter, Octavia Butler, Margaret Atwood, and Cormac McCarthy. Cruel Dualisms: Restraints, Resistance and the Limits of Bare Bottomhood (Andrie Morris, University of Oxford): My talk considers satire in Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s speculative fiction. I suggest his treatment of spectacular blackness in ‘Zimmer Land’ and Chain-Gang All-Stars illustrates Christina Sharpe’s observation that ‘spectacle is a relation of power.’ The confluence of antiracist politics and neo-colonialist capitalist agendas produces a literary black body that, I argue, comments critically on that hegemony.
Dr Duc Le, Editor-in-Chief, Med and Dr Zoltan Fehervari, Senior Editor, Nature, will provide insights into scientific publishing. The talks will be followed by a Q&A for audience questions, and then some teas and coffees.
This paper discusses how to build a simple model of the optimal policy responses to a temporary rise in energy prices, a situation like that caused by the war in Ukraine. The objective is to avoid the emergence of a wage price spiral, in the presence of the kind of real-wage resistance which has been shown to be empirically important, and yet also to avoid large increases in interest rates. We believe that this outcome might have been achieved by means of a very large cut in consumption taxes (or a very large subsidy to energy supply). That action would moderate (or in the limit completely remove) the energy price-induced cost-push pressures, thereby meaning that interest rates would have needed to be raised very little (and in the limit not at all) to control inflation. But such tax cuts would both stimulate aggregate demand and increase the government budget deficit. It is therefore important to prevent such a policy strategy from creating excess demand in the short run, or Ponzi-game-like fiscal outcomes in the long run. We show that, in order to study this question with a simple formal model, we will need to abandon two features which have been central to the benchmark new-Keynesian DSGE model, namely the use of a forward-looking Phillips curve and the neglect of investment and capital accumulation. We have not yet done this work. But the simulation results in our paper points suggest that it will be possible to demonstrate that there might be large benefits in using a combination of fiscal policy and monetary policy to deal with supply-side shocks.
German mathematician Eduard Study (1862-1930) was an outspoken critic of several emerging trends in modern mathematics at the turn of the century. Intuitionism, he argued, was in the process of eliminating the very notion of truth at the core of any serious scientific endeavour, whereas axiom-obsessed formalists engaged in a mere game of symbols, thereby losing sight of what really grants meaning and value to mathematical concepts. In rejecting both approaches, Study sought to maintain that mathematics was a science formed of freely-created concepts yet still possessed a specific form of objectivity, whose exploration crucially relied on the careful construction of symbolic languages. To disentangle these claims, this talk will delve into Study's unpublished, philosophical essay on the foundations of analysis, and compare it to the mathematical practice espoused in his 1903 Geometrie der Dynamen, a landmark volume in the history of kinematics.
Are you baffled by open, confused by embargoes? Does the mention of the colour gold or green catapult you into a realm of perplexed irritation? Come to this session, where we’ll break down open access and all its many jargon terms, confusing publishing structures and hint at the advantages you can reap by publishing open. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers, other staff.
Sensory systems display a dizzying complexity of tuning properties and circuitry. Why do neurons in sensory pathways show the properties we observe, instead of the many other possibilities? We investigate whether a simple principle can explain these properties - temporal prediction. This proposes that sensory systems are optimised to efficiently predict immediate future sensory input given recent past input for natural stimuli. This may be useful for guiding future action, uncovering underlying variables, and discarding irrelevant information. We found that simple feedforward networks optimised for temporal prediction on spectrograms of natural sounds produced units with tuning properties resembling those of neurons in primary auditory cortex. When instead optimised for retinal-filtered movies of natural scenes the tuning properties resembled those of simple cells in primary visual cortex. When applied to natural sound waveforms or unfiltered movies, these networks produced units with tuning properties resembling those of neurons in the auditory nerve or retina respectively. Application of temporal prediction hierarchically to the activity of these retina-like units produced units resembling visual cortical simple cells, complex cells and pattern-motion selective cells as one moves up the hierarchy. Furthermore, training a recurrent network for temporal prediction produced functional connectivity motifs between units that resemble those of primary visual cortex, and training a spiking recurrent network for temporal prediction reproduced characteristics of spiking responses in the retina and cortex. Finally, combining recurrency with hierarchical temporal prediction produces properties consistent with those of inter-regional feedback connections in visual cortex. In summary, this simple principle appears to capture many diverse tuning and connectivity properties of sensory neural pathways.
Postgraduate students, fellows, staff and faculty from any discipline are welcome. This group aims to foster frequent interdisciplinary critical dialogue across Oxford and beyond about the political impacts of emerging technologies. Please contact Elisabeth Siegel at elisabeth.siegel@politics.ox.ac.uk or Brian Kot at brian.kot@politics.ox.ac.uk in advance to participate or with any questions. Remote attendance is possible, but in-person attendance is prioritized (and provided refreshment). About the speaker: Chloe is a digital government researcher and doctoral student at the Oxford Internet Institute, where she is researching the use of data-driven technologies and AI in public sector organisations. Chloe is also an Expert Affiliate for StateUp, where she has worked on projects focussed on government innovation, resilience, and digitalisation. Chloe has most recently worked as an Adviser with the Australian Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, with previous roles including positions with the Cabinet Office, Universities Australia and within the science communication sector. Chloe holds an MPhil with distinction in Public Policy from the University of Cambridge.
Event Overview: Amid significant global uncertainty—with major economic, social, and environmental challenges—the need for responsible leadership has never been more urgent. At the same time, the opportunities to cultivate good leadership have never been greater. In this special event, students will have the unique opportunity to engage with Yukihisa Fujita—a distinguished statesman, humanitarian, and peacebuilder—who brings decades of experience on the front lines of global leadership, conflict resolution, and humanitarian assistance. Mr Fujita has spent a lifetime addressing some of the world’s most complex challenges—from delivering aid to Cambodian refugees and launching grassroots initiatives across Africa, to working alongside global icons such as Nelson Mandela. His journey serves as a powerful reminder of the transformative potential of leadership rooted in courage, humility, and a profound commitment to peace. In this session, Mr Fujita will share his perspective on leadership through reflections on world leaders. He will also explore concrete ways in which young and future leaders can contribute to trust-building, offering insight into how leadership can be grounded in trust rather than personal gain. Together, we will consider essential questions for emerging leaders: How can leadership foster peace in an increasingly divided world? What relationships and values are needed to navigate conflict with integrity? And how can each of us begin shaping a vision for good leadership in a complex world? The event will be conversational in nature, beginning with a photo presentation by Mr Fujita reflecting on his personal leadership journey. This will be followed by ample time for discussion and questions, providing participants with the opportunity to engage meaningfully with his experiences and insights. About the Speaker: Yukihisa Fujita is a distinguished Japanese statesman, humanitarian, and advocate for international peacebuilding, with decades of experience in conflict resolution and humanitarian assistance. His lifelong commitment to good leadership and peaceful reconciliation began following a dramatic encounter with Japan’s past mistakes—travelling with youth from across Asia and the Pacific to confront difficult historical truths and promote healing. Mr Fujita began his humanitarian work in 1975, when he joined Moral Re-Armament—now known as Initiatives of Change (IC)—an international movement focused on peacebuilding and reconciliation. Through IC, he contributed to initiatives across Asia and Europe, fostering dialogue and trust across cultural and political divides. In parallel, he became a key figure in the Association for Aid and Relief, Japan’s pioneering NGO for refugee assistance. There, he helped launch humanitarian operations in Cambodia, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, expanding the organisation’s reach to over 60 countries. Since 2022, he has served as Chairman of the International IC Association of Japan. Building on this foundation of grassroots engagement, Mr Fujita later entered public service and went on to serve in both chambers of Japan’s National Diet—twice elected to the House of Representatives and twice to the House of Councillors. As Vice Minister of Finance (2011–2012), he played a central role in Japan’s response and recovery efforts following the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. He also held several senior positions, including Shadow Foreign Minister (2017) and Director General of the Democratic Party’s International Department on five occasions. Throughout his political career, Mr Fujita helped shape policies to support a wide range of victim communities. These included refugees from Asia, Africa, and beyond; former prisoners of war who suffered under the Japanese military; atomic bomb survivors; former Japanese detainees in Siberia; Chinese foster parents of Japanese war orphans; and war criminals from the Korean Peninsula. His efforts spanned both governmental and non-governmental initiatives, demonstrating the enduring impact of reconciliation rooted in compassion and moral responsibility. He has led numerous reconciliation and humanitarian missions in some of the world’s most challenging regions, including disaster relief operations in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Haiti. He also played a key role in establishing refugee support offices in Macedonia (1999) during the Kosovo crisis and in Kabul (2002) for Afghan refugees. Additionally, he led Japanese government initiatives to promote reconciliation with former American prisoners of war. In recent years, Mr Fujita has arranged high-level dialogues in Japan among religious leaders from conflict-affected regions such as Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, Palestine, Israel, Myanmar, and Cambodia—providing safe spaces for opposing sides to meet and reflect. His work underscores a powerful truth: in an increasingly divided world, individual relationships and unselfish care—not only by political or religious leaders, but also by ordinary people, especially youth—can make a transformative difference. Further details about his work and ongoing initiatives can be found at: https://www.y-fujita.com About the Moderator: Shireen Kalra is the Programme Coordinator at the Oxford Character Project (Global Leadership Programme), where she works on character-driven leadership initiatives for a young and diverse global audience. Previously, Shireen served as Programme Coordinator for the United Nations Millennium Fellowship, an international leadership development initiative by the Millennium Campus Network in partnership with United Nations Academic Impact. Deeply committed to youth-led advocacy, she has engaged with global decision-makers at key platforms, including the 2024 Summit of the Future during UN General Assembly Week and the 30th Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations. Shireen holds an MSc in Higher Education (Distinction) from the University of Oxford, specialising in the politics of access and equity in elite university admissions. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Political Science and International Relations from Ashoka University, with study abroad experiences at King’s College London (Public Policy and Social Justice) and the London School of Economics (International Human Rights Law). A strong advocate for storytelling as a catalyst for change, Shireen is a two-time published fiction author who amplifies the voices of Indian youth. Her work explores the complexities and challenges that young people face in a divided world. With its authentic portrayal of youth resilience and their pursuit of a redefined future, her writing has been recognised by Lady Elish Angiolini, Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and Dr Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament, India.
Historic England has estimated that UK museums will run out of space by 2027, to the detriment of Archaeological research. The Government’s motivation to find solutions to the Curation Crisis is undermined by the absence of a research agenda that clearly articulates the critical value of archaeological assemblages. This talk represents a first step in providing that agenda. It will showcase how biocultural heritage can contextualise and mitigate modern Global Challenges, including nature renewal, food security and planetary health.
TBA
Annual Lecture with Prof Jessica Riskin. We are delighted to announce the fourth Annual Lecture of the Institute for Ethics in AI, featuring Professor Jessica Riskin from Stanford University. This event promises to be an engaging and thought-provoking event. Title: The Onion Axiom: A History of the Outside-In Approach to Artificial (and Natural) Intelligence Abstract: Ever since the founding moments of artificial intelligence in the mid-twentieth century, the principal researchers and writers on the subject – from Alan Turing, and Norbert Weiner to Rodney Brooks, Daniel Dennett, and many others – have adopted the behaviourist assumption that intelligence is nothing more than its appearance. That if you could peel away all the layers of the onion, at the core you would find nothing but emptiness: there’s no one in there. This lecture will explore the implications of the onion axiom for the history of AI and consider how this history might inform our efforts to grapple with the runaway technology today.
Please contact "$":mailto:sarah.apetrei@campion.ox.ac.uk for the Teams link to join remotely.
Join us for a thought-provoking discussion on decolonising environmental research and reshaping the dynamics of knowledge and power. This event challenges traditional paradigms and fosters a more inclusive and equitable approach to environmental studies. Panel members include: Dr Carol Ibe, Dr Ricardo Roche, Dr Catherine Souch and Dr Monique Mulder who will chair the session. There is also a drinks reception following the panel.
Followed by drinks reception to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the Investcorp Building.
The illusions that have long defined Africa-Europe relations are not just outdated—they are, Professor Carlos Lopes argues, actively harmful. As Africa repositions itself within a rapidly changing global order, clinging to legacy narratives only deepens inequality and missed opportunities. This event, marking the presentation of a book already downloaded over 35,000 times, offers a candid critique of the misconceptions that continue to distort the relationship. Professor Lopes makes the case for a fundamental reset: one grounded in realism, mutual respect, and recognition of Africa’s growing agency. It is a call to move beyond comfort zones and face the hard truths needed to build authentic, future-oriented partnerships.
Mao Zedong famously defined the distinction between friends and enemies as the primary question of the revolution, and this divide remained one of the basic parameters of political and social life in China for three decades after the establishment of the PRC, with a minority of the Chinese population being formally designated as enemies and excluded from the community of the ‘People.’ Dr Czellér’s forthcoming monograph, Non-People in the People’s Republic, focuses on the two labels, ‘landlord地主’ and ‘rich peasant富农’, that were responsible for rendering the largest number of Chinese citizens ‘non-People’ during the Mao era. Why did these labels, which were supposed to be temporary and were assigned right as their material referents (i.e. renting out land and hiring labour) were being eliminated through land reform and collectivization, continue to form the basis for such exclusion until the late 1970s? To what extent did political exclusion produce social stigma within communities and across generations? And were there any channels through which those labelled class enemies could nevertheless preserve some of their pre-revolutionary advantages and pass them on to their descendants? Dr Czellér’s talk will address these questions, and consider how this case compares to other instances of enemy-making by modern states. Dr Mark Czellér is an IHR Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, where he was Past and Present Fellow (2022-2024) following the completion of his doctorate at the University of Oxford. His research interests are in the political and social history of Maoist China, with a particular focus on ideas, practices, and experiences of policing and repression.
[Joint Session with the Latin American History Seminar and the Rothermere American Institute]
This talk explores the Antioch Bible’s Syriac-English edition of the Peshitta New Testament. As the first complete, scholarly translation of the Peshitta into contemporary English, the Antioch Bible bridges historical Syriac tradition with modern linguistic precision. This presentation will discuss the translation’s methodological approach, its balance between literal fidelity and accessible English, and its role in advancing Syriac studies. Special attention will be given to how the Antioch Bible engages with textual variants, historical context, and its contribution to both academic scholarship and ecclesiastical communities.
Internationally acclaimed author Ruta Sepetys talks about writing historical fiction, exploring questions of historical equity and representation.
Africa’s long nineteenth century was a time of revolutionary ferment and cultural innovation for the continent’s states, societies, and economies. Yet the period preceding what became known as “the Scramble for Africa” by European powers in the decades leading up to World War I has long been neglected in favour of a Western narrative of colonial rule. _The African Revolution_ demonstrates that “the Scramble” and the resulting imperial order were as much the culmination of African revolutionary dynamics as they were of European expansionism. In this monumental work of history, Richard Reid paints a multifaceted portrait of a continent on the global stage. He describes how Africa witnessed the emergence of new economic and political dynamics that were underpinned by forms of violence and volatility not unlike those emanating from Europe. Reid uses a stretch of road in what is now Tanzania—one of the nineteenth century’s most vibrant commercial highways—as an entry point into this revolutionary epoch, weaving a broader story around characters and events on the road. He integrates the African experience with new insights into the deeper currents in European societies before and after conquest, and he shows how the Africans themselves created opportunities for European expansion. Challenging the portrayal of Africa’s transformative nineteenth century as a mere prelude to European colonialism, _The African Revolution_ reveals how this turbulent yet hugely creative era for Africans intersected with global intrusions to shape the modern age. Come and celebrate the publication of Richard Reid’s _The African Revolution: A History of the Long Nineteenth Century_: https://press.princeton.edu/books/ebook/9780691266954/the-african-revolution-pdf-0. There will be much wine and few words.
The Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) comes to Oxford for the very first time, with a special session hosted by the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development. We are pleased to welcome Malvika Singh, publisher of Seminar and author of "Saris of Memory", for a conversation that weaves together questions of aesthetics, identity, and politics through the lens of India’s most iconic garment. Drawing on her decades of engagement with publishing, public life, and cultural institutions, Singh will reflect on how textiles—and the sari in particular—carry stories of India’s historical transitions and contemporary realities. This event will be of particular interest to those in South Asian studies, gender and cultural studies, design and material culture, politics, and history, but all are welcome.
How do we talk about disease—and the stigma that often comes with it? Join us at the History of Science Museum for an open conversation exploring how illness and stigma shape our experiences, perceptions, and histories. You'll hear from five thought-provoking speakers who will guide small breakout discussions, each inspired by intriguing objects, some of which are from our collections. Then we’ll come together as a group as our speakers share their reflections. You'll have an opportunity to contribute to the conversation and ask questions. Will hearing each other’s stories shift how we think? Let's talk about stigma.
Since late 2024, Westminster has debated whether and when English and Welsh patients may hasten their deaths. But what about the opposite situation? How should we handle situations when the patient wants to live but their clinicians determine that continuing life-sustaining treatment is inappropriate, non-beneficial, or therapeutically obstinate? These sorts of conflicts have long been common in NHS hospitals. Yet, they are increasingly prevalent as families dispute even long-settled medical concepts like brain death. Normally, clinicians defer to patients and families when the decision is value-laden and preference sensitive. But surely, clinicians need not comply with "any" demand that patients and families make. What are the proper limits to clinical deference? And how should those limits be adjudicated?
Please join us for a film screening and fundraiser for mutual aid to Gaza at the St Antony's College Buttery on 12 June from 6-8pm. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTRta5Dqm7s&t=22s&pp=ygUkcjIxIGFrYSByZXN0b3Jpbmcgc29saWRhcml0eSB0cmFpbGVy "R21" comes as an addition to and a reflection on a collection of 20 16mm films, safeguarded in Tokyo by the Japanese solidarity movement with Palestine. It’s an undelivered solidarity letter written by a Japanese activist that was lost on its way to a Palestinian filmmaker. Fragments of the letter are found throughout the collection and compiled into an imagined structure that reveals itself during the film. "R21 aka Restoring Solidarity" acts as a catalog, the film as a time machine, the film as an archive. The themes that Reel no. 21 deals with, reveal themselves in the form of a montage essay. At the same time, the act of restoring these films brings out motives, aspirations, and the disappearance of a generation and its struggles, not only
Panel Discussion with representatives from across the pharmaceutical sector The pharmaceutical sector is under increasing pressure to decarbonise supply chains, to mitigate the impacts of medicines on the environment, and to shift the balance of benefits more equally across patients, planet and profits. The stakes are high for all involved. Progress is variable. Industry, regulators, healthcare providers, professional organisations and citizen groups all have potential roles to play. But what is the way forward? How can pharmaceutical companies work differently in the interests of planetary health? What incentives and levers are there for change, and across global supply chains? And how can we make this all happen rapidly, and at scale? In this panel, representatives from across the pharmaceutical sector will come together to debate these pressing issues, to consider the urgent steps needed to bring about change and how, with urgency, to make them a reality. Speakers Moderator: Amy Booth, Sustainable Health Care Module Co-lead Mark Wilson, Executive Director, Health Care Without Harm Europe Martin Chilcott, Founder and CEO, Manufacture 2030 Liz Breen, Professor of Health Service Operations, Faculty of Life Sciences University of Bradford Chris Winchester, CEO, Oxford PharmaGenesis
Dr Mads Gilbert is an award-winning Norwegian medical doctor and author, professor em., specialised in anaesthesiology and emergency medicine at The Arctic University of Norway, and senior consultant at Clinic of Emergency Medicine at The University Hospital of North Norway in Tromsø. He has worked extensively over 30 years in Gaza, Beirut, Burma, Cambodia, Angola and Afghanistan. He is a consultant for WHO, UNRWA, NORWAC and for his governmental University Hospital, and has written books and interactive training programmes on trauma care. In 2013, the Norwegian King Harald made him Commander of The Order of St. Olav for his overall contributions to emergency medicine and international medical solidarity. The Chief Medical Officer has confirmed that attendance at the Surgical Grand Rounds can count toward internal CPD, with 1 point awarded per hour. Please note that in-person attendance is required, and you will need to sign the attendance register. Please email Louise King (louise.king@nds.ox.ac.uk) if you would like to attend online.
*First Bahari Workshop for Early Career Scholars* *Programme* 08:30-09:00 Coffee and Pastries 09:00-09:15 *Inaugural remarks: Yuhan S-D Vevaina, University of Oxford* 09:15-09:30 Introduction: *Olivia Ramble* and *Alessia Zubani*, University of Oxford 09:30-11:00 *Session 1: Epigraphy and Materiality* _Chair: Delphine Poinsot (Collège de France)_ *Antonietta Castiello* (Universität Oldenburg) Hidden Figures: The Invisible Hand of Writing Professionals in Palmyra's Material Memory *Milad Abedi* (Universität Innsbruck) Beyond Borders: The Cultural Repositioning of Pahlavi Scribal Traditions 11:00-11:30 Coffee Break 11:30-13:00 *Session 2: Economic and Administrative Manuscript Fragments* _Chair: Khodadad Rezakhani (University of Leiden)_ *Nima Asefi* (University of Hamburg) Tracing the Pahlavi Scribes: Writing Materials, Career Progression, and Syntactic Anomalies in the Pahlavi Documents from Hastijan, Tabaristan, and Fars *Thomas Benfey* (University of Tübingen) Berk. 40: A Middle Persian Writing Exercise? 13:00-14:30 Lunch Break 14:30-16:00 *Session 3: Writing and Authority in the Religious Sphere* _Chair: Francesco Calzolaio (The Hong Kong University)_ *Chloé Agar* (University of Oxford) Hagiographers as Professionals of Writing: Legitimisation and Illusion in the Cult of Saints in Egypt *Johan Lundberg* (University of Oxford) Jacob of Edessa and Syriac Writing in the Seventh Century 16:00-16:30 Coffee Break 16:30-18:00 *Session 4: Scribes and Literary Productions: Epistles and Epigrams* _Chair: Arash Zeini (University of Oxford)_ *Alberto Bernard* (École Pratique des Hautes Études-PSL) Priests and Scribes in Late-Antique Zoroastrianism *Ugo Mondini* (University of Oxford) and *Nina Sietis* (Università degli Studi di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale) Professionals of Writing in Greek Sources: Evidence from Epigrams and Manuscripts 18:00-18:15 *Final Remarks: Arash Zeini (University of Oxford)* *Antonietta Castiello – Hidden Figures: The Invisible Hand of Writing Professionals in Palmyra’s Material Memory* The city of Palmyra never fails to captivate. With its monumental architecture, the famous portraits of its inhabitants, and its bilingual inscriptions, it emerged between the first and third centuries AD as a truly unique civilisation. Open to the world around it, Palmyra was a thriving crossroads where people, animals, gods, and goods from the Ancient World met, standing out in the Mediterranean landscape as a remarkable example of a diverse and ever-evolving community. The city’s memory, preserved in its surviving ruins and the legacy of a flourishing diaspora, can often be elusive. Yet, while interpreting its past is no easy task, it remains fascinating challenge. It is within this framework that we seek to uncover traces of writing professionals among the many faces that shaped Palmyra’s vibrant society. Historical sources documenting the lives of Palmyrene citizens—whether priests, soldiers, merchants, or scribes—are scarce but striking, often tied to the material traces left behind. These range from funerary portraits, where the deceased is depicted with the “tools of the trade” such as a scroll and stylus, to inscriptions that bear subtle hints of the invisible hand that carved them, hidden behind the signature of the commissioner. This presentation sets out to gather and analyse these fragments, piecing together clues to illuminate the identities of the writing professionals who, despite being part of a society that left behind no literary texts, remain hidden figures in the Palmyrene history. *Milad Abedi – Beyond Borders: The Cultural Repositioning of Pahlavi Scribal Traditions* The Pahlavi script has long been identified with the Zoroastrian Middle Persian literary tradition, associated primarily with the Zoroastrianism, Sasanian empire, and intellectual life of post-Sasanian Zoroastrian communities as well as its southwest Iranian linguistic base. This view often frames Pahlavi as a local and religiously specific medium, isolated from broader historical currents. However, emerging archaeological evidence and studies in lexical contact challenge this limited perspective. This paper reexamines the cultural and linguistic role of Pahlavi scribes by tracing the script’s use beyond its conventional boundaries. Particular attention is paid to the appearance of Book Pahlavi in transcultural contexts, including bilingual environments across the Sino-Iranian and Arab-Iranian zones. These instances demonstrate that Pahlavi script served not only as a vehicle of religious preservation but also as a medium of cross-cultural communication and exchange. By investigating the involvement of Pahlavi-literate scribes in facilitating administrative, commercial, and intellectual interactions, this study situates Book Pahlavi within wider trans-Eurasian networks. It argues that the scribal practices associated with Pahlavi played an underestimated but crucial role in shaping the cultural dynamics of late antiquity. Ultimately, reorienting the understanding of Pahlavi script from a so-called localized tradition to a script that bridged East and West reveals new dimensions of cultural connectivity in the late antique world. *Nima Asefi – Tracing the Pahlavi Scribes: Writing Materials, Career Progression, and Syntactic Anomalies in the Pahlavi Documents from Hastijan, Tabaristan, and Fars* This lecture consists of three parts. In the first part, drawing on the Hastijan documents and two Arabic sources, it will be demonstrated that some _dārīgs_ had the opportunity to rise to the rank of _dibīr_ or even higher. The second part will show that, through close attention to syntactic features and also the identification of scribal-specific writing characteristics — in this case, by highlighting distinctive phrasing and the various methods used to enumerate delivered rations — it is possible to identify documents written by the same scribe. The final part briefly overviews the writing materials discovered in the three caves. *Thomas Benfey – Berk. 40: A Middle Persian Writing Exercise?* In this presentation I examine the Middle Persian document Berk. 40—to my knowledge the only known instance in the Middle Persian documentary corpus in which a substantial text is repeated on the same writing surface. A full edition and translation of this document has never been published, although Philippe Gignoux and Dieter Weber have offered partial readings. In addition to offering an edition and translation of Berk. 40, and touching on some intriguing features of its contents—it includes two important administrative and fiscal terms, whose precise meaning remains unknown, and which merit further study—I will discuss the significance of this duplicated text for our understanding of scribal practices in early Islamic Iran. *Chloé Agar – Hagiographers as Professionals of Writing: Legitimisation and Illusion in the Cult of Saints in Egypt* Hagiography is rightfully criticised as a source for understanding the Late Antique and Byzantine world. Nonetheless, these criticisms are based on interpretations that take the texts at face value. These texts, as part of the cult of saints, were written by ecclesiastical and monastic individuals and read aloud to congregations on saints’ feast days. As such, their miraculous subject matter and devotional context make them inherently unreliable as witnesses of historical events. What hagiography can actually tell us concerns the things which writers did not intend to be examined closely, not least because much of the population was probably illiterate and the authority of the clergy was, in an ideal world at least, not to be challenged. Hagiography enables us to investigate the identity, socio-economic status, and political roles of professionals of writing in the sphere of religion and gives us an insight into the inner workings of the cult of saints. This paper will examine the clues that hagiographers left behind which, while initially seeming like indiscriminate details, demonstrate that there was an ‘art’ of writing. This includes written references to the texts being read aloud, the insertion of the writers into the events being recounted, and the attribution of the texts’ composition to notable Church figures. Such clues show that these texts were presented as being written by specialists for performative use, which conferred authority on their writers but also diverted attention away from their true identities. *Johan Lundberg – Jacob of Edessa and Syriac Writing in the Seventh Century* Jacob, the bishop-scholar of Edessa, was one of the most prolific Syriac writers of the seventh century. He was a churchman and a writer. He wrote works on Canon law and composed homilies. He also wrote a Hexaemeron, worked on a revision of the Syriac Old Testament, and kept up a copious correspondence. One of his letters is about the art of writing. This letter was written to bishop George of Sarugh and it was originally appended to Jacob’s translation of Severus of Antioch. Jacob makes his case for accurate spelling and precise pointing, explaining how this trade differs from other trades. It is part exhortation and part instructional manual. This is not Jacob’s only piece on the subject. He also composed a treatise on dots, and traces of his views on vowels are preserved in fragments of his grammar. Writing was an important subject for Jacob. In fact, he calls it the highest of the arts. What makes a proficient seventh century Syriac scribe? What practices did he try to change and, to what extent, did he succeed? The answers to these questions is found between Jacob’s writings and manuscripts from his and subsequent periods. *Alberto Bernard – Priests and Scribes in Late-Antique Zoroastrianism* What were the relations between priests (_mowmard, āsrōn_) and scribes (Middle Persian _dibīr_) in late-antique Iran? Drawing on evidence from sigillography, Pahlavi legal and religious texts, and the Letters of Manuščihr (9th c. CE), this paper examines how Zoroastrian priests conceptualized the intersections, boundaries, and tensions between their own social function and that of scribes and notaries. Particular emphasis is given to the involvement of priests in the legal-administrative apparatus of the Sasanian empire. *Ugo Mondini and Nina Sietis – Professionals of Writing in Greek Sources. Evidence from Epigrams and Manuscripts* This paper aims to provide an overview of writing professionals and their activities within the Greek context from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. It will highlight both continuities and transformations in the documentary and graphic traditions of the Byzantine Empire, beginning with the exceptionally rich documentation from Egypt and concluding with Constantinople, where direct sources are notably scarce. In order to trace these developments, the paper will offer technical insights into the scripts employed by professionals of writing and the communicative conventions they were required to follow. The second part of the presentation will be dedicated to the analysis of selected literary excerpts that illustrate the diversity of graphic and compositional practices in the Byzantine world. By integrating palaeographical evidence with literary sources, the paper seeks to reconstruct a nuanced picture of the activity of professionals of writing in a period marked by both continuity and innovation.
The Department for Continuing Education will host its second annual Research Ethics Colloquium on Friday 13 June 2025. The colloquium is a forum for postgraduate students and higher education administrators and academics to share their perspectives on and experiences of current research ethics issues, with emphasis on the everchanging landscape of AI in lifelong learning. The event is open to those both within and outside of the University of Oxford with an interest in research ethics within academia and can be attended either in person at Rewley House in central Oxford or online. Discounted places are available for postgraduate students and Oxford University members of staff. Please note that the colloquium is not aimed at undergraduate students. Internal delegates: Free (individual associated with the University of Oxford such as postgraduate student, administrator, academic, other staff member). External students: £50.00 (individual with postgraduate student status at a university other than the University of Oxford) External non-students: £100.00 (individual with an interest in Higher Education research ethics possessing neither an affiliation to the University of Oxford nor student status at another institution)
*Programme:* 10:30-11:00 Introduction: *Matthew Kerry* and *Pol Dalmau* – Welcome *Giuseppe Marcocci* (Oxford) – ‘Early Modern Spanish History after the Global Turn: the "Iberian World" and its Critics’ 11:00-12:30 *The Hispanic World in the Age of Revolutions* *Javier Fernández Sebastián* (UPV-EHU) – ‘Some Remarks on the History of Spain from a Global Point of View’ *Maurizio Isabella* (QMUL) – ‘Spain’s Different Spaces of Interaction in the Age of Revolutions: Current and Future Research Perspectives’ *Mark Lawrence* (Kent) – ‘Spain's First Carlist War, 1833-40: A European Civil War in Miniature’ 12:30-13:30 Lunch 13:30-14:30 *The Persistence of Empire* *Anna Ross* (Sheffield) – ‘“Peripheral People” at the Centre of Global History: Juan Beigbeder and the Many Ends of Empire, 1888-1957 *Elisabeth Bolorinos Allard* (Bristol) – ‘Globalising Spanish Fascism and its Imperial Myths’ 14.45-15.45 *Global Imaginaries* *David Brydan* (KCL) – ‘Humanitarianism and Global Imaginaries in 20th Century Spain’ Matthew Kerry (Oxford) – ‘Imagining a Global Spain in the Aerial Age’ 16:00-17:00 *Keynote and Final Discussion* *Jorge Luengo* (UPF) and *Pol Dalmau* (UPF) – ‘What Can Modern Spain Bring to Global History?’
We investigate pattern formation for a 2D PDE-ODE bulk-cell model, where one or more bulk diffusing species are coupled to nonlinear intracellular reactions that are confined within a disjoint collection of small compartments. The bulk species are coupled to the spatially segregated intracellular reactions through Robin conditions across the cell boundaries. For this compartmental-reaction diffusion system, we show that symmetry-breaking bifurcations leading to stable asymmetric steady-state patterns, as regulated by a membrane binding rate ratio, occur even when two bulk species have equal bulk diffusivities. This result is in distinct contrast to the usual, and often biologically unrealistic, large differential diffusivity ratio requirement for Turing pattern formation from a spatially uniform state. Secondly, for the case of one-bulk diffusing species in R^2, we derive a new memory-dependent ODE integro-differential system that characterizes how intracellular oscillations in the collection of cells are coupled through the PDE bulk-diffusion field. By using a fast numerical approach relying on the ``sum-of-exponentials'' method to derive a time-marching scheme for this nonlocal system, diffusion induced synchrony is examined for various spatial arrangements of cells using the Kuramoto order parameter. This theoretical modeling framework, relevant when spatially localized nonlinear oscillators are coupled through a PDE diffusion field, is distinct from the traditional Kuramoto paradigm for studying oscillator synchronization on networks or graphs. (Joint work with Merlin Pelz, UBC and UMinnesota).
The magnitude of future warming is dependent upon carbon cycle feedbacks, which can either amplify or mitigate warming. The latest generation of CMIP6 models suggest that the combined effects of known climate feedback mechanisms is to amplify global warming. However, climate models are blind to the ‘unknown unknowns’ - these are the things we know little about and have potential to take future climate into unimagined directions. Transient warming events in the geological record (hyperthermals) capture the response of the Earth system to all the feedbacks in operation, including those that we are unaware of. In this talk, I will use coastal marine sediments deposited during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (56 million years ago) to reveal how the terrestrial carbon cycle operates in a warmer world. This talk will focus on two highly uncertain carbon cycle feedbacks: (1) the erosion and burial of terrestrial organic carbon (a potential CO2 sink), and (2) the oxidation of rock organic carbon (a potential CO2 source). I will show how organic geochemical techniques have the potential to illuminate these uncertain feedbacks during the PETM and other key climate events in Earth’s history.
Economic agents often seek to acquire information before taking an important action, but in many domains, gathering this information requires approval from a regulator. This paper develops a model in which an agent designs an experiment to inform his decision, but can only implement it if a regulator authorizes it ex ante. We characterize the agent’s optimal experiment under this approval constraint and show that, whenever the regulator rejects full revelation, the agent strategically reduces informativeness in the states where their disagreement is strongest. We then extend the model to settings with multiple regulators, comparing sequential and collective approval mechanisms. The analysis yields predictions for how institutional structure shapes access to information, with applications to clinical trials, data privacy, and ethics boards.
Join us as we welcome some brilliant scholars at Oxford, currently supported by the Black Academic Futures scholarship. Amunet Boafo and Michelle Codrington-Rogers will each deliver a short paper on some of their current and upcoming work, welcoming feedback, questions, and advice from the Race & Resistance community. After both papers, we will host a Q&A and an opportunity for feedback. Black Workers, "Mestizo" City: Constructing ethno-racial identities across formal and informal labour markets in Bogotá, Colombia Amunet Boafo is currently pursuing a DPhil in International Development as a Black Academic Futures Scholar. Her research explores the effects of both informal and formal labour market interactions on ethnic self-expression amongst urban Afro-descendant communities in Bogotá, Colombia. She has previous experience living and working in the UK, Japan and Colombia, where she has spent time working at several NGOs, including a feminist organisation in Bogotá supporting women victims of gender-based violence and displacement and a children’s foundation employing art and music as tools to combat the influence of local drug-trafficking gangs. Prior to starting her PhD, Amunet spent several months working at an NGO based in Tokyo focussed on addressing pressing issues such as rapid urbanisation and rural depopulation using community-based solutions. Bringing together digital and social justice: how ethnic identities and educational aspirations of Black and Dual Heritage pupils are shaped by online communities and spaces. Michelle Codrington-Rogers has spent 20 years in the classroom as a qualified citizenship teacher at a large secondary school in Oxford. Michelle is also an activist within the trade union movement and has sat on a number of committees including Black workers, LGBT, Women's and the General Council. She is currently completing an MSC-Education - digital and social change at the Oxford University Department of Education. ---- Bluesky: raceresistance.bsky.social Subscribe to our mailing list by sending a blank email to: race-and-resistance-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk.
Do you want to brush up on the practicalities of preparing for interviews and presentations? This online session is designed for University research staff and DPhil students applying for academic positions. We will discuss and practice the skills required for effective performance at interview; preparation, self-presentation and how to identify and deal with typical interview questions. Whilst focusing on early postdoctoral positions, we will also cover questions typically focused for 'the lectureship leap' and mid-level positions. The workshop will focus on academic interviews. Follow up one-to-one career discussions can then be used to review intended applications and to prepare for particular interviews, included conducting mock interviews. All DPhil students and research staff welcome. *This session will focus on academic applications only*
At King’s College London, we're taking our first (somewhat wobbly but determined) steps toward making research facilities smarter, greener, and more collaborative. Instead of every lab reinventing the wheel (or buying one), we're looking at how shared infrastructure can cut down on duplication, save resources, and make science more efficient without sacrificing flexibility or innovation. We’ll also discuss some early examples from our fish, fly and teaching facilities, where we’re testing out sustainability ideas that aim to meet the pace of modern research while still being kind to the planet.
Outgoing Regius Professor Lyndal Roper will talk about the challenges of writing a more conventional history of an event like the German Peasants’ War of 1525, incorporating insights learnt about the history of the body.
An agent engages in sequential search. He does not directly observe the quality of the goods he samples, but he can purchase signals designed by profit maximizing principal(s). We formulate the principal-agent relationship as a repeated contracting problem within a stopping game, and characterize the set of equilibrium payoffs. We show that when the agent's search cost falls below a given threshold, competition does not impact how much surplus is generated in equilibrium nor how the surplus is divided. In contrast, competition benefits the agent at the expense of total surplus when the search cost exceeds that threshold. Our results challenge the view that monopoly decreases market efficiency, and moreover, suggest that it generates the highest value of information for the agent.
See https://www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/event/the-jowett-society-friday-week-7-tt25 for updates.
The Insights for Action seminar series explores how researchers and practitioners within and beyond Oxford are using research insights to drive social change. In this seminar, we will discuss how to consider both local and global engagement in our pursuit of systemic impact, the importance of place-based approaches to build resilient communities, and how insights from local engagement can help us think about global impact.
Consider what you know of Albert Einstein. Your knowledge likely forms a narrative, linking pieces of information related to the events of his life and work. Now consider what you did yesterday. This knowledge also translates into a narrative linking the events of the day. These examples demonstrate that narratives organize events into knowledge. In this talk, I will propose that our brains form narratives through a process termed “replay”. Originally observed in rodents during spatial navigation tasks, replay involves the rapid reactivation of cell firing patterns related to previous locations. It is postulated that replay binds these locations into an internal model of the environment, which can be used for navigation. I will propose that reactivations, measured in human fMRI data, can similarly bind the neural representations of previous events into an internal model of a narrative. This model can subsequently be used to regenerate the narrative from memory.
We are pleased to announce the schedule for the Oxford Tolkien Seminar in Trinity Term 2025. The seminar will be held at Magdalen College on Fridays at 5pm, in the Sophia Sheppard Room, except week 8 (see below). Please ask the porters for directions. Week 1: Grace O’Duffy (University of Oxford) ‘Middle-Earth Post-#MeToo’’ Week 2: Jolina Bradley (University of Oxford) ‘Tolkien and Arthurian Romance: The Interlace Structure of The Lord of the Rings’ Week 3: Gabriel Shenk (Signum University) ‘J.R.R. Tolkien at the BBC’ Week 4: Andoni Cossio (Basque Country) ‘Trees, Tales, and Tolkien: A Growing Environmental Consciousness from The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings’ Week 5: Giuseppe Pezzini (University of Oxford) ‘Tolkien and the Mystery of Literary Creation’ (Book launch) Week 6: Tom Emanuel (University of Glasgow) ‘Tolkien the post-Christian? A Proposition’ Week 7: Eliot Vale (University of Oxford) ‘Imitative Translations of Beowulf: Tolkien, Lehmann, and McCully’ Week 8: [SUMMER COMMON ROOM] Christopher Snyder (Mississippi State University) ‘The Sub-Creation Theory of J.R.R. Tolkien: Literary Criticism or Theology?’ We are also happy to let you know that the recordings of the MT and HT seminars are now are available on YouTube and/or The Fantasy Literature Podcast. For more information: tolkien50.web.ox.ac.uk/event/tolkien-50th-anniversary-seminar-series
Historian Phil Tinline will be in conversation with the audience, discussing how the United States ended up enmeshed in conspiracy theories, with many believing the country is run by an malignant ‘deep state’? Drawing on his acclaimed new book, Ghosts of Iron Mountain: The Hoax That Duped America and Its Sinister Legacy, this event explores the story of an extraordinary satirical spoof, the light it sheds on Americans’ vexed relationship with truth and power and the lessons for our wider political environment.
Join us for a thought-provoking conversation with Prof. Nicole Ranganath as she discusses her acclaimed new book, Women and the Sikh Diaspora: Music and Mobility Across the Seven Seas, with Dr Priya Atwal on Friday, 13th June at Flora Anderson Hall, Somerville College, University of Oxford. This event is hosted by the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development (OICSD) in collaboration with Migration Oxford. Prof. Ranganath’s book uncovers the untold stories of Sikh women whose musical traditions have shaped diasporic identities across continents. Through the lens of music, migration, and memory, the discussion will offer unique insights into gender, heritage, and cultural resilience. This event is free and open to all—highly recommended for those interested in history, diaspora, gender studies, and South Asian cultures.
The history of humanitarianism has been inseparable from concerns with the forced disappearance of peoples. It has sought to provide protection to those who face possible annihilation and the threat of vanishment. But might humanitarianism itself now be facing its own disappearance in this increasingly hostile world? Join us as we discuss this very question with Gareth Owen OBE, former Humanitarian Director, Save the Children. The Disappearance of Worlds exhibition will showcase the work of Mexican painter Chantal Meza, whose work for the past decade has confronted the violence, terror, and the complexities of disappearance in both a human and ecological context. Complementing the exhibition will be a series of public talks from world-leading authorities exploring the multiple ways disappearance occurs and the possibilities for response. The programme is led by the Pembroke College JCR Art Collection; Pembroke College, University of Oxford; The FOUND Project; the Centre for the Study of Violence at the University of Bath; and the Oxford Festival of the Arts, in partnership with other supporting global partners and institutions.
Every June, St Anne’s College runs Oxford Translation Day, a celebration of literary translation consisting of a vibrant range of workshops and talks. The day culminates in the award of the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize. The Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize is for book-length literary translations into English from any living European language. It aims to honour the craft of translation, and to recognise its cultural importance. It was founded by Lord Weidenfeld and is funded by New College, The Queen’s College, and St Anne’s College. 09:30–10:45 | Seminar Room 8, St Anne’s College Translating Multilingual Literature: Workshop with Dr Sheela Mahadevan 09:30–10:45 | Seminar Room 9, St Anne’s College Creative Workshop: Manifestos for Activism in Translation 11.00–12.15 | Seminar Room 7, St Anne’s College "The One Who Has Arrived Late": Bengali Translation workshop with Utsa Bose 11.00–12.15 | Seminar Room 8, St Anne’s College Translating Onomatopoeia: Creative Translation Workshop with Polly Barton, in partnership with the Queen’s College Translation Exchange 13:30–13.30 | Seminar Room 7, St Anne’s College Starting Out in Translation Studies: Early Career Reflections 14.00–15.15 | Tsuzuki Lecture Theatre, St Anne’s College Between Tongues: Poetry and Self-Translation in Celtic Languages 15:30–17:00 | Tsuzuki Lecture Theatre, St Anne’s College In Conversation: Monica Cure and Polly Barton 16:45-18:00 | Seminar Room 7, St Anne’s College “This is Why”: Translators on Translating, Editors on Editing 18:30-19:45 | Tsuzuki Lecture Theatre, St Anne’s College Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize Short List Readings and Prize-Giving
In this workshop, we will collaboratively translate a Bengali poem into English with a focus on translating emotions and affect. The poem in focus moves between different affective registers, among them irritation, grief, love, longing, and accrues around the act of waiting. How do we work through these registers and move them across languages? No prior knowledge of Bengali is required. Utsa Bose is a second year DPhil candidate in History at the University of Oxford. His current research focuses on infectious diseases and pandemics in colonial South Asia between the late-19th/early 20th centuries. He was also the Graduate Teaching Assistant for the MSt in Comparative Literature and Critical Translation (CLCT) between 2023-2024. He enjoys translating and writing fiction, and his translations have appeared in journals such as Asymptote, while his original fiction has been published by Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters.
In this creative workshop, participants will put together mini manifestos for themselves on the subject of activism in translation. Whether they are practising translators, or avid readers of translated literature, this session will be an opportunity to reflect on their positioning and the things they might do to engage and resist, actively and consciously, in the social, political and economic dynamics of literary translation. The session will open with a discussion on the practical aspects of activism in translation, to support participants in identifying the ways they might want to bring activism into their reading and writing of translations. This might relate to linguistic and creative choices, or the selection of texts to read and translate, the publishers they work with and buy from, for example. Participants will then be able to make zine-style manifestos for themselves, using an array of fun, colourful materials to inspire them. There will also be photocopies of websites, articles and social media posts from translators and organisations working on these issues, which will be used for the discussion and which participants way wish to quote from or cut up and stick into their mini manifestos. Alyssa Ollivier-Tabukashvili is a current DPhil student at the University of Oxford. Her thesis addresses the need and potential for decolonising literary translation, with a focus on francophone Algerian writing, through the subjects of World Literature, plurilingualism, and transnational feminism in conversation with the activist role of the translator and the pursuit of justice. More broadly, she is interested in literature and expressions of resistance from the Maghreb and southern/eastern Africa, including its queer and feminist intersections. She has been awarded the 2025 Javett-UP BRIDGE Fellowship, where she will be researching artistic and literary representations of the self in cross-temporal and transnational resistance movements.
This workshop is open to translators translating from any language. We will explore different forms of literary multilingualism and consider a range of strategies which can be used to translate multilingual texts. Drawing on various existing translations of multilingual texts, we will consider questions such as: what does it mean to erase the multilingualism of the source text, and what are the implications of using italics, footnotes and glossaries when translating multilingual texts? How and why might one compose a multilingual translation? Dr Sheela Mahadevan is Lecturer in French and Francophone Studies at the University of Liverpool. She is translator of a multilingual Francophone novel Lakshmi’s Secret Diary by Ari Gautier (Columbia University Press, 2024) and author of the monograph Writing between Languages: Translation and Multilingualism in Indian Francophone Writing (Bloomsbury, forthcoming August 2025).
What are the possibilities and limits of translating onomatopoeia and language with onomatopoeic qualities? This workshop, led by award-winning writer and translator Polly Barton, will consider the questions and challenges that arise when onomatopoeia is moved across languages and cultures. From translations of Japanese mimetic language to creative and multilingual reimaginings of onomatopoeia in English, participants will explore the phonic properties and potentialities of language and translation. No prior knowledge of Japanese, or any other language, is required. This workshop is in partnership with the Queen’s College Translation Exchange. Polly Barton is a Japanese translator and writer. Her translations include Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda, Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa, There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura, and Mild Vertigo by Mieko Kanai. Her translation of Asako Yuzuki’s Butter was named Waterstones Book of the Year 2024. She is the author of Fifty Sounds and Porn: An Oral History.
What does it mean to begin a career in translation studies today, amid a shifting academic landscape and increasing precarity in the humanities? In this roundtable, early career scholars reflect candidly on their journeys into the field - sharing insights into job applications, research proposals, interdisciplinary positioning, and the challenges and opportunities of working in translation at a time of institutional change. Each speaker will offer a short reflection before opening up to audience questions and wider discussion. This is an event for anyone considering a future in translation studies, or simply curious about what that future of the field might look like.
This roundtable brings together three contemporary poets who write and translate their own work in Welsh and Scottish Gaelic, navigating the creative and political terrain of composing between languages. Through readings and conversation, the poets will explore what it means to carry a poem across linguistic boundaries when both tongues are their own - and when those tongues carry the weight of marginalisation, revival, and cultural memory. Audiences will hear poems in both original and translated form, followed by a discussion on identity, poetics, and the responsibilities of self-translation in the context of Celtic and Indigenous British languages. Menna Elfyn is an award-winning Welsh poet and playwright whose fifteen collections in Welsh and English has achieved worldwide acclaim. Some of her most well-known collections in Welsh and English are Peffaith Nam/ Perfect Blemish (2007) Murmur (2012 PBS Recommended Translation), Bondo (2017) by Bloodaxe Books and her most recent Welsh language collection ‘Tosturi’ (2022) Barddas, shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year. She is President of Wales PEN Cymru and the first woman Professor of Poetry in Wales and Professor Emerita at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, and she was made Welsh Children’s Poet Laureate in 2002. Winner of many prizes and awards: Aderyn Bach mewn Llaw, was Welsh Book of the Year in 1990. She received the Anima Intranza International Foreign Poetry Prize in 2009 in Sardinia for her contribution to European poetry, She received a Chomondeley award from the Society of Authors Great Britain for her contribution to poetry in 2022, the first time for a Welsh language author to receive such a recognition. She is the best known and the most travelled of all Welsh poets and her work has been translated into over 20 languages including Chinese, Spanish, Italian, Lithuanian, Catalan and Hindi. She performs her work mostly in English and Welsh and has adopted a unique style by interweaving extracts of the musicality of Welsh into English translations, and in so doing reflecting the cultural diversity of the UK and beyond. Petra Joana Poncarova’s poems have appeared in New Writing Scotland and Aimsir. They are often inspired by paintings, the experience of living between different languages, and by unexpected connections between Scotland and North Bohemia, and they betray a landlocked person's fascination with the sea. In 2025, she received a New Writers Award from the Scottish Book Trust and the Gaelic Books Council. In her daily life, she is an academic, researching Scottish Gaelic literature, and a translator working between Czech, English, and Gaelic. Mererid Puw Davies, MA, MSt, DPhil (Oxon), FLSW is Professor of German Studies at UCL, where she teaches and researches on German and comparative literature, film and cultural studies, as well as literary translation. She is also interested in Welsh literatures and cultures, which form an increasing, often comparative focus in her work. In addition, Mererid is a poet and essayist in Welsh, and a Contributing Editor of the literary and cultural review O’r Pedwar Gwynt.
Clarins Shieryl, Blackfriars Hall, and Ignatius Bambang Sugiharto, Parahyangan, will speak at this online seminar about the charity work they have carried out recently. All are welcome, registration required.
Join us at St John's College, Oxford, for a screening of Simranpreet's Story — a short documentary that poignantly captures the experience of pregnancy, maternal depression, and caregiving in rural India. Part of the Pregnancy and Mental Health film series produced by Professor Shahirose Premji (Queen’s University, Canada), this film by award-winning filmmaker Munmun Dhalaria follows the story of one mother as she navigates psychosocial stress and patriarchal norms with the support of a community-based mental health counsellor.
In this wide-ranging conversation, Monica Cure (writer, scholar, and guest judge of the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize) joins award-winning translator and author Polly Barton to explore translation as a form of activism, resistance, and care. Drawing on their work across genres and languages, the speakers will reflect on the ethics of voice, the politics of representation, and the translator’s role in unsettling dominant narratives. This is a chance to hear two leading voices in contemporary translation thinking aloud about the possibilities, and responsibilities, of their craft. Polly Barton is a Japanese translator and writer. Her translations include Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda, Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa, There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura, and Mild Vertigo by Mieko Kanai. Her translation of Asako Yuzuki’s Butter was named Waterstones Book of the Year 2024. She is the author of Fifty Sounds and Porn: An Oral History. Monica Cure is a Romanian-American writer, poet, literary translator, and dialogue specialist. She is a two-time Fulbright grantee and the author of the book Picturing the Postcard: A New Media Crisis at the Turn of the Century (University of Minnesota Press). Her poems have appeared in journals such as Poetry Northwest, Salamander, and Graywolf Lab and her poetry translations have been published internationally in Kenyon Review, Modern Poetry in Translation, Asymptote, and elsewhere. She is the winner of the 2023 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize for her translation of Liliana Corobca’s novel, The Censor’s Notebook (Seven Stories Press UK). Her translation of Corobca’s novel Too Great a Sky was shortlisted for the 2025 EBRD Literature Prize. She is currently based in Bucharest.
What, if anything, can be done to counter the violence of enforced disappearance? How can we learn about its reality, and also consider the latest technological developments in the attempts to combat this egregious crime? Índira Navarro, the leader of the Searching Mothers' Collective 'Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco', will be joined by a panel of international experts including Nicholas Márquez, Miguel Moctezuma, José Luis Silván, Jorge Ruiz-Reyes, Andrea Horcasitas, and Mariel Garfias.
Join acclaimed literary translators who have featured on prestigious shortlists and longlists and their editors to hear more about the practices and choices in producing and publishing translated literature. They will discuss a short poem or passage that they have recently translated or edited and give the audience insight into the “hows” and “whys” of their approach.
The Oxford–Weidenfeld Prize is for book-length literary translations into English from any living European language. It aims to honour the craft of translation, and to recognise its cultural importance. It was founded by Lord Weidenfeld and is supported by New College, The Queen’s College, and St Anne’s College, Oxford. This celebration of literary translation will feature readings from the work of the shortlisted translators, and the presentation of the prize.
Despite the significant expansion of higher education across various national contexts, sociologists of education have argued that increased access has not necessarily reduced social inequalities or resulted in greater equity. Patterns of segregation by social background persist, and unequal access to institutions of varying prestige remains widely documented. Yet, students do not merely experience inequality; they are also actors within a larger political system that can either perpetuate or challenge inequality in the higher education sector. Higher education institutions play a pivotal role in shaping students’ political identities and capacity for engagement while also serving as arenas for complex disputes over meanings, practices, and policies. This event invites participants to explore key questions related to these “two sides”. It encourages reflection on, for example, how institutions design and implement widening participation policies, do these policies successfully mitigate social inequality, or do they inadvertently reinforce it? Does higher education today politicise students? How do institutional dynamics shape student politics, and in what ways are these politics expressed and enacted within higher education institutions? This workshop, designed for PhD students and Early Career Researchers, will engage with these issues through the expertise of Professor Rachel Brooks and Professor Agnès van Zanten. The event will feature keynote lectures by both speakers, small group discussions of participants’ own research projects, and a panel session on the challenges and opportunities of conducting comparative educational research. The day will conclude with an afternoon open public seminar by Professor Agnès van Zanten. Registration The event is free to attend, but registration is required due to limited spaces. Lunch, tea, coffee, and snacks will be provided. Places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. To book the event, please register with the BSA. Creating a user account does not automatically sign you up for BSA membership, nor will you be asked to pay for it. Two weeks before the workshop, participants will submit a one to two-page paper describing their research topic and any methodological or conceptual challenges they are facing. These papers will be used as a basis for small group discussions. Programme: 10:30-11:00am Coffee and registration 11:00-11:10am Welcome 11:10am-12:10pm Prof Rachel Brooks Keynote and Q&A: Mediatisation of student protests against Israeli action in Gaza: a cross-European analysis 12:10-1:10pm Small group discussions on participant research projects 1:10-2:00pm Lunch 2:00-3:00pm Panel: The challenges and opportunities of comparative research in Education 3:00-3:20pm Coffee break 3:20-4:20pm Prof Agnès van Zanten Keynote and Q&A: Take a chance on me! Variations in students’ performance at an oral exam for admission at Sciences Po through a widening participation scheme 4:20-4:30pm Closing remarks Public Seminar (Hosted by SKOPE and GCHE centres, Department of Education, University of Oxford) 5:00-6:00pm Prof Agnès van Zanten Public Seminar and Q&A: Rewarding traditional or new forms of cultural capital? The introduction of holistic admissions at a French elite higher education institution 6:00-6:30pm Drinks reception
11.00am -12.00pm Panel 1 – Multiculturalism Gurpreet Mahajan Varun Uberoi Andrew Mason 12.00-1.00pm Panel 2 – Multiculturalism Yasmin Alibhai-Brown Thom Brooks Matthew Festenstein 1.00 -2.00pm Lunch Break 2.00-3.00pm Panel 3 – India Rajeev Bhargav John Dunn Shruti Kapila 3.00-4.00pm Panel 4 – Obligation Cecile Laborde Albert Weale Colin Tyler 4.00-4.20pm Tea 4.20 – 5.00pm Panel 5 – Comparison Rochana Bajpai Tariq Modood 5.00 -5.30pm Bhikhu Parekh 5.30-6.30pm Reception – College Lawn
Political economy models often assume that voter beliefs are consistent with available information. Recent work emphasizes instead the role played by narratives, subjective causal models that may be incorrectly specified. In this paper, we study the role of political narratives in the context of climate policy. We develop a theory of narrative entanglement, where policy dimensions—initially distinct—become strategically intertwined through narratives created by politicians to sway support. Shocks in one dimension can thus influence unrelated policy areas. We test this theory in the context of EU climate policy before versus after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which affected the economic costs of climate policy but not its ability to address climate change. Using a large language model to analyze speeches in the EU Parliament, we find that narratives are strongly entangled: Members of the European Parliament that emphasize the need to address climate change also emphasize economic benefits, while those denying climate change stress economic costs. After the energy price shock associated with the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, narratives shift not only in the economic dimension but also in the climate dimension, with speeches becoming less likely to imply that climate policy is necessary to combat climate change. This pattern holds at the individual politician level, with politicians from right-wing parties showing a more pronounced narrative change than those from the left.
Political economy models often assume that voter beliefs are consistent with available information. Recent work emphasizes instead the role played by narratives, subjective causal models that may be incorrectly specified. In this paper, we study the role of political narratives in the context of climate policy. We develop a theory of narrative entanglement, where policy dimensions—initially distinct—become strategically intertwined through narratives created by politicians to sway support. Shocks in one dimension can thus influence unrelated policy areas. We test this theory in the context of EU climate policy before versus after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which affected the economic costs of climate policy but not its ability to address climate change. Using a large language model to analyze speeches in the EU Parliament, we find that narratives are strongly entangled: Members of the European Parliament that emphasize the need to address climate change also emphasize economic benefits, while those denying climate change stress economic costs. After the energy price shock associated with the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, narratives shift not only in the economic dimension but also in the climate dimension, with speeches becoming less likely to imply that climate policy is necessary to combat climate change. This pattern holds at the individual politician level, with politicians from right-wing parties showing a more pronounced narrative change than those from the left.
TBC
In this talk, we present our interdisciplinary approach to AI regulation by updating purpose limitation for AI. We address a critical blind spot in EU digital legislation: the secondary use of anonymised training data and pre-trained AI models. These forms of reuse–currently outside the scope of regulatory frameworks such as the GDPR and the AI Act–pose significant risks to individuals and society, including discrimination, erosion of public trust and the exacerbation of power asymmetries. We argue that a shift is needed from regulating data processing alone to regulating the lifecycle of AI models. Our proposal introduces a dual framework of purpose limitation—applicable to both training datasets and trained models—to restrict the reuse of AI systems beyond their original ethical and political justifications. This approach aims to close a loophole that allows models to be transferred across contexts without democratic oversight or accountability. Building on our previous work on purpose limitation, we will further explore how to practically implement this framework within the existing EU digital regulatory landscape. This includes governance mechanisms such as integrating purpose limitation with the AI Act’s model database and developing criteria for a tiered system to register, monitor, and, where necessary, restrict the purposes for which AI models are used. Paper (OA): https://academic.oup.com/ijlit/article/doi/10.1093/ijlit/eaaf003/8121663 Project: https://purposelimitation.ai/ Rainer Mühlhoff is a philosopher and mathematician, leading the Ethics and Critical Theories of Artificial Intelligence research group at the University of Osnabrück, Germany. Rainer is also an associate researcher at the Einstein Center Digital Future, Berlin, and the Weizenbaum Institute, Berlin. Rainer’s work focuses on ethics, data protection and critical social theory in the digital society, critically exploring the societal impact of digital technologies through the lens of power relations and subjectivity. Recent publications: The Ethics of AI: Power, Critique, Responsibility (Bristol University Press, 2025); KI und der neue Faschismus (Reclam, 2025, forthcoming). Further information: https://RainerMuehlhoff.de/en/ Hannah Ruschemeier is Professor of Public Law, Data Protection Law, and the Law of Digitalisation at the University of Hagen. She is an associated researcher at the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS NRW), at the research centre for digitale_kultur, a board member of RAILS e.V., and an editor of the journal LTZ – Legal Tech. Her research combines traditional questions of public law with the challenges of legal transformation and an interdisciplinary perspective.
Join us for lunch at the Old Kitchen Bar, Magdalen College.
The Tony Blair Institute of Global Change recently published an article asserting that reducing emissions was difficult and would fail unless we expanded use of technologies that are expensive and a challenge to living standards. This is reminiscent of nineteenth century economist William Stanley Jevons’ in “The Coal Question”, warning of the limits that finite coal resources placed on British prosperity. The hole in both visions is the absence of international trade. Specialisation in line with comparative advantage removed the limitations on countries without the natural resources of coal, oil, or gas becoming great centres of industrial activity. International specialisation and trade along the supply chain of zero-carbon goods production can render the limited renewable energy resource endowments of Europe and Northeast Asia compatible with prosperity through early movement to zero net carbon emissions. Success will require open minds and open economies—just as sustained prosperity of regions without rich fossil carbon resources required open minds and open economies. Open economies are threatened by US retreat from international exchange, though this is a setback but not in itself a fatal blow either to the global mitigation effort or to prosperity in the rest of the world. The challenge is for other countries to remain open to each other, while we await the return of America, or confirmation of its departure. In this lecture, Prof Ross Garnaut will discuss how international trade in zero-carbon goods amongst the rest of the world can deliver continued prosperity through transition to zero net emissions.
Linked datasets from Ministry of Justice and Department for Education have made it possible to interrogate the relationship between care experience (i.e. having been in kinship care, foster care and/or children’s homes), ethnicity and youth justice involvement in England using population level data. Taking a critical perspective, Katie will draw on findings from an ADR UK Fellowship project using these datasets showcasing the potential of administrative data to challenge (in)justices. Join on Teams: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_OTNiZGM1MzItOTcwOS00YThjLWJmYTAtZGFjZGM1YzkyNjQw%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%2275f39f15-fefd-45cf-b904-2e2174db4aa1%22%7d
Heritage libraries are a unique historical resource: in contrast to research libraries across the world, their library collections are preserved in the places where they were assembled and read. In those locations they reflect a rich history of social exchange. This panel talk explores what it means to engage with books in a heritage setting, and how we might better enable contemporary engagement with our histories of books and reading. Reading the Room is a collaborative research project between the University of Oxford, Coventry University and the National Trust. Abigail Williams is Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature at the University of Oxford. Alice Leonard is Research Fellow at Coventry University. Amy Solomons is a Postdoctoral Research Assistant at the University of Oxford. Tim Pye is National Curator for Libraries at the National Trust.
Are you planning to present a poster at an upcoming conference, meeting or symposium? This introductory session will provide you with some top tips on how to create a poster presentation which will help you to communicate your research project and data effectively. There will be guidance on formatting, layout, content, use of text, references and images, as well as advice on printing and presenting your poster. This session will also provide help with locating resources such as templates, free-to-use images and poster guidelines. Intended audience: Students, staff and researchers from MSD and OUH.
Interdisciplinary research is increasingly recognised, both within and beyond academia, as essential to addressing many of today’s most pressing global challenges. In tackling complex, multi-faceted issues, cross-disciplinary approaches are not only valuable but vital for generating innovative and impactful solutions. Nonetheless, undertaking interdisciplinary research presents a distinctive set of challenges. These may include communication barriers, divergent research paradigms, difficulties in publishing and securing funding, and broader structural or institutional constraints. While interdisciplinary work is gaining momentum, it remains relatively new in comparison to long-established disciplinary traditions, and many of its practices and support structures are still developing. This panel will explore the value of interdisciplinary research, consider the practical challenges it entails, and share strategies for fostering effective collaboration—whether through team-based initiatives or individual researchers working across disciplinary boundaries. Bringing together scholars from a range of research backgrounds, the session will offer practical insights, highlight common pitfalls, and outline best practices for navigating the interdisciplinary research landscape. Ample time will be allocated for audience questions and discussion. Academic staff and doctoral researchers currently engaged in or considering interdisciplinary work are warmly invited to join the conversation. Refreshments will be provided. Objectives • Identify key challenges and barriers to effective interdisciplinary collaboration in research. • Recognise the potential of interdisciplinary research to drive innovation, enhance societal impact, and support both academic and professional development. • Gain insights from researchers engaged in interdisciplinary work and understand practical strategies for integrating diverse disciplinary approaches. Panellists Lena Easton-Calabria (DPhil, Geography and the Environment) Dr William Finnegan (Head of Programmes in Lifelong Learning in Social Sciences at the Department for Continuing Education & Sustainability Education and Research Manager in Oxford’s Environmental Sustainability Team) Professor Andrew Gosler (Professor of Ethno-ornithology, Director of the Institute of Human Sciences, Fellow in Human Sciences, Mansfield College) Dr William Kelly (Stipendiary Lecturer, St. Hugh's College, Co-founder & co-convenor, Oxford Digital Ethnography Group) Dr Marilou Polymeropoulou (Research Affiliate, School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography) Dr Ana Valdivia (Lecturer in AI, Government & Policy, Oxford Internet Institute) Moderator Keiko Kanno
How do we make sense of the world around us? Theoretical positions in cognitive science range from descriptions of perception as an encapsulated process, unaffected and strictly followed by higher-level cognition, to perception as active inference and construction. This talk presents empirical evidence on the interplay between visual perception and cognition and how it shapes our conscious experience. Specifically, I will discuss how knowledge, realness and meaningfulness affect the perception of high-level visual stimuli as objects and faces, and related functions as visual imagery and the transition from unconscious to conscious experience. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Professor for Neurocognitive Psychology at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Psychologist, Ph.D. from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, graduate school Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience. Postdoc at Max-Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen. Heisenberg fellow and Heisenberg professor at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Research Interests I investigate the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying language, visual perception, semantic and social-emotional processing. Integrating these topics, my research focuses on the multifaceted interplay of these core human faculties when we interact with – and make sense of - our social and non-social environment. To join the talk remotely: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84769261100?pwd=cgM0fQCwn8TEImCQrGqRQzQLlQzihE.1 Meeting ID: 847 6926 1100 ID: 654837
HDRUK Oxford Monthly Meetup, Monday 16 June 2025, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Speakers: 1) Professor Aiden Doherty; Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Oxford Population Health, University of Oxford 2) Mr. Charilaos Zisou; Oxford Population Health, University of Oxford Abstract: Smartphones and wearable devices provide a major opportunity to transform our understanding of the mechanisms, determinants, and consequences of diseases. For example, around 9 in 10 people own a smartphone in the United Kingdom, while one-fifth of US adults own wearable technologies. This high level of device ownership means that many people could contribute to health research from the comfort of their home by offering small amounts of time to share data and help address health-related questions that matter to them. A leading example is the seven day wrist-worn accelerometer data measured in 100,000 UK Biobank participants between 2013-2015 that has led to important new findings. These include discoveries of: new genetic variants for sleep and activity; small amounts of vigorous non-exercise physical activity being associated with substantially lower mortality; and no apparent upper threshold to the benefits of physical activity with respect to cardiovascular disease risk. However, challenges exist around cost, access, validity, and training. In this talk I will review progress made in this exciting new area of health data science and share opportunities to provide new insights into physical activity, sleep, heart rhythms and other exposures relevant to health and disease. Short Bios: 1) Professor Doherty is a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow and Professor of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Oxford. His team of ~20 researchers develop reproducible methods to analyse wearable sensor data in both clinical trials and very large health studies to better understand the causes and consequences of disease. The team has played a key role in the collection of wearable sensor data in over 150,000 research participants across the UK and China as well as complementary open human activity recognition validation datasets to further enhance these resources. His team develops open software tools and data resources for machine learning methods to measure sleep, sedentary behaviour, physical activity behaviours and steps. 2) Mr. Zisou is a DPhil student in Population Health at the University of Oxford, supported by the Oxford British Heart Foundation Centre for Research Excellence, and also a Clarendon scholar. His research focuses on investigating the genetic factors influencing device-measured physical activity and their impact on cardiovascular disease risk. To this end, he leads the work of the ACTIGEN consortium, an international collaboration conducting a meta-analysis of genomic and wearable device data from over 200,000 individuals across diverse populations. Mode: Hybrid In-person Venue – Richard Doll Lecture Theatre, Richard Doll Building, Old Road Campus, University of Oxford To attend online – please register (link below)
Aldous, Evans and Pitman (1998) studied the behavior of the fragmentation process derived from deleting the edges of a uniform random tree on $n$ labelled vertices. In particular, they showed that, after proper rescaling, the above fragmentation process converges as $n \rightarrow \infty$ to the fragmentation process of the Brownian CRT obtained by cutting-down the Brownian CRT along its skeleton in a Poisson manner. In this talk, we will discuss the fragmentation process obtained by deleting randomly chosen edges from a critical Galton-Watson tree $t_n$ conditioned on having $n$ vertices, whose offspring distribution belongs to the domain of attraction of a stable law of index $\alpha \in (1,2]$. The main result establishes that, after rescaling, the fragmentation process of $t_n$ converges, as grows to infinity, to the fragmentation process obtained by cutting-down proportional to the length on the skeleton of an $\alpha$-stable L\'evy tree. We will also explain how one can construct the latter by considering the partitions of the unit interval induced by the normalized $\alpha$-stable L\'evy excursion with a deterministic drift. In particular, the above extends the result of Bertoin (2000) on the fragmentation process of the Brownian CRT. The approach uses the well-known Prim's algorithm (or Prim-Jarník algorithm) to define a consistent exploration process that encodes the fragmentation process of $t_n$. We will discuss the key ideas of the proof.
Schistosomes are parasitic flatworms that infect than 150 million people globally resulting in a chronic neglected tropical disease. The parasite is a complex pathogen, transmitted by aquatic snails, via free living larvae, to mammalian definitive hosts. Over a period of 5¬–7 weeks, the parasite migrates and develops, through the lungs and liver, before reaching blood vessels of the gut mesentery as fully developed, sexually reproducing, adult worms. The life cycle is marked by dramatic changes to the body plan of the parasite with discrete life stages composed of different tissues and anatomies. Enabled by genomic resources that we built and systematically improved, we and others are creating single-cell transcriptome atlases at key points in the life cycle. After defining the major cell types at each stage, a major goal is to understand the trajectories of developing cells and tissues, so we can temporally resolve key processes and regulators. In this presentation, I will discuss the challenges and recent progress in pooling insights across several heterogenous datasets. By uncovering key components of development, we hope to identify vulnerabilities that can ultimately be exploited in the development of new control strategies.. Bio-Sketch of speaker: Professor Matt Berriman, from the School of Infection and Immunity at the University of Glasgow, trained as parasitologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, before undertaking Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Rockefeller University in New York. He then moved to the Wellcome Sanger Institute for many years, where he led the parasite genomics group, producing and analysing the genomes of more than 30 important parasitic protozoa and helminths. Building upon reference genomes (including schistosomes, whipworm, tapeworms, threadworms), his team used large scale comparative genomics and transcriptomics approaches to identify genes associated with parasitism and created new resources for understanding major changes across parasite life cycles. His current research focuses on parasitic helminths, particularly schistosomes, employing large-scale single-cell sequencing approaches to create cellular ‘atlases’. His goal is to define major changes in the transcriptional architecture of schistosome at key points during their development, so that new biological vulnerabilities can be identified, as possible new points for intervention and parasite control.
Population projections have until recently usually been done deterministically using the cohort-component method, yielding a single value for each projected future population quantity of interest. Starting in 2015, the United Nations Population Division changed their approach, instead adopted a fully statistical Bayesian probabilistic approach to project fertility, mortality and population for all countries, using methods developed by our group. In 2024, for the first time, uncertainty about net international migration was also included. In this approach, the total fertility rate, female and male life expectancies at birth, and the net migration rate are projected using Bayesian hierarchical models estimated via Markov chain Monte Carlo. These are then combined with a cohort-component model, yielding probabilistic projections for any future quantity of interest. The methodology is implemented in the bayesPop R package, which has been used by the UN to produce the World Population Prospects since 2015. We have recently extended the method to subnational population projections. I will describe the method and some recent extensions, and illustrate it with subnational demographic data from several countries.
The breakup of Pakistan in 1971—marked by a bloody civil war and military defeat by India—remains shrouded in layers of silence, making it difficult to ferret out the truth from the mistruths. The war ended with over 90,000 Pakistani prisoners of war (POWs) captured in East Pakistan-turned-Bangladesh, who were then transferred to Indian custody. Pakistan responded by interning roughly the same number of Bengali co-religionists in West Pakistan as leverage for the return of its captured POWs. Neither group would return home immediately in what arguably became one of the most significant cases of mutual mass internment post-1945. Over half a century after the 1971 war, the internment of Bengalis remains a non-event in the most significant political crisis in Pakistan’s history. Drawing on a wide range of untapped sources, this talk traces the trajectory of this crisis of captivity in which the Bengalis found themselves as rightless citizens with ‘traitor’ and ‘enemy’ status after the war. Educated at the universities of Warwick and Southampton, Ilyas Chattha is Associate Professor of History at LUMS. Before this, he was based at the University of Southampton where he completed his PhD in 2009. He is the author of ‘They Called Us Traitors’: The Hidden History of Bengali Internment in Pakistan, 1971-1974 (Cambridge, 2025), The Punjab Borderland (Cambridge, 2022), and Partition and Locality (Oxford, 2012). His work has also appeared in Modern Asian Studies, History Workshop Journal, Indian Economic and Social History Review, Contemporary South Asia, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, and International Journal of the History of Sport, as well as several edited volumes. His current research focuses on the legacies of the 1971 War and Enemy Property in South Asia.
In this presentation, I uncover an overlooked genealogy of biometrics, tracing it back to early 20th-century race science and the rise of statistical thinking about human identity. Before biometrics became a technology of controlling human identity, it was a science aimed at understanding human diversity, specifically racial diversity. I examine the emergence of craniometry in the 19th century and how its methodologies paved the way for a novel approach to racial anthropology driven by mathematical statistics in the early 20th century. Finally, I explore the postwar development of computerized anthropology. *Iris Clever* is a historian of science, technology, and the body, and currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Committee on Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science at the University of Chicago. Her book project, _The Afterlives of Skulls: How Race Science Became a Data Science_, traces the surprising origins of modern data technologies in colonial race science, revealing how the racialization of human bodies lies at the foundation of modern science. Her work has been published in _Isis, Perspectives on Science, and is forthcoming in American Anthropologist_. Registration is required for online attendance only, here: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/2Eyuy06tTaCktw3CGdfT1Q#/registration.
[Special Seminar Series ‘Art & Material Culture’, sponsored by Christ Church]
Materials science has always balanced on the twin pillars of observation and abstraction—from the alchemists’ crude recipes to today’s AI‑driven materials design. In this talk, we begin by revisiting the pre‑quantum era, when early chemists grappled with the nature of elements and compounds, and examine how Mendeleev’s periodic table first imposed order on the chemical world. We then show that what underpins this table is the surprising power of integers and discrete mathematics—why you can’t “slip in” between whole numbers—and trace how that insight underlies quantum mechanics, blurring the boundary between chemistry and physics.
tbc
This presentation will focus on the introduction of a new admissions procedure at Sciences Po. Examining the transposition of the US model of holistic admissions onto this French elite higher education institution, reveals the ambivalent character of this mode of admission in general and more specifically when it merges with a different national perspective on merit that rewards the possession of legitimate cultural capital. Using data from interviews with selectors, the analysis will highlight both the persistence of a classical view on merit, focusing on past educational performance and students’ scholastic culture and linguistic style on essays and oral presentations, and the emergence of a new perspective favouring a whole-person approach and focusing on students’ authenticity. It will also relate these two ideal typical valuation modes to selectors’ social identities and relationship to Sciences Po. The conclusion will discuss these changes and variations in light of contemporary social and symbolic struggles between different class fractions and different professional groups, both at Sciences Po and in French society at large. About the speaker: Professor Agnès van Zanten is Professor of Sociology at Sciences Po and CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research). She has received honorary doctorates from the University of Turku (Finland), the University of Geneva (Switzerland), and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium), and was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy in 2017. That same year, she was awarded the CNRS Silver Medal. Professor van Zanten is the author of numerous books and scholarly articles. Her research focuses on educational inequalities and segregation, school dynamics and local educational policies. She also works on cross-national comparisons of educational systems and policies, and on regulation of European educational systems and the production of inequalities. This public seminar is hosted by the Centre for Skills, Knowledge, and Organisational Performance (SKOPE) and the Centre for Global Higher Education (CGHE). Lecture followed by drinks reception. Join in-person or online. Teams link: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/372c560b-8312-4e5b-a99b-47a4f5b75fb9@cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91
Niche 17 in the central section of the North Cliff at Dafowan, Baodingshan, Dazu, is traditionally identified as the “Transformation Tableau of the Sūtra on the Buddha’s Great Skillful Means of Repaying Filial Kindness.” Among several filial-piety scenes, an inscription labels one panel “Śākyamuni, in a former birth as Śyāma, serving his parents,” allowing a firm identification of the subject. Yet the typical motif of Śyāma drawing water—familiar from the mural traditions of Xinjiang and Dunhuang—is absent, suggesting that the Buddhist images in Sichuan do not necessarily follow the standard iconography. Careful visual examination nevertheless shows that Dafowan does preserve a lineage of Śyāma imagery, though in a variant form that has so far gone unnoticed. This talk offers a preliminary reading of the relevant images, highlights their distinctive features, and proposes possible channels of transmission, in the hope of stimulating further discussion of the site’s unique treatment of Śyāma Jātaka materials.
Taiwan is arguably Asia’s leader in gender equality on three indicators: Its national legislature comprises 42 percent women, the largest proportion among all Asian countries; it was the first Asian country to legalise same-sex marriage; and it had a popularly elected woman president not from a politically established family. This seminar illustrates how Taiwan became Asia’s leader in women’s political representation, through the long-term accumulative effects of gender quotas in elections, especially in comparison with Taiwan's neighbouring democracies like Japan and South Korea. The speaker also explains why the significant presence of women in the national legislature has not led to more gender-balanced cabinets. About the Speaker Prof Chang-Ling Huang is a Professor of Political Science and the Director of the Global Asia Research Center at the National Taiwan University. She received her Ph. D. from the University of Chicago, and her research interests are women’s political representation, women’s movement and state feminism. Her works have appeared in Chinese and English journals, edited volumes, handbooks, and encyclopedia. She received Outstanding Teaching Award, Outstanding Social Service Award, and Performance Award from her university. Prof Huang was a joint fellow of the Harvard-Yenching Institute and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University in 2018-2019. Besides her academic works, she participates in Taiwan’s feminist movement and the movement for transitional justice. She was the president of the Awakening Foundation, the first feminist organisation of post-war Taiwan, and the president of the Taiwan Association for Truth and Reconciliation. Dr Bo-jiun Jing, Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, will be hosting the event.
In recent years, and certainly since the launch of ChatGPT, there has been massive public and professional interest in Artificial Intelligence. But people are confused about what AI is, what it can and cannot do, what is yet to come, and whether AI is good or bad for humanity and civilisation - whether it will provide solutions to mankind's major challenges or become our gravest existential threat. There is also confusion about how we should regulate AI and where we should draw moral boundaries on its use. In How To Think About AI, Prof Richard Susskind draws on his experience of working on AI since the early 1980s. For Prof Susskind, balancing the benefits and threats of artificial intelligence is the defining challenge of our age. He positions ChatGPT and generative AI as no more than the latest chapter in the ongoing story of AI and claims we are still at the foothills of developments. He argues that to think responsibly about the impact of AI requires us to look well beyond todays technologies, suggesting that not-yet-invented technologies will have far greater impact on us in the 2030s than the tools we have today. This leads him to discuss the possibility of conscious machines, magnificent new AI-enabled virtual worlds, and the impact of AI on the evolution of biological humans. In this book talk, Prof Susskind will discuss the main themes of the book with Prof Ian Goldin (Director of the Oxford Martin School Programmes on the Future of Work, Technological and Economic Change, and Future of Development). This event will be followed by a book sale/signing and drinks reception, all welcome.
In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, scholars, activists, and politicians have engaged in profound debates about the nature of Islamic governance and its relevance to contemporary justice. While many discussions focus on the roots of governance in early Islam, they are often shaped by a primarily fiqh-centric perspective, which emphasises jurisprudence and tradition while neglecting the political and legal realities of the time. In this talk, Dr Allehbi will reveal that many early Muslim rulers, military leaders, and bureaucrats developed their unique understandings of governmental justice that frequently diverged from those of religious scholars. By examining the Islamic adaptations of Eastern Roman and Sasanian political ideas, we find that the governing elites in the Islamic Near East and Mediterranean established a branch of Islamic law that was normatively and jurisdictionally distinct from fiqh. Between the eighth and tenth centuries, these non-fiqh actors created a body of legal theories, protocols, and practices grounded in notions of imamate, mulk (kingship), and siyasa (governance), which defined critical legal spheres such as criminal justice, the mazalim, and the vizierate. This survey not only challenges but also enriches our understanding of early Islamic governance and justice, showing that it was neither monolithic nor singular, but rather a complex tapestry of varied actors and perspectives. Embracing this recontextualization allows us to appreciate the diversity and adaptability of Islamic governance and justice. from its origins to its legacy in modern day.
In Steering Change, Rob Stokes — first Minister for Active Transport in Australia —reflects on the political and policy challenges of championing walking and cycling infrastructure in a car-centric world. Drawing on experience from the frontlines of government, he shares strategies for persuading treasury officials of the economic value of active transport and techniques for building lasting community support. This is a timely and practical look at how to turn good ideas into real change on our streets.
In this talk, I will briefly overview key genomic findings in relation to schizophrenia, before illustrating the application of integrated neuroscience approaches to understanding the functional impacts of risk variants. I will give examples from both common and rare variants, and will emphasise the potential impacts in terms of biomarker discovery and therapeutic innovation. This seminar is held in person in the Department of Psychiatry, Seminar Room. To join online, please use the Zoom details below: zoom.us/j/92620728590?pwd=s1JefrGff6bN0nZZcHSTBkCw8Z1RlT.1 Meeting ID: 926 2072 8590 Passcode: 196542
Join us for a digital scholarship coffee gathering - tea and coffee will be provided. If you'd like to get an email reminder of these coffee mornings please sign up for that here: https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/oxford/digital-scholarship-coffee-morning-keep-in-touch
Trusted Research is a dynamic landscape - do you know what the challenges are for international collaborations in your department? With the acute changes in the geopolitical landscape, university research is increasingly viewed as having a significant impact on national security. The threats are real, the impact of a malicious act could include reputational damage, constraint of academic freedom, legal or regulatory breaches, barring from holding funding from certain funders, and loss or compromise of results, data and intellectual property or cyber or physical infrastructure. The Research Services Trusted Research team supports compliance and safeguarding the integrity of the University’s vital international collaborations. We invite University staff to join the Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research) to learn how this changing landscape might affect you or the activities within your department. Hear more from the experts, and take the opportunity to ask questions about how this will affect you. Tuesday, June 17th 2025, 11:00am Presentation approx. 45 minutes, with added time for questions to follow. The Martin Wood Lecture Theatre, Department of Physics, 20 Parks Road, Oxford OX3 3PU **Please visit either our Trusted Research or Export Control Webpages to pre-register by Friday June 13th 2025
Prof Butterworth’s research focusses on improving the biological effectiveness of radiotherapy by understanding the molecular mechanisms of radiobiological responses in tumours and normal tissues. Using advanced preclinical models of radiation response, his group aims to develop biologically targeted strategies for the realisation of precision radiotherapy.
Virtual option: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_OTA2YjAxMWUtZWNjMS00MjU1LTk1NzgtNjhkOWFlYTAzODky%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22f1c122b2-641a-4768-b31a-d09074055f12%22%7d
Equal opportunity, widely invoked in popular discourse as a goal for policy, seems at odds with the welfarist approach that is standard in economics. But are they really different? We consider a canonical class of resource allocation problems and ask whether the allocations chosen by an equal-opportunity criterion could also have been chosen under some welfarist criterion. Typically, no such welfarist criterion exists. However, for a rich class of problem specifications, it does exist, and we characterize this class. When the welfarist criterion does exist, it can use either the sum or the min to aggregate individual welfares; the freedom to use more exotic aggregators does not expand the possibilities.
In this final seminar, we will explore how Schmitt concretely applied the ideas we have studied over the last seven weeks. Nowhere is this clearer than in ‘State, Movement, People’ where Schmitt employs his political thought to justify and legitimise the Nazi regime. We will examine how the logical conclusion of Schmitt's political thought is an authoritarian anti-liberal regime predicated upon substantive homogeneity which Schmitt found in Nazi Germany.
The story of the Rwandan Genocide has been told many times by scholars and journalists. Over the course of a hundred days in the spring and summer of 1994, about eight hundred thousand Tutsi and moderate Hutu were murdered by their extremist Hutu compatriots. Those hundred days were the final phase of a four-year civil war, also known as the Struggle for Liberation, which formed the immediate context of the genocide. Though scholars have researched preparations for the genocide and the international community’s role in it, none has placed the Struggle for Liberation at the heart of the narrative. However, the preparation of the genocide, the rise and fall of the moderate opposition, the degradation of the Forces armées rwandaises (FAR) from a respected fighting force to a genocidal militia, the role of the international community, the Arusha negotiations, and the execution of the genocide all took place in the context of that war. John Burton Kegel contends that the Struggle for Liberation forms the bedrock of any genuine understanding of Rwanda between 1990 and 1994, and indeed beyond. The Struggle for Liberation, which eventually led to the genocide, was fought between the FAR and the civilians and soldiers of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and its armed wing, the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA). The civil war started on October 1, 1990, when the RPF entered Rwanda from Uganda, where Rwandan refugees had lived throughout the Great Lakes region since roughly 1959. This book traces the history of those refugees—and Rwanda’s deeper Hutu-Tutsi divide—from the precolonial period up to 1990. It also provides a wholly new take on how the disciplined RPF, which rules Rwanda to this day, was born and organized. John Burton Kegel specializes in African military and economic history from roughly 1850 to the present. He is a lecturer at the Faculty of Military Sciences of the Netherlands Defence Academy and a research fellow at the African Studies Centre Leiden, where his work is sponsored by the Ford Foundation.
Description: The seminar will explore issues at the intersection of philosophy, AI, and technological innovation, co-taught by a philosopher and a technologist. The seminar will welcome a variety of visiting discussants from philosophy, computer science, and the technology industry throughout term. The focus will be on how a concern for human flourishing can be embedded in the global technology development pipeline, and on exploring how broader bridges can be built between philosophy and technology. The seminar is primarily aimed at philosophy graduate students and computer science graduate students but participants from other levels and areas are welcome. Topics include: truth-seeking AI, privacy, collective intelligence, decentralization in science and AI, and approaches to human autonomy. The seminar culminates in a clinic to facilitate grant applications for independent summer projects on the themes of the seminar. Fast grants: New for this year, Cosmos Ventures has established a dedicated funding pool that seminar participants can apply to for independent summer building projects on related themes. Prerequisites: please email HAI Lab philipp.koralus@philosophy.ox.ac.uk no later than April 27th with a (very) brief explanation of your interest in the seminar to reserve a spot, and the subject line “TT Seminar”. Space limited to maintain quality of discussion. Preparation: ● Draft a Cosmos Ventures application for feedback
Student Presentations
Higher education research holds a specific status as a field of knowledge production that emerged from particular state interests in expanding and controlling the sector. Today, most of the knowledge produced by higher education researchers serves (directly or indirectly) either governments or capital to expand their control and infiltrate the reality of higher education. This paper explores different modes of producing knowledge about the sector and the ways in which this knowledge reshapes it from within, alongside its main actors. Co-research (Italian: conricerca), a method developed within Italian Marxism, effectively avoids the false opposition between knowledge production and movement, between theory and practice. It embodies Marx’s concept of praxis and bridges knowledge production with the organization of counter-subjectivity. The aim of co-research is not simply to collect ‘objectified’ knowledge about a given issue or group, but rather to activate knowledge-generating processes that contribute to shaping specific student or worker subjectivities and the strengthening and development of autonomous political organizations through which they fight for their interests. This paper discusses both the theory and history of co-research, as well as examples of the practical application of this method within the context of contemporary student university struggles in Poland (2023-2024). Special attention is paid to two recent examples of co-research practice summarised in two extensive volumes written and published in 2024 by Polish students: Jowita zostaje. 10 dni ruchu studenckiego and Kamionka zostanie. Rok studenckich okupacji. These books document and analyze the student occupation protests in defense of public student dormitories. In discussing the theory and practice of co-research, we also refer to the recent history of student resistance to the progressive sell-off of public universities, the transformation of students into precarious student-workers, and their efforts to realize the dream of the university as the common good.
Rohini Pande is the Henry J. Heinz II Professor of Economics and Director of the Economic Growth Center at Yale University. She is also the faculty director of Inclusion Economics at Yale. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an Econometric Society fellow, and a former co-editor of American Economic Review: Insights. Pande received the 2018 Carolyn Bell Shaw Award from the American Economic Association for promoting the success of women in the economics profession and the 2022 Infosys Prize in Social Sciences. Formerly, Pande was the Rafik Harriri Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard Kennedy School. Pande’s research, which has influenced policy in South Asia and globally, focuses on how institutions shape power relationships and patterns of economic, political, and environmental advantage in low- and middle-income countries. She is interested in the role of public policy in providing the poor and disadvantaged political and economic power, as well as how notions of economic justice and human rights can legitimize and enable such change. With Inclusion Economics India Center, she is working with Indian state governments on gender-inclusive rural development and digital policies and with Inclusion Economics Nepal Center she is evaluating policies to strengthen quality of policy-making by elected local governments.
Step into the future of learning with AR and VR! This talk dives into how immersive tech is making it easier—and way more fun—to pick up real-world skills. From virtual job training to hands-on practice without the risk, see how AR and VR are changing the game in education, workplaces, and beyond. Whether you're new to the tech or looking to level up your training programs, you'll leave with fresh ideas and real examples of immersive learning in action! About the Speaker: With a decade of experience in Education Publishing and EdTech, James Pallister has been a driving force behind the successful rollout of new educational learning solutions across the UK, Ireland, and Scandinavia. His deep understanding of the relationship between education and technology has enabled him to navigate the evolving landscape and stay ahead of trends, making him a trusted advisor for learning institutes seeking to enhance their educational and training offerings.
We will hear from the 2025 Medawar Prize for Immunology winner and top nominees about their ground-breaking work, followed by tea and coffee in the atrium. Adrien Sprumont: 'A snapshot of germinal center plasma cell formation during a viral infection' Veronika Pfannenstill: 'Quantifying Immune Cell Dynamics: A Novel Large Field of View Light Sheet Microscopy Platform to Study Cellular Function across Space and Time' Yavuz Yazicioglu (online): 'Asparagine: an "optional" amino acid for an optimal germinal centre response' Sooraj Achar (online): ‘Engineering TCR-controlled Fuzzy Logic into CAR T cells Enhances Therapeutic Specificity’ More information about the Medawar Prize available at https://www.immunology.ox.ac.uk/news/sooraj-achar-wins-the-2025-peter-medawar-prize-for-immunology
College admission platforms aim at achieving a balance between avoiding congestion and allowing for ex-post flexibility in students’ matches. The latter is crucial as the existence of off platform options implies that some students will drop out of the platform in favor of their outside option, freeing up seats in on-platform programs. Sequential assignment procedures introduce such flexibility, by creating a dynamic trade-off for students: they can choose to delay their enrollment decision to receive a better offer later, at the cost of waiting before knowing their final admission outcome. We quantify this trade-off in a setting in which waiting costs can be heterogeneous. We use rich administrative data on rank-ordered lists and waiting decisions from the French college admission system to estimate a dynamic model of application and acceptance decisions. We find that waiting costs are large, especially for students of low socio-economic status. Nevertheless, we find large welfare gains for all groups from using a multi-round rather than a more standard single-round system, as it increases the number of matches and enables students to enroll in more specialized programs. enables students to enroll in more specialized programs.
If you are not on the mailing list, and wish to attend this online only event, please contact: Dr Tracey Sowerby "$":mailto:tracey.sowerby@history.ox.ac.uk to receive the link.
*If you would like to meet the speaker before the seminar, please sign up here: https://tinyurl.com/23druvdp*
What happens when hundreds of Chinese labourers ‒ from textile, agriculture, transport, and construction ‒ film their own lives, and these fragments are assembled into a shared cinematic form? This talk reflects on This is Life (烟火人间, 2024), a documentary built from 887 vertical videos contributed by 509 workers via the Kuaishou platform. The discussion centres on the aesthetics and meaning-making processes of what Dr Wang calls People’s Cinema ‒ a participatory documentary mode built from acts of self-narration. Special attention is given to how vertical mobile footage revitalizes horizontal cinematic conventions through multi-vertical split-screen, and how meaning is co-produced through the video entanglement of filming, assembling, and watching. In this model, labourers are both creators and subjects, merging self-expression with public visibility. Together, these user-generated content (UGC) form a collective screen through which contemporary China is re-imagined and re-presented in the cinematic space. Dr Jing Wang is a Tsinghua Zijing Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Oxford, jointly based at the China Centre and the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. Her research focuses on documentary studies, realist cinema, and visual anthropology. With over 12 years of experience as a documentary filmmaker, she integrates academic inquiry with creative practice in projects such as This is Life (2024, Producer). Dr Wang is currently completing her first monograph, Documentary in Fiction: Global Aesthetic Trends in Realistic Film During the Post-Cold War Era, forthcoming from Palgrave Macmillan.
As the liberal international order weakens, anti-pluralist leaders and movements seek to capture states & societies. At the same time, more (and less) vigorous coalitions for open societies are challenging the global anti-pluralist turn. This pattern involves multiple actors, norms, pressures and processes which can and should be compared to better understand this acute global challenge. Nora Fisher-Onar's new book Contesting Pluralism(s)... does so via an original framework that puts complexity thinking into conversation with international relations and comparative politics / area studies. The product is a dramatic re-reading of a pivotal country's political history and present, offering a timely toolkit and fresh insights into the intersection of political religion, populism and democracy everywhere.
Social studies of medicine have highlighted differences between clinical medicine and public health. Less attention has been paid to how these fields intersect within primary healthcare institutions—particularly in rural settings where providers are expected to deliver prevention, treatment, and culturally respectful, community-engaged care simultaneously. This talk examines how, in practice, their overlapping mandates generate contradictions that shape how care is delivered, and how it falls to healthcare professionals to make sense of them through conceptual reframing, practical decisions, and everyday moral reasoning. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research on diabetes prevention and management practices in a rural hospital in Mexico, I map out a series of tensions that emerge as preventative public health practices—shaped by longer histories of rural health intervention—collide with clinical and ethical commitments under the hospital’s intercultural, human rights framework. These include tensions between transforming and respecting cultural practices; between coercion, consent, and confidentiality; and between hospital control and patient self-management. I follow healthcare professionals as they navigate these layered tensions practically, conceptually, and morally, while also grappling with contradictory enactments of the disease itself. Finally, I reflect on how patients engage with these interventions based on local understandings of diabetes, responsibility, and self-care. Commentator: Prof. Mark Harrison (History,University of Oxford)
Factors like continuing globalisation, the development of technologies such as generative AI, quantum information science, augmented/virtual/mixed reality, robotics, blockchain, data science, the space economy and cryptoassets as well as the emerging gig economy and contingent worker paradigm, are all intersecting to disrupt traditional business models. The good news is that there are tremendously exciting opportunities for those prepared to take advantage of these changes. Part one: How to Succeed at Jobs that Don't Exist Yet The workshop will begin with a 40-minute context-setting lecture by Christopher Bishop describing the historical connections between technology and business models, as well as a perspective on where careers are heading in the coming decades. The session will also include an introduction to his Future Career Toolkit. Part two: Secrets for Creating an Award-Winning Deep Tech Start-Up Dr Zhanet Zaharieva will then describe how her passion for science led her to earn a DPhil and then start a bleeding-edge tech company. In addition, she will describe how working with an incubator that supports young tech entrepreneurs in Oxford was crucial to her company's successful launch.
Independent leaders are crafting culture on their own terms, challenging conventions and redefining what’s possible. This conversation explores how independent leaders bring their values to their work, and how these values shape those collaborating with them at the forefront of change. Guest speakers include David Lan, Writer, Director and The Walk and The Herds Producer; Professor Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, University of Oxford. Chaired by Kate McGrath.
A common model of AI suggests that there is a single measure of intelligence, often called AGI, and that AI systems are agents who can possess more or less of this intelligence. Cognitive science, in contrast, suggests that there are multiple forms of intelligence and that these intelligences trade-off against each other and have a distinctive developmental profile. The adult ability to accomplish goals and maximize utilities is often seen as the quintessential form of intelligence. However, this ability to exploit is in tension with the ability to explore and to create world models based on that exploration. Children are particularly adept at exploration and model-building, though at the cost of competent action and decision-making. Human intelligence also relies heavily on cultural transmission, passing on information from one generation to the next, and children are also particularly adept at such learning. Thinking about exploration and transmission can change our approach to AI systems. Large language models and similar systems are best understood as cultural technologies, like writing, pictures and print, that enable information transmission. In contrast, our empirical work suggests that RL systems employing an intrinsic objective of empowerment gain can help capture the exploration and theory formation we see in both children and scientists. Empowerment learning, in particular, may help construct causal models both in childhood and in science.
COURSE DETAILS Being at Oxford provides you with an amazing opportunity to meet a wide range of extraordinary people who could help you and who you could help. This session will enable you to develop this important skill, which will: help you make contacts; discover opportunities; open doors; and speak to the right people. It will also enable you to devise a strategic approach to networking which can have lifetime benefits for you. LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this session you will: Understand more about the benefits of networking. Feel more comfortable networking. Have learnt some new techniques to help you network more effectively. Have started to develop a strategy for networking.
Do you need help managing your references? Do you need help citing references in your documents? This online session will introduce you to EndNote, a subscription software programme which can help you to store, organise and retrieve your references and PDFs, as well as cite references in documents and create bibliographies quickly and easily. On completing the workshop you will be able to: understand the main features and benefits of EndNote; set up an EndNote account; import references from different sources into EndNote; organise your references in EndNote; insert citations into documents; and create a bibliography/reference list. Intended audience: Students, staff and researchers from MSD and OUH.
For online access, Microsoft Teams links will be sent to the mailing list in advance or email "$":mailto:christina.debellaigue@exeter.ox.ac.uk for a link.
I will begin by discussing our development of a generalized, stimuli-responsive shell theory. (1) Non-mechanical stimuli including heat, swelling, and growth further complicate the nonlinear mechanics of shells, as simultaneously solving multiple field equations to capture multiphysics phenomena requires significant computational expense. We present a general shell theory to account for non-mechanical stimuli, in which the effects of the stimuli are generalized into three forms: those that add mass to the shell, those that increase the area of the shell through the natural stretch, and those that change the curvature of the shell through the natural curvature. I will show how this model can capture the morphogenesis of the optic cup, the snapping of the Venus flytrap, leaf growth, and the buckling of electrically active polymer plates. (2) I will then discuss how cutting thin sheets and shells, a process inspired by the art of kirigami, enables the design of functional mechanical metamaterials. We create linear actuators, artificial muscles, soft robotic grippers, and mechanical logic units by systematically cutting and stretching thin sheets. (3) Finally, if time permits, I will introduce our work on the interactions between elastic and granular matter, which we refer to as elastogranular mechanics. Such interactions occur across all lengths, from morphogenesis, to root growth, to stabilizing soil against erosion. We show how combining rocks and string in the absence of any adhesive we can create large, load bearing structures like columns, beams, and arches. I will finish with a general phase diagram for elastogranular behavior.
We’re delighted to welcome Professor Saye Khoo, Professor of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the University of Liverpool and Honorary Consultant Physician in Infectious Disease at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, who will be presenting at our upcoming PSI seminar. Professor Khoo leads a research programme in antiviral therapy and is Chief Investigator for the international DolPHIN consortium and the AGILE platform. His work focuses on optimising antivirals to treat or prevent HIV, including in special populations such as pregnant women and newborn infants. The seminar will be chaired by Khiyam Hussain and it will take place from 12:30 to 13:30 in the lecture theatre, Richard Doll Building. This will be followed by a networking session, during which lunch will be provided. Abstract Professor Saye Khoo and his team’s work is underpinned by highly sensitive drug measurements within their GCP-accredited laboratory. By combining this with advanced mathematical modelling, they are able to predict drug exposure across different body compartments and individuals. Their work on drug-drug interactions led to the creation of the Liverpool Drug Interactions Prescribing Resource, which supports clinical decision-making in the treatment of HIV, hepatitis, cancer and since 2020, experimental COVID-19 therapies. This resource is globally recognised and widely integrated into treatment guidelines, including those of the World Health Organization, receiving over 18 million searches in the past three years. Biography Saye Khoo is Professor of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the University of Liverpool and Honorary Consultant Physician in Infectious Diseases at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. He leads a research programme focused on antiviral therapy and serves as Chief Investigator for both the international DolPHIN consortium and the AGILE platform. His research centres on optimising antiviral treatments, particularly for the prevention and management of HIV. A key aspect of his work, understanding drug–drug interactions, led to the creation of the Liverpool Drug Interactions Prescribing Resource, a globally recognised tool supporting clinical decision-making in HIV, hepatitis, cancer, and, since 2020, experimental COVID-19 therapies. Professor Khoo has served on expert advisory groups and guideline committees for a range of national and international organisations, including the British HIV Association, World Health Organization, British Infection Society, UK Home Office, and the International AIDS Society.
The Lunchtime Lab Talks aim to introduce and highlight the broad spectrum of research that is carried out at the Centre and encourage multidisciplinary interactions. Throughout the year, groups are invited to speak and present their work to our community. Lunch is available from 12:15 in Room A&B and talks run from 12:30–13:30. iPSC Facility Speaker: Sonia Yiakoumi Title: ‘Exploring the physiological roles od Tau protein in develooping neurons’ Cellular Imaging Facility Speaker: TBC Title: TBC
TORCH Talks: a new series debating some of the most urgent and topical issues of our time from a cross-disciplinary perspective. Practitioners from radically different disciplines and fields share their views and insights on major global challenges. Everyone is welcome and lunch will be provided.
Feeling overwhelmed by endless to-do lists? In this lunchtime Time Management session, you’ll gain a clearer understanding of how you currently use your time, discover practical time management techniques and go away with actionable tools to help you to progress towards your goals.
Shedding new light on GPCR signalling: why space and time matter Professor Davide Calebiro MD PhD DSc FRCPa,b aDepartment of Metabolism and Systems Science (MSS), College of Medicine and Health, University of Birmingham, UK bCentre of Membrane Proteins and Receptors (COMPARE), Universities of Birmingham and Nottingham, UK Davide studied Medicine in Milan and Stockholm and obtained a clinical specialisation in Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases and a PhD in Molecular Medicine from the University of Milan. He joined the University of Birmingham in 2017, where he is currently Head of the Department of Metabolism and Systems Science (MSS), and Co-Director of the Centre of Membrane Proteins and Receptors (COMPARE). Throughout his career, Davide has given major contributions to clarifying several fundamental mechanisms underlying signalling by G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), the largest family of cell receptors and major drug targets, above all in the context of endocrine and metabolic physiology and disease. For this purpose, he has pioneered advanced optical approaches, such as FRET and single-molecule microscopy, which he combines with innovative probes and computational methods to monitor GPCR signalling in living cells and tissues with unprecedented detail. His interdisciplinary efforts have led to seminal discoveries into the mechanisms that allow GPCRs to produce efficient and specific biological responses. Above all, his work has led to the groundbreaking discovery of a whole new paradigm of ‘endosomal’ GPCR signalling, which has changed the previously widely accepted textbook knowledge of GPCRs as cell-surface receptors1,2. Ongoing work in the Calebiro lab is dedicated to further clarifying the physiological and pharmacological implications of endosomal GPCR signalling, with a particular focus on metabolically relevant GPCRs. Using innovative single-molecule microscopy approaches, his team succeed for the first time in visualising individual receptors and G proteins as they diffuse and interact at the surface of living cells3. This pioneering work revealed the existence of dynamic signalling nanodomains at the plasma membrane (‘hotspots’), which confer efficiency and specificity to GPCR signalling. More recently, his group extended these studies to the key interactions between receptors and arrestins that are implicated in fast signal desensitisation and receptor internalisation, revealing a crucial role for arrestin pre-association with the lipid bilayer4. In parallel, Davide’s work has clarified the involvement of deranged GPCR/cAMP signalling in endocrine disease. Among other findings, his lab identified new genetic causes and mechanisms at the basis of thyroid disorders and Cushing’s syndrome. This includes the discovery of somatic mutations in the catalytic subunit of protein kinase A (PRKACA) as the main cause of Cushing’s syndrome due to cortisol-secreting adrenal adenomas5. Altogether, Davide’s work has revealed that the molecular events governing GPCR signalling are much more complex and organised than previously thought, occurring in dynamic nanodomains at both the plasma membrane and intracellular organelles that confine GPCR signals in time and space. These findings hold promise for the development of a new generation of ‘intelligent’ therapies, capable of modulating GPCR signalling at specific subcellular nanodomains and, thus, produce more effective therapeutic responses with fewer side effects6. 1. Calebiro D et al. Persistent cAMP-signals triggered by internalized G-protein-coupled receptors. PLoS Biology 2009, 7:e1000172. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000172 2. Godbole A et al. TSH receptors en route to the TGN induce local Gs-protein signaling and gene transcription. Nature Communications 2017, 8:443. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-00357-2 3. Sungkaworn T et al. Single-molecule imaging reveals receptor-G protein interactions at cell surface hot spots. Nature 2017, 550:543-547. doi: 10.1038/nature24264 4. Grimes J et al. Plasma membrane preassociation drives -arrestin coupling to receptors and activation. Cell 2023, 186:2238-2255. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.04.018 5. Beuschlein F et al. Constitutive activation of PKA catalytic subunit in adrenal Cushing's syndrome. N Engl J Med. 2014, 370:1019-28. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1310359 6. Calebiro D et al. Endomembrane GPCR signaling: 15 years on, the quest continues. Trends Biochem Sci. 2025, 50:46-60. doi: 10.1016/j.tibs.2024.10.006 Professor Davide Calebiro, MD PhD DSc FRCP Davide Calebiro is Chair of Molecular Endocrinology, Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Department of Metabolism and Systems Science (MSS) at the University of Birmingham. He is also Co-Director of the Centre of Membrane Proteins and Receptors (COMPARE), a joint interdisciplinary research centre of Universities of Birmingham and Nottingham. Davide studied Medicine in Milan and Stockholm, and obtained a PhD in Molecular Medicine and a Clinical Specialisation in Endocrinology and Metabolic Disease from the University of Milan. Between 2009 and 2017, he was a Group Leader at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Rudolf Virchow Center of the University of Würzburg, Germany. He leads an interdisciplinary research team comprising biologists, chemists, physicists, engineers and computer scientists focusing on the basic mechanisms of G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) signalling and their involvement in endocrine, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. To study GPCR signalling, they develop and use innovative optical methods based on FRET, BRET and single-molecule microscopy, which allow them to directly observe signalling events in living cells and tissues with unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution. Using single-molecule microscopy and other innovative approaches, Davide’s team have revealed several important mechanisms that allow GPCRs to produce efficient and specific biological responses. Above all, his work has uncovered a whole new paradigm of ‘endosomal’ GPCR signalling, which has changed the previously widely accepted textbook knowledge of GPCRs as cell-surface receptors and holds promise for the development of novel pharmacological therapies (e.g. biased GPCR agonists for the therapy of diabetes). Davide’s work has been published in prestigious scientific journals such as Nature, Cell, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Investigation, PLoS Biology, PNAS, Nature Communications and Science Advances, attracting several prizes and awards. He has served on multiple panels and committees, including the ENDO Annual Meeting Steering Committee and the MRC Molecular & Cellular Medicine Board.
Falciparum malaria, a devastating parasitic disease affecting millions of people each year, is treated using fixed dose combination treatments, the Artemisinin Combination Therapies (ACTs) over 3 days of dosing. The constant threat of resistance and the need to deliver alternative options to treat patients in the event of all ACTs failing, as well as the need for improved drugs against other human-infecting Plasmodium parasites, has led to Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and its partners, in collaboration, to build up a portfolio of projects and compounds focused on the treatment and prevention of malaria. MMV’s mission is to reduce the burden of malaria in disease-endemic countries by discovering, developing and facilitating delivery of new, effective and affordable antimalarial drugs in collaboration with international partners. MMV manages a significant antimalarial pipeline, and this has been strengthened in recent years with the delivery of new products, new clinical candidates and early-stage discovery projects. The talk will outline the progress made, against the ever present challenge of resistance emergence to frontline therapies, and the complexities required to deliver impactful products for control and elimination. In particular, our focus is on delivering differentiated candidate drugs with long human half-lives and duration of cover either from oral or intra-muscular dosing. In this context, new thinking and modes of working, such as optimizing specifically to reduce the resistance risk, utilizing unbound pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic parameters to better design and estimate dose and machine learning opportunities will be highlighted along with specific candidate drug case studies.
Opposing the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in the Name of China: Lenox Simpson’s Global Propaganda Mission in 1921 Zhenyan Lu, King’s College London A Spatial History of Colonial Manchuria (1905–1945) Dr. Gloria Yu Yang, Kyushu University
A practical session 180-minute workshop where participants will work on searches for their review across multiple databases. Librarians from the Bodleian Health Care Libraries will be on hand to demonstrate online tools for facilitating the process and give practical advice on refining individual search strategies. By the end of this classroom-based session you will be able to: improve a search strategy that you are working on; adapt the search across multiple databases; use tools such as Yale MeSH Analyzer, Polyglot and the SR Accelerator to improve your searches; describe alternative methods for identifying references, including citation tracking; de-duplicate results from multiple database searches; start screening results for inclusion in your review; and report your search methods according to PRISMA-Search. Intended audience: Students, staff and researchers from MSD and OUH.
Are you an early career researcher, fixed-term lecturer, or doctoral student trying to get some writing done? Do you research on a topic related to health, medicine, the body, or mind using Humanities or Social Sciences approaches? The Medical Humanities Writing Group is an inclusive, interdisciplinary and casual gathering, encouraging writing as well as meeting others: all are welcome. We have timed writing blocks and coffee/tea/light refreshments, and are focused on setting writing goals and getting work done in a positive and supportive environment. Attendance is free and you are welcome to join us for anything from a single session, to a few, or even the whole term.
To follow ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Alison is a Distinguished Professor at the University of California at Berkley. She received her BA from McGill University and her PhD from Oxford University. She is a leader in cognitive science, particularly the study of children’s learning and development. She was one of the founders of the field of “theory of mind”, an originator of the “theory theory” of cognitive development, and the first to apply Bayesian probabilistic models to children’s learning.
TBC
More information will be available shortly. Speaker bio: Ive Marx is Professor of Socio-Economic Policy and Director of the Centre for Social Policy Herman Deleeck at Antwerp University. He is a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn and an Associated Researcher at the GC Wealth Project at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality in New York. He leads the Antwerp Interdisciplinary Platform on Inequality Research (AIPRIL). He is chair of the Socio-Economic Sciences Program at the University of Antwerp. During this seminar, Professor Marx will present some new findings from his book on the Zero Poverty Society, published by Oxford University Press (co-authored with Sarah Marchal), https://academic.oup.com/book/56424.
Join via Microsoft Teams here: https://tinyurl.com/5d5s7x5k
Catherine Volpilhac-Auger (ENS de Lyon / IHRIM) en dialogue avec Catriona Seth (All Souls, Oxford)
The second years students in German are presenting their collaborative translation ‘The Woman You Become’ (’Werde, die Du bist’, 1894) by Hedwig Dohm, printed as part of the ‘Writers in Residence’ series of the Taylor Editions. This event will include a reading from the translation and a short discussion on the process of translation as a collaborative and feminist practice. Light refreshments will be provided. All are welcome to attend.
The Global Centre on Healthcare and Urbanisation Public Seminar series brings together members of the public, researchers and practitioners interested and engaged in urban health issues. The principal aim of the series is to provoke debate and constructive action, linking current best practice in urban development with emerging areas of health research. One of the key challenges of the coming century is ensuring that everyone’s essential needs - such as food, education, housing, mobility, and equality - are met, even as environmental change exacerbates poverty and inequality for many. A critical question is therefore, how can communities prosper under Net Zero? How can their social and ecological needs be met? The seminar focuses on alternative approaches to development, beyond the current lens on prosperity and economic growth. Concepts such as the Wellbeing Economy or Doughnut Economics propose new pathways to balance ecological limits with social needs, while Community Wealth Building emphasises local economic resilience and community wellbeing. These emerging options aim to redefine prosperity in ways that respect both ecological boundaries, and the social foundations that can help communities to flourish. In what promises to be a lively discussion with policymakers, community leaders, and researchers, we will reflect on the promises and limitations of these frameworks, examining real-world examples of places that have implemented these visions, and what we can learn from them.
Christina Thatcher will share some selections from her new book, Breaking a Mare. Breaking a Mare is an investigation of silence, goodness and girlhood. It invites readers into the barn, the sawdust mill, the rodeo arena. These poems expose the hard work women do on farms, the loss of rural landscapes and the role death can play in these spaces. They ask what it means to be good in the face of physical, emotional and ecological threat. Ultimately, these poems want to know what breaks us and what makes us stronger. Christina Thatcher grew up between a farm and a ranch house in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She won a Marshall Scholarship to undertake two MAs in the UK, after which she completed a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing at Cardiff University, where she is now a Lecturer. Her poetry and short stories have been widely published in literary magazines, including Ambit, Butcher's Dog, Magma, Poetry Wales, The North, The Poetry Review and more. There will be a drinks reception in the Saugman Common Room following the poetry reading to which everyone is welcome. If you'd like to attend, please register at: https://www.stx.ox.ac.uk/event/breaking-a-mare
Oxford Political Review (OPR) is celebrating the launch of its 16th print issue, under the theme ‘Nothing Is Ever Always’, with a panel discussion on democratic backsliding and resilience, featuring Prof Maya Tudor and Prof Scott Williamson. Maya Tudor is Professor of Politics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government and Fellow at St Hilda's College. Her research examines the origins of effective and democratic states, with a regional focus on South Asia. She is the author of two books - The Promise of Power: The Origins of Democracy in India and Autocracy in Pakistan (2013) and Varieties of Nationalism (co-authored with Harris Mylonas, 2023) - as well as over twenty peer-reviewed articles. Professor Tudor regularly comments on elections and the state of democracy in media outlets such as the BBC and The Guardian. Scott Williamson is Associate Professor in Comparative Political Economy at Oxford’s Department of Politics and International Relations and a Tutorial Fellow at Magdalen College. His research explores popular politics and institutions within authoritarian regimes, democratic support, attitudes toward foreign aid and migration, and Middle Eastern politics. He is also Principal Investigator of the UKRI-funded ERC Starting Grant, Democratic Values and Authoritarian Legitimacy (DEVAL), which studies why individuals support democracy and how autocratic regimes sometimes exploit democratic sentiments to reinforce authoritarian rule.
Sign up for one of the most exciting and inspiring nights in Oxford’s entrepreneurial calendar – the #StartedinOxford Showcase, hosted by EnSpire Oxford, the University of Oxford’s entrepreneurship hub. Whether you're a founder, investor, student, researcher, or startup enthusiast, this interactive event is your chance to experience Oxford’s innovation scene up close. Meet the brilliant minds behind early-stage ventures and take part in a fun ‘investment’ experience that puts you in the investor’s seat. Each attendee receives £1000 in #StartedinOxford pounds to invest in their favourite startups — and your choices will shape the outcome of the night. The top three startups with the most audience investment will win prizes and funding. 🕕 Doors open: 6 PM 📍 Venue: Blackwell Hall, the Weston Library, Oxford 🎤 What to expect on the night: - Live pitches from exciting early-stage startups - A dynamic founder panel discussion, where local entrepreneurs share honest stories, lessons learned, and what it really takes to build a business - The audience-led investment showcase where you help decide the winners - Plenty of time to connect and network with founders, investors, and fellow innovators - Whether you're looking to support local talent, scout for investment opportunities, or just soak up the inspiration – the #StartedinOxford Showcase is an unforgettable night of ideas, energy, and community. Come celebrate the future of Oxford entrepreneurship. We can’t wait to welcome you.
Leading and Managing People in Research (formerly “Essentials of People Management in Research”) is a module in The Confident Manager Series, designed to equip PIs/academic managers with knowledge of their responsibilities when managing research staff and with key people skills needed to create a healthy and productive research environment. Topics covered include recruiting effectively, leading and managing a team, having productive career conversations/annual reviews, supporting those on fixed-term contracts, and fostering positive research cultures, including excellence in research practice. This module is specifically for new PIs (Principal Investigators) / Academic Managers / Researchers who have secured a grant that will involve recruiting and managing others or experienced PIs looking to update their knowledge and skills. Objectives - Understand what is expected of PIs/academic managers at Oxford – Clarify HR essentials for recruiting and leading your team – Learn how to facilitate effective career development conversations / annual reviews (CDR/PCDR) and to manage fixed-term contracts – Explore your role in fostering a positive research culture and enabling excellence in research practice Please note: Professional services colleagues working in research or clinical trials are advised to enrol on the more appropriate module in The Confident Manager Series titled ‘Managing at Oxford’.
This workshop proposes to examine the ways in which extractivism is represented in film, poetry, orality and literary fiction from the Global South. By exploring perspectives on extractivism from Angola, Brazil, the Caribbean, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, India, Nigeria and South Africa, we seek to highlight the connections between coloniality and environmental destruction while grounding our reflection in the material realities of the Global South. 10.30am - 12.30pm: Panel 1 - Rhizomatic Genealogies of Resistance to Extractivism 1.30pm - 3.30pm: Panel 2 - Topographies of Extractivism and Precarious Lives 3.45pm - 5.45pm: Panel 3 – Extractive Zones, Extractive Matters 6pm – 6.30pm: Film Screening Yaku Warmikuna (2021), 28 mins All details here: https://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/event/extractivism-viewed-from-the-south-comparative-perspectives-in-film-and-literature Online registration closes 15 minutes before the start of the event. You will be sent the joining link within 24 hours of the event, on the day and once again 10 minutes before the event starts. The event is free, but registration required (sandwich lunch comes with registration). For any queries, please contact alexandra.grieve@sjc.ox.ac.uk and dorothee.boulanger@humanities.ox.ac.uk
Engagement describes the ways in which we can share our research and its value by interacting with wider public audiences, generating mutual benefit. In this introductory session tailored to those new to engagement, we look at what public engagement is and some of the reasons why you might want to do it. We’ll highlight the multitude of different approaches you can take, and provide tips on getting started and where to get support.
The aim of the seminar is to foster a dynamic and interdisciplinary postcolonial research culture supportive of individual scholarship. Finalists, M.St. and D.Phil. students, lecturers, fellows, scholars from across the university community – all are welcome. If you’d like to appear on the seminar mailing list, please email zana.mody@kellogg.ox.ac.uk, riley.faulds@worc.ox.ac.uk OR hannah.fagan@mansfield.ox.ac.uk
My MSc dissertation explored how digitisation reshapes access to knowledge in Higher Education, focusing on graduate students’ experiences of digital access within one institution. Using Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach and his framing of poverty as capability deprivation, I developed the Poverty of Access (POA) concept to theorise the structural injustices embedded in digital education. As digitised knowledge increasingly becomes the norm, the research examined who is excluded from this shift and how such exclusions constrain academic capabilities. POA offered a framework for understanding these exclusions as systemic, not incidental, calling for reparative responses. Crucially, conducting this research fundamentally altered how I think about qualitative methods. Working with drawings as part of the study prompted a deeper engagement with creativity, embodiment, and the non-verbal dimensions of knowledge. It made me reconsider what counts as valid data and whose ways of knowing are legitimised in research. These methodological reflections became pivotal, shaping the foundations of my doctoral project with primary school children. Join in-person or online: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_YjY5Zjc1ODQtZDBmNi00NTU5LTg4NzktYmFiYWEwZjBmNGVi%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%225f581465-1def-4d51-8d4c-45a3b26b5b58%22%7d
Biography: Professor James D Chalmers is Asthma and Lung UK chair of Respiratory Research at the University of Dundee. His laboratory studies the immunology of inflammatory airway disease to identify new treatments for conditions like bronchiectasis and COPD. He is the Chief Editor of the ERJ and has chaired 5 international guideline committees including the upcoming ERS bronchiectasis guidelines. Abstract: Neutrophilic inflammation is central to the pathogenesis of many inflammatory diseases, including the airway diseases bronchiectasis, cystic fibrosis, COPD and T2 low asthma. Despite being a core “treatable trait” neutrophils were considered by most pharmaceutical companies as “undruggable” due to their important role in host defence and the failure of many treatments targeting neutrophils. This has now changed through the identification of mechanisms that can reduce neutrophilic inflammation without inhibiting host defence. This has culminated in a recent positive phase 3 trial for the dipeptidyl peptidase-1 inhibitor brensocatib, which is set to be licensed for bronchiectasis in the next few months. In this presentation I will discuss the role of neutrophilic inflammation are a core treatable trait and discuss current and future therapies that are set to improve outcomes for patients.
For some of us, our research projects are situated back home or in locations where we have already spent considerable time. For the rest of us, our field sites could be in locations where we are visiting or living for the first time. Some of us work closely with people in our own communities, whilst others join local communities as external fieldworkers. Depending on our backgrounds, we may navigate fieldwork as "insider" researchers, "outsider" researchers, or both. There may be varying kinds of social norms and local expectations for researchers from different backgrounds. Some of us might start our fieldwork as outsiders, but we may find ourselves no longer entirely outsiders after spending some time in the field, and the ways in which locals consider us may also shift over time. Similarly, insiders may be subject to new expectations from their local communities when returning home for fieldwork after spending some time outside their communities. At this workshop, former fieldworkers will share their experiences in the field, and we will discuss the opportunities and challenges of navigating fieldwork as insiders, outsiders, or both. The workshop is an open space for meeting other fieldworkers and discussing various fieldwork-related topics, including but not limited to tips and strategies to prepare for and navigate fieldwork smoothly. Staff and research students are welcome to join the workshop. Refreshments will be provided. Panellists Professor Agnieszka Kubal (Associate Professor of Socio-Legal studies & Research Fellow at Green Templeton College) Dr Susan MacDougall (Departmental Lecturer in Social Anthropology) Dr Dolores Martinez (Research Affiliate, School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography) Jingsi Wang (DPhil, Anthropology) Moderator Keiko Kanno
Good research data management is a vital component of academic practice. Part of this is the principle that the data used to develop the arguments and outcomes of your research should be effectively stored and managed during a project, preserved for the future and - where possible - shared with other academics. This session introduces the University’s research data policy and outlines the practical impact this will have on your work. The services available at Oxford to assist you will be outlined. This session is not only essential during your current studies but will be invaluable if you plan to continue in research as a career.
Many democracies, particularly in Europe and Latin America, use list proportional representation (PR) with preference voting to elect their members of parliament. These systems impose a dual cognitive burden on voters: they must first select a list across a Number of parties (N) and then decide whether to cast Preference Votes (PV) for supporting Candidates (C) within that list. The complexity of this decision varies greatly across PR list systems. Some voters face limited choice as they can cast a single PV with only a few lists and candidates to elect. By contrast, others navigate ballots with dozens of lists and hundreds of candidates in competition, while allowed to cast as many PV as there are seats to be filled. Despite its prevalence in over 30 democracies across the world, the comparative study of how these voting choice parameters influence voter behavior remains critically missing. This contribution addresses this gap by analyzing how the complexity of choice affect support for candidates from 131 elections across 29 countries using PR list systems between 1994 and 2024. Overall, our contribution tests three electoral parameters, namely the number of C, the number of PV and the intensity of inter-party competition in the district in terms of N parties. Regarding C, our contribution tests two contradictory views from the literature. The first posits that broader choice sets lead to a vote deconcentration enhancing intra-party competition as voters distribute their PV more widely. The second argues that excessive options overwhelm voters’ cognitive capacities, resulting in concentrated voting patterns towards the most visible political figures. This “paradox of choice” observed in SMD systems has not been explored under proportional representation with preference voting contexts. Our findings reveal that the “paradox of choice” quickly emerges and predominates at election time: higher C always triggers more vote concentration. Furthermore, our results indicate that the only way to reduce the effects of C on intra-party competition is by implementing specific PV modes (i.e. multiple PV rules, including a panachage option). Finally, our results tend to confirm that voters develop a two-step decision process (parties as first-order choice and candidate as second-order choice) under PR list systems. When voters experience cognitive exhaustion for their party choice (i.e. large choice because of large N of parties), voters are more likely to use heuristic cues to concentrate their PV on a few top candidates on the list (e.g. ‘primacy effect’ of list rank), leading to lower intra-party competition. These insights have significant normative implications, suggesting that electoral engineers can adjust specific combination of C and PV to achieve desired levels of intra-party competition. Because C and District magnitude (DM) are mechanically correlated, defining C under PR list systems inevitably induces a trade-off with the proportional nature of the inter-party competition.
This session will explore practical ways to develop resilience when looking for jobs or internships, to help you bounce back when things don’t go as planned. We’ll share ways of building resilience that have helped other students and useful links and resources to take away after the session. You won’t be asked to share your stories or strategies unless you’d like to.
This panel discussion and public viewing, organised by the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford, focuses on the Japanese diaspora in the UK and examines who we are, what legacies did our predecessors and pioneers leave and how we continue and renew them. There will be a public viewing of the Wasurena-gusa Project interview recordings of the Japanese diaspora in the UK. For more information on the event and programme: https://nissan.web.ox.ac.uk/event/panel-discussion-mobility-migration-and-transnational-communities-around-the-globe-focusing-on
Susan Banki's book, The Ecosystem of Exile Politics, tells the story of a little-known refugee situation. It relays the events in Bhutan that led to the exodus of one-sixth of the population and then recounts the activism by Bhutan's refugee diaspora that followed. It shows that activism functions like a physical ecosystem, in which hubs of activism in different locations interact to pressure the home country. Proximity to the homeland allowed for powerful oppositional action but rendered the activists quite precarious. Thus, proximity, the book shows, was a boon and a bane. ''The Ecosystem of Exile Politics explores the power and precarity of physical proximity in diaspora mobilization. With rigorous fieldwork, beautiful prose, and conceptual sophistication, Banki has written a must-read text for anyone interested in the potential for political resistance by refugees." Noelle Bridgen, Marquette University. Susan Banki is Associate Professor at the University of Sydney and the Director of the Master of Social Justice. Susan's focus is on the Asia-Pacific region, where she has conducted extensive field research in Thailand, Myanmar/Burma, Cambodia, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Japan on refugee and migrant protection, statelessness, and border control.
The ability to acquire and adapt behavior through the process of learning is one of the most fundamental functions of the brain and, when gone awry can lead to numerous disorders. Synaptic plasticity is thought to underlie learning by altering the input-output transformations performed by individual neurons and reorganize neural circuits. Dr. Wright will discuss his recent findings dissecting how synaptic plasticity is regulated in the intact brain during learning to produce new behaviors. SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY Dr. William (Jake) Wright is a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Takaki Komiyama at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He currently investigates how synaptic plasticity is regulated in the intact brain and how this plasticity in turn reorganizes neural circuits to mediate learning. Prior to joining the Komiyama lab at UCSD, Dr. Wright received his PhD in neuroscience from the University of Pittsburgh, where he worked with Dr. Yan Dong to study the synaptic mechanisms underlying drug-associated memories.
Across cities and borders, millions witness from afar the genocide currently unfolding against the Palestinians in Gaza. Fighting this powerlessness means organizing for tomorrow to support, at our own scale, the Palestinian struggle for liberation. Architecture is not a neutral practice. In contexts of occupation and colonialism, it becomes a powerful tool of control, segregation, erasure, and normalization. In Palestine, the built environment is central to how Israeli settler colonialism operates and sustains itself. To support the Palestinian struggle for liberation, we must learn to recognize the physical and spatial structures that entrench apartheid and dispossession. This lecture, originally drawing from a teach-in designed for architecture students in November 2023, is an invitation to think through the banal structures of settler colonialism. Join us for a session with Léopold Lambert, editor-in-chief of The Funambulist and author of Weaponized Architecture, who will guide us through the geographies and infrastructures of Israeli settler colonialism—from military checkpoints to settler roads, border walls, and zoning laws—through his own photos and maps since 2008. This session is open to all and will offer insight into how space becomes political, and how that knowledge can help us organize, resist, and imagine otherwise. Léopold Lambert is the editor-in-chief of The Funambulist, a print and online trilingual magazine dedicated to the politics of space and bodies. He is a trained architect living in Paris, and the author of four books analysing the complicity of architecture with settler colonial regimes (in particular in Palestine, Algeria, and Kanaky). These books are Weaponized Architecture (2012), Topie Impitoyable (2015), La Politique du Bulldozer (2016), and States of Emergency: A Spatial History of the French Colonial Continuum (fr: 2021, en: 2025).
Please contact "$":mailto:sarah.apetrei@campion.ox.ac.uk for the Teams link to join remotely.
"Why I Write" - Natasha Trethewey, United States Poet Laureate (2012-2014) and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, will deliver the 2025 Esmond Harmsworth Lecture in American Arts and Letters. The event will be followed by a drinks reception and book signing.
This ‘Lincoln Unlocked’ lecture showcases Linc. Coll. MS lat. 27, a medieval manuscript containing the first-century CE epic poem of the life of Achilles, the Achilleid, by the Latin poet Statius. Owned by prominent Lincoln College donor and English humanist Robert Fleming, the manuscript unlocks a world of medieval and humanist intellectual culture. Examining the extensive notes added to this manuscript poem illuminates the ways in which the Classics were read and valued in the Middle Ages. A display of Bodleian and Lincoln College manuscripts will situate Linc. Coll. MS Lat.27 amongst manuscripts of Statius and Lincoln's special collections.
In this talk, we will be showcasing some of the machine learning applications and products in the automotive marketplace. As well as the systems and tools used to take a machine learning product from idea to a fully operational system serving millions of users. This talk would be helpful for anyone interested in learning about how organisations are able to utilise the vast amounts of data into seamless valuable services and the continuous iterative engineering process to improve these services. Teams link: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ODkyMTRiZGItN2YwMS00MTYwLTlhMjktOTgyOGMxYzMzZGQz%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22ecdf56c5-98aa-4971-b0e3-75dcdb719f12%22%7d Abstract: Ahmed is a Senior Software Developer at Autotrader UK, which is the biggest automotive marketplace in the UK. He is part of the retailer intelligence team responsible for many ML and AI products that serve Autotrader’s customers. Having a wide range of experience working in the data domain and software engineering, he specialises in building applications and systems on top of ML models and taking models from prototypes to fully fledged products.
The Chief Medical Officer has confirmed that attendance at the Surgical Grand Rounds can count toward internal CPD, with 1 point awarded per hour. Please note that in-person attendance is required, and you will need to sign the attendance register. Please email Louise King (louise.king@nds.ox.ac.uk) if you would like to attend online.
We are looking forward to welcoming you to Trinity Collage, Oxford, for this meeting to celebrate some of the achievements and challenges of the RESPOND programme (https://www.nds.ox.ac.uk/research/the-respond-programme). TOPIC OF INTEREST Innovative quality improvement (QI) initiatives inspired by RESPOND Human factors and systems approaches enhancing patient safety Strategies for optimising team performance Insights and lessons learned from RESPOND strands IMPORTANT DATES Abstract deadline - 25 April 2025 13:00 Acceptance notification - 12 May 2025 Conference date - 20 June 2025 Abstract submission: https://auth.oxfordabstracts.com/?redirect=/stages/77946/submitter
This one and a half-day interdisciplinary workshop invites DPhils and ECRs at the University of Oxford working under the umbrella of medical humanities to share their research in a supportive environment. Those who work on topics concerning health, medicine, and disease from literature, anthropology, history, philosophy, politics, and other humanities and social sciences perspectives are invited to submit abstracts. Discussion will focus on the ways in which life and death are evidenced, understood, and represented in both academic and clinical contexts. The workshop will include a keynote lecture by Nükhet Varlık, Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University: The Precarious City: New Regimes of Death and Disease in Early Modern Istanbul (open to all, regardless of participation in the workshop). The Call for Papers closes 15 May: https://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/event/evidencing-life-and-death-in-the-medical-humanities.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a critical threat to global public health, yet airborne AMR not well studied at a multi-national level. This study integrated 672 air metagenomes worldwide to explore the distribution, sources, and hosts of airborne antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Spatial differentiation in the relative abundance of urban airborne ARGs, high in Asia, Africa, and North America, was largely attributed to human activity-related factors. This aligned with the significant contribution to airborne ARGs by anthropogenic sources and higher inhalational exposure to antibiotic-resistant pathogens in urban areas. In addition, a potential linkage between airborne ARG relative abundance and clinical antibiotic resistance rates was revealed, along with the genetic relatedness between airborne Staphylococcus aureus carrying methicillin-resistant genes and the corresponding clinical isolates. This study emphasises the anthropogenic impact on airborne AMR and highlights airborne ARGs as a potential indicator in the source-transmission-risk-infection link for AMR. Bio-Sketch: Professor Li is a distinguished scholar in environmental science and sustainable urban development. In 2022, he received the prestigious Clair C. Patterson Award (Innovative Breakthrough in Environmental Biogeochemistry in the last decade) from the Geochemical Society for his pioneering research in regional contamination, urban air PM2.5 pollution, and the origin and dissemination of antimicrobial resistance.
The motion of a particle suspended in a fluid flow is governed by hydrodynamic interactions. In this talk, I will present the rich nonlinear dynamics that arise from particle-fluid interactions for two different setups: (i) passive particles in 3D channel flows where fluid inertia is important, and (ii) active particles in 3D channel flows in the Stokes regime (i.e. without fluid inertia). For setup (i), the particle-fluid interactions result in focusing of particles in the channel cross section, which has been exploited in biomedical microfluidic technologies to separate particles by size. I will offer insights on how dynamical system features of bifurcations and tipping phenomena might be exploited to efficiently separate particles of different sizes. For setup (ii), microswimmers routinely experience unidirectional flows in confined environment such as sperm cells swimming in fallopian tubes, pathogens moving through blood vessels, and microrobots programed for targeted drug delivery applications. I will show that our minimal model of the system exhibits rich nonlinear and chaotic dynamics resulting in a diverse set of active particle trajectories.
China has emerged as a key driver of global governance reform. Yet existing scholarship on China’s reform-oriented practices tends to fall into two opposing camps: one overstates the disruptive and revisionist nature of China’s actions, while the other emphasizes their diversity and fragmentation to the point of suggesting that China lacks a coherent strategy. Both positions find empirical support, exposing a tension that calls for a new analytical framework capable of reconciling these competing interpretations. Bowen Yu is an Associate Professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University. He is also an associate editor of Chinese Political Science Review and an affiliated researcher with the Environmental Governance Lab of the University of Toronto. He holds a PhD in political science from the University of Toronto. His research focuses on international organizations, global development, global environmental governance, and international relations theory, with a particular interest in the logic of change in global governance. He is the author of Power, Discourse, Practice: Understanding the Deep Transformation of Global Governance (in Chinese), published by Shanghai Renmin Press in 2023.
The Oxford Energy Lunches gather the vibrant, multidisciplinary community of Oxford academics, researchers, students and professionals who work in energy. Paul Shearing and Tina Fawcett will present ZERO and Energy Network initiatives, and there will be an informal open mike for your questions and announcements. We look forward to meeting you there!
Join us all at Race & Resistance for our end of year, informal session, where we will share our highlights from the 24/25 academic year with some coffee/tea, cake, and snacks. We would like to thank you all, in person, for being a part of our community, so make sure to pop in. —- Bluesky: raceresistance.bsky.social Subscribe to our mailing list by sending a blank email to: race-and-resistance-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk.
This online book launch offers a discussion on the book 'Ambivalent humanitarianism and migration control: colonial legacies and the experiences of migrants in Mexico' recently published by Routledge (February, 2025). This new monograph explores the complexities of NGOs that work closely with asylum seekers and undocumented migrants. These non-state actors have become indisputably relevant and highly regarded as allies to Northern Central American migrants trying to reach the United States. Through an in-depth research in Mexico, this book suggests that these humanitarian organisations are ambivalent institutions because they intend to help and support individuals while reinforcing social and power inequalities. This event will present and critically engage with other interdisciplinary researchers (in the US, UK and Mexico) from across social sciences and humanities to understand power dynamics in the US-Mexican border migrants, humanitarianism and colonial logics. Objective: The event seeks to explore the resonances and diversity of experiences on immigration, humanitarianism and colonial logics, with other scholars working in the Latin American region. It will also aim to share some useful advice on how to navigate the publication process for early career researchers (including PhD students).
Early career researchers and postgrads are invited to this year's Stella Aldwinckle Seminar, on the theme ‘Who do we trust? Building bonds of trust in a fractured society’. The Stella Aldwinckle Series is an annual event aimed at creating a rigorous, open conversation on a big question relevant to researchers across the disciplines. This year, *Professor Tom Simpson* (Blavatnik School of Government) will help us consider how trust works, and could work, in our disciplines and institutions: how do we decide to place our trust in someone or something? What are the benefits of trust within our institutions and society? And how do we build and participate in trustworthy cultures and trusting communities?
See https://www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/event/the-jowett-society-friday-week-8-tt25 for updates.
Primary: William Morris, News from Nowhere (1890), Chapters 29-32 Supplementary: William Morris, ‘The Society of the Future’ (1889); Tony Pinkney, William Morris in Oxford (2007): Conclusion
Behind every case is a story… Join us for the launch of the second edition of International Law Stories. This book examines some of most significant international law cases in their social, political, and historical contexts, revealing the characters, plots and surprises behind well-known judgments. The seventeen chapters—each focusing on a different controversy—and the editors’ four introductory reflections probe a range of timely questions: What is the efficacy of international law? How do international legal norms and processes intersect with national legal systems? What explains the enduring significance of some international law pronouncements? International law scholars, teachers, students, and practitioners will all discover valuable new insights in International Law Stories. The book also aims to reach readers new to the field, who will find themselves quickly immersed in core international law controversies and developments. The contributors to International Law Stories have worked as judges on international courts, legal advisors to governments, advocates before international and national courts, members of United Nations bodies, and academics. We are lucky to have many joining us for this launch. The event is followed by a drinks reception.
This talk will focus on the shifting regimes of death and disease in Istanbul during the first centuries of Ottoman rule. As the city grew, its inhabitants encountered new and intensified threats to health, in addition to longstanding afflictions. Old diseases like plague continued alongside newly emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, such as syphilis and smallpox that grew more virulent over time. Urban disasters—fires, earthquakes, and floods—claimed lives on an unprecedented scale, while construction, shipping, and new technologies introduced novel risks of injury and death. The growing use of firearms brought new forms of violence, and warfare continued to shape patterns of mortality through battlefield injuries and camp-borne infections. New substances imported from the New World infiltrated the city’s markets leading to new health problems. The perils of urban life reshaped experiences of illness and death, prompting responses from the central administration, medical practitioners, and the urban population of the city. This talk explores the strategies devised to confront these challenges, shedding light on the evolving relationship between governance, medical knowledge, and the management of life and death in an early modern imperial capital. Nükhet Varlık is Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University–Newark. Her research focuses on disease, death, medicine, and public health in the Ottoman Empire. She is the author of Plague and Empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean World: The Ottoman Experience, 1347–1600 (2015), editor of Plague and Contagion in the Islamic Mediterranean (2017), and co-editor of Death and Disease in the Medieval and Early Modern World: Perspectives From Across the Mediterranean and Beyond (2022). All are welcome.
To join online, please register in advance: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/lb3zuv5yTte8tl8yfNijKQ
We are pleased to announce the schedule for the Oxford Tolkien Seminar in Trinity Term 2025. The seminar will be held at Magdalen College on Fridays at 5pm, in the Sophia Sheppard Room, except week 8 (see below). Please ask the porters for directions. Week 1: Grace O’Duffy (University of Oxford) ‘Middle-Earth Post-#MeToo’’ Week 2: Jolina Bradley (University of Oxford) ‘Tolkien and Arthurian Romance: The Interlace Structure of The Lord of the Rings’ Week 3: Gabriel Shenk (Signum University) ‘J.R.R. Tolkien at the BBC’ Week 4: Andoni Cossio (Basque Country) ‘Trees, Tales, and Tolkien: A Growing Environmental Consciousness from The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings’ Week 5: Giuseppe Pezzini (University of Oxford) ‘Tolkien and the Mystery of Literary Creation’ (Book launch) Week 6: Tom Emanuel (University of Glasgow) ‘Tolkien the post-Christian? A Proposition’ Week 7: Eliot Vale (University of Oxford) ‘Imitative Translations of Beowulf: Tolkien, Lehmann, and McCully’ Week 8: [SUMMER COMMON ROOM] Christopher Snyder (Mississippi State University) ‘The Sub-Creation Theory of J.R.R. Tolkien: Literary Criticism or Theology?’ We are also happy to let you know that the recordings of the MT and HT seminars are now are available on YouTube and/or The Fantasy Literature Podcast. For more information: tolkien50.web.ox.ac.uk/event/tolkien-50th-anniversary-seminar-series
In a lecture to be delivered by the renowned professor of law and campaigner, Phil Scraton, this talk will address political, ethical, and personal challenges bearing witness to the 'pain of other', representing personal testimonies, revealing institutionalised deceit and pursuing 'truth recovery'. It explores the proposition that critical values are the foundation of hope in their commitment to truth recovery, social justice, and political transformation when faced with disappearance.
A panel discussion with Baroness Jan Royall (Principal, Somerville College Oxford), Brad Evans (Director, Centre for the Study of Violence, Professor of Political Violence & Aesthetics, University of Bath), and Hari Reed (Incoming Co-director, Asylum Welcome). The Disappearance of Worlds exhibition will showcase the work of Mexican painter Chantal Meza, whose work for the past decade has confronted the violence, terror, and the complexities of disappearance in both a human and ecological context. Complementing the exhibition will be a series of public talks from world-leading authorities exploring the multiple ways disappearance occurs and the possibilities for response. The programme is led by the Pembroke College JCR Art Collection; Pembroke College, University of Oxford; The FOUND Project; the Centre for the Study of Violence at the University of Bath; and the Oxford Festival of the Arts, in partnership with other supporting global partners and institutions.
*Programme:* 09:15-09:30 *Welcome* - *Julia Gustavsson* (University of Oxford) 09:30-11:00 *Age and the State* *Kristine Alexander* (University of Lethbridge) "Infants in the eyes of the law": Age and Development in the History of Canadian Indian Policy *Jessamy Carlson* (The National Archives) "Lorry girls": absconding and the adjultification of girls in government discourse *Vicky Taylor* (University of Oxford) Adultified and criminialised: the construction of childhood in the UK government's response to people arriving on "small boats" 11:15-12:05 *Keynote Paper* - *Laura Tisdall* (Unversity of Newcastle) "It wasn’t about trying to be adults": becoming child-ish in late Cold War Britain 12:50-13:40 *Keynote Paper* - *Bonnie Evans* (University of Manchester) Why internationalism matters to the history of childhood: The World Health Organisation and universal approaches to neurodevelopment, 1948-2025 13:45-15:00 *Developing Bodies* *Suzanna Winterbourne* (University of Oxford) "People are apt to look upon the subject in a wholly frivolous way": children’s dress, growth and movement in British popular literature (1880-1914) *Shereece Linton-Ramsay* (University of Oxford) Staff discipline and Black children’s responses at New York juvenile prisons (1915-1950) *Serena Iacobino* (Université Libre de Bruxelles) Degeneration theories and the construction of the ‘new imperial child’: the case of girls’ education in colonial Congo (1908-1960) *Leting Zheng* (University of Oregon) Competing (R)evolutionary narratives: children, labour and happiness during the Great Leap Forward (1958-1962) *Charlie Bell* (Kings’s College, London) "Food for thought": the (pseudo)science of child development in late 20th century Britain 15:15-16:45 *Normalisation and Welfare* *Hugh Morrison* (University of Otago) Colonisation and the language of age: southern New Zealand (1848-1868) *Katie Joice* (Birkbeck College, University of London) The limits of Bowlbyism: disability, social policy, and the ‘right to childhood’ in 1970s Britain *Thomas Parkinson* (University of Cambridge) Becoming a normal, voluble human: on speech and hearing science in India 16:50-17:25 *Keynote Commentary* - *Sally Shuttleworth* (University of Oxford) Recording childhood: from baby biographies to neuroscience *_Registration required:_* _To attend in person book here:_ https://tinyurl.com/bmj53aj8 _To attend online book here:_ https://tinyurl.com/324eedxm
The UK EQUATOR Centre’s Publication School is designed for early-career researchers and students. It aims to give you a smooth writing process that results in a published article that is fit for purpose. The course is delivered by methodological and writing experts from the UK EQUATOR Centre and Centre for Statistics in Medicine. Through group work, discussion, and practical exercises, we cover everything you need to plan, write, and publish your health-related research study. Content: Planning your message and audience Negotiating authorship Choosing a journal and avoiding predators Good writing style and habits What to write where: recipes for a successful introduction, methods, results, and discussion Using reporting guidelines Revising your work for simplicity, clarity and completeness Summarising your article in an effective title and abstract Writing effective cover letters Submission and dealing with peer review Disseminating your article after publication The online course is held live over Zoom over 4 half-days. Participants need to have Zoom downloaded, rather than using the browser version, as we use registrations. We teach using shared slides, webcam, and audio. Our online Publication School is highly interactive, with all-group discussion and small-group exercises and discussion. Participants are welcome to use text chat, mic, and/or webcam in the main room, but need at least a mic for small-group work in breakout rooms. We do not record the sessions and are unable to offer live captions. Participants receive an electronic course workbook with all notes and exercises. Sessions will run on four Monday mornings, 23 June - 14 July, 9:30-13:30 British Summer Time (GMT+1), with regular comfort breaks. Places are limited and will be allocated in order of application. Visit our web page for more information: www.ndorms.ox.ac.uk/graduate-courses/courses/equator-publication-school
Antony is a cell & molecular biologist and geneticist with strong research interests into the causative mechanism(s) of Parkinson’s Disease, and therapeutic approaches to successfully treat PD patients, especially with respect to slowing disease progression in idiopathic patients. Recently in his role as the Research Director of the Australian Parkinson’s Mission, Antony and his collaborators have made substantial progress in identifying three genetically-defined subgroups of idiopathic patients whose analysis supports three differing disease mechanisms.
Are you looking to learn about the ways in which to transmit scientific ideas and make your research accessible to a non-specialist audience through a variety of mediums? This session will serve as an introduction to science communication and how it can be successfully incorporated into our roles. By the end of this session you will be able to: define science communication and provide a list of examples; explain why science communication is important for both our CPD and the public; and list ways in which we can all get involved in science communication. Intended audience: Students, staff and researchers from MSD and OUH.
In a time of planetary crisis, our understanding of the earth as a whole is a matter of ecological and geopolitical consequence. What extinguished worldviews might be salvaged from the past, and (how) can these historical imaginings invigorate new ways of thinking the global? This one-day interdisciplinary symposium will explore the theme of global imagining in literature and visual culture of the “modern age,” from the Copernican revolution up to the “earthrise” photographs of the 1960s, which captured a view of the earth from outer space for the first time. Taking as its focal point the idea and image of the terrestrial globe, the conference aims to investigate how and why artists, writers, and other thinkers imagined the earth as a whole before the age of space travel and neoliberal globalisation. We will look to past literary and artistic methods of imagining, representing, and (re)configuring the terrestrial globe across multiple chronological and cultural contexts, shedding new light on the ideological and philosophical stakes of global imagining and reassessing contemporary conceptions of the global.
David Withers studied for a PhD in Immunology focused on the recovery of the bursa to viral infection, at the Institute for Animal Health/University of Bristol (2000-2004). After obtaining his PhD, David continued his studies of B cell responses in the laboratory of Dr Peter Lipsky at NIAMS, NIH, Bethesda (2004-2006). He then returned to the UK to study with Professor Peter Lane at the University of Birmingham, UK, cementing his interest in how interactions within secondary lymphoid tissue control adaptive immune responses. In 2011, David was awarded a Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellowship investigating the role of innate lymphoid cells in regulating memory T cell responses. In 2016, he was awarded a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship, further developing his studies of how innate lymphoid cells regulate adaptive immunity. Most recently, his research has developed to consider the regulation of anti-tumour immunity, exploiting novel in vivo models and supported by Cancer Research UK, the Cancer Research Institute, Worldwide Cancer Research and the MRC. In June 2024, David moved his lab to the NDM Centre for Immuno-Oncology at the University of Oxford. As Professor of Experimental Cancer Immunology, he leads the Tumour-Immune Cell Dynamics Group, which is focused upon understanding how immune cells behave within, and respond to, the tumour microenvironment and then what this means for enhancing anti-tumour T cell responses. The lab is currently supported by a Wellcome Discovery Award and Cancer Research UK Programme grant.
*_Co-hosted by the Oxford Centre for Global History and the Oxford Centre for the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology_* This workshop will bring together historians from across the Humanities and GLAM who share an interest in the global history of material culture. We approach “global history” broadly, and the workshop is dedicated to showcasing the great diversity of research we do and to share our approaches to material culture. We hope to facilitate connections and conversations across historical periods, geographic locations, and methods, and think more about future collaborations and activities. *Programme:* 09:30-09:45 Welcome & Introductions 09:45-11:00 Archives & Materiality 11:00-11:30 Break 11:30-13:00 Working with Institutions & Sites 13:00-14:00 Lunch 14:00-15:30 Materials & Makers 15:30-16:45 From the Research Trail 17:00-18:30 'Secret Red: at the Heart of Safflower' with Joumana Medlej To register for this workshop please email: "$":mailto:global@history.ox.ac.uk
Patient and public involvement (PPI) is an active partnership where patients, carers, and members of the public work with researchers, using their experiences to help shape the research. It is seen as pivotal to improving both the value and the relevance of research. As well as the notable reasons for including PPI within research, research funders are increasingly requiring PPI to be integrated into the design, conduct and dissemination of health research with plans outlined at the grant application stage. This event will provide an overview of how PPI can be embedded in the research cycle, give practical insights into engaging under-represented groups within your research, and outline how to integrate PPI in to grant applications. Speakers Dr Shoba Dawson (Senior Research Fellow), Bep Dhaliwal (PPI representative) and Angeli Vaid (Oxford BRC Training and Inclusion Manager in PPIE) will guide us through these topics, enabling the audience to consider opportunities for integrating PPI into their own research. Refreshments available from 09:45 Organised and hosted by the ASCEND Network – a network aimed at supporting career development and progression for women and gender non-conforming researchers.
Abstract to follow at https://www.ethox.ox.ac.uk/events This will be a hybrid meeting in the Richard Doll Building Lecture Theatre and on Zoom (https://medsci.zoom.us/j/96943361305)
For the third instalment of our EDI Media Club series, we will be listening to Skeleton War: season 3 episode 3 of the Peabody-nominated podcast Scene on Radio. The great thinkers of the Enlightenment declared that “all men are created equal.” Some of them said that notion should include women, too. How did the patriarchy survive the Enlightenment? Join us on Tuesday the 24th of June, 12.30-13.30 in Seminar Room A at the Centre for Human Genetics. We will be listening to the episode during the session, so no preparation necessary!
While COP29 finalised the Article 6 rulebook, operationalising carbon markets under the Paris Agreement, voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) experienced a significant decline in the market value of traded carbon. At the heart of this decline are growing concerns about environmental integrity and diminished trust in carbon markets. For over two decades, the World Bank has led results-based carbon finance, leveraging donor-funded carbon funds to incentivise emissions reductions through performance-based payments. Most of these funds were created when carbon markets were almost non-existent. Today, while carbon markets are more established, they continue to grapple with environmental and social integrity challenges that affect both demand and price volatility. This presentation seeks to reimagine the role of carbon funds — advocating for a new public-private carbon partnership to mobilise finance for low-carbon, climate-resilient development.
Talks by Dr Bernadette Monaghan Dr Ahmad Nehme Li Zhang
This presentation documents the initial phase of the "National Alien Services" program (LVV in its Dutch acronym), which aimed to shelter undocumented people in the Netherlands from 2019 to 2022. The programme established a national network of guidance and reception facilities for undocumented migrants in five major Dutch cities, putting previous urban-level initiatives on a uniform basis. This paper investigates the implementation of the LVV in Amsterdam, shedding light on the emergence of a new hierarchy among irregular migrants based on whether they are regarded as deserving or undeserving of access to these facilities. As we show through the voices of civil society, migrants, and local policymakers, this new "hierarchy of deservingness" has de facto shrunk the spaces for the autonomy of local reception practices - thus reducing the number of undocumented migrants who can access shelter - and those spaces created by migrants' squatting movement in the city. By addressing the intersection of migration, reception, and urban policies through the lens of "deservingness", this paper supplements the theoretical debate by providing insights into how different actors negotiate hierarchies of deservingness at the crossroads of local and national governance levels and how these dynamics interact with migrants' claim-making. Register in advance for this meeting: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/dlv-hLpTQH2P8pfTx8YeGA
Advanced drug delivery systems are having an enormous impact on human health. We start by discussing our early research on developing the first controlled release systems for macromolecules and the isolation of angiogenesis inhibitors and how these led to numerous new therapies including treatments for diabetic retinol. This early research then led to new drug delivery technologies including nanoparticles and nanotechnology that are now being studied for use treating cancer, other illnesses and in vaccine delivery (including the Covid-19 vaccine). We are also developing oral systems that can deliver insulin and other macromolecules. Finally, by combining mammalian cells, including stem cells, with synthetic polymers, new approaches for engineering tissues are being developed that may someday help in various diseases. Examples in the areas of pancreas mcartilage, skin, blood vessels and heart tissue are discussed. SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY Dr. Bob Langer is one of nine Institute Professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MIT’s highest faculty honor. His pioneering work, which has benefited millions worldwide, includes isolating the first angiogenesis inhibitors (with Dr. Judah Folkman) leading to new treatments for cancer and blindness. He also created the first nanoparticles and microparticles for delivering large molecules, including nucleic acids and helped establish the field of tissue engineering which enabled artificial skin for burn victims and organ-on-a-chip technology. Despite initial skepticism—his first nine grants were rejected, and no engineering department would hire him—Langer has authored more than 1,600 papers, cited more than 446,690 times. With an h-index of 331, Langer is the most cited engineer in history. His patents have been licensed or sublicensed to over 400 companies and he has co-founded more than 40 ventures, including Moderna. Langer chaired the FDA’s Science Board from 1999–2002 and has received over 220 awards, including the U.S. National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation (one of only three living individuals to receive both). His accolades include the Draper Prize (considered engineering’s Nobel Prize), Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, Albany Medical Center Prize, Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, Kyoto Prize, Wolf Prize, Millennium Technology Prize, and the Kavli Prize. He holds 44 honorary doctorates from institutions such as Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Oxford and has been elected to the National Academies of Medicine, Engineering and Sciences, as well as the National Academy of Inventors.
This event describes the author’s journey from traditional academic publishing to choosing a new, scholar-led OA press for books. It addresses some of the common questions, roadblocks and concerns academics encounter around OA publication, such as the assumed necessity of a publication charge and the concern that OA books will be of lower quality. It outlines the work that a new UK nonprofit, the Open Book Collective, is doing to provide authors with reputable high quality OA book publication options without the need for BPCs. It will also explore the importance of Open licensing for academic works, and plans for a peer support network for academic authors wishing to play an active role in the transition to an equitable, sustainable landscape for OA books.
Join Chris Morrison (Copyright & Licensing Specialist) and Georgina Kiddy (Digital Services Librarian) to play Copyright the Card Game. This interactive, games-based session introduces you to the key concepts of copyright law and allows you to apply them in practice. No prior knowledge is required, and the session caters for all whatever their level of experience with copyright. At the end of the session participants will be able to: explore how copyright really works in practice; interpret the legislation and apply the relevant legal concepts to their own work; practice using the exceptions and licences in sector-specific examples; and discuss the role of risk management in making decisions about the ethical creation and use of copyright material. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers and other staff.
Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert, Professor of Vaccinology lecture on ‘Preparation and pandemics: confronting new threats’, introduced by Hugh Pym, BBC Health Editor and followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with Professor Sir Peter Horby FMedSci FRS, and Zakiul Hassan. The lecture will examine the power of university-industry collaborations in the battle to beat Nipah Virus, infectious diseases, and pandemic preparedness. This is second in the series of 500 anniversary lectures organised in celebration of the foundation of Christ Church by Cardinal Wolsey in 1525.
In 2025, digital infrastructure is already a part of our everyday existence. From generative AI shaping communication to geopolitical cyberconflicts and climate-tech entanglements, our connected systems of the Internet carry unprecedented power and risks. The digital sphere is fragmented by platform politics, algorithmic opacity and widening access gaps, reinforcing existing inequalities in new forms. Within this complexity also lies opportunity – an opportunity to not just critique the systems we inherit, but also to actively rewire them. At Connected Life 2025, we shift the conversation from critique to creation. Under the theme C³ – Connect. Create. Compute., we engage with three core dimensions of this transformation: how we connect across fragmented digital spaces; how we create tools, norms and cultures through design and policy; and how we compute the data and architecture that underpin our digital world. From global governance and grassroots innovation to virtual identities, we foreground interdisciplinary dialogue and practice-based research aimed at reimagining the digital sphere from the ground up. The theme of Connect (1), Create (2) and Compute (3) includes: “Connect” emphasises the importance of building networks and sharing insights across disciplines to enhance understanding of digital phenomena. “Create” refers to the innovative methodologies and tools developed to study complex online environments and the novel ways social interactions manifest online. “Compute” highlights the integral role of computational techniques and data analytics in extracting meaningful patterns and trends from vast amounts of digital data. Through keynote talks, panel discussions, and a poster exhibit, Connected Life offers a multi-dimensional engagement in this one-day conference — connecting people, creating ideas, and computing change. Join us in shaping how we live, design, and act in a deeply connected digital world. Call for Speakers Please apply using the link below by 2nd June 2025. Applications will be reviewed on rolling basis. https://forms.office.com/e/NkgBuURGBh To encourage diverse and uncommon perspectives, the organising committee of Connected Life 2025 welcomes both speaker and poster proposals from researchers, designers, policymakers, students, and faculty across disciplines, including but not limited to digital humanities, law and technology, critical data studies, science and technology studies, surveillance studies, international relations, design, media and communications, politics, sociology, economics, education, computer science, history, and philosophy. Proposals from individual speakers are welcomed alongside those from multiple contributors. Registration We are excited to announce that tickets for Connected Life 2025 are now live! Join us on Thursday, 26th June 2025, in Oxford, UK for a one-day interdisciplinary conference exploring how we connect, create, and compute in an increasingly digital world. Expect keynotes, panels and a poster sessions to cover topics across: Governance and Infrastructure Digital Society and Empowerment Evolving digital Markets Creativity and Humanities Tickets costs £25.00 per person.
From its development in the 1980s, the sanctuary city movement—municipal protection of people with uncertain migration status from national immigration enforcement—has been an influential and controversial aspect of progressive migration policy reform. While some migration activists view sanctuary city policy as the most critical aspect of their work, others see it as actively impairing efforts in the fight for migrant rights. In Making Sanctuary Cities, Rachel Humphris offers a new understanding of how citizenship is negotiated and contested in sanctuary cities, as well as the political potential that this designation both opens and closes. Through long-term fieldwork across the sanctuary cities of San Francisco, Sheffield, and Toronto—three of the first municipalities to adopt this designation in their respective countries—Humphris investigates the complexity of sanctuary city policy. By capturing the wide-ranging meanings and practices of sanctuary in a comparative context, Humphris uncovers how liberal citizenship is undermined by the very thing that makes it worth investing in: the promise of equality. Attending to the tensions inherent in sanctuary policy, this book raises vital questions about how governing systems can undermine political ideals and how communities choose to live and organise to fight for a better world. Register in advance for this meeting: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/QStDRuIqS8GJ1-Un6jhwMQ
We are delighted to announce that The Annual Oxford Transnational and Global History Conference will be held online and in-person at the History Faculty, University of Oxford, on 26-27 June. The theme of the conference this year is *Global Empires: Transitions, Imaginations, and Contestations*. The programme features three online panels on day 1 and four in-person panels (which will also be streamed live on Zoom) on day 2 at the Rees Davies Room. Prof Alan Lester (Sussex) will deliver the keynote lecture titled *_Everywhere and all at Once: The Global Restructuring of the British Empire_*. The conference will end with a recital by John Pfumojena, called _Mbira Music: Beyond the Imperial Meridian_. The full schedule can be found here: https://www.oxfordtghs.com/conference *Register for Day 1 (online only) - Thursday 26 June, 11:00-17:00* here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/GbS81GySSgy9G0J6ZD-6xA#/registration *Register for Day 2 (Hybrid) - Friday 27 June, 09:00-18:45* Online here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/IFNdj3x6SJCYLQP4jiXEYQ#/registration In person here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdEKZo81zvzlyZSThYMC967Eb9k1bJN03eZDk-ddMluafIO6w/viewform
From warzones to parliaments, from supply chains to student movements, feminist perspectives offer powerful tools for understanding how power works in the world today. But what does it really mean to "make feminist sense" of global politics—and why does it matter now more than ever? Join the Oxford University International Relations Society for an in-depth conversation with Professor Cynthia Enloe, a pioneering scholar of feminist international relations, as she explores how paying attention to the margins—especially the experiences of women—can radically change how we understand conflict, diplomacy, security, and resistance. This event is open to all members of the University of Oxford. Speaker Bio: Cynthia Enloe is Research Professor at Clark University and a globally renowned scholar in feminist international relations. Her pathbreaking books—including Bananas, Beaches and Bases, The Curious Feminist, and Nimo’s War, Emma’s War—have reshaped how scholars and activists alike approach questions of gender, militarism, and power. Her work continues to inspire new generations to think critically about the politics of everyday life.
As cities across the Global South confront the urgent challenge of reducing carbon emissions, low-carbon mobility transitions have become central to planning and policy agendas. Yet these transitions are often framed in narrow, technocratic terms—focused primarily on electric vehicle adoption—while overlooking the complex social, economic, and political realities that shape informal transport systems. This webinar explores the political economy of low-carbon transitions in popular transport systems that underpin everyday mobility across much of the Global South. It asks: Who drives the agenda for electric mobility? What forms of knowledge inform—or are excluded from—policy? And how can these transitions become more inclusive, context-sensitive, and just? Bringing together researchers from diverse regions, the session will critically examine how popular transport systems can be transformed in ways that are both environmentally sustainable and socially equitable.
Assays for pathogenic antibodies were first developed in the early 1970s. Little improvement was made in the accuracy of these test systems until the mid 2000s where our understanding of the importance of test substrate slowly shifted. At the same time the CNS was considered an immune privileged location where antibodies did not cause disease, but researchers at the Mayo Clinic led by Dr. Vanda Lennon demonstrated that antibodies to aquaporin-4 were present in people with a Multiple Sclerosis-like disease called Neuromyelitis optica. Antibodies (with complement) cause lesions in the optic nerve, spinal cord and brain. Over the following 15 years researchers at Pennsylvania (Dr. Dalmau), Barcelona (Drs Dalmau and Graus) and Oxford (Drs Vincent, Irani, Pettingill and I) identified 15-20 new antibody targets that are used in over 60 countries to support a clinical diagnosis of different CNS diseases. These tests are not available in developing countries. I will share what I have learnt during this exciting period when autoimmune neurology was established.
Lesson of the week, clinical cases and research. All clinical and academic staff and students welcome. Coffee, Tea and Cake will be served.
A study day on the theme of 'Reproduction', followed by a handling session in the History of Art Photo and Slide Archive.
Health economic models are crucial for setting healthcare priorities and assessing the financial value of interventions, especially given the limitations of randomised clinical trials (RCTs). Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading global cause of death, but prevention efforts often start too late. Long-term prevention studies are expensive and challenging, making epidemiological modelling, such as Mendelian Randomisation, essential. The health economic model for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (HEM-PPCVD) model will appropriately capture all costs and value health outcomes of existing and new health interventions and this approach will identify at-risk individuals early when we take into consideration the cumulative impact of modifiable risk factors, ultimately saving lives and improving access to preventive measures.
Based on multi-sited ethnography conducted primarily in Shenzhen and Hefei between 2017 and 2019, this book introduces the concept of ‘burnout market feminism’ to explore the lives of elite urban businesswomen in the Internet Age. Burnout market feminism is a critical theoretical combination of Chinese feminist Li Xiaojiang’s market feminism and Korean-German cultural theorist Han Byung-Chul’s Burnout Society. While Li’s market feminism recognises the rise of gendered subjectivities and solidarity fostered by the market ‒ paralleling the pursuit of freedom and liberty in post-socialist contexts ‒ Han warns that digital infrastructure has intensified neoliberal capitalism, driving individuals towards voluntary self-exploitation and burnout. To unravel the puzzle of how women in China have thrived in business despite state crackdowns on feminism, it is essential to examine the role of the market in post-socialist China and the evolving interplay between illiberal politics and a neoliberal economy. Empirically, the book delves into the multiplicity and nuance of businesswomen’s lived experiences and their negotiations with patriarchy across different socio-cultural contexts, particularly their confrontations with hetero-patriarchal intimacy norms and male-dominated guanxi business practices. Despite following diverse paths, these women share a common pursuit of achievement and growth ‒ a pursuit that paradoxically narrows their market feminist efforts and leads to burnout, as these negotiations are often reduced to contingent bargains within a neoliberal framework. The book also extends the discussion of burnout beyond the neoliberal framework, incorporating feminist critiques of women’s burnout under patriarchy and post-colonial critiques of burnout within a rhetorically socialist authoritarian state. The term ‘Internet Age’ highlights how individual and business success in a supposedly digital-driven economy becomes subsumed into the nationalistic narrative of the ‘China Dream’. Ling Tang 唐凌 (they/she) is a lecturer in cultural studies at the University of Melbourne. They research and create progressive practices in the market in post-socialist China. As an activist-artist-academic, they promote feminism, queerness, and inclusive Chineseness through research, teaching, art-making, and social engagement. They are committed to public humanities and innovative methodologies. Tang’s recent project is a letter book collaboration with Chinese feminist Li Xiaojiang, titled 华人家园 Homeland for Chinese (2024, Global Century Press), which is Li’s memoir in the form of letters addressed to Tang. Tang’s music is available on various platforms under the name Lyn Dawn or 唐凌.
We are delighted to announce that The Annual Oxford Transnational and Global History Conference will be held online and in-person at the History Faculty, University of Oxford, on 26-27 June. The theme of the conference this year is *Global Empires: Transitions, Imaginations, and Contestations*. The programme features three online panels on day 1 and four in-person panels (which will also be streamed live on Zoom) on day 2 at the Rees Davies Room. Prof Alan Lester (Sussex) will deliver the keynote lecture titled *_Everywhere and all at Once: The Global Restructuring of the British Empire_*. The conference will end with a recital by John Pfumojena, called _Mbira Music: Beyond the Imperial Meridian_. The full schedule can be found here: https://www.oxfordtghs.com/conference *Register for Day 2 (Hybrid) - Friday 27 June, 09:00-18:45* Online here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/IFNdj3x6SJCYLQP4jiXEYQ#/registration In person here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdEKZo81zvzlyZSThYMC967Eb9k1bJN03eZDk-ddMluafIO6w/viewform
Pakistan’s history is a story of crisis - economic, political, cultural and developmental, often scarred as earlier this year by troubled relations with its rising neighbour, India. Times of optimism and change have too often been dashed. Yet Pakistan survives, and grows. Its economy is seen by many as more robust than figures suggest, particularly when including its black economy. With a burgeoning middle class gaining influence, seeking order and stability, and given its geo-political significance in an uncertain global order, maybe there are positive pathways. We plan to explore whither Pakistan ? in this seminar, led by three distinguished speakers on the economy, politics and law. This panel is co-hosted by the Vicky Noon Education Foundation, and the Asian Studies Centre at St Antony's College, Oxford. The moderator will be Dr Paul Flather, chair of the VNEF trust. Over the past 30 years, the VNEF has helped provide c £7m worth of support for more than 230 top young Pakistani students to study as Noon Scholars at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. This event will celebrate three decades of work and forms part of the VNEF’s annual general meeting, when trustees will also select the 2025-26 Noon Scholars. All welcome, to be followed by a reception.
Are you preparing a poster presentation for an upcoming conference, meeting or symposium? This interactive session, or ‘poster clinic’, will include a group discussion of different examples of poster presentations, as well as an opportunity to present your own draft of your poster presentation to your fellow attendees. It is expected that the small group of peers in attendance will provide feedback and respectful comments on each other’s work. Intended audience: Students, staff and researchers from MSD and OUH.
Join us for a panel discussion with experts from across healthcare and policy landscapes to explore how ethnicity is currently approached in genomic medicine and how it might be reimagined for the future. Within NHS England’s Genomic Medicine Service, patient identity information is currently documented using ‘ethnicity’ categories, which largely reflect geopolitical classifications. These categories often do not capture the sociocultural, historical, and biological dimensions of one’s identity that may be relevant to medical investigations. The panel will reflect and respond to a set of co-created, forward-looking questions developed during a participatory workshop held earlier in the day with patient support groups and representatives. This is an in-person event, please only sign up if you can attend the event at St Anne’s College. The panel discussion will be followed by a drinks reception until 18:30. If you are interested in taking part in the workshop, as a patient and/or representative of a patient support organisation, please contact cpm@well.ox.ac.uk for more information.
Go to the event page to view details and the current 2025 Conference Programme: https://reuben.ox.ac.uk/event/diagnostics-low-and-middle-income-countries-conference-0 The Diagnostics for Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) Conference at Reuben College is now in its third year. Every year, it brings together graduate students from Oxford and UCL who are passionate about developing diagnostic tools to improve the healthcare of underserved populations to hear from, and interact with, experts who share this passion. This year, the technologies covered will range from novel sensors (with a keynote talk from Professor Dame Molly Stevens) to the use of machine learning to enhance diagnoses. The first Professor of Global Health in Oxford, Professor Alan Bernstein, will also address the Conference. The diagnostic applications to be covered are broad, from neurology to cardiology, in addition to the usual focus on infectious diseases. What we can learn from scientists, engineers and clinicians on the ground is a recurring theme of this meeting and the 2025 Conference will hear from speakers working in Africa, India and Vietnam.
So, you’ve got a great idea for a research study – but what approvals do you need before you can start? Who do you apply to? And how do you go about doing this? Join an online presentation through Microsoft Teams for an overview of: • how research is governed in the UK • which approval bodies are involved • a step-by-step guide on how to apply for approval • handling amendments to your study
The second in a duo of courses (attendees should attend the Fundamentals course prior to Logistics) that will cover the logistics of researching, publishing, and locating open scholarship resources and tools at the University of Oxford. Subjects include: what is the Oxford University Research Archive?; depositing work into ORA via Symplectic Elements; depositing data into ORA-data; applying for one of Oxford’s APC block grants; registering or connecting your ORCID; how to be included in the rights retention pilot; and locating and checking funder policies. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers and other staff.
Book title: Foster Children, Rights and the Law: Best Interest, Normalcy and the Welfare System This book discusses child wishes, rights and participation in the foster care system. Making decisions in a foster child’s best interest is a widely used, but also widely criticized international legal doctrine. This work discusses the two major legal frameworks, best interest and normalcy, for which foster care decisions are made and how those frameworks might shape how child welfare professionals view and interpret children’s rights and participation. Normalcy, the idea that decisions should promote a “normal” life, is a separate legal doctrine which can be in conflict with best interest determinations. However, the concept of normalcy is also theoretically built into best interest decisions and therefore also plays a role in most child welfare systems. Mixing both empirical legal and child welfare research, the book demonstrates the ways in which risk aversion and fear drive best interest decision-making to the detriment of both practitioners and the children they aim to serve. It argues that a children’s rights framework starting with normalcy is a better tool for promoting child participation and centering the child within the dependency process. The book will be of interest to academics, researchers and policymakers working in the areas of children’s rights law, child welfare and international human rights law.
This talk explores the conceptual and didactical journey from the notion of continuity of the line in Euclidean geometry—embodied in the idea of the continuous line and formalized in axioms—to the formal construction of the real number system as a complete ordered field. Foundational challenges will be presented, including the key issues of the historical development of real numbers and how different constructions (Dedekind cuts, Cauchy sequences) address the notion of completeness. Moreover, the statement "real numbers are points of a line" will be problematized and analysed from a higher standpoint. On the didactical side, the talk will present a summary of the relevant literature on the topic, some open issues and the preliminary results of a study carried out in the context of a master's course addressed to prospective secondary mathematics teachers. The goal of the course was to bridge the gap between intuition and formalism and foster a deeper understanding of the "real number line". Organised by Professor Sibel Erduran, Subject Pedagogy Research Group
Join Becky Carlyle, Rui Ponte Costa and Hugo Fernandes to learn more about their experiences of transitioning from Postdoctoral Researcher to Group Leader and the challenges and opportunities that brings.
Join us for Oxford's 2025 Chinese Language Teaching Research Forum on Wednesday 2 July 2025, 1-5pm. Conference theme and further details forthcoming. Early pre-booking available. Tea, coffee and refreshments included with in-person ticket bookings. Oxford Education Deanery Scholarships available to join this event. Click here for more information and to apply: https://bit.ly/Apply-Deanery-Scholarship For: teachers at primary and secondary level engaged in, or interested in Chinese language teaching.
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell immunotherapy represents a breakthrough in the treatment of hematological malignancies, but poor specificity has limited its applicability to solid tumors. By contrast, natural T cells harboring T cell receptors (TCRs) can discriminate between neoantigen-expressing cancer cells and self-antigen-expressing healthy tissues but have limited potency against tumors. We used a high-throughput platform to systematically evaluate the impact of co-expressing a TCR and CAR on the same CAR T cell. While strong TCR-antigen interactions enhanced CAR activation, weak TCR-antigen interactions actively antagonized their activation. Mathematical modeling captured this TCR-CAR crosstalk in CAR T cells, allowing us to engineer dual TCR/CAR T cells targeting neoantigens (HHATL8F/p53R175H) and human epithelial growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) ligands, respectively. These T cells exhibited superior anti-cancer activity and minimal toxicity against healthy tissue compared with conventional CAR T cells in a humanized solid tumor mouse model. Harnessing pre-existing inhibitory crosstalk between receptors, therefore, paves the way for the design of more precise cancer immunotherapies. Sooraj Achar is a DPhil candidate in Biomedical Sciences associated with the NIH/Oxford graduate partnership program, conducting research at the intersection of immunology and systems biology under the joint mentorship of Dr. Gregoire Altan-Bonnet (NCI) and Prof. Michael Dustin (Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology). He holds a B.S. in Biochemistry and a Mathematics minor from the University of Virginia. Sooraj’s work on how T cells respond to diverse antigenic signals has led to multiple high-impact publications in journals such as Science, Cell, and Nature Immunology. He is the recipient of several awards, including the 2025 Peter Medawar Prize for Immunology and the 2023 Bill Paul Award for Cytokine Research.
08:45 Arrival 09:15 Opening remarks - Rachel Murphy and Genia Kostka 09:30 Roundtable: What is Privacy (in Authoritarian Contexts)? Daniel Miller (UCL) and WANG Xinyuan (UCL): “The depth and breadth of privacy” ZHAO Jun (Oxford): “Data, algorithmic manipulation, and their privacy implications for young children and families” LIU Ruoxi (Oxford): “Privacy – independent cultural workers and youth communities in China” Moderator: Genia Kostka (Berlin) 11:00 Tea / Coffee 11:30 Privacy: The Party-State View ZHOU Hui (Berlin): “Chinese court documents on privacy: an analysis of current legal cases” GUO Danqi and YAN Yang (Berlin): “State narratives of digital surveillance and privacy and their effects on citizens’ support in China” Chair: Vivienne Shue (Oxford) 12:30 Lunch 13:30 Privacy: The Citizens’ View (1) Alexander Trauth-Goik and Christoph Steinhardt (Vienna): “Menacing society and the stalwart state: the privacy debate on Chinese social media” Blake Miller (LSE): “Banning TikTok: US-China dialogue on social media platforms” Chair: Merethe Borge Macleod (GBCC) 14:30 Tea / Coffee 14:45 Privacy: The Citizens’ View (2) Elisa Oreglia (Oxford): “Digital privacy from the margins: a view from rural China (and Southeast Asia)” Rachel Murphy (Oxford): “The privacy of children in digital China” Chair: Christoph Steinhardt (Vienna) 15:45 Tea / Coffee 16:15 Visualising Privacy Margaret Hillenbrand (Oxford): “The relationship between facial recognition technologies and contemporary art” GAO Ang (UCA): “PRIVACY China: a documentary in the making” Chair: XUE Kefan (Oxford) 17:15 Lena Wesemann (Berlin): “Brainstorming: A Travel Gallery as means of visualising PRIVACY China” 17:30 Closing remarks - Genia Kostka and Rachel Murphy
Lesson of the week, clinical cases and research. All clinical and academic staff and students welcome. Coffee, Tea and Cake will be served.
Focussing on productions of Martin Crimp's works, as directed by Luc Bondy (Cruel and Tender, 2004) and Katie Mitchell (The Rest Will Be Familiar to You from Cinema, 2013), as well as Elfriede Jelinek’s Die Schutzbefohlenen (2015), David Greig’s The Suppliant Women (2016), and Ella Hickson’s Oedipus (2025), Prof. Angelaki will probe key adaptations of the Greek classical canon for their environmentalist activism, investigating how they dynamically carry the potential, both in text and in production, of greening the theatre canon.
Ethics in Film project bridges the gap between current ethical debates and the human drive to tell stories, all at an independent Oxford cinema institution - The Ultimate Picture Palace (UPP), and are led and chaired by Angeliki Kerasidou. This year there will be a special screening of the 2004 film ‘The Sea Inside’ (based on a true story), followed by a discussion on the ethics of end-of-life care and how we navigate healthcare policy when disagreements occur, led by an expert panel. Speakers Angeliki Kerasidou (Chair) is an Associate Professor in Bioethics at the Ethox Centre and Official Fellow of Reuben College. Her research focuses on the issues of trust, empathy and the introduction of new technologies in health research and care. Dr Victoria Bradley is Consultant in and the Clinical Lead for Palliative Medicine at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Honorary Senior Lecturer in Palliative Medicine. Her interests are in the transition of patients between paediatric and adult palliative care services and clinical ethics. Eleanor Kerfoot is a historian and a DPhil candidate at Balliol College. Her work focuses more generally on the history of death and its medicalisation.
Join us for an evening of film and conversation in our annual Ethics in Film event, with a special screening of ‘The Sea Inside’. The film will be followed by a discussion on the ethics of death, dying and end-of-life care, and how to navigate moral disagreement in this area. Speakers Angeliki Kerasidou (Chair) is an Associate Professor in Bioethics at the Ethox Centre and Official Fellow of Reuben College. Her research focuses on the issues of trust, empathy and the introduction of new technologies in health research and care. Dr Victoria Bradley is Consultant in and the Clinical Lead for Palliative Medicine at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Honorary Senior Lecturer in Palliative Medicine. Her interests are in the transition of patients between paediatric and adult palliative care services and clinical ethics. Eleanor Kerfoot is a historian and a DPhil candidate at Balliol College. Her work focuses more generally on the history of death and its medicalisation.
In times of turbulence and uncertainty, scenarios - narrative descriptions of contrasting, plausible futures - can provide the basis for strategic dialogue, creative thinking, and judicious decision-making, as well as "interesting research" that is both rigorous and actionable. Although usually associated with the social sciences and industry, building scenarios requires skills closely aligned with the humanities, and offers a fresh perspective on many ambiguous or debatable issues via the systemic "manufactured hindsight" of multiple contrasting futures. Scenario work can also usefully encourage epistemic humility - asking, not "which future do we think we want from the limits of our perspective in the present?", but "how will different potential futures perceive our choices and values in hindsight?". This highly participatory session will introduce a current scenario set for the future of global healthcare created at Griffith University using a variant of the Oxford Scenario Planning Approach developed at the Saïd Business School. The approach has well-established uses in medicine and healthcare (United European Gastroenterology, 2014; IMAJINE, 2022; Ramírez et. al, 2023; Finch, 2024; Lang and Carson, 2025). The event offers attendees the opportunity to discuss how medical humanities expertise (such as medical ethics and history) and their wider context may evolve in ways beyond current expectations (Lang and Ramírez (2024)'s so-called "ghost scenario"), as well as learning about Oxford-style scenario planning and exploring how the medical humanities may usefully speak to broader questions of strategy, policy, and foresight across systems of health and care. Lead Facilitator: Dr Matt Finch, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford; Co-Facilitator: Dr Sarah Dry https://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/event/scenario-planning-and-the-medical-humanities-a-workshop-for-uncertain-times
Join us for a session with Associate Professor Ludovica Griffanti, NIHR Oxford Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford University Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (OxCIN). She will share her experiences of dealing with rejection in academia, and reflect on what she learnt in different phases of her career as well as suggest guidance for dealing with rejection. The Postdoc Power Hour (PoPoH) is a series of monthly one-hour online events designed specifically for postdocs and other research staff who are not students and takes place on the first Friday of every month, 11 am to 12 pm. Join the event on Teams "here":https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_YzFkYWNmNTUtMGI5Yi00ZTgxLTg5ODgtMDc5NDM4ZTBmNTUy%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22febbad3b-db95-4b59-a93a-344e16f4dee5%22%7d Each PoPoH session covers: * a brief overview of career and training support available to postdocs and other research staff across the University * a 30-minute lecture by an expert on the session’s theme * a Career Chat where a Careers Adviser for Research Staff will address careers concerns and questions * ideas for simple things you can do now for your career and work/life balance
Hagen Tilgner studied computer science in Germany and France, and after a Master’s thesis (for a French engineering school) at the Sanger Institute (UK), did his PhD with Roderic Guigó at the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona. There he focused on RNA and the co-transcriptionality of splicing. His postdoctoral work at Stanford with Michael Snyder focused on technology development, specifically for long-read transcriptomics. He started his lab at Weill Cornell in New York City in 2016 focusing on technologies to decipher the actions of RNA isoforms in the brain. The lab is a multi-disciplinary lab, including wet-lab technology development (for example single-cell isoform RNA sequencing, ScISOr-Seq, ScISOr-ATAC) and dry-lab approaches, as well as combined large-scale efforts centered on the brain where Maths/CS, molecular biology and neuroscience backgrounds interact to further our understanding of isoforms in healthy and diseased brain of humans and model organisms.
Seminar followed by Q&A and drinks - all welcome. Event co-hosted with WildCRU. Abstract: What if wild animals were not managed, but listened to? What if fires were not a threat to suppress but a presence to learn from? In many Indigenous cultures, environmental stewardship is not about control but fostering connections and relationships. From cultural burning that renews ecosystems to tending plants guided by ancestral protocols to seeing animals as kin, these practices reflect a relational, place-based understanding of the more-than-human world. These perspectives contrast the dominant conservation and ecosystem management approaches rooted in separating humans from nature. While the contribution of Indigenous and local communities is widely acknowledged as necessary for biodiversity conservation, in practice, they often remain marginalized or tokenized. Too often, Indigenous knowledge is superficially referenced or instrumentalized without an adequate understanding of what shapes them. We still lack clear ways to understand and engage with Indigenous peoples and their knowledge respectfully and collaboratively. My research sits at this critical interface and begins with this proposition: What if conservation began with conversations instead of instructions? Through ethnographic and collaborative research with communities in Asia and North America, my research asks – how people understand, engage, and value their local environment, what knowledge systems, histories, and worldviews shape their relationships with it, and how these support communities in responding to contemporary environmental challenges. In the talk, I will discuss my long-term research with the Kattunayakan, a hunter-gatherer community in the Western Ghats of South India, and their ways of living with wildlife. I will explain how their understanding of animals as rational, conversing beings, gods, teachers, and kin with shared origins, practicing dharmam (ethical conduct) shapes their behaviours and practices towards wildlife, promoting coexistence. By citing these, I explain that rethinking human-nature relations through Indigenous epistemologies is a relational endeavour in which learning about people's history, experiences, and stories with animals is just as crucial as understanding animals and theirs. Finally, I will talk about why it is important to combine Indigenous and Western knowledge, the challenges that come with it, and how we can move forward. Biography: Dr. Helina Jolly is an Assistant Professor at the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont (UVM), where she leads research on traditional ecological knowledge. She is an interdisciplinary environmental researcher, National Geographic Explorer, and documentarian whose work lies at the interface of people and nature. Dr. Jolly uses ethnographic approaches, qualitative interviews, participatory mapping, and other mixed-method approaches to understand how Indigenous knowledge systems and lived experiences shape their relationship with ecosystems and help them adapt to contemporary environmental changes. She has worked with diverse communities— hunter-gatherers in the Western Ghats in South India, farmers in Sri Lanka, and berry pickers of Miawpukek First Nation in Canada on topics ranging from wildlife coexistence, cultural burning, traditional livelihoods, and biocultural food systems. Before UVM, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California San Diego and the University of Guelph. She earned her PhD from the University of British Columbia and an MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science as a Commonwealth Scholar. She is a podcast host of Biodiversity Speaks. She brings to her research extensive experience working in South Asia as an advisor and policy analyst to government agencies and development banks. The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery and Biodiversity Network are interested in promoting a wide variety of views and opinions on nature recovery from researchers and practitioners. The views, opinions and positions expressed within this lecture are those of the author alone, they do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery/Biodiversity Network, or its researchers.
On behalf of the Department for Continuing Education the Director, Professor Matthew Weait, is delighted to invite you to Professor Vlad Mykhnenko’s inaugural lecture: "Never let a good crisis go to waste": Finding geographies of hope and opportunity in times of upheaval. This event marks Professor Mykhnenko’s first lecture as a professor, and we are coming together to celebrate this important professional achievement. Following the lecture, we will continue the celebration with a drinks reception in Rewley House's Common Room. To attend in person, please register your interest in the link provided. Seats are limited, and registration will operate on a first-come, first-served basis. We hope you can join us to mark this very special occasion.
During this forum speakers from Bodleian Open Scholarship Support and across Oxford will discuss current changes in the field of open scholarship. Including subjects like data, open access, open monographs, copyright and more. It is advised that attendees of the forum have previously attended the Fundamentals and Logistics courses to improve understanding. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers and other staff.
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY Fyodor Urnov is the Director for Technology and Translation at the Innovative Genomics Institute and a Professor of Molecular Therapeutics in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley. He co-developed the toolbox of human genome and epigenome editing, co-named genome editing, and was on the team that advanced all of its first-in-human applications to the clinic. He also led the effort that identified the genome editing target for an approved medicine to treat sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia. A major goal for the field of genome editing and a key focus of Fyodor's work is expanding access to CRISPR therapies for genetic disease. As part of that effort Fyodor directs the Danaher-IGI Beacon for CRISPR Cures - a first-in-class academia-industry partnership developing and advancing to the clinic scalable CRISPR-based approaches to treat diseases of the immune system. Fyodor also leads cross-functional teams in developing and advancing to the clinic CRISPR-based approaches to treat neurodegenerative, neuroinflammatory, and infectious diseases.
For our next talk, in the BDI/CHG (gen)omics Seminar series, we will be hearing from Professor Nathan Palpant, Group Leader at The University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB). We’re delighted to host Nathan in what promises to be a great talk! Date: Tuesday 8 July Time: 9:30 am – 10:30 am Talk title: Unsupervised Approaches to Decode the Functional Impact of Genetic Variation Location: Big Data Institute, Seminar Room 0 Bio: Professor Nathan Palpant is a Group Leader at The University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB). After PhD training at the University of Michigan and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington’s Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, he established his independent research group at the IMB in 2015. His research program focuses on studying mechanisms of cardiovascular development and disease, drawing on interdisciplinary approaches in stem cell biology, genetics and genomics, and drug discovery. He has particular interest in developing cell type agnostic models of genome regulation to gain insights into molecular regulation of cell identity in health and disease. Dr. Palpant is a Heart Foundation Fellow and has received numerous awards including the International Society for Heart Research Young Investigator Award, the Lorne Genome Millennium Science Award, and the Australian Cardiovascular Alliance Excellence in Cardiovascular Research Translation Award. Drawing on seminal studies in his lab on novel stress pathways in heart disease, Dr Palpant co-founded Infensa Bioscience to develop ASIC1a inhibitors as first-in-class therapeutics for ischemic heart disease and stroke. Abstract: The increasing availability of large-scale data is transforming our ability to study genetic regulation of cell states. However, understanding how genetic variation governs cellular function and complex diseases remains a challenge, requiring new analytical frameworks capable of integrating diverse genomic datasets to infer functional relationships. This seminar will present new unsupervised computational approaches for dissecting genetic regulation of cellular phenotypes. Our analysis of evolutionary and epigenetic conservation across human cell types has identified domains under cellular constraint that encode functional determinants of cell identity. By calculating genome-wide, single base resolution cellular constraint scores, I will demonstrate their utility in fine-mapping causal variants from genome-wide association studies, improving polygenic risk models, and predicting clinical outcomes in machine learning-based cancer survival models. These findings form the basis for development of multi-omic genome-wide unsupervised machine learning frameworks and variant-to-trait models that provide powerful approaches for functional annotation of non-coding variants and partitioning disease-associated genetic variants governing complex trait and disease sub-phenotypes. I will illustrate the versatility of these methods across various experimental applications including the study of multi-lineage differentiation from pluripotent stem cells and ongoing efforts to study population-scale data to parse the genetic basis of complex diseases. These studies illustrate new strategies to bridge the gap between genomic variation and cellular function for guiding scalable and interpretable solutions to advance our understanding of human development, disease, and therapeutic discovery. ———————————————————————————————————————— All members of the University are welcome to join, please let reception at BDI know you’re here for the seminar and sign-in. We hope you can join us! We also now have a mailing list – To be added, ping genomics_bdi_whg-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk (with any message), you should get a bounce-back with three options to confirm your subscription. Follow any of those options, and with a bit of luck you should be signed up! As a reminder, the (gen)omics seminar series runs every other Tuesday morning and is intended to increase interaction between individuals working in genomics across Oxford. We encourage in-person attendance where possible. There is time for discussion over, tea, coffee and pastries after the talks. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hybrid Option: Please note that these meetings are closed meetings and only open to members of the University of Oxford to encourage sharing of new and unpublished data. Please respect our speakers and do not share the link with anyone outside of the university. Microsoft Teams meeting – Join the meeting now Meeting ID: 346 123 289 586 Passcode: sr3mi9iL ——————————————————————————————————— If you wish to know more or receive information related to trainings and events at BDI, please subscribe by emailing bdi-announce-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk. You’ll then receive an email from SYMPA and once you reply you’ll be on the list!
ABSTRACT: The basolateral amygdala (BLA) is at the centre of all biological models that detail how we form fear memories across species. However, we have recently shown that GABAergic neurons in the lateral hypothalamus (LH GABA) become critical for formation of fear memories if subjects have recently had a positive experience. In this talk, I will present data on how the recruitment of LH GABA neurons to encode fear memories impacts the role of the BLA in encoding fear memories. Using both optogenetic and lesion manipulations of BLA activity, we first replicated findings that BLA activity is required for formation of fear memories in experimentally-naïve rats. However, we found that if rats have recently had a distinct, positively-valenced experience, the BLA was no longer necessary for the formation of the fear memory. This shows that recruitment of LH GABA neurons to encode fear memories shifts the encoding of fear memories away from the BLA. As one of the most replicable findings in the behavioural neuroscience literature is that BLA inactivation or damage produces deficits in the formation of fear memories, these data require a reconsideration of biological models of fear memories. More generally, this work shows that brain regions can be recruited to encode information outside their traditional specialization and suggest a more fluid approach to conceptualizing memory formation, which considers diversity of experience. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Professor Melissa Sharpe is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Sydney whose research investigates how the brain learns, predicts outcomes, and makes decisions. She focuses on the neural circuits underlying motivation and reinforcement learning, using techniques such as optogenetics, chemogenetics, and in vivo calcium imaging in rodent models. She previously held a faculty position at UCLA and completed postdoctoral training at Princeton and the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse. Her work has been recognised with several honours, including the NSF CAREER Award.
We will have a plenary session with a talk by Professor Tim Underwood PhD FRCS, Professor of GI Surgery Innovation for Translation Research Group, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton
1. Grangeon L, Roussel M, Gillibert A, et al. Applicability of the Edinburgh CT Criteria for Lobar Intracerebral Hemorrhage Associated with Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy. Clin Neuroradiol. 2023;33(2):455-465. doi:10.1007/s00062-022-01230-6 2. Huang X, Zeng X, Tang L, Liu X, Huang X, Liu X, Wang Z, Li N, Fan D, Yang Q. Subarachnoid hemorrhage and finger-like projection predict recurrence in patients with lobar intracerebral hemorrhage. J Neurol. 2025 Jan 24;272(2):166. doi: 10.1007/s00415-025-12900-z. PMID: 39849200; PMCID: PMC11757861.
Quantum mechanics describes how matter behaves at the atomic scale and below, and is one of the most successful theories of physics that we have. One of the most surprising discoveries of the late twentieth century was that it could also give us access to a completely new (and very powerful) way of processing information: the idea of the quantum computer was born. In July's Balliol Online Lecture, Professor David Lucas will introduce the basic ideas of quantum computing, its links to code-breaking and code-making, survey the current state of the art, and describe recent work at Oxford on building and using an elementary quantum network. David Lucas is Hooke Professor of Experimental Physics, Emeritus Fellow and Tutor in Physics at Balliol College, his core subject area is atomic physics and quantum computation. His teaching includes classical mechanics, special relativity, electromagnetism, optics, atomic and laser physics and he gives undergraduate and graduate lectures on quantum and atomic physics, and techniques of ion trapping. David’s research interests include experimental quantum information processing; ion and atom trapping; previously he worked on cold atoms in optical lattices, and precision measurements for tests of fundamental physics.
The rapid evolution of Generative AI, and its widespread availability, offers opportunities for experimentation within the collegiate University context. To support this, the Centre for Teaching and Learning, in partnership with the AI and Machine Learning Competency Centre, launched the AI Teaching and Learning Exploratory Fund in summer 2024 to explore how AI could be used within the context of teaching, learning, and academic administration at Oxford. The initiative is supported by Digital Transformation. Join us at this special event, where members of the 12 project teams supported this year will share their insights, experiences, and key findings. Open to all collegiate-University staff. Places are limited. Find out more about the 12 supported projects at https://www.ctl.ox.ac.uk/ai-teaching-and-learning-exploratory-fund. Find out more about the AI and Machine Learning Competency Centre at https://staff.admin.ox.ac.uk/ai-and-machine-learning-competency-centre.
If you are planning to run a ‘non-CTIMP’ research study this introductory course is for you. Not all research is subject to clinical trials regulations, but the same standards of conduct apply. This course in Good Clinical Research Practice covers the legislation that applies to ‘non-CTIMP’ research, along with the detailed principles of good practice in clinical research studies. This three-hour online course consists of trainers’ led presentations, short video-talks from those experienced in the conduct of clinical research and interactive exercises. The course is run by the experienced research support specialists from the University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospital’s Joint Research Office, JRO. Join this online presentation through Microsoft Teams for an overview of: • Purpose of Good Clinical Research Practice including historical background • Difference between Clinical Care and Research Practice • Ethical and Regulatory Considerations in the UK • Research Study Requirements and Documentation • Research Study Conduct and Management
TBC
This is a hybrid seminar, to join via Zoom please register in advance: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88442040204?pwd=lB3wbtesFIwLa8Swh3FRxzMfYIVCFA.1 Meeting ID: 884 4204 0204 Passcode: 818245
For our next talk, in the Digital Phenotyping seminar series, we will hear from Dr Samah Hayek, Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at the School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine Tel-Aviv University; Senior Researcher and Epidemiologist at the Clalit Research Institute, Clalit, Wednesday 9 July, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm, at the Big Data Institute (BDI). Title: "Enhancing Health Behaviors: Leveraging Smartphone Data and Electronic Medical Records for Optimized Health Outcomes" Date: Wednesday 9 July Time: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm Venue: Big Data Institute, Seminar Room 0; followed by refreshments in the atrium Bio: Samah Hayek, DrPH, serves as an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at the School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv. Additionally, she is a senior researcher and Epidemiologist at the Clalit Research Institute, Clalit, and she is a visiting assistant professor at UCI, CA, USA. Samah embarked on her academic journey with a Bachelor of Arts in Statistics and Sociology-Anthropology, followed by a Master's Degree in Public Health from the University of Haifa. She furthered her education by earning a doctoral degree in Public Health (Epidemiology) at the University of Kentucky, where she was honored as a Fulbright scholar. Her commitment to advancing public health led her to undertake a two-year fellowship at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Subsequently, she pursued a post-doctoral study in the Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Control at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. Deeply committed to pioneering scientific research, Dr. Hayek focuses on enhancing overall health and well-being through the utilization of big data, including Electronic Medical Record (EMR) data and smartphone data. Leveraging advanced epidemiological approaches, such as causal inference, and applying statistical modeling and machine learning techniques, she specializes in the intersection of cancer epidemiology and the long-term effects of cancer therapy. In her research endeavors, Dr. Hayek explores not only cancer epidemiology but also health behavior, investigating the impact of various factors on health outcomes. Motivated by a passion for cutting-edge science and a dedication to improving health outcomes, Dr. Hayek's work stands at the forefront of innovative approaches to public health research. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hybrid Option: Please note that these meetings are closed meetings and only open to members of the University of Oxford. Please respect our speakers and do not share the link with anyone outside of the University. The purpose of these seminars is to foster more communication among employees throughout the University, so we strongly advise in-person attendance whenever feasible. MS Teams - Meeting ID: 311 112 204 199 9 Passcode: Bf39gn29 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you wish to know more or receive information related to trainings and events at BDI, please subscribe by emailing bdi-announce-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk. You'll then receive an email from SYMPA and once you reply you'll be on the list!
THE EVENT'S VISION STATEMENT The Oxford Women’s Health Forum 2025 is a University-wide event designed to foster interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration in the field of women’s health. The forum is open to all staff and students with a research or clinical interest in this area, particularly those keen to engage across departments and disciplines. Taking place on Thursday 10 July 2025 at the Saïd Business School, this free, in-person event will bring together academics, clinicians, and policy experts to examine key life stages in women’s health - Early Life, Adulthood, and Mid/Later Life—through presentations, lightning talks, and discussion. Highlights include: Opening address by Vice-Chancellor Professor Irene Tracey Keynotes from: Dr Ranee Thakar, President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and Professor Bola Owolabi, Director, NHS Health Inequalities Improvement Programme Lightning talks, e-posters, networking opportunities Free lunch and refreshments! Whether your work is in science, clinical research, public health or policy, this forum offers valuable insight and inspiration. With over 300 participants already registered, we encourage early registration to ensure your place. 🔗 Register here: Oxford Women’s Health Forum 2025 – Sign Up 📄 Further details: Oxford Women’s Health Forum 2025 Webpage
Join us for a full-day workshop, on Thursday 10 July 2025, 9am-5:15pm, exploring the evidence around teaching children for whom English is an Additional Language (EAL). This course is designed for EAL leads, classroom teachers and other educators. It will provide an overview of research evidence on key themes in the field of EAL and will offer practical advice on how to interpret that evidence for policy and practice in mainstream classrooms. The course is led by Oxford’s world-leading educators and researchers, Professor Victoria Murphy, Professor Steve Strand OBE, Dr Hamish Chalmers and Dr Faidra Faitaki. They will bring their considerable experience from working across the field of EAL to help you understand how research informs practice and how you can support and promote inclusive learning environments for all. Coffee, tea and lunch is included in the ticket price. Oxford Education Deanery Scholarships available to join this event. Click here for more information and to apply: https://bit.ly/Apply-Deanery-Scholarship
Lesson of the week, clinical cases and research. All clinical and academic staff and students welcome. Coffee, Tea and Cake will be served.
Witnessing an immense increase in urban transport investments since the 2000s, the early 2000s in India saw several bus rapid transit, walking, and cycling projects. However, many of these projects were systematically subverted and stalled through bad press, judicial interventions, and, eventually, the reduction or withdrawal of funding. In 2015, Indian transport policies gradually entered the new infrastructure regime, promising ‘world-class’ and supposedly sustainable mobility options with smart technology and shiny public infrastructure. Large-scale investments were made in building and expanding road infrastructure, metro rail projects, and promoting electric vehicles. Employing discourse analysis to study policy documents across the years, we argue that there has been a shift in transport planning policy from “affordable” to “aspirational” transport infrastructure, with sustainability used as a buzzword. Whether these are the aspirations of the State or the people, infrastructure building has become an important part of political value signalling. As the aspirational aspects become the new rationality guiding the funding and implementation of infrastructure projects, sustainability remains in the policy rhetoric, and the concerns of feasibility, accessibility and affordability recede into the background. The prevalence and popularity of ‘aspirational infrastructure’ define the ongoing low-carbon mobility transition in the Global South.
For our next talk, in Machine Learning, we will be hearing from Dr Shishir Rao, Senior Research Scientist, Deep Medicine research group, NDWRH, University of Oxford. We’re delighted to host Shishir in what promises to be a great talk! Date: Thursday 10 July Time: 14:00 – 15:00 Talk title: Artificial intelligence for electronic health records Location: Seminar room 1 Abstract: This talk by Dr. Shishir Rao explores how artificial intelligence (AI) on routinely collected electronic health records (EHR) data can transform healthcare research. The talk will focus on development and application of Transformer-based models for handling rich, multitype EHR, leveraging AI for prediction for early intervention, accelerating disease understanding, and conducting well-adjusted causal inference on large-scale EHR. Furthermore, the presentation will address critical challenges in the space of AI and healthcare: determining appropriate AI applications, ensuring trustworthiness, mitigating algorithmic bias, and validating clinical utility. Bio: Dr Shishir Rao is a senior research scientist in the Deep Medicine research group led by Professor Kazem Rahimi focusing on developing and applying AI tools for understanding chronic diseases using multimodal healthcare data. Rao co-leads multiple AI projects in the research group focusing on perinatal risk assessment, musculoskeletal conditions, and heart failure. His research emphasises Transformer-based architectures for electronic health records (EHR) analysis, having pioneered the BEHRT model—the first Transformer for multimodal EHR. He also develops frameworks for causal inference with a focus on bridging advanced computational methods with practical clinical applications. He currently serves as AI methodological advisor for Heart, the BMJ family cardiology journal. ———————————————————————————————————————— All members of the University are welcome to join, please let reception at BDI know you’re here for the seminar and sign-in. We hope you can join us! As a reminder, the Machine Learning seminar is intended to increase interaction between individuals working in ML across Oxford. We encourage in-person attendance where possible. There is time for discussion over, tea, coffee and pastries after the talks. Hybrid Option: Please note that these meetings are closed meetings and only open to members of the University of Oxford to encourage sharing of new and unpublished data. Please respect our speakers and do not share the link with anyone outside of the university. MS Teams: Meeting ID: 366 526 840 766 Passcode: ih6Mt6VK ——————————————————————————————————— If you wish to know more or receive information related to trainings and events at BDI, please subscribe by emailing bdi-announce-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk. You’ll then receive an email from SYMPA and once you reply you’ll be on the list!
The De Miranda lab is interested in uncovering the mechanisms that drive neurologic disease from environmental exposures. They are currently investigating chlorinated solvents, such as the degreasing compound trichloroethylene (TCE), and their role in dopaminergic neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease. They take a system wide approach to address these mechanisms – including understanding how route of exposure can influence neurotoxicity and disease phenotype (e.g., cognitive dysfunction). In addition to solvents, we undertake projects assessing how pesticides, metals, and other neurotoxic contaminants induce oxidative stress, impair mitophagy/autophagy, and influence neuroinflammation. Our overall goal is to mitigate toxicity with therapeutic interventions or environmental remediation efforts.
Abstract to follow at https://www.ethox.ox.ac.uk/events
Workshop on Immigration, Health and Wellbeing October 23-24, 2025 University of Oxford Call for Papers Submission deadline: 15 July 2025 Keynote Speakers: Ian Preston (UCL) Hyejin Ku (UCL) Tamara Smith (Gov London) On October 23-24, 2025, the University of Oxford, will host the IX Workshop on Migration, Health, and Well-Being, following the success of the previous editions. The workshop’ focus is broad, covering empirical economic research on the topics of immigration, health economics, economics of migration and wellbeing. Spanning two days, the event will feature a select number of hour-long research presentations, fostering in-depth discussions. The workshop aims to strengthen connections among scholars with shared interests in these fields. Conference Organisers: C. Nicodemo (Brunel University of London and University of Oxford) C. Tealdi (Heriot-Watt University) Submissions and Deadlines: The deadline for submissions is 15 July 2025 at 23h59 (CEST). Please send a draft of your paper to oxfordmig@gmail.com Decisions will be made by 30 July 2025 Participation fees: £255
RGEA is pleased to announce the launch of a new course ‘Good Clinical Practice (GCP) for laboratory staff’. The course is for University of Oxford staff working in laboratories handling samples derived from clinical trials, and outlines the principles of GCP from the perspective of the laboratory. It will be delivered in-person at Boundary Brook House (Old Road Campus), by members of RGEA who have previous experience of working in laboratories.
For our next talk, in the Digital Phenotyping seminar series, we are delighted to host Ben Busby, Senior Alliance Manager for Genomics at NVIDIA on 17 July 2025, 1:00 pm, BDI seminar room 1. Title: Ideas for accelerated and integrated compute in imaging, genomics, and devices, in Biobank and other datasets Date: 17 July 2025 Time: 13:00 – 14:00 Venue – BDI/OxPop seminar room 1 Abstract As we enter the age of AI, agents will play a larger role in analysis and knowledge management and contextualization will become critical. The scientific (and practical) implementation interfaces will not be limited to AI and chatbots. Accelerated scientific computing is extremely likely to play an expanding role in traditional analysis, particularly when using biobank scale data. Some vignettes on specific topics in acceleration will be offered: - Sequence alignment and annotation - Synthetic image generation - Knowledge graphs as memory - Single cell analysis - On-device computing - Estimation of cis- and trans- effects on variant penetrance by background haploblocks We’ll end with a discussion of contextualization, validation, and garbage collection of model generated datasets with a focus on improvement of healthcare systems. Bio: Ben Busby is the Senior Alliance Manager for Genomics at NVIDIA, where he focuses on areas such as prototyping, disease subtyping, deep learning, and knowledge graphs. He also holds an adjunct faculty position in the Computational Biology Department at Carnegie Mellon University and serves as an advisor to both Johns Hopkins University and Research to the People at Stanford. Ben earned his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and did a postdoc in evolutionary genomics at NCBI. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hybrid Option: Please note that these meetings are closed meetings and only open to members of the University of Oxford. Please respect our speakers and do not share the link with anyone outside of the University. The purpose of these seminars is to foster more communication among employees throughout the University, so we strongly advise in-person attendance whenever feasible. Microsoft Teams meeting Join the meeting now Meeting ID: 377 252 440 130 6 Passcode: PB3pp2pZ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you wish to know more or receive information related to trainings and events at BDI, please subscribe by emailing bdi-announce-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk. You'll then receive an email from SYMPA and once you reply you'll be on the list!
Lesson of the week, clinical cases and research. All clinical and academic staff and students welcome. Coffee, Tea and Cake will be served.
This course is designed for undergraduates aiming for postgraduate study, graduate students who want to strengthen their skills, and professionals seeking to advance their expertise. Participants will delve into key areas such as economic theory, applied mathematics, and econometrics, equipping themselves with essential quantitative skills and analytical tools. Join us in Oxford for an immersive programme that includes a welcome reception, college formal dinner, and exclusive social activities and tours—the perfect opportunity to network and experience Oxford’s academic life firsthand. Visit the website for more information and registration: https://ouess.web.ox.ac.uk/event/fundamentals-of-graduate-economics
Welcome to Oxford Battery Modelling Symposium (OBMS), a unique event for the battery community. OBMS brings together mathematicians, chemists, physicists and engineers from academia and industry to discuss the latest modelling research and applications. Our philosophy is to invite a small number of outstanding speakers spanning a range of topics from atomistic to continuum modelling, controls and beyond, giving broad and inspiring presentations and open discussions. Our first event in 2019 was attended by 170 people with leading experts including John Newman speaking; our subsequent events were held online during lockdown periods but continued to be wildly popular. We are delighted to invite you back to join us for Oxford Battery Modelling Symposium 2025, which will return as an in-person meeting hosted at the Examination Schools in Oxford. Further details on the event can be found on the event website: https://batterymodel.ox.ac.uk. The event will also include a poster session and a wonderful dinner at Rhodes House.
Lesson of the week, clinical cases and research. All clinical and academic staff and students welcome. Coffee, Tea and Cake will be served.
Are you baffled by open, confused by embargoes? Does the mention of the colour gold or green catapult you into a realm of perplexed irritation? Come to this session, where we’ll break down open access and all its many jargon terms, confusing publishing structures and hint at the advantages you can reap by publishing open. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers, other staff.
Lesson of the week, clinical cases and research. All clinical and academic staff and students welcome. Coffee, Tea and Cake will be served.
From the Laboratory to the Clinic is an annual translational research conference established in 1984, held at Trinity College, Oxford. The conference brings together an international mix of basic scientists, clinicians, and industry researchers to explore how the latest discoveries in immunology and molecular medicine can be applied to improve clinical medicine. The major topic this year's conference is vaccines, along with other therapy-related topics of Gene Therapy and Regulatory T-Cells. The meeting will be in-person and streamed live online.
Talk titles TBC
Our September Summer School is tailored for postgraduate students, researchers, and professionals in economics. Your application includes enrolment in two academic courses in Applied Microeconomics, Macroeconomics or Econometrics (from two different disciplines, or focusing on a single field of interest), along with a formal dinner and welcome reception at an Oxford college, daily lunch and refreshments, and a certificate of completion. Visit the website for more information and registration: https://ouess.web.ox.ac.uk/september-summer-school
So, you’ve got a great idea for a research study – but what approvals do you need before you can start? Who do you apply to? And how do you go about doing this? Join an online presentation through Microsoft Teams for an overview of: • how research is governed in the UK • which approval bodies are involved • a step-by-step guide on how to apply for approval • handling amendments to your study
Accountability in higher education is a global phenomenon and important area of scholarly inquiry and policy attention. How did scholarly conversations develop and communities form? How did ideas of accountability evolve and travel? Using longitudinal, mixed-methods social network analysis, we examine co-citation networks of 450 articles on higher education accountability published between 1992 and 2016. We identify 24 knowledge communities that coalesce around different accountability topics, fields, and contexts. Through this approach we are able to capture the transformation of accountability in certain fields as well as its adaptation and integration across the globe.
Our vision is to transform research and healthcare in dementia. Dementia Research Oxford, led by Professors Masud Husain and Cornelia van Duijn, brings together researchers and clinicians across the University, our hospitals, patients, and industry partners to translate our growing insights in the basic molecular origin disease into effective treatment and prevention. We aim to take science further from drug target to treatment, from molecular pathology to early diagnosis and prognosis and from early intervention to prevention.
Working towards universal access to safe, affordable surgical, anaesthesia and obstetric care. This intensive five-day course, in person, in Oxford, is suitable for those in all disciplines interested in global surgery, anaesthesia and obstetrics. The course comprises presentations, discussions and seminars looking at major topics in global surgery such as burden of disease, health workforce capacity, training, partnership, supplies, service management, research needs, advocacy and ethics, and resource allocation. There will also be a half-day session on practical preparation for going to work in new contexts alongside local surgical teams. Traditionally surgery has been taught as a technical and practical specialty; however this short course takes a completely different approach and looks at the provision of surgical services at a global level. The term 'Global Surgery' in this course encompasses all related specialities including obstetrics, gynaecology and anaesthesia/critical care. For more information, please visit the Global Surgery Course website.
If you are planning to run a ‘non-CTIMP’ research study this introductory course is for you. Not all research is subject to clinical trials regulations, but the same standards of conduct apply. This course in Good Clinical Research Practice covers the legislation that applies to ‘non-CTIMP’ research, along with the detailed principles of good practice in clinical research studies. This three-hour online course consists of trainers’ led presentations, short video-talks from those experienced in the conduct of clinical research and interactive exercises. The course is run by the experienced research support specialists from the University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospital’s Joint Research Office, JRO. Join this online presentation through Microsoft Teams for an overview of: • Purpose of Good Clinical Research Practice including historical background • Difference between Clinical Care and Research Practice • Ethical and Regulatory Considerations in the UK • Research Study Requirements and Documentation • Research Study Conduct and Management
So, you’ve got a great idea for a research study – but what approvals do you need before you can start? Who do you apply to? And how do you go about doing this? Join an online presentation through Microsoft Teams for an overview of: • how research is governed in the UK • which approval bodies are involved • a step-by-step guide on how to apply for approval • handling amendments to your study
RGEA is pleased to announce the launch of a new course ‘Good Clinical Practice (GCP) for laboratory staff’. The course is for University of Oxford staff working in laboratories handling samples derived from clinical trials, and outlines the principles of GCP from the perspective of the laboratory. It will be delivered in-person at Boundary Brook House (Old Road Campus), by members of RGEA who have previous experience of working in laboratories.
Medical Statistics Drop In Session with Dr Lei Clifton,Lead Statistician, Applied Digital Health (ADH) Group, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford. Day: Thursday Date: 16 October 2025 Time: 11:00 -12:00 Venue: BDI conference room (lower ground, near the cafe) Registration: https://forms.office.com/e/b8UEEgrBrY?origin=lprLink Do you have a burning medical statistics-related question that you would like to discuss with the wider Oxford Biomedical community? Submit your question in advance and join the drop-in session, where Lei Clifton will address your query. If you’re interested in being part of the conversation but don’t have a specific question, feel free to attend the session in person and follow along. This is an excellent opportunity to engage in knowledge exchange with your peers. The session will be informal and conversational, encouraging participants to share their perspectives on medical statistics. There will be no set agenda or specific topics of focus; instead, discussions will be spontaneous, shaped by the questions and interests brought forward on the day. Attendees will have the freedom to drop in and ask questions without restrictions, allowing for an open and dynamic exchange of ideas. While the session will not include presentations or detailed statistical analysis, general advice on study design and statistical methods will be provided. The emphasis will be on applying statistical thinking to real-world questions rather than conducting in-depth explorations of predefined topics. This is an in-person event only.
The extant literature on the link between international education and socio-political development emphasises the role political socialisation in democratic host societies plays in instilling democratic values in foreign students and prompting them to advocate for democratic change in the home country. In this webinar, I will discuss such assumptions drawing on some findings of my doctoral research project which explored the impact of international educational mobility on Russian young people’s socio-political views and engagement. More specifically, I will consider the influence of studying abroad on Russian mobile students’ understandings of democracy and aspirations to engage socio-politically in Russia. The analysis draws on data from 55 in-depth interviews with Russian students and alumni of British and American universities. The findings reveal that international mobility contributes to heightened socio-political awareness and sometimes helps shape notions of democracy. However, such individual-level democratising impact is somewhat weakened by the conflicting evidence demonstrating that study abroad may contribute to scepticism about democracy as a political system and that newly acquired socio-political knowledge is sometimes impressionistic and fragmented. Furthermore, the evidence points to the paramount importance of the sending country’s political context in examining the linkage between student migrants’ democratic socialisation abroad, aspirations to enact political agency and potential to impact on the level of democratic development in the homeland.
On October 23-24, 2025, the University of Oxford, will host the IX Workshop on Migration, Health, and Well-Being, following the success of the previous editions. The workshop’ focus is broad, covering empirical economic research on the topics of immigration, health economics, economics of migration and wellbeing. Spanning two days, the event will feature a select number of hour-long research presentations, fostering in-depth discussions. The workshop aims to strengthen connections among scholars with shared interests in these fields.
Our vision is to transform research and healthcare in dementia. Dementia Research Oxford, led by Professors Masud Husain and Cornelia van Duijn, brings together researchers and clinicians across the University, our hospitals, patients, and industry partners to translate our growing insights in the basic molecular origin disease into effective treatment and prevention. We aim to take science further from drug target to treatment, from molecular pathology to early diagnosis and prognosis and from early intervention to prevention.
Biography Professor Carbone (MD, PhD) is an Associate Professor of Hepatology at the University of Milano-Bicocca and Honorary Consultant Hepatologist at the Niguarda Liver Transplant Centre, Milan. He qualified in Medicine in Rome, Italy and trained in hepatology in Italy and in the UK. His research interest mainly relates to study disease mechanisms in autoimmune and cholestatic liver diseases. He runs a research programme in autoimmune and cholestatic liver diseases that encompasses joint modelling of molecular, histological and radiological data, and their conversion into meaningful outputs that can inform mechanistic understanding, health care decisions, and the design of innovative clinical trials. He is member of the International Clinical Research Network of PSC Partners, steering committee member of the Global PBC study group, and Vice-Chair of the PBC Foundation Medical Advisory Board. He founded and co-chairs the Italian Registry of PBC and PSC. He serves on the panel of the national guidelines for PBC and PSC. He is the recipient of the Rising Star in Gastroenterology award by the United European Gastroenterology (UEG) and the Europena Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) Sheila Sherlock Fellowship. He is Associate Editor of Digestive and Liver Disease, serves on the editorial board of Hepatology, and co-authored more than 144 articles in peer-reviewed journals (h-index 35).
The Symposium will highlight areas of stem cell research with trajectories towards treatments of diseases including metabolic disorders, neurodegeneration, vascular diseases, heart failure, cancer and new bioengineering strategies.
So, you’ve got a great idea for a research study – but what approvals do you need before you can start? Who do you apply to? And how do you go about doing this? Join an online presentation through Microsoft Teams for an overview of: • how research is governed in the UK • which approval bodies are involved • a step-by-step guide on how to apply for approval • handling amendments to your study
Many prominent social scientists have advocated for random-draw lotteries as a solution to the “problem” of college admissions. They argue that lotteries will be fair and equitable, eliminate corruption, reduce student anxiety, restore democratic ideals, and end debates over race-conscious admissions. In response, we simulate potential lottery effects on U.S. student enrollment by race, gender, and income, using robust simulation methods. If we went to a lottery system, what would happen to student diversity? And how could this change the built relationship between students and selective colleges?
Obesity is the fifth leading cause of death globally and one of the leading causes of disability. While the general medical impacts of obesity, including cerebrovascular complications, are relatively well-recognized, the less obvious effects on brain health are often overlooked. Obesity is frequently linked with brain cortical thinning, subcortical atrophy, accelerated brain aging, cognitive impairments, and an increased risk of dementia, even in absence of additional cardiovascular risk factors. This is particularly concerning in people with severe mental illness (SMI), where the rates of obesity are high and the brain effects of obesity and psychiatric disorders may interact. Indeed, we and others have demonstrated that obesity adds to brain gray and white matter alterations in SMIs. Variations in extent of obesity contribute to variations in extent of brain alterations in people with bipolar disorders or schizophrenia. Importantly, obesity related brain changes explain part of the cognitive impairment already in people with first episode of psychosis. Moreover, baseline weight or weight gain predict future acceleration of brain aging and hippocampal atrophy across SMIs. These brain effects could explain why obesity in SMI is associated with worse psychiatric outcomes, including greater psychiatric morbidity, chronicity, disability, functional decline, and worse responses to psychiatric medications. Monitoring weight and body composition thus becomes relevant for managing psychiatric, cognitive and brain health. Future research should investigate if prevention or treatment of obesity, i.e. with GLP1 agonists, could prevent or improve neurostructural changes and related psychiatric outcomes, including cognitive impairment.
This lecture explores how digital academic education is being reshaped by the fusion of emotional governance and technological design. Drawing on 20 in-depth interviews with learning designers working in Israeli EdTech companies, I examine how these professionals—positioned between private platforms and public universities—construct educational environments that are simultaneously affective and algorithmic. At the center of this analysis is the concept of “supervised autonomy”, which captures a core paradox: students are imagined as autonomous, self-regulating learners, yet also as emotionally vulnerable subjects in need of constant technological oversight. Surveillance technologies such as learning analytics dashboards are reframed by designers as tools of emotional care and personalized support. This dual logic extends to the role of professors, who are reimagined as both emotional caregivers and performative presenters—expected to maintain engagement, deliver emotional connection, and respond to behavioral data. In this new emotional-technological architecture, autonomy becomes not a withdrawal from control, but a condition shaped and sustained through ongoing algorithmic monitoring and therapeutic discourse. The lecture argues that the digitalization of academic life cannot be understood solely through the lens of market rationality. Rather, it reflects a deeper cultural reordering—where emotional expectations are embedded into digital infrastructures, and educational roles are redefined through a convergence of care, performance, and control.
If you are planning to run a ‘non-CTIMP’ research study this introductory course is for you. Not all research is subject to clinical trials regulations, but the same standards of conduct apply. This course in Good Clinical Research Practice covers the legislation that applies to ‘non-CTIMP’ research, along with the detailed principles of good practice in clinical research studies. This three-hour online course consists of trainers’ led presentations, short video-talks from those experienced in the conduct of clinical research and interactive exercises. The course is run by the experienced research support specialists from the University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospital’s Joint Research Office, JRO. Join this online presentation through Microsoft Teams for an overview of: • Purpose of Good Clinical Research Practice including historical background • Difference between Clinical Care and Research Practice • Ethical and Regulatory Considerations in the UK • Research Study Requirements and Documentation • Research Study Conduct and Management
For several years now, critical perspectives on the development and current orientation of internationalisation have emerged, expressing concern about the risk of reproducing already uneven global hierarchies through mainstream internationalisation activities, particularly in institutions of the Global North and Western/ised higher education. Scholars and practitioners caution that as institutions grow more interconnected, without a redistribution of power or a reimagining of dominant relationships, longstanding inequalities may be further entrenched. There is increasing concern that prevailing approaches to internationalisation risk reinforcing colonialist, capitalist global relations and sustaining Eurocentric knowledge regimes. Drawing on eleven months of ethnographic fieldwork across the UK, Denmark, and Germany, I examine how international student mobility is embedded in wider struggles over knowledge, legitimacy, and global inequality. The research traces how dominant hierarchies are reproduced or unsettled through everyday practices within universities, as well as in broader policy, institutional, and social spaces. Attending to both structural conditions and lived experiences, the study explores how spatial associations of knowledge and global power relations are articulated through everyday interactions, educational practices, and ways of knowing. It ultimately argues for a more ethically engaged and politically reflexive approach to internationalisation - one that takes seriously the call for cognitive justice in global higher education.
In a fast-changing world, psychiatry needs to adapt to remain relevant. This presentation will summarize the changes in psychiatry that are considered to have been the most impactful for the practice and research in psychiatry since 1945. Based on this historical context, the current status of psychiatry and its future as one of the main medical specialties will be discussed.
