Maison Française d'Oxford Events

The Maison Française d’Oxford (MFO) was founded at the end of the Second World War on the joint initiative of the Universities of Paris and Oxford. With the support of the Chancery of the Universities of Paris, it maintains close links with French universities and the other French institutes of higher education. Associated with the University of Oxford, it is a hub of Franco-British academic collaborations.

As a member of the network of research institutes established abroad by the French Ministry of European and Foreign Affairs (www.ifre.fr) and the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the MFO has become a research centre of the Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (INSHS) of the CNRS. It develops research programmes with academic institutions of the University of Oxford and other British universities.

The MFO hosts a team of senior researchers from the INSHS who conduct their own research at the University of Oxford but, more importantly, organise interdisciplinary programmes, conferences, seminars and other events in collaboration with members of the University. The MFO organises and/or hosts events ranging from single-speaker lectures or seminars, day workshops on specialist topics, through to two or three-day conferences.

Find out more on our website: mfo.web.ox.ac.uk
Type: None
Web Address: https://mfo.web.ox.ac.uk/

Talks:

Monday 16 February 2026

'Legal humanism across nationalisms and transnational history' Presentation of the ISTHisFrench project (ERC-2024-COG 101170233)
Date: 16 February 2026, 17:15 - 19:15
Speaker : Xavier Prévost (Université de Bordeaux)
Venue Details: Maison Française d'Oxford, 2-10 Norham Road OX2 6SE
Organisers: TBA
Hosts: TBA

Wednesday 18 February 2026

‘Is medieval biblical exegesis a form of totemism? An examination of analogical-social thinking in Moralised Bibles’
Date: 18 February 2026, 17:00 - 18:30
Speaker : Antoine Destemberg (Maison Française d'Oxford)
Venue Details: Maison Française d'Oxford, 2-10 Norham Road OX2 6SE
Organisers: TBA
Hosts: TBA

Monday 23 February 2026

Workshop ‘Beyond the Body of the Church: Formalisations of Social Ideas in Medieval Christianity’
Date: 23 February 2026, 9:30 - 17:00
Speaker
Venue Details: Maison Française d'Oxford, 2-10 Norham Road OX2 6SE
Organiser: Carlo Emilio Biuzzi (EPHE, Paris)
Hosts: TBA

Wednesday 25 February 2026

‘What’s on a Vase? When French Feminism Meets Chinese Art’
Date: 25 February 2026, 17:00 - 19:00
Speaker : Manhua Li (Royal Holloway College, University of London)
Venue Details: Maison Française d'Oxford, 2-10 Norham Road OX2 6SE
Organisers: TBA
Hosts: TBA

Tuesday 3 March 2026

Book presentation ‘Cultural expertise. Theories, Laws and Practices’ (Routledge, 2025)
Date: 3 March 2026, 16:00 - 18:00
Speaker s: Livia Holden (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne/CNRS)), Dina Hadad (Université Paris Nanterre)
Venue Details: Maison Française d'Oxford, 2-10 Norham Road OX2 6SE
Organisers: TBA
Hosts: TBA

Special Film Screening 'Le dernier Canadien français'
Date: 3 March 2026, 19:00 - 22:00
Speaker
Venue Details: Maison Française d'Oxford, 2-10 Norham Road OX2 6SE
Organisers: TBA
Hosts: TBA

Friday 6 March 2026

'From Utopia to Politics: Brutalist Architecture in France’s Working-Class Neighbourhoods'
Date: 6 March 2026, 17:15 - 18:45
Speaker s: Robin Wilson (Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL), Nigel Green, Ulysse Rabaté (Paris 8 University Vincennes Saint-Denis)
Venue Details: Maison Française d'Oxford, 2-10 Norham Road OX2 6SE
Organisers: TBA
Hosts: TBA

Monday 9 March 2026

Children’s Week - A week exploring new frontiers, infant cognition, emotions, and care, including the history of children’s health, while rethinking classic themes such as work, children’s art and literature, and naturalist approaches to learning.
Date: 9 March 2026, 17:00 - 19:00
Speaker s: Didier Lett (Université Paris Cité), Maya Gratier (Babylab Nanterre), Helen Sunderland (Oxford), Natacha Collomb (CNRS)
Venue Details: Maison Française d'Oxford, 2-10 Norham Road OX2 6SE
Organisers: TBA
Hosts: TBA

Friday 20 March 2026

‘The Renaissance on Board, Really? Revisiting Jean and Raoul Parmentier’s Mythified Voyage to Sumatra in 1529’
Date: 20 March 2026, 12:30 - 14:00
Speaker : Romain Bertrand (Sciences Po/CERi)
Venue Details: Maison Française d'Oxford, 2-10 Norham Road OX2 6SE
Organisers: TBA
Hosts: TBA

Thursday 9 April 2026

‘Michel Serres, historian of science despite himself’
Date: 9 April 2026, 17:00 - 19:00
Speaker : Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent (Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne)
Venue Details: Maison Française d'Oxford, 2-10 Norham Road OX2 6SE
Organisers: TBA
Hosts: TBA

Friday 10 April 2026

SHAC Spring meeting - Remembering Bill Brock: Chemistry and Culture
Date: 10 April 2026, 9:30 - 17:30
Speaker Various Speakers
Venue Details: Maison Française d'Oxford, 2-10 Norham Road OX2 6SE
Organisers: TBA
Hosts: TBA

Tuesday 12 May 2026

Mitigating Dimensionality and Uncertainty in Systems: A Transition from Classical Control to AI
Date: 12 May 2026, 17:00 - 18:30
Speaker : Christophe Prieur (CNRS)
Venue Details: Maison Française d'Oxford, 2-10 Norham Road OX2 6SE
Organisers: TBA
Hosts: TBA

Editors: Laura Spence, Belinda Clark, Anne-Sophie Gabillas