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A workshop outlining 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.

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We show how local segregation and exposure to partisans affect political behavior and polarization, and contribute to critical ideological realignment. We exploit large-scale, exogenous and high-stakes peer assignment due to universal conscription of soldiers assigned from each of 34,947 French municipalities to infantry regiments during WWI. Soldiers from poor, rural municipalities, where the redistributive message of socialism had yet to penetrate, vote more for the left after the war when exposed to left-wing partisans within their regiment, even while neighbouring municipalities assigned to right-wing partisans become inoculated against the left. We provide evidence that these differences reflect the combination of persuasive information and material incentives rather than pure conformity. These differences further lead to the emergence of sharp and enduring post-war discontinuities across regimental boundaries that are reflected, not only in divergent voting patterns, but also in violent civil conflicts between Collaborators and the Resistance during WWII.

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talks by: Dr Elena Violaris, 'The Gamification of the Ghetto: Reading Between the Levels in Percival Everett's Erasure' and Dr Lucinda Newns, Bishop Grosseteste University (title tbc)

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Social movements are catalysts for crucial institutional changes. To succeed, they must coordinate members’ views (consensus building) and actions (mobilization). We study union leaders within Myanmar’s burgeoning labour movement. Union leaders are positively selected on both personality traits that enable them to influence others and ability but earn lower wages. In group discussions about workers’ views on an upcoming national minimum wage negotiation, randomly embedded leaders build consensus around the union’s preferred policy. In an experiment that mimics individual decision-making in a collective action set-up, leaders increase mobilization through coordination. Leaders empower social movements by building consensus that encourages mobilization. Written with Laura Boudreau (Columbia University, CEPR, and IGC), Rocco Macchiavello (LSE Department of Management, STICERD, and IGC) and Mari Tanaka (Hitotsubashi University Institute of Economic Research) https://sites.google.com/view/virginiaminni/research

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Are you curious about a career in addressing climate challenges, either in research, start-ups or policy? Join us for an engaging lunchtime discussion featuring three RisingWISE alumnae at the forefront of climate research and impact: Dr. Anna Jungbluth, a Research Fellow at the European Space Agency (ESA), brings her expertise in leveraging machine learning techniques for analysing ESA's climate data. Dr. Katherine Collett, an Associate in Climate at Deep Science Ventures, specializes in developing innovative startups aimed at achieving net-zero emissions. Dr. Roxana Shafiee, an Energy and Climate Change Policy Researcher, scrutinizes the effectiveness of current carbon abatement technologies and policies. Together, they will explore pressing questions surrounding climate change, renewable energy, and the path to a sustainable future. Don't miss this opportunity to connect with and gain valuable insights from researchers who have transitioned into climate change careers. Date? Wednesday 22 May Time? 12.30 - 14.00. Bring your lunch! Where? Online via Zoom

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This session will help you to understand what IP is, who “owns” it, and the things to think about when you think you have created IP. Whether you’re an undergraduate, masters or DPhil student, or Staff at the University of Oxford, it is important to understand your rights and responsibilities when it comes to intellectual property (IP). This session will help you to understand what IP actually is, who “owns” it, and the things to think about when you think you have created IP. Case studies will also be presented to help explain the University’s policy. Come prepared to ask any IP related questions in the second half of the session, where our expert presenters will give you the official University answers to any of your queries. In collaboration with Research Services, Oxford University Innovation, and The Careers Service. The talk will be from 12:30-1:30pm. If you have specific questions, the presenters will be available to answer questions until 2pm.

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There is no cure for the fatal and devastating childhood onset, X-linked disorder, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). Many groups, including my own, are evaluating novel and sometimes sophisticated treatments, either with a view to replace the absent protein, dystrophin, or to mitigate against the deleterious effects of its loss. Mice fail to recapitulate many relevant phenotypic features of the disease, in particular the functional deficits that define the disorder. Larger animal models (including dogs) can help bridge the divide between early evaluations conducted in mice and clinical trials in humans. In this talk I will discuss the founding of the DE50-MD canine model of DMD, maintained at the Royal Veterinary College, studies conducted that make this arguably the best characterised large animal model of this disorder and our use of the model in clinical veterinary trials, including in gene editing and gene therapies. I will end by a discussion of the lengths we go to for optimal welfare and the approach we take to ensure robust and ethical animal use. SPEAKER Professor Richard Piercy qualified as a veterinary surgeon from Cambridge University and after a stint in private veterinary practice, he moved to the USA to undertake specialist clinical veterinary training, becoming a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. Whilst in the USA, he also conducted a Master of Science degree on muscle exercise physiology of Alaskan Sled dogs competing in the annual Iditarod race and was a research scholar working on the kinetics of single skinned muscle fibres with Prof. Jack Rall at Ohio State University. Richard moved back to the UK, working as a Wellcome Trust Research Training Fellow for his doctoral training at the Dubowitz Neuromuscular Centre, Imperial College, working on the molecular biology of Emery Dreifuss Muscular Dystrophy, supervised by Prof Francesco Muntoni and Dr Susan Brown. Since 2005, Richard has worked at the Royal Veterinary College where he is now Professor of Comparative Neuromuscular Disease. He runs the largest neuromuscular biopsy service for veterinary species in Europe and the Comparative Neuromuscular Disease Laboratory which researches naturally occurring veterinary neuromuscular diseases and their treatments. Teams link: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_YmI0OTkyYTktMDllMC00ZmFhLWI3MzEtM2FjMjYwZWFjZDBi%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%224a389e77-4427-4560-b7b4-55b452335c06%22%7d

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Peter Pomerantsev is a Soviet-born British journalist, author and TV producer. He is a senior fellow at Johns Hopkins University and co-director of the Arena Initiative. Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, Peter grew up in the U.K. He is the author of several books about Russian and other authoritarian propaganda; the third of these, How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler, was published in 2024

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Gain best practice insights on leading and managing a rapid, policy-relevant interdisciplinary Sprint while supporting researcher career development. This workshop is open to: Oxford University researchers planning to lead and manage an Agile Sprint team; Oxford University researchers leading other short-term policy-relevant interdisciplinary research project teams; early- and mid-career researchers who might be interested in the autumn Agile Sprint call. This workshop will cover what is involved in leading and managing an Agile Sprint team based on best practice learning from Sprints to date, including integrating career development opportunities for Sprint researchers within team and individual work plans. Much of this is also applicable to those embarking on their first PI role on a short-term research project. By the end of this workshop, you will understand how to effectively lead and manage an Agile Sprint team through: Identifying who else you need to recruit or engage in the Sprint based on perspectives and experiences missing from the team Starting well, including developing a positive research culture for different identities within the team and a shared sense of purpose and supportive collaboration that allows everyone a voice and opportunities to develop Planning realistic workloads that plot the interrelationships between work packages that allow for the Researcher Concordat 10 days’ development time, and continuous integration to ensure ongoing team engagement Managing a Sprint budget and working with the Agile programme support team. “While meeting the ‘Sprint’ pace is challenging, it helps the team focus and streamline research and stakeholder engagement activities in a way not commonly seen in conventional projects. This short period of intense involvement can expedite early-career researchers’ development but also means the Sprint PI needs to dedicate time to support their researchers’ career planning throughout the Sprint.” -Professor Aidong Yang Book your place on the workshop using the links provided. If you need to cancel your place, please do so no later than 48 hours before the workshop. By booking on this workshop, you have agreed to the externally facing use of the recording. Book another session, by viewing the series event page. Participation: Please note you will be expected to actively participate, which includes joining discussion, listening, asking questions, and contributing to activities.

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Join us for an interesting talk where Elaine builds off of her previous research and experience to explore how digital democracy is being transformed by emerging technologies, especially through the development and use of generative AI. While AI may have numerous positive impacts for society, it may also undermine trust. This poses serious questions for the future of democracy. During the talk, Elaine will explore three primary areas. 1) Citizenship and digital rights, 2) Elections and political parties, and 3) Government and public policies. By focusing on these three primary areas, attendees of the talk will come away with a new understanding of where we are going, what challenges we might face, and what the future holds for digital democracy. Elaine Ford is a Visiting Policy Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute and is the founder and director of Democracia Digital in Peru. In 2019, Elaine wrote her first book “The Challenge of Digital Democracy” which explored her interests in the relationship between technology and democracy.

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Planning: Effective data management techniques - Trinity Term 2024 Maintaining well-organised data is essential for researchers to keep accurate records of fieldwork data and make informed decisions. The techniques and strategies for securely managing data may differ depending on the field sites, types and amount of data, and the system or database used for data collection and analysis. Some may find online data storage to be the best option, while it may not be ideal for those working in remote areas. In this workshop, post-fieldworkers will be sharing their experience and knowledge on managing data in the field. The discussion will cover various topics, such as effective methods and strategic planning for storing, organising, and updating data on both online and offline platforms, as well as some potential challenges and drawbacks that may arise. We will also delve into practical tools and techniques for backing up data and enhancing security measures to safeguard the confidentiality of the data during and after data collection in the field. Chair Keiko Kanno Panellists for TT 24 Dr José Ignacio Carrasco (Postdoctoral Researcher, Centre on Migration, Policy and Society) Peyton Cherry (DPhil, Anthropology) Professor Nancy Puccinelli (Professor of Marketing and Psychology)

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How did Romania’s abortion ban in 1966 shape the family formation decisions of the significantly larger cohort born as a consequence? Drawing on various theoretical frameworks and mechanisms, we analyse how the timing and decisions regarding family formation of the cohort born after the ban differed from those of the cohort born before. We exploit the discontinuity in birth rates induced by the ban and make use of two complementary data sources: the Romanian Census and the Generations and Gender Survey. Compared to their counterparts born before the ban, we find that while women born after the ban leave their parental home and get married later, men anticipate their first marriage. These gendered effects are mainly driven by women with lower and men with higher parental socioeconomic status. Our results underscore the long-term impact of an abortion ban on the next generation's life course and highlight the importance of an intersectional approach in understanding its effects on family formation.

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*John Christie* (University of Oxford) ‘A salt sui generis: Chemical Analyses of Scarborough Waters, 1734’ *Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent* (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) ‘Why a Biography of Carbon?’

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This week, Dr. Vili Lehdonvirta and Boxi Wu will be presenting on their paper (written in conjunction with Zoe Hawkins): “Cloud empires’ physical footprint: How trade and security politics shape the global expansion of U.S. and Chinese data centre infrastructures” Paper Abstract U.S.-China technological rivalry presents dilemmas for third countries. Cloud computing infrastructure has become an acute front in this rivalry because of the infrastructural power that it affords over increasingly cloud-based economies, and because it is a control point in AI governance. We ask what factors explain a third country’s “cloud infrastructure alignment”—the degree to which the country’s local cloud computing infrastructure belongs to U.S. versus Chinese providers. Based on literature, we sketch three different answers: international trade, digital imperialism, and third-country strategic choice. In the first quantitative study on the topic, we test propositions derived from these views using original data on global hyperscale cloud infrastructure combined with trade statistics and security variables. We find that cloud infrastructure alignment is positively associated with other imports from the U.S. or China, negatively associated with interstate disputes, and only weakly associated with security cooperation ties. The findings suggest that commercial interests and third-country strategic choice may be more influential in shaping cloud infrastructure than any imperialist expansion or containment by the superpowers. We conclude that researchers should direct more attention to the role of third-country agency in technology geopolitics, and to the role of tech firms as autonomous geopolitical actors. About the speakers Prof. Vili Lehdonvirta Vili Lehdonvirta is Professor of Economic Sociology and Digital Social Research at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. He leads a research group examining the politics and socio-economic implications of digital technologies. He is one of the world’s most cited authors on gig work and the platform economy. His current research examines the geopolitics of digital infrastructures. His books Cloud Empires: How digital platforms are overtaking the state and how we can regain control and Virtual Economies: Design and analysis are published by MIT Press. He is a frequent keynote speaker and has advised the European Commission, the World Bank, and other public, private, and third-sector organizations on digital policy and governance. Lehdonvirta’s latest book Cloud Empires was shortlisted for the Association of American Publishers’ 2023 PROSE Award. “It is a highly accessible and refreshingly original book, and a must-read for anyone interested in our digital past, present, or future” (Regulation & Governance). The book questions the current paradigm of platform competition regulation and puts forward a historically grounded argument towards the democratization and constitutionalization of transnational digital institutions. “The hypothesis underlying the book is bold: the organization of virtual space by digital platforms follows a trajectory similar to the social organization of Western societies in the past centuries” (Information, Communication & Society). Cloud Empires has been adopted as a textbook in undergraduate and graduate courses in economic sociology, organization studies, and political theory. An Italian translation is published by Einaudi, with translations to Chinese and Japanese forthcoming. From 2018 to 2021 Lehdonvirta served on the European Commission’s Expert Group on the Online Platform Economy, advising policy makers on platform regulation and governance. From 2015 to 2021 Lehdonvirta led the iLabour research project, a major investigation funded by the European Research Council on the implications of digital platforms to labour markets, global development, and collective action. One of the project’s outputs was the Online Labour Index, an automated statistics production system adopted by researchers, journalists, and international organizations. At the project’s conclusion the system was transferred to the International Labour Organization to be maintained as a public research resource. The project also produced over a dozen highly cited articles in journals such a Socio-Economic Review, Sociology, and Journal of Management. According to a 2021 bibliometric analysis, Lehdonvirta co-authored the top two most cited studies in gig economy research. From 2018 to 2019 Lehdonvirta served on the European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group on Digital Transformation and EU Labour Markets, advising policy makers on issues such as access to platform data. Lehdonvirta’s current research focuses on the international political economy and geopolitics of digital infrastructures. His Political Geography of AI Infrastructure research project seeks to map the world’s GPU compute, one of the key bottlenecks in AI system development and operation. Lehdonvirta’s group uses both conventional social science research methods as well as novel data science approaches to map infrastructures and model policy impacts. His research has been supported by major grants from the European Research Council, the UK Economic and Social Research Council, and other science funding agencies. Lehdonvirta is a Senior Research Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, an associate member of the Department of Sociology, Oxford, and a former Turing Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute, London. He co-organizes the Digital Economy Network of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics and sits on the editorial boards of the journals Information Society and Journal of International Business Policy. From 2013 to 2018 he was editor of the journal Policy & Internet. In 2022-2023 he served on the European Research Council’s Social Sciences and Humanities Advanced Grants panel. Lehdonvirta holds a PhD in Economic Sociology from the University of Turku (2009) and a MSc from the Helsinki University of Technology (2005). He has previously worked at the London School of Economics, the University of Tokyo, and the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology. In 2020 he was a visiting professor at the Institute of Innovation Research, Hitotsubashi University. Before his academic career Lehdonvirta worked as a software developer. Boxi Wu Boxi Wu works in Google DeepMind’s Responsible AI team, focusing on the ethical and societal implications of frontier AI models across both LLMs and multimodal models. They advise teams on ethical risks and mitigations, and lead internal ethics & safety governance fora, alongside their part-time studies in the MSc in Social Science at the OII. Their research interests focus on the social and political impacts of AI, focusing on the materiality of AI infrastructure and implications for AI ethics and governance, working with Professor Vili Lehdonvirta to map global AI infrastructure. Other research interests include the politics of AI compute as a geostrategic resource for nation-states. They are also an organiser and programmer with ESEA Green Lions, where they have worked with local museums and galleries on events that bring the public into conversation with questions on AI, the environment and diaspora. They have previously worked as a policy researcher, lecturer and strategy consultant.

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In recent decades, the broad field of education research has shown robust growth in the number of journals and articles published, coupled with the use of metrics associated with journals to assess the "impact" of scholars. And yet, despite the growth and crucial functions of journals in the field, it is rare to find satisfied editors, authors, reviewers, and readers. Most journals are under great stress to effectively work with authors and reviewers and struggle with multiple demands, such as finding reliable metrics of impact, increasing the diversity of authors, editorial boards, and readership, maintaining viable funding, and adapting to the evolving uses of AI and the growing cases of scientific misconduct. Recognizing the intricate interplay between conceptual orientations, accountability systems, funding models, and reputation in academic publishing, I will focus on reward and assessment structures in the political economy of education journals. In this scenario, the reward structures used in the field often and perversely discourage journals from considering interdisciplinary collaborations or acknowledging different epistemological standpoints and wastefully ignoring scholarship from multiple regions. I advocate for a transformative shift towards frameworks that de-emphasize using journals as proxies for assessing scholars. Instead, I encourage collaborative interdisciplinary approaches, multilingual teamwork, open data sharing, non-commercialized funding, and stakeholder engagement. By fostering these strategies, the whole field of education research could improve scholarly rigor, trustworthiness, usability, and relevance.

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Governments internationally have positioned teacher education as a panacea for major challenges encountered by students and teachers in education systems. In Australia, as in northern hemisphere countries, this has led to sustained reviews of initial teacher education and calls for the improvement of teacher quality (Louden 2008), to be demonstrated by pre-service teachers’ ‘classroom readiness’ (AGDET 2023). This talk draws on current research focussed on teachers’ knowledge and practices in the context of generative AI technologies. Thinking with Abblitt’s concepts of the post-digital (2019) and in dialogue with Young’s arguments regarding powerful knowledge (2013, 2015), I contend that teacher education (understood across the career) must be reclaimed as a site of critical professional knowledge production in order for current policy renderings of ‘classroom readiness’ to be productively reconceptualised. Larissa's research spans the fields of teacher education and professional learning, and literacy and English education. Her scholarship is concerned with the ways in which teacher knowledge is built and developed, particularly in the context of justice, anti-colonial, and sustainability imperatives. Larissa is known for her strong partnerships with governments and not-for-profit organisations which are mobilised to support large-scale projects to improve educational outcomes for diverse learners. Since 2019, Larissa has co-directed the Literary Education Lab https://literaryeducationlab.org/, which hosts a range of interdisciplinary projects focusing on the role literature plays in shaping national and global narratives, and on building new disciplinary and pedagogical understandings of major social and environmental challenges. Teams link: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_NGE0MzQ2MjAtMTA3MS00YmE4LWEyOTItZjJkOWY3NTVlYzM3%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%2220c48e67-b666-49ae-a9b1-d31d1be325ec%22%7d

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Join us to learn more about an ongoing community project on Muslims in Oxford, led by the University of Oxford's Community History Initiative and the national heritage organisation 'Everyday Muslim'. The interactive event will showcase new findings on the everyday experiences of Muslims in Oxford, as well as offer opportunities for guests to share their experiences of living in Oxford. There will also be time to share feedback on our research so far, and our plans for the project going forward. Everyone is welcome! * We will have guest speakers, interactive activities and details about an Oxford Muslim History trail. * There will also be opportunities to share your experiences and to see some of the photographs and stories we have collected so far. Refreshments will be served. *_The event is free but you do need to register to let us know you are attending._*

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Joan Martinez-Alier is an Emeritus Professor of Economics and Economic History, and senior researcher at ICTA UAB. He was awarded a Balzan prize in 2020 and the Holberg prize in 2023 as a scholar of ecological economics, political ecology and environmental justice. He was a research fellow at St. Antony’s College, Oxford between 1963 and 1973, and 1984-85. He published Ecological economics: energy, environment, and society (1987); Varieties of environmentalism: Essays North and South (1997) with Ramachandra Guha; and The Environmentalism of the Poor: A Study of Ecological Conflicts and Valuation (2003). He co-edited the textbook Ecological Economics from the Ground Up (2013) and directed the EJOLT project (2011-15). He has co-directed about 40 doctoral theses as mentor of the Barcelona School of Ecological Economics and Political Ecology. He was co-founder (1990) and president of the International Society for Ecological Economics (2006-2007). In 2016, he was awarded an ERC Advanced Grant for the project EnvJustice. He co-directs the Atlas of Environmental Justice. His book of 2023 Land, Water, Air and Freedom: The Making of World Movements for Environmental Justice reveals the enormous “entropy hole” at the centre of the industrial economy, and traces “ecological distribution conflicts” at the frontiers of commodity extraction and waste disposal. It is a textbook on Global Comparative Political Ecology based on the EJAtlas.

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The Challenge of Islamic Feminism Ziba Mir-Hosseini (SOAS) Reproduction as Politics: A Feminist History of Modern Arab Thought Susanna Ferguson (Smith College)

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Week 5 (Sun 19th - Sat 25th) Wednesday 22nd May Recollection Lecture: Is a Universal History Possible? Prof David Engels (Brussels & Poznań). Must a systematic comparison of civilisations automatically lead to a historical relativism where truth becomes a mere matter of style? Or is it possible to identify, behind the uncompromising workings of history, a subliminal metaphysical sense that is neither a Eurocentric variation of the history of salvation, nor a vulgar theory of accumulation and process?

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With a background in terrorism prevention, Martine will discuss the political, economic and social context of the border area, through the lens of her current work on a peace and stability programme focused along the Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia border. The presentation will reflect on the conflict ecology, acknowledging that Al-Shabaab is a key actor in a complex conflict environment, and she will include findings from recently completed political economy and conflict analysis, some statistics from a large quantitative survey as well as reflections from the working environment. Her presentation will consider the importance of the borderlands when seeking to understand the centre and reflect on intersectional marginalisation in the status quo hindering a more inclusive power sharing and sustainably peaceful future. Martine Zeuthen is an Associate Fellow in the Terrorism and Conflict programme at RUSI. She is currently based in Kenya and set up RUSI’s operation in East Africa. She focusses on extremism and radicalisation, countering violent extremism (CVE), programme management and research methodology. She is a Danish anthropologist (MSc) and is studying for a PhD in Crime and Security Studies at University College London.

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The next seminar will focus on Peter Gizzi and will take place on Wednesday 22nd May at 4.30 pm, Pusey Room. No tickets, free entry, all welcome. Reading material will be made available via pdf: https://www.keble.ox.ac.uk/teaching-research/poetry-at-keble/the-poets-essay/ Enquiries: please contact Matthew Bevis.

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Stephen Roach, a faculty member at Yale and formerly chair of Morgan Stanley Asia, said in February, that 'it pains me to say Hong Kong is over'. For many people inside and outside Hong Kong, it is also difficult not to believe that the Hong Kong, as they know it, is already gone. Since Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997, the Chinese Communist Party gradually ate up all promises to Hong Kong people and the international community, it even ignored what had been agreed in the Sino British Declaration and stipulated in the Basic Law of The HKSAR. As an insider, the speaker would like to share his personal experience and views on how this so-called 'over' came about gradually and so drastically in the last few years. If Hong Kong is really over, what does this mean to the 7.5 million people still living there? What will be the implications to China and to the world? Dr Kim Wah Chung is a retired academic who has been teaching and doing research in Hong Kong for more than 30 years before his retirement in 2020. He then became the Deputy CEO for the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute for two years before he moved to UK, in 'exile' as some would say, in late April 2022. He has extensive knowledge of public administration, social policies, social welfare and social development of Hong Kong and China.

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We all recognise current global plastics production is unsustainable. Yet these materials can often improve sustainability through insulation, light-weighting of vehicles and future clean technologies. So how can chemistry and materials science improve the sustainability of plastics? In this talk Trinity Fellow, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry Charlotte Williams OBE will explore all the available options including renewables, efficient recycling, and building in sustainability at the earliest stages of technological development.

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The past fifty years have been characterised by a massive wave of globalisation, which provided lowered prices, access to a wide variety of goods and services, and reduced global poverty. However, this historic growth has recently come to a standstill, and both natural events and geopolitical tensions have shown that globalisation can exacerbate vulnerabilities and dependency on third parties. In this talk, Professor Glenn Magerman, Oxford Martin Visiting Fellow, INET Oxford, will discuss the role of (global) value chains in driving growth, welfare and inequality, the impact of supply chain policies on socio-economic outcomes, and how we can make our societies more resilient to future natural and geopolitical shocks. This is a joint event with INET Oxford. This event will be followed by a drinks reception, all welcome. REGISTRATION To register to attend in person in Oxford: https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/events/global-value-chains/ To register to watch live online on Crowdcast: https://www.crowdcast.io/c/global-value-chains

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https://www.hoa.ox.ac.uk/event/2024-terra-lectures-in-american-art.-the-politics-of-place-in-american-art-1

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he Oxford Seminar in the History of Alchemy and Chemistry will hold a Book Launch celebration for the Publication of Robert Fox's book, Thomas Garnett: Science, Medicine, Mobility in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Bloomsbury Academic Press), and for Carbon: A Biography by Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent and Sacha Loeve (Polity). The Launch will immediately follow the Oxford Seminar in the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (session 3-5 pm).

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Themes of displacement, migration and hospitality have been at the heart of Marc Isaacs’ films for many years. From his documentation of refugees in Calais to his detailed studies of xenophobia among English communities, Isaacs has turned his camera on the complex lives and contradictory attitudes that surround us. A recent feature in Sight and Sound describes Isaacs’ filmmaking as capturing “a sense of transience and instability that is universal.” His films are “set in nebulous or liminal spaces” that take us deep into the lives of others. For this year’s Colson lecture, Marc will show clips from his films that deal most closely with themes of displacement and hospitality, discussing ethnographic representation and the process of documentary filmmaking with Tom Scott-Smith, RSC Director. ABOUT THE SPEAKER Since 2001, Marc Isaacs has made more than sixteen creative documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4. His films have won Grierson, Royal Television Society and BAFTA awards as well as numerous international film festival prizes. In 2006, Marc had a retrospective at the prestigious Lussas Documentary film festival in France and his work has been included in numerous documentary books and academic studies. In 2008, Marc received an honorary doctorate from the University of East London for his documentary work. Marc has been a guest tutor at numerous universities and film schools in the UK and overseas including the London Film School and the National Film and Television School. A complete box set of his films was released by Second Run DVD in 2018. The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception. Event details: https://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/forced-migration-on-film-a-conversation-with-marc-isaacs-annual-elizabeth-colson-lecture-2024

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We are pleased to announce a double book launch event, to celebrate the publication of two books by distinguished and long-serving historians of science and chemistry. _Thomas Garnett: Science, Medicine, Mobility in Eighteenth-Century Britain_ (Bloomsbury) by *Robert Fox* (Emeritus Professor of History of Science, Oxford) was published in February 2024. _Carbon: A Biography (Polity)_, the English translation of _Carbone. Ses vies, ses oeuvres_ (2018, Ed. Seuil) by *Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent* (Emeritus Professor Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) and *Sacha Loeve* (Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3) will be published in June 2024. This event immediately follows the first meeting of the Oxford Seminar in the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (15:00-17:00 Maison Française d'Oxford), where Bernadette will be delivering a paper entitled 'Why a Biography of Carbon?'.

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Speakers: Maximilien Durand, Director of the Department of Byzantine and Eastern Christian Art at the Louvre Museum Jannic Durand, Emeritus Director of the Department of Works of Art at the Louvre Museum Discussant: Frédérique Duyrat, Director of Collections at the Ashmolean Museum

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I was puzzled why Japanese sociologists who study social mobility or social inequality don't use the concept of "class" or kaikyu（階級）in Japanese, while using the term when writing in English. In Japanese, instead, they use kaisho (階層), whose literal translation in English is “strata.” In this seminar, as a sociologist of knowledge to study Japanese society, I will explore how and why the concept of class (kaikyu) disappeared in academic writings among sociologists, and what societal consequences this disappearance has produced, especially its influence on the interpretation of inequality in Japanese society, which is often called "kakusa shakai" (格差社会) or a gap society. This event will serve as Professor Kariya's valedictory lecture, marking the culmination of his distinguished academic career. We warmly invite everyone to join us for this special occasion. In-person only. Register here: https://forms.office.com/e/KCihPKimYH Professor Takehiko Kariya joined the University of Oxford in 2008. After completing his BA and MA degrees at the University of Tokyo, he studied at Northwestern University in the US, where he got his PhD in Sociology in 1988. After going back to Japan, he worked at the National Institute of Multimedia Education from 1988 to 1991, and then moved to the Graduate School of Education, University of Tokyo, where he taught sociology of education for almost two decades until he came to Oxford. His teaching at Oxford includes the Sociology of Japanese Society and Research Methods for Japanese Studies. His research interests cover sociology of education; social stratification and social mobility; social changes of Postwar Japan; social and educational policies. He was recently awarded a Japanese Medal of Honour with Purple Ribbon (紫綬褒章), the Medal awarded to individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to academic and artistic developments, improvements, and accomplishments.

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Abstract will be posted shortly. Andrew Payne is a Lecturer in Foreign Policy and Security at City, University of London, and a Research Associate at the University of Oxford, where he was previously the Hedley Bull Research Fellow in International Relations. His research examines the influence of domestic politics on US foreign policy, military strategy and civil-military relations. His first book, War on the Ballot: How the Election Cycle Shapes Presidential Decision-Making in War, was published by Columbia University Press in July 2023. His work has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, including International Security, Presidential Studies Quarterly, Politics, and Contemporary Politics. His writing has also appeared in The Washington Post, The Sunday Times, The Conversation, and International Affairs. In addition to his academic work, Andrew serves on the board of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House).

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Lecture Four ‘A New Pilgrimage Ethic: On the Secular and the Serious’ [Wednesday 22 May, from 5:15 to 6:45 pm, Harris Lecture Theatre, Oriel College] Victor and Edith Turner consciously adapted Weberian imagery when they argued that a Pilgrimage Ethic, with its emphasis on the benefits of holy travel, helped to create the communications networks that would enable the development of mercantile and industrial capitalism. Themes of both materiality and secularity continue to haunt Euro-American images of religion in general, and pilgrimage in particular, often resulting in a seemingly endless and restless search for authenticity. In this final lecture, I present an alternative view of pilgrimage as moral action and affective stance, which considers its articulations with theories of mobility and political economy alongside the now extensive anthropology of ethics. I ask whether pilgrimage—manifested at contexts like Walsingham and the Camino, but also away from conventional experiences of travel—might be viewed as a refractive, transposable form of ‘seriousness’ as well as political action that goes beyond oppositions between the earnest and the playful, the authentic and the inauthentic, the religious and the secular. ……………………………………………………………………………………………..

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Please log on here to attend https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83752251729

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The Department of Antiquities at the Ashmolean Museum has the pleasure to invite you to this annual lecture. *_Whilst admission is free and a ticket is not required, seat reservation is recommended._* RSVP to Ilaria Perzia at "$":mailto:antiquities@ashmus.ox.ac.uk

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In complex room settings, machine listening systems may experience a degradation in performance due to factors like room reverberations, background noise, and unwanted sounds. Concurrently, machine vision systems can suffer from issues like visual occlusions, insufficient lighting, and background clutter. Combining audio and visual data has the potential to overcome these limitations and enhance machine perception in complex audio-visual environments. In this talk, we will first discuss the machine cocktail party problem, and the development of speech source separation algorithms for extracting individual speech sources from sound mixtures. We will then discuss selected works related to audio-visual speech separation. This encompasses the fusion of audio-visual data for speech source separation, employing techniques such as Gaussian mixture models, dictionary learning, and deep learning.

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Professor Joseph Nye, Exeter alumnus and Honorary Fellow, is University Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at Harvard and former Dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He is one of the world’s leading scholars of international relations. Professor Nye will attempt to condense what has happened to US power over the past century, from US primacy on the global stage after World War II, crucial challenges the country has faced, to the changing nature of American hard and soft power today and whether China's rise spells America's decline.

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Jesus College alumnus James Goldston (1986, PPE) was tasked with producing the January 6 hearings conducted by the Select Committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the US Capitol. The ten historic hearings played a key role in the legal processes that are now underway against former President Donald Trump. Goldston, a former President of ABC News, joins us to discuss how the hearings came to happen, and why they remain so central to the future of American politics.

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Nationalism has long been overlooked by scholars who study international relations or civil wars. This talk highlights the crucial role of nationalism - the demand that states be ruled by representatives of the nation - in the political transformations of the world during the past 250 years and the wars between and within states that have accompanied this process. The talk also contains two short excursus that seek to understand the Ukraine war and the Gaza conflict from this global comparative and long-term historical perspective. To discuss the role of nationalism in political transformations and war, moderator Professor Maya Tudor, Associate Professor of Government and Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government is joined by Professor Andreas Wimmer, Lieber Professor of Sociology and Political Philosophy, Columbia University.

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COURSE DETAILS  You will learn how to read a group, deal with difficult situations, use humour, match your presentation to the audience, and make an impact.  You will learn how to get your message across so it is remembered.  You will learn about timing and when you should deliver key messages.  You will develop your self-awareness and understand its role in presenting. LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this session you will understand more about:  How to structure your presentation for impact.  How your psychological state affects your presentation skills and how you can manage it.  How to read a group and how to deal with difficult situations.  How to deliver your presentation with more confidence.

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*Thursday 23 May* – Nissan Lecture Theatre 09:30-11:00 Histories Chair: Prof. Maria Misra (Oxford University) India in China's mind, 1945 to the present - Prof. Rana Mitter (Harvard University) 1988: Drawing the Line on History on the Eve of Global Status Games - Prof. Shruti Kapila (Cambridge University) Lines of Historical Control: Borderlines and the Limits of Claims to Himalayan Borders- Dr. Kyle Gardner (Atlantic Council, Washington DC) 11:00-11:30 Break 11:30-13:00 Geopolitics Chair: Prof. Evelyn Goh (Australian National University) China-India relations in a new geopolitical structure - Prof. Zhang Jiadong (Fudan University) The Galwan Crisis: India, China, and the Limits of International Law? - Dr. Arghya Sengupta & Mr. Jay Ojha (Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, Delhi) Contested Partnership: China and India in a Changing BRICS- Prof. Jing Gu (Institute of Development Studies, Brighton) 13:00-14:30 Lunch 14:30-16:00 Defence Chair: Prof. Jennifer Altehenger (Oxford University) Appreciating the importance of the world's oceans- Commander Douglas Robb (US Navy and Hudson Fellow, St. Antony’s College) Sino-Indian Border Dispute - Prospects for a Peaceful Settlement- General Manoj Naravane (Former Chief of Army Staff) Why the deadly brawl at Galwan Valley should not be a turning point in China-India relations- Senior Colonel (retd) Zhou Bo (Tsinghua University) 16:00-17:30 Tea/coffee 17:30-19:00 Keynote: Can China and India live in harmony? Ambassador Kishore Mahbubani (NUS, Singapore)

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https://zoom.us/j/98082163898?pwd=SGtWWHRLVjYyaFNSb1Zqd0h1ZGVXZz09 Meeting ID: 980 8216 3898 Passcode: 447750

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All staff at Oxford are invited to the next meeting of the Digital Education Technologies User Group on Thursday 23 May, 10.30am-12noon on Teams. What is the meeting agenda? - Brief updates on Canvas, Teams, Panopto, ORLO and Inspera - A demonstration of Leganto - the new platform for Oxford Reading Lists Online (ORLO) - A showcase of how staff from the soon-to-finish Inclusive Teaching Enhancements 2 (ITE2) project have collaborated with colleagues across Oxford to enhance the learning experience for students. Find out more about DETUG at https://ctl.ox.ac.uk/digital-education-technologies-user-group.

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Join in person or via Teams - https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_YjIwMDM2MzctNDAxZi00OTE4LWJkYjUtZDExNTI5M2QyOGI2%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22f872a3ea-d819-438d-846a-98171c997249%22%7d The Nomura Research Group is focused on reimagining druggability using chemoproteomic platforms to develop transformative medicines. One of the greatest challenges that we face in discovering new disease therapies is that most proteins are considered “undruggable,” in that most proteins do not possess known binding pockets or “ligandable hotspots” that small-molecules can bind to modulate protein function. Our research group addresses this challenge by advancing and applying chemoproteomic platforms to discover and pharmacologically target unique and novel ligandable hotspots for disease therapy. We currently have three major research directions. Our first major focus is on developing and applying chemoproteomics-enabled covalent ligand discovery approaches to rapidly discover small-molecule therapeutic leads that target unique and novel ligandable hotspots within undruggable protein targets and pathways. Our second research area focuses on using chemoproteomic platforms to expand the scope of targeted protein degradation technologies. Our third research area focuses on using chemoproteomics-enabled covalent ligand discovery platforms to develop new induced proximity-based therapeutic modalities. Collectively, our lab is focused on developing next-generation transformative medicines through pioneering innovative chemical technologies to overcome challenges in drug discovery.

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In the autumn of 1834, Christopher Oscanyan, an Armenian teenager from Ottoman Constantinople, arrived in New York City to attend college. He had been sent by the first American missionaries in Turkey. His encounter with the United States initiated a sixty-year career dedicated to improving Ottoman-American relations. In order to get Americans to take him seriously, however, Oscanyan had to determine who and what he was to them – a matter that, along with his politics, would regularly change according to how both Ottomans and Americans structured and re-structured the religious, ethnic, and racial diversity of their populations. Was Oscanyan an Armenian Christian? An Ottoman reformer? A native of Turkey? An American immigrant? Tracing his efforts to serve as a connector between two empires in flux, this talk will offer a brief history of how shifting state strategies to manage diversity compelled transregional actors like Oscanyan to develop internationally legible identities – identities that still inform the way we understand ourselves and establish our place in the world.

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Centrosomes are small cytoplasmic organelles that generate and organize microtubule networks, and thus contribute to a multitude of cellular processes including cell division, polarity and trafficking. For instance, centrosomes drive mitotic spindle assembly whilst cytolytic immune cells depend on centrosomal microtubule arrays for the targeted release of secretory lysosomes. Emerging evidence suggests that centrosomes also act as signalling hubs; due to their membraneless nature, these organelles are able to concentrate (and possibly scaffold) components of signalling pathways from the cytosol. Furthermore, in many cell types, centrosomes template assembly of the primary cilium, an antenna-like cell surface organelle with prominent roles in Hedgehog, Wnt and Notch signalling. To fulfil these complex roles, cells must accurately control centrosome number, composition, structure and function. My group combines cell biology, super-resolution and live microscopy, mouse genetics and proteomics to determine physiological roles and regulation of centrosomes, and to probe the impact of centrosome aberrancies on human pathologies.

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What roles can literature, philosophy, history, and the arts play in creating more positive ecological futures? Thinking in the context of Caroline Levine’s contemplation of how (and if) the humanities can effect change, I propose a potentially awkward interface of literary and material experiences – one that can be seen as complementing contemporary science, but one that also problematizes some versions of modern scientific practice. Inspired by Robin Wall Kimmerer’s focus on interspecies community and her optimism that people can play a positive role in their ecosystems if they learn to cooperate with plants and animals, this project encourages a symbiotic relationship between physical, material encounters and poetic imagination.

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It’s been two years since I ‘finished’ collecting data for my case study, and I still can’t think about leaving the field without worrying about my exit. Whilst carefully curated documents outlining ethical boundaries framed my entry into the field, and ongoing reflective conversations around ethical dilemmas ran through each phase during, contextual circumstances meant that I was not prepared for the exit from fieldwork that later occurred. Whilst preparing to enter the field and how research is conducted from within it is explored to great depths through both the literature and researcher training courses alike, as Delamont and Smith (2023) point out, reflections and guidance for exits from fieldwork are few and far between. In conjunction with reviewing existing literature on ethical dilemmas around leaving the field, this paper offers a partly auto ethnographical reflection on my own experiences of ethical dilemmas when leaving the field: ethical considerations addressed, and those too left unanswered. This paper reflects on qualitative data collected towards the end of the fieldwork in question; primarily ethnographic observational data alongside my own fieldwork reflections. Data presented is discussed alongside existing literature in response to the question of how ethics of exits from fieldwork could be constructed and reflected on in ways that better support both the participants and researcher alike when things don’t go to plan. The paper offers a conceptualisation of a trauma-informed approach to ethics around the exists from fieldwork and highlights the necessity for further research and training around the ethics of exits from fieldwork in general. MS Teams link: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_OTBlMzVkMjgtMTY0Yy00YzhiLWJkNWYtNWVkNTg3YzhlMDQ3%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

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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 martha.swift@ell.ox.ac.uk OR hannah.fagan@mansfield.ox.ac.uk

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COURSE DETAILS Uncover the art of facilitating interactive science demonstrations that captivate and educate. Learn the pivotal elements of event design and planning specifically tailored for public engagement activities. By the end of this course, you'll not only have a repertoire of engaging activities at your disposal, but you'll also possess the skills to thoughtfully design, execute, and adapt events that leave lasting impressions. LEARNING OUTCOMES Attending this session will give you the opportunity to:  Use desktop activities to communicate their research.  Explore interactive formats and approaches to engage audiences.  Understand how to tailor an activity to different age groups and settings.  Learn how to facilitate interactive science demonstrations.  Learn the key elements of event design and planning for public engagement activities.

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Lesson of the week, clinical cases and research. All clinical and academic staff and students welcome. Coffee, Tea and Cake will be served.

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Eclaircissements (Conversations on Science, Culture and Time) is the original title of the volume of five dialogues between Michel Serres and Bruno Latour published in 1992. Widely translated, this book reflects a time of intense and joyous dialogue and sharing ideas. This conference aims to shed new light on their philosophical dialogue and explore how their views compare, clash, dovetail and are mutually enriching. How do, for instance, The Natural Contract and Politics of Nature, Biogea and Gaia, echo each other. This conference seeks to examine the legacy of Michel Serres in the light of his relation to Bruno Latour and identify continuities and fault lines between the two oeuvres. Beyond the question of legacy, the conference hopes to bring to the fore how both challenged modern categories to reconnect philosophy with the urgent questions concerning the Earth. The conference will also explore how their respective philosophical practices, as they break away from the traditional codes of academic writing, fashioned an idiosyncratic style of their own that allowed them to engage a larger readership and audience. ----------------------- THURSDAY, MAY 23 13h30 Welcome and start 14h-16h: Successions and Secessions Steven Connor (King's College, London): Sect and Secession: Serres, Bachelard and Philosophies of No Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne): So Near and so Far: Two Object-centred Philosophies Massimiliano Simons (Maastricht University): Nothing but Experience: The Empiricisms of Serres and Latour Moderator: Christina Howells (Wadham College, Oxford) 16h-16h30: Coffee Break 16h30-18h30: Translations Lilian Kroth (University of Fribourg): Serres and Latour: what does it mean to translate? Elie During (Université Paris-Nanterre): Scallops and Structures: Serres’ Paradoxical Contribution to the 'Sociology of Translation' Martin Crowley (University of Cambridge): 'A line in the sand' Moderator: Macs Smith (University College, London) FRIDAY, MAY 24 9h30-11h30: The Natural Contract and Politics of Nature Victor Simmonet (Université Paris 8 Vincennes - Saint-Denis): References and their potentials. Michel Serres and Bruno Latour's politics through the prism of nature, modernity and style. Catherine Larrère (Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne): Serres and Latour : From The Natural Contract to 'The Parliament of things' David Webb (University of Staffordshire): Reason, Judgement and the Problem of Decision Making in Latour and Serres. Moderator: Timothy Howles (University of Oxford) 11h30-13h: Lunch 13h-15h: Styles of writing and performing Henriette Korthals Altes (Maison Française d’Oxford): 'What language do the things of the world speak?' Frédérique Aït-Touati (EHESS, Paris): FIC and fables: Uses of Literature in Michel Serres and Bruno Latour’s Works Simon Schaffer (Darwin College, Cambridge) The Balance and the Network Moderator: Arto Charpentier (ENS Paris)

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Join us for a thought-provoking and engaging OPEN Conversation on why the future is important to policymaking and how ethical considerations can be effectively integrated into horizon scanning and futures analysis for emerging technologies. In this dynamic event, participants will have the opportunity to exchange ideas with leading experts drawing on their experience working at the intersection of academia and policy: - Dr. Federica Lucivero, Associate Professor in ethics and data at the Ethox Centre - Ruth Marshall, Head of Futures Capability at the UK Government Office for Science - Dr. Jay Stone, Associate Director of External Relations and Foresight at the Nuffield Council on Bioethics Come prepared to ask questions, share perspectives from your own context, and engage in an open dialogue. A networking opportunity will allow you to further exchange ideas following the moderated discussion.

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In this paper, I explore the educational paradox that accompanies the vision of India’s Muslim Minority Educational Institutions to foster educational inclusion and social mobility. Drawing on ethnographic research in schools and universities in five federal units/states of India, I show how these Minority Educational Institutions (MEIs) are constitutionally mandated by the Indian state. They are considered ‘Protected’/safe’ spaces by middle-class and aspirational Muslim youth to pursue their dream of participating in India’s new economy and be granted social equality and dignity. MEIs offer the formal promise of educational opportunity accompanied by the protection of language and culture. For Muslim communities these institutions also offer religious sanctity, discipline, and safety. In practice, MIEs encounter exclusionary stereotyping as ‘Muslim’. Education in MEIs is a paradoxical resource. It offers only circumscribed agency to participating students. The aspirational horizons of the students and opportunities for employment and mobility are restricted amidst a larger political climate of increasing socio-economic and political marginalisation. MEIs are at the margins of the education ecosystem in India, lacking the infrastructural and intellectual resources to compensate for the deprivation that their students face. The policy discourse professes to address the educational marginalization of Muslim youth by offering opportunities for inclusion in ‘mainstream’ higher and technical educational institutions. Yet the downward slide in student aid and scholarships available for Muslim youth restricts their access to these institutions. As a result young Muslims turn to community institutions for education and community networks for employment, reinforcing a vicious circle of stereotyping, marginalization, and educational exclusion.

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Cardiovascular disease (CVD) represents the leading cause of death and disability worldwide. A consistent feature of CVD is fibrosis, which leads to excessive deposition of disorganised extracellular matrix (ECM) due to unrestrained or inappropriate activation of cardiac reparative pathways. In humans, heart failure is the devastating end-stage of fibrotic progression. The notion that pathological fibrosis represents dysregulated tissue repair presents a duality that has implications for how we think about, study, and treat cardiac fibrosis, and the notable failure of anti-fibrotic drug discovery efforts to date reinforces the need to reconsider current models. Single cell genomics has revealed unexpected heterogeneity of cardiac cell populations, and one key hope from this new data is that pro-regenerative and pathological fibrosis become distinguishable at cellular and molecular levels such that they could be targeted selectively. An intermediary goal is to develop high dimensionality single cell atlases and virtual 3D tissues that will drive forward new biology and drug discovery. This requires the generation of integrated reference maps of single cell and spatial transcriptomics data drawn from different studies which harmonise disparate experimental designs, analytical pipelines, and taxonomies. Towards this end, we have generated a comprehensive single cell, time-resolved transcriptome integration map of cardiac fibrosis after myocardial infarction and used it to interrogate the fibrotic process in diverse CVD states. Key findings include the high similarity between fibroblast identities and dynamics in ischaemic and hypertensive models of cardiomyopathy, timelines for engagement of activated fibroblasts for proliferation and myofibrogenesis, the co-existence of pro- and anti-fibrotic states within myofibroblasts and their descendants, and illustration of the self-limiting nature of fibrosis. We have developed new genetic tools for defining, isolating, and manipulating select fibroblast subsets, and show how integrated data can be used to gain insights into models of run-away fibrosis and augmented cardiac repair. These data invoke a degree of fibroblast plasticity governed by cell state stability thresholds. Preliminary spatial transcriptomics data support key roles for distinct fibroblast spatial microenvironments. Overall, these studies will hopefully contribute to a refined conceptual framework for cardiac fibrosis, allowing better interpretation of CVD progression and new points for intervention through knowledge-based therapeutics.

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With Professor Andreas Wimmer, Columbia University Department of Sociology (42-43 Park End Street) or Online Please register to attend in person here (https://forms.office.com/e/CS4fe8q8pG) or join online via MS Teams. Please email comms@sociology.ox.ac.uk with any questions. How do we explain the spread of transformative new ideas? We examine a particularly consequential case: the rise of cultural nationalism during Europe’s long 19th century, which prepared the intellectual ground for subsequent waves of nationalist political revolutions. We study where this new cultural frame resonated as well as the pathways through which it diffused, using regression analysis with 2,300 cities as observational units and a large number of geo-coded data sources. Romantic nationalism resonated most in states ruled by dynasties of foreign origins, which contradicted nationalist ideals of self-rule. Other frame resonance mechanisms (such as cultural compatibility or empirical credibility) do not seem to have played a consistent role. Regarding pathways, we show that romantic nationalism proliferated across linguistic, religious, and political boundaries and simultaneously through personal networks, cultural institutions, and within clusters of cities that had been connected since late antiquity. By contrast, diffusion did not percolate through more generic channels less specific to intellectual life (such as contemporary transportation networks). The article makes three contributions. It advances the study of multiple and multiplex diffusion processes by going beyond the analysis of a single network, thus helping to overcome the widespread confirmation bias. It mobilises the concept of frame resonance for diffusion research to more systematically explore where new ideas fall on fertile grounds. It furthers our understanding of the global spread of nationalism by offering the first quantitative, data driven account of its early, cultural stage. This event will be followed by a drinks reception.

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Session Seven: Policy Analysis of the Adoption and Implementation of NPIs to Slow the Spread of COVID-19 in Ghana Presenter: Dr Hanna-Tina Fischer, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin Discussant: Dr Marina Kaneti, National University of Singapore The Oxford Covid-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) is a project that collected information on policy measures to tackle COVID-19 over the years 2020, 2021, and 2022. Although a substantial body of scientific research on COVID-19 government responses has already been published, many research questions remain unanswered, and the OxCGRT team is continuing research into the impacts and determinants of pandemic policy and working with partners to devise new approaches to data collection that can be deployed quickly in the face of future pandemics or global emergencies. The OxCGRT Seminar Series is an innovative platform for scholars working on COVID-19 responses, offering an opportunity to present and discuss their ongoing research work as well as to connect with the broader research community. The series will run online every Thursday from 11 April to 30 May at 16:00-17:30 BST.

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The framework of planetary boundaries is widely applied to encapsulate the idea that human transformation of the planet is in danger of breaching multiple thresholds in planetary function, leading to dangerous consequences for human futures and for wider life on Earth. It has inspired further concepts, including the “doughnut” model of a safe operating space for humanity. However, specific boundaries are difficult to identify and practically action, and some have argued that a such a boundaries framework hinders developing positive narratives for human and planetary flourishing. Join us as we discuss this planetary topic, with ecological economist Kate Raworth, Erle Ellis, Professor of Geography and Environmental Systems and Yadvinder Malhi, Director of Oxford’s Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery. Kate Raworth is an ecological economist and creator of the Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries. Her internationally best-selling book, Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think like a 21st Century Economist, has been translated into more than 20 languages. In 2019 she co-founded Doughnut Economics Action Lab to collaborate with changemakers worldwide – from mayors and entrepreneurs to teachers and community activists – who are turning the book’s ideas into practice. She teaches at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute and is Professor of Practice at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. Erle Ellis is Professor of Geography and Environmental Systems at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) where he directs the Anthroecology Laboratory. His research investigates the ecology of human landscapes at local to global scales to inform sustainable stewardship of the biosphere in the Anthropocene. His recent work examines long-term changes in Earth’s ecology produced by human societies through the concept of anthropogenic biomes, or anthromes, a term he introduced in 2008. He is author of Anthropocene: A Very Short Introduction. Yadvinder Malhi is an ecosystem ecologist, Professor of Ecosystem Science at Oxford and Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery. His work focuses on understanding the functioning of the biosphere and its interactions with global change, and on how nature recovery can be developed and enabled to support a thriving future for life on Earth.

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A now-common view holds that reduction of income inequality should be a top policy priority, because inequality has harmful consequences for a host of things we care about. What does the experience of the rich democratic nations in the era of high and rising income inequality from 1979 to 2019 tell us? The evidence offers little support for the inequality-is-harmful hypothesis. Reducing income inequality isn't likely to significantly boost living standards for the poor or the middle class. It probably won't do much to equalize political influence. It's unlikely to help much with equalization of economic opportunity. It probably won't make much difference for our health. And it's doubtful that it will facilitate a rise in happiness. We're likely to make more progress in improving living standards, democracy, opportunity, health, and happiness by addressing them directly, rather than by pursuing these indirectly via a reduction in income (or wealth) inequality. Lane Kenworthy is professor of sociology and Yankelovich Chair in Social Thought at the University of California-San Diego. He studies the causes and consequences of living standards, capabilities, poverty, inequality, mobility, employment, economic growth, social policy, taxes, public opinion, politics, and more in the United States and other rich longstanding-democratic countries. His books include The Good Society (online), Would Democratic Socialism Be Better? (2022), Social Democratic Capitalism (2020), How Big Should Our Government Be? (2016), Social Democratic America (2014), Progress for the Poor (2011), Jobs with Equality (2008), Egalitarian Capitalism (2004), and In Search of National Economic Success (1995). Booking is required for people outside of the Department of Social Policy and Intervention (DSPI). DSPI members do not need to register

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EDI-related event being run by the Bodleian Library for SSD staff and students. Members of other Divisions are also welcome. Devika Devika and Alexandra Franklin of the Bodleian will offer their insight into the fascinating and complex history that the library archives reveal about the Bodleian’s relationship with the British Empire. This is a unique opportunity for SSD staff and students to be acquainted with the Bodleian’s rich archival material as research resource, while learning about the library’s colonial links and decolonization initiatives. The innovative format of the event will involve the presentation of manuscripts and other materials from the library archives and interactive discussion with the audience. This event arises from the Bodleian’s Mellon Foundation-funded ‘We Are Our History’ project that takes a close look at its collections and its engagement with library users and staff through the lens of race and the legacies of Empire. The project's title takes inspiration from the American writer James Baldwin, who commented: "History is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history."

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The era of liberal interventionism is over. And the prevailing international discourse is once again about defending state borders and putting up walls. This broad re-assertion of sovereignty and non-intervention---often considered the normative foundation of the BRICS countries, of the Non-Aligned Movement, of Bandung, of the “Westphalian” South---raises a series of difficult questions, not least about the management of challenges shared by all. How are we to make sense of re-organisations of intervention and non-intervention in global order? Intervention before Interventionism is about the ways in which statespeople have re-ordered intervention and non-intervention since the middle of the twentieth century; it is concerned primarily with non-Western contestations of Western-dominated order; it illustrates institutional change in and through decolonization; and it provides a conceptual roadmap for understanding dilemmas of intervention and non-intervention today, particularly in relation to contestation as it has re-emerged in the twenty-first century. While building upon and conversing with existing literature, the book stands out from previous approaches insofar as it is a mapping of international struggles for the re- constitution of intervention in the globalization of the society of states. This book panel will be hosted by Neta Crawford and feature commentaries by Evelyn Goh and Meera Sabaratnam in addition to a presentation by the author. Patrick Quinton-Brown is Assistant Professor of International Relations at Singapore Management University and was previously Departmental Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Oxford. Neta Crawford is Montague Burton Chair in International Relations and also holds a Professorial Fellowship at Balliol College. Evelyn Goh is the Shedden Professor of Strategic Policy Studies at the Australian National University, where she is also Research Director at the Strategic & Defence Studies Centre. Meera Sabaratnam is Associate Professor of International Relations and Tutorial Fellow in Politics at New College.

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This paper is from Ferguson’s book-in-progress entitled The Bookshop of Black Queer Diaspora. An experimental and conceptual text, the book is comprised of a series of fictional visits to a make-a-believe black queer bookshop and art gallery, made up of actual artifacts that invoke the histories of black queer art and activism, their responses to the ongoing legacies of colonialism and slavery, and the entanglements those legacies and neoliberalism. On this particular visit, the bookshop has acquired the lesbian letters of playwright Lorraine Hansberry and places the letters in conversation with her anti-colonialism.

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To join via Microsoft Teams please use this link https://rb.gy/qzyv2b. Registration is not required.

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A lecture series organised by the Voltaire Foundation, in collaboration with DiSc and Linacre College. Join us for a talk from Maciej Eder (Polish Academy of Sciences) - title TBC

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Laura Cumming's recent book, 'Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death', was longlisted for the 'Women's Prize for Non-Fiction 2024' and is the Winner of the Writer's Prize for Non Fiction 2024. Thunderclap recounts the morning of 12 October 1654, when a gunpowder explosion devastated the Dutch city of Delft. Among the fatalities was the painter Carel Fabritius, dead at thirty-two, leaving behind his haunting masterpiece The Goldfinch... It takes the reader from 17th-century Delft to the 20th-century Scottish islands, from Rembrandt’s studio to wartime America and contemporary London. It tells the story of the writer's love of Dutch art of the 'Golden age', and is interwoven with memories of her father. In this fascinating talk, Laura will explore the topics in Thunderclap and the links with the Dutch and Flemish artworks in the Ashmolean's collection.

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Brief Bio: Dr Abhirup Banerjee is a Royal Society University Research Fellow (URF), Full Member of Faculty, and PI in the Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford. He leads the Multimodal Medical Data Integration & Analysis (MultiMeDIA) Lab in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBME), University of Oxford. Dr Banerjee received the BSc (Hons) and Master degrees in Statistics and the PhD degree in Computer Science in March 2017. He joined the University of Oxford as Postdoctoral Researcher in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine in August 2017, started as the URF and Faculty Member in the Department of Engineering Science in October 2022, and officially started the MultiMeDIA Lab in March 2023. His research interest spans Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science, and classical Statistics, focusing on a range of topics including Biomedical Image Analysis, Machine Learning, AI, Geometric Deep Learning, Image Processing, etc. Dr Banerjee received the Young Scientist Award from the Indian Science Congress Association in the year 2016-2017. Teams link: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZjA0ZWNhYjQtOTRjZi00NDMzLTlmNzYtM2Q2NGE2NmZkNzMx%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22e44820d7-5edb-4030-9763-4c8cdc3aafd6%22%7d Abstract: Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is one of the most important imaging modalities for the diagnosis and characterisation of cardiovascular diseases, due to its non-invasive identification of abnormalities in structure and function of the myocardium without ionising radiation. However, in current clinical practice, it is commonly acquired as a collection of separated and independent 2D image planes, thus limiting its accuracy in 3D analysis. In order to generate patient-specific 3D heart meshes from the 2D MRI, we have developed completely end-to-end automated pipeline, correcting for the sparsity and misalignment due to motion artifacts between slices. Our development of novel geometric deep learning in particular point cloud-based approaches has enabled the 3D cardiac anatomy reconstruction in real-time and made possible the population-level analyses of anatomy and functions including virtual population cohorts generation for in silico trials, cardiac motion modelling, combined modelling of anatomy and electrophysiology, risk prediction, etc. The reconstructed high-resolution 3D cardiac meshes have been utilised for in silico experiments to simulate the activation patterns. The effectiveness of the novel geometric deep learning-based approaches has been extensively investigated over large (>10K) UK population and have opened up the possibility of large virtual in silico trials.

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Religion in Britain and Ireland, 1400-1700 Seminar series on Thursdays at 5pm, Trinity Term 2024 in the Lecture Room at Campion Hall Convened by Diarmaid MacCulloch, Judith Maltby, Sarah Mortimer and Grant Tapsell Offered by the Faculties of History and Theology and Religion. For more information, or for the Teams link to join remotely, please contact sarah.apetrei@campion.ox.ac.uk.

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Ofra and Alex consider a simple but intriguing mathematical argument, which purports to show how infinitely many clowns appear to have some surprising powers. They'll discuss what conclusions philosophers can and cannot draw from this case, and connect the discussion to a number of key philosophical issues such as the problem of free will and the Grandfather Paradox for time travel. Ofra Magidor is Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy at the University of Oxford and Fellow of Magdalen College. Alex Kaiserman is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford and Fairfax Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at Balliol College. While they are both philosophers, Ofra holds a BSc in Philosophy, Mathematics, and Computer Science and Alex holds an MPhysPhil in Physics and Philosophy, so they are no strangers to STEM subjects. Please email external-relations@maths.ox.ac.uk to register to attend in person. The lecture will be broadcast on the Oxford Mathematics YouTube Channel on Thursday 13 June at 5-6pm and any time after (no need to register for the online version). The Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures are generously supported by XTX Markets.

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*Paula Alonso* is Associate Professor of History and International Affairs at The George Washington University. She is the author of _Between Revolution and the Ballot Box_. _The Origins of the Argentine Radical Party in the 1890s_ (CUP, 2000); _Jardines secretos, legitimaciones públicas. El Partido Autonomista Nacional y la política Argentina de fin de siglo XIX_, (Edhasa, 2010); (editor) _Construcciones impresas. Panfletos, diarios y revistas en la formación de los estados nacionales en América Latina, 1820-1920_ (FCE, 2003); (co-editor) _El sistema federal argentino a fin de siglo XIX. Debates y coyunturas_ (Edhasa, 2015), and has published in the _Hispanic American Historical Review_ and the _Journal of Latin American Studies_, among other journals. *Laura Cucchi* holds a position as Associate Researcher at the Argentine National Scientific and Technical Research Council. She is currently Research Associate at the Latin American Centre (University of Oxford) and Visiting Researcher at the Lateinamerika-Institut (Freie Universität Berlin) thanks to a Gerda-Henkel- Postdoctoral Grant. Her publications include “Prensa política y legislación de imprenta en Córdoba en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX”, _Revista de Indias_ 74:260 (2014), and "Confrontations in the Argentine Congress during state formation (1862-1880): Provincial politicians, national authorities, and the public sphere of Buenos Aires", _Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies_, 29:2 (2023). *Juan Neves-Sarriegui* is an Associate Member of the Oxford History Faculty and postdoctoral researcher in the project ‘Latin America and the Global History of Democracy, 1810-1930’ (Oxford History Faculty, OSGA and the Gerda Henkel Foundation). He completed his doctorate at Oxford with the thesis ‘Revolution in the Rio de la Plata: Political Culture and Periodical Press, c. 1780-1830’, which explores the changes brought about by the press in the age of Atlantic revolutions. *Eduardo Posada-Carbó* is Professor of the History and Politics of Latin America at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies and the History Faculty, and William Golding Senior Research Fellow at Brasenos College. He is the co-editor (with Joanna Innes and Mark Philp) of _Re-Imagining Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean, 1780-1870_ (OUP, 2023), and has published on the history of journalism in Latin America, including ‘Newspapers, politics, and elections in Colombia, 1830–1930’, _The Historical Journal_ 53.4 (2010). *_To join online, please register in advance here:_* https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUocuyvrz4vGtTThizdrAaKNZsmRk61NTKm

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Online. In a global context marked by violent conflicts and an erosion of multilateralism, European countries have pledged to invest significant resources in the extension and modernisation of their military defence capabilities. A spreading logic of war is fuelling a rearmament dynamic in Europe and worldwide, posing not only serious security challenges but also ethical questions. With Pope Francis we may thus ask: “[Europe], where are you sailing, if you are not showing the world paths of peace?”

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There is a rich academic literature on the cultural history of modern/spoken drama (huaju) and its links to May 4th nationalism in Republican China. Spoken drama also forms a key part broader discussions around Chinese cultural resistance to the Japanese occupation (1937–45). And as scholars such as Brian DeMare have shown, 'red drama' played a major role in early post-1949 efforts to 'dramatise' the communist revolution in rural regions of China. However, this same form has been largely overlooked in the recent cultural histories of Japanese-occupied China, with emphasis instead being directed towards visual cultures, literature and cinema. In this talk, Professor Taylor will examine the importance of spoken drama to the Reorganised National Government (RNG) of Wang Jingwei by exploring the fate of one particular early-war resistance play – Liukou duizhang (Captain of the Roving Bandits) – which was appropriated by this regime to support the Rural Pacification campaign that it had introduced in 1941. While it is impossible to gauge the 'success' of this play in occupied China, it is clear that the RNG’s propaganda apparatus saw Captain of the Roving Bandits as a vehicle for disseminating its own vision of rural China. The story around the play’s adaptation and production also tells us much about the uses, and limits, of the spoken drama form under the RNG, beyond the theatres of Shanghai. In examining the spoken drama form, Professor Taylor aims to contribute to wider efforts at putting 'culture' back into our understanding of Rural Pacification (a campaign which generated significant amounts of cultural production, yet which continues to be viewed by many scholars as little more than a cynical and violent attempt at counterinsurgency). As Professor Taylor has argued elsewhere, cultural programmes introduced under Rural Pacification drew on aspects of pre-war May 4th and Republican practices. Such programmes also demanded a creative re-working of the contents and messages that such distinctly Chinese cultural products adopted as they steered a path between Japanese censorship and the RNG’s own claims to wartime Chinese patriotism. Jeremy E. Taylor is professor of modern history and head of the History Department at the University of Nottingham. He is the author of over 30 journal articles and/or book chapters on the cultural history of East and Southeast Asia, as well as two monographs, including, most recently, Iconographies of Occupation: Visual Cultures in Wang Jingwei’s China, 1939–1945 (2021). He has also edited four volumes, including, most recently, Chineseness and the Cold War (with Lanjun Xu) (2022). The research he is presenting at this seminar is supported by a generous research grant from the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation ('Documenting Wartime Collaboration', RG001-U-22).

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Radical hope: Reimagining capitalism for climate crisis Please join us for the 2024 Battcock Lecture. Smith School Director, Professor Mette Morsing, welcomes Professor Rebecca Henderson, HEEP Faculty Fellow, John and Natty McArthur University Professor, Harvard University, as this year’s guest speaker. "It’s the most successful economic system to have ever existed, but capitalism is in danger of destroying itself — and our world." TED talk veteran and author Rebecca Henderson will be in conversation with Cameron Hepburn, Oxford Battcock Professor of Environmental Economics. Professor Henderson will bring her deep expertise in economics, psychology and organisational behaviour to share a bold approach to a better world. The speakers will discuss radical hope in the face of climate crisis, and explore emerging narratives including techno-optimism, system change and mindset shifts. What does it mean to truly make a difference? The Humphrey Battcock Lecture is a joint collaboration of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford and host, New College, Oxford. The event will also be live-streamed on YouTube. Register now!

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In this lecture, we delve into the intricate relationship between science, technology, and the governance of water resources, illustrating how advancements in these areas have historically been leveraged to exert and project power. Through the lens of the Indus Basin's transformation and Dutch colonial interventions in Indonesia's traditional rice systems, we explore the profound impacts of Enlightenment-era scientific breakthroughs on imperial dominance. This session also considers the potential societal upheavals prompted by modern innovations in agricultural water management, including precision agriculture, AI, and satellite remote sensing. Concluding with a discussion on nature-based solutions and the politics surrounding sustainable agricultural adaptation, this lecture aims to unravel the complex interplay between technological advancement, power dynamics, and environmental stewardship in the context of global river basins.

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The Oriel Environmental Group’s Trinity talk, will be given by Dr Phil Grünewald, Supernumerary Research Fellow and Tutor in Engineering Science; AJ Hudson, Current DPhil Student in Geography and the Environment, and Thomas O’Callaghan Brown, MSc Student in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management.

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Keynote Lecture as part of the India-China Dispute Conference - https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/c9cfd740-eb23-44be-b31a-6ba579f97db8/ Kishore Mahbubani has dedicated five decades of his life to public service. In his 33 years as a Singapore diplomat, Kishore took on many challenging assignments, serving for example in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in 1973/74 during the war. He also served two stints as Singapore’s Ambassador to the UN (1984-1989 and 1998-2004). He also held the position of Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1994 to 1998. He was also conferred the Public Administration Medal (Gold) by the Singaporean Government in 1998. Kishore had an equally illustrious career in academia. He was appointed the Founding Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in August 2004. Despite his heavy administrative duties, Kishore proved to be a prolific author. He has published nine books. His latest books, Has China Won? and The Asian 21st Century were released in March 2020 and January 2022. Kishore has received global recognition for his intellectual contributions, having been listed several times in the list of top global thinkers by Foreign Policy and Prospect Magazines. The citation for the US Foreign Policy Association Medal he received in June 2004 said: “a gifted diplomat, a student of history and philosophy, a provocative writer and an intuitive thinker.” Kishore has held positions in several globally significant committees. He was the founding chairman of the nominating committee of the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize (2009 to 2019). He has participated in the annual meetings of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos twenty times, serving also in several WEF committees. In April 2019, he was the second Singaporean to be elected as an honorary international member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which has honoured distinguished thinkers, including several of America’s Founding Fathers, since 1780.

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Join Professor Thomas Hale, Professor in Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government, in conversation with leading thinkers and policymakers, for the launch of his new book Long Problems: Climate Change and the Challenge of Governing across Time, in which he outlines political strategies for tackling climate change and other “long problems” that span generations. Climate change and its consequences unfold over many generations. Past emissions affect our climate today, just as our actions shape the climate of tomorrow, while the effects of global warming will last thousands of years. Yet the priorities of the present dominate our climate policy and the politics surrounding it. Even the social science that attempts to frame the problem does not theorise time effectively. In this pathbreaking book, Thomas Hale examines the politics of climate change and other “long problems.” He shows why we find it hard to act before a problem’s effects are felt, why our future interests carry little weight in current debates, and why our institutions struggle to balance durability and adaptability. With long-term goals in mind, he outlines strategies for tilting the politics and policies of climate change toward better outcomes. Join Professor Hale for a book launch and discussion with leading experts Cat Zuzarte Tully, Managing Director of the School of International Futures, and Professor Jonathan Boston of Victoria University of Wellington. To link theory and practice, the event will also feature a panel discussion with leading policymakers seeking to tackle long problems at different scales. We will hear from Councillor Charlie Hicks, Future Generations Champion, Oxfordshire County Council, Ms Jane Davidson, who, as Welsh Government Minister, spearheaded Wales’ world-leading legislation on future generations, and Ms Michèle Griffin, who is leading the organization of the United Nations Summit of the Future for the UN Secretary General in September 2024. This event is co-hosted with the Oxford Martin School.

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Can we use words, poetry and literature to go beyond the bloodless litany of cold statistics and faceless numbers which has become the default way of conveying conflict, war and displacement? An evening with Charlotte Shevchenko Knight (Cape Poetry), Ivan Krastev (Penguin) & Yousif M. Qasmiyeh (Broken Sleep Books)

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Hashim is currently Chair of Urology and Head of the Section of Specialty Surgery at Imperial College London which incorporates breast, ENT, head and neck, neurosurgery, ophthalmology, urology and vascular surgery. He heads up the Imperial Prostate group since 2017 when he took up the Chair of Urology having previously been at UCL as a MRC Clinical Research Training Fellow for his PhD, followed by an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship which incorporated his position as Clinical Senior Lecturer and then Reader in Urology. He currently holds a Wellcome Senior Research Fellowship (2017 to 2027). His research interests are in health technology assessment with a strong focus on clinical trials that bring innovative and transformative changes to the prostate cancer pathway from screening through to treatment of advanced disease. This has been and is supported by a grant income over the last 10 years of approximately £30M as lead applicant and £12M as co-applicant. He has well over 400 peer reviewed publications. He is active clinically, dealing with benign and malignant diseases of the prostate within the outpatient setting and operatively with minimally invasive approaches. As a result, he has and continues to train and support numerous urologists internationally in the specialised techniques that he has pioneered. Please email Louise King (louise.king@nds.ox.ac.uk) if you would like to attend online.

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*Friday 24 May* – Nissan Lecture Theatre 09:00-10:00 Sovereignty Chair: Prof. Christophe Jaffrelot (Sciences Po and King’s College London) Tibet and the Dalai Lama in the India-China Dispute: Buffer, Irritant and Future Prospects? - Prof. Tsering Topgyal (University of Birmingham) The Xinjiang factor in Sino-Indian ties in the early 1950s - Mr. Prateek Joshi (Oxford University) 10:00-11:00 Bilateralism Chair: Prof. Kate Sullivan de Estrada (Oxford University) Where the Way out for Sino-Indian Border Dispute? - Prof. Xinmin Sui (Zhengzhou University) Mutual Perceptions and China-India Relations - Prof. Li Li (Tsinghua University) 11:00-11:30 Break 11:30-13:00 Regions Chair: Prof. Alexander Evans (LSE) Southeast Asian Views on the Sino-Indian Dispute - Prof. John Ciorciari (Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, Univ. of Michigan) The effects of the India-China border crisis on South Asia - Mr. Sushant Singh (Yale) China-Pakistan Partnership - An Answer to the Indo-Pacific Strategy? - Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa (SOAS) 13:00-14:00 Lunch 14:00-15:00 Roundtable on ways forward General Manoj Naravane Senior Colonel Zhou Bo Ambassador Kishore Mahbubani

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‘Education and Inequity: Perspectives from South Asia’ is a one-day research symposium that focuses on identifying the sites, forms and operations of inequity in education and contributing to the growing body of scholarship on rethinking and redesigning education systems to be more inclusive and equitable. The symposium will be hosted by Education South Asia and Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development at the University of Oxford, and aims to bring together graduate students, researchers and practitioners to explore these entanglements from a multidisciplinary perspective.

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Are you an early career researcher, fixed-term lecturer, or doctoral student trying to get some writing done? Do you research topics related to medicine, but are based in the Humanities or Social Sciences? The ECR/DPhil Medical Humanities writing group is an inclusive, interdisciplinary group of medical humanities researchers from across the University of Oxford community, and all are welcome. We come together weekly for a morning of timed writing blocks and goal-setting in a casual atmosphere with coffee/tea/light refreshments. In Trinity Term 2024, this will include an informal lunch. Please email hohee.cho@history.ox.ac.uk with any dietary requirements. If you have any queries, please email gordon.barrett@history.ox.ac.uk.

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Are you an early career researcher, fixed-term lecturer, or doctoral student trying to get some writing done? Do you research topics related to medicine, but are based in the Humanities or Social Sciences? The ECR/DPhil Medical Humanities writing group is an inclusive, interdisciplinary group of medical humanities researchers from across the University of Oxford community, and all are welcome. We come together weekly for a morning of timed writing blocks and goal-setting in a casual atmosphere with coffee/tea/light refreshments. In Trinity Term 2024, this will include an informal lunch. Please email hohee.cho@history.ox.ac.uk with any dietary requirements. If you have any queries, please email gordon.barrett@history.ox.ac.uk.

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An engaging and informative study day to delve into the history of artworks and methods explored in our Bruegel to Rubens exhibition. The study day will provide opportunities to hear from international experts. In person attendees will have opportunities to ask questions and engage in discussions. The event will include lunch and refreshments.

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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.

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Members of the *Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln Archives seminar* will also be presenting their work. *Programme* 10:00-10:15 *Professor Henry Woudhuysen* (Rector of Lincoln College) Welcome words 10:15-10:30 *Dr Laure Miolo* & *Lindsay McCormack* (organisers - Lincoln College) The seminar Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln Archives 10:30-11:15 *Dr Alison Ray* (St Peter’s College and All Souls) Archival sources for the medieval Oxford book trade 11:15-11:15 Break & refreshments 11:30-11:55 *Tabitha Claydon*, *Claire Holthaus* and *Sam Oliver:* Their current research on medieval documents from All Saint’s Parish 11:55-12:10 *Cory Nguyen* and *Charlie West*: Their current research on medieval documents from All Saint’s Parish 12:10-12:55 *Dr Richard Allen* (Magdalen College, Oxford) "Qui scripsit hanc cartam": Charters and their Scribes through the Archives of Magdalen College, Oxford (c.1100–c.1300) 13:00-14:00 Lunch break (buffet for speakers) - delegates please make your own arrangements 14:00-14:15 *Keely Douglas* and *Maria Murad*: Their current research on Anglo-Norman documents from Lincoln 14:15-14:30 *Srija Dutta* and *Victoria Northridge*: Their current research on medieval documents from All Saint’s Parish 14:30-15:15 *Professor Philippa Hoskin* (Fellow Librarian of the Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge) Stamps of approval: the meaning of seals on medieval documents 15:15-15:30 *Mehmet Tatoglu* and *Lucy Turner*: Their current research on medieval documents from All Saint’s Parish 15:30-15:45 Break & refreshments 15:45-16:30 *Dr Michael Stansfield* (New College, Oxford) The Archival Ambition of William of Wykeham 16:45-17:00 *Jess Hind* and *Lika Gorskaia*: Their current research on medieval documents from All Saint’s Parish 17:00-18:00 Break and drinks reception 18:00-18:45 Keynote lecture *Professor David d’Avray* (UCL/Jesus College, Oxford) Comparative diplomatic: papacy and English royal government 18:45 *Professor Henry Woudhuysen* Conclusion The conference is free to attend but booking is required. Please email one of the organisers: "$":mailto:laure.miolo@history.ox.ac.uk or "$":mailto:lindsay.mccormack@lincoln.ox.ac.uk.

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A relaxed and supportive space where we can work together on our projects. Participants are welcome to join and leave at any time that works for them.

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3MT is a competition which challenges doctoral students to explain their research in just 180 seconds. Come and hear about some of the incredible research that oxford doctoral students are pursuing. All are welcome to watch our finalists present. Audience seats are available on a first come, first served basis.

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Talk 1: Docking site-mediated photostabilization for single-molecule and super-resolution imaging Cindy Close, Tinnefeld Group, LMU Munich DNA-PAINT is a single-molecule localization microscopy technique, relying on transient hybridization of fluorescently labeled single-stranded DNA imager strands to complementary docking strands on target molecules.1 During acquisition, docking sites are imaged over the course of multiple binding, dissociation and photobleaching events. Through constant imager strand exchange, the limited photon budget of a single fluorophore is circumvented, making it possible to extract super-resolution images at high laser illumination intensities. Over long periods of continuous high-duty cycle excitation of fluorophores, DNA-PAINT binding sites can, however, be depleted.2 Fluorophores in triplet excited states may generate singlet oxygen and downstream reactive oxygen species (ROS), damaging the docking sites and labeled target structures (Figure 1a). The use of triplet state quenchers (TSQ) and enzymatic scavenging systems is further limited to systems insensitive to pH change or high additive concentration. Inspired by fluorophore regeneration and self-repair mechanisms, we link the TSQ cyclooctatetraene to a DNA sequence.3,4 This photostabilizer strand binds directly next to the imager at the docking site, thereby allowing for self-regeneration and programmed exchange (Figure 1b). The presented contribution shows how this approach can increase the accessible photon budget. The method is characterized in a DNA origami model structure and applied to image microtubules in fixed cells. The improved longevity of DNA-PAINT docking sites is shown and the impact of photostabilizer strand regeneration is explored. The ability to mix and match optimal photostabilizer/dye pairs in this modular approach could be beneficial e.g., for multi-color measurements, that often require multiple rounds of imaging. Talk 2: Breaking the Concentration Barrier in Single-Molecule Fluorescence with Fluorogenic Probes - a Universal Approach Mirjam Kümmerlin, Kapanidis Group, Biophysics & Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery (Oxford) The “high concentration barrier” of ~50 nM fluorescent species is one of the main limitations of single-molecule fluorescence measurements - overcoming it will advance many in vitro and in vivo single-molecule applications, including tracking in crowded environments, super-resolution imaging, and smFRET experiments. One way to generate good data from high-concentration environments is by employing fluorogenic probes (i.e. labels that become fluorescent upon binding to a target). We have implemented strategies to achieve fluorogenicity in ssDNAs, which we use to label targets carrying a complementary strand. The quenching efficiency and fluorescence enhancement upon duplex formation can be tailored through the use of several fluorophore-quencher combinations, label lengths, and buffer compositions. These allow for single-molecule experiments at concentrations of up to 10 µM fluorescent labels – a 200-fold improvement without the need for any special optics or nanofabrication. Our detailed understanding of the quenching processes allows us to develop fluorogenic labels for a multitude of experimental applications, without being limited by length, sequence of the label, or spectral regions of the fluorescence. To demonstrate the plug-and-play level solution this can offer, we demonstrate DNA-PAINT super-resolution imaging of viral particles using a fluorogenic 6nt long, fluorogenic imager. To further highlight new experimental paths only possible with fluorogenic labels, we perform smFRET measurements over extraordinarily long observations spans of up to one hour for a single molecule, circumventing photo-bleaching through constant exchange of fluorogenic ssDNAs supplying donor and acceptor dyes (REFRESH-FRET).

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If you wish to attend the conference online, please send an email to laura.langone@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk. 10:30 am-11:30 am: Alex Colas (Birkbeck): Marx, Capitalism and Maritime Temporalities 11:30 am-12:30 pm: Gareth Dale (Brunel): Marx, Growth Ideology, and Degrowth 12:30-14:00: lunch break 14:00-15:00: Nick Stevenson (Nottingham): Democratic Socialism, Degrowth and the Commons: Raymond Williams, Marxism, and the Anthropocene 15:00-16:00: Martin Crook (UWE Bristol): Marx and the Ecocide - Genocide Nexus 16:00-16:30: coffee break 16:30-17:30: Esther Leslie (Birkbeck): Marx between Fire Theft and Theft for Fire: On Land (and Everything Else) as Social Product 17:30-18:00: Conclusions by the organisers Laura Langone (Oxford/Verona) and Bernhard Malkmus (Oxford) This event is organised by Dr Laura Langone, Visiting Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Oxford's Sub-Faculty of German and funded through Dr Langone's MSCA FUNDS, Grant Agreement nr. 101105454.

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The History of Gender Seminar meets on Fridays at 11am-12:15pm, in-person in the Colin Matthew Room at the History Faculty, or online via Teams. All welcome at this relaxed interdisciplinary seminar! Please email emilia.flack@magd.ox.ac.uk if you would like to be added to our mailing list. Teams link: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_YTBkYjY3ZmQtNDJkYS00NTBiLWI0M2MtZmZjZDQxOGEwOTZk%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%228e6e425a-cedf-419b-a96d-972dbc28b270%22%7d

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The polar ice cores represent our most detailed archive of large magnitude volcanic eruptions. Yet, for the majority of these eruptions we have no idea where the source volcano was located nor whether its ash and sulfur emissions made it to the stratosphere. This information is critical for understanding the climate and societal impacts of past eruptions. Our group at St Andrews is developing a new isotopic and tephra analytical tool kit to extract this key information from volcano ice core archives. Here, I will talk about a particularly fascinating period at the end of the Little Ice Age, 1800–1850 CE, which is the coldest period in the last 500 years and was marked by cluster of mysterious volcanic events.

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This research delves into the transformation of the water community during the 1950s under the new regime. At that time, approximately 4 million people inhabited the rivers and lakes, earning their livelihoods through fishing and water transportation. This community formed a highly mobile society, interconnected through boat gangs, trade organizations and clans. Following the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the CCP government initiated political campaigns to dismantle the traditional power structures of labour contractors, boat gangs and clans. To centralise the management of the water community, specialized administrative bodies, including grassroots authorities and public security institutions, were gradually established. The communist government also established shipping and fishery management agencies to facilitate national administration of the water community. Local governments implemented policies to regulate employment, provide loans, establish supply networks and standardize prices. Members of the water community were organized into national organizations and played a significant role in the economic development of the 1950s. They not only ensured smooth transportation for the Unified Purchase and marketing of grain but also contributed to national fisheries, water conservancy and flood relief efforts. Professor Yunxian Ren, China Centre Academic Visitor, earned a PhD in history from Beijing Normal University and now teaches at Nanchang Hangkong University. Her research interests include diplomatic concepts, the history of education in China and China's history in the 1950s. Currently, she is conducting research on the governance of the water community in the South-central Region of the People's Republic of China.

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Race & Resistance is pleased to welcome Dr. Meleisa Ono-George, as part of our Trinity seminar series. Dr. Meleisa will speak to the group about some of her current work, including her forthcoming book My Name is Amelia Newsham: Science, Art and the Making of Race (Viking Books), and her experience navigating the histories of Black individuals in 18th century Britain. After this, the session will open to a Q&A, so come prepared with some questions. Biography: Dr. Meleisa Ono-George is a social-cultural historian of race and gender, with a focus on Black women’s histories in Britain and the Anglo-Caribbean. She is interested in the everyday ways people oppressed within society negotiate and navigate structures of power and inequality, as well as the legacies and politics of writing such histories within contemporary society. Dr Ono-George’s current research focuses on the life of an Afro-Jamaican woman in late eighteenth-century Jamaica and Britain and the archival remnants of her life. She is also currently developing a community-engaged project which looks at the history of Black mothering in Britain and the use of creative storytelling. Both projects draw upon her interest in community-engaged and Caribbean research methodologies. Dr. Ono-George’s first book, My Name is Amelia Newsham: Science, Art and the Making of Race, is forthcoming from Viking Books. ----------- Twitter: race_resistance Subscribe to our mailing list by sending a blank email to: race-and-resistance-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk. Email raceandresistance@torch.ox.ac.uk with any questions.

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This session is part of the Reading and Writing Innovation Lab Seminar series at the Radcliffe Science Library. This free workshop will survey the landscape of generative AI tools (going beyond ChatGPT) and their common uses in academic practice. It will focus on using AI to enhance academic work while maintaining integrity across a wide range of tasks and giving users a framework for evaluating both suitability of AI for the task in general and choosing the appropriate tool for task where AI is a good fit. - What are the key strengths and weaknesses of generative AI when it comes to academic practice - How to evaluate an academic task for suitability to use with AI - How to evaluate an AI tool for suitability to a particular task - What are some common tasks where AI is widely used in academia - What are common pitfalls when using generative AI in academic contexts

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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 online presentation will try to demystify and simplify narrative CVs by providing advice, prompts and suggestions for how to write one. This session is intended for researchers who need to write a narrative CV for funding applications and research support staff, from any division, at any career stage. *Speakers* Mary Muers (Medical Sciences Division) Tanita Casci (Research Services) Kanza Basit (Economics) Gavin Bird (Earth Sciences) *How to Register* If you have a CareerConnect account, please register "here":https://oxford.targetconnect.net/leap/event.html?id=21040&service=Careers%20Service If you do not have a CareerConnect account please register "here":https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=G96VzPWXk0-0uv5ouFLPke7xLB0LNIFKuA055EWF9ZtURUhFSVBMM0o2RkNCMjM4NFBCVkVYVUJGOS4u

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Dr. Goswami obtained her medical degree from the Gauhati Medical College in Assam, India, and PhD in Immunology from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, USA. She completed her Internal Medicine Residency from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) in Pittsburgh, PA, and Medical Oncology Fellowship from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA. Dr. Goswami has published numerous original research articles and reviews in high-impact journals such as Nature Medicine, Nature Immunology, Science, Nature Reviews Immunology, and Science Translational Medicine which enabled development of novel combination immunotherapy to treat cancer patients. Her clinic is focused on treating patients with renal cell carcinoma and urothelial carcinoma and her laboratory work in the Department of Immunology focuses on understanding the cellular state and plasticity of the tumor-immune ecosystem and its role in determining response to immune checkpoint therapy. Dr. Goswami has designed multiple investigator-initiated clinical trials based on her pre-clinical data and currently leading them as a principal investigator. Recently, Dr. Goswami was elected to be a part of the “Extended Leadership Team” for the B reak Through Cancer (BTC) Glioblastoma (GBM) team, a research alliance between The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins University, and 2 Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. As a part of this multi-disciplinary alliance, Dr. Goswami will lead the discovery science work delineating myeloid cell biology to explore therapeutic avenues in GBM. Dr. Goswami received numerous awards including the Andrew Sabin Award in 2021 for high risk-high impact research for emerging leaders.

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Alexander Francis Palazzo was born and raised in Montreal, Canada. As a graduate student in Gregg Gundersen’s laboratory at Columbia University, he discovered two major pathways that regulate cell polarity in migrating fibroblasts. After receiving his PhD in 2003, he moved to Tom Rapoport’s laboratory at Harvard Medical School where he was a Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellow. There he investigated how newly synthesized mRNA is exported from the nucleus and then targeted to specific sites in the cytoplasm of mammalian cells, such as the surface of the endoplasmic reticulum. In 2009 he started his lab in the Biochemistry Department where he is currently a full professor. Besides his work on mRNA export and localization, Dr. Palazzo is interested in how biological information is extracted from the mammalian genome and how this influences evolution.

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Microglia, brain’s major resident macrophages, are critical contributors of neuronal synapse function and health. One important function of microglia is to detect, and determine, which synapses to eliminate and which ones to spare throughout lifespan, and that this function of microglia goes awry in multiple models of age-related neurodegenerative diseases to mediate synapse loss and dysfunction. However, what the triggers are that regulate microglia-synapse interaction in the adult and diseased brains are unclear. Recent findings, including those from our lab, collectively suggest that the functional cell states of microglia, including the synapse phagocytosing ones, are influenced by local synaptic activity, neighbouring astrocytes, and perivascular macrophages in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease. I will highlight these works from our lab and in particular, I will present unpublished data involving cell-cell crosstalk between microglia and immune cells across brain borders that modulate synaptic fate. SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY The Hong lab studies neuro-glia-immune interactions at the synapse. In particular, the lab is interested in how brain’s glial cells including microglia and astrocytes coordinate neuronal synaptic homeostasis, and how this immune-glial crosstalk breaks down in disease, including in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases (Bartels et al., Science 2020, Rueda-Carrasco, Sokolova and Lee et al., EMBO J 2020). The lab also studies neuroimmune signalling on and across brain borders and how they modulate neuronal and synaptic fate (De Schepper et al., Nature Neuroscience 2023). Dr. Soyon Hong received her PhD in Neuroscience in 2012 from Harvard University, after studying with Dr. Dennis Selkoe on amyloid-induced synaptic degeneration (Hong et al., Neuron 2014, Hong et al., Journal of Neuroscience 2011, Li, Hong et al., Neuron 2011). Her post-doctoral work with Dr. Beth Stevens at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School led to the identification of microglia as cellular mediators of synapse loss in Alzheimer models via classical complement cascade (Hong et al., Science 2016). For these works, Soyon received the Junior Faculty Award at international ADPD Kenes (2015), Harvard Lefler Fellowship (2015-2017) and Charles King Trust Fellowship (2016-2018). Soyon started her independent lab at University College London in October 2018 as a UK DRI fellow (2018-2028). She was awarded Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) Neurodegeneration Challenge Network Collaborators Grant (2020-2026), and in 2023 was named the Alzheimer’s Research UK David Hague Early Career Investigator of the Year.

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Speaker: David Hope (KCL) with Julian Limberg and Yves Steinebach Abstract Why is there such strong opposition to carbon taxes in rural areas? In this paper, we develop the literature on fairness perceptions and the rural backlash against carbon taxation by focusing on procedural fairness concerns. We argue that perceptions of unequal treatment by the state (especially around access to public transport) lead people living in rural areas to be less supportive of carbon taxes, because they believe that carbon taxes unfairly punish those that have already been disadvantaged by the state. We carry out a survey with a representative sample of around 3,000 respondents from the UK to test our argument. First, we provide observational evidence on urban–rural differences in unequal treatment beliefs, fairness perceptions and carbon tax support. Second, we test our argument causally through an information-provision survey experiment, where we show the treatment group information on the highly geographically unequal distribution of public spending on transport in the UK. For rural respondents, the treatment significantly increases perceptions of unequal treatment and carbon tax unfairness, leading to a substantial reduction in support for carbon taxation of around 10 percentage points. Taken together, our results provide strong evidence in support of our argument.

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Autotheory? Locating the self in feminist research Friday 24 May 2024, 2pm - 3pm Seminar Room, Radcliffe Humanities All welcome Speaker: Dr Elliot Evans (University of Birmingham) Moderators: Yoshiyuki Ishikawa (University of Oxford), Isaac James (University of Oxford) How do we situate ourselves as researchers, and what place does or should ‘the self’ have in feminist research? To what extent do we focus on ourselves and to what extent on others? Embracing the title of this series, Feminist Thinking, this talk offers a way into considering how we approach research as feminists, focusing on feminist methodologies and the position of the feminist researcher. I revisit questions of reflexivity in response to the increasing popularity of autotheory in feminist, queer and trans research, offering a critical exploration of autotheory as a genre and as a (feminist) methodology. Biography: Elliot Evans is Associate Professor in the Department of Modern Languages, University of Birmingham, and author of Queer Permeability: The Body in French Thought from Wittig to Preciado (2020). Elliot is concerned with the varied constructions of sexuality and gender across cultures, engaging variously with queer, feminist and transgender theories. Their work examines the biopolitical management of bodies and illness, and the ways in which this is elaborated through writing and visual production. Their current research project is a comparative analysis of the visual language of HIV/AIDS across four national contexts: Democratic Republic of Congo, France, Haiti, Québec. This event supported by Green Templeton College

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*Greco-Roman and Classical Chinese Translation: Theory and Practice* This seminar series is intended to look more broadly at Latin translations of Chinese texts, Chinese translations of Greco-Roman texts, and translation as theory and practice within and between both traditions.

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We extend the standard disclosure model between a sender and a receiver by allowing the receiver to independently gather partial information, by means of a test – a signal with at most k realizations. The receiver’s choice of test is observed by the sender and therefore influences his decision of whether to disclose. We characterize the optimal test for the receiver and show how it resolves the trade-off between informativeness and disclosure incentives. If the receiver were aiming at maximizing the informativeness, she would choose a deterministic test. In contrast, the optimal test involves randomization over signal realizations and maintains a simple structure. Such a structure allows us to interpret this randomization as the strategic use of uncertain evaluation standards for disclosure incentives.

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24 May Jewish Hospitality as Counter-Cultural Masculinity in Luke and Acts Benjamin Isachsen, Balliol College

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Molecular recognition governs immune response. Developing highly specific binding proteins is fundamental to novel theragnostics. We develop a new molecular platform, TRACeR, for peptide-focused targeting of MHCs, with unprecedented specificity. Beyond MHC, we leverage protein generative models to address in silico antibody design. These efforts offer new insights to the immune targeting paradigm and AI modeling strategies. I will present our recent findings on the molecular and software platforms.

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Understanding the biology of social groups is a central research problem in neurobehavioral biology. It requires a combination of genetic, biochemical, physiological, and behavioral approaches. Recent research on Drosophila sociality, from my lab and others, has emphasized the role of social context on a wide range of phenomena, extending from gene expression to mating to decision making. I will discuss how we use a social network approach to understand the role of social organization on species segregation and the genetic contributions to social structure in Drosophila social groups. Adding a social biology perspective to questions across various biological fields is essential to fully understanding the biology of all organisms and promises to reveal novel insights arising from group-level behavior.

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The CWRN is thrilled to announce that along with the Contesting Governance Platform of Utrecht University, it is co-sponsoring the hybrid launch event of Dr Liliane Stadler’s first book, _Between Neutrality and Solidarity: Swiss Good offices in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1982_. This book is published in the Brill Series New Perspectives on the Cold War. The volume represents the first in-depth analysis of Switzerland’s diplomatic involvement in Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion of 1979. It is a historical case study of the principal challenges that permanently neutral states face in times of international crisis and tension. At the same time, it examines the complex nature of the relationships between neutral state and non-state actors in situations of armed conflict through the perspective of new archival source material. *Dr Liliane Stadler* is currently a lecturer in the History of International Relations at the Department of History and Art History, Utrecht University. Her research revolves around the role of permanently neutral states in multilateral diplomacy and conflict resolution during the late Cold War and early post-Cold War periods. She completed her doctorate in History at the University of Oxford (St Antony’s) in 2021, where she focused on Swiss good offices and humanitarian diplomacy in Afghanistan during and after the Soviet occupation of 1979 to 1989 under the supervision of Professor Anne Deighton and Professor Paul Betts. She is a member of the Cold War Research Network at the University of Utrecht and an affiliated researcher at Documents Diplomatiques de la Suisse (DODIS) in Berne, Switzerland. For more information about the book please visit: https://brill.com/display/title/69671

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How does a war economy come into being? This talk builds on my on-going research with Ukrainian combatants and military crowdfunding activists along the transnational value chains of the Russo-Ukrainian war. I interrogate how my interlocutors’ experiences of life-destroying violence structure their understandings and calculation of worth and obligation in the orbit of war. I argue that on Ukraine’s frontlines, militants narrate and contest the war ‘economy’ as both a totality of value relations organised in the service of violence; and a calculative, relational frame for reckoning what people owe each other and their nation at war.

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Enjoy linguistically enriched snacks and drinks with contributions from our research and creative partners on topics including teaching pronunciation with AI, interactions between linguistic diversity and biodiversity, and a Prismatic Jane Eyre. With a Yoruba/English Musical Finale by Grammy Award Winner Lekan Babalola (Percussion) and Kate Luxmoore (Clarinet)

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Sue is a photojournalist and Patrick is a writer. They have been documenting environmental and social issues in Brazil since 1985, with a focus on indigenous issues. It all started one day in the 1980s when Sue met Cacique Raoni Metuktire and her life changed; he anchored her soul to the forest. Since then Sue and Patrick have produced many features for magazines and books, based on frequent visits, mostly to the Xingu River basin. The Kayapo warriors, men and women, and all of the 18 different Indigenous peoples of the Xingu taught them so much about the forest and how to live. For them it was a re-birth. Witnessing the rapacious destruction they felt they had to do something! They became more and more involved - and invested - in the Amazon and the people who live there. They gained a greater understanding of the social and environmental importance of the forest and neighbouring cerrado, for Brazil and the rest of the World. In 2007 they spent six months travelling through the states of Mato Grosso and Pará, navigating the 2,500 kms of the Xingu River. They listened to their indigenous hosts as they told of their struggles and hopes. They shared dreams, they made lifelong friends. Each of the 48 villages they visited asked them to take their message to the world, to tell the kuben (non-indigenous people) about the strong indigenous cultures and the threats they are facing, from farmers, from illegal fires, from mining and from climate change. That voyage is documented in their award-winning book "Spirit of the Amazon”. This illustrated talk brings that message from the heart of Brasil to Oxford! "Our incredible friends from Xingu fed us, body and soul,” said Sue. "They showed us that they are one entity with the forest, the river, the rocks and the sky. They want non-Indigenous people to understand that Indigenous people are people, women and men, with aspirations and dreams. They are proud to fight with hope for a better future for their children and grandchildren, in fact for all of us wherever we are." Through their charity Tribes Alive they have been supporting Indigenous Peoples who are adapting to change. As their understanding of non-indigenous cultures has grown they have become bridges of knowledge. For Sue and Patrick they are very much part of their daily lives. When Cacique Raoni Metuktire comes to the UK he always insist on staying with Sue and Patrick because he is at home in their house, especially in their suburban garden! Now more than ever it is important to give prominence to these resilient original peoples of the Amazon, to the indigenous guardians who protect and defend the forest in Brazil, who elevate the spirit of Amazon for the benefit of humanity! 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.

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This event will introduce aspects of Tibetan manuscript and book culture, following the recent publication in two volumes of Tibetan Manuscripts and Early Printed Books, edited by Matthew Kapstein (Cornell University Press, March 2024). We warmly invite students and researchers in Tibetan studies, as well as anyone interested in books and manuscript cultures more broadly.

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Early Neolithic settlement at the mouth of the River Foyle Speaker: Martin McGonigle Archaeological investigations over the past 30 years have resulted in the identification of approximately one hundred Early Neolithic rectangular structures across the island of Ireland. A cluster of these structures comprising over 10% of the total number have been uncovered in a small area close to the mouth of the River Foyle, immediately northeast of Derry City. Martin McGonigle will present a general discussion of these features and by examining their landscape setting will attempt to answer the question: why was this part of the Foyle a locus for Early Neolithic settlement? Echoes of Battle: Exploring Napoleonic era conflict in the Western Pyrenees Speaker: Emma Bonthorne Five years of excavations at Roncesvalles (Navarre, Spain) have produced an enormous number of human bones dating to between the 12th and the 19th centuries CE. Used throughout various phases as an ossuary, carnarium and local cemetery, the site represents one of the largest commingled assemblages to be studied in the Iberian Peninsula. This talk explores some of the facets of osteological research carried out at the site, including insights from taphonomy and trauma analysis. In the context of 18th and 19th century conflict in the Pyrenees, the talk centres around themes of surgery, epidemics and death during the period of the Napoleonic Wars as a means of reconstructing mortuary patterns at the site.

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'Reopening the Opening of Japan: Transnational Approaches to Modern Japan and the Wider World' is the result of the Meiji Restoration sesquicentennial conference held at St Antony’s College in 2019. It rethinks the way in which ‘the Opening of Japan’ constitutes a historical event that connected the archipelago to the wider world. The book draws attention to the historiographical underrepresentation of non-state historical actors and non-imperial encounters in flows of cultural and intellectual life within and beyond Asia in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. It tackles subjects ranging from the worldwide nineteenth century trade in mummified mermaids and a globetrotting Japanese scientist’s study of sexual desire in slime moulds, to the Japanese-Russian intellectual links underpinning threads of anarchism in the work of Akira Kurosawa. These historical studies also revisit many of the broader topics that those learning about Japanese history for the first time will come into contact with, from ideas of revolution, progress, and civilisation, to sizeable shifts in medicine, the arts, politics, religion, industry, and conceptions of nature and humanity. Instead of searching for a specifically “Japanese” experience of these developments, they look at the fundamentally transnational character through the lenses of a diverse range of people. The book sheds light on the lives of pearl divers, sex workers, African American writers, radical doctors, craftsmen, cartoonists, and many more – people whose roles in the ‘Opening of Japan’ have either been downplayed or overlooked entirely. Together, they offer new understandings of Japan’s modernity that emphasise its heterogeneous and polylithic nature. Join us in a conversation about the implications of Reopening the Opening of Japan for future studies of Japan’s global past. Contributing authors: Natalia Doan (Waseda University), Maki Fukuoka (University of Leeds), Eiko Honda (Aarhus University), Mateja Kovacic (Hong Kong Baptist University), Joel Littler (University of Oxford), Chinami Oka (University of Oxford), Yu Sakai (Waseda University), Olga Solovieva (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland), and Warren Stanislaus (NYU Shanghai). Editors: Lewis Bremner (University of Cambridge), Manimporok (Brown University), Sho Konishi (University of Oxford). Speakers: Sho Konishi is a historian specializing in transnational discourses on knowledge at the University of Oxford. Lewis Bremner (University of Cambridge) is a historian in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. He has previously held posts at Harvard University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Oxford, and teaches a range of courses on the history of science and technology and the history of East Asia. His interest in the cultural and social dimensions of technology and the interconnections formed by the movement of knowledge is a common thread in his research, and his recent work includes an article in Modern Asian Studies. He is currently writing a book on the history of the magic lantern in Japan. Manimporok (Brown University) studies trans-Asian historical connections with a focus on environment and indigenous universalisms. He does so as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of East Asian Studies and the Cogut Institute for the Humanities at Brown University, which occupies part of the ancestral homelands of the Narragansett. Maani teaches courses on the transnational history of Japan and indigenous histories of the Western Pacific, and is preparing a book manuscript on the Arafura Zone, a historical seascape where non-state actors found autonomy and freedom from modern empires. Chinami Oka is the Tanaka Junior Research Fellow in Japanese Studies at Pembroke College, University of Oxford. She is a cultural and intellectual historian of modern Japan, with a particular focus on peoples and ideas that transcend the nation-state and national boundaries. She teaches the history of religion in modern Japan and the wider world from the early nineteenth century to the present. Her recent publications include an article in The Historical Journal, amongst others. Mateja Kovacic (Hong Kong Baptist University) is Assistant Professor at the Department of Interactive Media, School of Communication. Mateja is a former British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. She is a transdisciplinary researcher of symbiotic entanglements between science, technology, and popular culture in life-and-knowledge-formations. Her most recent work includes the co-edited book Idology in Transcultural Perspective, and an article published in Science as Culture, “Between Animated Cells and Animated Cels: Symbiotic Turn and Animation in Multispecies Life.” Her current book project is on the people’s making of scientific modernity in the Tokugawa period through scientific-popular engagements with weird stuff including mutated morning glory, skeletons, and snowflakes. Joel Littler (University of Oxford) is a DPhil candidate in History as a Daiwa Scholar of Japanese Studies at Pembroke College. He is the convenor of the Oxford Japanese History Workshop. He was formerly a lecturer at Thammasat University and Mahidol University in Thailand, where he taught philosophy. His research centres on the non-colonial intellectual, cultural, and political phenomena that emerged in nineteenth and early twentieth century Japan as a reaction to the perceived failures of the Meiji Ishin to improve ordinary people’s lives. This intersects with his interest in the history of philosophy and religion in Asia’s other non-colonised country, Thailand. His recent publications include: “A Song of Fallen Flowers: Miyazaki Tōten and the making of naniwabushi as a mode of popular dissent in transwar Japan, 1902–1909,” in Modern Asian Studies (2024).

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Tea and coffee will be available from 11:00. Although the event is free, booking is essential.

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At the end of the Cultural Revolution, Qian Zhongshu, one of the most distinguished Chinese novelists and scholars of the twentieth century, was living in a former broom cupboard at the Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. Believing himself to be terminally ill, and fearing yet further persecution, he set about composing Limited Views, an encyclopaedic work of literary criticism in abstruse classical prose, unintelligible to the Red Guards, that sought to demonstrate the enduring relevance and eloquence of premodern Chinese letters. At the heart of this deeply idiosyncratic work lies Qian’s reading of the Daoist classic, the Laozi, which he interprets, in concert with Hegel, to condemn the contemporary injustice of Chairman Mao’s policies. In this talk, William Blythe will explore how Qian’s unique understanding of the Laozi and Hegel developed out his experiences as a student at Oxford during the 1930s, his plight during the Sino-Japanese war, and through the early years of communist rule. By adopting a genetic approach to Qian’s notebooks, he will trace the social and intellectual conditions that shaped one of the most courageous and erudite works in all of Chinese literature. Link: https://occt.web.ox.ac.uk/event/discussion-group-comparing-on-the-scaffold-genetic-insights-from-qian-zhongshus-notes-on-laozi

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We present an explicit coupling of Brownian bridges plus affine shifts that are jointly invariant for the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation with periodic noise. These are described by Pitman-like transforms of independent Brownian bridges. We obtain these invariant measures by working with a semi-discrete model known as the O'Connell-Yor polymer in a periodic environment. In that setting, the relevant Markov process is described by a system of coupled SDEs. We show how to transform this Markov process to an auxiliary Markov process with a more tractable invariant measure. We discuss connections of this method to works of Ferrari and Martin in the mid 2000s in the context of multi-species particle systems. Furthermore, we present an application of this work to give an explicit formula for the covariance function of a limiting Gaussian process obtained from the coupled stochastic heat equation. Based on forthcoming joint work with Ivan Corwin and Yu Gu.

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Please be aware that group attendance may be limited. Please contact Group Lead Christopher Morris or team (christopher.morris@politics.ox.ac.uk) for attendance and inquiries. Seminar details are confirmed a week in advance. The Emerging Threats & Technology Working Group meets regularly each term to examine the national security implications of critical and emerging technologies (CETs), from artificial intelligence and quantum computing to directed energy and space platforms. Meetings are held in hybrid format, at Oxford and online, to include diverse views from academia, industry, and policy, matching the global reach of technological innovation and challenge. For more information on workshops, sessions, and journal, visit www.emergingthreats.co.uk

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From 1940 to 1945, the United States relied heavily on a steady stream of Chinese tungsten ore, hog bristles, and tung oil in order to power American wartime industry. The flow of Chinese products to the United States was only possible with the efforts of a small handful of Chinese businessmen who served as the linchpins in a vast wartime production network that channelled raw materials from China’s rural hinterland to American factories. The wartime efforts of these businessmen helped lay the foundation for a postwar, Cold War order that was shored up through the exchange of resources for dollars with allied countries throughout Latin America and the Pacific. This talk will focus on one of these businessmen, a man named Li Guoqin or K.C. Li, who was later known as China’s 'Tungsten King', to reveal the powerful role that these businessmen played in shaping the dimensions of American power in East Asia, Latin America, and the wider Cold War world. Judd Kinzley, Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Maddison, is interested in the ways that natural resources define and often limit state power in Chinese border regions. His book, Natural Resources and the New Frontier: Constructing Modern China’s Borderlands (University of Chicago Press, 2018), offers a new material-centered perspective on the development of institutions of state power and authority in China’s far western province of Xinjiang. The book focuses on the efforts of a motley assortment of state and non-state, Chinese and non-Chinese actors to find, exploit, process and transport various natural resources in 20th century Xinjiang, including gold, petroleum, wool and rare minerals, among others. Professor Judd's work offers a unique perspective on the development of Xinjiang’s connections to the modern Chinese state, the roots of ethnic tensions and unrest in the region, and provides a framework for thinking about the integration border regions more generally.

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A series of free seminars to commemorate the death of J. R. R. Tolkien, to be held in 2023/2024 in the University of Oxford. The talks present an introduction and further background to Tolkien's life, work, and legacy. They have an academic approach, but they are also aimed at those who have read Tolkien's work but are interested in gaining a bit more insight into his life, career, and writings. WEEK 6 – May 27 David Bernabé (University of Oxford/University of the Basque Country) Riddles in the Grass: the characterisation and narrative value of landscape over the fields of Rohan CHAIR: Anine Englund (Balliol) https://tolkien50.web.ox.ac.uk/event/tolkien-50th-anniversary-seminar-series

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Human migration presents both opportunities and challenges for economies, societies, and politics around the world. This is particularly resonant in a global moment characterised by overlapping crises of conflict, COVID-19, and climate change, which all have implications for the scale and dynamics of migration. Several decades of diverse research have productively explored how, why, and with what consequences people move. By bringing world-leading scholars of migration into conversation with senior policymakers and practitioners, this two-day in-person conference will take stock of existing knowledge and set an agenda for future migration research.  The goals of the conference are: --to compare experiences and issues relating to migration in high-income countries with those in low- and middle-income countries that host large shares of the world’s migrants and displaced people; --to probe the opportunities and risks associated with the relatively recent turn towards designing and testing interventions in migrant-receiving settings; and --to identify how research can relate more effectively with policy and practice in migration and integration. The conference is over two days. Monday 28 May is a full day Tuesday 29 May is a half day ending with lunch Conference Convenors: William L Allen, University of Oxford and Nuffield College Isabel Ruiz, University of Oxford and Harris Manchester College

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For our next talk, in the BDI/CHG (gen)omics Seminar series, we will be hearing from Prof Naomi Wray, Michael Davys Professor of Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry & Big Data Institute, University of Oxford; Professorial Fellow, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, Australia. We’re delighted to host Prof Wray in what promises to be a great talk! Date: Tuesday 28 May Time: 9:30 am – 10:30 am Talk title: Towards understanding cell types relevant for psychiatric disorders Location: Big Data Institute Seminar Room 1 Abstract: Genome-wide association studies of the last decade have demonstrated that psychiatric disorders are more polygenic than other common complex diseases. The cell-types and developmental stage implicated by genetic risk associations is a key research question for post-GWAS analysis. I will focus on various post-GWAS methodological approaches to address this question, and some of our unpublished results. Bio: Naomi Wray is a quantitative geneticist who works on methods for genetic analysis of common complex diseases, particularly psychiatric disorders. She joined the University of Oxford in June 2023 ———————————————————————————————————————— 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 – Meeting ID: 332 118 134 047 Passcode: fWWJ6m ——————————————————————————————————— 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!

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*Programme*: DAY 1 (09:30-18:45) *Panel 1: Fire and Heat in an Alchemical Context* (Chair: Rob Iliffe) * *Thijs Hagendijk* & *Hannah Elmer*: Spaces for Fire. Early Modern European Furnaces and the _Regimen Ignis_ * *Peter Oakley*: ‘How to Regulate the Fire’: Early Modern Cupellation and Furnace Management * *Gary Patterson*: Boerhaave and Ponderous Heat *Panel 2: The Evolution of Early Modern Metaphors of Alchemical and Encyclopaedic Knowledge* (Chair: TBA) * *Petr Pavlas*: From Metaphors of Theosophical Alchemy to the New Book of Books. The Framework and an Illustration of Evolutionary Metaphorology * *Vojtěch Kaše*: Computational Explorations of Early Modern Metaphors of Knowledge: Diachronic Word Embeddings and Cultural Evolution in Scientific Texts * *Jo Hedesan*: Metaphors of Knowledge in the Printed Corpus of Latin Alchemy *Panel 3: Ancient Alchemy* (Chair: Mark Edwards) * *Sean Coughlin* & *Victor Golubev*: Perfumery and Alchemy in Greco-Roman Egypt * *Eduardo Escobar* & *Giacomo Montanari*: Contemporary Tools for Bronze Age Perfumery: Reconstructing the Role of Water in Ancient Assyrian Perfume Recipes * *Joshua Werrett*: ‘An Investigation Governed by the Moon’: Astrology and Alchemy in Late Antique Egypt *Panel 4: Medieval Alchemy* (Chair: TBA) * *Athanasios Rinotas*: Aristotelianism and Medieval Alchemy in the 13th Century: A Janus-faced Relationship * *Carmen Schmechel*: On Ferment in Hortulanus’ Commentary on the Emerald Tablet * *Stefania Buosi Moncunill*: The Infiltration of the Catalan Carmelite Guillem Sedasser's Alchemy in Italian Glass Making Keynote lecture: *Jennifer M Rampling* (Princeton) Refreshments will be provided at various points on both days, lunch will be provided on day 1.

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LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this session you will understand more about:  What experience and characteristics you need to have to gain a fellowship.  The application process.  How to work with University’s systems and procedures to optimise your application and its chance of success.  You will have an opportunity to practice interviewing/being interviewed for fellowship applications.

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Gene regulation is fundamental to the developmental intricacies of higher eukaryotes. RNA acts as a hidden regulatory layer, guiding the interpretation of the genome during transcription and contributing to the formation of the myriad cell types in our bodies. I will discuss our research on uncovering novel patterns within the non-coding genome that shape nuclear structure and function, aiming to grasp the universal principles governing cell fate.

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Seminars followed by a sandwich lunch. All welcome!

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Since the public release of ChatGPT in November 2022, there has been intense wonder, surprise, excitement, concern, and worry about the capabilities of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools and their rapid adoption into our personal and professional practices. Indeed, ChatGPT is the fastest-growing internet application in history (Hu, 2023). GenAI tools have begun to be integrated into almost all fields and disciplines including language teaching and learning (Crompton and Burke 2024; Jeon and Lee 2023). When well-prompted, these tools can efficiently and (often) accurately perform many tasks commonly associated with human intelligence, including text generation, text summarization, translation, analysis, as well as, image, code, audio and video generation. However, releasing these tools has raised significant ethical issues that users should be aware of so they can use them critically (Moorhouse et al., 2023) and many questions that require empirical research. This seminar, with its practical focus, aims to provide an accessible introduction to GenAI tools and their application for language teaching and learning. It will define GenAI and give an overview of types of GenAI tools, consider the utility of GenAI for language teaching and learning purposes, and raise some issues language teachers should consider when integrating GenAI into language teaching and learning. It concludes by proposing some critical empirical research areas that need urgent study. Bio: Benjamin Luke Moorhouse is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU). His research focuses on the lived experiences and competencies of teachers, and the role of technology in English-language teaching and learning. Benjamin was in the top 2% of cited scholars in the world in 2022 and 2023. He has been leading the GenAI task force at HKBU. His research has been published in journals such as TESOL Quarterly, System, RELC Journal, and ELT Journal. Teams registration link: https://teams.microsoft.com/registration/G96VzPWXk0-0uv5ouFLPkQ,hYZdQCmlzkm4vF5r0Gafvg,xSUsO8VQtU2sqG5Uovyv7w,8Osqur_mi0qbghRp9KBuDQ,jOJGnxEsdkGOb4WYlAEnGg,ogJuj50ruUO0uTlTy3veqQ?mode=read&tenantId=cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91

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We revisit the role of temporary layoffs in the business cycle, motivated by their unprecedented surge during the pandemic recession. We first measure the contribution of temporary layoffs to unemployment dynamics over the period 1979 to the present. While many have emphasized a stabilizing effect due to recall hiring, we quantify an important destabilizing effect due to “loss-of-recall”, whereby workers in temporary-layoff unemployment lose their job permanently and do so at higher rates in recessions. We then develop a quantitative model that allows for endogenous flows of workers across employment and both temporary-layoff and jobless unemployment. The model captures well pre-pandemic unemployment dynamics and shows how loss-of-recall enhances the recessionary contribution of temporary layoffs. We also show that with some modification the model can capture the pandemic recession. We then use our structural model to show that the Paycheck Protection program generated significant employment gains. It did so in part by significantly reducing loss-of-recall.

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Cold War strategic competition was dominated by the actions of the US and USSR. Their material preponderance, coupled with tightly integrated multilateral alliances systems in Europe, oriented competition around this central axis of competition. But the current environment is less centralized, characterized by cross-cutting alliances and interacting nuclear dyads. How has this changed the nature of nuclear competition? We assess this question by considering the inter-Korean competition and its effects outside the peninsula. In response to North Korea’s acquisition of nuclear weapons, Seoul has procured stealth aircraft and precision, long-range missiles. It has also authorized the deployment of US missile defense systems to its territory, pursued greater nuclear coordination with Washington, and even threatened nuclear acquisition itself. These moves are aimed at Pyongyang, but they have spillover effects on China. Exploiting new Chinese language military documents, we show that South Korea’s increasingly sophisticated arsenal of counterforce systems is contributing to Beijing’s anxiety about the survivability of its nuclear arsenal, helping to spur China’s nuclear arsenal expansion. This has important implications both for the academic literature on alliances and arms racing as well as for policy debates surrounding Sino-American nuclear competition. In particular, it suggests that alliances might not just entrap patrons in wars but also in arms races. This creates a type of inter-alliance security dilemma, where security spirals in one state dyad produce security spirals in separate state dyads. Further, it reveals that contemporary strategic competition in East Asia systematically differs from the Cold War due to the existence of multiple cross-cutting alliances. This complicates signaling efforts, and, by increasing the number of relevant actors, augurs deep challenges for any efforts at bilateral nuclear arms control between the US and China. Samuel Seitz is an incoming Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow in the MIT Security Studies Program and DPhil Candidate in International Relations at The University of Oxford. His research interests include status-seeking in international relations, nuclear strategy, military procurement policy, alliance politics, and the ways in which they intersect. His work has been published in Contemporary Security Policy, The Washington Quarterly, Foreign Affairs, and The US-China Perception Monitor. Sam has also worked as a Summer Associate and Adjunct Researcher at the RAND Corporation. He received an M.A. in Security Studies and a B.S.F.S. in International Politics from Georgetown University.

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Ethnicity is perhaps as important to understanding the current tensions around minorities in Europe as religion and race are. In this launch event for the special issue What’s ethnicity got to do with it?, the Landecker Programme invites reflection on the increasing political anxiety around Muslim and Jewish identities in Europe, and the exploitation of ethnic differences for political and electoral purposes. The discussion looks at the interconnection of ethnicity, religion, and race, as a means of self-identification and the assertion of differences between as well as within ethnic groups. Moreover, as specific minorities might from time to time fall through the cracks of legal protection – Jews, Muslims, and Roma/Traveller communities – it considers several strategies for alleviating the pressure on ethnic minorities, for example through the use of private sector duties as well as potential innovations of anti-discrimination infrastructure. To discuss the links of ethnicity, religion and race, moderators Professor Jonathan Wolff and Dr Lior Erez from the Alfred Landecker Programme at the Blavatnik School of Government are joined by authors Dr Gülay Türkmen, Dr Sophie Lauwers, and Dr Marietta van der Tol.

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Ali Osman Qasmi, Sara Malkani, Ahmed Waqas Waheed (Rangoonwalla Visiting Fellows) Sara Malkani is an advocate of the High Courts of Pakistan with over 12 years experience practicing law. She has experience in criminal litigation, family law, labor law and international human rights law. Sara actively pursues human rights cases and has an extensive pro bono practice. She obtained the first ever conviction for domestic violence in Pakistan which was upheld on appeal. She also represented transgender persons denied healthcare in public hospitals and obtained court orders requiring that transgender persons be treated without discrimination. The Sindh High Court has appointed her as amicus curiae in a number of matters involving implementation of laws for the protection of women and children. As a legal adviser to the international organization, Center for Reproductive Rights, she has engaged in advocacy before United Nations treaty bodies and special procedures. Sara has a Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School at Ann Arbor and a B.A. with high honours from Princeton University. Born and raised in Lahore, Ali Usman Qasmi is a historian of modern South Asia and Islamic reform movements. He has published extensively in his area of expertise, including three monographs and three edited volumes. His most recent monograph is titled, Qaum, Mulk, Sultanat: Citizenship and National Belonging in Pakistan (Stanford University Press, 2023). Since 2012, Qasmi has been teaching history at the LUMS University's School of Humanities and Social Sciences. Dr. Ahmed Waqas Waheed is Executive Director of ROADS Initiative, a knowledge sharing platform, and an Assistant Professor in the department of Government and Public Policy, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan. He is also an honorary research fellow at the School of Policy and Global Studies, City, University of London. He holds a MA in International Relations from the University of Sussex and a PhD in Political Science from the School of Politics and International Relations, Queen Mary, University of London. He is the author of two books: The Wrong Ally: Pakistan's State Sovereignty under US Dependence, published by Peter Lang and Constructing 'Pakistan' through Knowledge Production in International Relations and Area Studies published by Palgrave Macmillan. Matthew Nelson (PhD Columbia) is a Professor of Politics and Head of Department (Politics and International Studies) at SOAS University of London. His research focuses on the politics of South Asia, having held faculty positions at Bates College (ME), Yale University (CT), and the University of Melbourne (Australia) as well as Residential Fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (NJ), the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington (DC), and the Zentrum für Interdisziplinäre Forschung (ZiF) in Germany

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Join Zoom Meeting http://us06web.zoom.us/j/85285531740?pwd=SEFBa0%C3%975V21SOFo1dk85dm5TWEhSdz09 Meeting ID: 852 8553 1740 Passcode: 911647

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Week 6, Tuesday 28th May [Joint Seminar with the Comparative Philology Graduate Seminar] Sebastian Kenny (Corpus Christi) “Language Contact in Ezekiel’s Exagoge: The Case for Pattern Replication” In order to participate in this lecture via Zoom, please register at this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUtdOitqT8qGtJaVA6fs7IQjD9ZJL45pwyS

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Developments in materials engineering are such that a capacity to 'pick and place' individual atoms to precise locations in a 3D structure is evolving from 'nice to have', towards 'must have'. Microscopy must respond to this challenge to remain as a key tool for process design, phenomenological insights, and metrology. A scientific and technological roadmap for meeting this challenge is put forward in the form of Atomic-Scale Analytical Tomography. The potential to transform our ability to design materials and processes via a coupling between computation and experiments at the atomic-scale will be discussed. Besides this look forward, the lecture will summarise the art of the possible today, featuring recent developments on the measurement of short-range order in multicomponent materials via atom probe, and a microscopy-guided design of a new class of titanium alloys enabled by additive manufacturing. Finally, the presentation will summarise collaboration possibilities with Sydney under the various AUKUS pillars, leveraging common interests in the enabling infrastructure for advanced manufacturing, nanofabrication and advanced microscopy. Short biography: Simon Ringer is a materials engineer, specialising in the relationships between the microstructure of materials and their engineering performance. His research focuses on understanding materials from the atomic-scale to gain insights for the design of materials, and the processes by which they are made. His work spans the development of structural alloys, semiconductors and functional materials. He is an expert in microscopy and computational materials simulations, and several examples of his fundamental research have been translated to industrial practice. He has held appointments in Australia, Sweden, Japan and the USA, led the establishment of a number of major research institutes and facilities, and has a global academic and industrial network. He is Professor of Materials Engineering at the University of Sydney and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research Infrastructure), where he is responsible for the strategy, policy, operations, space management and partnerships related to research infrastructure. He was elected as Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering in 2020.

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People have migrated throughout the Americas for centuries. Today we are seeing the continuation of such mobility trends, but restricted by migration and asylum policies, (in)formal controls, precarity, violence and insecurity. Nevertheless, where there is oppressive power there is resistance. Migrants and refugees are not only subjects of violence, as agents, they resist, transform, and advance their goals. This afternoon interdisciplinary panels, conversations and art installations aim to create spaces where scholars, practitioners, students, and people with lived experience of migration can expand their knowledge about migration and asylum dynamics in the Americas. The event is also a platform for participants to identify gaps in research, policy-practice, build networks and collaborate to construct knowledge and solutions together. Researchers from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Ohio University, Oxford Brookes University, the University of Essex, and the University of Oxford will present their work focusing from multiple disciplinary angles including: - health and migration, - environmental change, - music making of Black Caribbean diasporas, - community-based participatory and creative methods, - gender and sexuality, - violence, resistance, and empowerment, - migration and asylum policy-practice, - migrants’ integration and experiences of discrimination. This event is hosted by Migration Oxford and organised by Abril Ríos-Rivera (Convener of Migration Oxford and DPhil candidate in Migration Studies – University of Oxford) in coordination with Alejandra Díaz de León (Researcher - Essex University) with the support of the Centre for Migration, Essex University. The event has been supported by Social Science Division of the University of Oxford.

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Speaker: Maria Clara Araújo dos Passos (she/her) Moderated by: Lucas De Lellis Da Silva (University of Oxford), Jo Perrone (University of Oxford) This talk will explore how it was up to the population of travestis and trans women in Brazil, most of whom were Black, to create means of collective affirmation of a critical-reflexive citizenship. Even in the face of relentless attempts to place them outside the lines that delimit the condition of citizenship, or even of humanity. Biography: Maria Clara Araújo dos Passos (she/her) is a Brazilian Afrotransfeminist, educator, and activist. She got a BA in Pedagogy (Teaching) from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP), with a thesis entitled "Pedagogias das Travestilidades" (Pedagogies of Travesti Liberation). The thesis was recently published in Portuguese by Editora Civilização Brasileira and is now being translated into English and German. There, she discusses the documented knowledge that has been produced by the Brazilian Social Movement of Travestis and Transsexual Women. Currently, she's a Master's student in Education (Sociology of Education) at the University of São Paulo. She also holds a Certificate in Afro-Latin American Studies from the Institute for Afro-Latin American Studies at the Hutchins Center at Harvard University. Online registration closes 15 minutes before the start of the event. You will be sent the joining link within 48 hours of the event, on the day and once again 10 minutes before the event starts.

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The Big Launch event of the Oxford Science of Startups Initiative brings together academics, founders, investors and various stakeholders from the Oxford and London innovation ecosystem on 28 May, 4 pm at Rhodes House in Oxford. The event will begin with a keynote speech titled “Startup Synergy: How Founders’ Unique Perspectives and Insights Drive Success 🚀” from Professor Paul X. McCarthy. In this talk we explore the results of a groundbreaking research study that examined how founder personalities contribute to startup success. Analyzing data from over 21,000 startups globally, the researchers shed light on key personality traits and the combinations of unique perspectives that propel high-performing teams. Attendees will leave with a deeper understanding of the role of founder personalities in startup success, equipping them with valuable lessons on assembling balanced teams that can thrive amid uncertainty and navigate toward sustainable growth. Next, we will have a short presentation by Dr Fabian Braesemann, who will present the Oxford Science of Startups Initiative: The team, first milestones and planned research Partnership agreements with globally leading startup repositories Crunchbase and Harmonic AI A sneak preview of the “What is your founder personality?” Quiz, which will allow everyone to understand their own founder personality Finally, we will have a panel discussion on the role of personality in entrepreneurship with special guests from the entrepreneurship sector. Following this event there will be a drinks reception in the Conference Suite Foyer.

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Climate change is expected to reduce agricultural productivity in developing countries. Classic international trade and geography models predict that the optimal adaptation response is a reallocation of capital and labor from agriculture towards sectors and regions gaining comparative advantage. In this paper, we provide evidence on the effects of recent changes in climate in Brazil to understand to what extent factor market frictions constrain this reallocation process. We document that persistent increases in dryness do not generate capital reallocation but a sharp reduction in credit to all sectors in both drying areas and financially integrated regions. In addition, dryness generates a large reduction in agricultural employment. Workers staying in drying regions reallocate towards manufacturing but climate migrants are allocated to small firms outside of manufacturing in destination regions. The evidence suggests that frictions in the interbank market and spatial labor market frictions constrain the reallocation process from agriculture to manufacturing.

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The United Nations human rights work is upheld through the efforts of various independent experts, whose pro bono services seek to underscore the impartiality and independence of its human rights oversight. This lecture from Professor Nazila Ghanea explains the role of these experts and examines the balance to be struck in their work, including between independence and relevance, impartiality and robust reporting. This event will take place at Rewley House, Oxford, and will be livestreamed ​for those who wish to watch online. Nazila Ghanea is Professor of International Human Rights Law and Director of the MSc in International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford (Department for Continuing Education from 2007-2022 and since in the Faculty of Law). Prior to that, she was Senior Lecturer at the University of London, graduate teaching assistant at Keele University and a lecturer in the People’s Republic of China. Though her nearly 30-year career has been rooted in academia, her academic work has regularly contributed to multilateral practice in international human rights law. Since August 2022 she has served as UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, which is an appointment made by the UN Human Rights Council.

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The Embassy of Uzbekistan to the United Kingdom and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at the University of Oxford are delighted to hold a roundtable discussion on the topic 'Uzbekistan: a roadmap to the future – Poverty reduction, cooperation and connectivity' on 28 May 2024. Dr Khakimov, Director of the Center for Economic Research and Reforms under the Administration of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan (CERR) will discuss Uzbekistan's experience and achievements in the following areas: poverty reduction, development and strengthening of regional cooperation between Uzbekistan and Central Asian countries, as well as regional transport connectivity and logistics. In particular, he will highlight the results from Uzbekistan’s recently launched pilot Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). The roundtable discussion will be moderated by Professor Sabina Alkire, Director of OPHI. The event will include time for questions and discussion.

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Countries in the Arabian Gulf occupy an unusual position globally in terms of global climate change. They are not only the world’s top oil producers but are also among the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Recognizing this, most Gulf countries have published ambitious plans to move away their economies from the oil industry. Yet it remains unclear whether such plans will be enacted given how fundamentally they will reshape economic and social life, including potentially upending conservative gender roles in the region. Oil wealth impedes gender equality by giving men better employment opportunities than women (Ross 2009), which contributes to the region’s poor record on women’s rights. Moving away from oil may therefore increase employment opportunities for women and upend traditional gender relations. In this research, we explore how economic diversification shapes support for authoritarian regimes through gendered patterns of economic anxiety. The main question is whether economic diversification threatens men’s identities by disempowering them economically, and thus undermines support for governments and the costly policies that they need to undertake to prevent the worst repercussions of climate change. We are testing our core hypotheses through survey experiments that we currently fielding in Oman and Kuwait with nationally representative samples. Additionally, we are designing randomized behavioral games that test men’s willingness to cooperate with female enumerators as a measure for how economic anxieties shapes support for traditional gender roles and regime support. We plan to run these behavioral games in spring of 2024.

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Education systems need to withstand frequent shocks, including conflict, disease, natural disasters, and climate events, all of which routinely close schools. During these emergencies, alternative models are needed to deliver education. However, rigorous evaluation of effective educational approaches in these settings is challenging and rare, especially across multiple countries. We present results from large-scale randomized trials evaluating the provision of education in emergency settings across five countries: India, Kenya, Nepal, Philippines, and Uganda. We test multiple scalable models of remote instruction for primary school children during COVID-19, which disrupted education for over 1 billion schoolchildren worldwide. Despite heterogeneous contexts, results show that the effectiveness of phone call tutorials can scale across contexts. We find consistently large and robust effect sizes on learning, with average effects of 0.30-0.35 standard deviations. These effects are highly cost-effective, delivering up to four years of high-quality instruction per $100 spent, ranking in the top percentile of education programs and policies. In a subset of trials, we randomized whether the intervention was provided by NGO instructors or government teachers. Results show similar effects, indicating scalability within government systems. These results reveal it is possible to strengthen the resilience of education systems, enabling education provision amidst disruptions, and to deliver cost-effective learning gains across contexts and with governments.

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Hydrogen is projected to play a significant if not crucial role in the future energy mix, with the IEA forecasting an increase of almost an order of magnitude compared to hydrogen consumption today. This increase is driven by the possible dual use of hydrogen: to provide a clean or green high energy density fuel (which can also be stored longer term) as well as a clean “chemical building block” towards more circular sustainable chemical manufacturing industries. Current technology to produce large volumes of hydrogen with low/zero CO2 footprint at competitive low cost (e.g. < 1 USD/kg) struggle to scale to the projected volumes needed in a few decades while being competitively priced. Without a realistic view to low-cost, bulk volume hydrogen, the energy transition may significantly slow down as the decarbonization of energy dense industries next to light vehicle mobility leads to sharp increases in the demand for electrification with renewable power sources. This seems unrealistic as the required infrastructure would need to increase 4- 10 times relative to existing power grids which may happen eventually but is unlikely in just 2-3 decades. Furthermore, even with more modest growth the functionality of future power grids will be much more complex, requiring a significant scale up of digitization, including AI, which requires large amounts of energy. The possibility of producing hydrogen generated in situ from iron-rich rocks in the subsurface while not new, may help provide diversity in decarbonization path ways creating more optionality in businesses and economic models. However, naturally occurring serpentinization reaction mechanisms are relatively slow, hence stimulation techniques may need to be developed to make this a scalable opportunity. Dr Dirk Smit will put these ideas in the context of recent discoveries in as much as this is known in the public domain. He will discuss new insights and ideas partly developed with colleagues at MIT to radically increase production rates in a sustainable way, which brings the prospect of fundamentally changing the landscape for a carbon-constrained energy future.

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Dr Carol Adlam is Associate Professor in the Nottingham School of Art & Design. She is a writer and artist specialising in narrative and book illustration, and her most recent graphic novel, 'The Russian Detective' (2024) was described by The Observer as 'exquisite', 'so deeply atmospheric and so inordinately beautiful'.

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Exact venue location: Kirdar Building of the Middle East Centre, entrance at 68 Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 6JF – access to this building is at the north side, next to the bike rack The Boardroom is on the ground floor next to the main staircase of the hallway.

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Tuesday 28th May Dr Stefan Williamson Fa (ONGC) Connections and Dis/continuities in Contemporary Aşıq Practice in Georgia The singer-poet tradition of aşık/aşıq/ashugh bards spans a wide geography transcending the borders of modern nation states. Historically, these singer-poets filled the role of both entertainers and bearers of news travelling far and wide, often performing for different audiences in multiple languages. Even in recent history, during the period of hard state borders between Turkey, the Soviet Union, and Iran, the sounds of these bards traversed frontiers on radio waves and cassette tapes. This paper focuses on the current status of Azerbaijani-language aşıq practice in the Republic of Georgia. Azerbaijani-speakers make up the largest ethnic minority community in Georgia. Living mostly in the capital city of Tbilisi and the province of Kvemo-Kartli, also known as Borçalı, Azerbaijanis in Georgia have struggled in the period following independence from the Soviet Union, being caught between changing borders. Despite the lack of state support for minority languages and cultural heritage in the country, poetry and aşıq art continue to thrive in the community and are often highlighted as a source of cultural pride and marker of identity. Through an exploration of resilience and adaptation, this paper seeks to deepen our understanding of the enduring significance of these singer-poets within Georgia and transnationally.

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The talk will explore the current ‘refugee crisis’ in Europe. Drawing on in-depth interviews with refugees and NGOs in Europe and Africa, it will examine the drivers of forced migration, explain why it is at a historical high, and propose solutions that (a) assuage hostile European publics and (b) respect member states’ obligations under international law to refugees. The talk will argue that European asylum systems are currently overwhelmed, and states appear to have lost control of their borders, because of a cross-continent denial of European economies’ – and European consumers’ – structural dependence on cheap migrant labour.

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Addressing a range of contemporary and historical conflicts and daily struggles, this series of talks will explore how violence remains integral to the global political economy, with lasting effects on gendered hierarchies which often extend far beyond immediate war zones.

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With Ève Morisi (St Hugh's College), as part of the 'Contemporains' Series Benjamin Hoffmann is a creative writer and an Associate Professor of French (Ohio State University) specialising in eighteenth-century French literature and philosophy. His récits and novels include Père et fils (2011), American Pandemonium (2016), L'Île de la Sentinelle (2022), and, this year, Les Minuscules (April 2024). Forming part of our 'Contemporains' Series, this conversation will center on his experience as a researcher-novelist and on his latest novel, which focuses on famous and infamous Venitian Giacomo Casanova.

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This student-led reading group is an opportunity for graduate students and early career researchers to join us to discuss all aspects of memory studies and life-writing, from the personal to the political, the local to the transnational, within disciplines and without, the ordinary to the extraordinary. Ars Memoriae aims to promote and generate awareness about the growing discipline of memory studies while also recognising the pressing need to synthesise memory studies scholarship with purposeful cultural analysis. OCLW, in association with TORCH.

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The creative health sector widely acknowledges and evidences the value of music for people living with dementia, however, access to music is often directed through distinct types of activity. Through co-design of new devices with community and residential care groups, the Music, Dementia, Technology project at the University of Sheffield explores what music means to older adults living with dementia, the plurality of motivations and uses, and how we might create new technologies to support this. By prioritising activities that support agency, creativity and relationality, this talk will demonstrate the added value of technologies in this domain to provide a handle for music interaction, supporting the person living with dementia to be an active musical agent. Work with people living with young-onset dementia will also be discussed that pilots using new AI-enabled tools to support idea generation and critique for new musical devices. The implications of this work are in rethinking how we make musical interaction accessible, and how technology can help us challenge societal and internalised stereotypes of what it means to be musical when living with dementia.

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The Lailashi Codex is the greatest nearly complete Masoretic Pentateuch. This ancient witness to a scribal tradition known as 'vavei ha’aamudim' (each leaf of the manuscript begins with the letter vav except for the six cases defined by a scribal school) is lavishly adorned with exquisite micrographic designs and calligrams. The manuscript emerged into the Western world awareness from Dr Thea Gomelauri’s book 'The Lailashi Codex: The Crown of Georgian Jewry' published in October 2023. The provenance of the Lailashi Codex and its trajectory is as mysterious as its authorship and ownership. According to the legend, it was brought to Lailashi (Georgia), a remote village at the footstool of the Caucasian mountains, on an angel’s wings. The villagers saw a floating book in a river and rescued it from the stream. This unique artefact was said to have miracle-working powers. It became the best-kept secret of Georgian Jewry. Dr Thea Gomelauri, together with three renowned scholars of Semitic Languages, Illuminated Jewish Art, and Hebrew Manuscripts, will discuss the fascinating history and content of the Lailashi Codex, and its significance to Biblical scholarship and Jewish Studies.

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Comedy-drama ​​​​​​​In French with English subtitles With Anthony Bajon, Raphaël Quenard, Galatéa Bellugi Childhood pals Dog and Mirales live in a little village in the south of France and spend their days just hanging out. To kill time, Mirales has got into the habit of teasing Dog mercilessly. But this summer is different: Dog meets Elsa and romance blossoms. While jealousy eats away at Mirales, the distance that opens up between the two friends will allow each to grow and define himself.

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*Programme:* DAY 2 (09:30-13:00*) *Panel 5: Reinterpretation in Early Modern Alchemy* (Chair: TBA) * *Elisabeth Moreau*: Stones, Salts, and Calculi in Early Modern Chymical Medicine * *Eugenio Villa*: How (not) to Forge an Ancient Alchemical Treatise: the Liber Mariae sororis Moysi * *Farzad Mahootian*: The History of Alchemy in Global Context: A Machine Learning Approach *Panel 6: Alchemical Images and Symbols* (Chair: Jennifer M Rampling) * *Zoe Screti*: The Problem of Purgatory: Alchemical Symbolism During the English Reformation * *Tom Fischer*: From Paper Grimoires to Stone Books * *Sergei Zotov*: Zoo-Anthropomorphic Evangelists and Christ in the Wine Press: Alchemical Reinterpretation of Sacred Art in a German Illuminated Manuscript Refreshments will be provided at various points on both days, lunch will be provided on day 1. *The conference is followed up by the Oxford Seminar in the History of Alchemy and Chemistry, ‘Meissen Coloration and Pacific Chemical Medicine’, featuring Nicholas Zumbulyadis (Delaware) and Mariana Sanchez (Paris), from 15:00-17:00 at the Maison Française d’Oxford. We hope many attendees and speakers will be able to join us for both events!

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In this online workshop you will be shown the functionality of RefWorks. RefWorks is a subscription software programme used to manage references and create bibliographies that University of Oxford members can use for free during their time at the university and as alumni. The workshop will cover: understanding the main features and benefits of RefWorks; setting up a RefWorks account; organising your references in RefWorks; inserting citations into documents; and creating a bibliography/reference list. Intended audience: students, staff and researchers from MSD and OUH.

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Bayesian statisticians quantify their belief that the true parameter is ϑ0 by its posterior probability. The starting question of this paper is whether the posterior at ϑ0 increases when the data are generated under ϑ0, and how it behaves when the data come from ϑ ≠ ϑ0. Can it decrease and then increase, and thus additional data may mislead Bayesian statisticians? For data arriving sequentially, we consider monotonicity properties of the posterior probabilities as a function of the sample size with respect to certain stochastic orders, specifically starting with likelihood ratio dominance. When the data is generated by ϑ ≠ ϑ0 , Doob's consistency theorem says that the posterior at ϑ0 converges a.s. to zero and therefore its expectation converges to zero. We obtain precise asymptotic rates of the latter convergence for observations from an exponential family and show that the expectation of the ϑ0 -posterior under ϑ ≠ ϑ0 is eventually strictly decreasing. Finally, we show that in a number of interesting cases this expectation is a log-concave function of the sample size, and thus unimodal. In the Bernoulli case we obtain this result by developing an inequality that is related to Turán’s inequality for Legendre polynomials.

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We document a widespread decline in the share of donors to charities in Western countries over the past decade, and show that this can be in part explained by a lower propensity to donate among far-right voters. Focusing on France, we first conduct a large-scale survey (N = 12, 600) and show that far-right voters are significantly less likely to report a charitable donation than the rest of the population, conditional on a rich set of controls. Second, using administrative tax data for the universe of French municipalities (N ≃ 33, 000) combined with electoral results, we find that the negative relationship between vote shares for the far right and charitable donations holds in a broad range of specifications, at both the extensive and the intensive margin, and controlling for municipality fixed effects. Third, we exploit unique geo-localized donation data from several charities and document similar patterns. All evidence points towards a drop in the propensity to donate driven by a shift in social norms that threatens general acceptance of the charitable sector. We provide consistent evidence using survey data from Germany and novel tax data from Italy.

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Book launch | @AfOx fellow Dr Gibson Ncube Ncube, G. (2022). Queer Bodies in African Films. Makhanda (South Africa): NISC Wednesday 29 May 2024, 12pm - 1pm Seminar Room, Radcliffe Humanities Building Colin Matthew Room, Radcliffe Humanities Building Free but booking is essential Speaker: Gibson Ncube, @AfOx visiting fellow Moderators: Dorothee Boulanger (University of Oxford), Kezia Mbonye (University of Oxford) Ncube, G. (2022). Queer Bodies in African Films. Makhanda (South Africa): NISC. Queer Bodies in African Films makes two overarching interventions. First, the book focuses on how queer bodies in films are texts. As sites invested with multiple and often overlapping discourses and narratives, queer bodies in films textualise silenced narratives and histories. They are inscribed with more than just desire, eroticism and sexuality. Second, this book sets out to read selected queer films from North Africa against and together with some from sub-Saharan Africa. It brings into productive conversation these broad regions of the continent, which in African Studies, are often demarcated along linguistic and geographic lines. This makes it possible to demonstrate how queer bodies, in their multiplicity, are disruptive figures whose materiality calls for a rethinking of how gender and sexual identities are not just performed and staged but also constructed and embodied. In examining diverse films in various languages and from different parts of the African continent, Queer Bodies in Africa Films shows that queer African experiences and cultural productions have developed beyond the hegemony of South Africa. Furthermore. its nuanced reading of films from different geographic zones and time frames contends that a focus on the body allows for a unique understanding of what queerness is and means within the context of Africa.

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talk by Dr Devorah Baum, University of Southampton, 'The Desire for Marriage'

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If you are supportive of disability advocacy, should you also be vegan? Should your thoughts on euthanizing a pet be consistent with how you might think about humans in search of assisted suicide? Scholars in disability studies have recently called for greater engagement with animal studies as a field. But complicated questions remain. Disability activists have long been fighting to reclaim the humanity of disabled people, for example, who have historically been constructed in ableist terms as somehow less than human. Should disability and animal activism therefore be linked together? Comparing nonhuman animals to people with terminal illnesses and disabilities is inevitably offensive for some, while others might wonder why there shouldn’t be more solidarity between these movements. The purpose of this talk is to unpack the discomfort these questions can produce, while also suggesting better ways of bringing together disability, illness, and animality, primarily by focusing on the concept of disanimality. Engaging related fields such as posthumanism, biopolitics, animality and illness studies, the larger book project from which this talk is derived explores disanimality through a wide range of contemporary U.S. novels, films, and memoirs. Key examples for this talk will include Don LePan’s dystopian and controversial novel Animals, in which people with disabilities are literally bred and raised for food like animals on factory farms, and Mark Doty’s memoir Dog Years, in which euthanizing companion animals raises questions about the bioethics of assisted dying for humans with terminal illnesses and disabilities.

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We explore the developmental impacts of mass migration on countries of origin, focusing specifically on Venezuela during the significant migrant exodus between 2016 and 2019. By comparing municipalities that had varying numbers of foreign residents before the migration surge, we investigate changes in electoral outcomes, economic growth, and income inequality. Our findings reveal that municipalities with a higher number of foreign residents at the outset - which also experienced greater levels of emigration - witnessed reduced voter turnout and diminished political support for the incumbent opposition. Additionally, we observed notable decreases in night light luminosity, alongside increases in income inequality. Written with Nicolas Cabra (DECRG, World Bank) and Maria Micaela Sviastchi (Princeton University)

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Tzima Group 12:30-13:00 Speaker: Dr Kar Lai Pang Title: Mechanoregulation of lymphatic valve development and lymphoedema Todd-Wicker Group 13:00-13:30 Speaker: Anthony Piron Title: Genetic background of type 1 and 2 diabetes

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Our work studies the interplay of biomolecules – proteins, sugars, lipids and their modifications. Synthetic Biology’s development at the start of this century may be compared with Synthetic Organic Chemistry’s expansion at the start of the last; after decades of isolation, identification, analysis and functional confirmation, the future logical and free-ranging redesign of biomacromolecules offers tantalizing opportunities to dissect mechanism and control function in physiology and biology. This lecture will cover past and emerging areas in our group in the manipulation of biomolecules with an emphasis on new bond-forming and bond-breaking processes compatible with biology and using those to understand molecular mechanisms. : (i) New methods: the development of precise methods that may be applied to biology at a posttranslational level, generating minimal ‘scars’ or ‘traces’ (ideally ‘trace’-less), could allow broad control of function. This will allow applications beyond simple ‘labeling biology’ or retrieval biology’. The development of chemo- and regio-selective methods with potential to posttranslationally ‘edit’ biology in this way, applied under benign conditions to redesign and reprogramme the structure and function of biomolecules, will be presented. (ii) ‘Synthetic Biologics’ and their applications: biomimicry; functional recapitulation; effector [drug/agrochemical/gene/radio-dose] delivery; selective protein degradation; inhibitors of pathogen interactions; non-invasive presymptopmatic disease diagnosis; probes and modulators of in vitro and in vivo function illustrate possible resulting technologies.

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Every year, All Souls College seeks to elect 2, occasionally 3, by examination in a range of subjects, including Politics (which includes International Relations and Political Theory.) Examination Fellows are full members of the College's governing body; they receive a stipend or scholarship allowance if eligible for scholarship status, free board and single accommodation in College, and various other benefits. The College normally pays the University fees of Examination Fellows who are studying for degrees at Oxford. Examinations Fellows typically do a doctorate; while most follow an academic career, some pursue careers outside academia in law, finance, journalism and the Civil Service. See https://www.asc.ox.ac.uk/examination-fellowships-general-information for more information, including about past Examinations papers. We will be holding an information session about the Fellowship and the Examination itself for 1st and 2nd students who are currently studying for M.Phil or MSc by Research in DPIR, on Wednesday May 29th, 1-2pm, Seminar Room C, Manor Road. The College is committed to attracting candidates from all backgrounds. The written examinations take place in late September; a small number of candidates (typically 5 or 6) are invited to a viva on the last Saturday of October. The examination is open to those who have recently completed a first degree and, in addition, either did that degree at Oxford or have enrolled as a graduate student at Oxford.

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A practical session where participants will develop the 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: build a search strategy on Medline, using Yale MeSH Analyzer to optimise the use of subject headings; adapt the search across multiple databases with the help of Polyglot; 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-S. Intended audience: students, staff and researchers from MSD and OUH.

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How the brain transforms information from the complex acoustic waves of natural sounds into the sound perceptions that we experience is still a mystery. We have systematically sampled the neural representations of sounds across the auditory system and identified key transformations of the information which we think are necessary to build identifiable auditory objects that can be associated to behavioral responses. This exquisite processing of sound information is profoundly disrupted by anesthesia, as early as in the first relay of the auditory system but remains intact in sleep up to the auditory cortex, the most central structure dedicated to sound processing. Thus, contrary to what is still often assumed, sleep permits the detailed recognition of sounds. These results also highlight the profound difference in perceptual awareness states produced by sleep and anesthesia. In this talk, I will also highlight a novel acousto-optic technology for ultrafast all optical imaging.

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Our research network is an online global meeting space for researchers in the field of life-writing. This event is open to members only. Find out more about joining here: https://oclw.web.ox.ac.uk/research-network Catherine Coldstream, 'Writing Closed Worlds' In her memoir, Cloistered, Catherine Coldstream tells the story of her twelve years in a traditional silent monastery in the 1990s. In this talk she will be discussing her experience of writing about life in a closed world, and how she met the challenge of conveying an essentially ‘hidden’ life in narrative form. Catherine Coldstream was born in London, and has studied at the Universities of Oxford, East Anglia, and Goldsmiths, London. After converting to Roman Catholicism, in her twenties, she entered the Carmelite order as an enclosed nun. Since leaving monastic life she has taught philosophy and ethics in schools and completed a doctorate in Creative Writing (Memoir) at Goldsmiths. Dr Felicity James, 'The Many Lives of Mary Lamb' This talk will explore absences and illness in the writing of Mary Lamb (1764-1847). Her life-writing is fragmentary, glimpsed in her stories for children, letters, one polemic essay; writing about her life is often constrained by difficulty in describing her mental illness and her matricide. We will focus on her evasive, intriguing tales for children and how to read their hidden stories of grief, loss, belief and consolation. Felicity James teaches eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature, and creative writing, at the University of Leicester, in the School of Arts and the Centre for Empathic Healthcare. She is editing the children’s writing of Charles and Mary Lamb for the Oxford Collected Works; more broadly, she researches religious dissent, specifically Unitarianism, and its rich literary culture.

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Does international economic activity by autocratic states stoke nationalist sentiment and legitimize governments domestically? Amid an autocratic resurgence worldwide, these states have increased their global engagement, transcending traditional patterns of behaviour and ideological divides. Recent studies have analyzed authoritarian foreign policymaking through the lens of status-building abroad and reputation laundering through, e.g., “sportswashing,” with an external audience in mind. Seeking to make the connection to domestic audiences, more established studies on ‘rallying’ effects have looked to foreign security threats and war-making as a means for rulers to build support at home. By failing to examine foreign policy from a non-security lens, or by over-emphasizing external audiences, we miss two interrelated political dynamics: the shaping of citizen identity in autocracies, affecting their long-term durability, and the resultant attitudes and attachments of citizens towards their states. Using the case of Saudi Arabia and its sovereign wealth fueled ‘Vision 2030’ era of socioeconomic transformation, this study examines domestic reactions to the foreign economic policies of authoritarian states. Leveraging a survey experiment and semi-structured interviews, the study aims to use the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s investment activity as a case study to 1) measure the influence of an autocratic state’s international economic activity on regime partisans’ and nationalists’ perceptions of the state, and 2) explore status anxiety as a mechanism that drives these citizen perceptions. I suggest that the state’s international economic engagements—relative to similar domestic initiatives—work to shape citizen identity, boost nationalist sentiment, and solidify regime legitimacy, inter alia, among domestic audiences at a time of great uncertainty. By examining how foreign economic policy works as a legitimating force to shape domestic sentiments of nationalism, this study hopes to contribute to a better understanding of what it means to be a citizen in an ambitious autocratic state in the 21st century.

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An introduction to key archival, printed and electronic resources, such as finding aids, bibliographic resources and primary sources for post-1800 global history. The focus will be on non-European history but will draw predominantly on English and European language resources. This session is classroom-based. After the session you will have an understanding of: the different types of material relevant to researching Modern Global History; how to search databases, bibliographies and other online resources; how to search the Bodleian Libraries resource discovery tool for manuscripts and archives; and how to locate relevant archive material elsewhere. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers and other staff.

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With the EU elections on the horizon, this workshop will unveil the real-world mechanics of EU legislation, presenting how the EU legislative process works in practice, breaking free from what the books teach and delving into how civil society can influence a process that looks so distant and complicated.

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Multiple complimentary approaches are available for modelling the adaptive behaviour of individual agents in complex systems, and in this work reinforcement learning is the focus. A core problem here is that unambiguous identification of rewards driving the behaviour of entities operating in complex (open-ended) real-world environments is at least difficult, if not impossible. In part this is because the true goals of agents are not observable; also, reward-driven behaviours emerge endogenously over longer timescales and are dynamically updated as environments change. Defining a reliable reward function to use in models therefore remains a challenge. Reproducing the emergence of rewards is a potential solution, and would be have application in many domains. Simulation experiments will be described which assess a candidate algorithm for the dynamic updating of rewards, RULE: Reward Updating through Learning and Expectation. The approach is tested in a simplified ecosystem-like setting where manipulated conditions challenge the survival of an entity population, calling for significant behavioural change.

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*Nicholas Zumbulyadis* (Delaware) 'Chymistry and Art at the Cusp of the 17th and 18th centuries' *Mariana Sanchez* (Paris) 'Distillation in the Phillipines in the 18th century'

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This May marks the 80th commemoration of the Crimean Tatars' deportation by Stalin. In recognition of this event, Nuffield College will host a talk featuring Professor Rory Finnin, Professor of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Cambridge, and Dr Tamar Koplatadze, Associate Professor in Postsocialist Literature and Culture at the University of Oxford. They will discuss Professor Finnin's recent book titled "Blood of Others: Stalin's Crimean Atrocity and the Poetics of Solidarity." The event will conclude with a Q&A session. Tea, coffee, and biscuits will be available.

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Week 6 (Sun 26th - Sat June 1st) Wednesday 29th May Recollection Lecture: Piety vs. Polemic: The Paradox of Elizabethan Satire. Jane Cooper (All Souls). In 1597 Joseph Hall – later a Bishop – declared himself England’s first satirist, writing in the manner of Juvenal and Horace in his satire Virgidemiarum. His declared purpose was to attack impiety in contemporary English society out of a sense of unavoidable moral duty (in Juvenal's words, difficile est saturam nōn scrībere). The Bishops' Ban of popular satire (1599) shows satire's vituperative style and personal attacks were considered too rancorous, licentious, and even seditious for the Christian public. How did satirists respond to this tension between Christian piety and Roman-style rancour? With pseudonymous personae, whose opinions matched the satirist’s, but whose heightened style the satirist could disown.

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Although cattle and sheep were central to the everyday lives and wellbeing of Bronze Age communities in northwest Europe, they are strangely lacking from our narratives of the period. After the Neolithic, it seems, archaeologists rarely consider domestic animals to be interesting. However, Bronze Age people clearly thought otherwise, as the careful deposition of complete and partial animal bodies in graves, pits and ditches suggests. The traces of cattle and sheep are present in other ways too, in hoofprints around waterholes and in landscape features like droveways that appear at this time, but we too rarely consider what such evidence can tell us beyond the economic significance of animals and their products. Integrating multispecies and posthumanist perspectives that highlight how living with animals involves intimate interaction and interdependency, we ask how it might be possible to explore the role of cattle and sheep as active participants in Bronze Age social worlds. By reconstructing the intertwining of people and animals in life and death, we can consider how together they generated Bronze Age worlds of work, sociality and meaning.

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Showcasing research being undertaken by DPhil students across the Social Sciences Division on disability. Urania Chiu, DPhil in Socio-Legal Studies 'Critically analysing discourses around mental dis/ability in criminal law: a reflection on methodology' Hillary Chua, DPhil in Law 'Intellectual Disability and Intimacy – A Legal Perspective from Singapore' Louise Nicolson, DPhil in Education 'Proof vs Potential: Applying Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach to investigate student experiences of UK pre-Masters programmes' Ishani Mookherjee, DPhil in Law 'Interrogating the Quest for Human Perfection through Women: Regulation of Disability-Selective Abortions in India'

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Dr Juweria Ali's research interests focus on critical international relations theory and practice, and the politics of nation and state-building in the Horn of Africa. She was a Research Fellow at the University of Westminster’s Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD), where she completed her PhD. She was a founding member of the Hankaal Institute in Jigjiga, Ethiopia. Hallelujah Lulie is PhD Candidate in Politics at the University of Oxford studying the nexus between nationalism and citizenship in the Horn of Africa. His research interest include democratization, governance and social movements. Prior to that, he was a senior visiting policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). Hallelujah headed the Institute of Foreign Affairs (IFA), Ethiopian government’s prime strategic policy think-tank for more than a year and he was member of the policy advising team at the Office of the Prime Minster of Ethiopia.

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Join us at the Oxford launch of Professor Ian Goldin’s latest book - The Shortest History of Migration. Ian will show how migration since the emergence of early humans has shaped human progress, and been at the catalyst for the development of knowledge and civilisations. Migration is seldom totally voluntary, and leads to profound changes in the sending and destination countries, and to the migrants themselves. Professor Ian Goldin, Professor of Globalisation and Development, will provide historical perspectives on current debates regarding the scale, implications and future of migration. This talk is co-hosted by the Oxford Literary Festival This event will be followed by a drinks reception and book sale & signing, all welcome. REGISTRATION To register to attend in person in Oxford: https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/events/migration-past-present-future/ To register to watch live online on Crowdcast click here: https://www.crowdcast.io/c/migration-past-perspectives

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Prof Mark Harris | Quantum Fundamentalism and Theological Liberty Andrew Wiles Building, Lecture Room 2, OX26GG Wed 29th May 2024 5:00PM Prof Mark Harris | Quantum Fundamentalism and Theological Liberty Andreas Idreos Chair in Science and Religion Inaugural Lecture May 29th 2024, 5-6pm. Drinks reception 6-7pm. Mathematical Institute, Andrew Wiles Building, University of Oxford, Lecture Room 2 Professor Mark Harris will deliver the Andreas Idreos Inaugural Lecture on ‘Quantum Fundamentalism and Theological Liberty’. This event is free and open to the public but requires registration in advance (link here). About the Speaker Professor Mark Harris holds the position of the Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion, which is attached to a Professorial Fellowship at Harris Manchester College. As a physicist working in a theological environment, he thinks of himself as a theologian of science, interested in the complex ways that the natural sciences and religious beliefs relate to each other. Professor Harris is the Director of the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion in the Faculty of Theology and Religion, and he serves as President of the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology (ESSSAT). Abstract Quantum Mechanics (QM) is astonishingly successful as a theoretical framework, underpinning countless scientific areas and providing the impetus behind entire industries like telecommunications. Many scientists – not to mention most physicists – suspect that physical reality is wholly quantum at its most fundamental level, even if we perceive little of this in our everyday human experience. This is the viewpoint of ‘quantum fundamentalism’. And yet, the conceptual implications of QM defy common sense, to such an extent that popular culture largely perceives of QM as a source of counter-intuitive weirdness. At the same time, bestselling self-help manuals portray QM as a source of hidden healing power within ourselves, while spiritual readings invoke QM as a bridge to the divine, or as a gateway to ancient wisdom. Scientists often denounce this area as 'quantum quackery', but I will examine its serious side. I will argue that, for quantum fundamentalism to function as a worldview it should inform a sense of human purpose, something which theological analysis is well equipped to supply.

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ABOUT THE BOOK Traditionally, humanitarianism is considered a nonpolitical urgent response to human suffering. However, this characterization ignores the politics that create and are created by the crises and the increasingly long-term dimension of relief. In The Politics of Crisis-Making, by shedding light on how humanitarian practice becomes enmeshed with diverse forms of welfare and development, Estella Carpi exposes how the politics of defining crises affect the social identity and membership of the displaced. Her ethnographic research in Lebanon brings to light interactions among aid workers, government officials, internally displaced citizens, migrants, and refugees after the 2006 war in Beirut's southern suburbs and during the 2011-2013 arrival of refugees from Syria to the Akkar District (northern Lebanon). By documenting different cultures, modalities, and traditions of assistance, Carpi offers a full account of how the politics of crisis-making play out in Lebanon. An important read, The Politics of Crisis-Making shows that it is not crisis per se, but rather the crisis as official discourse and management that are able to reshuffle societies, while engendering unequal political, moral, and nationality-based economies. ABOUT THE SPEAKER Dr Estella Carpi is a Lecturer in Humanitarian Studies at the Institute for Risk & Disaster Reduction, University College London. Over the last decade, her research has mainly focused on social responses to conflict-induced humanitarian assistance in the Levant and Turkey. More broadly, her academic work has revolved around identity politics in crisis-affected settings, anthropology of the state and humanitarianism, and the overlapping of welfare and emergency relief. She is currently a 2020-25 Global Young Academy Member, where she co-led the At-Risk Scholars Initiative between 2021 and 2023, and actively participates in the Harmonising Reason with Sensibility and the Anti-Discrimination Group. In 2016, she was awarded the “Mobility, Displacement, and Forced Migration in the Middle East” research grant from the Centre for International and Regional Studies (Georgetown University-Qatar), to undertake a study on the politics of urban livelihoods in the border economies of Southeastern Turkey and Northern Lebanon. She is the author of The Politics of Crisis-Making: Forced Displacement and Cultures of Assistance in Lebanon (Indiana University Press, 2023), and of Specchi Scomodi. Etnografia delle Migrazioni Forzate nel Libano Contemporaneo (Mimesis, 2018). The seminar will be followed by drinks. Full details at https://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/book-launch-the-politics-of-crisis-making-forced-displacement-and-cultures-of-assistance-in-lebanon

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Modern mathematics movement of the early 20th century found its way into the teaching of mathematics across the world in the early post-war period, with Georges Papy and André Lichnerowicz leading the way in Europe. In Czechoslovakia, this transformation of mathematics education is known as “set-theoretical approach”. Indeed set theory is at the core of Bourbakist transformation of the mathematical knowledge, as exemplified by their masterpiece Élements de Mathématique, which became mathematicians’ manifesto. In the educational setting, the adjectives “new” and “modern” were found more appropriate, but not so in Czechoslovakia. Dirk de Bock’s recent book on the topic (Modern Mathematics: An International Movement?, Springer 2023) covers a lot of Modern Math, but Czechoslovakia is missing, and here we are. Czechoslovakia is at the heart of Europe, perhaps the heart of Europe. Hence we connect to other countries: Poland, Hungary, Soviet Union, but also Belgium, France, Sweden (marginally), the Netherlands, and Yugoslavia as a very special case. This seminar reports on a joint project of Helena Durnová, Petra Bušková (Masaryk University), Danny J. Beckers (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), and Snezana Lawrence (Middlesex University).

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The International History of East Asia Seminar for Trinity Term 2024 will be held over four sessions in person (Weeks 6, 7, 8) at the Lucina Ho Seminar Room at the University of Oxford China Centre and online (Week 3) via MS Teams (all in-person sessions will also be shown online; Week 4 is online only). Weeks 6 and 8 will take place in-person and online via Teams at 1700 on Wednesdays, Week 7 will take place in-person and online via Teams at 1700 on a Tuesday, and Week 3 will take place solely online via Teams at 1700 on Thursday. We are a seminar on East Asian international history supported by the University of Oxford China Centre. All convenors are current graduate students or early career researchers. We host regular talks by graduate students and researchers in order to facilitate academic dialogue among scholars based in the UK, Europe, as well as those from the other regions of the world. Follow us on Twitter @OxIHEAS Contact us at iheaoxseminar@gmail.com

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Readings and discussion with an autobiographical poet, Antoine Hummel: “Let it flow, mais keep it slow.” Scrupules et confessions, 29th May 2024 at the Maison française d’Oxford, 5-7pm, followed by wine and cheese. Antoine Hummel is one of the major contemporary French poets and a performer. His most recent publications include Ça joue. Fanfare confessionnelle at La Tempête in February 2024, and Le Club at Zoème in 2023. He has animated and written for several magazines such as Legovil and Enculer. His thesis, “Pas spécialement poétique”, on the “dé-spécialisation” of contemporary poetic practice and focusing on Christophe Tarkos and Nathalie Quintane, is available on his website https://www.testanonpertinente.net/PSP/, which also gathers a lot of his poetic work, written or audio recorded (see https://testanonpertinente.net/?p=13685 for instance). We will hear Antoine read extracts from his work. This will be followed by a discussion moderated by Mathieu Farizier. This event is made possible by the generous support of the ASMCF (Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France) initiative fund, the Maison Française d'Oxford and the MML Department at Oxford University'.

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Governments and private companies around the world face a growing number of cyber security threats and attacks that are expected to increase in frequency, severity, and complexity in the coming years. Yet despite shared concern about the evolving cyber threat landscape, and a general consensus about the applicability of existing international law to the cyber context, global efforts to regulate cyberspace have struggled to keep pace. Robert (Bobby) Chesney, Dean of the University of Texas School of Law and James A Baker Chair III in the Rule of Law and World Affairs at UT, joins Professor Ciaran Martin at the Blavatnik School to discuss emerging trends in cyber security and pathways towards strengthening international law protections in cyberspace. This event is the keynote session of a closed-door roundtable held at the Blavatnik School in collaboration with the University of Texas at Austin.

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Patric Dickinson CVO read Modern History at Exeter and was later called to the Bar. He has worked at the College of Arms since 1968 and was a herald for 42 years, latterly holding the post of Clarenceux King of Arms from which he retired in 2021. He was also Secretary of the Order of the Garter from 2004 to 2024. He has been President of the Society of Genealogists since 2005 and a Bencher of Middle Temple since 2015. He was a Visiting Fellow at New College in 2022 and at Exeter in 2022-23. Patric Dickinson has been carrying out a detailed survey of the coats of arms that can be seen around the College, most notably in the Hall and the Chapel but also in the Front Quad, the SCR and the College archives. In this illustrated talk, he will explore Exeter’s heraldry and say something about the many benefactors who are commemorated armorially.

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A talk about the fascinating history of the UK’s famous ’14-day rule’ governing human embryo research In the context of current debates over ‘stembryos’, the popular moniker for new human embryo modelling techniques, and the corresponding call for the extension of the 14-day rule, we ask what this case study reveals about ‘the sociology of biological translation’. Sarah Franklin and Emily Jackson, an anthropologist and a legal scholar, argue that Mary Warnock and Anne McLaren, architects of the UK’s pathbreaking regulation of human fertilisation and embryology, devised a unique bio-governance infrastructure that has stood the test of time because it embeds a reciprocal social contract into statutory legislation and that this framework continues to yield valuable lessons for the future. The 14-Day Rule and Embryo Research: A Sociology of Biological Translation by Sarah Franklin and Emily Jackson, with a Foreword by Peter Braude, is published by Taylor and Francis, and scheduled to be launched in May 2024. Professor Sarah Franklin is Chair of Sociology at the University of Cambridge where she directs the Reproductive Sociology Research Group (ReproSoc). Emily Jackson OBE is Professor of Law at the LSE and a former Deputy Chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. Professor Jonathan Michie, President of Kellogg College will chair the event. The Anne McLaren Lecture is an annual event at Kellogg. Anne McLaren’s work helped lead to human in vitro fertilisation (IVF). She received many honours for her contributions to science, and became the first-ever woman Officer of the Royal Society, when she was made Foreign Secretary, then Vice-President. She was a Trustee of the Oxford International Biomedical Centre, which commissioned this annual lecture. Refreshments will be served from 5 pm; the seminar will begin at 5.30 pm. Post-event drinks will be served in the Hub at 6.30 pm. This event will be photographed and filmed. If you do not wish to appear in the photographs/footage, please let the photographer/videographer know.

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Join Worcester College Provost, David Isaac CBE, as he interviews leading role models about their lives and careers. Bridget Kendall MBE has spent over 40 years as a BBC journalist, joining as a graduate trainee in 1983. She was BBC Moscow correspondent from 1989 to 1994, covering the final years of the Soviet Union and the first years of post-Soviet Russia. She was BBC Washington correspondent from 1994 to 1998 during the Clinton Presidency. From 1998 to 2016 she held the senior role of BBC Diplomatic correspondent, reporting on major global trends and crises, and analysing their impact on Britain and the world. Kendall was the first woman elected Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge in 2016. She was appointed a Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge in 2020, the same year in which she was made an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy. She is also an Honorary Fellow of St Antony’s College, Oxford and Lady Margaret Hall. Her awards include the James Cameron Award for distinguished journalism, a Bronze Sony Reporter of the Year award, a special award for International Reporting from the Political Studies Association and an MBE in the 1994 New Year's Honours list. Join us in the Linbury Room at Worcester College as we hear from Bridget. All are welcome to join for drinks after the event.

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Mountains and the Historian A workshop at the University of Oxford May 30-31, 2024 Organized by Christian Sahner (Oxford) and Molly Greene (Princeton) With generous support from The Ludwig Fund of New College, The Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research, and The Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Registration required to attend; please contact christian.sahner@ames.ox.ac.uk Overview: The purpose of this workshop is to convene a diverse group of scholars working on mountains in different areas and periods. The goal is to present past or ongoing research as well as to learn from one another by comparing and contrasting different mountainous regions and peoples across time. The workshop is open to many different approaches, but some of the questions we hope to investigate include: o To what extent are mountain societies structured differently or similarly to those commonly found in lowlands? o What kinds of polities often formed in mountainous environments? o To what extent did empires face difficulty in imposing their authority on mountains? o Why do mountains often have distinctive ethnic, linguistic, and religious profiles? o What sources—written, archaeological, or otherwise—exist for studying mountains and their human populations? o How are mountains represented in literature, art, and other forms of culture? o What characterized the economy of mountains and what natural resources were available for human exploitation? o What was the relationship between sedentary and nomadic populations in mountains? o What different forms of mobility connected mountains with lowlands? o How does the history of mountains compare to the history of other ecologically ‘marginal’ regions, including deserts, river deltas, and polar areas? o How have modern historians typically researched mountains, and is there room for the development of a subfield of historical ‘mountain studies’? Day 1 (May 30) Location: Colin Matthew Room, Ground Floor, Radcliffe Humanities Building, Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 6GG 09:30-09:45: Introduction 09:45-10:45: Jason König (University of St Andrews, UK) ‘Mountain Peoples and Mountain Environments in Classical Antiquity and Beyond’ 10:45-11:45: Christian Sahner (University of Oxford, UK) ‘Mountains, “Heterodoxy,” and Missionaries: The Case of North Africa, Syria, and Iran during the Early Middle Ages’ 11:45-12:00: Coffee 12:00-13:00: Katharina Winckler (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria) ‘Foreigners and Locals: The Control of Transport Routes and Territories in the Early Medieval Alps’ 13:00-14:30: Lunch 14:30-15:30: Joshua Wright (University of Aberdeen, UK) ‘Archaeology in High Asia: Mobility, Transhumance, and Urbanism’ 15:30-15:45: Coffee 15:45-16:45: Mihailo Popović (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria) ‘Terrifying Aspects of Mountains and their Wilderness in the Medieval Balkans and How to Overcome Them’ Day 2 (May 31) Location: Seminar Room, Third Floor, Radcliffe Humanities Building, Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 6GG 09:30-10:30: Molly Greene (Princeton University, USA) ‘Who Was Where? The Mountains, the Plains and the Transition to Ottoman Rule in Thessaly’ 10:30-11:30: Alebachew Belay (Debre Berhan University, Ethiopia) ‘“Pagan” and Christian Landscapes in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia (c. 6th to 19th c. CE): An Archaeological and Historical Overview’ 11:30-11:45: Coffee 11:45-12:45: Stephanie Joy Mawson (University of Lisbon, Portugal) ‘The Freedom of the Mountains: Zones of Refuge and Philippines Ethnohistory, 1565-1750’ 12:45-14:15: Lunch 14:15-15:15: Jeremy Mumford (Brown University, USA) ‘Mountains and Bodies in the Andes: From Apu to Genome’ 15:15-15:30: Coffee 15:30-16:30: Katherine Ledford (Appalachian State University, USA) ‘“A landscape that resembles us”: Some Challenges of Compiling an Anthology of Mountain Literature’ 16:30-17:00 Conclusion

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*Programme* 09:30-09:45 Introduction 09:45-10:45 *Jason König* (University of St Andrews, UK) ‘Mountain Peoples and Mountain Environments in Classical Antiquity and Beyond’ 10:45-11:45 *Christian Sahner* (University of Oxford, UK) ‘Mountains, “Heterodoxy,” and Missionaries: The Case of North Africa, Syria, and Iran during the Early Middle Ages’ 11:45-12:00 Coffee 12:00-13:00 *Katharina Winckler* (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria) ‘Foreigners and Locals: The Control of Transport Routes and Territories in the Early Medieval Alps’ 13:00-14:30 Lunch 14:30-15:30 *Joshua Wright* (University of Aberdeen, UK) ‘Archaeology in High Asia: Mobility, Transhumance, and Urbanism’ 15:30-15:45 Coffee 15:45-16:45 *Mihailo Popović* (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria) ‘Terrifying Aspects of Mountains and their Wilderness in the Medieval Balkans and How to Overcome Them’

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COURSE DETAILS This highly interactive workshop will be based around an example of writing an explainer or news article for the wider, non-specialist public website (though the lessons can be applied to any communication context). It is highly recommended that you will have already attended the introductory workshop (Telling Stories That Matter), or equivalent introductory workshops on storytelling. Brief reading material will be provided to ensure you are up to date with the fundamentals of storytelling that are the basis of this workshop. LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of the course participants will be able to:  Apply storytelling elements to their research story.  Increase understanding of effective storytelling elements including summary and clarity.

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In-person workshop exploring the basic foundations of generative AI to help you navigate its potential and limitations within teaching and learning. Who is the workshop for? Oxford teaching and teaching support staff, including course directors, tutors, lecturers, teaching assistants and academic administrators. On what dates will the workshop be held? - Friday 17 May (10.30am-12.30pm) - Thursday 30 May (10.30am-12.30pm) - Monday 24 June (10.30am-12.30pm). What will you do during the workshop? - Evaluate the suitability of AI tools for specific teaching and learning tasks - Critically assess the outputs generated by popular generative AI models - Compare benefits of different prompting techniques - Formulate use cases for generative AI in teaching and learning - Gain practical experience in formulating clear and specific prompts to effectively engage with generative AI models for various teaching and learning tasks. By the end of the workshop, you will have a deeper understanding of how AI can enhance your teaching, equipped with the tools to critically assess AI outputs and integrate these technologies into your everyday tasks.

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Harren Jhoti co-founded Astex in 1999 and was Chief Scientific Officer until November 2007 when he was appointed Chief Executive Officer. He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to Cancer Research and Drug Discovery in the King’s New Year Honours in 2023. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2018, the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2016, and of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2015. In January 2018 he was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the UK BioIndustry Association (BIA). He received the Prous Institute-Overton and Meyer Award for New Technologies in Drug Discovery from the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry in 2012 and was also named by the Royal Society of Chemistry as “Chemistry World Entrepreneur of the Year” for 2007. In September 2023, Dr. Jhoti won Business Person of the Year at the 21st annual Asian Achievers Awards. He has published widely including in leading journals such as Nature and Science, and has also been featured in TIME magazine after being named by the World Economic Forum a Technology Pioneer in 2005. He has served on the board of the BIA, the UK BioIndustry Association and currently consults for life science venture capital firms. Before founding Astex in 1999, he was head of Structural Biology and Bioinformatics at GlaxoWellcome in the United Kingdom (1991-1999). Prior to Glaxo, Dr. Jhoti was a post-doctoral scientist at Oxford University. He received a B.Sc. (Hons) in Biochemistry in 1985 and a Ph.D. in Protein Crystallography from the University of London in 1989.

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COURSE DETAILS In this session we introduce RDM and the practical skill of developing Data Management Plans to manage your own data successfully. The Research Data Management (RDM) course answers these questions and more:  How often do you consider how you’re managing this vital resource?  Is your data secure and backed up?  How can you demonstrate its integrity if challenged?  Could your research make a greater impact by sharing data?  What happens to your hard-won data when your project ends? LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this session you will:  Have an appreciation of the importance of RDM and understand the research data management lifecycle.  Confidently approach preparing a data management plan and apply the principles to your own research.  Be able to locate sources of support and expertise around the University to help with different aspects of RDM.

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Over the course of five visits to the American West in the 1830s, George Catlin (b.1796) created a collection of Native American portraits and artifacts, which he toured using a range of performance strategies such as lectures and audience participation. While most scholarship focuses either on figurations of the ‘vanishing Indian’ in his paintings or the museological aspects of his gallery, my paper characterises Catlin’s work as occupying a point of juncture between European and American romanticism, and between literary/artistic Romantic movements and burgeoning scientific disciplines. I apply to visual culture the suggestion of Bruce Greenfield, who argues that American romantic literature, particularly Thoreau, provided imaginative ‘first contacts’ through which readers could ‘know’ the land. Catlin’s gallery, however, provided frontier simulations that were multi-sensorial, engaging a more embodied form of knowledge. I also develop the work of Richard Sha, who argues that Romanticism was linked with science via the role of the imagination. By considering the spatial-temporal experiences of particular forms of visual culture, I chart the ways in which Catlin’s gallery engaged (historical) imagination and sewed lines between ecology, anthropology, and history.

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This seminar will introduce body mapping as a participatory research method, both in theory and in practice. Body mapping is a visual method used in human geography, arts, sociology, medicine, psychology, and social sciences more broadly to understand people’s experiences with a variety of social phenomena, including (ill)health and wellbeing, migration, urban safety, and perceptions of (in)security. Body maps are life-sized images of bodies that participants draw during the body mapping workshops. There is usually a set of guided questions the participants «answer» using colours, newspaper images, symbols, and text. At the end of the workshops (and upon consent), the body maps are discussed in the group. The first part of the seminar will introduce body mapping as a method. In the second part, participants have the possibility to try body mapping on A3 paper, either reflecting on their own research project or on another proposed topic. Important: Body mapping is not about being a great artist and you don’t need to be good at drawing – there will be enough materials to express yourself in different ways! MS Teams link: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZjFlZWExMmUtOTc1My00MjE0LWEzNDctZmI5ZGQyNWNhYTE3%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

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Programme 'The Physical Activity Clinical Champions Programme' – Dr William Wynter-Bee, Sport and Exercise Medicine Consultant 'Active Hospitals in Action' – Dr Felicity Hughes and Dr Faisal Shaikh, Registrars in Sport and Exercise Medicine All clinical and academic staff and students welcome. Coffee, Tea and Cake will be served.

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Plants produce a wealth of natural products. The vast majority of the natural product diversity encoded by plant genomes remains as yet untapped. The explosion in plant genome sequence data, coupled with affordable DNA synthesis and new DNA assembly technologies, now offer unprecedented opportunities to harness the full breadth of plant natural product diversity and generate novel molecules in foreign hosts using synthetic biology approaches. The recent discovery that genes for the synthesis of different kinds of natural products are organised in biosynthetic gene clusters in plant genomes opens up opportunities for mining for new pathways and chemistries. This advance, in combination with powerful new transient plant expression technology, is enabling the development of rational strategies to produce known and new-to-nature chemicals tailored for food, health and industrial applications. This presentation will focus on our work on developing a translational synthetic biology pipeline for rapid preparative access to plant natural products and novel analogs using synthetic biology approaches, focusing in particular on the elucidation of the pathway for saponin vaccine adjuvants from the Chilean soapbark tree. Our results enable for the first time the production of soapbark vaccine adjuvants in a heterologous expression system and open the way for new routes to access and engineer natural and new-to-nature immunostimulants.

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LGBTQ+ nighttime venues have undergone a startling decline globally over the past 20 years. More than half of London’s venues closed between 2006 and 2016, and the in the U.S. an average of 15 gay bars closed every year from 2008 to 2021. “Save your tears, because queer nightlife is alive and well,” writes the _New York Times_ in its review of Dr Amin Ghaziani’s new book, _Long Live Queer Nightlife: How the Closing of Gay Bars Sparked a Revolution_. “In fact, it’s even better than ever, having evolved into a more progressive, sophisticated form.” How is this possible? How is queer nightlife surviving, if not thriving, in the middle of an epidemic of bar closures?

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Eric Wang, Ph.D., received his B.A. in Biochemistry from Harvard College and his Ph.D. from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology in Medical Engineering/Medical Physics with a focus on Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics. He received an NIH Director’s Early Independence Award and launched his independent research group at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Center for Neurogenetics and Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at the University of Florida. His lab focuses on repeat expansion diseases, RNA biology, and development of therapeutic approaches. He has received grants from the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation, Muscular Dystrophy Association, FARA, HDF, NIH, and DOD. He is also a co-founder of Kate Therapeutics, focused on gene therapies for muscle diseases.

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Winifred Knights (1899-1947) was a highly individual artist who adopted a distinctive style of modernism. She trained at the Slade under Henry Tonks and in 1920 painted, as a scholarship piece, The Deluge. It has come to be recognised as her masterpiece. In the 1920s and 30s, Knights produced a range of remarkable and original works in the company of her husband, Stephen Monnington. She died in 1947, aged 47. No newspaper published her obituary. The first of three in the Making a Mark series of talks about British women painters. Other talks in this series include: Evelyn Dunbar talk 2 - Thu 6 Jun Joan Eardley talk 3 - Thu 13 Jun

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Webpage: english.web.ox.ac.uk/reading-group-literature-and-mental-health Reading list: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1u3IaqwXUPyeOKKQ0oznFdeMODLlTw35g?usp=sharing Please copy and paste the links into a different tab in case they do not open here. Thank you.

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The workshop is an informal space for students and faculty working on LGBTQ-related history to discuss in-progress writing/planning/ideas, get feedback and advice, and share experiences and conflicts related to our research. Bring something to discuss or come ready to chat. *_Thursdays, even weeks TT2024_*

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Multiple complimentary approaches are available for modelling the adaptive behaviour of individual agents in complex systems, and in this work reinforcement learning is the focus. A core problem here is that unambiguous identification of rewards driving the behaviour of entities operating in complex (open-ended) real-world environments is at least difficult, if not impossible. In part this is because the true goals of agents are not observable; also, reward-driven behaviours emerge endogenously over longer timescales and are dynamically updated as environments change. Defining a reliable reward function to use in models therefore remains a challenge. Reproducing the emergence of rewards is a potential solution, and would be have application in many domains. Simulation experiments will be described which assess a candidate algorithm for the dynamic updating of rewards, RULE: Reward Updating through Learning and Expectation. The approach is tested in a simplified ecosystem-like setting where manipulated conditions challenge the survival of an entity population, calling for significant behavioural change. About the speaker: Richard Bailey is Professor of Environmental Systems at the University of Oxford. His academic life in began in Earth Sciences and he holds a PhD from London University in solid state physics, with applications to long-term environmental change. Over many years, Richard developed a fascination with complex systems and eventually moved out of physics and in to the modelling of large scale environmental systems, with applications first in ecology and more recently in coupled human-environmental systems. He is very much interested in theoretical issues, but also tries to be useful in helping solve significant environmental problems. His applied work over the last 10 years has focused on fisheries and ocean ecology, plastic pollution, and; agriculture. Richard works with various international bodies: UN on plastics; governments, NGOs, charities on plastic and on oceans; a small number of US start-ups on AI/ML applications for environmental solutions.

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The Associate Head of the Social Sciences Division (EDI), Professor Nandini Gooptu, has invited Dr Leaver, an experienced GP who has worked with many students at the University, to give a talk on Neurodivergence. Dr Leaver will be joined by Umme Imani, an EDI Associate in the Social Sciences Division, who is currently working on a project to produce a film to raise awareness about the experiences of neurodivergent students in the University. This talk is a fantastic chance to learn more about how to support neurodivergent members of our community. Speakers: Dr Laurence Leaver (FRCP, FRCGP) is senior partner at a GP practice in central Oxford that looks after around 3,500 students at several Oxford colleges. Dr Leaver was Senior Doll Fellow and Chair of the Medical Teaching Committee at Green Templeton College, where he is Governing Body Fellow. He received a Oxford University lifetime teaching award in 2023. He has co-authored around 25 publications on various topics, including ADHD. Umme Imani did her MSc at the School of Global and Area Studies and now works at the Smith School for Enterprise and the Environment. This event is hosted by St Antony’s College.

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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.

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Please note that the speaker will be presenting via Zoom. Booking is required for people outside of the Department of Social Policy and Intervention (DSPI). DSPI members do not need to register.

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Session Eight: Securitisation Versus Sovereignty? Multi-level Governance, Scientific Objectivation, and the Discourses of the Canadian and American Heads of State During the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic Presenter: Marjolaine Lamontagne, McGill University Discussant: Professor Frank Schimmelfennig, ETH Zürich COVID-19 Lessons for Social Resilience? Notes from Southeast Asia Presenter: Dr Marina Kaneti, National University of Singapore and Simren Sekhon Discussant: Dr Hanna-Tina Fischer, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin The Oxford Covid-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) is a project that collected information on policy measures to tackle COVID-19 over the years 2020, 2021, and 2022. Although a substantial body of scientific research on COVID-19 government responses has already been published, many research questions remain unanswered, and the OxCGRT team is continuing research into the impacts and determinants of pandemic policy and working with partners to devise new approaches to data collection that can be deployed quickly in the face of future pandemics or global emergencies. The OxCGRT Seminar Series is an innovative platform for scholars working on COVID-19 responses, offering an opportunity to present and discuss their ongoing research work as well as to connect with the broader research community. The series will run online every Thursday from 11 April to 30 May at 4:00-5:30 pm BST.

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Langue et Révolution dans la dernière œuvre de Casanova Benjamin Hoffman (Ohio State University) Consacrée au dernier ouvrage publié du vivant de Giacomo Casanova, À Léonard Snetlage (1797), cette présentation explore le paradoxe d’un écrivain francophone qui revendique son droit à l'innovation dans le domaine linguistique tout en s’érigeant en censeur des évolutions survenues dans la langue française à partir de 1789. La langue à l’envers ? Jean-François Laharpe, l’histoire littéraire et la Révolution Olivier Ritz (Université Paris Cité) Avec le Lycée ou Cours de littérature ancienne et moderne, publié à partir de 1799, Jean-François Laharpe est l’un des fondateurs de l’histoire littéraire. Si son ouvrage est la synthèse d’une longue carrière d’écrivain, il est aussi une réaction à la Révolution et à la « Terreur ». L'accusation portée dès 1794 contre « la langue révolutionnaire », coupable d’avoir inversé le sens des mots, est le fondement d’une histoire littéraire normative, dont les critères d'évaluation sont le vrai et le beau.

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Short Bio: Madhu Vankadari is a doctoral candidate at the University of Oxford's Cyber Physical Systems group, under the supervision of Prof. Niki Trigoni and Prof. Andrew Markham. Prior to Oxford, he worked as a Machine Vision researcher at TCS Research in India. Madhu's research revolves around using deep learning for SLAM-related challenges, such as improving depth estimation, camera pose accuracy, multi-motion scenarios, and visual place recognition. His work finds applications in robotics and computer vision, enhancing areas like autonomous navigation and augmented reality. Teams link: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_MGQxM2Q3NmItMjM5MC00ODQyLTkyYTQtZDc2YmM1MDdiYjYy%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22e44820d7-5edb-4030-9763-4c8cdc3aafd6%22%7d Abstract: Understanding the world in 3D irrespective of the time of the day is crucial for applications such as autonomous navigation, and augmented and virtual reality. Amongst all the sensors through which this can be achieved, cameras have been cheap and ubiquitous. However, cameras can only capture the 2D projection of the 3D world. Extracting 3D information from one or more 2D images has been a long-standing problem in Computer Vision. Recently, the success of deep learning has made it possible to do the aforementioned by training a network on a large corpus of training data with their ground truth. Self-supervised learning made it possible to train a system to achieve the same objective without using any ground truth. In this talk, I am going to present some of the latest advances in self-supervised learning including my own research in this direction.

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For our May Scholars’ Library event, Joseph Nye (New Jersey & Exeter 1958) will discuss his new memoir A Life in the American Century. In conversation with fellow Scholar Ziyi Wang (China & Queen's 2021), amongst other topics, Joseph will talk about power and political leadership, his personal journey between Harvard and Washington, life in Oxford in the late 50's, and how US academia and government have changed over the years. For the past eight decades, we have lived in "the American Century" - a period during which the US has enjoyed unrivalled power - be it political, economic or military - on the global stage. Born on the cusp of this new era, Joseph S. Nye Jr. has spent a lifetime illuminating our understanding of the changing contours of America power and world affairs. His many books on the nature of power and political leadership have rightly earned him his reputation as one of the most influential international relations scholars in the world today. In this deeply personal book, Joseph Nye shares his own journey living through the American century. From his early years growing up on a farm in rural New Jersey to his time in the State Department, Pentagon and Intelligence Community during the Carter and Clinton administrations where he witnessed American power up close, shaping policy on key issues such as nuclear proliferation and East Asian security. After 9/11 drew the US into wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Nye remained an astute observer and critic of the Bush, Obama and Trump presidencies. Today American primacy may be changing, but he concludes with a faint ray of guarded optimism about the future of his country in a richer but riskier world. Part of the Lifelong Fellowship portfolio, The Scholars’ Library is a monthly book talk series, where Rhodes alumni can come together to present, discover and debate their literary works. If you’re interested in getting involved, please reach out to Georgie Thurston at mailto:alumni@rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk You can read more about this event and the speaker here: https://bit.ly/ALifeInTheAmericanCentury

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To join via Microsoft Teams please use this link https://rb.gy/qzyv2b. Registration is not required.

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This talk introduces a new book by Seumas Miller and Terry Bossomaier: Cybersecurity, Ethics and Collective Responsibility (Oxford University Press, 2024). The advent of the Internet, exponential growth in computing power, and rapid developments in artificial intelligence have raised numerous cybersecurity-related ethical questions in various domains. The dual use character of cybertechnology-that it can be used to provide great benefits to humankind but can also do great harm-means that business (data security, data ownership and privacy), public communication (disinformation and computational propaganda), health (privacy, ransomware attacks), law enforcement (data security, predictive policing) and interstate conflict (cyberwar, autonomous weapons) are of vital interest to cybersecurity ethics. A central theoretical and practical problem addressed in this book and in this talk is that of our collective responsibility for the collective good of cybersecurity.

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Religion in Britain and Ireland, 1400-1700 Seminar series on Thursdays at 5pm, Trinity Term 2024 in the Lecture Room at Campion Hall Convened by Diarmaid MacCulloch, Judith Maltby, Sarah Mortimer and Grant Tapsell Sophie Aldred, University of Oxford Reading and Religion in the Civil wars: Lord Robartes and the Library at Lanhydrock

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Anthropogenic climate change is occurring at an unprecedented rate, and the magnitude of that change is expected to rival levels that characterize Earth’s largest extinction events. Despite the importance for future projections, understanding of the underlying mechanisms by which climate mediates extinction remains limited. The fossil record provides the unique opportunity to robustly test the interplay between extrinsic and intrinsic drivers of extinction under extreme climate change scenarios. We present the first integrated approach examining the role of potential intrinsic and extrinsic drivers in mediating extinction risk over the past 485 million years using state-of-the-art climate models to reconstruct physiological traits and localized climate change. We found that geographic range size, body size, realized thermal preference, realized niche breadth, and the magnitude of climate change are all necessary to predict extinction risk for taxa. Our results suggest that taxa previously identified as extinction resistant may still succumb to extinction if the magnitude of climate change is great enough.

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In the third lecture in this series, *Junior Professor Amrei Bahr* will explore the topic of ‘Challenging Expectations: What Women Have to Face in Academia.’ The ‘Uncovering Women’s History’ lecture series aims to explore women’s empowerment and the contribution of women and other marginalised minorities across history.

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To address the increase in asylum seekers arriving on the shores of the United Kingdom, the UK government introduced a scheme to send some of them to Rwanda. In November of 2023, the UK Supreme Court held, based on evidence introduced in lower courts, that Rwanda is not a safe country for refugee claimants and therefore the plan violated various human rights guarantees in domestic and international law and is unlawful (R (AAA) v. Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] UKSC 42). The UK government responded by introducing a bill into Parliament, the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, which would, if enacted, declare Rwanda a safe country and, with limited exceptions, prevent judges and other officials from concluding otherwise. This form of legislative interference with the judicial process is remarkable, and certain legal scholars have suggested a ‘constitutional crisis’ may ensue. Could the courts, for the first time ever, declare an Act of Parliament invalid? The orthodox understanding of the British constitution is still framed in terms set by Albert Venn Dicey, the Vinerian Professor of English Law at Oxford (and a former student of Balliol) in his 1885 book Law of the Constitution, and it is premised upon the principle of ‘parliamentary sovereignty’, the idea that Parliament may make and unmake any law it wants. But Dicey also thought that parliamentary sovereignty could be reconciled with another principle, ‘the rule of law’, which ensures that rights are protected from arbitrary measures by ordinary courts. In my presentation, I will offer some reflections on how the Rwanda bill threatens the delicate balance between legislature and judiciary in the UK, and I will consider whether the ‘Diceyan’ understanding of the constitution offers any lessons in response.

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The Oxford Centre for Intellectual History Graduate Conference will take place on Friday 31 May 2024, 9.00-16.00 UKT https://intellectualhistory.web.ox.ac.uk/event/oxford-centre-for-intellectual-history-graduate-conference The conference will be run as a hybrid event, with the opportunity for all attendees to join us online or in person at the University of Oxford. This event is an opportunity for graduate students to present their research and network with similar researchers at Oxford and other institutions. This year's theme is Methodology in Intellectual History, with a focus on the following topics: 1. Presentism in Intellectual History: In recent years, intellectual historians have increasingly engaged in ‘presentism’, which can refer to both the inclination to study the recent past (as opposed to earlier periods) and the tendency to interpret the past (however distant) in terms of the present. This has proven contentious. Some scholars have claimed that presentism does not merely risk anachronistic interpretations of the past; it also threatens the identity of intellectual history by undermining its distinctive concern with exploring unfamiliar subject-matter. Are these worries justified? We invite papers that consider the issue of presentism in intellectual history. 2. Intellectual History, Philosophy and Literature: Twentieth century methodological debates and the ‘linguistic turn’ of the 1960s oversaw a gradual shift within intellectual history, from the perception of ideas as universal concepts insulated from change and historical time, to linguistic representations grounded within particular, temporally-bound contexts. Insofar as the intellectual historian seeks to understand the movement of concepts and languages across time, where do we draw the line between intellectual history and philosophy? If all histories are narratives, to what extent should we consider historical reconstruction a creative or poetic practice? We invite reflections on the status of language and methods of interpreting historical consciousness within the humanities—particularly on the relationship between intellectual history, philosophy and/or literature. 3. Global Intellectual History (GIH): What kind of eurocentrism does/can GIH challenge, and what kind of methodology would accomplish this goal? Which historical actors matter in GIH, and why? How ought we account for exchanges (of ideas, books, people, etc.) that transcended borders and the power relations and practices of translation that come with them? Furthermore, does history guided by the term "global" risk reimposing the narrativised 'inevitability' of Western modernity on to other parts of the world? And does globality come at the expense of particular spatio-temporal contexts? We welcome papers that advance or critically engage with existing methodologies in GIH, including transnational and planetary intellectual history. Our keynote speaker for this event will be Faisal Devji, Professor of Indian History at the University of Oxford, St. Antony's College. The deadline for abstract submissions is 28 April, 2024. Please submit via this form: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=G96VzPWXk0-0uv5ouFLPkZ2HVAzisodDpKxd5LO9WlpUMFMwRUs2NUFZOEZVSEwzUjlLRzhONjFHSi4u If you are interested in attending the conference, please complete this form: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=G96VzPWXk0-0uv5ouFLPkZ2HVAzisodDpKxd5LO9WlpUODcxMko4UEtTTUpYMk9JQkhWVkc0SFRPUy4u

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The conference will be run as a hybrid event, with the opportunity for all attendees to join us online or in person at the University of Oxford. This event is an opportunity for graduate students to present their research and network with similar researchers at Oxford and other institutions. This year’s theme is *Methodology in Intellectual History*, with a focus on the following topics (intellectualhistory.web.ox.ac.uk/event/oxford-centre-for-intellectual-history-graduate-conference): 1. *Presentism in Intellectual History*: In recent years, intellectual historians have increasingly engaged in ‘presentism’, which can refer to both the inclination to study the recent past (as opposed to earlier periods) and the tendency to interpret the past (however distant) in terms of the present. This has proven contentious. Some scholars have claimed that presentism does not merely risk anachronistic interpretations of the past; it also threatens the identity of intellectual history by undermining its distinctive concern with exploring unfamiliar subject-matter. Are these worries justified? We invite papers that consider the issue of presentism in intellectual history. 2. *Intellectual History, Philosophy and Literature*: Twentieth century methodological debates and the ‘linguistic turn’ of the 1960s oversaw a gradual shift within intellectual history, from the perception of ideas as universal concepts insulated from change and historical time, to linguistic representations grounded within particular, temporally-bound contexts. Insofar as the intellectual historian seeks to understand the movement of concepts and languages across time, where do we draw the line between intellectual history and philosophy? If all histories are narratives, to what extent should we consider historical reconstruction a creative or poetic practice? We invite reflections on the status of language and methods of interpreting historical consciousness within the humanities—particularly on the relationship between intellectual history, philosophy and/or literature. 3. *Global Intellectual History (GIH)*: What kind of eurocentrism does/can GIH challenge, and what kind of methodology would accomplish this goal? Which historical actors matter in GIH, and why? How ought we account for exchanges (of ideas, books, people, etc.) that transcended borders and the power relations and practices of translation that come with them? Furthermore, does history guided by the term “global” risk reimposing the narrativised ‘inevitability’ of Western modernity on to other parts of the world? And does globality come at the expense of particular spatio-temporal contexts? We welcome papers that advance or critically engage with existing methodologies in GIH, including transnational and planetary intellectual history. Our keynote speaker for this event will be *Faisal Devji*, Professor of Indian History at the University of Oxford, St. Antony’s College. *The deadline for abstract submissions is 28 April, 2024*. Please submit via this form: forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=G96VzPWXk0-0uv5ouFLPkZ2HVAzisodDpKxd5LO9WlpUMFMwRUs2NUFZOEZVSEwzUjlLRzhONjFHSi4u If you are interested in attending the conference, please complete this form: forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=G96VzPWXk0-0uv5ouFLPkZ2HVAzisodDpKxd5LO9WlpUODcxMko4UEtTTUpYMk9JQkhWVkc0SFRPUy4u

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*Programme* 09:30-10:30 *Molly Greene* (Princeton University, USA) ‘Who Was Where? The Mountains, the Plains and the Transition to Ottoman Rule in Thessaly’ 10:30-11:30 *Alebachew Belay* (Debre Berhan University, Ethiopia) ‘“Pagan” and Christian Landscapes in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia (c. 6th to 19th c. CE): An Archaeological and Historical Overview’ 11:30-11:45 Coffee 11:45-12:45 *Stephanie Joy Mawson* (University of Lisbon, Portugal) ‘The Freedom of the Mountains: Zones of Refuge and Philippines Ethnohistory, 1565-1750’ 12:45-14:15 Lunch 14:15-15:15 *Jeremy Mumford* (Brown University, USA) ‘Mountains and Bodies in the Andes: From Apu to Genome’ 15:15-15:30 Coffee 15:30-16:30 *Katherine Ledford* (Appalachian State University, USA) ‘“A landscape that resembles us”: Some Challenges of Compiling an Anthology of Mountain Literature’ 16:30-17:00 Conclusion

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Announcing the Third Georgia-Oxford Forum organised by the Embassy of Georgia to the UK in partnership with the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies (OSGA) and Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia. The annual forum serves as a dynamic platform, enhancing partnership initiatives between Georgia and the UK, and calls on expertise from across the academic disciplines, including but not limited to political science, international relations, history, literature, archaeology, cinematography, cultural studies, sociology, anthropology, economics and business.

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Are you an early career researcher, fixed-term lecturer, or doctoral student trying to get some writing done? Do you research topics related to medicine, but are based in the Humanities or Social Sciences? The ECR/DPhil Medical Humanities writing group is an inclusive, interdisciplinary group of medical humanities researchers from across the University of Oxford community, and all are welcome. We come together weekly for a morning of timed writing blocks and goal-setting in a casual atmosphere with coffee/tea/light refreshments. In Trinity Term 2024, this will include an informal lunch. Please email hohee.cho@history.ox.ac.uk with any dietary requirements. If you have any queries, please email gordon.barrett@history.ox.ac.uk.

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Is transmitting a poem the same as transmitting any other text, or are poems like flowers, the transport of which could fatally harm their petals and waste their inner life away? When poems travel across the ages, they must be cushioned from the blows of time. This workshop explores how poems were transmitted in the Middle Ages, and, in particular, how they were ‘stored’ inside poetry books. While nowadays writing a poetic book or compiling an anthology implies a negotiation with established traditions and criteria, the reasons behind this process in the Middle Ages may not be that apparent and still largely lie unexplored. Were they striving to gather world-embracing poetic encyclopaedias, or were they perhaps led by their individual rationales or shared narrative structures? The broader question is what ideas of medieval poetry and poetry books we can glean from these sources, where medieval poetry is transmitted and its life withheld. We take a comparative approach; each speaker focuses on a literary tradition that flourished around the Medieval Mediterranean. Our invited speakers are Marisa Galvez (Stanford University) for Romance Languages, Niels Gaul (University of Edinburgh) for Greek, Marlé Hammond (SOAS) for Arabic and Adriano Russo (École française de Rome) for Latin.

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The workshop will deal with the “nuts and bolts” of how life-writing is researched, covering some of the following topics: how we look for and find what we need for our research, whether in the public or private domain (from birth certificates to family papers in the attic); how we organise our materials; how we work in archives; how we access witnesses and facts; whether we incorporate the research quest into the finished narrative. All attending should be prepared to talk about an example of a “finding” that has been useful in their work, and how they are making use of that discovery. Please note that this event is ONLY 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. Places will be confirmed one week before the event. Tea/coffee and cake will be served during the workshop. This event will take place in the St Cross building on Manor Road. Attendees are advised to wear face coverings while indoors and to use an LFT prior to the event.

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The History of Gender Seminar meets on Fridays at 11am-12:15pm, in-person in the Colin Matthew Room at the History Faculty, or online via Teams. All welcome at this relaxed interdisciplinary seminar! Please email emilia.flack@magd.ox.ac.uk if you would like to be added to our mailing list. Teams link: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_YTBkYjY3ZmQtNDJkYS00NTBiLWI0M2MtZmZjZDQxOGEwOTZk%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%228e6e425a-cedf-419b-a96d-972dbc28b270%22%7d

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Unraveling dynamics of volcano-magmatic systems remains a great challenge due to absence of direct observations of magma formation, storage or eruptions. Recent advances in analyzing minerals like zircon or plagioclase offer a window into these hidden processes. Zircon, a remarkably resistant mineral, can grow for many thousands of years within slowly cooling magma chambers. Despite this slow crystallization, these crystals retain signatures of disequilibrium trace element partitioning (e.g., Hf, Y, U, Th) and Zr isotopic fractionation due to diffusion. Simulation of these processes transforms zircon crystals to thermometers and clocks, recording the thermal evolution of individual magma parcels. Plagioclase, another key witness, offers insights into pre-eruptive magma ascent and storage conditions. Core-to-rim variations in Anorthite content, Sr, and Ba concentrations reflect changes in pressure and temperature providing valuable clues about the complex dynamics leading up to an eruption.

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A relaxed and supportive space where we can work together on our projects. Participants are welcome to join and leave at any time that works for them.

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Join us for an important conversation around Palestine. Race & Resistance have invited two representatives from local organisations to come and speak about their crucial work, in campaigning, lobbying, and mobilising for Palestine and its people. Both representatives will deliver a short talk about the current situation in Gaza and the West Bank, share information about the work of their organisations, and how individuals can support/get involved. Caroline Raine (she/her), representative from the Oxford Palestine Solidarity Campaign (OPSC). Bio: I am of British Jewish heritage and was one of the founding members of Oxford Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) more than 20 years ago. I am currently acting chair of the branch. I have also served on national PSC panels. I have visited Palestine three times and each time witnessed the impact of the brutal occupation on its people. PSC is the biggest organisation in the UK and Europe dedicated to securing Palestinian human rights. It brings together people from all walks of life who work together for peace, equality, and justice and against racism, occupation, and colonisation. Nikki Marriott (she/her), representative from the Oxford Ramallah Friendship Association (ORFA). Bio: I am secretary of the Oxford Ramallah Friendship Association (ORFA) which has been linking with Ramallah for over 20 years and became a charity in 2014. We mainly focus our link on: the non-aligned Al Amari Refugee Camp's Women's Program Centre and with our Trade Union contacts. We have arranged and accompanied regular group visits to Ramallah/Palestine and raised funds to organise visits from Ramallah/Palestine to Oxford. In 2019, with the support and work of councillors, Oxford City Council successfully Twinned with Ramallah. Very broadly our aims are, with our contacts and visitors, to raise awareness of the impact of living under colonial settler occupation and we hope to reduce the sense of isolation that comes from life under military occupation in the West Bank. ----- Twitter: race_resistance Subscribe to our mailing list by sending a blank email to: race-and-resistance-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk. Email raceandresistance@torch.ox.ac.uk with any questions.

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Morphogen protein gradients play an essential role in the spatial regulation of patterning during embryonic development. The most commonly accepted mechanism of protein gradient formation involves the diffusion and degradation of morphogens from a localized source. Recently, an alternative mechanism has been proposed, which is based on cell-to-cell transport via thin, actin-rich cellular extensions known as cytonemes. It has been hypothesized that cytonemes find their targets via a random search process based on alternating periods of retraction and growth, perhaps mediated by some chemoattractant. This is an actin-based analog of the search-and-capture model of microtubules of the mitotic spindle searching for cytochrome binding sites (kinetochores) prior to separation of cytochrome pairs. In this talk, we introduce a search-and-capture model of cytoneme-based morphogenesis, in which nucleating cytonemes from a source cell dynamically grow and shrink until making contact with a target cell and delivering a burst of morphogen. We model the latter as a one-dimensional search process with stochastic resetting, finite returns times and refractory periods. We use a renewal method to calculate the splitting probabilities and conditional mean first passage times (MFPTs) for the cytoneme to be captured by a given target cell. We show how multiple rounds of search-and-capture, morphogen delivery, cytoneme retraction and nucleation events lead to the formation of a morphogen gradient. We proceed by formulating the morphogen bursting model as a queuing process, analogous to the study of translational bursting in gene networks. We end by briefly discussing current work on a model of cytoneme-mediated within-host viral spread.

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Prof. JIANG Lubin obtained his Ph.D. in Genetics from the Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2003. He then undertook postdoctoral training at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH), in the United States under the supervision of Prof. Louis Miller. In 2012, Prof. JIANG returned to China and joined the Shanghai Institute of Immunity and Infection at CAS, where he currently holds the positions of Principal Investigator and Director General. There, he established the Malaria Parasite and Epigenetics Research Group. Prof. JIANG's laboratory focuses on elucidating the epigenetic regulatory mechanisms underlying immune evasion by malaria parasites, as well as the intricate pathways of multi-pathogen infection. Furthermore, his work identifies new targets for malaria vaccine development and antimalarial drugs, while also exploring innovative strategies for malaria prevention and control.

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*Greco-Roman and Classical Chinese Translation: Theory and Practice* This seminar series is intended to look more broadly at Latin translations of Chinese texts, Chinese translations of Greco-Roman texts, and translation as theory and practice within and between both traditions.

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An analyst observes the frequency with which an agent takes actions, but not the frequency with which she takes actions conditional on a payoff relevant state. In this setting, we ask when the analyst can rationalize the agent's choices as the outcome of the agent learning something about the state before taking action. Our characterization marries the obedience approach in information design (Bergemann and Morris, 2016) and the belief approach in Bayesian persuasion (Kamenica and Gentzkow, 2011) relying on a theorem by Strassen (1965) and Hall's marriage theorem. We apply our results to ring-network games and to identify conditions under which a data set is consistent with a public information structure in first-order Bayesian persuasion games.

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We characterize the instruments which optimally combine a set of exogenous shocks with some non-random measures of shock exposure, building on the framework of Borusyak and Hull (2023). Our characterization has implications for treatments capturing spillovers in social and transportation networks, simulated instruments for policy eligibility, and shift-share instruments. We show how significantly more precise estimates of Medicaid take-up and crowd-out effects can be obtained by combining policy expansion shocks with non-random variation in Medicaid eligibility.

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Part 1: Student Work in Progress Student Presenting: Lydia Tsiakiri Part 2: Methods in Applied Ethics Prof Dominic Wilkinson on “Why Death is not what matters" Suggested Reading: Parfit D. We Are Not Human Beings. Philosophy. 2012;87(1):5-28. doi:10.1017/S0031819111000520

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31 May The Annunciation (PNTC 2/3) Mark Wynn, Oriel College (in dialogue with Markus Bockmuehl)

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"Irregular" migrants moving along the Western Balkan Migration Route aspire to competing visions of Europe, and Europeanness, and along their journeys they encounter multiple competing, overlapping, or intersecting political projects. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Slovenia since 2021, this presentation will explore how various imaginaries of Europe are instantiated in the wake of Yugoslav socialism, EU integration, and an ongoing "migration crisis."

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This event with Soma Sara will be to discuss her campaigning and activism work as well as the current climate around the promotion of education of sex and relationships in schools and for young people. The discussion will be related to sensitive themes of sexual violence and abuse, but we aim to direct the discourse towards future hopes and ideas of advocacy, support, sex-positivity, and positive cultural change. Many of the themes of discussion will relate to essays in Soma’s book though it is not necessary to read before the session. soma sara resized Speaker: Soma Sara (She/Her) is a multi-award-winning activist, author, speaker and CEO of the charity ‘Everyone’s Invited’. In June 2020, Soma began sharing her experiences of rape culture on Instagram. In light of the overwhelming response from those who resonated with her story, Soma founded Everyone’s Invited (EI). EI exploded onto the national stage back in March 2021, receiving over 50,000 testimonies and sparking a national movement and conversation about rape culture with millions of people. The publication of the testimonies and the Schools Lists triggered the groundbreaking 2021 Ofsted review, which demonstrated that sexual harassment and sexual abuse online are happening in all schools. It instructed all schools to take action, prompting a national overhaul in policies, practices, and RSE in schools across the U.K. EI is a registered U.K. charity dedicated to exposing and eradicating rape culture with empathy, compassion and understanding. We provide a safe space for survivors to share their stories, giving them a sense of catharsis, empowerment and a feeling of community and hope. We educate young people to empower school communities to foster healthy relationships, sexual well-being and to tackle rape culture. We advocate for survivors, amplifying their voices to foster positive change and engaging with government, institutions and key stakeholders. In September 2022, Soma published her first book under the same name, ‘Everyone’s Invited’, a collection of essays that grapple with the modern sexual landscape and the root causes of a culture that enables sexual harassment, abuse and violence to prevail. This event is supported by Reuben College.

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Professor Amy Dickman established is the joint CEO of Lion Landscapes, which works to help conserve wildlife in some of the most important biodiversity areas of Africa. These areas include some of the most important areas in the world for big cats, but also have an extremely high level of lion killing, as lions and other carnivores impose high costs on poverty-stricken local people. Amy and her team are working with local communities to reduce carnivore attacks, providing villagers with real benefits from carnivore presence, engaging warriors in conservation and training the next generation of local conservation leaders. It has been a challenging endeavour, given the remote location and secretive and hostile nature of the tribe responsible for most lion-killing. In her talk, Amy will discuss the significance of this project, the difficulties of working in an area where witchcraft and mythology abound, and the conservation successes that are already emerging from this important work. Amy Dickman biography Amy is the Kaplan Senior Research Fellow in Felid Conservation and Professor of Wildlife Conservation at Oxford University, and has over 25 years experience working on large carnivores in Africa, specialising in human-carnivore conflict. She has an MSc from Oxford University and a PhD from University College London, and has published over 80 scientific papers and book chapters on large carnivore ecology and conservation. She is a member of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group, the Human-Wildlife Conflict Collaboration, the African Lion Working Group, the IUCN Human-Wildlife Conflict task Force, and is a National Geographic Explorer. She has received multiple awards for her work, including the Rabinowitz-Kaplan Prize for the Next Generation in Wild Cat Conservation and the St Louis Zoo Conservation Award. 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.

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The redistribution of welfare resources to migrants continues to polarise societies, including the UK. Not only politicians from the radical right but also from more mainstream parties are capitalising on the idea of 'welfare for our kind', or welfare chauvinism. In her new book "Welfare Chauvinism in Europe", Gianna creates an extensive overview of welfare chauvinism's causes and consequences. In particular, the book sheds light on the multidimensionality of the opposition towards welfare for migrants across countries, time, social policies, and migrant groups. Hereby, Gianna exposes hidden nuances regarding welfare chauvinism that are frequently overlooked in current discourse. Using high-quality data on public attitudes and macro-level conditions, her new book also investigates the common misperception that higher levels of education universally lead to more tolerant attitudes and she argues that governments and welfare institutions play a crucial role in shaping public opinion.

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Join us for this book launch: 'An innovative analysis that traces the continuity of the state’s custodianship of Islam as the preferred religion in the Middle East and North Africa'. The event will be chaired by Professor Raihan Ismail, H.H. Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani Professor in Contemporary Islamic Studies. There will be an opportunity to ask Professor Malika Zeghal questions directly after her presentation. Exact venue location: Kirdar Building of the Middle East Centre, entrance at 68 Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 6JF - access to this building is at the north side, next to the bike rack. The MEC Boardroom is on the ground floor next to the main staircase of the hallway. ABSTRACT: In The Making of the Modern Muslim State: Islam and Governance in the Middle East and North Africa (Princeton University Press, 2024), Malika Zeghal reframes the role of Islam in modern Middle East governance. Challenging other accounts that claim that Middle Eastern states turned secular in modern times, Zeghal shows instead the continuity of the state’s custodianship of Islam as the preferred religion. Drawing on intellectual, political, and economic history, she traces this custodianship from early forms of constitutional governance in the nineteenth century through post–Arab Spring experiments in democracy. Her detailed and groundbreaking analysis, which spans Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon, makes clear the deep historical roots of current political divisions over Islam in governance. Malika Zeghal is the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor in Contemporary Islamic Thought and Life in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and the Committee on the Study of Religion at Harvard University. She is the author of Gardiens de l’Islam, Les Oulémas d’al-Azhar dans l’Egypte Contemporaine and Islamism in Morocco: Religion, Authoritarianism, and Electoral Politics.

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Simon Woolley, Baron Woolley of Woodford, former CEO of Operation Black Vote, Member of the House of Lords, and Principal of Homerton College Cambridge, discusses with Mansfield Principal Helen Mountfield KC the purpose and value of elite higher education, and the values it should inculcate.

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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, continuing personal development, building and maintaining relationships, developing networks, working with teams and managing people.

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Saturday 1 June 10.30 am – 4 pm Exploring Prayer and Ways of Praying: Silence, Music, and Icons Joanna Tulloch, Revd Dr Liz Carmichael, Sr Clare-Louise SLG, Delvyn Case Praying with icons of Christ and the chants of Taizé Joanna will introduce several of the main icons of Christ: the Pantocrator (Lord and Ruler of All), the Holy Face (the Icon Not Made with Hands), the Crucifixion, and the Anastasis (the Resurrection, with the Descent into Hell). She will discuss some Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant approaches to praying with these icons, and will introduce some published resources for prayer. Liz will teach an Easter canon from Taizé and lead a short prayer with a scripture reading, silence, and the Resurrection icon. Joanna has been interested in icons for more than fifty years and has been painting them since 2005. She lives in Oxford with her husband George. Her book Imperfect Icons, Perfect Love illustrates her earliest icons and offers a prayer-poem for each one. Liz has enjoyed and used the music and style of prayer at Taizé since her first visit at Easter 1970. Contemplative Prayer: perceptions and preconceptions Sister Claire-Louise writes: ‘…there are various strange ideas around what contemplative prayer ‘is’, and ‘who it is for’, that Teresa of Avila helps us to explore and can be turned around to say what it really ‘is’!’ Sr Clare-Louise is a member of the Sisters of the Love of God, an Anglican contemplative Community based at Fairacres, Oxford. For many years she has been inspired and encouraged by the Saints of Carmel. Composing Prayers Using several of his own works as examples, Delvyn Case will provide a glimpse into how composers approach the significant challenge of setting prayers to music – and how musical settings can shape the ways we think about Scripture and faith. Delvyn Case is an American composer and musicologist whose work explores how sacred music can serve as a resource for theological thinking, biblical interpretation, and spiritual formation. He is currently a Visiting Fellow at Exeter College, Oxford.

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A primeval desire to understand the cosmos has existed since antiquity and some of the mysteries of the early Universe and its evolution have been revealed as scientific knowledge and philosophical understanding have developed over the millennia. This conference will consider the profound questions that lie at the intersection of cosmology, metaphysics and epistemology - it will seek to scrutinise the origins of the Universe and theories on the cosmos and its evolution as well as the methodologies and models used to comprehend these. *Please see website for booking details: https://www.stx.ox.ac.uk/event/happ-one-day-conference-the-philosophy-of-cosmology*

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An introduction to carrying out searches for literature. Librarians from the Bodleian Health Care Libraries will demonstrate how to construct a search strategy from a research question and apply it to range of library resources. By the end of this session you will be able to: describe the literature searching process and aims; build a successful search strategy; use several bibliographic databases relevant to medicine and health care; and source highly cited papers relevant to your research. Intended audience: students, staff and researchers from MSD and OUH.

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Link to join via Microsoft Teams: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZWNjNjY1YTItMGE1NC00YmI1LWE5MjgtOWRiMWRmZjRmOGU1%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%228a90033c-fe26-41a7-b094-f077e6448461%22%7d

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BCG is a 100 year old vaccine that while preventing disseminated TB in children has limited effects on adult pulmonary disease. Interestingly, in addition to inducing adaptive immunity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, BCG vaccination has been demonstrated to display non-specific off target effects on tumor growth and is thought to reduce all-cause pediatric infections by promoting “trained immunity”. It was therefore proposed that intradermal BCG vaccination might provide resistance against COVID, a hypothesis that has not been epidemiologically substantiated. Nevertheless, we have observed that when administered to mice by the unconventional intravenous route BCG induces striking protection against intranasal SARS-CoV2. This non-specific resistance appears to result from priming of the lung epithelial compartment by T cell derived IFN-y. The broader implications of these findings for innate control of respiratory infections will be discussed.

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This webinar will launch a new discussion document from the Agile Initiative exploring the relationships between environmental research, its use in policy, and the related trends for research to be impact focussed and co-produced with decision makers. The document poses a set of provocation and discussion questions for researchers, funders, policy makers and practitioners, about the role of environmental research in policy and the use of co-production within it.

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Religious schools enjoy a high academic reputation among parents in many societies. Previous studies that assessed the effect of religious schools mostly focused on Catholic schools and were conducted in countries where religious schools are private or where they charge fees and set admission criteria. As a result, the effect of religious schooling could not be separated from the effect of private schooling. We contribute to the literature by studying the effect of six most prominent religious school denominations in the Netherlands, a country in which both public and religious schools have been publicly funded since 1917, schooling is free of charge and admission is independent of the child’s religious or ideological character. We use Dutch data that include the entire population of children born between 1999 and 2007. Combining postcode fixed effects models with treatment effect bounds, we find that children in religious schools outperform children in public schools on a high-stakes standardized test in primary education. The benefits of primary religious schooling were largest for children in Orthodox Protestant, Islamic and Hindu schools, which mostly attract children from a disadvantaged socioeconomic background. However, the influence of religious schooling fades out by the end of secondary education. Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82124879003?pwd=M2lrWjZkNjZ4NC9FdWJFSFhmZ3VLQT09

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Effective surveillance is key to understanding and managing the impact of healthcare associated infections. In England, data is collected locally for specific organisms subject to mandatory surveillance, then submitted to a central database (HCAI-DCS). This takes considerable time from infection prevention and control staff. Whilst huge amounts of routine electronic data is collected on patients locally, automated processes for submitting, linking and using this data for surveillance, and associated epidemiology, are rare. However, implementing central surveillance systems raises several challenges which will be discussed.

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Dopamine has long been implicated in cognitive control. Cognitive control is increasingly recognized to involve meta-decision making between distinct computational strategies, as illustrated by the safety-efficiency, stability-flexibility, labor-leisure and control-autopilot tradeoffs. In my talk, I will present pharmacological intervention studies addressing the role of dopamine in a specific type of computational dilemma, that between instrumental and Pavlovian control of reward-based decision-making. The work illustrates how pharmacological intervention studies can help disentangle several alternative accounts of dopamine’s role in the motivational biasing of decision-making. ABOUT THE SPEAKER Roshan Cools is Principal Investigator at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour and Professor of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry at the Radboud University Medical Center. She is an expert in the chemical neuromodulation of human cognition and motivation. Her PhD is from the University of Cambridge (UK), where she trained with Trevor Robbins and held Royal Society research fellowships. She also did a postdoc at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at UC Berkeley, with Mark D’Esposito. At the Donders, she steers an active research group (www.roshancools.com), combining psychopharmacology, fMRI, chemical PET imaging, computational cognitive modelling, neurostimulation and patient work to unravel how the adaptive control of behaviour is modulated by the major ascending neuromodulators, including dopamine, serotonin and noradrenaline. She holds a Horizon Europe ERC Advanced grant, and is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). TO JOIN THE TALK ONLINE https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81189692080?pwd=d3VFKzhacVBqd0hlak1oQXZNM2RYUT09 Meeting ID: 811 8969 2080 Passcode: 125174

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Sincerely or not, many people claim to have heard or felt a strong call to act in a certain way and have changed their ethical attitude towards the world, often becoming charismatic models for other individuals to change their worldviews too. Anthropologists, religious scholars, and political scientists have analysed many of these individuals and their following. In the study of religion, the calling is central in Max Weber’s theories as well as other foundational authors such as Henri Bergson, though it has not been theorized much ever since these founding figures. A comparative approach based on empirical research may allow us not only to better understand recent religious trends, as for instance attempts at ‘purification’ of religion, but also to analyze the anthropological, sociological, and political potential of the concept beyond the study of religion. It may also be a positive contribution to studying the ethics of the self, which is at the core of much of today’s social theory. The workshop is funded by the Antonian Fund and Research England under the Enhancing Research Culture funding (Social Sciences Division, University of Oxford). Programme 2.00 pm - Welcome by Antonio Montañés and Angelo Vasco, followed by some preliminary thoughts on the calling by Ramon Sarró (St. Antony’s College, Oxford). SESSION 1 2.15 pm - 3.15 pm Angelo Vasco (St. Antony’s College, Oxford): ‘Pursuing the Evangelical calling: Brazilian missionaries’ vocation to the Lusophone world’. Shireen Azam (St. Antony’s College, Oxford): 'Caste, race or religion: The intersections of “duty” for Muslim Dalits in India’. Chair-Discussant: Ammara Maqsood (University College London) Coffee Break 3.15 pm - 3.30 pm SESSION 2 3.30 pm - 4.45 pm Leslie Fesenmyer (University of Birmingham): 'Conversion as calling: Muslim converts in urban Kenya' Andreas Bjorklund (St. Antony’s College, Oxford): 'The calling and the uncertainty: ethics and activism among stateless Kuwaiti forced migrants' Antonio Montañés Jiménez (St. Antony’s College, Oxford): 'Gitano pastors and the calling: Approaching Pentecostal conversions in the city of Madrid' Chair-Discussant: Ramon Sarró (St. Antony’s College, Oxford) Coffee Break 4.45 pm – 5 pm SESSION 3 5 pm – 6:30 pm Peter Pels (University of Leiden): 'A Sacrifice of Future Risks: Dutch Vocations for the Missions during the ‘Great Mission Hour’, 1917-1960' Peter Ghosh (St Anne’s College, Oxford): ‘A resource for all: what Max Weber “actually” said about the Beruf ' Chair: Zuzanna Olszewska (St. John’s College, Oxford) Discussion of the session, opening to a final debate: David Gellner (All Souls College, Oxford). 6:35 pm – Drinks at the Buttery, followed by Dinner at the College Dining Hall at 7 pm.

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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, on 3 June, 2:00 – 3:00pm, at the Big Data Institute (BDI). Title: "Enhancing Health Behaviors: Leveraging Smartphone Data and Electronic Medical Records for Optimized Health Outcomes" Date: 03 June 2024 Time: 2:00-3:00pm Venue: Big Data Institute, Seminar Room 0; followed by refreshments in the atrium 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 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Microsoft Teams meeting Click here to join the meeting Meeting ID: 340 352 207 647 Passcode: NQvXfS ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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!

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At this roundatble, we delve into the satisfaction levels of North Korean defectors living in South Korea, the reasons behind it, its impact on North Korea, and the role of the international community regarding human rights violations in North Korea. The speakers will use novel statistical data collected from the Hana Foundation's annual representative surveys of North Koreans living in South Korea. Email Seunghoon Chae (seunghoon.chae@politics.ox.ac.uk) if you would like to join further discussions over dinner with the speakers. Please note that there is limited availability for dinner.

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London's early modern herb women are an interesting footnote to the groundbreaking work done over the past few decades to uncover the lives of the women who predominated over the premodern city's medical industry. This is because herb women -- illiterate urban dwellers of the poorest sort -- mark the boundaries of early modern medicine, the limits of what (and who) we can see about community care in this era. They exist below the threshold of our visibility despite their crucial role in the seventeenth-century healthcare market. Since there is such a paucity of official records about them, this talk uses a different metric of observation to move away from an analysis based on historical lines of sight and towards a synesthetic reading of Londoners' sensory experience of them in imaginative literature as well as passing descriptions in civic and royal documents. Broadening our lens to accommodate contemporary descriptions of the soundscapes they created within the common spaces of the city allows for a richer understanding of the ways in which the medical and the cultural, the pragmatic and the affective, and the historical and the literary blended together in the streets of early modern London. *Kat Lecky* is the Surtz Professor in English at Loyola University Chicago. Her research explores what made knowledge common in the early modern period. Her first book, Pocket Maps and Public Poetry in Renaissance England (Oxford UP, 2019), shows the geographical imaginary fuelling the everyday practices of building the English commonwealth. Her second book project, England’s Weedy Renaissance, demonstrates how authors of all stripes turned to uncultivated plants to fashion a native English character. She has also published essays on naturalization, the early modern politics of universal healthcare, and vegetable virtue ethics. Her work has earned fellowships from the ACLS and the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute for Research in the Humanities, the Renaissance Society of America, and the Folger Shakespeare, Huntington, and Newberry Libraries.

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The presentation explores the complex modes of interface between religion, secularism, and atheism (ilhad) in the Arab Middle East of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This period was associated with the Arab renaissance (Nahda) — a cultural movement that flourished in the Arab-provinces of the Ottoman Empire, which sought to join the modern world by invigorating Arab heritage and aligning it with scientific analysis, rationalism, humanism, progress, and nationalism. To a large extent the Nahda took its cue from the campaigns for government reforms and Westernization launched in Istanbul, Cairo, and Tunis, as well as the encounter with European economic and cultural norms spurred by the colonial presence in the region. In the past two decades the Nahda received extensive treatment in scholarship. Still, even though there are some works that focused on the transformation to secularism, only few works have touched the phenomena of religious skepticism, its proponents, or its ideological insights. By delineating the history of atheism in the Arab Middle East, this paper fills a major lacuna in the field of Nahda studies, as well as in the field of comparative religion.

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A long literature in economics considers the impacts of environmental conditions on housing markets. When applied to water pollution, hedonic property models suggest that willingness to pay for water quality improvement is small and tends toward zero beyond 2-3 kilometers from polluted water. This result is inconsistent with the recreation demand literature, which suggests that individuals value water quality at recreation sites even at significant distance. Seeking to reconcile these two results, we adapt a more comprehensive approach to valuing water quality in three U.S. coastal areas with active housing markets, rich aquatic recreation opportunities, and important pollution challenges: Puget Sound, Long Island Sound, and the Texas Gulf Coast. We provide new estimates of the value of water quality in these three urban coastal regions, and we further develop a promising revealed-preference approach to valuing water quality at large spatial scale. Toward this latter contribution, we test for whether and how the extent of the market for local amenity values and regional recreational improvements varies across the study regions, we distinguish between the value of smaller local waterbodies and larger coastal recreational waterbodies, and we consider whether the value of water pollution control capitalizes differentially with property markets’ demographic and socioeconomic characteristics.

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In November 1918, the monarchy of Bavaria was abolished after a successful democratic revolution. Immediately afterwards, the question was raised on how to deal with the House of Wittelsbach in the future and whether and if so, what financial compensation they could expect. The property disputes between the representatives of the Free State of Bavaria and the former royal family lasted from 1919 until 1923. Finally, in 1923, an agreement and a law provided the legal basis for the compensation of the Wittelsbachs in the form of a permanent public foundation, the Wittelsbach Compensation Fund (Germ. Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds), which was to guarantee the financial future of the entitled family members. My talk will focus on the creation of this fund against the backdrop of the financial and political crises in the Weimar Republic.

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Recent events have called into question the adequacy of the science education offered in schools in the UK and elsewhere. The evidence suggests that, despite studying science at primary and secondary school, significant numbers of the public seem unfamiliar with some basic but important facts. A related issue is that trust in science and scientists is not as strong as might be expected in a developed country. Rather than carry on as though there is not really a problem, Justin Dillon will argue that we need to rethink what and how we teach science in schools. We also need to value what museums, science centres, botanic gardens, etc., can do to help. Finally, we need to examine what science and environmental education offer in terms of addressing the wicked problems facing society. In-person booking link: https://forms.office.com/e/JrDdaDT9Ma Zoom booking link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_lGb2k0X0SISeKInC0kwFRw

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Please be aware that group attendance may be limited. Please contact Group Lead Christopher Morris or team (christopher.morris@politics.ox.ac.uk) for attendance and inquiries. Seminar details are confirmed a week in advance. The Emerging Threats & Technology Working Group meets regularly each term to examine the national security implications of critical and emerging technologies (CETs), from artificial intelligence and quantum computing to directed energy and space platforms. Meetings are held in hybrid format, at Oxford and online, to include diverse views from academia, industry, and policy, matching the global reach of technological innovation and challenge. For more information on workshops, sessions, and journal, visit www.emergingthreats.co.uk

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A series of free seminars to commemorate the death of J. R. R. Tolkien, to be held in 2023/2024 in the University of Oxford. The talks present an introduction and further background to Tolkien's life, work, and legacy. They have an academic approach, but they are also aimed at those who have read Tolkien's work but are interested in gaining a bit more insight into his life, career, and writings. WEEK 7 – June 3 [MERTON COLLEGE] Michael G.R. Tolkien (Poet and Critic) A grandson's reflections on J.R.R. Tolkien CHAIR: Giuseppe Pezzini (Corpus Christi) https://tolkien50.web.ox.ac.uk/event/tolkien-50th-anniversary-seminar-series

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In the summer of 2020 following the brutal police murder of George Floyd, debates about the place of the Confederate symbols erupted across the US. Calls for Confederate monuments to be razed followed as did cries for street names or schools bearing Confederate names to be changed. Since that summer more than 120 Confederate monuments had been removed, including those in Charlottesville, home of the University of Virginia. But why does the American Civil War continue to elicit such reactions – some intensely violent – more than a century and a half after its close? In this lecture, Caroline Janney will examine the long history of Civil War memory – of the efforts by Union and Confederate veterans alongside their respective civilians to both remember and forget aspects of the war in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Caroline E. Janney is the John L. Nau III Professor of the American Civil War and Director of the John L. Nau Center for Civil War History at the University of Virginia. She is the past president of the Society of Civil War Historians and a series editor for the University of North Carolina Press’s Civil War America series. She has published eight books, including Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation (2013) and Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee’s Army after Appomattox (2021), winner of the 2022 Lincoln Prize.

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With *Evelyn Goh*, Shedden Professor of Strategic Policy Studies, Australian National University; *John Ikenberry*, Albert G Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University, and *Andrew Hurrell*, Montague Burton Emeritus Professor of International Relations, University of Oxford. Chaired by *Louise Fawcett*, Professor and Senior Research Fellow in International Relations and Fellow of St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford. This roundtable looks beyond the immediate challenges posed by the return of major war and by US-China rivalry and will discuss the crucial question: Whose World Order? Whose ideas of world order will prevail? What kinds of world order are likely to emerge? Which state and society actors have the power and effective agency to shape the practices of international and global order in the coming decade? Whose interests will be, and should be, represented?

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While industrial states competed to colonize Asia and Africa in the nineteenth century, conversion to Christianity was replaced by a civilizing mission. This new secular impetus strode hand in hand with racial capitalism in the age of empires: a terrestrial paradise was to be achieved through accumulation and the ravaging of nature. Far from a defence of religion, The States of the Earth argues that phenomena such as evangelism and political Islam are best understood as products of empire and secularization. In a world where material technology was considered divine, religious and secular forces both tried to achieve Heaven on Earth by destroying Earth itself. Mohamed Amer Meziane is a philosopher and intellectual historian. Currently an Assistant Professor at Brown University (USA), he received a PhD in Philosophy from the Université or Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne. He has been teaching for 4 years at Columbia University and serves as a board member of the Theory Journal Multitudes. His first book, The States of the Earth: An Ecological and Racial History of Secularization (La Découverte, 2021/Verso Books, 2024) received the Albertine Prize for non-fiction in 2023. It examines how disenchantment engenders climate change through the colonization of subterranean worlds since the 19th century. He is also the author of numerous articles in international peer-reviewed journals as well as in various art reviews in the West and the "Global South". His second book Au bord des mondes (At the Edge of the Worlds) is currently being translated. It questions the assumptions of the recent turn to the non-humans, arguing that there can be no "decolonization of knowledge" without a new kind of metaphysical perspective that delves anthropologically into the invisibles.

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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.

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A growing body of cross-cultural survey research shows high percentages of clinicians’ report using placebos in clinical settings. One motivation for clinicians using placebos is to help patients by capitalising on the placebo effect’s reported health benefits. This is not surprising, given that placebo studies are burgeoning, with increasing calls by researchers to ethically harness placebo effects among patients, and with widespread media attention on the purported potency of these effects. These calls, and media reportage, propose placebos/placebo effects that offer clinically significant benefits to patients. In this talk, I argue many findings in this highly cited and ‘hot’ field have not been independently replicated. My goal is to motivate both increased awareness of replication issues and to help pave the way for advances in scientific research in the field of placebo studies to better inform ethical evidence-based practice. I argue that only by developing a rigorous evidence base can we better understand how it at all, placebos/placebo effects can be harnessed in clinical settings. https://zoom.us/j/95199401096?pwd=ancrZ0U1b0RNVmlKL0tQdTQ5SzhLUT09 Meeting ID: 951 9940 1096 Passcode: 937384

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Join us for a digital scholarship coffee gathering – tea and coffee will be provided. There will be a lightning talk from a researcher in digital scholarship on their work, whether it’s a new project, a tool or something they want to showcase. These are a new type of event for us, so if you’d like to attend, be involved in a future session, or find out more please email digitalscholarship@humanities.ox.ac.uk These will be held in the Visiting Scholars Centre, so to attend you’ll need to bring your Bodleian Card and to leave your bags in the lockers – this event is only open to University staff and students.

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Create content for your teaching or research with greater confidence by attending our session on Creative Commons (CC) licences. Learn how they work, how they interact with copyright and how to use them to best effect. The session will make special reference to images but is applicable to all media, including written works. The workshop is classroom-based. In this playful, interactive face-to-face session we will cover: what Creative Commons Licences are; where to find Creative Commons material; how to apply Creative Commons to your own work; how to reuse Creative Commons materials; and we’ll finish the session with a Creative Commons card game. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers and other staff.

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The STADIA Trial is investigating whether the use of the Development and Wellbeing Assessment (DAWBA) questionnaire helps support the referral and assessment processes within the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and helps clinicians identify emotional disorders in children and young people. Find out more: https://www.nctu.ac.uk/our-research/randomised-trials/current-studies/stadia.aspx This is an online seminar (Zoom). Please email oxchildpsych@psych.ox.ac.uk to request the Zoom link.

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The Family and Medical Law Research Group and Medical Humanities are organising a monthly lunch for academics, researchers, and graduate students who are working in the broad area of medical ethics, law, and humanities. Whichever discipline you're researching in, you are very welcome to join us for an informal lunchtime gathering at Radcliffe Humanities, TORCH on the first Tuesday of each month. A simple sandwich lunch will be provided, and it will be a casual space for everyone to share ideas, collaborate, or just catch up. We look forward to seeing many of you there! Any questions, please get in touch with Urania Chiu at urania.chiu@law.ox.ac.uk.

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Nancy Zaarour Title: Unleash the potential of T-cell mediated immune response within the Fallopian tube for ovarian cancer prevention. Abstract: High-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC) is the most lethal histotype of ovarian cancer and most cases present with metastasis and late-stage disease. Over the last few decades, the overall survival for patients has not significantly improved, and there are limited targeted treatment options. The fallopian tube is now believed to be the origin of most high grade serous ovarian cancers. Exploring the anti-tumor potential of immune cells in the fallopian tube is essential to implement preventative strategies. In spite of documented evidence of immune cell infiltration of the connective tissue surrounding serous tubal intraepithelial carcinomas (STICs), the ovarian cancer precursor, the direct demonstration of the ability of tissue resident memory T cells (TRMs) in eliciting an anti-tumour immune response has not been previously shown. In this talk, we will discuss our recent findings showing how TRMs that reside in non-cancerous fallopian tubes recall a memory response by reacting to tumour organoids derived from omental metastases in the same patient. Moreover, these memory cells induce apoptosis in tumour-derived organoids indicating that they possess cytotoxic ability. We will also shed light on the discovery of a novel T cell subset with an immune-epithelial phenotype. Harnessing the power of TRMs could guide the design of novel vaccination strategies to prevent ovarian cancer. Karl Morten Title: TBC Abstract: TBC

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Abstract: Despite a widespread assumption that children can read when they leave primary education, nearly 20% of adolescents are not able to read simple texts accurately and with understanding. Most research on reading has focused on children and adults, neglecting the intervening adolescent period. In this presentation, Professor Ricketts and Dr Shapiro will present their research on reading and vocabulary during the transition from primary to secondary school. Professor Ricketts will present research on reading development and how to identify reading needs. Dr Shapiro will outline research that aims to promote reading amount and reading enjoyment. Bio: Professor Jessie Ricketts is based in the Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London and directs the Language and Reading Acquisition (LARA) research group. Jessie researches language and literacy in children, young people and adults. She is particularly interested in how reading benefits children’s learning and language. For example, how does learning to read change the way that we process language? Should we emphasise written forms when teaching children new words? How can we support adolescents to read more so that they can expand their vocabulary knowledge? Jessie works closely with teachers, educational charities and policy makers to conduct research and consider its implications for education. Dr. Laura Shapiro is based at the Institute for Health and Neurodevelopment at Aston University and her core expertise is longitudinal research investigating the causes and consequences of language and literacy development using statistical causal modelling. Laura is interested in the foundational skills for literacy and how to support transition to primary school in UK and African contexts. She is also interested in how experiences of reading throughout school influence young people’s lifelong reading habits. Laura’s research crosses developmental, health and educational psychology and is shaped both by fundamental scientific questions and by the concerns of practitioners and policy makers. Teams registration link: https://teams.microsoft.com/registration/G96VzPWXk0-0uv5ouFLPkQ,hYZdQCmlzkm4vF5r0Gafvg,xSUsO8VQtU2sqG5Uovyv7w,ysp_2N3J1UyeTL4o8jUPNw,uVda8o0sOUiEC9eksczJhQ,A02rgUsH20mx-M1Yna-dvw?mode=read&tenantId=cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91

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Between 06 and 09 June, the elections for the European Parliament will be held for the tenth time. With over 350 million European Union citizens eligible to vote, the European elections are one of the largest democratic elections in the world. Over the past years, the EU has established itself as an important player in the regulation of digital technologies. Much is at stake during this election, as the continuing support for far-right parties is likely to move the Parliament’s composition substantially to the right. We will discuss how digital technologies and the European elections intersect. Special attention will be dedicated to far-right and populist right actors, such as in the realm of campaigning, social media use, or their possible impact on Europe’s digital future.

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We provide new evidence of forward-looking labor supply responses to changes in pension wealth. We exploit a 2014 German reform that increased pension wealth for mothers by an average of 4.4% per child born before January 1, 1992. Using administrative data on the universe of working histories, we implement a difference-in-differences design comparing women who had their first child before versus after January 1, 1992. We document significant reductions in labor earnings, driven by intensive margin responses. Our estimates imply that, on average, an extra euro of pension wealth in a given period reduces unconditional labor earnings by 54 cents.

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Abstract will be posted shortly Lindsay Greer earned MA and PhD degrees at Cambridge, then undertook postdoctoral work and was Assistant Professor of Applied Physics at Harvard University before returning to a faculty position in Cambridge. He has held visiting positions at the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble and the Centre d'Études Nucléaires de Grenoble, and was Harrison Distinguished Visiting Professor, Department of Physics and Centre for Materials Innovation, Washington University. He holds an Advisory Professorship at Chongqing University. He is an editor of Philosophical Magazine (founded in 1798, publishing papers on the structure and properties of condensed matter). He has been awarded the Pilkington Teaching Prize of the University of Cambridge, the Light Metals and Cast Shop Technology Awards of TMS (USA), the Cook-Ablett Award, the Hume Rothery Prize and the Griffith Medal of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, the ISMANAM Senior Scientist Medal, the Honda Kotaro Memorial Medal of Tohoku University, and the Lee Hsun Lecture Award of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He has published two books, more than 10 book chapters and more than 350 scientific papers.

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Multi-Dimensional Viewer (MDV) is a web-based, highly interactive, analytics, and visualisation engine that allows complex datasets to be viewed, annotated, and shared between colleagues. MDV allows access and integration of multi-omic single cell data, spatial imaging and organoid projects and has the potential to be expanded to be used in many other biological scenarios

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Week 7, Tuesday 4th June Dr. Rebekah van Zant-Clark (Oriel) “’New Exodus’ Typology and Supersessionism in 20th Century Isaiah Scholarship” In order to participate in this lecture via Zoom, please register at this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEpc-6orzgsGNzf4_bqmTmffWYD9p97Vfbk

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Today, researchers are publishing more than ever before. New assistant professors have already published twice as much as their peers did in the early 1990s to secure a position in top departments or to achieve tenure. Nobel laureate Peter Higgs believes he wouldn’t be deemed “productive” enough for academia in today’s world. However, merely publishing more papers doesn’t suffice. The number of citations those papers receive is the true currency in science. Rudolf Weigl, a Polish biologist who invented the first effective vaccine against typhus, described the practice of publishing many papers as ‘duck shit’: just as ducks leave a lot of traces while walking about in a yard, scientists hastily publish articles with partial results that are the product of underdeveloped thought. This is one of the unfortunate outcomes of the evaluation game in today’s science, where researchers attempt to follow various evaluation rules and meet metrics-based expectations. Counting scholarly publications has been practiced for two centuries. In Russia from the 1830s, professors had to publish yearly to determine their salaries. The Soviet Union and various socialist countries developed national research evaluation systems before the Western world. The effects of those practices are still vital. In my talk, I will use the concept of the ‘evaluation game’ developed in my recent book (The Evaluation Game: How Scholarly Metrics Shape Scholarly Communication, CUP 2023) to show how this concept can enrich our understanding of how researchers, institutions, and other stakeholders respond to pressures generated by metrics and research evaluation exercises. I will offer a fresh take on the origins and effects of metrics in academia, as well as suggest ways to improve research evaluation. I will show why the phenomenon of predatory publishing has not only geopolitical aspects but that publishing in so-called predatory journals might be perceived at the (semi)periphery as a justified and rational way to in accordance with institutional loyalty.

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An online introduction to primary sources for the study of American history, from the colonial period to the 20th century. The session will provide an overview of the different kinds of information sources (early printed books, newspapers, databases and official records), and guidance on locating material for research. Collections highlighted include physical materials available in Oxford, Bodleian databases and other online resources. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers and other staff.

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Abstract To follow This will be a hybrid seminar in the Richard Doll Building, Lecture Theatre, and on Zoom. Zoom registration https://medsci.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYkdeirrz4jHNFEqFttmTG5FWHYUJewVxjS

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In this workshop you will be introduced to the principles underpinning the conduct of literature searches for systematic reviews, scoping reviews and evidence syntheses. The session will cover: choosing the most appropriate type of evidence syntheses from systematic reviews to scoping reviews and rapid reviews; formulating a search strategy to address research questions; applying methodological search filters to restrict by study type; choosing appropriate databases and search engines; searching for grey literature and ongoing studies; documenting and reporting your search; and storing and managing references. Intended audience: students, staff and researchers from MSD and OUH.

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Measuring the phenotypic effect of treatments on cells through imaging assays is an efficient and powerful way of studying cell biology, and requires computational methods for transforming images into quantitative data. Here, we present an improved strategy for learning representations of treatment effects from high-throughput imaging, following a causal interpretation. We use weakly supervised learning for modeling associations between images and treatments, and show that it encodes both confounding factors and phenotypic features in the learned representation. To facilitate their separation, we constructed a large training dataset with images from five different studies to maximize experimental diversity, following insights from our causal analysis. Training a model with this dataset successfully improves downstream performance, and produces a reusable convolutional network for image-based profiling, which we call Cell Painting CNN. We evaluated our strategy on three publicly available Cell Painting datasets, and observed that the Cell Painting CNN improves performance in downstream analysis up to 30% with respect to classical features, while also being more computationally efficient.

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Does diversity in personal values affect employees' productivity? We combine a large-scale survey with granular organizational data to construct measures of workers' value misalignment with their teammates and their boss. We show that workers who have different values than their colleagues and their managers perform worse than those who have similar values. This negative effect is stronger and more robust for value misalignment with bosses and in hard productivity measures. Our results suggest that value misalignment hinders workers' motivation and increases managers' difficulties in coordinating employees. However, teams with more psychological safety are able to alleviate the challenges arising from divergent values.

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Fight, Flight, Mimic (https://academic.oup.com/book/56358) is the first systematic study of deceptive mimicry in the context of wars. Deceptive mimicry — the manipulation of individual or group identity—includes passing off as a different individual, as a member of a group to which one does not belong, or, for a group, to ‘sign’ its action as another group. Mimicry exploits the reputation of the model it mimics to avoid capture (flight), to strike undetected at the enemy (fight), or to hide behind or besmirch the reputation of the model group (‘false-flag’ operations). These tactics have previously been described anecdotally, mixed in with other ruses de guerre, but we show that mimicry is a distinct form of deception with its own logic and particularly consequential effects on those involved. The book offers a theory and game-theoretic model of mimicry, an overview of its use through history, and a deep empirical exploration of its modern manifestations through several case studies by leading social scientists. The chapters cover mimicry in the context of the Northern Ireland conflict, terrorism campaigns in 1970s Italy, the height of the Iraq insurgency, the Rwandan genocide, the Naxalite rebellion in India, and jihadi discussion forums on the Internet.

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Addressing a range of contemporary and historical conflicts and daily struggles, this series of talks will explore how violence remains integral to the global political economy, with lasting effects on gendered hierarchies which often extend far beyond immediate war zones.

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In the wake of the Cold war Francis Fukuyama portrayed the “last man” as free but devoid of ambitions, polite but unheroic, somebody castrated by the satisfaction of his desires but a very agreeable fellow. He is married to democracy, but we suspect no more in love with it. The “last man” of this lecture is a different one. He has arrived when history has returned. He is anxious and mistrustful. He is overtaken by demographic anxiety. He thinks he lives in the dregs of time. He tends to believe that the next elections should be the last elections. Why is he so terrified. And where he comes from? And what can we expect from him? And how will he change our idea of democracy?

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The International History of East Asia Seminar for Trinity Term 2024 will be held over four sessions in person (Weeks 6, 7, 8) at the Lucina Ho Seminar Room at the University of Oxford China Centre and online (Week 3) via MS Teams (all in-person sessions will also be shown online; Week 4 is online only). Weeks 6 and 8 will take place in-person and online via Teams at 1700 on Wednesdays, Week 7 will take place in-person and online via Teams at 1700 on a Tuesday, and Week 3 will take place solely online via Teams at 1700 on Thursday. We are a seminar on East Asian international history supported by the University of Oxford China Centre. All convenors are current graduate students or early career researchers. We host regular talks by graduate students and researchers in order to facilitate academic dialogue among scholars based in the UK, Europe, as well as those from the other regions of the world. Follow us on Twitter @OxIHEAS Contact us at iheaoxseminar@gmail.com

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The ESO (Electricity System Operator) published a plan called "Beyond 2030" in March 2024. This plan outlines an ambitious investment of over £58bn in transmission infrastructure up until 2030. The goal of this plan is to connect approximately 85GW of offshore wind capacity and facilitate the transition to a zero carbon electricity system. The seminar will delve into the background, decision-making processes, outcomes, and future steps related to achieving a zero carbon electricity system, which is a crucial component of the future net zero economy.

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Dr Vali Kaleji (University of Tehran/ONGC) Iran’s Relations with the Republics of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia in the First Period of Independence (1917-1921) Following the collapse of the tsarist Russian Empire and the communist revolution in October 1917, the Caucasus region was in the turmoil due to its aspiration to independence. Powerful feelings of nationalism and religion pushed the Caucasian nations towards independence, the first result of which was the formation of the “Seim” in February 23, 1918 and also “Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic” (TDFR) in April 22, 1918 that included most of the territory of the present-day Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, as well as parts of Russia and Turkey. Although it was a short-lived state in the Caucasus and according to internal disputes and the effective role of the Ottoman Empire, the Transcaucasian Seim announced its self–dissolution on May 26, 1918. With the collapse of the TDFR, three independent republics of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia were formed in the Caucasus, which is considered a “turning point” in the history of political and social developments in this region. On the other hand, following Constitutional Revolution in 1905, the in the last years of Qajar dynasty, Iran was faced with political instability specially by successive collapse of governments and internal rebellions such as the Jangal (Jungle) Movement, in Gilan. In these circumstances, the Young Turk Revolution in the Ottoman Empire in 1908, the weakening and fall of the Tsarist Russian Empire, the formation of the Soviet Union in 1917, and the formation of the three independent republics of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia in the Caucasus, had important consequences on Iran’s politics and foreign relations. Although with the annexation of these republics by the USSR in 1920 and 1921, Iran’s foreign policy passed through this chaotic and difficult stage, however, after 100 years, the shadow of some issues such as Nagorno-Karabakh, Zangezur Nakhchivan, Pan-Turkism and Pan-Azerism in the Caucasus continues to affect Iran’s foreign policy towards the Republic of Azerbaijan and Armenia. In fact, although the period of independence of the Caucasian republics from 1917 to 1921 was very short, it had a very deep impact on the political and social life of the Caucasian nations as well as Iranian foreign policy toward the region.

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Emmy Waldman PhD is Visiting Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary Literature at Virginia Tech. Her work examines the links between Alison Bechdel and Art Spiegelman's innovative approaches to comic form and their lineage, both family and artistic/literary. A fascinating subject - please join us.

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All welcome Refreshments

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How can the UK secure its place in the new green economy while ensuring a just transition for those whose work or communities depend on fossil fuels? As many economies turn to new forms of industrial policy, what is working and what is not? What international policy changes are needed to navigate this transition? The panel is still being put together; please find details of confirmed speakers below. Biographies: Thomas Hale is Professor at the Blavatnik School of Government and St Antony’s College, Oxford. His research explores how we can manage transnational problems effectively and fairly. He co-leads the Net Zero Tracker and the Net Zero Regulation and Policy Hub. His latest book is Long Problems: Climate Change and the Challenge of Governing across Time (Princeton, 2024). Chris Skidmore served as MP for Kingswood from 2010-2024. In 2022-2023 he led the Government’s net zero review. He was Minister of State jointly at the Department for Education and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy 2019-2020. He was previously Minister of State at the Department of Health and Social Care between, at the Department for Education, and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Chris also served as Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office. Chris was educated at Bristol Grammar School before studying history at Oxford, where he continued with postgraduate research. He is a Visiting Parliamentary Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford, for the 2023-2024 academic year. Alex Sobel was elected MP for Leeds North West in 2017. A graduate of the University of Leeds, his background is in the social enterprise sector. In 2019 Alex helped form the Net Zero All-Party Parliamentary Group. In 2020 he was appointed as the shadow minister for Tourism and Heritage, and in 2021 we was appointed as shadow minister for Nature Recovery and the Domestic Environment in the Opposition DEFRA Team. He is a Visiting Parliamentary Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford, for the 2023-2024 academic year.

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Join Ben Goldacre, Professorial Fellow at Jesus College and Director of the Bennett Institute, for the Inaugural Cheng Kar Shun Digital Hub Lecture. Ben will discuss his career advocating for better research methods, and the differences – if any – in addressing these complex issues with the public, policymakers, and researchers.

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South Africa’s elections on 29 May are widely anticipated to be the country’s most significant since its first democratic elections in 1994. The African National Congress has formed the government ever since then, but it is now facing electoral challenges by political parties new and old, just as the still-young democracy is challenged by persistent inequality, failing infrastructure, notorious corruption, and more, leading to calls from at least one new party to repeal South Africa’s landmark 1996 Constitution. Join Sherylle Dass, Regional Director at the Legal Resources Centre, Lindiwe Mazibuko, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Futurelect, and Jonny Steinberg, author of Winnie and Nelson, in a panel discussion moderated by Professor Christopher Stone exploring the significance and likely impact of South Africa’s election.

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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.

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* *Baris Cayli Messina* (University of Lincoln) ‘The Global History of Social Dissent: Rethinking Bandits Across Time and Space’ * *Sappho Xenakis* (Birkbeck) ‘Nationalist Bandits, Outlaws, and the Greek State: Paradox and Persistent Tropes in Struggles for Political Legitimacy’

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Chronic low-grade inflammation, also called metaflammation, is associated with prevalent non-communicable diseases. Anti-inflammatory therapy provides a clinical benefit in patients, but the triggers that incite metaflammation remain largely unknown. To uncover non-genetic inflammatory factors influencing Western-diet mediated inflammation and pathology, we performed an unbiased in vivo screen measuring thousands of host- and microbe-derived molecules in a mouse model of atherosclerosis. Machine learning-supported analyses identified, next to known pro- and anti-atherogenic factors, the medium fatty acid-chain sphingomyelin d18:1/14:0 (S14) as highly positively associated with atherogenesis. S14 activated macrophage innate immune signalling, immune-metabolic reprogramming and pro-inflammatory gene transcription. The inflammatory activity of S14 was TLR4- and MD-2-dependent, consistent with biochemical and molecular dynamics simulation analyses showing that S14 promoted the formation of active TLR4/MD-2 dimers. Human interventional and observational trials demonstrated that dietary changes altered concentrations of S14 and that increased circulating S14 was associated with carotid plaque development in obese individuals. Collectively, these findings identify an inducible endogenous ligand for TLR4 that drives metaflammation, providing the rationale for preventative approaches and pharmacological interventions that may curb detrimental inflammation secondary to Western-type lifestyle habits. AND The Oxford-Berlin Partnership is an academic partnership between the University of Oxford and the Berlin University Alliance. KIR and DRFZ are embedded in this unique setting supporting a variety of possible academic activities in both Oxford & Berlin, including seed-funding, mobility calls and symposia. The possibility of submitting joint applications to third-party funders (e.g. Horizon Europe)could promote the rheumatological research at both locations.

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Professor Plun-Favreau’s primary field of interest is mitochondrial dysfunction in disease. Following a PhD in France in signal transduction, she undertook postdoctoral training at Cancer Research UK, London Research Institute. The discoveries and work she undertook in the mitochondria and cancer area led her towards neurodegeneration and she successfully applied for an MRC Career Development Fellowship to work at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology. In 2013, she accepted a Senior Lecturer position at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology and was appointed as Professor in 2019. Her laboratory has carried out significant work on the molecular pathways associated with mitophagy and other mitochondrial dysfunctions in neurodegenerative conditions. The approaches they undertake require live cell microscopy and complex molecular and cellular biology, and provide a more complete picture of the pathways that play a role in the pathogenesis of neurodegeneration. Working with academics, clinicians and industry at the interface of basic and applied research, her ultimate aim is to help guide the development of clinically relevant therapeutic strategies for neurodegeneration.

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We examine how the institution of dowry and norms of old-age support in India affect labour supply, consumption, savings, the timing of children's marriages, and insurance against health shocks over the lifecycle. The ubiquity of large dowries, marital transfers from families of brides to those of grooms, and the expectation that sons provide financially for parents in old age mean that sons, compared to daughters, typically bring both a large one-off wealth transfer and a stream of income support to their parents. We document that both men and women work at higher rates, retire later, and consume less when they have no sons. We then use detailed panel data to document how choices change around the time when children get married. We find that marriages of sons correspond to a large increase in household assets, an increase in retirement rates of fathers, and an increase in labour supply of the son. Further, marriages of sons often follow a health shock experienced by the household head. Grounded in this descriptive work, we develop a dynamic lifecycle model to understand households' labour supply, consumption, savings, and marriage choices and how these are shaped by initial wealth and by shocks to wages and health. Written with Anusha Guha and Selma Walther

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Over the past few years, Africa has witnessed a proliferation of technology hubs. Nonetheless, while these fledgling technology ecosystems are potent for fostering the region’s socio-economic development, only a few of the technology startups emerging from within these have had the digital entrepreneurial capacity to scale into global enterprises. A critical missing gap is that the process of knowledge creation, adoption, and transmission within the digital entrepreneurial ecosystem remains unclear, with the need for more empirical studies in this developing context. Within this purview, digital ecosystem scholars have argued the importance of more in-depth research in unravelling the processes of learning and knowledge transfer, and the complementary interrelationships between critical stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem. This talk examines the knowledge development process concerning the Lagos digital innovation ecosystem. It explores, within this context, how indigenous and local knowledge can more effectively be integrated with foreign capabilities in the evolution of the region’s digital innovation ecosystem. Raymond Onuoha is a Technology Policy Scholar and Consultant. His research, consulting and teaching focuses on the institutional and policy challenges in the evolution of the digital economy and technology innovation in developing countries, with a specialization on Africa. He also works as a Research Consultant with regional ICT policy and regulation think-tanks – Research ICT Africa (RIA), South Africa, IT4Change (India), and The Portulans Institute (Washington D.C., USA) – conducting multidisciplinary research on digital governance, policy and regulation and the facilitation of evidence-base to inform policymaking for improved access, use and application of digital technologies for social and economic development in Africa. Raymond is currently an AfOx Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) and a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER), South Africa – where he is assessing high-integrity and trust identification schemes across Africa.

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Join this event for an exclusive networking opportunity to connect with policy professionals from diverse sectors and learn more about the intricate world of policymaking. This unique opportunity brings together researchers from the University of Oxford and policy professionals who have been involved in the OPEN Peer Mentoring Scheme, fostering the exchange of ideas and collaboration. In dedicated cluster rooms, you'll have the chance to participate in intimate roundtable discussions. Through a "speed networking" approach, you'll engage with new perspectives, explore potential synergies, and gain invaluable insights into the complexities of evidence-based policymaking. This event is more than just topical discussions; it's a platform to expand your professional network, fostering connections that transcend disciplinary boundaries. Registration details coming soon.

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The Ashmolean is proud to be a partner venue for the National Treasures displays in 2024 and is showcasing the Wilton Diptych in the England: 400-1600 Gallery over the summer from 10 May. As part of its 200th birthday celebrations, the National Gallery is loaning 12 paintings to venues around the UK. Join this object-in-focus talk to hear about the symbolism and history of the Wilton Diptych, painted about 1395-9 and made for Richard II, King of England from 1377 to 1399. The small, portable devotional artwork is one of a handful of English panel paintings to have survived from the Middle Ages.

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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. Chair Keiko Kanno Panellists Dr Ariell Ahearn (Departmental Lecturer in Human Geography) Dr Bhawani Buswala (Postdoctoral Researcher, PEAK Urban Programme) Jordan Gorenberg (DPhil, Anthropology)

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*Rachel Feldberg* (York) 'From Crocodiles to the Structure of the Universe: Jane Ewbank’s shifting engagement with the Natural World' *Matthew Eddy* (Durham) 'Jane Ewbank and Experimental Philosophy: Public Lectures inlate Georgian Yorkshire'

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This week, Sam Daws will be speaking about multilateral institutions and AI, as well as the current UN negotiations on AI governance. About the speaker Sam Daws works on the interface of multilateral policy, diplomatic strategy, and geopolitics, with a focus on AI governance. He has worked in UN-related policy roles for over three decades. From 2000 to 2003 he served as First Officer to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York. He later served as Deputy Director in the UK Cabinet Office supporting the Prime Minister’s role as Co-Chair of the UN Panel on the creation of the Sustainable Development Goals. His previous roles included Senior Principal Research Analyst in the Multilateral Policy Directorate of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Executive Director of the United Nations Association of the UK, and UK Representative of the United Nations Foundation. In his early career he worked in India at a hospice in Calcutta (Kolkata) and a renewable energy project in Ladakh, and later for the Quaker UN Office in Geneva at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall. He also served as a Parliamentary researcher for the incoming Chair of the House of Commons Defence Select Committee, and as the inaugural head of UNA-UK’s UN and Conflict programme. Sam is a Senior Practitioner Associate in the Department of Politics and International Relations, with an interest in all aspects of UN research and policy. He has served as policy lead and Senior Advisor to Oxford University’s collaboration with the UN’s Academic Impact initiative, and has directed a UN Governance and Reform project for over ten years. He recently also served as Special Advisor to the Rector of the United Nations University, and as an Associate Fellow in the International Law Programme of Chatham House (The Royal Institute of International Affairs). He has written or co-edited 14 books on the UN including The Oxford Handbook on the United Nations (OUP, 2007 and 2nd edn. 2018) and The Procedure of the UN Security Council (OUP, 1998 and 4th edn. 2014). His current policy focus is on the international governance of Artificial Intelligence. He is Senior Advisor to the start-up DiploAI, and the founding director of the diplomacy policy network, mulltilateral.ai. He has also served as strategic advisor on AI governance to the Simon Institute for Longterm Governance in Geneva. Sam has served as an advisor to a variety of governments, international foundations and UN bodies including the office of four successive UN Secretaries-General. He designed the inaugural digital training on the UN for the FCO’s Diplomatic Academy, and has trained diplomats from a range of countries on how to navigate the politics and processes of the UN. He is a visiting lecturer on the international staff course of the Royal College of Defence Studies in London, on the MSc in International Strategy and Diplomacy at the LSE, and on the Oxford University Diplomatic Studies Programme. He has also taught courses on the UN and international negotiation for visiting students at St Catherine’s College, Oxford, and has served for ten years as a Sector Consultant (industry advisor - IOs and public policy) to Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. Sam has a degree in social anthropology with African and Asian development studies, and a Masters in international conflict analysis. He studied for a DPhil at New College, Oxford in international relations (on UN Security Council reform) but left for New York before completing his doctorate to work for the UN Secretary-General. He later spent a year at the University of Cambridge as a Visiting Fellow in International Law and was a visiting fellow at Yale University in UN studies. He has undertaken executive courses in international negotiation at the Centre d'études pratiques de la négociation internationale in Geneva; in environment and human security at the UNU leadership academy in Amman, Jordan; and in economics for foreign policy at the LSE. He is Director of the advisory firm 3D Strategy Ltd. He has a postgraduate qualification from Cass Business School in Grantmaking, Philanthropy and Social Investment. In 2009 he completed the one-year executive leadership and management programme (TMP 91) of the National School of Government, sponsored by the Cabinet Office. He previously studied Foundation and Endowment Asset Management at London Business School. He is completing the AI Programme at Oxford's Saïd Business School. Sam has been a non-executive director on the Boards of the Academic Council on the UN System and the World Federation of UN Associations, He was trust secretary to the UNA-UK charitable trust and a trustee of the Gilbert Murray Trust. He founded and convened the UN working group of the British International Studies Association, and served on BISA’s national executive committee.

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High entropy alloy (HEA) is a new group of material which is consist of five or more principal elements. Due to its distinct design concept, these alloys often exhibit unusual properties and have attracted significant interest of research, leading to an emerging yet exciting new field in recent years. Within various topics on HEAs, the stability of solid solution by mixing several elements is one essential issue and the pre-condition of various application. This talk will introduce our study on the stability and relevant properties of transition metal HEAs using the first-principles method combing machine learning. This research was started from two quinary high entropy alloys (HEAs), Cantor alloy FeCoNiCrMn, and FeNiCoCrPd which is synthesized by intentionally substituting Mn in Cantor alloy with Pd, and was reported to be achieved 2.5 times higher strength than that of FeNiCoCrMn[1]. In order to understand the mechanism of Pd’s role, we investigated the stability and structural properties of these two HEAs based on first-principles calculation combining density functional theory (DFT) and finite temperature effects with taking special quasi-random structures (SQS) as model of solid solution. It has been revealed that the inhomogeneous feature of Pd increases the average atomic local displacement, consequently enhances the mechanical properties[2]. … balance of stability. Along this work we have accumulated more than 1,000 DFT SQS data of all sub-systems of binary, ternary, quaternary in all equiatomic compositions and typical non-equiatomic compositions of FeCoNiCrMn/Pd, for fcc. bcc and hcp structures. Using this data set, systematic predictions are conducted by machine learning (ML). The elemental convolution graph neural networks (ECNet)[3] in cooperating with transfer learning are attempted to predict the stability and properties of the higher compositional systems mainly based on the data of binaries and ternaries, then three new compositions of (FeCoNiCrMn)1-xPdx with superior values of RMSD then known quinary HEAs have been explored [4.5]. Furthermore, the mesh searching [6] for virtual systems of Fe, Co, Ni, Cr, Mn, Pd + ( =all 3d-, 4d-elements, Mg, Al, Si, etc.) gave a general picture of solid solution stability of the transition metal ternaries, quaternaries at zero K and finite temperature. The study has been further extended to 6-element HEA with introducing Al into FeCoNiCrMn/Pd since the experiments reported interesting stability behaviour of fcc-bcc dual phase and fcc to bcc transformation with varying Al concentration. The calculations found that the partial disordering which is the sublattices inequivalent element distribution relates very much to the phase stability of (FeNiCoCrMn /Pd) Alx [7]. The analysis on the atomic pair interactions in the HEAs further provide the mechanism of the stability. These results enriched the physics of those high entropy alloys. [1] Q. Ding, Y. Zhang, X. Chen., et. al. Nature 574, 223-227 (2019). [2] Nguyen-Dung Tran, Ying Chen, et al., J. Phase Equilibria and Diffusion, 42, 606 (2021). [3] Shuming Zeng, Jun Ni, et al., npj Computational Materials, 5, 84 (2019). [4] Xinming Wang, Nguyen-Dung Tran, Ying Chen, Jun Ni, et. al., npj Computational Materials, 8, 253 (2022). [5] Nguyen-Dung Tran, Theresa Davey, Ying Chen, J. Applied Physics, 133, 045101 (2023). [6] Hironao Yamada, Chang Liu, Ryo Yoshida, et. al., ACS Central Science 5, 1717 (2019) [7] under preparation Short biography: Professor Ying Chen majored in solid state physics, and her main research field is the computational materials science using the integrated approaches of first-principles calculations, statistical physics and thermodynamic modelling combining materials informatics. = She received her PhD from The University of Tokyo in 1996. After working for the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) for 6 years, she became an Associate Professor in The University of Tokyo in 2002; moved to Tohoku University in 2010 and was promoted as a Full Professor in 2013. She has been actively involved in large national research projects to conduct computational research on wide range of materials such as intermetallics, alloys, steel, nuclear materials, magnets and high entropy alloys. She also has experience in data science. During working in JST and as a principal scientist of MPDS in 2009, she was one of the main members of the international project of development of the large materials database. Peer review papers ~110, invited talks in international conferences ~80.

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This article offers a longitudinal study of the complex entanglements between infrastructure and sovereignty in the Horn of Africa. By analysing Ethiopia's imperial transport corridors, the political economy of Djibouti's Red Sea ports, and the Greater Nile Oil Pipeline between South Sudan, Khartoum, and global markets, we underline the co-production of infrastructure and sovereignty as a defining feature of regional politics in the last 150 years. In a region notorious for the redrawing of borders, continuous violent conflict, and contested sovereignties, we emphasize the contingency of this relationship by making two central arguments. First, infrastructures have been central to the exercise of sovereignty and the consolidation of political orders in the region; dams, pipelines and ports have spearheaded efforts to hardwire centralizing political institutions, extractive commercial relations, and centripetal sentiments of belonging. Second, in doing so these infrastructures have sought to disable infrastructural alternatives because rival infrastructural visions embody competing claims of sovereignty. However, as state-building projects and the infrastructures they prioritize have often failed to successfully neutralise opposing articulations of political authority and belonging, we argue that the vulnerability of existing infrastructures contributes to the vulnerability of political order in the Horn. This article draws attention to the roads not taken and how those could have changed -and might still reconfigure-the politics of the region.

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For details see https://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/skilled-worker-visas-for-refugees--a-qualitative-evaluation-of-the-uks-displaced-talent-mobility-pilot

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This isn’t brain surgery - it’s much more delicate! Using the world’s most powerful microscopes and stitches finer than a human hair, microsurgeons are now able to reconnect the smallest blood vessels and nerves in the body - saving lives and limbs and restoring quality of life to millions. Trinity alumnus Professor Neil Jones is a distinguished leader in this field and will discuss how microsurgery has revolutionised reconstructive surgery in a variety of settings. He will also share with us his experience of over thirty years of “passing it on” through performing and teaching humanitarian reconstructive surgery in some of the least developed countries in the world.

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Abstract: Emotion is closely associated with language, but we know very little about how children express emotion in their own writing. We used a large-scale, cross-sectional, and data-driven approach to investigate emotional expression via writing in children of different ages, and whether it varies for boys and girls. We first used a lexicon-based bag-of-words approach (after Hipson & Mohammad, 2020) to identify emotional content in a large corpus of stories (N>100,000) written by 7- to 13-year-old children. Generalized Additive Models were then used to model changes in sentiment across age and gender. Two additional approaches (BERT and TextBlob) validated and extended these analyses, converging on the finding that positive sentiments in children’s writing decrease with age. These findings echo reports from previous studies showing a decrease in mood and an increased use of negative emotion words with age. We also found that stories by girls contained more positive sentiments than stories by boys. Our study shows the utility of using large-scale data-driven approaches to reveal the content and nature of children’s writing. Future experimental work should build on these observations to understand the likely complex relationships between written language and emotion, and how these change over development. Teams link: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZTZlMmI3OTYtNTAwZS00YzZhLTg5NWMtNGRkOWI3YTZjZWJi%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22e44820d7-5edb-4030-9763-4c8cdc3aafd6%22%7d Bio: My name is Rainy Dong and I’m a third-year DPhil in Experimental Psychology, supervised by Prof Kate Nation and Prof Robert Hepach. My DPhil research is on children’s emotion and language development. Emotions play a pivotal role in human experiences and are closely intertwined with language structure and use in both adults and children (Lindquist, 2017). Understanding emotional language, such as the term "upset", is crucial for emotional comprehension during development (Grosse et al., 2021; Nook et al., 2020). Despite the acknowledged importance of language in emotional concept development, little research has explored the link between emotions and written language in particular. Compared to spoken language, written language is more decontextualised and linguistically more complex (Dawson et al., 2021). Written language might be instrumental in conveying nuanced emotional concepts. Hence, my DPhil research focuses on interplay between language and emotion and how this unfolds over development, with a particular focus on written language. I combined both corpus analysis to look at the emotional language in various children’s language corpora; and experimental approaches to look at the influence of emotional context on language learning.

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Abstract will be posted shortly. With a background in both music and history, Bethan Winter's research is interdisciplinary in nature, focusing on music and politics in the German Democratic Republic and, more specifically, on the appropriation of the legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach. Her work explores the ways in which the East German Bachbild overlapped with various policy concerns including the legitimisation of the new communist government, foreign policy and international relations, education, tourism, and music composition. A concurrent project for a forthcoming publication explores the soundscapes of socialism in 1950s East Berlin. Whilst completing her doctorate, Bethan currently works as a lecturer in Modern European History at Magdalen College.

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Please log on here to attend https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83752251729

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lecture by Professor Tim Bewes, Brown University, '“The Freedom to be Wrong”: Reading Teju Cole with Chris Kraus' (to be held at New College)

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The University of Oxford is marking the 100th anniversary of the death of Franz Kafka with a programme of activities celebrating his works and enduring legacy. Kafka died in 1924 of tuberculosis, which remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases, not least because of the prevalence of drug-resistant strains of TB. Researchers at the University of Oxford, supported by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), are tackling TB in a variety of ways, from vaccines to more targeted treatments. Join us for this exciting talk at the Weston Library looking at various aspects of tuberculosis and how Oxford is at the forefront of addressing this major global challenge. Professor Helen McShane, Deputy Head of the Medical Sciences Division and Director of the Oxford BRC, has a wealth of experience in this field, including developing revolutionary new TB candidate vaccines. Dr Philip Fowler will explore the role of genetics in identifying TB strains and their resistance to antibiotics and so developing more effective treatments. And patient representative Amy will share her personal TB journey, through the challenges of diagnosis and treatment.

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*Draft Programme:* 09:00-09:45 Registration and coffee 09:45-10:00 Welcome and Introduction (Leah Clark and Helen Coffey) 10:00-11:30 *Bodies/Paper/Knowledge* *Kate Buis* (University of Minnesota), ‘Paper Bodies: Exploring Early Modern Corporeal Imaginaries, Corporeal Things, and Performance through the Fugitive Sheets’ *Sukiana Husain* (The University of Edinburgh), ‘Capturing the World in a Breath: Reading Books in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Mughal Court’ *Di Wang* (University of Oxford), ‘Nourishing Pictures as Medical Diet for the Maternal Body and Mind in Yinshan Zhengyao’ 12:00-13:00 *Performativity/Community* *Eduardo Dawson* (University of Notre Dame), ‘Sensorial Religiosity: Jesuit Understandings of Early African Religious Experiences’ *Sreedevi D* (Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur), ‘Narrating the Region through the Senses: A Study of Selected Thullal Krithikal by Kunjan Nambiar’ 13:00-14:00 Lunch 14:00-15:00 *Travels/Environment* *Olena Morenets* (University of Zurich), ‘Travelling Across Smell Borders: “Us” vs “Them” Encounters in Early Modern Travel Writing’ *Tania Sheikhan* (University College London), ‘Tavernier’s ‘Rattling Chains’: Echoes of Persian Life through Sensory Narratives and the Construction of Orientalist Mythos’ 15:00-15:30 Tea Break 15:30-16:30 *Domesticscapes* *Clare Taylor* (The Open University), ‘Living with Gilt Leather in Seventeenth-century England and Scotland’ *Flora Dennis* (University of Sussex), ‘Doorknockers, Sound and Social Dynamics in the Early Modern Italian Home’ *Note for attendees:* Registration is only available for both days together (6-7 June 2024) - online attendance is available for free. For 'in person' attendance, there is a charge of £45, please register first to register your attendance, and then pay for your ticket via University Stores to confirm your ticket, here: https://www.oxforduniversitystores.co.uk/product-catalogue/humanities-division/humanities-division-torch-events If you are unable to attend, *please cancel ahead of the 23 May* to ensure correct numbers for catering.

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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.

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*Thursday 6 June - 09:30-16:30* Programme forthcoming

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We identify a host-microbiome interaction fundamental to the aetiology of Type 1 diabetes (T1D), a T-cell-mediated destruction of pancreatic β cells, owing to a loss of immune tolerance to primary insulin epitope. We show how variation in the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II region, DQβ57, the strongest T1D genetic risk factor, induces a thymic selection bias that favors increased frequency of insulin reactive T cells in the periphery. Furthermore, we describe a large set of gut commensal proteins, enriched with enzymes involved in metabolism of polysaccharides, with similarity to the primary insulin epitope. We demonstrate that islet infiltrates from early stage T1D contain T cells cross-reactive to bacterial mimics and insulin peptides. Our findings establish a connection between microbial metabolism of polysaccharides, dysbiosis in the infant gut, and antigen-specific immune responses to insulin, offering new strategies for disease prevention.

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This is a hybrid meeting. To join via Zoom, please register in advance: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEscuiqqTsrGdMpOTfr1mF24Ag7J0Pq8JsP After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

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Somalogic aims to transform research and healthcare with industry-leading proteomics. Their pioneering platform provides more coverage of the proteome than any other than any other technology.

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seminar led by Professor Tim Bewes, 'Chronotopic Forms in Recent Fiction by Women'

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The Rees Centre have been commissioned by the DfE to evaluate two policy programmes related to Virtual Schools’ duties to children and young people experienced of the care system. The first, concerns the extended role of the Virtual School Head to include strategic responsibility in promoting the educational outcomes of the cohort of Children With a Social Worker (CWSW) and those who have previously had a social worker in the last 6 years (Ever 6 CWSW). The second, involves the VSHs’ support of Children Looked-After (CLA) and Care Leavers (CL) in post-16 education and training settings through the extension of Pupil Premium Plus funding. Both projects use a realist, mixed-methods approach which aims to identify what works, for whom, to what extent and under what conditions. In this Qual Hub seminar, Dr Georgia Hyde-Dryden and Dr Andrew Brown of the Rees Centre will present an overview of the qualitative methodology from both projects and the challenges revealed from conducting multi-disciplinary, government funded research that straddles two overlapping, yet distinct, agencies: education and social care. Teams link: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_NDYyMzMwZmYtMTU4NC00MGRiLWIwZjEtOGQ0MWZiZjc3Y2U1%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

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Cavell’s project has helped to revivify discussions around ordinary language, practices of attention, the critical role of affect, and more. Yet while Cavell anticipates current modes of thinking about the ordinary in significant respects, his work also occupies a space adjacent to them, or even falls short of them. Ordinary language is key to Cavell’s formulation of community, and to his hopes for what the first-person plural ‘we’ can do. However, the ordinary is a notably ambivalent and slippery idea. Further, contextual aspects of Cavell’s endeavour – American, disciplinary, and historical – complicate his espousal of it. This talk sketches some of the complexities and potential pitfalls of the ordinary in relation to Cavell’s work and its critical afterlives, as well as touching on relevant literary writing.

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Lesson of the week, clinical cases and research. All clinical and academic staff and students welcome. Coffee, Tea and Cake will be served.

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Evelyn Dunbar (1906-1960) is best remembered as the only woman to be given salaried status as a full-time war artist in World War 2. Dunbar produced several major works now principally held in the Imperial War Museum. However her post-war work, particularly her landscapes, have only recently received the accolades they deserve. The second of three in the Making a Mark series of talks about British women painters. Other talks in the series: Winifred Knights talk 1 - Thu 30 May Joan Eardley talk 3 - Thu 13 Jun

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We cannot be justified in believing that any actions currently available to us will have a non-negligible positive influence on the billion-plus-year future. I offer three arguments for this thesis. According to the Infinite Washout Argument, standard decision-theoretic calculation schemes fail if there is no temporal discounting of the consequences we are willing to consider. Given the non-zero chance that the effects of your actions will produce infinitely many unpredictable bad and good effects, any finite effects will be washed out in expectation by those infinitudes. According to the Cluelessness Argument, we cannot justifiably guess what actions, among those currently available to us, are relatively more or less likely to have positive effects after a billion years. We cannot be justified, for example, in thinking that nuclear war or human extinction would be more likely to have bad than good consequences in a billion years. According to the Negligibility Argument, even if we could justifiably guess that some particular action is likelier to have good than bad consequences in a billion years, the odds of good consequences would be negligibly tiny due to the compounding of probabilities over time.

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This events aims to demystify policy making and provide an opportunity for MPLS researchers to meet and engage with policy makers and scientific advisors to the EU and UK government. Agenda: • Arrival refreshments • Welcome • Talks • Discussion Panel • Drinks Reception and Networking

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You are warmly invited to this seminar on the contemporary relationship between truth and fiction. How is the writing of history shaped by the art of the novelist? Can the historical novel tell the truth about the past better than history? Jonathan Freedland and Jesse Norman, two writers working between history and fiction, will discuss these questions in conversation with Clare Bucknell. *Jonathan Freedland* is a columnist for The Guardian and an award-winning writer both of non-fiction and fiction, the latter under the pseudonym Sam Bourne. His latest book, _The Escape Artist_, was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize in 2022. *Jesse Norman MP* is a biographer of Edmund Burke and Adam Smith, and a Fellow of All Souls College. His latest book, a historical novel called _The Winding Stair_, won a Parliamentary Book Award in 2023.

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To join via Microsoft Teams please use this link https://rb.gy/qzyv2b. Registration is not required.

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Discussions of fairness and machine learning have been painting on too small a canvass. My talk aims to broaden the scope of normative discourse about machine learning and algorithmic decision making. Beginning from an understanding of fair cooperation among free and equal persons as a fundamental political value, I argue that concerns about fairness and machine learning need to be expanded in three ways. First, unfairness and discrimination are not only a matter of group subordination. I consider forms of anti-discrimination that are not about disadvantaged groups but about removing barriers to opportunity, and suggest practical implications for algorithmic decisions. Secondly, I underscore the limits of a focus on fair organizational decisions in advancing equality of opportunity. Finally, drawing on Rawls, I present aspects of a fair society that are not simply matters of equal opportunity, and consider some broader, under-explored ramifications of algorithms and AI on societal fairness. Specifically, I suggest the implications that AI deployment at scale has for fair distribution of wealth and resources and fair political liberties.

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Religion in Britain and Ireland, 1400-1700 Seminar series on Thursdays at 5pm, Trinity Term 2024 in the Lecture Room at Campion Hall John Colley, University of Cambridge Early Christianity, Confessionalization, and the Translation of Greek in Mid-Tudor England Convened by Diarmaid MacCulloch, Judith Maltby, Sarah Mortimer and Grant Tapsell Offered by the Faculties of History and Theology and Religion. Drinks will be served after the seminar on 25 April and 13 June. For more information, or for the Teams link to join remotely, please contact sarah.apetrei@campion.ox.ac.uk.

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Powerful photo stories created by women and gender-diverse migrants and refugees in Tapachula, Mexico City, and Tijuana, Mexico. Join us at the opening reception on June 6. Abril Ríos-Rivera, curator and DPhil candidate in Migration Studies will introduce the exhibit and a drinks reception will follow. This exhibition is part of the Art and Anthropology Collective of the School of Anthropology & Museum Ethnography (SAME) and is supported by the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS).

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*_To join online, please register in advance here:_* https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUocuyvrz4vGtTThizdrAaKNZsmRk61NTKm

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In this lecture, we confront the pressing challenges posed by climate change in river basins engaged in intensive agriculture. Highlighting the Indus basin, we examine the expected intensification of the hydrological cycle, leading to severe floods and droughts, alongside the critical reduction in river flows due to diminishing snow and glacier reserves. This lecture navigates the complex terrain of demand management and technological adaptation, while critically addressing the concept of water justice. It questions who bears the responsibility for climate-induced changes, especially when external actors are involved. Delving into the notion of justice, we explore its definitions and implications from an Islamic perspective, offering a unique lens to understand water justice in regions with significant Muslim populations. This discussion not only addresses environmental and technological challenges but also engages with the deeper ethical considerations of equity and responsibility in the face of global climate change.

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The Oxford Department of Economics is pleased to host the Annual Hicks Lecture 2024, delivered by Professor Isaiah Andrews (Professor of Economics at MIT. Recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal, and MacArthur Fellow). The event will take place at 17:30 - 18:30 on 6th June 2024 and will be followed by a drinks reception for in-person attendees. Lecture title: 'True and Pseudo-True Parameter Values' About the lecture: Parameter estimates in misspecified models often converge to pseudo-true parameter values, which minimize a population objective function. Pseudo-true values often differ from quantities of economic interest, raising questions of how, if at all, they are relevant for decision-making. To study this question we consider Bayesian decision-makers facing a population minimum distance problem. Within a class of priors motivated by the minimum distance objective, we characterize prior sequences under which posteriors concentrate on the pseudo-true value. This convergence is fragile to small changes in priors, implying that pseudo-true values are relevant for decision-making only in special cases. Constructive results are nevertheless possible in this setting, and we derive simple confidence intervals that guarantee correct average coverage for the true parameter under every prior in the class we study, with no bound on the magnitude of misspecification. About the speaker: Isaiah Andrews is a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. A research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, Andrews is also a co-editor of the American Economic Review. In 2018, The Economist named him one of the 8 "best young economists of the decade." He was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2020 for his work on statistical inference. In 2021, the American Economic Association awarded him the John Bates Clark Medal - an award given annually to an American economist under age 40 “who is judged to have made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge.”

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Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, a US-based author, educator, scholar, and thought leader in disability justice and culture will be joining us. Professor Garland-Thomson will speak about her academic and scholarly work to develop the field of critical disability studies and to bring forward disability culture, access, and justice to a broad range of institutions and communities. Professor Jonathan Herring of the Oxford Law Faculty will act as the discussant after the lecture. The lecture will be followed by refreshments in the foyer of the Weston Library. Thursday 6th June, 17.30-19.00, The Weston Library Lecture Theatre, Broad Street Register by 28th May to attend (in person or online).

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Coffee, tea and pastries will be served in the Lecture Theatre. Please email Louise King (louise.king@nds.ox.ac.uk) if you would like to attend online.

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*Friday 7 June 09:30-13:30* Programme forthcoming

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Are you an early career researcher, fixed-term lecturer, or doctoral student trying to get some writing done? Do you research topics related to medicine, but are based in the Humanities or Social Sciences? The ECR/DPhil Medical Humanities writing group is an inclusive, interdisciplinary group of medical humanities researchers from across the University of Oxford community, and all are welcome. We come together weekly for a morning of timed writing blocks and goal-setting in a casual atmosphere with coffee/tea/light refreshments. In Trinity Term 2024, this will include an informal lunch. Please email hohee.cho@history.ox.ac.uk with any dietary requirements. If you have any queries, please email gordon.barrett@history.ox.ac.uk.

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*Draft Programme:* 10:00-11:00 *Urbanscapes* *Lorenzo Tunesi* (Stanford University), ‘Bells of Fear: Sonic Panic in Early Modern Milan’ *Moyun Zhou* (The University of Hong Kong), ‘Encountering Bronze: The Church of St. Paul’s in the Fortified Macao’ 11:00-11:30 Coffee 11:30-13:00 *Visual Alterity/Ways of Seeing* *Suzanne Compagnon* (Utrecht University), ‘Alterity as Visual Disruption in Early Eighteenth-century Ottoman Painting’ *Michelle Moseley* (Virginia Tech), ‘The Hungry Eye: Looking and Tasting as Epistemic Experience in Early Modern Netherlandish Image and Text’ *Yizhou Wang* (Hong Kong Baptist University), ‘Musiking as a Method of Negotiating Gender Identities in Ming Dynasty Paintings’ 13:00-14:00 Lunch 14.00-15.30 *Religious Subjectivities* *Jaimie Luria* (Cornell University), ‘Living Waters and Jewish Corporealities: An Archaeo-Anthropological Study of Ritual Immersion Pools in The Mediterranean’ *Andy Murray* (The Open University), ‘The Spiritualisation of Mourning, the Dual Experience of Pain’ *Juliet Simpson* (Coventry University), ‘Touchable and Untouchable Bodies: Matthias Grünewald and the ‘Sensory’ Sacred’ 16.00-17.00 *Collecting and Objects* *Lisa Brunner* (University of Innsbruck), ‘Writing about the Unknown. Early Modern Collection Catalogues as Sensory Sources (knowledge)’ *Sizhao Yi* (University of Chicago), ‘(In)Tangible Surfaces: Depictions of Objects in Chen Hongshou’s Mogu tu Album’ *Note for attendees:* Registration is only available for both days together (6-7 June 2024) – online attendance is available for free. For ‘in person’ attendance, there is a charge of £45, please register first to register your attendance, and then pay for your ticket via University Stores to confirm your ticket, here: www.oxforduniversitystores.co.uk/product-catalogue/humanities-division/humanities-division-torch-events If you are unable to attend, *please cancel ahead of the 23 May* to ensure correct numbers for catering.

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Talk 1: Prof Eleanor Stride, Dept of Engineering & NDORMS (Oxford) Talk 2: Peter-Rory Hall, Tucker Group, Biophysics & Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery (Oxford)

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Dr Catherine Seed will present on storytelling for researchers (as key to writing manuscripts and other pieces of work). The session will include a short Q&A. To join the session, please "click here":https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_MGQ5NThjNjQtNzM4ZS00ZmE0LWFmMTctMzY4MDZmZGEzYzVj%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22f6215955-7b24-48ec-a76a-2933147ca7b5%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 new project management tip each month * 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

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The History of Gender Seminar meets on Fridays at 11am-12:15pm, in-person in the Colin Matthew Room at the History Faculty, or online via Teams. All welcome at this relaxed interdisciplinary seminar! Please email emilia.flack@magd.ox.ac.uk if you would like to be added to our mailing list. Teams link: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_YTBkYjY3ZmQtNDJkYS00NTBiLWI0M2MtZmZjZDQxOGEwOTZk%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%228e6e425a-cedf-419b-a96d-972dbc28b270%22%7d

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A relaxed and supportive space where we can work together on our projects. Participants are welcome to join and leave at any time that works for them.

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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

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Presented by DPAG Graduate Students in their 3rd and final year of DPhil research study.

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Race & Resistance is pleased to welcome Dr. Gibson Ncube as our final speaker for our 2023/24 events programme. Dr. Ncube is currently an AfOx TORCH Visiting Fellow at Oxford. The session will be focusing on questions of race and queerness in South African films, as Dr. Ncube will be speaking to us about a chapter from his last book, Queer Bodies in African Films. After this, the session will open to a Q&A, so come prepared with some questions. The facilitator for this session is one of our students, Mwangi Mwaura (he/him). Biography: Gibson Ncube (he/him) holds a PhD from Stellenbosch University and currently lectures at the same university. He has published extensively in the fields of comparative African literature, gender and queer studies as well as cultural studies. He has held several fellowships supported by institutions like the American Council for Learned Societies, the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study, the National Humanities Center (USA) and Leeds University. He sits on the boards of the Journal of Literary Studies, Imbizo: International Journal of African Literary and Comparative Studies, the Canadian Journal of African Studies, the Nordic Journal of African Studies as well as the Governing Intimacies in the Global South book series at Manchester University Press. He co-convened the Queer African Studies Association (coordinate organisation of the African Studies Association, USA) and was the 2021 Mary Kingsley Zochonis Distinguished Lecturer (African Studies Association UK & Royal African Society). —-------------------- Twitter: race_resistance Subscribe to our mailing list by sending a blank email to: race-and-resistance-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk. Email raceandresistance@torch.ox.ac.uk with any questions.

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Very small states in continental Europe are not EU members yet have crafted successive strategies of close cooperation with the EU. Liechtenstein is a member of the EEA, and Andorra and San Marino have concluded comprehensive association agreements that will soon enter into force. Dr Minoves negotiated the 2004 agreements between Andorra and the EU and initiated a paragraph of the Lisbon treaty that created a juridical basis for specific agreements between the EU and small states (declaration 3 on article 8). In his lecture he will analyse the logic behind the asymptotic approaches of European small states to the EU. He will explain the cautious negotiations by Andorra from the Custom Union of 1990, the treaty of cooperation of 2004, the monetary agreement of 2011, to the recent conclusion of an extensive association agreement. Dr Juli Minoves-Triquell is a Full Professor  and Director of the International Studies Institute of the University of La Verne, California, and President (Rector) elect of the University of Andorra. He holds a PhD in Political Science from Yale University and a degree in economics from the University of Fribourg. In 2022 he was elected as a member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Economic and Financial Sciences (Institute of Spain). He has served his country, Andorra, as a diplomat and politician, notably as first ambassador to the United Nations, to the Kingdom of Spain and to the United Kingdom, as well as Foreign Minister (2001-2007). From 2014 to 2018 he was the 13th President of Liberal International, the world federation of liberal democratic political parties, founded at Oxford University in 1947.

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*Greco-Roman and Classical Chinese Translation: Theory and Practice* This seminar series is intended to look more broadly at Latin translations of Chinese texts, Chinese translations of Greco-Roman texts, and translation as theory and practice within and between both traditions.

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Prof Pleasantine Mill is an MRC Investigator at the MRC Human Genetics Unit at the University Edinburgh, UK where she leads a programme to understand genetic disease and disease mechanisms arising from dysfunction of mammalian cilia, called the ciliopathies. With 20 years of expertise in developmental genetics and cell biology, her work spans from forward genetics screens through to candidate discovery in human disease genetics. Her lab focuses on phenotype-driven projects which disrupt cilia structure and/or function to undercover underlying genetic changes, understand disease mechanisms and move towards much needed therapeutics for rare diseases. Her novel in vivo work can be summed up as ‘cell biology on an organismal scale’. Her lab harnesses quantitative imaging across biological scales (from light microscopy through to electron microscopy) to understand how different types of mammalian cilia are assembled and maintained, and how they are disrupted by disease-causing mutations. Her work is funded by the UK Medical Research Council, NIHR, LifeArc and the European Research Council

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Aerial electroreception is the ability of some arthropods (e.g., bees) to detect electric fields in the environment. I present an overview of our attempts to model the electromechanics of this recently discovered phenomenon and how it might contribute to the sensory biology of arthropods. This is joint work with Daniel Robert and Ryan Palmer.

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We study a model of delegation in which a principal takes a multidimensional action and an agent has private information about a multidimensional state of the world. The principal can design any direct mechanism, including stochastic ones. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions for an arbitrary mechanism to maximize the principal's expected payoff. A key step of our analysis shows that a mechanism is incentive compatible if and only if its induced indirect utility is convex and lies below the agent's first-best payoff.

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This paper proposes a new test for inequalities linear in possibly partially identified nuisance parameters, called the generalized conditional chi-squared (GCC) test. It extends the subvector conditional chi-squared (sCC) test in Cox and Shi (2023, CS23) to a setting where the nuisance parameter is pre-multiplied by an unknown and estimable matrix of coefficients. Properly accounting for the estimation noise in this matrix while maintaining the simplicity of the sCC test is the main innovation of this paper. As such, the paper provides a simple solution to a broad set of problems including subvector inference for models represented by linear programs, nonparametric instrumental variable models with discrete regressor and instruments, and linear unconditional moment inequality models. We also derive a simplified formula for computing the critical value that makes the computation of the GCC test elementary.

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7 June Paul, Divestment, and Salvific Almsgiving Hunter Brown, Keble College * To be held in the PUSEY ROOM at Keble College

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All aspects of our work and private lives are increasingly measured and managed. Indicators, rankings and algorithms are now everywhere used to calculate productivity, enhance performance and, increasingly, as instruments of governance. But how has this 'audit culture' arisen and what kind of a world is it producing? Cris Shore and Susan Wright provide a timely account of the rise of the new industries of accounting, enumeration and ranking from an anthropological perspective, drawing on political economy, ethnographic observation and genealogical excavation. Audit Culture: How Indicators and Rankings are Reshaping the World, published with Pluto Press, is the first book to systematically document and analyse these phenomena and their implications for democracy. The book explores the operation of audit culture across a wide range of fields, including schools, the military, the automobile industry, higher education, public health, NGOs and the finance industry. The authors build a powerful critique of contemporary public sector management in an age of neoliberal market-making, privatisation and outsourcing. They conclude by offering a raft of suggested actions to reverse its damaging effects on communities, reclaim professional autonomy and restore the democratic accountability that audit culture is systematically undermining. This book is both a timely analysis of the new forms of audit capitalism that the global accounting industry is creating and a warning about the dangers this poses for organisations, democracy and society.

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The plant functional trait diversity research programme has expanded dramatically in the past two decades, as a result of the combination of a long-standing interest in fundamental syndromes of adaptive specialization behind the vast variety of form and function observed in nature on the one hand, and the pressing need to inform biodiversity policy in the face of rapid environmental change, on the other. Its first stages, focused on interspecific variability of traits assumed essential for plant growth, survival and reproduction, led to an unprecedented degree of collaboration in tools and communal data, and resulted in important stylized facts. From there, different paths branched out towards intraspecific variability, genomics, demography, biogeography, cascading into other trophic levels, and social perception and values. The paths have achieved different degrees of progress, with some opening up whole new fields of inquiry and some others at risk of becoming blind alleys. A common denominator, however, is the need to recover the idea of integrated phenotype, as a keystone concept in the interface between functional ecology, evolutionary biology and ecosystem science. Biography Sandra Díaz is a Senior Principal Investigator of the Argentine National Research Council, a Professor of Ecology at Córdoba National University (Argentina), and a Visiting Professor at the School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford University (United Kingdom). She is interested in plant functional traits and syndromes, their effects on ecosystem properties, their contributions to human quality of life, and their interactions with global change drivers. She constructed the first global quantitative picture of essential functional diversity of vascular plants –the global spectrum of plant form and function. She has advanced theory and practical implementation of the concept of functional diversity and its effects on ecosystem properties and benefits to people. She combines her ecology studies with interdisciplinary work on how different societies value and reconfigure nature, having spearheaded transformative conceptual frameworks favouring pluralistic collaborations in environmental knowledge and action, including the influential notion of nature’s contributions to people. She co-founded the Global Communal Plant Trait Initiative TRY. She co-chaired the Global Assessment of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and played a major role in the expert scientific advice to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. She is a Foreign Fellow of the British Royal Society, a member of the American Philosophical Society and a member of the Academies of Sciences of Argentina, USA, France, Norway, Latin America and the Developing World, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has received several international scientific awards, including the Margalef Prize in Ecology (2017), the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge in Ecology and Conservation Award (2021), and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Medal (2022). 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.

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We are still accepting applications. If you would like to present your work in progress, and receive our feedback, please email "$":mailto:elena.lichmanova@merton.ox.ac.uk *by 31 May*. All welcome

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As part of a year of events marking the centenary of the death of the writer Franz Kafka, join us on Friday 7th June 2024 for a conversation between Leah Tomkins, author of new book Franz Kafka and the Truths of Leadership (Edward Elgar Publishing) and the journalist and broadcaster Shelagh Fogarty. Franz Kafka is a writer who seems to crystallise modern understandings of the institutions of work, family, religion and the law, especially when they go awry. Images from stories such as The Trial and The Metamorphosis have soaked into the cultural conversation to such an extent that the expression ‘Kafkaesque’ immediately conjures up a mix of the awful and the absurd. Challenging the popular view of Kafka as patron-saint of the underdog, and emphasising the significance of his own work as a leader, Leah's book explores Kafka’s expertise in the exercise of power. Kafka anticipates many of the core themes of leadership - both good and bad - but especially leadership of the populist, ‘post-truth’ kind, where facts are often overpowered by fictions and fantasies. Whether we are leaders ourselves or simply affected by others who make rulings on our behalf, the book offers provocative new ideas about how leading can so easily become misleading - and what we might be able to do about it. In today’s world, where half-truths and ‘alternative facts’ can inspire people to action, Kafka has never been more relevant. To bring this to life, the conversation with Shelagh will include a discussion of well-known political leaders - not just those who exemplify ‘post-truth’ tactics, such as Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, but also others, including Barack Obama and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose approaches to leadership also contain fascinating elements of the ‘Kafkaesque’. The event will be introduced by Richard Ovenden, the Bodley’s Librarian, and is followed by a drinks reception. This event is generously supported by ROUNDHOUSE FINANCIAL SERVICES (LONDON) LIMITED.

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Anna Beer is the biographer of many major literary figures such as John Milton and William Shakespeare, but she is best-known for her feisty, feminist and accessible accounts of female creatives, including most recently Eve Bites Back: An Alternative History of English Literature. Her most influential book has been Sounds and Sweet Airs: The Forgotten Women of Classical Music (2016), which has generated numerous creative collaborations from film to live performance. Anna has held various positions at the University of Oxford, including Director of the Creative Writing MSt, and remains a Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College.

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The McDonald Centre 2024 Annual Conference - The Public Legitimacy of the Church of England. The McDonald Centre 2024 Annual Conference - The Public Legitimacy of the Church of England. Pusey House: Chapel, Oxford, OX1 3LZ Mon 10th June 2024 9:30AM Within our contemporary moment, the public legitimacy of the Church of England in England’s life and in the United Kingdom’s constitution and political life is being newly explored and questioned, inspiring multiple and complex responses. The recent death of HM Queen Elizabeth II and Coronation of Charles III in May 2023 have brought to the surface some aspects of these concerns. Presented by The McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics and Public Life in partnership with the Centre for Cultural Witness based at Lambeth Palace, and hosted at Pusey House, Oxford the Conference brings together an exciting array of speakers from a variety of backgrounds to bring their insights to bear on the past and future of the establishment of the Church of England. The conference brings a focused set of contemporary questions about loyalty, mission, place, ecumenism and inter-faith relations, into conversation with the theology, political thought and history which lie behind the Church of England’s public role. Confirmed speakers include: Tom Holland, historian and host of the popular podcast The Rest Is History. Eleanor Sanderson, Anglican Bishop of Hull. Andrew Rumsey, Anglican Bishop of Ramsbury. Graham Tomlin, Director of the Centre for Cultural Witness. Jonathan Chaplin, Divinity Faculty member, University of Cambridge, author of Beyond Establishment. Joshua Hordern, Associate Professor of Christian Ethics, University of Oxford. Archbishop Angaelos, Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London. David Fergusson, Regius Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge. Daniel Greenberg, Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. Catherine Pepinster, historian, former editor of The Tablet. Maria Power, Las Casas Institute, Blackfriars Hall John Ritzema, Pusey House Tickets priced at £20 (standard) and £10 (student) include tea, coffee and a sandwich lunch Event Details From 9:30AM to 5:00PM Location Pusey House: Chapel, Oxford, OX1 3LZ

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I will discuss the story behind the collection of wrist-worn accelerometer data in over 150,000 research participants across the UK and China, while also describing efforts to collect complementary open human activity recognition validation datasets to further enhance these resources. I will share the development of machine learning methods for sleep, sedentary behaviour, physical activity behaviours and steps, referring to open software tools and data resources of relevance to others in the field, and hopefully beyond to identify opportunities for collaboration with rare disease researchers.

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To mark the 50th anniversary of the Oxford Review of Education, the Editors are hosting a seminar: Sociodigital futures of education: reparations, sovereignty, care, and democratisation As EdTech industries grow in reach and power it is imperative to motivate conditions for ethical challenge and contestation. In this talk I explore how the lenses of reparations, sovereignty, care and democratisation offer vital resources for envisaging alternative sociodigital futures of education. These ideas can disrupt dominant EdTech modalities, urging new agendas for research, redesign and regulation in relation to EdTech, and surfacing different kinds of relationships and priorities for education/social justice.

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Increasing rates of autoimmune and inflammatory disease present a burgeoning threat to human health. This is compounded by the limited efficacy of available treatments and high failure rates during drug development – highlighting an urgent need to better understand disease mechanisms. I will discuss our recent work that shows how functional genomics can address this challenge. By investigating an intergenic haplotype on chr21q22, independently linked to inflammatory bowel disease, ankylosing spondylitis, primary sclerosing cholangitis and Takayasu’s arteritis, we discover a central regulator of inflammatory responses in human macrophages and delineate a shared disease mechanism that can be targeted therapeutically.

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In this session of the Discussion Group, Atharva Argade-Miskin explores his findings from translating a number of Marathi musical plays from 1880 to 1920, never before translated into English, focussing on K. P. Khadilkar’s immensely successful and influential Mānāpamān (‘Honour and Dishonour’, 1911). There are a number of flashpoints in the play where patterns of speech, such as register, forms of address, and sayings, are particularly difficult to translate so that they would ‘read’ like English without losing too much of the original Marathi’s flavour. Argade-Miskin’s research investigates how imbricated sources of comprehension and appreciation complicate the concept of translation. There is first the direct understanding of the words themselves that engender an affective and intellectual response, then the highly significant influence of Shakespeare upon Khadilkar’s play, and any cultural understanding of Marathi culture that an English-speaking reader may possess, all of which combine to form a sort of extradiegetic narrative the translator must navigate. What makes Mānāpamān uniquely complex in this conversation, among other plays of the era, is their ubiquitous musicality, where there appears to be a constant tug-of-war between music or semantic meaning for superiority, particularly in songs of ornate lexis and loosened syntax in favour of metre and musical character. This ‘imbricated’ structure of how an audience receives and appreciates the plays proliferates the role of a translator as an interlocutor on linguistic, historical, cultural and intertextual levels, begging the question of whether any text is truly translatable or truly untranslatable. Link: https://occt.web.ox.ac.uk/event/discussion-group-translating-the-untranslatable-the-case-of-khadilkars-manapaman-1911-and-mara

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The sustainability of the school leadership workforce is an increasing concern for researchers, policy makers and school leaders themselves. In this seminar I will present early findings from the secondary data strand of an ESRC-funded comparative study of sustainable school leadership across the UK seeking to understand how the UK nations recruit, train and retain school leaders. The focus will be emerging findings from analysis of the School Workforce Census data in England (2010 to 2022). I will provide an overview of the demographic composition of the senior school leader workforce, the changing role and circumstances of headship, and how these vary by context, location and over time. I will also provide preliminary results of analyses of senior school leader turnover and career progression, exploring how these have changed over the period and the personal, structural and geographical factors associated with each. The results will be discussed in connection with emerging findings from the wider mixed methods research project, outlining the key themes, issues and policy priorities for strengthening and sustaining the senior school leader workforce. Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81676896885?pwd=aHh0b0J0aDh0eEZUZVc3R1ZJaG5Kdz09

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ABSTRACT I will cover the circumstances that led to the discovery of the syndrome of Developmental Amnesia (DA) and describe brain and behavioural phenotypes of the disorder with implications for an intervention that could improve the profound deficit in delayed recall. I will then describe a DA case with temporal lobe epilepsy and bilateral Stereo EEG for memory mapping to guide surgical decision making. ABOUT THE SPEAKER After completing my post-doctoral training at the Montreal Children’s Hospital/Department of Neurology & Neurosurgery at McGill University, I moved to London in 1983. With the support of MRC, I took up a clinical-academic lectureship at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health to develop the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Unit/Department, and its clinical counterpart, the Neuropsychology Specialty Service at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. My research has focused in the following areas: (a) Developmental amnesia and the structure and function of hippocampal-dependent memory circuits after early brain injury; (b) Motor speech and language disorders resulting from mutation of FOXP2 gene; and (c) Brain plasticity and reorganisation of cognitive and sensorimotor function in children undergoing epilepsy surgery. To JOIN THE MEETING ONLINE https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83301826374?pwd=T0trYlZhTWpzOHdDa001MnZQMUtQUT09 Meeting ID 833 0182 6374 Passcode: 435864

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Seaweed collecting was one of the natural history ‘crazes’ of the nineteenth century. Many of the seaweed collectors were women from various social backgrounds whose observational skills and expertise were useful to male naturalists. From Mary Elizabeth Barber (1818–1899), who corresponded with William Henry Harvey (1811–1866) and Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817–1911) and sent them South African specimens of plants, to Amelia Griffiths (1768–1858), Isabella Gifford (1825–1891), Margaret Scott Gatty (1809–1873) and her daughter, Horatia Katherine Frances Gatty (1846–1945), who shared their knowledge and discoveries with William Henry Harvey, George James Allman (1812–1898) and George Forbes (1849–1936), these female algologists’ collections have often disappeared or been scattered due to lack of scientific recognition, while their scientific contributions are still overlooked by historians of science. This paper will focus on the case of Margaret Gatty, best-selling populariser of science, as illustrated by her British Sea-Weeds (1863), and famous children’s writer, and examine the Victorian woman’s presentation of her scientific activities as well as her construction of a scientific self. *Laurence Talairach* is a Professor of Victorian Literature at the University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès and an associate researcher at the Alexandre-Koyré Center for the History of Science and Technology (Paris). Her academic interests span medicine, natural history and British literature in the long nineteenth century. Her current research aims to map out the forms of natural historical knowledge produced by British women in the nineteenth century and examine the complexity of the relationship between scientific knowledge and popular representations, the construction of a learned/scientific female identity, the relationship of women naturalists to scientific expertise, and their place in the field of scientific knowledge.

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Please be aware that group attendance may be limited. Please contact Group Lead Christopher Morris or team (christopher.morris@politics.ox.ac.uk) for attendance and inquiries. Seminar details are confirmed a week in advance. The Emerging Threats & Technology Working Group meets regularly each term to examine the national security implications of critical and emerging technologies (CETs), from artificial intelligence and quantum computing to directed energy and space platforms. Meetings are held in hybrid format, at Oxford and online, to include diverse views from academia, industry, and policy, matching the global reach of technological innovation and challenge. For more information on workshops, sessions, and journal, visit www.emergingthreats.co.uk

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No episode in the annals of Ming monarchical overreach has a more notorious reputation than the ‘Mine Tax’ crisis (1596-1606), when the Wanli emperor (r. 1572-1620) ordered palace eunuchs to lead the ‘opening of mines’ for silver and other metals across the empire. The result was a decade of little mining and much extortion of bullion, as well as intense bureaucratic and public resistance. But the Mine Tax involved more than one monarch’s idiosyncratic bullion grab and a righteous Confucian backlash. Drawing on a host of contemporary sources, my talk surveys the late-Ming context to the Tax’s inception, early-Qing responses to the Mine Tax, and reflections on the Tax in Qing statecraft literature, arguing that the Tax sheds light on a sustained late-Ming and early-Qing debate about bullion, trade, monarchical authority, and tax form, with parallels across early-modern Eurasia and implications for Chinese political economy well beyond the seventeenth century.

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The world is confronted with an unprecedented level of political, economic, and social unrest with increasing divergence of views on the causes and appropriate response. At the same time, multilateral development banks continue to seek and sustain common grounds for sustainably financing development outcomes for economies and peoples across the world. In this talk, Dr Samuel Munzele Maimbo, Vice President for Budget, Performance Review and Strategic Planning at the World Bank, will share a practitioner’s perspective on the challenges of navigating the current global environment for a global development institution. With more questions than he has answers, Dr Maimbo will draw on his recent 5-year experience as Chief of Staff to two World Bank Presidents, Director for the International Development Association, Senior advisor to two World Bank Group Chief Financial Officers and as well as his current role for the discussion; to explain why he remains optimistic.

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Join us for an engaging evening as Professor Arthur Spirling explores the intriguing dynamics between complexity and efficacy in machine learning models within the political landscape. The keynote will be followed by a drinks reception, providing attendees with an excellent opportunity to network with peers, discuss the insights shared by Professor Spirling, and enjoy a selection of refreshments in a relaxed and convivial atmosphere. Arthur Spirling is the Class of 1987 Professor of Politics . He received a bachelor's and master's degree from the London School of Economics, and a master's degree and PhD from the University of Rochester. Previously, he served on the faculties of Harvard University and New York University. Spirling's research centers on quantitative methods for analyzing political behavior, especially institutional development and the use of text-as-data. His work on these subjects has appeared in outlets such as the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science and the Journal of the American Statistical Association. Currently he is active on problems at the intersection of data science and social science, including those related to machine learning, and large language models. He previously won teaching and mentoring awards at Harvard and NYU, along with the "Emerging Scholar" prize from the Society for Political Methodology. Dr Nicholas Cole (MA MPhil DPhil Oxf) studies the political thought of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, and is working on a digitial project that looks at the way constitutions and treaties have been negotiated over the last two hundred years. His particular interests are the influence of classical political thought on America's first politicians, and the search for a new 'science of politics' in post-Independence America. He studied as an undergraduate and graduate at University College, Oxford, and was a Visiting Fellow at the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello. He has held research and teaching positions at St Peter's College, and within the History Faculty. His doctoral work focused on the use made of classical antiquity by Jefferson's generation, and he retains a strong interest in the reception of classical antiquity in the modern world, about which he has written extensively. He supervises undergraduate and graduate theses on early American politics and ideology and the history of ideas. He is the also the Director of Quill Project, an innovative initiative dedicated to the exploration and advancement of constitutional history through digital humanities. Utilizing cutting-edge technology, the project aims to reconstruct the complex decision-making processes that have shaped significant historical documents and legislative sessions.

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A series of free seminars to commemorate the death of J. R. R. Tolkien, to be held in 2023/2024 in the University of Oxford. The talks present an introduction and further background to Tolkien's life, work, and legacy. They have an academic approach, but they are also aimed at those who have read Tolkien's work but are interested in gaining a bit more insight into his life, career, and writings. WEEK 8 – June 10 John Holmes (University of Birmingham) A Veritable “Middle Earth”’: Tolkien and the Palaeoanthropological Imagination CHAIR: Giuseppe Pezzini (Corpus Christi) https://tolkien50.web.ox.ac.uk/event/tolkien-50th-anniversary-seminar-series

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This student-led reading group is an opportunity for graduate students and early career researchers to join us to discuss all aspects of memory studies and life-writing, from the personal to the political, the local to the transnational, within disciplines and without, the ordinary to the extraordinary. Ars Memoriae aims to promote and generate awareness about the growing discipline of memory studies while also recognising the pressing need to synthesise memory studies scholarship with purposeful cultural analysis. OCLW, in association with TORCH.

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Abstract TBA https://zoom.us/j/95199401096?pwd=ancrZ0U1b0RNVmlKL0tQdTQ5SzhLUT09**** Meeting ID: 951 9940 1096 Passcode: 937384

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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.

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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.

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New discoveries, such as finding how gene changes cause inherited diseases, show how important genomic research is. Come along to our next BRC South Parks Road seminar where Prof Jenny Taylor and Prof Julian Knight will tell you more about the latest research developments in our Genomic Medicine Theme. Our main aim is to connect genomic science with patient care by using detailed genome data to better diagnose and treat patients with rare diseases and predict risks for those with common diseases.

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I study how organizations assign tasks to identify the best candidate to promote among a pool of workers. Task allocation and workers' motivation interact through the organization's promotion decisions. The organization designs the workers' careers to both screen and develop talent. When only non-routine tasks are informative about a worker's type and non-routine tasks are scarce, the organization's preferred promotion system is an index contest. Each worker is assigned a number that depends only on his own type. The principal delegates the non-routine task to the worker whose current index is the highest and promotes the first worker whose type exceeds a threshold. Each worker's threshold is independent of the other workers' types. Competition is mediated by the allocation of tasks: who gets the opportunity to prove themselves is a determinant factor in promotions. Finally, features of the optimal promotion contest rationalize the prevalence of fast-track promotion, the role of seniority, or when a group of workers is systemically advantaged.

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The talk will outline the new concept of applying a 4 pillar approach in the treatment of diabetic and non-diabetic patients with kidney disease, which just became available recently. With the publication of the FLOW study on may 24 last month, the 4 foundational therapies available consist of RASi, SGLT2i, nsMRA and GLP1-RA. Despite these overwhelming advances in halting or retarding CKD progression, implementation barriers of these treatments exist. Many patients driving on the path to kidney replacement therapy will not receive these treatments. The barriers will be discussed. Christoph Wanner is a senior professor of medicine in the Department of Clinical Studies and Epidemiology, University Hospital of Würzburg and a visiting professor of renal medicine at the Nuffield Department of Population Health, Clinical Trial Service Unit, University of Oxford.

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Existing tractable DSGE models at the lower bound have been celebrated for their analytical clarity and associated graphical representations. We show that expectations in these models are crucial, but conflict with Professional Forecaster's data. We develop a new stochastic algorithm that nests these contributions, but can accommodate the necessary endogenous persistence to match expectations data. We show how to construct analytical solutions and graphical representations in that context. Using these, we study the government spending multiplier in a DSGE model with habit formation that matches U.S/Japanese expectations data. We find output multipliers that are below one in each case.

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In this online workshop you will be shown the functionality of RefWorks. RefWorks is a subscription software programme used to manage references and create bibliographies that University of Oxford members can use for free during their time at the university and as alumni. The workshop will cover: understanding the main features and benefits of RefWorks; setting up a RefWorks account; organising your references in RefWorks; inserting citations into documents; and creating a bibliography/reference list. Intended audience: students, staff and researchers from MSD and OUH.

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This presentation will explore the violent events of May 2021 as experienced by Palestinian Arab Israeli (PAI) undergraduate students on Israeli campuses. Using interviews with students, academics and members of civil society organisations, this research uncovers a host of emotional, social and political processes that arose due to the violence witnessed by the students. These processes led PAI students to withdraw from their campuses and mobilise within their communities to address needs unmet by official authorities, including universities. The presentation will also reflect on the relevance of the findings in light of the current war, as well as on the challenges of writing about the Israeli higher education context in this climate.

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Week 8, Tuesday 11th June Prof. Paul Michael Kurtz (Universiteit Gent) “Another View on Ancient Judaism: Catholic Scholarship in the German South, 1820–1880” In order to participate in this lecture via Zoom, please register at this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0tdO2hpjoiEtS3R400aFrChCQxPL-kDOsP

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Part of the Vera Fine-Grodzinski Programme for Writing Jewish Women's Lives Thinking about both the women who survived and who did not survive the Holocaust demonstrates that especially under extreme conditions gender continues to operate as an important arbiter of experience. Whilst men and women were both sentenced to the same fate, gender nevertheless operated as a crucial signifier for survival. Zoë Waxman, is Professor of Holocaust History at the University of Oxford. She is the author of Writing the Holocaust: memory, testimony, representation (2006), Anne Frank (2015), and Women in the Holocaust: A Feminist History (2017), as well as numerous articles relating to the Holocaust and genocide.

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Over two million people in the UK are impacted by the ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ (NRPF) policy, an immigration policy restricting access to the mainstream social security and welfare system. Many people impacted by this policy are long-term UK residents who have regularised their status and are locked out of the welfare safety net, with limited avenues for support. Whilst the NRPF policy excludes many migrants from the welfare safety net, local government have been described as providing a "parallel welfare system" (Price & Spencer, 2015) funded by local rather than central government for vulnerable destitute migrants, locked out of the mainstream welfare safety net in the UK. Drawing on a mixed methods study including fieldwork with local government, NGOs and people with lived experience of the NRPF policy, this paper will present findings on local government approaches to providing a “parallel welfare system” for vulnerable, destitute migrants, including supporting them to regularise their status, and will unpack how this system is justified, administered, and how it could be improved. Zoom link: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAkf--trDgoG9XRsWVJzXOeZf2ZRDMRTLxu

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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. Ideally the 'Fundamentals of Open Access' course will have been attended. If you’re not in a position to attend this course you can find similar information in our e-learning package to work through prior to attending Logistics. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers and other staff.

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The use of autonomous machine learning-based pricing algorithms has grown in many markets in recent years, and many firms outsource their pricing algorithms to third party developers. Recent evidence highlights the potential for pricing algorithms to soften competition, but the role of third-party developers, and how the risks of these algorithms can be managed, are less clear. Using a randomized experiment on a large online platform, we investigate the extent to which third party programmers consider downstream effects of widespread adoption of their algorithms when designing them, and whether managers outsourcing pricing algorithms can influence programmer decisions and designs. Our findings have implications for pricing algorithm development and regulation, and for managing third party programmers.

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Andrew March (University of Massachusetts Amherst) Muslim Democracy: A Post-Sovereigntist Turn Raihan Ismail (University of Oxford) Salati Islamism: negotiated Identity and political Thought

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There is an urgent need to monitor the mental health of large populations, especially during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, to timely identify the most at-risk subgroups and to design targeted prevention campaigns. We therefore developed and validated surveillance indicators related to suicidality: the monthly number of hospitalisations caused by suicide attempts and the prevalence among them of five known risks factors. They were automatically computed analysing the electronic health records of fifteen university hospitals of the Paris area, France, using natural language processing algorithms based on artificial intelligence. We evaluated the relevance of these indicators conducting a retrospective cohort study. Considering 2,911,920 records contained in a common data warehouse, we tested for changes after the pandemic outbreak in the slope of the monthly number of suicide attempts by conducting an interrupted time-series analysis. We segmented the assessment time in two sub-periods: before (August 1, 2017, to February 29, 2020) and during (March 1, 2020, to June 31, 2022) the COVID-19 pandemic. We detected 14,023 hospitalisations caused by suicide attempts. Their monthly number accelerated after the COVID-19 outbreak with an estimated trend variation reaching 3.7 (95%CI 2.1–5.3), mainly driven by an increase among girls aged 8–17 (trend variation 1.8, 95%CI 1.2–2.5). After the pandemic outbreak, acts of domestic, physical and sexual violence were more often reported (prevalence ratios: 1.3, 95%CI 1.16–1.48; 1.3, 95%CI 1.10–1.64 and 1.7, 95%CI 1.48–1.98), fewer patients died (p = 0.007) and stays were shorter (p < 0.001). Our study demonstrates that textual clinical data collected in multiple hospitals can be jointly analysed to compute timely indicators describing mental health conditions of populations. Our findings also highlight the need to better take into account the violence imposed on women, especially at early ages and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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*Hanna Sinclair* (University of Oxford) 'Unity and Disunity at the Marriage Banquets of Maria de’ Medici and Henri IV' *Max Diemer* (University of Oxford) 'The Habsburg bedroom versus the Bourbon study: Exerting family influence over the Duchy of Parma from Vienna and Versailles (1750-1780)'

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A major part of the complexity of the present and likely future global order has to do with the interaction of the ‘old’ and the ‘new’. On one side, the move from global challenges to planetary imperatives and the impact of new technologies and of new forms of scientific knowledge (on economics, on weapons systems, on patterns of connectivity); and on the other, the ‘old’ logics and dynamics, especially the dynamics of international political competition, geopolitical rivalry, regime insecurity, nationalist self-assertion, violence and major war. In this month's Balliol Online Lecture, Professor Hurrell, examines the enormous and extraordinarily dangerous challenges on the global system. Andrew Hurrell was Montague Burton Professor of International Relations at Oxford University until May 2021. He is now an Emeritus Fellow at Balliol College, an Einstein Visiting Fellow in Berlin, and a Senior Fellow at the Law Faculty in Humboldt University. He was elected to the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars in 2011 and to the British Academy in 2011. In 2015 he received the Susan Strange Prize from the International Studies Association, which is awarded for ‘challenging the conventional wisdom and organizational complacency of the international studies community’.

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Dr Matthias Battis (ONGC) Stalinabad 1930: Aleksandr Semenov and the convergence of scholarship and politics at the Tajik language congress Alphabets are at once highly technical and deeply symbolic cultural artefacts. As such, they have attracted the attention of both linguists and political revolutionaries, who have looked to their reform as an opportunity for cultural and political change. Latinisation in early Soviet Central Asia is a case in point and the subject of this chapter. Hailed as “a great revolution in the East” by Lenin, it was part of wider language reform that transformed Central Asian languages and writing systems, including Persian, which became known as Tajik in the process. It saw scholarly knowledge and political power converge to make the case for the Latin alphabet and against the Perso-Arabic one. In parallel to developments in republican Turkey, linguists and political actors joined forces to associate the Perso-Arabic alphabet with backwardness, Islam and the old order, on the one hand, and the Latin script with progress, science and the nation, on the other. Unlike the Turkish experience, however, Latinisation in Soviet Central Asia was complicated by how it was negotiated within the Soviet national republican context, in particular against the backdrop of a nascent Tajik emancipatory nationalism that was resentful and suspicious of the real and imagined Turkist tendencies inherent in the Latinisation project. Aleksandr Semenov played a crucial, albeit somewhat reluctant, role in articulating a scientifically underpinned Tajik nationalist position in this negotiation. And he did so, both in competition and collaboration with Central Asian politicians, writers and linguists, such as Narzullo Bektosh or Abdurauf Fitrat.

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Description: The event is inspired by the new Wellcome-funded Antitheses Platform for Transformative Inclusivity in Ethics and Humanities. “Disagreeing on ethical questions is an important part of philosophical ethics, whether at the level of metaethics, normative theory, or applied ethics. I shall look back over some of the disagreements I have had on ethical questions at each of these levels, and reflect on which kinds of disagreements have been fruitful, and which have not” Peter Singer Speaker: Peter Singer is one of the most influential, but also controversial philosophers of the last century, widely known for his work in the areas of animal ethics (Animal Liberation, 1975, last edition 2023 ), the ethics of charitable giving (The Life You Can Save, 2009 ), and practical ethics more generally (Practical Ethics 1979, last edition 2011). Disagreement has been a constant feature of his career both at the level of theoretical investigation and in his own personal experience.

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Public financing alone is insufficient for delivering net zero – private finance must also be secured to deliver decarbonisation at scale and pace. This seminar delves into the innovative procurement approach underpinning Bristol City Leap, an innovative procurement model introduced by Bristol City Council which addresses the urgency of decarbonization through a unique public-private partnership on a city-wide scale. With a particular focus on exploring the risks and opportunities involved in procuring such large-scale city infrastructure investment programmes through public-private partnerships, it will examine the complexities through a range of disciplines, including public policy, law, geography, economics, and business.

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Join Worcester College Provost, David Isaac CBE, as he interviews leading role models about their lives and careers. Michael Cashman, The Lord Cashman CBE, is an actor, politician and LGBT+ rights activist. Born and raised in the East End of London, Michael had a highly successful career as an actor, singer, writer and director, including three years on Eastenders where his character had the first gay kiss in a British soap. He was a founder of LGBT+ rights charity Stonewall and its inaugural Chair, as well as the Labour Party's LGBT Global Envoy (2014-16). Lord Cashman was an elected member of the Labour Party National Executive for 12 years, serving as Vice Chair and Chair. He served as Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands between 1999 and 2014, the same year in which he was raised to the Peerage, taking the title Baron Cashman of Limehouse. In 2022 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of York in recognition of his work for the LGBTQ+ equality and human rights. Join us in the Provost's Lodgings at Worcester College as we hear from Lord Cashman. All are welcome to join for drinks after the event.

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Have you ever wished that you could put down your controller and experience video games in a whole new way? At this event we take you into the world of gaming peripherals: whether you’re making your next masterpiece in Mario Paint with the SNES mouse or rocking out on Guitar Hero with the guitar controllers, these gaming peripherals add a novel layer of immersion, and a different way to interact with the screen in front of you. Hands-on History: Gaming Peripherals Past and Present is an interactive and historical adventure through the past 50 years of gaming from the 1980s to today. Expect to experience block stacking with R.O.B the Robot, musical jams with Donkey Konga, a real Mario Kart circuit with remote control karts, and much more! The event also includes a panel of industry professionals, and an introduction from Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt FRS. This event is supported by JoyPad. To find out more visit www.joypadbar.co.uk Snacks and refreshments will be provided. We look forward to welcoming you to an evening of gaming, history, and pure nostalgia! Suitable for ages 12+

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The rationale behind corporate choices often appears to be opaque. On the other hand, a thoughtful analysis of the recent past suggests that almost all corporate decisions are motivated by either Fear or Greed. Steven Freilich will discuss how the selection of decision process can lead to different results when responding to similar stimuli. The implication of a Fear vs. Greed mentality has repercussions on the nature of innovation, with ultimate impact on corporate financial results and on the economy at large.

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COURSE DETAILS During the course you will have the opportunity to manage a project. You will be able to apply the techniques you learn to a project that you bring along. Topics covered: project initiation, managing stakeholders and risk, time estimation, planning. LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this session you will understand more about:  The importance of planning.  The tools to make project management succeed.  How to estimate the time a project will take realistically.  The skills you need to be a good project manager.

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Buckley Group - Kennedy Institute (12:30-13:00) Speaker: Professor Christopher Buckley Title: A therapeutic cell atlas to study Immune Mediated Inflammatory Diseases. Abstract: Unlike haematological diseases where the gene (haemoglobin), cell (red blood cell) and clinical features (anaemia) map well onto each other, the cellular basis for most inflammatory diseases remains enigmatic. The Human Cell Atlas (HCA) [1] was established to construct a map of the different cell types involved in forming human organs using single cell analysis with spatial analysis to locate their position in tissue. Using the principles of the HCA in an Arthritis Therapy Acceleration Programme (A-TAP) we have assessed how the cellular composition of tissue is affected following treatment with biologics such as anti TNF across a range of IMIDs including RA and IBD [2]. This therapeutic cell atlas can be used to instruct and power experimental medicine studies where a common cell-based marker [3] is used in Bayesian driven basket trials as a common outcome measure in the study [4]. Handunnetthi Group (13:00-13:30) Speaker: TBC Title: TBC

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The Nineteenth-Century Graduate Forum is open to all who wish to attend and participate. Just a reminder of the Structure: • Each session will feature two to three presentations, allowing speakers to showcase their work in progress. • To ensure fruitful discussions, speakers are required to submit a brief abstract of their presentation. This abstract will be circulated among participants. • Presentations should last approximately 15 minutes, followed by a 25-minute period dedicated to discussion and feedback. We look forward to seeing you all at the forum, and a huge thank you to our speakers. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reach out.

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Dima is the head of programs at Meedan, a tech non-profit that aims to make information more reliable and accessible through open-source AI software that can fact-check in real time. Dima's team focuses on three major verticals: elections, crises & emergencies, and safe and inclusive media ecosystems. This year, they were won the 2024 Skoll Innovation Award for their work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47UwzDuGsG8

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For our next talk, in the Digital Phenotyping seminar series, we will hear from Dr Dot Dumuid, Senior Research Fellow, Alliance for Research in Exercise, Nutrition and Activity, University of South Australia and Flora Le, PhD student, Sleep and Circadian Rhythm program, Monash University, on 12 June, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm, at the Big Data Institute (BDI). Title: Exploring relationships between UK Biobank accelerometry time-use variables and health: novel Bayesian compositional models and interactive research translation interfaces. Date: Wednesday 12 June Time: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm Venue: BDI/OxPop Seminar Room 0; followed by refreshments in the atrium Flora Le is a final year PhD student in the Sleep and Circadian Rhythm program, Monash University. Her research interest lies in understanding the effects of balancing daily sleep-wake behaviours on daily psychological experiences (e.g., stress and affect) and long-term sleep and mental health (e.g., insomnia, depression, and anxiety). In collaboration with her supervisors, Flora has developed an R package for Bayesian multilevel compositional data analysis to enable a streamlined, efficient workflow in analysing longitudinal sleep-wake behaviours. Dr Dot Dumuid is a Senior Research Fellow at the Alliance for Research in Exercise, Nutrition and Activity, University of South Australia. Her research seeks to identify the healthiest way to spend our time across daily activities such as sleeping, sedentary behaviours and physical activity. She brings together analytical expertise from diverse disciplines to explore how to achieve the best balance of these activities for health and wellbeing. Her funded projects seek to implement the new knowledge in behavioural interventions for children and young people, adults at risk of chronic disease and the elderly, including those in residential care. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Click here to join the meeting Meeting ID: 377 786 547 645 Passcode: qdc9ku ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you wish to know more or receive information related to training 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!

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We study the influence of the diaspora remittance flows on the intensity of conflict in the Sri Lankan Civil War during the period 2000-2009. Using data on Facebook connections at the subnational level, we infer which remittance flows were likely to benefit the Tamil Tiger rebels relative to the central government. Using shocks to source country remittance flows, we show that exogenous increases in remittances to Tamil Tiger-controlled areas significantly increased their fighting strength. We then set up a quantitative model of armed conflict between two sides and many contested geographical locations, augmented with remittance flows that affect the fighting strength of the two sides, and calibrate it to the Sri-Lankan Civil War. After structurally estimating key parameters using remittance and fighting outcome data, we use the model to quantify how war outcomes would have differed in the absence of remittance flows. We find that remittances had a significant impact on the timing of the central government victory. Remittances that favoured the Tamil Tiger rebels prolonged the war by as much as 9 years.

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This week, Yung Au will be speaking about Data centres on the moon and other stories: thinking about the coloniality of tech infrastructures. About the speaker Yung Au is Clarendon scholar, Rotary scholar, and a Doctoral researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. Her thesis examines the vast surveillance industry and activism against the supply chain of surveillance technology. The broader themes of her work explores the uncertain geographies, the complicated power dynamics, and the (re)coloniality of technological infrastructures. Yung is also a PI of a project called “Stories in/around the Machine”, and an associate lecturer at UAL where she teaches about the future of surveillance, and computation & human rights.

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In 2018, Ethiopia and the world were in the throes of ‘Abiymania’, a fervour of popular support for the divided country’s young, charismatic new prime minister. Arriving as if from nowhere, Abiy Ahmed, a Pentecostal Christian, promised democratic salvation and national unity. For his role brokering a historic peace with neighbouring Eritrea, he received the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize. Hailed at home as a prophet and abroad as a liberal reformer, Abiy was all things to all men. But his democratic revolution wasn’t quite what it seemed. Within two years, Ethiopia had lurched into a devastating civil war, threatening state collapse. By 2023, fighting on an apocalyptic scale had killed hundreds of thousands in the northern Tigray region; famine stalked the land; and Ethiopia’s once-promising economy lay in tatters. But Abiy had never looked stronger. Based on hundreds of interviews with Ethiopians of all persuasions, and extensive reporting across the country, this book traces the fading hope of Ethiopia’s transition, unravelling the paradoxes of an enigmatic world leader. Despite everything, Abiy remains in power, embodying the new Ethiopia in all its contradiction, triumph and tragedy. But his attempt to remould the country in his image almost broke it—and may break it still. https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/the-abiy-project/

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Weds 12th June 2024 Recollection Lecture: The Public Authority of the Church of England: Its Theological Foundations. Joan Lockwood O’Donovan (Hon. Reader at the School of Divinity, St Andrews). The talk examines the exception presented by the legally established Church of England to the restraints placed by secular liberal pluralism on the church’s ‘public authority,’ understanding ‘public authority’ as both 'the power to influence' and 'the moral power to rule.' It considers the theological understanding of the Church’s dual authority of proclamation and jurisdiction contained in the foundational Reformation formularies of the Book of Common Prayer and Ordinal, and the Thirty-Nine Articles.

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If we dramatically reduced our carbon emissions, the quality of life of future people would be much higher than it would be if we carried on with business as usual. Nonetheless, because adopting a widespread policy of reducing emissions would affect the timings of conceptions and thus the identities of who would come to exist, it is likely that after a century or so none of the particular people who would exist if we carried on as usual would exist if we instead dramatically reduced our emissions. Reducing emissions may therefore be better for no particular future person. Are we nonetheless morally required to reduce our emissions, and, if so, on what basis? This is one instance of the non-identity problem, made famous by Derek Parfit. Drawing upon the distinction between morally requiring reasons and morally justifying reasons, I provide a new solution to the non-identity problem. According to my solution, we can be morally required to ensure that the quality of life of future people is higher rather than lower insofar as this involves reducing future suffering (negative welfare). Indeed, we are often morally required to do this. We can be morally required to reduce future suffering in this way even when it is not better for any particular future person and even when future people would have lives worth living regardless of what we do. However, we are never morally required to ensure that the quality of life of future people is higher rather than lower insofar as this involves merely increasing future happiness (positive welfare). My solution to the non-identity problem captures the procreation asymmetry while avoiding implausible forms of antinatalism. It has important implications for global priority setting.

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A provocative debunking of accepted economic wisdom which offers a new pathway to a sustainable, survivable economy. Confronted by the devastating trends of the early twenty-first century – widening inequality, environmental destruction, and millions of workers stuck in precarious, soul destroying work – many economists, politicians and business leaders argue that there is no alternative. They cling to the dogmas that got us in this mess in the first place: private markets are more efficient than public ones; investment capital always flows where it is needed; inequality is an inevitable side effect of economic growth; people only behave well with the right incentives. But a growing number of academic economists, business owners, policy entrepreneurs, and ordinary people are rejecting these myths and reshaping economies to reflect their ethical and social values. Journalist Nick Romeo, who covers the world’s most innovative economic and policy ideas for the New Yorker, takes us on an extraordinary journey through the unforgettable stories and successes of people working to build economies that are more equal, just, and liveable. Combining original, in-depth reporting with expert analysis, Romeo explores everything from fair pricing in the Netherlands to large scale cooperatives in Spain to public sector marketplaces offering decent work and real protection to gig workers in California and demonstrates there is an alternative. This joint event with INET will feature a panel with author Nick Romeo, and panellists Eric Beinhocker and Maxamillian Kasy. This event will be in person and also online via Zoom, with a drinks reception to follow. To join, please register using the link, after which you will be sent joining instructions and the seminar room location via calendar invite. With the speakers' permission, we will be recording this event. Any comments you make will be recorded. You can use the chat function in Zoom to contact the speaker directly if you prefer.

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The International History of East Asia Seminar for Trinity Term 2024 will be held over four sessions in person (Weeks 6, 7, 8) at the Lucina Ho Seminar Room at the University of Oxford China Centre and online (Week 3) via MS Teams (all in-person sessions will also be shown online; Week 4 is online only). Weeks 6 and 8 will take place in-person and online via Teams at 1700 on Wednesdays, Week 7 will take place in-person and online via Teams at 1700 on a Tuesday, and Week 3 will take place solely online via Teams at 1700 on Thursday. We are a seminar on East Asian international history supported by the University of Oxford China Centre. All convenors are current graduate students or early career researchers. We host regular talks by graduate students and researchers in order to facilitate academic dialogue among scholars based in the UK, Europe, as well as those from the other regions of the world. Follow us on Twitter @OxIHEAS Contact us at iheaoxseminar@gmail.com

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What is Chinese food and how has it been understood and misunderstood in the west? Author and cook Fuchsia Dunlop draws on three decades’ of experience to examine some of the fundamental aspects of Chinese food and ask how outsiders can appreciate it more deeply. Fuchsia Dunlop is a James Beard award-winning food writer and cook specialising in Chinese cuisine. After graduating from Cambridge University in English Literature, she spent a year at Sichuan University as a British Council Scholar in the mid-1990s. Afterwards, she trained as a chef at the Sichuan Higher Institute of Cuisine: the start of a lifelong fascination with Chinese food. Over the three decades since, she has travelled widely in China, documenting recipes and foodways and talking to just about everybody about food. Fuchsia is the author of seven books about Chinese food including, most recently, Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food, which recently won the 2024 Fortnum and Mason Food Book award and is the fifth of her books to have been published in Chinese translation. She is a regular contributor to FT Weekend and other publications and to radio and TV shows including Ugly Delicious and Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown.

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This contribution is situated at the crossroads between the paradigms of interactional and cognitive linguistics, from where it focuses on pointing (or deictic) gestures as a crucial semiotic resource for the multifaceted interpretation of a usage event. Accordingly, the overall objective of this paper is to demonstrate how pointing gestures may actively contribute to the multimodal realization of grammatical construct(ion)s. The empirical basis for this qualitative study is a corpus of two plenary debates in the Flemish Parliament, of which four video excerpts will be analyzed more closely. It is generally accepted that pointing gestures cannot be categorized as mere reference markers (Kita 2003). Several studies have convincingly shown that these gestures may occur with many formal variations as well as in multimodal co-occurrences (Fricke 2007; Ladewig 2020). Mondada (2014) demonstrates that pointing gestures are dynamically adapted in function of different socio-material circumstances and interactional recipients whereas the dialogue-based account of Ginzburg & Lücking (2021) elaborates the existing semantic taxonomy of pointing gestures by four types of addressee pointing. The present contribution will demonstrate by video excerpts taken from the corpus and transcribed as in the following examples (our translation), how pointing gestures may play a decisive role in the multimodal realization of a ditransitive construction (example 1), an argument structure underlying an attributive participle (shared in 2) and, finally, in the realization of a parenthetical construction. The underlined elements in these transcriptions mark co-occurrence with a pointing gesture. (1) …a lot of questions have been asked here… (2) …because I think that is a shared concern… (3) … because (--) government investments also have a positive effect… In (1) the speaker uses both hands to point at himself, thus indicating that all questions have been asked to him. In doing so, the gesture clearly impacts the syntactic organization of the argument structure as it provides a perfect realization of a multimodal ditransitive construction. In (2) the speaker points at herself and the previous speaker thus identifying two referents of the argument structure of the underlying verb ‘share’, which factors into the specific pragmatics of this utterance. In (3), during a short pause following the Dutch conjunct ‘want’, the speaker points to the previous speaker thus expressing a multimodal realization of the parenthetical construction along with a clear impact on the discursive and the pragmatic organization of the usage event. Our focus on the integration of pointing gestures along with locally situated aspects of interaction in grammatical construct(ion)s may feed into a new debate about a) the status of non-verbal and multimodal structures within construction networks (Diessel 2020: 12; Zima 2014; Schoonjans et al. 2015; Bergs & Zima 2017), and b) the relative status (in terms of prominence) of different types of formal information (verbal vs. gestural) within a construction. With regard to the c) semantic pole of a construction, the integration of pointing gestures raises the cognitive linguistic issue of objective vs. subjective construal as a highly relevant and refining, but hitherto largely ignored dimension on the CxG agenda. References Diessel Holger. 2020. A Dynamic Network Approach to the Study of Syntax. Frontiers in Psychology. 11:604853. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.604853 Fricke, Ellen. 2007. Origo, Geste und Raum: Lokaldeixis im Deutschen. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter. Fried, Mirjam & Jan-Ola Östman. 2005. Construction Grammar: A thumbnail sketch. In: M. Fried & J-O. Östman (eds.), Construction Grammar in a cross-language perspective, 11-86. John Benjamins. Ginzburg, Jonathan & Andy Lücking. 2021. I thought pointing is rude: A dialogue-semantic analysis of pointing at the addresse In: P. G. Grosz, L. Martí, H. Pearson, Y. Sudo, & S. Zobel (eds.) Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 25, 276–291. Kita, Sotaro (ed). 2003. Pointing: Where Language, Culture and Cognition Meet. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Ladewig, Silva. 2020. Integrating Gestures The Dimension of Multimodality in Cognitive Grammar. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter. Mondada, Lorenza. 2014. Pointing, talk and the bodies. Reference and joint attention as embodied interactional achievements. In M. Seyfeddinipur & M. Gullberg (Eds.). From Gesture in Conversation to Visible Action as Utterance: Essays in honor of Adam Kendon (pp. 95-124). Amsterdam – Philadelphia: Benjamins. Schoonjans, Steven, Geert Brône & Kurt Feyaerts. 2015. Multimodalität in der Konstruktionsgrammatik: Eine kritische Betrachtung illustriert anhand einer Gestikanalyse der Partikel einfach. In J. Bücker, S. Günthner & W. Imo (eds.), Konstruktionsgrammatik V. Konstruktionen im Spannungsfeld von sequenziellen Mustern, kommunikativen Gattungen und Textsorten, 291–308. Tübingen: Stauffenburg Zima, Elisabeth. 2014. Gibt es multimodale Konstruktionen? Eine Studie zu [V(motion) in circles] und [all the way from X PREP Y]. Gesprächsforschung – Online-Zeitschrift zur verbalen Interaktion 15. 1–48. Zima, Elisabeth & Alexander Bergs. 2017. Multimodality and construction grammar. Linguistics Vanguard 2017; 3(1)

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The #StartedinOxford Demo Night is a celebration of the Oxford startup scene featuring a selection of hand-picked startups. Held at Blackwell Hall, Weston Library, Oxford on Wednesday 12th June, this event will showcase some of the amazing people/companies here in Oxford, with startups, spinouts and social enterprises linked to the University of Oxford and Oxfordshire. During the evening, you’ll get the chance to be an ‘investor’ for the night by listening to the pitches of 20 startups and voting for your favourite with your very own #StartedinOxford Demo Night dollars - with prizes awarded to the top three most voted for startups! You’ll also get the chance to network with other attendees and speak with a selection of exhibitors from the University and local ecosystem. Register now for your free tickets!

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Advocate, independent adviser, social entrepreneur and award-winning authority in the global climate change movement James Cameron is a believer in the power of enterprise to solve the most complex and urgent global problems. In this interactive conversation with Green Templeton postgraduate student Emily Buckley, he’ll discuss his own career of innovative interventions on climate change and biodiversity, highlight what needs to be done next, and propose a ‘possibilist’ way forward that avoids both climate despair and undue techno-optimism.

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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.

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To ensure disease transmission, the malaria parasite undergoes multiple rounds of metamorphosis, as it entirely alters its cell morphology to promote uptake and establishment in the mosquito vector and human host. Two cytoskeletal components play essential roles in this process: microtubules and actin. Within each new ecological niche, microtubules drive the single-celled parasite’s successive cellular transformations. Microtubules have been studied extensively and their architecture and composition are established to be highly conserved. Using focussed ion beam milling and electron cryo-tomography, we recently studied distinct stages in the Plasmodium falciparum life cycle. This revealed that the parasite has microtubules which are evolved to undertake specific roles in each life cycle stage with structures that are strikingly different from the well-studied canonical microtubules in vertebrates. While unique microtubules drive cellular transformations, filamentous actin ensures several parasite stages can migrate between different niches. These stages utilise a unique form of motility, termed gliding motility, which relies on a specialised actomyosin motor system. Our recent work on actively gliding parasites sheds light on this process and highlights novel roles of parasite actin in other cellular locations. Together, this work provides unexpected insights into adaptations of the parasite’s cytoskeleton, highlighting areas of novelty where the parasite has diverged from the biology of the host.

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The Pacific region is one of the most severely impacted areas in the world by climate change; the countries comprising the Pacific, however, are amongst many of the lowest contributors to ecological crisis. This talk will discuss the interconnections between Indigenous Pacific popular music and climate justice, focusing on the music of artists such as Stan Walker, Maisey Rika, Tiki Taane, Te Vaka, Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole, Herbs, and Alien Weaponry. Co-sponsored with Climate Crisis Thinking in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

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X chromosome inactivation (XCI) generates clonal heterogeneity within XX individuals. Combined with sequence variation between human X chromosomes, XCI gives rise to intra-individual clonal diversity, whereby two sets of clones express mutually exclusive sequence variants present on one or the other X chromosome. Here we ask whether such clones merely co-exist, or potentially interact with each other to shape the contribution of X-linked diversity to organismal development. To address this question, we focus on X-linked coding variation in the human STAG2 gene. Stag2variant clones contribute to most tissues at the expected frequencies, but fail to form lymphocytes in Stag2wild-type Stag2variant mouse models. Unexpectedly, the absence of Stag2variant clones from the lymphoid compartment is due not solely to cell-intrinsic defects, but requires continuous competition by Stag2wild-type clones. These findings show that interactions between epigenetically diverse clones, which may operate in any XX individual, can shape the contribution of X-linked genetic diversity to specific cell types and tissues.

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This seminar will explore the use of the Critical Poetic Inquiry (CPI) as a method for transformative change in education research. Commencing with a brief overview of CPI as method, we will explore new and creative ways to engage in the subversion of colonial logic. We will discuss CPI as a tool for doing decoloniality and championing change. Attendees will examine the role of poetry and performance in transforming theoretical ideas from objects of intellectual consideration into means of emotive academic engagement. Centralising decoloniality, this workshop will invite attendees to reconsider and reform their conceptualisation of research by reframing their own scholarship through poetic methods. Attendees will be invited to create poems of their own that creatively communicate the concepts at the centre of their academic work. Our engagement in creative processes seeks to encourage the reimagination of educational research in the hope that decolonial futures can be more than a mere figment of imagination but become a manifest reality. MS Teams link: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_YzQ2ZjYzZGYtMWQ1ZC00MmQ5LTg1MTYtM2I5NTkzZTkyMjVh%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

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Lesson of the week, clinical cases and research. All clinical and academic staff and students welcome. Coffee, Tea and Cake will be served.

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In her short working life, Joan Eardley (1921-1963) gained a huge reputation as both a portraitist and landscape painter. The images she produced in the 1950s and 60s of Glaswegian children rank as one of the one of the most powerful and poignant evocations of childhood ever made by an artist. This is the final of three talks in the Making a Mark series about British women painters. Other talks in the series: Winifred Knights talk 1 - Thu 30 May Evelyn Dunbar talk 2 - Thu 6 Jun

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Convened by Nathalie Berny (MFO) and Steve Fisher (University of Oxford) PROGRAMME: 14:00 - 15:25 - Panel 1 - Voting behaviour Chair - Geoffrey Evans - University of Oxford Bruno Cautrès, Sciences Po Paris Miriam Sorace, University of Reading Steve Fisher, University of Oxford 15:25-15:45 Coffee break 15:45 - 17:10 - Panel 2 - Parties and politics across Europe Chair - Anthony Teasdale, LSE Anja Thomas, University of Lille Sofia Vasilopoulou, King’s College Mihail Chiru, University of Oxford 17:15 - Post-event drinks

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Webpage: english.web.ox.ac.uk/reading-group-literature-and-mental-health Reading list: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1u3IaqwXUPyeOKKQ0oznFdeMODLlTw35g?usp=sharing Please copy and paste the links into a different tab in case they do not open here. Thank you.

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The workshop is an informal space for students and faculty working on LGBTQ-related history to discuss in-progress writing/planning/ideas, get feedback and advice, and share experiences and conflicts related to our research. Bring something to discuss or come ready to chat. *_Thursdays, even weeks TT2024_*

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Quantitative models of behavior are a fundamental tool in cognitive science. Typically, models are hand-crafted to implement specific cognitive mechanisms. Such "classic" models are interpretable by design, but may provide poor fit to experimental data. Artificial neural networks (ANNs), on the contrary, can fit arbitrary datasets at the cost of opaque mechanisms. I will present research in the classic modeling tradition that illuminates the development of learning during childhood and the teen years. We have also used classical methods to understand hierarchical learning and abstraction. I will then show the limitations of classic modeling, and introduce a new 'hybrid' method that combines the predictive power of ANNs with the interpretability of classic models. Specifically, we replace the components of an RL model with ANNs, testing RL's implicit assumptions one-by-one against human behavior. We find that hybrid models provide similar fit to fully-general ANNs, while retaining the interpretability of classic cognitive models: They reveal reward-based learning mechanisms in humans that are strikingly similar to classic RL. They also reveal mechanisms not contained in classic models, including separate reward-blind mechanisms, and the specific memory contents relevant to reward-based and reward-blind mechanisms.

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How do you ensure that your research is credible, to yourself and others? Preregistration means specifying in advance your hypotheses, methods, and/or analyses for a study, in a time-stamped file that others can access. Many fields, including behavioural and medical sciences, are increasingly using preregistration or Registered Reports (where a journal accepts your study at preregistration phase, and guarantees to publish the results if you follow the registered plan). If you've never preregistered a study before (or even if you have!) it can be complicated and hard to do well. In this workshop, we will go over the 'what,' 'why,' and 'how' of preregistration, and after some practice exercises, you will start drafting your own preregistration. We will also discuss some of the common challenges of preregistration, and its limitations. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers and other staff.

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For further details, please contact: "$":mailto:nick.millea@bodleian.ox.ac.uk or 01865 287119 https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/maps/tosca

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THE OXFORD CENTRE FOR BYZANTINE RESEARCH In collaboration with The After Rome and Further East Seminar Kindly invites you to the OCBR Annual Lecture for 2024 Professor Peter Sarris (University of Cambridge) JUSTINIAN BETWEEN EAST AND WEST Trinity College | Levine Building Auditorium Thursday, June 13, 2024 (Week 8) 5 pm | Reception to follow

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Religion in Britain and Ireland, 1400-1700 Seminar series on Thursdays at 5pm, Trinity Term 2024 in the Lecture Room at Campion Hall Convened by Diarmaid MacCulloch, Judith Maltby, Sarah Mortimer and Grant Tapsell Scott Sowerby, Northwestern University The Demographic Crisis and Religious Toleration in Britain and Europe after 1650 Offered by the Faculties of History and Theology and Religion. Drinks will be served after the seminar on 25 April and 13 June. For more information, or for the Teams link to join remotely, please contact sarah.apetrei@campion.ox.ac.uk.

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Free public talk with Prof Kabir Sheikh Health systems are social systems, and are shaped by broader trends such as urbanisation, commercialisation, the information revolution, and the post-pandemic social reordering. Against that backdrop, the configuration of health systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is often deeply heterogeneous or “mixed” across different intersecting axes, for instance: public-private, professional-lay, traditional-modern, and digital-nondigital. These dynamic and contested intersections influence health system performance and equity, and also create unique policy challenges and opportunities. Professor Sheikh will outline key inferences from his body of research on the governance of mixed health systems in LMICs, and reflect on the changing character of health systems, and implications for the future of the field of health policy and systems research (HPSR). Professor Kabir Sheikh is a field leader in health policy and systems research (HPSR) with over 20 years’ experience of research in diverse settings across Asia and Africa. His interests lie in the domain of equity-oriented, contextually relevant health policy and systems research (HPSR) that generate insights and solutions for health systems problems, using social science approaches (policy and implementation analysis).

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OCBR Annual Lecture for 2024; supported by the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research. To join via Microsoft Teams please use this link https://rb.gy/qzyv2b. Registration is not required.

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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 martha.swift@ell.ox.ac.uk OR hannah.fagan@mansfield.ox.ac.uk

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In the concluding lecture of the series, we revisit the intricate interplay between water, society, and technology, emphasizing the critical role of wisdom in navigating the future of human-water systems. Amidst the reliance on technological advancements and intelligent algorithms for sustainability and growth, this lecture explores how wisdom can guide us toward crafting enduring relationships with nature. Drawing from contemporary literature, we examine the paradoxes of growth limits, counterproductive fixes, and the pitfalls of well-intentioned but misguided interventions. By integrating the practical wisdom of field practitioners with the analytical prowess of scientists, we highlight successful examples of long-term, adaptive solutions. The lecture proposes pragmatic frameworks that honor the dynamic complexities of human-water interactions, advocating for a balanced approach that blends technological intelligence with deep-rooted wisdom to address the challenges facing our water systems.

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Join us in the RSL for a relaxed early evening event for DPhils where you'll have a chance to try out a range of paper-based activities, including origami, colouring in, decoration making and more! Snacks and hot drinks will be provided!! This is a great opportunity to network with fellow DPhil students and try your hand at some new crafts.

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Coffee, tea and pastries will be served in the Lecture Theatre. Please email Louise King (louise.king@nds.ox.ac.uk) if you would like to attend online.

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It has been said that “religion” is to the Middle East what “race” is to North America, and this in at least two senses. On the one hand, religion in the Middle East, some suggest, has less to do with belief—a conception often associated with Protestantism—and more to do with community, family, descent, and the like. It is said to involve, that is, a degree of givenness or immutability that approaches what one might associate more with kinds of ethnic or racial belonging in another context. Others have suggested that religion and race comprise, respectively, the most intransigent units of social differentiation across these two regions, with Ussama Makdisi recently arguing that racism in North America is structurally analogous to sectarianism in the Middle East. These phenomena, on this view, reflect how a formally similar social antagonism has taken particular shapes in historically distinct societies. There are yet others who reject the analogy out of hand. To some, the category of race is not merely applicable to the study of Middle Eastern histories and societies but in fact constitutes an urgent analytical framework for it—this in light of the forms of racialized violence that continue to structure the contemporary Middle East and global modernity at large. Race, from this perspective, is not an essentially foreign category relative to the supposedly more indigenous “religion” but rather an equally germane and local category of analysis. To others, the rising popularity of inquiries into race in the Middle East represents an imposition of a category particular to the experience of the Atlantic world onto a region to which that category is foreign—simply the latest instance of the perennial problem of the hegemony of Euro-American terms and frameworks. Part of an ERC-funded project on “Sectarianisms in the Global Middle East,” this workshop—to be held in Oxford in June 2024—aims to engage such debates through a collection of papers and discussions on religion, race, and concepts of difference in the late Ottoman Empire and modern Middle East. The intent is not to resolve the associated questions but to consider a central problem that undergirds them: the problem of the terms that scholars bring to bear on questions of belonging, relationality, and difference in the Middle East. What is sometimes missed in this regard is that the issue of categories of difference is not merely a methodological question to be debated within contemporary scholarship but a question internal to the modern history of the Middle East itself. As the late Ottoman Empire transformed under the dual pressures of European imperialism and defensive modernization, the “old Ottoman order” and the classificatory practices correlative to it began to give way to new modes of organizing society and conceiving difference. What had been a stratified imperial society organized under the authority of a divinely sanctioned sovereign was reordered around concepts like “nation,” “ethnicity,” “society,” as well as indeed “race.” These processes carried great consequences for gender, subjectivity, intercommunal relations, and much else in the post-Ottoman Middle East in ways that scholars continue to contemplate. The present workshop seeks to continue this work by bringing together a small group of scholars interested in reconsidering the modernist narratives that remain hegemonic in the study of difference in the modern Middle East. Notable in this respect is the idea that the essential mode of belonging in the pre-modern Ottoman Middle East was “religion” before its halting displacement, or reconfiguration, by the racially infused ideas of “nation” and “ethnicity,” in addition of course to “race” itself. This narrative reinforces the idea that religion, as compared to race, is more indigenous to Middle Eastern societies. Yet as inquiries into secularism and the secular over the past two decades have suggested, the concept of “religion” may be as much the product of European colonial modernity as is that of “race,” and hence any straightforward narrative of the former’s displacement by the latter must be met with some degree of skepticism. Could it be that the categories of race and religion, rather than nominating distinct phenomena, are in fact epiphenomenal to some deeper historical process or lifeworld that has reordered the modern Middle East, be that identified as modernity, capitalism, the secular, or otherwise?

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This two-day conference will bring together a range of scholars working on Tamil language and literature from the earliest records of the Sangam era to modern lexicography and pedagogy. The University of Oxford and Balliol College, although renowned for the Boden Professorship in Sanskrit, was also the home of the great Tamil scholar Rev. George Uglow Pope from 1888 till his death in 1908. His translations of the திருக்குறள் (Tirukkuṟaḷ) and திருவாசகம் (Tiruvācakam) remain pillars of Tamil studies in English. We hope that, in addition to providing a venue for scholars to present their research, this conference will further revive interest in Tamil studies at the University of Oxford, where the language is once again being taught and enriching students’ understanding of India.

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A practical session where participants will develop the 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: build a search strategy on Medline, using Yale MeSH Analyzer to optimise the use of subject headings; adapt the search across multiple databases with the help of Polyglot; 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-S. Intended audience: students, staff and researchers from MSD and OUH.

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Are you an early career researcher, fixed-term lecturer, or doctoral student trying to get some writing done? Do you research topics related to medicine, but are based in the Humanities or Social Sciences? The ECR/DPhil Medical Humanities writing group is an inclusive, interdisciplinary group of medical humanities researchers from across the University of Oxford community, and all are welcome. We come together weekly for a morning of timed writing blocks and goal-setting in a casual atmosphere with coffee/tea/light refreshments. In Trinity Term 2024, this will include an informal lunch. Please email hohee.cho@history.ox.ac.uk with any dietary requirements. If you have any queries, please email gordon.barrett@history.ox.ac.uk.

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Who do you need to engage with in the policy world to achieve impact? In this workshop, we will help answer this and other questions by equipping researchers to identify and map the people and groups who influence or are impacted by their research, when it comes to policy engagement. Using stakeholder analysis frameworks and interactive exercises, participants will learn to identify and categorize their relevant audiences across government agencies and other pertinent policy actors. Registration details coming soon.

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The History of Gender Seminar meets on Fridays at 11am-12:15pm, in-person in the Colin Matthew Room at the History Faculty, or online via Teams. All welcome at this relaxed interdisciplinary seminar! Please email emilia.flack@magd.ox.ac.uk if you would like to be added to our mailing list. Teams link: teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_YTBkYjY3ZmQtNDJkYS00NTBiLWI0M2MtZmZjZDQxOGEwOTZk%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%228e6e425a-cedf-419b-a96d-972dbc28b270%22%7d

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Life in the multi-hazard volcanic landscape in the Eastern Caribbean can be challenging; but through ongoing collaboration between monitoring scientists, government agencies and at-risk communities, crises can be effectively managed. In this talk Richie will share examples and lessons learned during his work in the region directed at reducing risk from volcanic activity. This includes, developing innovative, cost-effective monitoring solutions, engaging with communities, advancing knowledge of volcanic systems through partnerships with research institutions, and embracing new technologies

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Join us all at Race & Resistance for our end of year, informal session, where we will share our highlights from the 23/24 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. ------------- Twitter: race_resistance Subscribe to our mailing list by sending a blank email to: race-and-resistance-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk. Email raceandresistance@torch.ox.ac.uk with any questions.

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A relaxed and supportive space where we can work together on our projects. Participants are welcome to join and leave at any time that works for them.

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Presented by DPAG Graduate Students in their 3rd and final year of DPhil research study.

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Frank Uhlmann was born and grew up in Germany. He studied biochemistry and physiological chemistry at the University of Tübingen before joining Jerry Hurwitz's laboratory at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City for his PhD studies. Frank then moved to the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna, Austria, to work as a postdoc with Kim Nasmyth. In 2000, he established a research laboratory at what was then the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London. He has remained there ever since, while the institute became part of Cancer Research UK (the London Research Institute) and now the Francis Crick Institute. His work on chromosome segregation was recognised with the EMBO Gold Medal in 2006.

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In this presentation, we will review how the field of Mechanics of Materials is generally framed and see how it can benefit from and be of benefit to the current progress in AI. We will approach this problematic in the particular context of Brain mechanics with an application to traumatic brain injury in police investigations. Finally we will briefly show how our group is currently applying the same methodology to a range of engineering challenges.

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It may be individually optimal to wait and learn from the experiences of others before investing in a new technology. However, informational free-riding is collectively harmful as it slows down innovation adoption. This paper studies the dynamic tradeoff between disclosure and generation of evidence. A welfare-maximizing designer can delay the disclosure of previously generated information in order to speed up adoption. The optimal policy transparently discloses bad news and delays good news. This finding resonates with regulation demanding that fatal breakdowns be reported promptly. The designer's intervention makes all agents better off.

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Part 1: Student Work in Progress Rei Takahashi: Group agency or the moral status of groups. Part 2: Methods in Applied Ethics Prof Thomas Douglas, discussing grant/job applications. In Person: Oxford Uehiro Centre Seminar Room, Suite 1, first floor, Littlegate House, 16-17 St Ebbes St. OX1 1PT Via Zoom: email rocci.wilkinson@philosophy.ox.ac.uk for Zoom links *part 2 each week will be recorded for students registered on the class. Please inform Becky Brown if you wish your contribution to be edited out.

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14 June The Consciousness of the Historical Jesus (PNTC 3/3) Austin Stevenson, Palm Beach Atlantic University * To be held in the PUSEY ROOM at Keble College

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Abstract: Secondary forests are the predominant type of forest cover across the tropics. They provide myriad services and natural products to human populations worldwide and key habitat for countless forest-dwelling species. Although some fragmentation-related extinctions can be averted by forest regeneration, the role of second growth in biodiversity conservation remains controversial. Central to the debate is the capacity of secondary forests to preserve old-growth specialist species and to buffer the impacts of fragmentation on assemblages living in forest remnants. The Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP) is one of the world's largest and longest-running experimental investigations. Spanning an area of ∼1000 km2 in the Central Brazilian Amazon, the BDFFP was initially designed to assess how fragment size influences biodiversity and ecological processes within rainforests. However, it has transcended its initial objectives, offering a wealth of insights into the long-term ecological dynamics of fragmented landscapes and their intricate relationship with forest regeneration. This talk will provide an overview of the research conducted over the last decades at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP), examining with particular detail the taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic responses of bats, one of the richest Amazonian mammalian groups, to forest regeneration. I will explore area, edge, and matrix effects and investigate time-related complexities related to both short- and long-term responses to changes in matrix structure and composition. Finally, taking the BDFFP as an illustrative example, we will discuss the conservation implications of these findings for tropical biodiversity and propose avenues for future research in temporal ecology. Biography: Ricardo Rocha is a conservation biologist from Portugal, with a specialization in tropical forests and island ecosystems. His research is aimed at providing the evidence required to support conservation decision-making in the face of contemporary global change. Ricardo's particular focus lies in identifying ways to restore biodiversity in the aftermath of habitat loss and fragmentation, as well as managing human-modified landscapes to retain biodiversity and maximize ecosystem services. During his Ph.D., Ricardo spent over two and a half years studying bat communities at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project in the Central Amazon region of Brazil. He then joined the Conservation Science Group of the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge, where he worked on the Conservation Evidence project. Simultaneously, he served as a scientific adviser for Lonely Planet, contributing to non-fiction wildlife books for children. For his second postdoctoral research position, Ricardo investigated the role of bats as suppressors of agricultural insect pests and human disease vectors in Macaronesia, West Africa and Madagascar. Rocha received the European Early Career Conservation Award from the SCB Europe Section in 2020 became a National Geographic Explorer in the same year. Ricardo is currently an Associate Professor in Conservation Science at the Department of Biology, University of Oxford and a Tutorial Fellow at Jesus College. 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.

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Venue directions: The MEC Boardroom is on the ground floor of the Kirdar Building, 68 Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 6JF.

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Network Meta-Analyses (NMAs) are often complex and challenging projects. This 3-day interactive course will focus on the tools you need to understand, write and critically appraise an NMA. A selected group of expert clinicians, researchers and scientists, with a strong track record in the field of NMA, will guide you through the course, bringing you lectures, group work, hands-on tutorials and supervised statistical sessions. The course is aimed at clinicians, researchers and policy makers in the health care field, but is open to everybody. Course Objectives: - Become familiar with the different ways of presenting results in NMA. - Identify clinical questions to be addressed in the context of an NMA. - Understand the key features of an NMA protocol. - Practical sessions using statistical software (R). - Critically appraise NMAs. - Learn important tips on how to write a manuscript and reply to peer reviewers’ comments.

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The 2024 Teaching and Learning Symposium is a one-day in-person event on Monday 17 June (Week 9 TT24) to celebrate excellence and innovation in teaching, learning and assessment at Oxford. It is being organised by the Centre for Teaching and Learning at Merton College, Merton Street, Oxford OX1 4JD. The event provides everyone involved in teaching students across the collegiate University with an opportunity to connect with peers and share examples of their practice. Find out more and register at https://ctl.ox.ac.uk/2024-teaching-and-learning-symposium.

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Myeloid cells represent a major component of the tumor microenvironment (TME) and are critically involved in the regulation of tumor progression and metastasis. In recent years, the overarching concept has emerged that the biology of myeloid cells is largely defined by a limited number of functional states that transcend the narrowly defined cell populations. These functional states are primarily centred around classical and pathological states of activation, with the latter state being commonly defined as myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC). I will discuss recent data defining these states of activation of granulocytes in the kinetic of tumor progression. Ferroptosis – programmed cell death triggered in cells with impaired redox regulation whereby excessive availability/activity of redox-active iron primarily due to defect in glutathione peroxidase 4/glutathione (GPX4/GSH) system. The active ROS/RNS-generating machinery of polymorphonuclear MDSC (PMN-MDSC) in tumors shattered redox balance and stimulated a ferroptotosis. Ferroptotic PMN-MDSC demonstrated potent immune suppressive activity. Ferroptotic PMN-MDSC released lipid peroxidation products that directly suppress T-cell function. Treatment of immune competent tumor-bearing mice with ferroptosis inhibitor had anti-tumor activity and the effect of immunotherapy was substantially enhanced. I will discuss general approaches to therapeutic targeting of myeloid cells.

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The field of human biology confronts three major technological hurdles: the causation problem, complexity problem, and heterogeneity problem. To overcome these challenges, we've developed innovative approaches: Mammalian next-generation genetics: Triple CRISPR for knockout (KO) mice and ES mice for knock-in (KI) mice enable causation studies without traditional breeding methods.　Whole-body/brain cell profiling techniques: CUBIC allows comprehensive cell atlas construction to unravel cellular composition complexity.　Accurate and user-friendly technologies for measuring sleep and awake states: ACCEL facilitates real-world monitoring of fundamental brain states, addressing human heterogeneity. Integration of these technologies has led to significant progress in sleep research, particularly in understanding sleep regulation mechanisms and sleep functions. We've proposed the phosphorylation hypothesis of sleep, emphasizing the role of CaMKIIα/CaMKIIβ and calcium signaling pathways in inducing and sustaining sleep. Our studies also identified wake-promoting kinases and sleep-promoting phosphatase. Additionally, computational studies supported the Wake-Inhibition-Sleep-Enhancement (WISE) hypothesis, suggesting wakefulness inhibits synaptic efficacy while sleep enhances it. During the talk, we'll discuss our findings on muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (Chrm1 and Chrm3) as essential genes for REM sleep and their implications for psychiatric, neurodevelopmental, and neurodegenerative disorders. We will discuss new insights into psychiatric disorders, neurodevelopmental disorders, and neurodegenerative disorders derived from the phosphorylation hypothesis of sleep. References: 1.Tatsuki et al. Neuron, 90(1) : 70–85 (2016). 2. Sunagawa et al, Cell Reports, 14(3):662-77 (2016). 3. Susaki et al. Cell, 157(3): 726–39, (2014). 4. Tainaka et al. Cell, 159(6):911-24(2014). 5. Susaki et al. Nature Protocols, 10(11):1709-27(2015). 6. Susaki and Ueda. Cell Chemical Biology, 23(1):137-57 (2016). 7. Tainaka et al. Ann. Rev. of Cell and Devel. Biol. 32: 713-741 (2016). 8. Ode et al. Mol. Cell, 65, 176–190 (2017). 9. Tatsuki et al, Neurosci. Res. 118, 48-55 (2017). 10.Ode et al, Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 44, 212-221 (2017). 11. Susaki et al, NPJ. Syst. Biol. Appl. 3, 15 (2017). 12. Shinohara et al, Mol. Cell 67, 783-798 (2017). 13. Ukai et al, Nat. Protoc. 12, 2513-2530 (2017). 14. Shi and Ueda.BioEssays 40, 1700105 (2018). 15. Yoshida et al, PNAS 115, E9459-E9468 (2018). 16. Niwa et al, Cell report, 24, 2231-2247. e7 (2018). 17. Ode and Ueda, Front. Psychol. 11, 575328 (2020). 18. Katori et al, PNAS 119, e2116729119 (2022). 19. Ode K.L. et al, iScience 25, 103727 (2022), 20. Tone D. et al, PLOS Biology 2022. SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY Hiroki R. Ueda is a professor at the Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo. He obtained his Bachelor's degree from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Tokyo in 2000, and in 2004, he completed his Ph.D. at the same institution. In 2003, he was appointed as a team leader at RIKEN. Subsequently, in 2013, he assumed the position of full professor at the Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo. In 2016, Ueda made a groundbreaking discovery by identifying the sleep-promoting kinases, CaMKIIalpha and CaMKIIbeta. This finding led him to propose the phosphorylation hypothesis of sleep, which suggests that the phosphorylation-dependent regulation of the Ca2+-dependent hyperpolarization pathway underlies the regulation of sleep homeostasis in mammals. Furthermore, in 2018, he made another significant breakthrough by identifying the first essential genes of REM sleep, specifically muscarinic receptors M1 and M3. To further expedite his research endeavors, Ueda has pioneered innovative methods such as whole-brain and whole-body clearing and imaging techniques known as CUBIC. Additionally, he has contributed to the field of genetics by inventing next-generation mammalian genetic tools, including Triple-CRISPR and ES-mice methods. These advancements enable the streamlined production and analysis of knockout (KO) and knock-in (KI) mice without the need for traditional crossing methods.

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Artists were once in awe of nature and interested in the formal beauty of the landscape. But today, the threat of climate change and species extinction has changed the way artists engage with the natural world. Mike Perry, who lives and works in Pembrokeshire, is a contemporary artist who examines interactions of landscapes, nature and industrial society, questioning the romantic mythology of Britain's wild places. Perry’s work engages with how we look at and interpret our rural landscapes, challenging the idea of our national parks as areas of wilderness and natural beauty. His work is distinct in the hyperlocal and apparently mundane nature of his subjects. Rather than epic, aerial vistas of glaciers or oil fields, Perry directs our attention to the overlooked hedgerow or the shell-incrusted plastic flip- flop found whilst beach-combing in West Wales. The drama of Perry's micro-studies are nonetheless global, holding a tension between their extraordinary aesthetic beauty and the damage inflicted upon nature by human activity.

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For our next talk, in the BDI/CHG (gen)omics Seminar series, we will be hearing from Prof David van Heel, Professor of Genetics, Centre of Genomics and Child Health, Queen Mary University of London. We’re delighted to host Prof Heel in what promises to be a great talk! Date: Tuesday 18 June Time: 9:30 am – 10:30 am Talk title: Genes & Health: a British Bangladeshi and Pakistani cohort for your research Location: Big Data Institute, Seminar Room 0 Abstract: Genes & Health is a large scale, long-term community based health research study of (British-) Bangladeshi- and Pakistani-origin volunteers with genetics, NHS health records, and volunteer recall for further medical research studies. These ethnicities are mostly missing from many clinical trials and cohorts. In 2024, Genes & Health recruited its 60,000th volunteer. Available datasets on all volunteers include: GSA chip genotyping and TOPMed-r3 imputation; high depth exome sequencing; multisource NHS health record linkage (including primary care, secondary care including pathology and radiology, and national NHS Digital datasets). In 2024, through recall studies we have or are performing single cell RNAseq, proteomics (Seer, Somalogics, OLINK) and metabolomics (Metabolon) on 1700 volunteers. Genes & Health has many high profile scientific publications https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aMzR64u8trBGw2LvzjM0Ko45X6s53lLezUVXcLJQEBc/edit We actively invite scientists in Oxford, and worldwide, to use the resource and through health research bring benefit to our South-Asian communities. Bio: David is the Professor of Genetics at Queen Mary University of London, Honorary Consultant Physician at Barts Health NHS Trust. He trained in clinical research with a Medical Research Council Clinical Training Fellowship and a Wellcome Trust Clinician Scientist Fellowship. His current research interests are population genomic medicine of British Bangladeshi and British Pakistani communities, with genetics, NHS health data and recall for further studies based on genotype/phenotype. He is Chief Investigator for the Genes & Health longitudinal population study: www.genesandhealth.org. He was a member of the Medical Research Council Population and Systems Medicine Board (2016-2022) and he was deputy Chief Clinical Information Officer for Barts Health NHS Trust (2013-2024). ———————————————————————————————————————— 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 – Meeting ID: 393 256 453 91 Passcode: W4FvTL ——————————————————————————————————— If you wish to know more or receive information related to training 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!

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Join us for a digital scholarship coffee gathering – tea and coffee will be provided. There will be a lightning talk from a researcher in digital scholarship on their work, whether it’s a new project, a tool or something they want to showcase. These are a new type of event for us, so if you’d like to attend, be involved in a future session, or find out more please email digitalscholarship@humanities.ox.ac.uk These will be held in the Visiting Scholars Centre, so to attend you’ll need to bring your Bodleian Card and to leave your bags in the lockers – this event is only open to University staff and students.

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Jonathan Campbell (13:00 - 13:30) Title: Digital phenotyping of faces for rare diseases Abstract: TBC Munuse Savash (13:30 - 14:00) Title: Precise quantification of DNA in spent culture media and its correlation to embryonic ploidy status Abstract: Preimplantation genetic testing is a valuable tool for determining the genetic status of IVF embryos. However, the requirement for embryo biopsy necessitates specialist equipment and highly trained staff, substantially increasing costs. Additionally, there have been concerns that biopsy might risk damage to the embryo. We set out to provide the first accurate measurement of the amount of DNA in spent culture medium, and to gain an insight into why non-invasive PGT (niPGT) is less accurate than biopsy-based methods. We assessed spent media samples that underwent whole genome amplification via a novel quantitative PCR method. There was no difference in DNA quantity in media samples associated with euploid and aneuploid embryos. However, drops that held embryos until day-6 had significantly higher levels of DNA than those associated with culture to day-5 (P<0.0001). It has been hypothesised that the quantity of DNA in the medium may be predictive of the chromosomal status of an embryo. However, we found no evidence to support this notion. The amount of DNA in the medium increased with longer exposure to embryos, explaining why niPGT has higher reported accuracy when culture is extended beyond day-5.

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I heard, as if I had no Ear/Until a Vital Word/Came all the way from Life to me/And then I knew I heard — (E. Dickinson) What might happen to your scholarly practice if you allowed other sorts of source materials than those that are conventionally mandated to be in dialogue with your writing, your form, or your focus? We’ll work with what I call the uncommon archive to pursue the effects on our work of the seemingly simple mandate to “start from someplace else.” Three different genres of in-seminar writing experiments (influenced by the work of Emily Dickinson, Lynda Barry, and Christina Sharpe) will take us further and further into realms of unplumbed depths, generative adjacencies, and absent interlocutors. How is interest generated? Where does it come from and by what means does it arrive? In our short time together, I look forward to pursuing new grounds for unanticipated arrivals as we make audible and visible criticism’s unconscious. Participants are invited to bring a signature-style analog notebook* expressly for the purpose of the exercises we will pursue together and with the hope of its serving as a portable studio for the evolution of individual projects thereafter. An openness to play (child’s work) and experiment (a willingness to fail) will also prove essential. *a bound writing surface whose feel, shape and size personally resonate for their bearer There are limited spaces available; to register for the workshop, please email iris.pearson@new.ox.ac.uk. *** Mary Cappello is a queer practitioner of the essay, experiments in prose, memoir, literary nonfiction, and performative criticism. A Guggenheim and Berlin Prize Fellow, she is the author of seven books that include a detour on awkwardness; a breast-cancer anti-chronicle; a lyric biography; a speculative manifesto; and the mood fantasia, Life Breaks In. Keen to reconceive the forms nonfiction takes in public to meet the pressing political needs of our time, she has authored projects like the essay as collaborative mood room, and the inter-active anti-panel, while also calling for a return to the lecture as a sounding, contemplative art. A former Fulbright fellow at the Gorky Literary Institute (Moscow), she is Professor Emerita of English and Creative Writing at the University of Rhode Island.

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The emergence of regional blocs, new powers and ‘global civil society’ has been described as a key development in the shift towards a ‘multiplex’, multipolar world order (Acharya 2017). As global governance has diversified in this contemporary geopolitical context, so too have the modalities, rationales, and directions of international funding for higher education systems in low- and middle-income contexts. The shifts in funding for higher education are complex, given the simultaneous (and often competing) pressures on donors – both from donor and recipient national governments and from global policy norms relating to “aid” (e.g. the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness) and the role of higher education in development (e.g. as specified in the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals) – and the emergence of newer actors in this space (e.g. private sector foundations and bilateral agencies with little prior history of support for higher education outside their borders). However, the limited scholarship on international support for higher education insufficiently attends to these complexities, thereby decreasing our collective ability to understand how and why donors choose to support higher education in less-resourced parts of the world. This webinar will nuance the current donor narrative by presenting the findings of a qualitative study, focused on the top fifteen funders of higher education in low- and middle-income countries between 2011 and 2020 (based on available OECD data). The study – comprising both document review and key informant interviews with organisational representatives – explores the ways in which international funding is understood by the key actors involved in supporting higher education, the rationales that drive the different types of actors, and the manner in which ideological positions, roles, and rationales of key actors affect the modalities of support to higher education. The findings illuminate the dangers of presenting a singular narrative regarding international support for higher education, as each organisation involved in the study was found to fund higher education overseas for distinct reasons and via different modalities – and to be affected by contextual forces when opting to make changes to their funding strategies. The findings also complicate widely held notions of ‘partnership’ in aid discourse, exposing donors’ (geo)political aims within their specific funding strategies and rationales.

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Leadership in Action explores what leadership is and looks at some leadership theory. More importantly though it provides researchers with the opportunity to identify and develop their own leadership style through leading and participating in activities. It is a fast-paced face to face course that takes a ‘learning by doing’ approach – so while there are presentations on theory, most of the time is spent actively taking part in activities and then reflecting on them. The course will culminate in a celebratory dinner on the evening of the last day (Friday 21st June) where we will be joined by previous participants, and senior members of divisional staff.

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Gonadal hormones such as estradiol have a powerful effect on neuronal plasticity, particularly in the hippocampus, a region crucial for memory consolidation and spatial cognition. Previous in vitro work has found that estradiol triggers second messenger cascades, driving synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus. In particular, estradiol has been found to drive a pronounced proliferation of dendritic spines, the primary sites of excitatory synaptic connections. However, the effect of the estrous cycle on neural plasticity is poorly understood due to the challenge of longitudinally tracking the structural and functional properties of hippocampal neurons in intact mice. To address this challenge, we took advantage of new approaches for longitudinal two-photon imaging in the hippocampus of behaving mice using implanted microprisms. We used this approach to measure changes in neuronal morphology, dendritic processing, and spatial coding in hippocampal neurons throughout the estrous cycle. Our results indicate that the estrous cycle profoundly modulates spatial processing, from the level of individual synaptic connections to the level of spatial coding of neuronal populations.

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In this workshop you will be introduced to the principles underpinning the conduct of literature searches for systematic reviews, scoping reviews and evidence syntheses. The session will cover: choosing the most appropriate type of evidence syntheses from systematic reviews to scoping reviews and rapid reviews; formulating a search strategy to address research questions; applying methodological search filters to restrict by study type; choosing appropriate databases and search engines; searching for grey literature and ongoing studies; documenting and reporting your search; and storing and managing references. Intended audience: students, staff and researchers from MSD and OUH.

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Before glamorous 19th-century Paris or menacing 20th-century New York, there was Antwerp in the 16th century - the city of Bruegel and then Rubens, a river port which played politics to become a dazzling world city. Join Michael Pye, author of Antwerp: The Glory Years, for this talk which will explore the sensational history of the town where Bruegel and Rubens worked. Antwerp's markets guaranteed credit for the known world whilst its scandals went around Europe, dinner table by dinner table. Books and music and art created in Antwerp decorated Medici palaces, American chapels and helped kings when they went wooing. It was the city of the deal which survived sieges and fires and mutinies to leave a double legacy: wonderful art, and the machinery to sell it. In this fascinating talk from Michael Pye, you'll delve into all this rich history and discover more about the backdrop to our current Bruegel to Rubens exhibition.

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Sir Stephen Hough joins Dr Kate Kennedy in conversation about life-writing, music, and Stephen's recent autobiography, Enough (2023). Sir Stephen Hough is one of the most distinctive artists of his generation. He combines a distinguished career as a pianist with those of composer and writer. Named by The Economist as one of Twenty Living Polymaths, Hough was the first classical performer to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship (2001). He was awarded Northwestern University’s 2008 Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano, won the Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist Award in 2010, and in 2016 was made an Honorary Member of RPS. In 2014 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) and was knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2022. Since taking first prize at the 1983 Naumburg Competition in New York, Sir Stephen has appeared with most of the major European, Asian and American orchestras and plays recitals regularly in major halls and concert series around the world from London's Royal Festival Hall to New York’s Carnegie Hall. He has been a regular guest at festivals such as Aldeburgh, Aspen, Blossom, Edinburgh, La Roque d'Anthéron, Hollywood Bowl, Mostly Mozart, Salzburg, Tanglewood, Verbier, and the BBC Proms, where he has made 29 concerto appearances, including playing all of the works of Tchaikovsky for piano and orchestra, a series he later repeated with the Chicago Symphony. Many of his catalogue of over 60 albums have garnered international prizes including the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, Diapason d’Or, Monde de la Musique, several Grammy nominations, eight Gramophone Magazine Awards including ‘Record of the Year’ in 1996 and 2003, and the Gramophone ‘Gold Disc’ Award in 2008, which named his complete Saint-Saens Piano Concertos as the best recording of the past 30 years. His 2012 recording of the complete Chopin Waltzes received the Diapason d’Or de l’Annee, France’s most prestigious recording award. His 2005 live recording of the Rachmaninoff Piano Concertos was the fastest selling recording in Hyperion’s history, while his 1987 recording of the Hummel concertos remains Chandos’ best-selling disc to date. Published by Josef Weinberger, Sir Stephen has composed works for orchestra, choir, chamber ensemble, organ, harpsichord and solo piano. He has been commissioned by the Takacs Quartet, the Cliburn, CMS Lincoln Center, the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet, the Gilmore Foundation, The Genesis Foundation, the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation, London’s National Gallery, Wigmore Hall, Le Musée de Louvre and Musica Viva Australia among others. A noted writer, Sir Stephen has contributed articles for The New York Times, the Guardian, The Times, Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine, and he wrote a blog for The Telegraph for seven years which became one of the most popular and influential forums for cultural discussion and for which he wrote over six hundred articles. He has published four books: The Bible as Prayer (Bloomsbury and Paulist Press, 2007); a novel: The Final Retreat (Sylph Editions, 2018); a book of essays: Rough Ideas: Reflections on Music and More (Faber & Faber and Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2019); and a memoir: Enough: Scenes from Childhood (Faber & Faber, 2023). Sir Stephen is an Honorary Fellow of Cambridge University’s Girton College and holds the International Chair of Piano Studies at his alma mater, the Royal Northern College in Manchester. He is also a member of the faculty at The Juilliard School.

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An opportunity to find out more about the best researches done at the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine.

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The Oxford Policy Engagement Network (OPEN) are pleased to invite you to this workshop, in which we will explain the fundamental skills needed for researchers across the university working on Medical Sciences to broker relationships with the policy world. We will hear from researchers within the division already working on policy-engagement projects, and from Naomi Gibson and Jose Rojas Alvarado, from the Policy Engagement Team. We’ll provide tips for getting started, such as understanding how the policymaking process works, who the key players are in the policy environment, and how to build engagement into your research, and to get to know some tools to help with that. Registration details coming soon.

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Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) data are sourced from a UK-wide network of over 2,000 primary care practices and include 60 million patients of which 16 million are currently registered active patients, with at least 20 years of follow-up for 25% of the patients. The anonymised patient data is broadly representative of the UK general population in terms of age, sex and ethnicity, and offers a rich source of health data for research. It covers patient records such as symptoms, diagnoses, clinical measures, test results, immunisations, prescriptions and referrals to secondary care.The primary care data can be linked to secondary care and other health and area-based datasets, such as the death registration data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) data from NHS Digital and cancer registration data from NHS Digital National Disease Registration Service (NDRS). The session will provide a brief overview of the wealth of data available for researchers, discuss the strengths and limitations of the data, describe the process of submitting a research protocol and obtaining data access, and explain how the NDPH CPRD Team can work with researchers on potential studies. Topics to be covered: Primary care data Linked data Research protocol submission and approval Data access Intended Audience Staff and students who are interested in using patient electronic health records from GP practices for research into disease epidemiology, methodological and/or health services delivery research, drug safety, economics, drug utilisation, pharmacoeconomics, drug effectiveness, and pharmacoepidemiology. Objectives Understand the coverage, strengths, limitations and data quality issues of the two separate primary care databases Understand the coding system used in CPRD data Understand CPRD's Research Data Governance process Aware of the services provided by the NDPH CPRD Team To register please click on the link below - https://forms.microsoft.com/e/aTsuT1RXK6?origin=lprLink --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. The aim of these seminars is to increase interaction between people working in the University so we encourage in person attendance wherever possible. Meeting ID: 356 064 709 123 Passcode: ihkEwh ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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!

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Context: Bioethicists have advocated the use of lottery allocation to allocate scarce health care resources during the COVID-19 pandemic and this was adopted in some settings including in the United States. There is limited evidence on public attitudes, and by extension the political acceptability, of this mode of allocation. Methods: During the pandemic, we conducted a survey-based experiment to elicit the extent of public agreement with the use of lottery allocation as a mechanism compared with medical triage. Data were collected on 15,554 respondents from 14 economically and culturally diverse countries representing roughly half the world’s population. Respondents were randomly allocated (1:1) to two versions of a hypothetical question concerning ways to ration COVID-19 vaccine doses among nurses in a clinic): (i) an unweighted lottery; (ii) prioritization based on assessment by an independent committee of expert physicians. The main outcome was the level of agreement on a scale from 0 (“strongly disagree”) to 100 (“strongly agree”) and differences were stratified by a range of covariates. Findings: Average levels of agreement for allocation by medical committee ranged from 52.88 (95%CI 50.59-55.18) in France to 71.27 (69.57-72.98) in India. Agreement with lottery allocation varied much more markedly from 21.75 (19.64-23.85) in France to 61.86 (60.24-63.49) in China. In every country there was a significantly higher levels of agreement with medical triage, but the difference in scores varied widely across countries from 6.7 (4.2-9.23) in China to 32.34 (28.86-35.81) in Spain. There was greater agreement with lotteries among males, those on higher income, those with the very lowest levels of education and those identifying with a right leaning ideology. Conclusion: Globally, preferences for lottery allocation of scarce medical care varies widely. Successful implementation of lottery allocation in future will require greater engagement from health policy makers to ensure they can garner public support.

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An abundance of recent work in literary studies deliberately complicates, interrogates, or thwarts the distinctions according to which writing is typically organised: such work sits at, blurs and redraws the fuzzy boundaries between the critical and the creative, the personal and the impersonal, the fictional and the non-fictional. One of the few things that writers engaged in this kind of practice tend to have in common is a deep discomfort with the labels that get attached to their work; such labels often seek to re-categorise the deliberately uncategorisable. And yet, for a whole host of practical reasons – not least the ways in which their work is mediated by academic departments, bookshops, and other institutions – writers cannot afford to be uninterested in the work that such descriptors perform. This colloquium will ask: are the categories in question only and inevitably experienced by writers as an imposition? If work of this kind aims in part to treat the practical circumstances of writing as conditions for its perennial reinvention, then might these organisational categories also provide opportunities for writerly practice? The colloquium will feature twelve panelists and a plenary address by Mary Cappello. For more information about the speakers, and to register for the event, please go to: https://creatingcriticism.web.ox.ac.uk/what-is-creative-criticism.

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Dr. Tim Bartels received his PhD in Biophysics from the Technical University Munich in 2008 (under Johannes Buchner and Christian Haas) and completed his postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School with Dennis Selkoe in 2011, where he was also appointed his first faculty positions (2012-2019). Since 2018 he is leading the program “Structure-Function Relationship in Neurodegeneration” at the Dementia Research Institute at the University College London. His lab is dedicated to the study of the different forms of the presynaptic protein alpha-synuclein in Parkinson’s Disease, Dementia with Lewy Bodies and Multiple System Atrophy. Additionally, his lab interested in novel context specific pathways of protein folding/misfolding & the involvement of lipids and non-neuronal cells in neurodegeneration.

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Despite growing concerns over China’s military build-up and modernization there have been few attempts to understand the growth of China’s defence budget, its comparative size or composition. Available estimates of China’s military spending range implausibly from one quarter of the USA to near parity and, since the end of the Cold War, no statistical agencies or defence departments have reported international comparisons of real defence spending. This talk uses economic data and measurement techniques to infer the real size and growth of China’s defence spending. China’s defence budget is found to be 60 percent larger than widely used market exchange rate estimates, and equal to 59 percent of the USA’s defence budget. China’s military is much more labour intensive than the USA but has also had a massive increase in Equipment per person, with real military Equipment spending growing at 10 percent per annum since 2010. This rise is consistent with descriptive accounts of China's rapid military modernization. Professor Peter Robertson is a Professor of Economics and Dean of the Business School at the University of Western Australia. His research focuses on economic growth, international trade, economic history and defence economics. He is known for his research on trade and inequality, the Lucas puzzle, the middle-income trap and the measurement of real military spending. Peter also serves as an expert consultant to the Productivity Commission and to the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research and the Australian Research Council. His career spans two decades in academia and government, having held positions at The Productivity Commission, Melbourne and The University of New South Wales. He has held visiting positions at The University of British Columbia, Rutgers University, University of Otago and St Antony’s College Oxford. Peter has published widely on the interactions between economic growth, economic development, international trade and international relations.

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Lesson of the week, clinical cases and research. All clinical and academic staff and students welcome. Coffee, Tea and Cake will be served.

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Dive into the forefront of ethical AI at 'The Lyceum Project' – a ground-breaking one-day conference hosted by the Institute for Ethics in AI, in partnership with prestigious institutions: Stanford University and Greece's National Centre for Scientific Research "Demokritos". Mark your calendars for June 20th, 2024, as Athens becomes the epicentre of AI ethics discussions, set against the backdrop of the historic Athens Conservatory. This exclusive event promises a rich tapestry of insights, featuring: 1. Philosophers' Panel: Join esteemed thought leaders Professor John Tasioulas and Professor Josiah Ober as they unveil their pioneering white paper on Aristotelian AI ethics, igniting philosophical discourse. 2. Practitioners' Panel: Gain invaluable perspectives from industry luminaries representing the technical, entrepreneurial, and regulatory spheres of AI. Explore the dynamic interplay between theory and real-world application, paving the way for ethical innovation. 3. Speech by the Prime Minister of Greece: The audience will be addressed by Mr. Kyriakos Mitsotakis 4. Scholarly Presentations: Immerse yourself in the latest research of emerging scholars dedicated to advancing Aristotelian AI ethics. Engage in intimate breakout sessions, fostering dialogue and collaboration among the brightest minds of tomorrow.

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Whether you are considering a career in academia or elsewhere, making connections with people with experience in sectors that interest you can be hugely insightful. The idea of networking can sometimes make us feel uncomfortable, but in this session we’ll explore how it can be a powerful research tool and help you to uncover opportunities. We’ll share practical tips and strategies on how to get started and highlight ways to network to add value to the development of your career ideas. Towards the end of the session we’ll focus on LinkedIn both as an incredibly rich resource for exploring options, and as a way to connect with people with shared interests. We’ll also cover tips on how to make your profile work for you and increase your visibility to potential recruiters. This session is aimed at researchers – both DPhil students and Research Staff are welcome to join.

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Join us this World Blood Donor Day as Su Brailsford and Heli Harvala explore the vital intersection of maintaining blood safety and promoting inclusivity within the NHS Blood and Transplant service. Dr. Brailsford from NHS Blood and Transplant will discuss her instrumental role in the 'For the Individual Assessment of Risk' (FAIR) Steering group. Discover how this initiative has enhanced equality in donor selection, especially concerning sexuality, sexual behaviour, and minority ethnic communities, whilst ensuring the highest standards of blood safety. Dr Harvala will share her cutting-edge research on Occult Hepatitis B infection in blood donations. Learn about her work in implementing advanced screening methods introduced last year to effectively manage this risk. Don't miss this engaging talk from the Genomics to Enhance Microbial Screening Blood and Transplant Unit (BTRU-GEMS) where we delve into the science and policy that underpin our commitment to maintaining a safe blood transfusion service, alongside promoting inclusivity! This talk is funded by the Oxford Policy Engagement Network (OPEN), refreshments will be provided before and after the talks. Registration required.

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For our June event, in conversation with another Scholar, Maureen Dunne (Illinois & New College 1999) will discuss her newest book The Neurodiveristy Edge. Amongst other topics, Maureen will discuss her journey writing the book, the challenges of authentic neuroinclusion and the role it stands to play in the age of artificial intelligence. She will also discuss ways in which to build a universal empathy network where the broadest possible range of cognitive diversity is celebrated as an asset. The Neurodiversity Edge introduces a transformative framework for addressing the most important human resources opportunity of the 21st century. ​From renowned Oxford-trained cognitive scientist, neurodiversity expert, and neurodivergent business leader, Dr. Maureen Dunne, this trailblazing guide presents a groundbreaking new approach for bridging the staggering divide between organizations starved for motivated workers and the enormous untapped talent pool defined by cognitive differences―the 15-20% of the global population comprised of the autistic, ADHDers, the dyslexic, synesthetes, the dyspraxic, and others with neurological differences. The book was recenlty selected as a top new release by Porchlight Book Company. Part of the Lifelong Fellowship portfolio, The Scholars’ Library is a monthly book talk series, where Rhodes alumni can come together to present, discover and debate their literary works. If you’re interested in getting involved, please reach out to Georgie Thurston at alumni@rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk You can read more about this event and the speaker here: https://bit.ly/TheNeurodiversityEdge

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In this guest lecture Dr Merryn Voysey will cover a variety of different experiences with accessing and analysing pharmaceutical company data from vaccine clinical trials, as well as her experiences accessing data from clinical trials run by academics.

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In this lecture, *Professor Barbara Savage* will explore the fascinating topic of ‘Living History: Merze Tate and Modern Black Womanhood .’ She says: “The black woman scholar Merze Tate began in the 1930s to develop her ideas about modern black womanhood. In the 1970s, nearing the end of her career, Tate served as both an interviewer and an interviewee for Harvard’s Black Womens Oral History Project, a still-invaluable resource in African American and women’s history. That work brought full circle Tate’s ideas about black women’s lives. Looking at her life and those of the women she interviewed raises questions about the ways that intellectual biography can trouble and unsettle prevailing historical narratives, including about modern black women.” The ‘Uncovering Women’s History’ lecture series aims to explore women’s empowerment and the contribution of women and other marginalised minorities across history.

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Join Zoom Meeting http://us06web.zoom.us/j/85285531740?pwd=SEFBa0%C3%975V21SOFo1dk85dm5TWEhSdz09 Meeting ID: 852 8553 1740 Passcode: 911647

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Enhancers are short DNA sequences that regulate target gene from a distance and in spatio-temporal patterns. The expression of many genes is controlled by combinations of multiple enhancers, but the interaction and cooperation of individual enhancer elements is not well understood. We developed a novel synthetic platform that allows building complex regulatory landscape from the bottom up. We tested the system by integrating individual enhancers at different distances and confirmed that with increasing distance to the promoter, expression of the reporter gene decreased. However, the reduction level depends on the enhancer’s intrinsic strength. Furthermore, introducing a weak enhancer between a strong enhancer and the promoter can partially rescue the decreased reporter gene expression. Therefore, synergy between enhancer elements can increase the genomic distance from which enhancers can function.

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The lecture presents two cycles of mosaics in San Marco, Venice that need to be better known. They are thus: Mary’s childhood within the western bay of the south transept, and Genesis, which is situated in the atrium. The research about them is relatively new and, even though at least two books have been written about them, they still need more public exposure. The lecture can be followed easier if the attendees read in advance my book Elena Ene Drăghici-Vasilescu, 'Glimpses into Byzantium. Its Philosophy and Arts' (an anthology of peer-reviewed articles published by the author from 2019 to 2021), Oxford, 2021.

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Full Programme Day 1, Mon 24 June GENDER PASTS (All Day: Lecture Theatre, Ashmolean Museum) 9 am: Registration 9.30am: Welcome and Introduction (Maria Misra) 9.45am-12.15 noon, Session 1: ‘Distant Pasts’ A session that will explore the diverse and protean nature of gender imaginaries and orders in the longue durée, and will feature historians specialising in the ancient, medieval and early modern worlds. Speakers Serdar Yalcin, (Macalester) author of Selves Engraved on Stone: Seals and Identity in the Ancient Near East, Ca. 1415-1050 BCE (2022) Leah DeVun (Rutgers), author of The Shape of Sex: Nonbinary Gender from Genesis to the Renaissance (2021) Rajayshree Pandey (Goldsmiths), author of Perfumed Sleeves and Tangled Hair: Body, Woman and Desire in Medieval Japanese Narratives (2016) Discussant Ruth Karras (Trinity, Dublin) 12 noon- 3pm: AHRC Public Engagement Displays and Tours at the Ashmolean Featuring: -Young Creators Pop-up Photography Exhibition -Young Curators Pop-up Tours -Antiquities Tour with Anja Ulbrich (Ashmolean) -Gallery 19 Display: ‘Demon, Mother, Kingmaker’ and accompanying film -Mughal Gallery: Small Exhibition ‘Devi Mahatmya’ (illustrated texts and prints) -Jameel Study Room: display curated by Maria Misra and Anja Ulbrich (Ashmolean) 3pm-5.15: Session 2 ‘Colonial Pasts’ This panel will consider gender in pre-colonial Africa, Asia, and the Americas and the ongoing influence of colonial gender ideologies and practices. Speakers Mrinalini Sinha, (Michigan), Spectres of Mother India: The Global Restructuring of an Empire (2006) Nwando Achebe (Michigan State), author of Female Monarch and Merchant Queens in Africa (2020) Gregory Smithers (Virginia Commonwealth) Reclaiming Two-Spirits: Sexuality, Spiritual Renewal and Sovereignty in Native America (2022) [tbc] Discussant Sebastian Conrad (Berlin)

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Introducing Oxford Data Academy: a 5-day intensive data science bootcamp for an interdisciplinary audience happening in the heart of Oxford at Reuben College. During Oxford Data Academy, you will learn the basics of data handling in Python (pandas, numpy libraries), data visualisation (matplotlib, seaborn, plotly libraries), statistical modelling, and machine learning (scikit-learn library). On the final day, you will solidify your newly-acquired skills in a mini-hackathon, where you’ll be working in teams to solve real-world data challenges. For more information please visit www.oxforddataacademy.com

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*Programme* 09:30-09:45 Welcome - *Helen Sunderland* (University of Oxford) 09:45-11:15 Political Violence *Jack Hodgson* (University of Roehampton) Youth Activism and the Political Martyrdom of Christopher Seider in Colonial Boston *Julie Partsch* (University of Oxford) Children of the Struggle: Experiences of Secrecy, Social Ostracisation, and Community by Children of Anti-Apartheid Activists in the 1950s-1960s *Lucy Newby* (Manchester Metropolitan University) “I didn’t join ‘cos of a bitterness in my heart, I joined because I didn’t like being alone.” Teenage paramilitarism, youth politics and the popular imagination during the Northern Ireland Troubles, 1969-1998 11:35-12:35 Keynote Paper: *Arathi Sriprakash*, *Claire Stewart-Hall*, and *Alice Willatt* (University of Oxford) Reparative Histories of Schooling 13:35-15:05 Democratic Practices *Anna Bocking-Welch* (University of Liverpool)Young Petitioners in Twentieth-Century Britain *Helen Sunderland* (University of Oxford) "Town Council" in their "Teens": Young People and Local Democracy in Postwar Britain *Kit Kowol* (Queensland Parliament, Brisbane) “Dear Mr Wilson, I am very sorry the Conservatives are getting all the votes. I am only ten or I would vote for you myself.”: Children writing to politicians in Modern Britain 15:25-16:55 Organised Activism *Björn Lundberg* (Lund University) Youth against Apartheid: Youth Organizations and the formation of an Anti-Apartheid Movement in Sweden, 1960–1968 *Victoria Cain* (Northeastern University) The Double Age of Privacy: Sexual Politics of American Adolescence, 1967-1992 *Rosie Walters* (Cardiff University) “It’s like, do you really wanna go to Girl Up or do you wanna go to Tesco?”: Girls, ambivalence and activism in school feminist clubs 16:55 Close - *Helen Sunderland* (University of Oxford) *_Registration required_* *In person registration:* https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/children-and-politics-colloquium-in-person-tickets-907678098627?aff=oddtdtcreator *Online registration:* https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/children-and-politics-colloquium-online-tickets-907728459257?aff=oddtdtcreator

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In-person workshop exploring the basic foundations of generative AI to help you navigate its potential and limitations within teaching and learning. Who is the workshop for? Oxford teaching and teaching support staff, including course directors, tutors, lecturers, teaching assistants and academic administrators. On what dates will the workshop be held? – Friday 17 May (10.30am-12.30pm) – Thursday 30 May (10.30am-12.30pm) – Monday 24 June (10.30am-12.30pm). What will you do during the workshop? – Evaluate the suitability of AI tools for specific teaching and learning tasks – Critically assess the outputs generated by popular generative AI models – Compare benefits of different prompting techniques – Formulate use cases for generative AI in teaching and learning – Gain practical experience in formulating clear and specific prompts to effectively engage with generative AI models for various teaching and learning tasks. By the end of the workshop, you will have a deeper understanding of how AI can enhance your teaching, equipped with the tools to critically assess AI outputs and integrate these technologies into your everyday tasks.

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This is a hybrid seminar. To join via Zoom, please register in advance: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZModO6vqj8rHNDS6aCID4DHatOjIdfuMIbV After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

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The Centre for Multilevel Modelling has a long history, first at the Institute of Education where it emerged from Professor Harvey Goldstein's research team in the 1990s and for the past 20 years at the School of Education, University of Bristol. The Centre's research looks into the use of statistical modelling to answer real world problems using data that have complicated dependency structures. Our research is wide-ranging from the development of new statistical methodology and supporting this with user friendly software to the application of this methodology to a whole range of disciplines. We have been fortunate to have had large amounts of funding over the years through the ESRC and particularly it's NCRM programme. One important strand that has run through our research from the start has been the importance of a training element so that our methods gain maximum usage in the fields that require them. This has led to the research leading 2 related REF (https://results2021.ref.ac.uk/impact/7d9c92b8-8627-4c7d-9324-2625901b706f?page=1 and https://results2021.ref.ac.uk/impact/d710607c-2c84-4dfd-9d24-9eb3622cfedf?page=1 ) in the education and maths UoAs respectively. In this talk I will describe some of the history of the centre and our software development work. I will talk about how this has changed in the 25+ years that I have been associated with the centre as fitting multilevel models has moved from being only available through specialist software to now being widely used in most disciplines. How this has impacted on our software development and training over the period. I will also talk about later work on automating statistical analysis and training material generation (funded by the ESRC and British Academy) and contrast this with AI and Chat-GPT that has probably largely superseded it. Much use of multilevel models is with large secondary datasets and so if time allows I will talk briefly about the challenges of designing primary data studies that exhibit multilevel structures and how for example one can calculate required sample sizes for such studies via simulation.

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Day 2: Tue 25 June GENDER PRESENTS AND FUTURES (Morning: O’Reilly Theatre, Keble College; Afternoon: Lecture Theatre, Ashmolean Museum) 9.00 am: Registration. 9.15-10.30 am: Raewyn Connell, University of Sydney 10.45am-c.1.00pm, Session 3 ‘Presents’ This panel will discuss today’s highly polarised debates on gender and ask why the issue has become so central to contemporary global politics and culture. Speakers Elzbieta Korolczuc (Stockholm and Warsaw), co-author of Anti-gender Politics in the Populist Moment (2021) Nilufur Gole (Paris), Islam in Europe: The Lure of Fundamentalism and the Allure of Cosmopolitanism (2010) Derek Hird (Lancaster), ‘Masculinities in China’ in Routledge Handbook of East Asian Gender Studies (2019) Discussant David Priestland (Oxford) 1.00-3.30pm: AHRC Public Engagement Displays and Tours at the Ashmolean Featuring: -Young Creators pop-up Photography Exhibition -Young Curators pop-up Tours -Antiquities Tour with Anja Ulbrich (Ashmolean) -Gallery 19 Display: ‘Demon, Mother, Kingmaker’ and accompanying film -Mughal Gallery: Small Exhibition ‘Devi Mahatmya’ illustrated texts and prints -Eastern Art Study Room: small display curated by Maria Misra and Anja Ulbrich (Ashmolean) 3.30- 5.45pm, Session 4, ‘Futures’ As we confront major environmental, demographic and technological challenges, this session asks how these might shape gender identities and regimes in the near future. Speakers Judy Wajcman (LSE), author of Technofeminism (2004) Leslie Salszinger(Berkeley), author of Genders in Production: Making Workers in Mexico’s Global Factories (2003) Catherine Rottenberg (Goldsmiths), The Rise of Neoliberal Feminism (2018) Discussant Maria Misra 5.45pm: Closing Remarks, Maria Misra 6.00-7.45pm: Drinks Reception, Ashmolean Greek and Roman Gallery

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Abstract To follow This will be a hybrid seminar in the Big Data Institute and on Zoom. Zoom registration https://medsci.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcldO-qqDMuGNc6Ca15dCj7po2qtIUaXqn3

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This webinar will launch a new discussion document from the Agile Initiative exploring the relationship between environmental knowledge, policy and the public. Environmental science, policy, and publics have always been entwined with one another, in a relationship that constitutes a central part of democracy. In the face of global challenges such as the climate and biodiversity crises, the production of environmental knowledge is becoming an ever more public affair. The document reviews the state of debates about public participation and deliberative processes in environmental science and policy-making and poses a set of provocations and discussion questions for researchers, funders, policy makers and practitioners about the role of publics and deliberation at the environmental science-policy interface.

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Day 3, Wednesday 23 June GENDER IN FILM AND FICTION (Morning: Old Dining Room, St Edmund Hall; Afternoon: Phoenix Picture-House Cinema) 9.30-1.30, Gender and the Global Novel In Conversation with: Xiaolu Guo, author & filmmaker, A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers (2007); Radical: A Life of My Own (2023) Margie Orford, Daddy’s Girl (2006);The Eye of the Beholder (2022) 2.00-c.8.00pm, Gender and Global Film 2.00pm, Welcome 2.00-4.00pm, Screening of Joyland (2022), Jury Prize and Queer Palm, Cannes 2022 4.00-4.30pm: Tea Break 4.30-5.30pm: Director Saim Sadiq 5.30-5.45 pm: Introduction 5.45 -7.45 pm Screening 2 Organised by Maria Misra (History Faculty) in association with the Ashmolean Museum, the Asian Studies Centre, St Antony’s. Generously funded by UKRI/AHRC

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This workshop provides a primer on how to craft a strong presentation for a policy audience. Over the course of two, 90-minute sessions, we explore some of the key elements of persuasive communication that can help bring your talk alive. The first session focuses on the fundamentals of persuasive communication, including how to get the audience’s attention and how to structure your content in a way that lands with your audience. In the second half, we look at delivery skills. Here, we examine how to use body language, voice, and words to enhance your presence, as well as how to design and deliver slides for maximum impact. The workshop is highly interactive, melding best–practice concepts and techniques with tips and exercises. Participants will come away with greater confidence in the art of persuasive argument, which lies at the core of effective policy communication. Delia Lloyd is a communications expert with more than 20 years of experience. She offers coaching and workshops in writing, speaking and leadership communications for academic, non-profit and commercial clients. Delia holds a PhD in political science from Stanford University and taught public policy and international development at MIT and The University of Chicago. During 2001-2, she was a Senior Development Adviser at the United States Treasury Department, where she was a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow. From 2012-2017, Delia was the Head of Policy and Research Insight at BBC Media Action, the BBC's International development charity, where she was in charge of commissioning, editing and disseminating policy and research outputs. A seasoned journalist, Delia’s reporting and commentaries have appeared in outlets including The New York Times, Financial Times, The Washington Post and BBC World Service.

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For our next talk, in the BDI/CHG (gen)omics Seminar series, we will be hearing from Dr Gelernter, Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience, Director, Division of Human Genetics (Psychiatry), Yale University School of Medicine. We’re delighted to host Dr Gelernter in what promises to be a great talk! Date: Wednesday 26 June Time: 12:30 – 13:30 Talk title: Large Biobanks for genetics studies of psychiatric traits: Finding risk variants and learning from them Location: Big Data Institute, Seminar Room 0 Bio: Dr. Gelernter is Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience; and Director, Division of Human Genetics (Psychiatry), at Yale University School of Medicine. He studied music and biology as an undergraduate at Yale University; completed his MD at SUNY-Downstate; and trained in psychiatry at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic (Pittsburgh) followed by fellowship at the NIMH. He returned to Yale in 1988 to join the psychiatry faculty, where he has been ever since. The research focus of his laboratory is complex trait genetics, especially genetics of psychiatric illness: a range of behavioral phenotypes including substance use disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety disorders, and other traits. To this end, he studies genetic polymorphism and sequence variation, genomewide, usually in large samples, and from the perspective of population genetics. He leads studies based in the US and Thailand. Dr. Gelernter co-leads, with Dr Murray Stein of UCSD, the Million Veteran Program PTSD project, and also co-leads the Substance Use Disorders Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium. Studies published recently include genomewide association studies of cannabis use disorder, problematic alcohol use, and sleep duration. His research is supported by the US Department of Veterans Affairs, and by multiple US National Institutes of Health agencies: NIDA, NIAAA, NIMH, and the Fogarty Center. ————————————————————— 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 – Meeting ID: 348 556 030 255 Passcode: e3FCLY ——————————————————————————————————— 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!

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Milosevic Group 12:30-13:00 Speaker(s): TBC Title(s): TBC IPSC SRF 13:00-13:30 Speaker: Phalguni Rath Title(s): TBC

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Alexander Burns is the head of news at POLITICO. He has covered politics and power for more than a decade, including as national political correspondent for The New York Times during the 2020 presidential election. A graduate of Harvard College, he edited the Harvard Political Review. In 2022, he co-authored the bestselling book “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future.” Burns writes POLITICO’s Tomorrow column, which explores the future of politics and policy debates that cross national lines.

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This international qualitative survey study sets out to investigate in-service and pre-service primary school teachers’ perceived barriers to and enablers for the integration of storytelling in mathematics teaching and learning across five different countries (England, Ireland, Malta, Australia and Taiwan). While research over the past three decades have documented pedagogical benefits of teaching mathematics using children’s literature, research into teachers’ perceptions regarding the use of such resources is virtually non-existent. The study thus filled this research gap by drawing responses from open-ended survey questions of 1,000+ in-service and pre-service teachers across these aforementioned five countries. (In the context of this presentation, the focus will be on presenting data relating to England with some broad comparisons made with the other countries’ datasets.) A thematic analysis revealed a set of perceived barriers classified under themes, such as Lack of Pedagogical Knowledge and Confidence, and Time Constraint. Moreover, the study also identified a set of perceived enablers classified under themes, such as Pedagogical Benefits and Social Norms. Findings also showed that most of the teachers in the study have never used or infrequently used storytelling as part of their mathematics teaching. The study highlights the role of professional learning and teacher training in ensuring that both in- and pre-service teachers have the necessary pedagogical knowledge, experience and confidence in using children’s literature to enrich their mathematics teaching. The presentation will then conclude with a summary of the speaker’s research impact-generating activities based on the findings so far.

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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.

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The Repair-Ed Project explores how racial and class injustices can be addressed through reparative action in education. In this online gathering, we’ll be discussing past and present struggles for justice in education and how reparative frameworks can create new imaginative possibilities for educators, researchers, and activists. What might reparation in education systems look like? Professor Arathi Sriprakash (Project Lead, University of Oxford) will be in conversation with Professor Jarvis Givens (Harvard University). They’ll be joined by Repair-Ed project team members – Dr Claire Stewart-Hall and Dr Alice Willatt – who will be sharing insights from the research so far and how you can be involved. This is a public online event, all are welcome!

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This interdisciplinary workshop delves into the complex and evolving relationship between humans and algorithms. Join leading academics, industry experts and practitioners for thought-provoking discussions, knowledge exchange and exploration of the ethical and practical implications of human-algorithm interaction. Key takeaways Gain insights into the latest research on human-algorithm collaboration Understand the impact of algorithms on decision-making, work and society Develop strategies for responsible and ethical algorithm design and deployment Expand your professional network and connect with experts in the field Target audience Academic researchers: scholars engaged in research and development in the field of artificial intelligence, drawn from disciplines such as computer science, business and other relevant fields C-suite executives and decision-makers: senior executives and individuals responsible for strategic decision-making, demonstrating a forward-looking approach and willingness to embrace artificial intelligence Policymakers and regulators: government officials and regulatory bodies seeking to formulate policies related to artificial intelligence, ensuring its responsible and ethical development and use Optional activities (extra fee): dinner at Exeter College (day 1) & 90-minute walking tour of Oxford (day 2).

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The brain is very sensitive to blood flow disruption, with abnormal flow patterns present in a wide range of neurovascular diseases, neurodegenerative conditions and lesions, such as tumours. Conventional methods to map brain blood flow, both through the arteries (angiography) and at the tissue level (perfusion), are often invasive and require ionising radiation, limiting their use in paediatrics, longitudinal imaging and research. In this talk I will describe recent developments in a non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging technique, arterial spin labelling, including vessel-selective blood flow mapping, simultaneous angiography and perfusion imaging and functional imaging, with some example applications in basic neuroscience and clinical research, including acute stroke, arteriovenous malformation, tonic pain and population neuroimaging.

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Lesson of the week, clinical cases and research. All clinical and academic staff and students welcome. Coffee, Tea and Cake will be served.

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The Oxford Cyber Forum, created through a partnership between the European Cyber Conflict Research Initiative (ECCRI) and the Blavatnik School of Government, serves as a crucial platform for dialogue among government officials, academics, civil society and private sector leaders on the evolving landscape of cyber conflict and security. The Oxford Cyber Forum will consider a number of themes, including the cyber aspects of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, assessing their implications for future cyber warfare. The discussion will highlight NATO's place in cybersecurity and its strategic responses to threats. It will also cover the importance of public-private partnerships in strengthening cybersecurity and the role of new technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), in advancing cyber defence. The forum will also address the growing threat of ransomware and effective strategies for prevention and recovery to round out a focused exploration of current and future cybersecurity challenges. The Forum will feature interventions from leading figures in cyber conflict and cybersecurity policy, including: David van Weel, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Innovation, Hybrid and Cyber; Jen Easterly, Director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency; and Emily Goldman, Cyber Strategist at US Cyber Command. The Forum will also feature a panel of senior representatives from the private sector and civil society.

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Abstract: Over one third of Indo-Pacific islands are atolls. Nevertheless, atolls remain largely unrecognised as a distinct ecosystem type, beyond being recognised for their smallness and perceived depauperate floras and faunas. However, atolls are systems with a remarkable and unique biogeography and ecology that transcend classic boundary thinking of marine, freshwater, and terrestrial realms. Recognising atolls as dynamic and integrated systems of geologic, marine, and terrestrial processes may hold the key for unlocking conservation opportunities and place-based solutions to build resilience to climate change and preserve their unique cultural and ecological values beyond the Anthropocene. Biography: Sebastian is an early-career postdoctoral researcher at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He has been researching atoll systems since his graduate studies, working and living on atolls across the Indo-Pacific. His research takes a system’s thinking approach to atolls, aimed at identifying the unique properties and processes of their biogeography and ecology that can contribute to establishing a rethinking of atolls in conservation and ecological restoration. 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.

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The 2024 conference theme - Collaboration Beyond Boundaries – will explore how researchers can work together to accelerate practical solutions to global pandemic threats. Plenary and parallel sessions over the two days will feature speakers from across the breadth of pandemic sciences and cover selected topics in more depth. Join us by registering for Oxford or online attendance. Come and share your work by submitting an abstract for consideration for oral or poster presentation (submission closes in February - check website for details). LMIC delegates can apply for a bursary of £2000 towards travel, accommodation, visa and registrations costs. We look forward to welcoming you at the conference.

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*1 & 2 July 2024* The period 1485-1688 has been heralded as a ‘Golden Age’ for English church music, which equipped the Church of England with a rich musical repertory for its liturgy, still heard in churches, cathedrals, and concert halls today. Royal chapels, cathedrals, and collegiate institutions are acknowledged as unique sanctuaries which safeguarded English church music from a variety of socio-political events. Although their importance to the musical and religious development of the English ‘long Reformation’ has received considerable attention from historians and musicologists, interdisciplinary perspectives and discussions are vital for the future development of this field. Understanding the way in which royal chapels, cathedrals, and collegiate institutions engaged with a musical liturgy for a Protestant Church has important consequences for understanding many of the key themes and tensions of the English Reformation: how was musical liturgy reconciled with the doctrinal Calvinism of the post-Reformation church? How different was royal worship compared with that of cathedrals and collegiate churches? Can we better understand the sensory experience of worship in such extraordinary ecclesiastical spaces? To what extent did these institutions change, and to what degree were they truly seen as models for the broader church? These questions will help us interrogate the musical, theological, and liturgical heritage of the English Reformation, and contribute to our understanding of the post-Reformation English church. Join us for this exploration of space, music, and ceremony during this transformative period in English church history. This two-day hybrid conference, hosted at the Linnean Society, London, is generously funded by the British Academy. We are able to offer a limited contribution towards the travel costs of some ECR/unwaged attendees. Please email "$":mailto:chapelroyalconference@gmail.com for further enquiries and information on venue accessibility. _In-person tickets include coffee/tea on both days and a wine and canapé reception on Monday evening. Those joining us in person will also have the unique opportunity to join a service at HM’s Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace, with a special programme of music from the period._ For more information and programme, visit: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/historycultures/departments/history/events/2024/music-and-majesty *Deadline for booking: 21 June 2024*

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Liver injury and inflammation are the major factors triggering the development of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). Mechanisms for inflammation inhibition must exist to allow tissue resolution. Here, we use a novel knock-in mouse model to suppress Caspase-1 (CASP1) deactivation and thus prolong CASP1 activity. We fed mice a methionine-choline-deficient diet (MCD), to induce key features of MASLD, including inflammation, liver steatosis, and liver damage. Indeed, each of these features was elevated in Casp1.CDL mice compared to WT animals. Modelling a “lifestyle intervention”, we fed mice an MCD diet to induce MASLD and then switched to a healthier control diet, which resulted in liver recovery in WT mice, while Casp1.CDL mice had a delay in disease resolution. Our research findings address the important question of whether in vivo mechanisms for signal inhibition, such as self-limiting CASP1 activation, prevent disease progression in MASLD.

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Abstract To follow This will be a hybrid seminar in the Richard Doll Building, Lecture Theatre, and on Zoom Zoom registration https://medsci.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcrdOuprTwiGdWQxeHUnSASjYjKXyBIYWRi

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Join this free one-hour practical, interactive workshop from the UK EQUATOR Centre. In our Lightning Workshops series, our methodology, writing, and communication experts cover all of the essential aspects of writing and publishing your academic research. These sessions are designed for early-career biomedical and clinical researchers. Your article title is the first – and possibly only – thing that most people will read. A great title grabs your readers’ attention and gives them the full picture about your article. Bring along your latest project to practice writing declarative, descriptive, and question titles . Patricia Logullo is a scientific editor with a background in scientific journalism and evidence-based health. She has extensive experience helping biomedical researchers to communicate their findings and journals to publish health research articles. She conducts research into best practices, tools, and guidelines for scientific communication, in her role as website and research officer at the UK EQUATOR Centre in the Centre for Statistics in Medicine This free workshop series is open to all staff and students of the University of Oxford, Oxford Brookes, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, but we do ask you to book a spot. To hear about other EQUATOR courses in Oxford, please join our mailing list by sending a blank email to equator-oxford-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk

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Who do you need to engage with in the policy world to achieve impact? In this workshop, we will help answer this and other questions by equipping researchers to identify and map the people and groups who influence or are impacted by their research, when it comes to policy engagement. Using stakeholder analysis frameworks and interactive exercises, participants will learn to identify and categorize their relevant audiences across government agencies and other pertinent policy actors. Registration, venue and timings to be confirmed.

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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.

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As the disciplines of Islamic history and Arabic palaeography make steady progress, many questions concerning the aesthetic and symbolic dimensions of Arabic writing remain unanswered. This symposium will bring together fourteen scholars working on Arabic calligraphy, epigraphy, palaeography, numismatics, and diplomatics in different regions of Afro-Eurasia, from the seventh to the sixteenth centuries. The aim is to showcase brand new research on a wide range of artifacts (Qurʾanic manuscripts, chancery documents, monumental epigraphy, inscribed objects, coins...), grounded in material evidence but also engaged with textual sources (historiography, biographical dictionaries, philosophical treatises, fatwas and legal compendia, chancery manuals, adab...). Each contribution will shed light on previously unnoticed paradigms and practices, proposing new frameworks and approaches to Arabic writing that could be applied on a macro level, and unveiling the processes by which meaning was conveyed not just textually, but also visually. The symposium will lay the foundations for a methodological shift in the way we understand calligraphic and epigraphic styles, as it will mainly focus on the ‘why’ and ‘how’ such styles originated, developed, transformed, and became extinct, exposing or disproving their links with doctrinal notions, dynastic claims, aesthetic discourses, cultural identities, or the self-representation of distinct professional groups. These are some of the questions that will be tackled: Why were specific scripts and layouts employed in some Arabic manuscripts, documents, and inscriptions on various media, instead of others? How did such scripts and layouts originate and develop, and how can the available literary sources help us understand these processes? Through what channels did calligraphic and epigraphic styles travel and spread? What role did different social groups (Quranic calligraphers, book copyists, chancery scribes, stone carvers, die engravers...) play in these processes, and to what extent did they affect each other’s work? What influence did certain patrons, intellectual elites, and religious scholars have on the adoption and canonisation of specific calligraphic and epigraphic styles? What meanings were conveyed by calligraphic diagrams, calligrams, or by epigraphy that followed distinctive configurations or colour schemes? How did contemporary viewers and users perceive calligraphy and epigraphy beyond their textual content? How did they engage with their visual properties and material qualities?

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Lesson of the week, clinical cases and research. All clinical and academic staff and students welcome. Coffee, Tea and Cake will be served.

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Ethics In Film is brought to you by Oxford Ethics & Humanities (OEH) and Reuben College. This 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). Our Ethics in Film events are led and chaired by Angeliki Kerasidou, Associate Professor in Bioethics at the Ethox Centre and Official Fellow of Reuben College. The film will be followed by a conversation on global health justice, with speakers: Caesar Atuire a health ethicist and philosopher at the University of Oxford, and Associate Professor of Applied Philosophy at the University of Ghana; Erica Charters Professor of Global History and Medicine and a historian of war, disease and empire at the University of Oxford, chaired by Angeliki Kerasidou. This is a public event and everyone is welcome.

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Join Researcher Kevin Grecksch on a water-themed stroll around Oxford to explore global and local water-related challenges. Consider your relationship with fresh water as you walk around the city. The walk is suitable for all ages, with a slow to average pace and the opportunity to sit down at certain stops. Sturdy shoes are recommended but not a must. Start (18:30): Museum of Natural History Front Lawn Stop 1: Radcliffe Meteorological Station Stop 2: Port Meadow Stop 3: River Thames Stop 4: Isis Lock/End of Oxford Canal Stop 5: Ashmolean Museum exterior End (20:30): Museum of Natural History Kevin Grecksch is a social scientist who specialises in normative and analytical aspects of governance, especially with regard to water and climate change adaptation. His research interests include (multilevel) environmental governance, water governance, climate change adaptation, governance of societal transformation processes, property rights and the governance of natural resources, sustainability and ecological economics. Kevin has a particular interest why and how power relationships, institutions and knowledge shape the governance of water and climate change.

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Crosstalk between sympathetic nerves and immune cells is increasingly recognised as a crucial process for protection and recovery from viral infections and cancers. Yet, how sympathetic signalling alters immunity is still relatively poorly understood. We are using contemporary neuroscience tools to map neuron subsets that innervate lymphoid organs and tumours and define mechanisms of sympathetic neuroimmune crosstalk. Using chemogenetic and transgenic mouse models, intravital imaging, single cell transcriptomics and quantitative spatial imaging we describe dynamic modulation of neuronal functions by immune responses and reciprocal regulation of immune responses by sympathetic neurons.

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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.

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The Oxford Global Health & Bioethics International Conference brings together the global health bioethics community, and provides a platform for sharing research, exchanging ideas and building collaborations. The 2024 conference will take place on 9 and 10 July at St Catherine's College, University of Oxford, with selected sessions available online. The conference is organised by the Oxford-Johns Hopkins Global Infectious Disease Ethics Collaborative (GLIDE), in association with the Global Health Bioethics Network, Epidemic Ethics and the University of Oxford Pandemic Sciences Institute. For more details, please refer to https://www.oxjhubioethics.org/conference.

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Abstract: Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) may help inform treatments for infertility, which is a common, complex condition with an unknown cause in many cases. We performed GWAS meta-analyses across six cohorts for male and female infertility (in up to 41,200 cases and 687,005 controls), as well as sex-specific reproductive hormones, to identify 21 genetic risk loci for infertility and over 269 loci for hormone levels. We also performed exome sequencing analyses in the UK Biobank to query rare variant contributions to infertility and reproductive hormone levels. We assessed evidence for overlap between the genetic architecture of infertility, hormones, and other female reproductive conditions such as endometriosis and PCOS using a variety of statistical tools. In this talk, I will provide a comprehensive view of the genetic architecture of infertility across multiple diagnostic criteria in men and women, and characterise its relationship to other health conditions.

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Flexible learning pathways, such as online education, offer substantial promise for development cooperation initiatives as they can improve access to higher education for vulnerable populations who are not able to attend in-person, scheduled classes. However, online learning poses significant challenges ranging from student-faculty interactions to students’ feelings of loneliness. For refugees, these factors are more pronounced due to their difficult living situations, often in camps and with unreliable connectivity. Significant barriers include a persistent negative perception of online education and the fact that governments of host countries do not fully recognise online degrees, which restricts employment opportunities for graduates, particularly in the public sector. This study examines the success factors and challenges of learning online for refugees while considering region-specific conditions, such as language and culture, and the implications they have for successfully implementing online studies for selected target groups. Information is derived from a mid-term review of a pilot project developed under a grant agreement between the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) and the University of People to improve access to higher education for Syrian refugees, as well as empirical evidence from development cooperation initiatives. Ultimately, the study responds to the question of whether this project can be transferred to other refugee populations. The study concludes that the project has been successful in providing Syrian refugees the opportunity to improve their employability options and gain an identity other than “refugee” – that of a student – which greatly improves their sense of self-worth and mental health. It also provides policy recommendations for the various stakeholders involved.

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The British Empire was an elaborate project of systematic violence and the juridical ideal of the ‘rule of law’ was one weapon in the coloniser’s arsenal. Or at least this is a theme developed within the growing literature on Empire (e.g., Caroline Elkins, Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire (London: Penguin, 2022)). In many ways, this theme contextualises a general point advanced by certain legal philosophers — the idea that, to borrow from Professor Joseph Raz (Fellow and Tutor in Law 1972-1985, Professorial Fellow 1985–2006, Emeritus Fellow 2006 - 2022), the rule of law sharpens the knife of law but does not tell us whether its use is just or unjust. This view has not gone unchallenged. E.P. Thompson insisted that even in the face of an unjust legal system the rule of law remains an unqualified human good (a surprising conclusion for a Marxist social historian). In this month's Balliol Online Lecture, Professor Mark Walters (Oliver Smithies Visiting Fellow) will give a presentation that will offer some reflections on competing approaches to the rule of law by drawing examples from the history of relations between the British Empire and Indigenous nations in North America. Was an intersocietal rule of law possible between such radically different societies? Examples will be considered of how treaty relations may be understood as an attempt, even if flawed, at building a kind of cross-cultural rule of law. And then conclude by offering some observations on how historic Crown-Indigenous treaties are relevant for the project of ‘reconciliation’ in the law of Canada today. Professor Mark Walters, from Queen’s University, Ontario, is recognised as one of Canada’s leading scholars in public and constitutional law, legal history and legal theory. He has researched and published extensively in these areas, with a special emphasis on the rights of Indigenous peoples, institutional structures and the history of legal ideas. His work on the rights of Indigenous peoples, focused on treaty relations between the Crown and Canada’s Indigenous nations, has been cited by the Supreme Court of Canada, as well as by courts in Australia and New Zealand. Professor Walters also writes on the rule of law and is the author of A.V. Dicey and the Common Law Constitutional Tradition: A Legal Turn of Mind (Cambridge University Press, 2020).

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*08:45* *Registration* *09:20* *Welcome* | _Prof Matthew Wood, Associate Head of Division (Innovation)_ *09:30* *Launch of Medical and Life Sciences Translational Fund (MLSTF) 2024* | _Dr Deepak Kumar, Head of the Translational Research Office_ *10:45* *Refreshment Break* *11:05* *MLSTF Case for Support Form: What the Panel Are Looking for?* | _Dr Oliver Rughani-Hindmarch, Translational Research Office_ *11:25* *Have you discussed your IP strategy with Oxford University Innovation?* | _Dr Matthew Carpenter (Deputy Head of Licensing & Ventures - Life Sciences at Oxford University Innovation (OUI)_ *11:40* *MLSTF Successful Case Studies:* | _Moderator: Dr Kavita Subramaniam, Translational Research Office_ 1) First time lucky | _Dr Elena Stylianou, The Jenner Institute_ 2) Second time lucky | _Dr Winok Lapidaire, Radcliffe Department of Medicine_ *12:10* *Lunch and Networking* *13:15* *Emerging Translational Innovators: Access route for Early Career Researcher only!* | _Mrs Vlada Yarosh, Translational Research Office_ *13:25* *FIRESIDE CHAT 1: Using the ETI route to turbocharge YOU and your SCIENCE* _The TRO had launched a dedicated route for early career researchers via MLSTF called the Early Translational Innovators (ETI) route. The route provides a step-change opportunity for ETIs to independently pursue their translational research endeavours and as a stepping stone towards career development and aspirations in translational space. Join us to hear from the successful ETI applicants from the previous round of MLSTF! The session will cover the applicants' first-hand experience of the submission and their recommendations on how to boost your chances of securing this career-transformative funding and the value of inflection point they hope to reach in their career development journey via their MLSTF award._ _Panel: *Mrs Vlada Yarosh (Translational Research Office) - Moderator*, Dr Nessa Carey (Carey International Impact Technologies), Dr Thomas Lanyon-Hogg (Department of Pharmacology), Dr Jennifer Frommer (Department of Paediatrics)_ *13:55* *FIRESIDE CHAT 2: Why does the committee have all the power?* _This fireside chat will include discussions on the committee panel, including how the committee works, why we have one and what happens at the committee meeting. This talk will also discuss when is the right time for academics to embark on their translational research journey, including what data they should have and what processes they should have in place._ _Panel: *Dr Deepak Kumar (Translational Research Office) - Moderator*, Dr Nessa Carey (Carey International Impact Technologies), Prof Paresh Vyas ( Radcliffe Department of Medicine), Dr Laura Ferguson (AstraZeneca)_ *14:25* *Refreshment Break* *14:55* *FIRESIDE CHAT 3 : Mastering the Milestone Mindset* _You are expected to plan for a reasonable go/no-go milestone in your MLSTF proposal. This fireside chat will include discussions on how to strategically plan, execute, and present your project milestones effectively. Gain insights from funding panel members on what makes a manageable and realistic milestone and how cultivating a milestone-focused approach can enhance your grant proposals, increasing your chances of securing funding and advancing your research or project._ _Panel: *Dr Nessa Carey (Carey International Impact Technologies)* - Moderator, Dr Adam Babbs (Medical Research Council), Prof. Sally Collins (Nuffield Department of Women's & Reproductive Health), Dr Rouzet Agaiby (eg technology)_ *15:25* *FIRESIDE CHAT 4: Life after MLSTF* _You are expected to reach a value inflection point after completing your MLSTF proposal. This fireside chat will include discussions on the potential routes to continuing the development of your commercialisation pathway. This could include further follow-on funding and major translational funding scheme routes, industry partnering, licensing deals, or spin out. The stage at which the project is expected to have reached and the data packages needed to pursue either of these commercial routes will be discussed._ _Panel: *Dr Nessa Carey (Carey International Impact Technologies) - Moderator*, Dr Adam Babbs (Medical Research Council), Dr Gillian Shuttleworth (Cancer Research Horizons), Dr Claire Brown (Oxford Science Enterprises), Dr Simon Hollingsworth (AstraZeneca)._ *15:55* *Closing Remarks*

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For our next talk, in the BDI/CHG (gen)omics Seminar series, we will be hearing from Professor Georgia Chenevix-Trench, /Distinguished Scientist, Head of Cancer Genetics at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia, and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Sciences. We’re delighted to host Prof Chenevix-Trench in what promises to be a great talk! Date: Thursday 11 July Time: 9:30 – 10:30 Talk title: Follow up of breast cancer GWAS through drug repositioning and CRISPR screens Location: Centre for Human Genetics Bio: Professor Georgia Chenevix-Trench is Distinguished Scientist at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Brisbane, Australia, and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Sciences. She is the author of more than 500 peer-reviewed papers, and has been instrumental in the collection of public resources such as kConFab, the Australian consortium for research into familial breast cancer. She founded the international Consortium of Investigators of Modifiers of BRCA1/2, and is a founding member of the Breast Cancer Association Consortium, which together have identified over 200 breast cancer susceptibility loci since the advent of genome-wide association studies. The major focus of her current research is to identify the target genes at these loci though functional CRISPR screens, and to identify opportunities for drug repositioning. ————————————————————— 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 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 – Meeting ID: 395 271 358 549 Passcode: 66WxAj ——————————————————————————————————— 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!

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Lesson of the week, clinical cases and research. All clinical and academic staff and students welcome. Coffee, Tea and Cake will be served.

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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. We’ll cover: what is open access? key terms – Gold, Green, Article Processing Charges; where to get more information and help; where to look for open access material; and useful tools to assist you in publishing open access. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers and other staff.

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We will have a plenary session with a talk by Professor Matthew Snape, Vice President Clinical Development, Paediatric and Maternal Vaccines, Moderna, Visiting Professor, University of Melbourne, Department of Paediatrics

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This interactive two-day programme will focus on the following themes: Delusion (keynote topic) Philosophical Perspectives on Depression Mental Disorder and Creativity Neurodiversity and the Political Economy of Normal Functioning The 'Insanity Defence' and the Criminal Law What is Expertise by Experience? Precision Psychiatry Throughout the event, participants will engage in an intellectually stimulating environment featuring guest lectures and seminars. Presentations – each of which pairs a philosopher with an expert from outside philosophy including clinicians, scientists and people with lived experience – are informal and designed to encourage substantial dialogue with and among the audience. To be held in the state-of-the-art new Anniversary Building situated alongside the river at St Hilda’s College. This unique opportunity beckons for those eager to question, explore, and learn at the forefront of contemporary philosophical inquiry. The summer school will run in person on 18-19 July 2024. Places are strictly limited and offered on a first come, first served basis; due to the collaborative nature of the programme, remote or hybrid attendance will not be possible. A flexible range of residential and non-residential packages are offered to suit participants' needs. The final date for registration is 3 June 2024 if all places are not filled earlier; if registrations exceed the maximum number, a waiting list will be in operation. Summer School Fees in 2024: Registration only: £299 (early bird rate £269 when booked before 13 May 2024) Gala Dinner and Drinks Reception only: £60 (early bird rate £54 when booked before 13 May 2024) Residential package (two nights including evening meals): £856 (early bird rate £685 when booked before 13 May 2024) The registration fee includes: Attendance at all sessions on 18-19 July 2024 Lunch and refreshments on 18-19 July 2024 Internet access (wi-fi) at St Hilda's College Summer School resource pack Certificate of Attendance (on successful completion of the programme) Additional item Tickets to the Gala Dinner and Drinks Reception can be purchased at an additional cost (see above) The residential package includes the registration fee and benefits plus: En-suite Bed & Breakfast accommodation at St Hilda's College for two nights (either 17 and 18 July 2022 OR 18 and 19 July 2022) Evening meal at St Hilda's College on chosen dates Ticket to Gala Dinner and Drinks Reception on 19 July 2024

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Lesson of the week, clinical cases and research. All clinical and academic staff and students welcome. Coffee, Tea and Cake will be served.

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Are you considering a graduate programme in Economics, but feeling uncertain about your foundational maths and quantitative skills? Would you like a letter of recommendation from an Oxford University Economics Professor? Our Fundamentals of Graduate Economics Summer School will equip you with the fundamental tools you need to succeed. In just one week, our expert Oxford faculty will guide you through key concepts and techniques that form the backbone of many graduate-level courses in Economics. But that's not all – we'll also supplement our course content with engaging lectures and career insights from economists working across a range of fields, both within academia but also in industry and civil service. You'll have the opportunity to hear from experienced economists and learn about the diverse paths you can take in this exciting field. Join us in Oxford for a unique and enriching experience. On successful completion of the programme, you will receive a letter of recommendation from one of our Professors as well as a PDF and printed version of a certificate of completion. By the end of the course, you'll have a strong foundation in the essential skills of mathematics and econometrics, and the confidence to take the next step in your career. Don't miss this chance to explore the world of Economics with some of the brightest minds in the field! Visit the website for more information and registration: https://ouess.web.ox.ac.uk/event/fundamentals-of-graduate-economics

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Are you considering a graduate programme in Economics, but feeling uncertain about your foundational maths and quantitative skills? Would you like a letter of recommendation from an Oxford University Economics Professor? Our Fundamentals of Graduate Economics Summer School will equip you with the fundamental tools you need to succeed. In just one week, our expert Oxford faculty will guide you through key concepts and techniques that form the backbone of many graduate-level courses in Economics. But that’s not all – we’ll also supplement our course content with engaging lectures and career insights from economists working across a range of fields, both within academia but also in industry and civil service. You’ll have the opportunity to hear from experienced economists and learn about the diverse paths you can take in this exciting field. Join us in Oxford for a unique and enriching experience. On successful completion of the programme, you will receive a letter of recommendation from one of our Professors as well as a PDF and printed version of a certificate of completion. By the end of the course, you’ll have a strong foundation in the essential skills of mathematics and econometrics, and the confidence to take the next step in your career. Don’t miss this chance to explore the world of Economics with some of the brightest minds in the field! Visit the website for more information and registration: ouess.web.ox.ac.uk/event/fundamentals-of-graduate-economics

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For our July event, in conversation with another Scholar, The Honourable Malcolm Turnbull AC, 29th Prime Minister of Australia (New South Wales & Brasenose 1978) will discuss his lively political memoir A Bigger Picture. When Malcolm Turnbull took over the nation’s top job there was a sense of excitement in Australia. Sky-high opinion polls followed as the political outsider with a successful business, legal and media career took charge. The infighting that dogged politics for the best part of a decade looked to be over. But a right-wing insurgency brutally cut down Turnbull’s time in office after three years, leaving many Australians asking, ‘Why?’ Exceptionally candid and compelling, A Bigger Picture is the definitive narrative of Malcolm Turnbull’s prime ministership. He describes how he legalised same-sex marriage, established Snowy Hydro 2.0, stood up to Donald Trump, rebooted Australia’s defence industry and many more achievements – remarkable in their pace, significance and that they were delivered in the teeth of so much opposition. But it’s far more than just politics. Turnbull’s life has been filled with colourful characters and controversies, success and failure. From his early years in Sydney, growing up with a single father, to defending 'Spycatcher' Peter Wright against the UK Government; the years representing Kerry Packer, leading the Republican Movement and making millions in business; and finally toppling Tony Abbott to become Prime Minister of Australia. For the first time he tells it all – in his own words. With revelatory insights on the workings of Canberra and the contentious events of Turnbull’s life, A Bigger Picture explores the strengths and vulnerabilities of one of Australia’s best-known and dynamic business and political leaders. Part of the Lifelong Fellowship portfolio, The Scholars’ Library is a monthly book talk series, where Rhodes alumni can come together to present, discover and debate their literary works. If you’re interested in getting involved, please reach out to Georgie Thurston at alumni@rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk You can read more about this event and the speaker here: https://bit.ly/_ABiggerPicture

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Are you considering a graduate programme in Economics, but feeling uncertain about your foundational maths and quantitative skills? Would you like a letter of recommendation from an Oxford University Economics Professor? Our Fundamentals of Graduate Economics Summer School will equip you with the fundamental tools you need to succeed. In just one week, our expert Oxford faculty will guide you through key concepts and techniques that form the backbone of many graduate-level courses in Economics. But that’s not all – we’ll also supplement our course content with engaging lectures and career insights from economists working across a range of fields, both within academia but also in industry and civil service. You’ll have the opportunity to hear from experienced economists and learn about the diverse paths you can take in this exciting field. Join us in Oxford for a unique and enriching experience. On successful completion of the programme, you will receive a letter of recommendation from one of our Professors as well as a PDF and printed version of a certificate of completion. By the end of the course, you’ll have a strong foundation in the essential skills of mathematics and econometrics, and the confidence to take the next step in your career. Don’t miss this chance to explore the world of Economics with some of the brightest minds in the field! Visit the website for more information and registration: ouess.web.ox.ac.uk/event/fundamentals-of-graduate-economics

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Are you considering a graduate programme in Economics, but feeling uncertain about your foundational maths and quantitative skills? Would you like a letter of recommendation from an Oxford University Economics Professor? Our Fundamentals of Graduate Economics Summer School will equip you with the fundamental tools you need to succeed. In just one week, our expert Oxford faculty will guide you through key concepts and techniques that form the backbone of many graduate-level courses in Economics. But that’s not all – we’ll also supplement our course content with engaging lectures and career insights from economists working across a range of fields, both within academia but also in industry and civil service. You’ll have the opportunity to hear from experienced economists and learn about the diverse paths you can take in this exciting field. Join us in Oxford for a unique and enriching experience. On successful completion of the programme, you will receive a letter of recommendation from one of our Professors as well as a PDF and printed version of a certificate of completion. By the end of the course, you’ll have a strong foundation in the essential skills of mathematics and econometrics, and the confidence to take the next step in your career. Don’t miss this chance to explore the world of Economics with some of the brightest minds in the field! Visit the website for more information and registration: ouess.web.ox.ac.uk/event/fundamentals-of-graduate-economics

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Are you considering a graduate programme in Economics, but feeling uncertain about your foundational maths and quantitative skills? Would you like a letter of recommendation from an Oxford University Economics Professor? Our Fundamentals of Graduate Economics Summer School will equip you with the fundamental tools you need to succeed. In just one week, our expert Oxford faculty will guide you through key concepts and techniques that form the backbone of many graduate-level courses in Economics. But that’s not all – we’ll also supplement our course content with engaging lectures and career insights from economists working across a range of fields, both within academia but also in industry and civil service. You’ll have the opportunity to hear from experienced economists and learn about the diverse paths you can take in this exciting field. Join us in Oxford for a unique and enriching experience. On successful completion of the programme, you will receive a letter of recommendation from one of our Professors as well as a PDF and printed version of a certificate of completion. By the end of the course, you’ll have a strong foundation in the essential skills of mathematics and econometrics, and the confidence to take the next step in your career. Don’t miss this chance to explore the world of Economics with some of the brightest minds in the field! Visit the website for more information and registration: ouess.web.ox.ac.uk/event/fundamentals-of-graduate-economics

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The development of sterile immunity is a prerequisite for any natural infection or vaccination. However, for many infections, including malaria, sterile immunity is difficult to develop. The reasons for the lack of sterile immunity to malaria are largely unknown. To seek answers, our focus is on understanding both the innate and adaptive immune responses to Plasmodium parasites. We recently identified an unexpected role for the innate antiviral signaling molecule tank-binding kinase-1 (TBK1) as a critical B cell intrinsic factor for GC formation during malaria infection and vaccination (Lee et al., J Exp. Medicine, 2022). In my talk, I will review our recent findings and summarize our observations on how understanding host immunity can eliminate malaria parasites. AND I am interested in how nucleic acids (DNA, RNA) derived from pathogens and hosts are recognised by the immune system and their physiological significance in immune-related diseases, including infectious diseases, cancer, allergies and other intractable diseases, from the molecular to the clinical level. We also develop vaccines, adjuvants and alternative immunotherapies using nucleic acids such as DNA and RNA and their by-products. This time I will talk about our recent progress in the adaptive control of innate immunity by a unique vaccine/adjuvant, the development of a system for single nanoparticle mapping and sorting of pathogens, host extracellular vesicles and LNP mRNA. Lab HP; https://vaccine-science.ims.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/

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Hosted by the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, University of Oxford, this international conference facilitates invaluable interactions among academic researchers, pharmaceutical pioneers, and clinical trailblazers, fostering scientific exchange and collaboration in translational research. With an exceptional line-up of speakers, including pioneers and leaders in immunology, our current program promises an unforgettable experience at the forefront of immunological progress. Visit our conference website https://cvent.me/lMLaBa to explore the program, learn about speakers, and secure your registration early, as places are limited.

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This five day residential course, led by Course Director, Professor Paul Johnson, is aimed primarily at senior trainees in Paediatric Surgery and held in the beautiful setting of St Edmund Hall in the city of Oxford. The course provides a comprehensive overview of Neonatal Surgery (apart from Urology) with particular emphasis on evidence-based practice and practical approaches to difficult clinical scenarios. Lectures are provided by leading experts within the UK and there is plenty of opportunity for interactive discussion. Course fees include all tuition, course materials, four nights accommodation and subsistence, formal course dinner and some social activities.

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Conference theme: Industry meets Academia – New collaborations and Partnerships Key focus areas: Experimental Medicine for drug development, Non-drug-based interventions and technology, Data & Omics and Clinical trials This in-person conference is organised by the Oxford Health BRC and sponsored by the UK Mental Health Mission. The event aims to bring together industry, academic & clinical researchers, the regulator and government research funding organisations to discuss the current challenges facing therapeutic development. The overall objective is to forge collaborations that can increase capacity and capability through partnerships to deliver paradigm changes in translational mental health research. The event includes keynotes, lightning talks, roundtable discussion and industry led workshop sessions by Angelini Pharma, Big Health, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb and Reckitt Benckiser.

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We are delighted to advise that registration is now open for the Oxford IBD MasterClass 2024.  The conference will be held on 23rd & 24th September 2024 at the Examination Schools in Oxford.  The theme of the meeting will be the progress towards Personalising Care in clinical practice.  As always, the meeting will be delivered by a distinguished faculty of expert speakers.  We are delighted that Professor Vipul Jairath (Western University, Ontario) has accepted our invitation to present the Truelove Lecture. Other international members of the faculty include Professors Jean-Frederic- Colombel (New York), Séverine Vermeire & Edouard Louis (Belgium) as well as our colleagues from the United Kingdom; Sarah Teichmann (Sanger Centre), Chris Lamb (Newcastle), James Lee (The Francis Crick Institute, London), Nicola Fearnhead (Cambridge), Ailsa Hart (St Marks Hospital, London), James Lindsay (London) & Nick Powell (Imperial College, London).  It is really a very exciting programme for scientists, physicians and other health care professionals. In addition to the main Oxford MasterClass we are delighted to announce that we will be running a forum for specialist IBD Nurses: 'The Clinical / Research Interface’. This programme includes ‘current models for clinical research with presentations from three UK centres’ (St George’s University Hospitals, London, University Hospital Southampton, Oxford University Hospitals).  The programme will be running in the morning on Monday 23rd September.  Nurses attending this forum are welcome to join the main Oxford MasterClass Meeting from 09:50 am on Monday plus Tuesday morning. We look forward to welcoming you to Oxford! Professor Jack Satsangi and the OMC Scientific Committee (Paul Klenerman, Simon Leedham,  Holm Uhlig, Alissa Walsh, Oliver Brain, Lydia White & Denise O’Donnell)

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The Oxford Replication Games is a one-day event bringing people together to collaborate on replicating papers in high ranking political science and economics journals. Replication is a crucial aspect of scientific research, ensuring that results are reliable and reproducible. By participating in the event, you will contribute to the integrity of research while having the opportunity to meet fellow researchers and develop your coding skills. The event is sponsored by the Institute for Replication: Institute for Replication (i4replication.org). Participants can register on their own, in which case they will be assigned to a small team of 2-5 people with similar research interests, or they can register as a pre-arranged team. A study from a leading journal will then be assigned to each team. Teams may either conduct a robustness replication by duplicating the prior study using the same data but different procedures than were originally used, or they may recode the study using the raw or intermediate data. All participants will be granted co-authorship to a meta-paper combining a large number of replications.

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Kieran Suchet from the IT Learning Centre will present on how to analyse your own digital skills (for postdocs and other research staff who are not students). The session will include a short Q&A. To join the event, please "click here":https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_MGQ5NThjNjQtNzM4ZS00ZmE0LWFmMTctMzY4MDZmZGEzYzVj%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22f6215955-7b24-48ec-a76a-2933147ca7b5%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 new project management tip each month * 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

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With the rapid development of AI and biotechnologies come vast powers to reshape ourselves and the natural world. Whether it is about human-animal chimeras, CRISPR-CAS9, mass automation, or brain-computer interfaces, there exists an urgent need for broad societal discussions to help chart a responsible path forward. As technological advances grant us new powers, so do they blur some boundaries between humans, animals, and machines, prodding us to ask the question: what does it mean to be human? The Biotechnologies, Artificial Intelligence, and Human Identity Conference brings together scholars from across disciplines to assess the right uses of AI and biotechnologies. In the medical and healthcare context, these technologies have the potential to help persons with a wide range of physical disabilities. It is likely that medicine and healthcare will be among the first fields of application of such technologies. But some suggest their use can be extended well beyond therapeutic interventions. Through these technologies, the boundaries between therapies and enhancement become blurred and the power to alter fundamental aspects of human nature and human relationships is increased. For instance, we could potentially control the emotions or physical actions of another person via an implant in our brain and in their own. Or control the pleasure centres in our own brains. It may not also be clear who has primary agency when it comes to a particular act or decision. We might be able to heighten our own alertness and awareness and increase other capacities. And so on. With the potential for what some might consider the misuse of these technologies, how do they challenge traditional views on human nature? And conversely, how proposed, shared aspects of our humanity ought to shape personal, societal, and governmental positions on the right uses of biotechnologies and AI? By considering what it means to be human, we believe we can foster more substantial and productive debates and encourage broader societal involvement in these debates. These are matters for the whole human family, as they relate to our very nature as human beings, as well as our place within the natural order. Detailed program to follow. Convenors: Andrew Moeller, Faculty of History; Alberto Giubilini, Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics. Contact: alberto.giubilini@philosophy.ox.ac.uk Supported by Medical Humanities – TORCH; Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics; Boundaries of Humanites Project at Stanford University

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OSCI Symposium is an international event, unifying scientists and clinicians working in stem cells research in various fields of translational medicine. Event theme: "Stem Cells: From Mechanism to Therapy"

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