From the stave to sounds, into words:

Life-Writing Beyond Words is a research network and termly series of public events, hosted by Felix Appelbe, the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing, and Ocean Ambassadors, that explores how we move between words and the non-verbal.



Life-writing is the study of lives, through letters, diaries, performance, memoir, autobiography and biography. But it frequently has to negotiate the non-verbal, for instance when describing the creative minds of composers, choreographers or artists, capturing the sound and light of childhood, or eavesdropping on the world of animal experience. How can these worlds be captured in words?



We are addressing this challenge by convening a network that spans many disciplines, bringing together academics, practitioners and performers who would otherwise not meet. Free-thinking lectures and laboratories will forge new pathways between the verbal and the non-verbal, journeying towards innovative experimental and performative methodologies.



5 - 5:10pm Introduction by Felix Appelbe



5:10 – 5:50pm Louise Cournarie, Rameau le Moderne. Throughout his unusually long life, Jean Philippe Rameau has left an unerasable mark in Music, Theory, Science, Philosophy, and History. The composer/theorist, often referred to as the 'father of modern harmony', and who hated being called a composer, left behind him a forever changed view on music and a large body of work. In a time hugely influenced by the philosophy of Descartes, or the conferences of LeBrun, restlessly attacked by Rousseau, supported by D’Alambert and Voltaire, Rameau the musician and theorist underwent a long evolution. Through his keyboard pieces, this Lecture recital will attempt in having a closer look to the effect of this rich history on both the practice of Jean Philippe Rameau and his theory ideas.



5:50 – 6:30pm Alyn Shipton, How can we explore life-writing that does not use words? One possible answer is to examine both visual art and music for the ways in which we might see or hear biographical ideas. An obvious historical example would be the cycle of self-portraits by Rembrandt, that chronicle every stage of his life, and tell us through peripheral detail not only about the physical changes to Rembrandt the man, but to the environment in which he paints himself, and the clothes he wears. In his new book The Art of Jazz, Alyn Shipton explores the connections between the visual arts and jazz in the first hundred years of the music. Drawing on this unique body of research, Alyn explores how the lives of those in the jazz world have been depicted in music and in painting, drawing, graphics and sculpture. We can see how the image of Miles Davis changed over time, including his own work as a painter; we see how different photographers presented the “Empress of the Blues” Bessie Smith and how she translated the African American experience into song, and using excerpts from his work as an oral historian, Alyn shows how Sonny Rollins used the personal experience of racism in the housing market to inspire his “Freedom Suite”.



6:30 – 7pm Roundtable discussion, chaired by Kate Kennedy, on the theme Never the same twice



7pm – 7:30 Opportunity to ask questions of the speakers via Zoom - advance registration is essential - via https://oclw.web.ox.ac.uk/event/stave-to-sounds

The Politics of Propriety:  Feminist Actions, Culture & Cultural Rights in Pakistan
 

This lecture, in conversation with Sir Tim Hitchens, aims to discuss the huge backlash to the Aurat March (Women’s March) since 2018 catalysed by slogans that challenge the social norms starting with the seemingly innocuous and often humorous placards of ‘Heat your own food’ & ‘wash your own socks’ to more provocative ones such as ‘There! Now I’m sitting properly’ and especially the widely used one in 2019 ‘Mera Jism Meri Marzi’ – roughly translating the English language feminist slogan “My Body My Choice’ – but absent in the English word ‘choice’ is a connotation of desire in the Urdu marzi. Also, differences between the state-oriented women’s movement that burst onto the scene during the martial law and the societal focus of today’s activists, and the decades of hard work and struggle on laws and policies seem to disappear into the black hole of patriarchal mindsets and norms – therefore the vitality of tackling/challenging cultural parametres that impede the realization of rights - and the 'what and why' of cultural rights.

Farida Shaheed is a sociologist and feminist human rights activist. In 2012, she was appointed in the United Nations Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights. She has worked for more than 25 years promoting and protecting cultural rights by fostering policies and projects designed in culturally sensitive ways to support the rights of marginalized sectors, including women and religious and ethnic minorities.

The Sarfraz Pakistan Annual Lecture, named in honour of the business-man Lord Aamer Sarfraz of Kensington, focuses on the history and culture of Pakistan. It brings together scholars, journalists and cultural commentators and provides an ideal opportunity for the College community to engage with South Asian culture.

The event can be reached on YouTube at https://youtu.be/a60BGruIUb4

Following her Research Forum talk in Trinity 2020, 'The Elusive Subject: Biographies of Exiles' Soledad Fox Maura returns to the OCLW programme for the launch of her first novel, Madrid Again (Simon & Schuster), in conversation with Hannie Lawlor. Told with humor, candor, and grit, Madrid Again is a highly original novel, and an homage to the haunting power of history, and how it shapes the identity of two generations of women.



Soledad Fox Maura is the V-Nee Yeh ‘81 Professor at Williams College. She has a PhD in Comparative Literature from the Graduate Center of The City University of New York. She has written two biographies that have been published in English, Spanish, and French. The first one is about Constancia de la Mora, aka one of the Spanish “Mitford Sisters” who rebelled against her wealthy and conservative upbringing to become a one-woman anti-Fascist force during the Spanish Civil War; and the second about Jorge Semprún, who fought in the French Resistance, survived Buchenwald, and went on to become a serial autobiographer, auto-fiction writer, and Oscar nominee for two screenplays. At the moment she is preparing editions of memoirs written by two Spanish women in exile, and working on a collection of biographical essays about American collectors, soldiers, writers, artists, and impresarios, and politicians in 20th century Spain.



While you can watch the video online, if you want to take part in the Zoom Q&A you will need to register in advance at https://oclw.web.ox.ac.uk/event/madrid-again

Title: Edward Maufe Architect and Cathedral Builder



Abstract: Sir Edward Maufe (1882-1974) was one of the 20th century’s most prolific British architects. His best known work, Guildford Cathedral, was completed in 1962. He also designed many churches and country houses, and made significant additions to Oxford and Cambridge colleges. Maufe was a major architect for the reconstruction of the war-damaged Inns of Court. During WWII he became Principal Architect to the Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission, designing British Memorials, including the Air Forces Memorial to the Missing at Runnymede.



Speaker Bio: Juliet Dunmur is an Oxford University geography graduate, who after working in town planning at the LCC, completed a research degree in conservation and planning. In her subsequent career, she has edited and written for health publications and was a member of the Mental Health Tribunal Service for twelve years, as well as serving a term on the Council of the BMA. Juliet is the grand-daughter of architect Edward Maufe. The completion of Guildford Cathedral was a constant presence in the life of the family, and from her unique position, Juliet provides an intimate and well-researched perspective on the work and life-style of her accomplished grandparents.



While the video of this talk is available to watch online, if you want to take part in the Zoom Q&A at 1.30pm, immediately following the broadcast, you need to register at https://oclw.web.ox.ac.uk/event/edward-maufe-architect

In her mid-20s, Heidi Williamson was part of a Scottish community that suffered an inconceivable tragedy, the Dunblane Primary School shooting. Through poems about landscape and loss, the poems in her third collection, Return by Minor Road (Bloodaxe), explore the lasting impact of being an ‘incoherent bystander’ at such a tragedy. Through rivers, rain, wildlife and landscape, Williamson revisits where ‘the occasional endures’ and discovers the healing properties of a beloved place:

'These small movements

towards the bracken

are to be reckoned with.'



Heidi Williamson is a poet, writing tutor and mentor, and an Advisory Fellow for the Royal Literary Fund. She studied poetry and prose at the UEA and regularly teaches for arts and literature organisations in the UK. Her work has appeared in literary journals in the UK, America and Australia and been translated into Polish, German, and Turkish. It has inspired poetry and science discussions in schools and adult creative writing groups, and has featured in NHS waiting rooms, cafés, and at science and literary festivals in the UK and abroad. Her first collection, Electric Shadow, was supported by a grant from Arts Council England and was published by Bloodaxe in 2011. It was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Prize for Poetry. Her second collection was inspired by being a printer’s daughter. The Print Museum received the EAW Book by the Cover’ Award and the 2016 East Anglian Book Award for Poetry. 'With a rootless lily held in front of him', a poem from her latest collection, won the 2019 Plough Prize.



While the video of this talk is available to watch online, if you would like to participate in the Zoom Q&A session from 1.30pm, immediately following the broadcast, please register in advance at https://oclw.web.ox.ac.uk/event/return-by-minor-road