Alessia Zubani is a Newton International Fellow in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and a Research Associate at the French Institute for Anatolian Studies (IFEA) in Istanbul, Turkey. Her research explores the history of technology in the late antique and medieval Middle East and its importance as a fundamental element in political and royal ideologies of power. The role played by mechanical devices, from automata to talking statues and water clocks, in the practices of definition and legitimation of the political authority, is her primary focus. She holds a joint PhD in History and Cultural Heritage Studies from the École Pratique des Hautes Études-PSL, France, and the University of Bologna, Italy (2020). In 2021, her dissertation received the Prix de thèse de la Chancellerie de Paris and the Prix de thèse PSL. Previously, she has held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Bologna (2021), the Excellence Research Cluster HASTEC in Paris (2021-2022), and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris (2022-2023).

Daniela is an islet biologist exploring the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is a life-long disease affecting more than 10% of the world population and imposing significant socio-economic burden onto societies world-wide. The disease develops due to a poor release of/lack of responsiveness to the hormone insulin, which regulates normal blood sugar levels. Daniela's current research focuses on protein synthesis dynamics in pancreatic islets. As a fundamental process, protein synthesis in the islet insulin-secreting cells sustains their structure and function. Daniele's work aims to clarify the mechanisms that define total protein turnover, thus widening drug treatment options and improving insulin-secreting cell function and survival. She is also interested in circadian regulation of pancreatic islet physiology. The goal is to establish specific day/night-dependent mechanisms in islet responsiveness to food and drugs, thus understanding how such rhythmicity affects drug effectiveness in type 2 diabetes.

I have previously been a school teacher, Classics outreach officer, Schools Liaison and Access Officer, and Instructor in New Testament Greek. I am currently a disability advisor, and lector / tutor in New Testament Greek. I am currently writing a monograph on Luther's Latin translation of the New Testament, for Amsterdam University Press. I am also co-mentoring officer for the Women's Classical Committee UK, and co-editor for the Council of University Classics Departments Bulletin. Outside of work, I am a cadet officer, and keen singer, baker, swimmer, and paddlesports enthusiast.

The annual Haldane Lecture will be delivered in 2024 by Professor Ulrike Felt, Head of the Department of Science and Technology Studies at the University of Vienna.

The lecture will take place in the Leonard Wolfson Auditorium (LWA). The lecture will also be livestreamed on YouTube. Please see the lecture title and abstract prepared by the speaker below.

Which science, for which society? Fostering a sustainable relation between science and society.

Today, as scientific and technological innovation is seen as fundamental to the future development of contemporary societies, the relationship between science and society requires closer attention than ever before. While science and technology have been seen as instruments of social progress and personal opportunity, the last decade has been marked by friction and conflict over techno-scientific issues that pose serious challenges to democratic societies. Whether it is the COVID pandemic, measures to combat climate change, new genetically modified organisms or digitalisation, they all point to the development of a new relationship between scientific knowledge production and economic and political power. While the demand for expert knowledge is increasing and science seems to be becoming a more prominent societal actor - think of the increasing talk about societal impact, innovation, ... - scientific knowledge is simultaneously facing increasing doubts and contestation and the distance to those who are supposed to be governed by this knowledge seems to be growing. This presentation will explore the considerations necessary to build and maintain a sustainable relationship between science and society under these changing boundary conditions, while preserving science’s essential capacity to be a source of impartial critical authority.

Watch the livestream here.

Learn the secrets of high-fired porcelain with Margaret O'Rorke, a studio potter with over four decades of experience.

ISLAMIC LAW AND THE MODERN STATE: RUPTURE OR CONTINUITY?

 

MORGAN CLARKE

Institute of Social & Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford

The (Islamic) State Effect: Bureaucratic Law and Idealised Sharia in Lebanon’s Sunni and Ja‘fari Courts

DOMINIK KRELL
Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford

Islamic Law and Codification: An Archaeology of Concepts



ROB GLEAVE
Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter

Iraq’s flirtation with Islamic law: The Ja’fari Code Proposal

Baudouin Dupret is a Research Director at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). He is also a lecturer in Islamic law at the University of Louvain.

In his work, Professor Dupret combines approaches from Law, Islamic Studies, and Anthropology to study how law functions in practice within Muslim environments. Over the course of his career, he has spent many years in Egypt, Syria, and Morocco.

His most recent book, Positive Law from the Muslim World (2021, CUP), explores the extent to which the concept of law can be expanded beyond the context of positive state law.

This competition is held annually in memory of the late Professor Jon Stallworthy (1935-2014), poet and Fellow of Wolfson College, and is open to any postgraduate student at the University of Oxford.

This year's theme was 'Borders'.


A prize of £1000 is awarded by two judges, the Professor of Poetry Alicia Stallings and her colleague and fellow-poet Bernard O'Donoghue.


The competition is now closed for this year, and the award ceremony will take place in the LWA on Thursday 18 January at 6.15pm.


Join us to hear the short-listed poems and discover this year's winner! You are also invited to drinks with the poets in the Wolfson Café after the event.

Dr Shew, appointed as the College's first Isaiah Berlin Junior Research Fellow in 2023, will give a lecture on her research into the idea of Birth Striking for Women's Rights in the early twentieth century.