In collaboration with Photo Oxford Festival 2021, hosted by the Maison Française d’Oxford, and supported by the Humanities Cultural Programme, the international and interdisciplinary Conference “Women, Memory & Transmission: Postcolonial Perspectives from the Arts and Literature” will explore what it means for women to transmit memories in postcolonial contexts. What strategies do women develop to tackle postcolonial issues? What are the issues to address and the struggles to lead to be heard and valued as tellers of History? What ethical and political issues does the reception of their works raise? The conference will bring together art-world figures and scholars in the fields of gender studies, memory studies, postcolonial studies, and Global South studies to adequately contribute to show how the Humanities can lead to a better awareness of the key social and political role of women in reinterpretation of colonial History as acts of resistance and empowerment.

The conference will coincide with a photographic exhibition by Elisa Moris Vai, showcased during the 2021 Festival at the Maison Française d’Oxford (15 Oct. – 15 Nov.). The French photographic artist Elisa Moris Vai will present her series Catherine, Kiambé, Surya. The exhibition shows her photographic response to three female characters in La Quarantaine (1995) and Révolutions (2003), set in Mauritius, by Nobel Prize J.M.G. Le Clézio. The images closely intertwine fiction and reality, literature and photography, to better understand how the transmission of memory can be a tool of resistance and empowerment by women in postcolonial contexts.

Wolfson alumna Chief Sydney Roberts will return to our stage as the Wolfson Role Model Series TT2021 speaker. Sydney Roberts is the Chief Administrator for the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) in Chicago, Illinois with full administrative investigative authority of officer involved shootings, deaths in custody or as a result of police action as well as complaints of excessive force, illegal search and seizure, domestic violence, denial of counsel, coercion and sex and race based verbal abuse. Roberts holds a BSc from the University of Delaware, a MSc in criminology from Wolfson College, University of Oxford and a Juris Doctor from Rutgers School of Law, Newark, NJ.

Our very own Justine Bent, who holds a BSc in Criminal Justice and is currently reading for a MSc in African Studies at Wolfson College, will guide through the evening.

With an induction from Sir Tim Hitchens.

Wolfson Alumnus Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, will be in conversation with Wolfson President Tim Hitchens about his career, the way the world of work is evolving, and where the future lies. Reid is a motivating speaker, known for bold and lightning fast decisions, and huge tech investments. Anyone considering the world of work, or interested in tech giants and future giants, should join us for the conversation.

Watch on YouTube

"Meta-research: in quest of reproducible and useful evidence"

Join John Ioannidis as he discusses how empirical studies on research practices (research on research) can offer a bird's eye view of the strengths, weaknesses, and points where improvement is feasible across different scientific disciplines. Research practices include but are not limited to data and code sharing, registration, collaborative work and team science, replication and reproducibility checks, and optimization of study design and statistical methods.

The Wolfson Haldane Lecture is given by a speaker of international standing in the field of science. It is named after J. S. and J. B. S. Haldane, who carried out a number of pioneering experiments in the house that formerly stood on the College site. Past speakers include Sir Martin Evans, Professor V. S. Ramachandran and Sir Iain Chalmers.

Direct YouTube event link: https://youtu.be/ZEHykKc0XcE

Image courtesy of Stanford Medicine

We know that life emerged from a precursor soup of chemicals. But exactly how did it happen? Why do we find it so difficult to do this in a laboratory? And if the processes which produce life are so opaque, how can we judge whether life is a rare or common phenomenon in the universe? At the intersection of physics and biology two great scientists and communicators debate these questions, with Sir Tim Hitchens in the chair.

Generously supported by the Eutopia Foundation.

We’re pleased to invite you to this year’s Alumni Lecture on Monday 1 March at 6pm. ‘Leonardo da Vinci and National Identity’ will be given by Dr Matthew Landrus, Supernumerary Fellow of Wolfson and History Faculty, University of Oxford.

Matthew Landrus is one of the world’s foremost experts on the work and reception of Leonardo da Vinci. The author of several books on Leonardo, Landrus is a specialist on the working methods and intellectual interests of artist/engineers, using cross-disciplinary investigative and inventive approaches to study the histories of ideas, science and technology. 

The event will be streamed on YouTube. Click here to register.

We will have the honour to host Wolfson alumnus and Rhodes Scholar Wes Moore for an interview followed by an open Q&A session on Thursday Jan 28th at 7 pm. Wes, a New York Times bestselling author, has done remarkable work for the Black community and is currently CEO for the Robin Hood Foundation in New York City, one of the largest antipoverty non-profits in the nation. The event will focus on Wes’ new book Five days, his work and career. The conversation will be opened by President Sir Tim Hitchens. We will meet on zoom (link below) and a live stream will be available via the YouTube channel Wolfson College, Oxford.

Join Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 834 7680 8005

Passcode: 523721

Click here to watch on YouTube

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

Many of you will have travelled from other parts of the world to be here in Oxford. Some will be considering careers which involve moving from one country to another. In this event we have invited four people to speak about their personal experiences of combining a successful career – often an academic career – with a deracinated lifestyle. For some this is a choice, for others a necessity, for others a compulsion. Join us to hear about four peripatetic lives; why people move as they do, and what moves them to do so.