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Research Network Seminar 4: Writing Believable Characters

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Add to Calendar Research Network Seminar 4: Writing Believable CharactersZoom
Location
Zoom
Speakers
Michael Meyer and Ada Ferrer
Event price
Free; open to members of the OCLW Research Network only
Booking Required
Required

Creating context around a book's main character and arc can bring to readers an enlarged understanding of their story and its importance to their time. It can also lead the writer into the weeds, causing a reader to lose interest in your work. In this talk, Prof. Michael Meyer will discuss his approach and methods whilst writing about 1870s London and the many "B characters" in 'A Dirty, Filthy Book,' which recounts Annie Besant's obscenity trial. Meyer has also written extensively about China, and will talk about about world-building for readers unfamiliar with a story's setting, history, and language.

Register here

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Research Network Workshop 3: Rewriting Women's Lives

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Add to Calendar Research Network Workshop 3: Rewriting Women's LivesZoom
Location
Zoom
Speakers
Pragya Agarwal; Rebecca Donner
Event price
Free; only open to members of the OCLW Research Network
Booking Required
Required
This workshop will focus on rewriting women's lives.
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"And He Learns the Lineage Teachings” (sampradāyaṃ ca vindati): Yoginīs, Revelation, and Hidden Knowledge in Tantric Śaivism

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Add to Calendar "And He Learns the Lineage Teachings” (sampradāyaṃ ca vindati): Yoginīs, Revelation, and Hidden Knowledge in Tantric ŚaivismZoom
Location
Zoom
Speakers
Professor Shaman Hatley
Booking Required
Required
This presentation examines Śākta transformations of conceptions of revelation and the transmission of esoteric knowledge in Mantramārga Śaivism. In particular, the presentation focuses on representations of Yoginīs, both divine and human, as sources of power or hidden knowledge, as guardians of esoteric teachings, and as agents of revelation.
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‘Treasures’ (gter ma) and treasure-finders in Yungdrung Bön: a Tibetan tradition spanning a thousand years

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Add to Calendar ‘Treasures’ (gter ma) and treasure-finders in Yungdrung Bön: a Tibetan tradition spanning a thousand yearsZoom
Location
Zoom
Speakers
Professor Per Kværne
Booking Required
Not Required
The Tibetan Bön religion, often called Yungdrung (‘Eternal’) Bön by its adherents, arose in Central Tibet at the same time as the ‘Latter Propagation’ (phyi dar) of Buddhism, i.e. in the 10th-11th century CE. In fact, it shares many traits with the Latter Propagation, and may be viewed as part of a broader socio-religious movement in Tibet at the time.



An important element, shared by both these religions, is the appearance of ’Treasures’, texts (and to some extent objects) considered by their respective adherents to have been hidden in former centuries at a time when the religion was persecuted or when the people of Tibet were not considered sufficiently spiritually mature to receive the texts. The Treasures are believed to have been brought to light by ’Treasure discoverers’ (gter ston), particularly gifted or divinely chosen individuals who passed them on to their circle of disciples or patrons.



This talk will present an outline of the Yungdrung Bön ’Treasure’ tradition, a tradition which is still alive, thus spanning more than a thousand years. From origins which are different compared to those of Buddhist ’Treasures’, it has developed and diversified over the centuries, ultimately becoming the most significant source of Yungdrung Bön canonical scriptures.
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OCLW Research Network Session II

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Add to Calendar OCLW Research Network Session IIZoom
Location
Zoom
Speakers
Dr Tamarin Norwood, Dr Dawn Miranda Sherratt-Bado
Event price
Free, but must be a member of the OCLW Research Network
Booking Required
Required

Please note: this event is only open to members of our Research Network, which you can join via the OCLW website.

Dr Tamarin Norwood on Life-Writing and the Life Course: crafting narratives of birth and death

Dr Dawn Miranda Sherratt-Bado on ‘A god-awful shock’: Big House Burnings and the Irish Revolution in Molly Keane’s Life and Fiction

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WHO Webinar “From Evidence to Action"

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Add to Calendar WHO Webinar “From Evidence to Action"Zoom
Location
Zoom
Speakers
Dr Jamie Lachman, Professor Frances Gardner, Dr Sophia Backhaus
Event price
Free
Booking Required
Recommended
WHO Webinar “From evidence to action: Towards scaling up parenting interventions to prevent maltreatment and enhance parent-child relationships"



This webinar will introduce recently published WHO guidelines on parenting interventions to prevent maltreatment and enhance parent-child child relationships; provide a state-of the science overview of the underlying evidence that informs the guideline recommendations; offer snapshots of selected national and local initiatives to scale up evidence-based parenting interventions and reflect on how best to further advance uptake.



The webinar will be of interest to everyone working on advancing the uptake of evidence-based parenting interventions, and the following stakeholders in particular:



o Relevant government personnel involved in either establishing parenting interventions or approving the implementation of these by non-state actors. This can include personnel responsible for providing normative guidance and training for intervention delivery at the national level, and personnel working at subnational levels, and

o Donors, project developers, programme managers, and outcome evaluators from research organizations, nongovernmental organizations, faith-based organizations, and bilateral and multilateral development assistance agencies.

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Global Parenting Initiative launch

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Add to Calendar Global Parenting Initiative launchZoom
Location
Zoom
Event price
Free
Booking Required
Required

The Global Parenting Initiative: Research and scale-up of human-digital evidence-based playful parenting programmes in the Global South



Join us for our online inaugural event launching our 5-year plan to support the scale-up and institutionalisation of evidence-based playful parenting programmes in the Global South, and globally. We will hear from members of our global team about our key focus areas, including cutting-edge research and innovation, capacity building, and advocacy for the delivery of free, human-digital programmes for every parent, everywhere.

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Scholars’ Library: In conversation with Chisanga Chekwe on 'Zambia: Pathways to Excellence'

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Add to Calendar Scholars’ Library: In conversation with Chisanga Chekwe on 'Zambia: Pathways to Excellence'Zoom
Location
Zoom
Speakers
Chisanga Chekwe & Chishimba Kasanga
Event price
Free
Booking Required
Not Required
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 georgie.thurston@rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk

For our June event, we are pleased to invite you to take part in a conversation with Chisanga Chekwe (Zambia & Exeter 1976), author of 'Zambia: Pathways to Excellence'.

In dialogue with Chishimba Kasanga (Zambia & Wolfson 2021), amongst other topics Chisanga will discuss the current state of Zambia, pathways to improvement and the role colonialism plays.

Scholars may obtain a copy of 'Zambia: Pathways to Excellence' here: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Zambia-Pathways-to-Excellence-by-Chekwe-Chisanga/9781913976071
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Kiyoshi Kuromiya: a political biography

Add to Calendar Kiyoshi Kuromiya: a political biographyZoom
Location
Zoom
Speakers
Che Gossett
Event price
Free
Booking Required
Required
Accessibility
There is provision for wheelchair users.
OCLW Visiting Scholar Che Gossett discusses the biography of AIDS activist Kiyoshi Kuromiya and how his life illustrated abolitionist thought and praxis.



Abstract: My talk focuses on the remarkable life of AIDS activist Kiyoshi Kuromiya, who was born in an internment camp and was involved in Civil Rights, Black Power, queer and trans liberationist and AIDS activist movements. I argue that abolition — from closets to cages — is the thread that sutures together his participation in these social movements, which are so often historicized as discrete.



I also explore how Kuromiya radicalized and democratized his collaborator Buckminster Fuller's techno futurism with the use of technology and the internet for HIV/AIDS activism — including incarcerated activism and how he simultaneously extends Fuller’s legacy as well by posthumously editing and publishing his books as his “adjuvant.” I discuss how HIV/AIDS lies at the nexus of anti-blackness, racial capitalism and the carceral state. I unpack how HIV is entangled with the “scramble for Africa” and how both the history and etiology of HIV/AIDS are mediated by colonialism. I situate Black queer and trans AIDS activism within the larger context of the Black radical tradition. I show how the Black AIDS activist struggle is part of a longer trajectory of insurgent resistance to the violence of premature death. I consider how Kuromiya's story opens up questions about the politics of solidarity and also think through the import of his life and work for Asian American and Japanese queer theory and studies. Finally, I raise questions about the genre of biography itself and what possibilities might exist beyond the individuated self as the object of biography.



Che Gossett is a Black non-binary femme writer. They are an incoming Visiting Scholar at OCLW and a currently a postdoc at the Center for Contemporary Critical Thought at Columbia University.



This event will take place via Zoom at 5.30PM GMT (UK time) / 12.30PM EST (Eastern time) on Tuesday 17 May 2022.
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‘Entrustment (gtad pa) in Indian Mahāyāna and Tibetan gter ma’. Oxford Treasure Seminar, Third Series

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Add to Calendar ‘Entrustment (gtad pa) in Indian Mahāyāna and Tibetan gter ma’. Oxford Treasure Seminar, Third SeriesZoom
Location
Zoom
Speakers
Robert Mayer
Booking Required
Not Required

Oxford Treasure Seminar, Third Series is organised by Dr Robert Mayer on Zoom.



This series will consider the interrelated themes of scriptural revelation in South Asian and Tibetan Buddhism. Hence we will focus on a comparative study of four overlapping and related models for scriptural revelation:



[1] The reincarnated dharmabhāṇaka of the Mahāyāna sūtras.

[2] Indian Buddhist Yogatantra and Yoginītantra models for scriptural revelation.

[3] The avatāraka siddha of the non-dual Śaivism of Kashmir.

[4] The rNying ma gter ma tradition in Tibet.



The series is envisaged as an open ended conversation between textual scholars, historians, and anthropologists, comparing scriptural revelation in Indian Mahāyāna, Indian tantric Buddhism, specifically Kashmiri/Uḍḍiyāṇa non-dual Śaiva and Buddhist tantrism, and Tibetan gter ma traditions.



The Treasure Seminar is an interdisciplinary seminar series on treasure discovery and scriptural revelation across mainly Asian cultures. Series one and two explored the treasure and revelatory cultures mainly of India, China, and Tibet, considering them individually and comparatively. We also considered comparable traditions across other cultures. The convenors are Anna Sehnalova, Matt Orsborn, Rob Mayer, and Yegor Grebnev. Participants have included Anna Sehnalova, Barend ter Haar, Cathy Cantwell, Catherine Hardie, Charles Stewart, Piers Kelly, Reinier Langelaar, Robert Mayer, Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim, Ulrike Roesler, Yegor Grebnev, and others. Most of the presentations so far have issued into publications. We are grateful to Merton College for the facilities and support received for the first series, and to Wolfson College’s Tibetan and Himalayan Studies Centre for the funding, facilities, and support we received for the second series. We are grateful to the Oriental Studies Faculty for enabling the third series.



To join Zoom Meeting use:

Meeting ID: 852 5174 7964

Passcode: 310419