TORCH Newsletter
6 March 2015
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This week we bring you a selection of interdisciplinary blogs and articles exploring issues ranging from transnational solidarity movements to the language of the first world war. Please get in touch if you are a blogger (or hope to start a blog) and would be interested in sharing your research through TORCH.
We are also pleased to announce that applications are now open for two DPhil studentships as part of an interdisciplinary project on the mental and material laboratory of the thirteenth century. There is also an opportunity for students at Oxford to apply for small grants to support collaborative research activity around Medieval Studies.
Next we week we look forward to examining the relationship between culture and technology in our last Humanities and Science: In Conversation event for this term, and to discussing Pedro Ferreira's The Perfect Theory: A Century of Geniuses and the Battle over General Relativity at Book at Lunchtime.
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The Medieval Studies Network invites applications for small grants of up to £500 to support conferences, workshops, and other forms of collaborative research activity organised by students at postgraduate (whether MSt or DPhil) or postdoctoral level from across the Humanities Division at the University of Oxford.
Deadline: 1 May 2015
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Applicants are now sought for two DPhil studentships as part of an interdisciplinary project on 'The mental and material laboratory of thirteenth century science'.
These studentships are part of TORCH's Humanities and Science programme, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Deadline: 7 April 2015
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Highlighted blogs and articles
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Humanities Poster Competition 2015
A poster showcase and competition for early career academics (DPhils and postdoctoral researchers). Selected posters will be displayed in the Radcliffe Humanities building. A prize of £150 in book tokens will be offered for the winning poster, £100 for second place, and £50 for third place. Posters should be submitted electronically (preferably in portrait, pdf format, suitable for A1 printing) to training@humanities.ox.ac.uk by Friday 13th March.
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What role does randomness play in our history, music, and the nature of our world? An interdisciplinary discussion beginning with a presentation by Ian Walmsley (Hooke Professor of Experimental Physics) on quantum physics.
Please click here for the video.
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Tom McLeish (Professor of Physics, University of Durham) discusses his new book with scholars from English, History of Science, and Physics. They explore the stories behind science and its relationship to wisdom and the imagination.
Please click here for the video.
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A selection of interdisciplinary blogs exploring activism, sexism, language in the first world war, and the narrative of science. Please visit the TORCH blog for more posts, and get in touch if you have a cross-disciplinary blog you would like to share through TORCH.
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All these events seek to bring together people from different disciplines who are interested in the same research area, and they actively welcome new people to come along. These are just a snapshot of the many fantastic events taking place, so please visit our events calendar for a full listing.
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Master's students Josh Aiken and Nicole Nfonoyim-Hara reflect on the relationship between their studies at Oxford, transnational solidarity movements, and their activism protesting the killing of Michael Brown in the latest Voices Across Borders blog post.
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Friday 6 March, 14:00
An Ibsen Phenomenon seminar with Janet Garton, “Amalie Skram: ‘A Woman Who Writes Like a Man’”, Eveliina Pulkki, “Women and modernity in Knut Hamsun’s Sult” & Kirsten Shepherd-Barr, “What Ibsen Really Said about Women”.
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Selina Todd, who co-leads the Women in the Humanities programme at TORCH, discusses sexism in academia in a piece on the Guardian website.
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Monday 9 March, 13:00 - 14:00 (lunch from 12:45)
An interdisciplinary discussion exploring culture’s interaction with technology, with an opening presentation by Maria Blanco (Associate Professor in Spanish) and responses from Lionel Tarassenko (Head of Engineering), Fritz Vollrath (Academic Research Leader, Zoology) & Andrew Wilson (Head of the School of Archaeology).
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Cigarettes and smoking in WW1 can take on an interesting complex of values and associative meanings, which Lynda Mugglestone unpacks in her 'Words in War-Time' blog.
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Tuesday 10 March, 17:30 - 19:00
Wayne McGregor (Resident Choreographer, The Royal Ballet; Director, Random Dance) talks about his choreographic practice with Phil Barnard (MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge) and Eckhard Thiemann (Arts Producer). Booking required.
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How can we understand the relation between science and narrative? Should we even try to? Tom McLeish reflects on the recent Book at Lunchtime discussion about his new book Faith and Wisdom in Science (video below) on the OUP blog.
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Wednesday 11 March, 13:00 - 14:00 (lunch from 12:45)
Pedro Ferreira (Professor of Astrophysics) will discuss his book The Perfect Theory: A Century of Geniuses and the Battle over General Relativity with Javier Lezaun (Anthropology), Alex Butterworth (Historian), Harvey Brown (Philosophy of Physics) & Xenia de la Ossa (Mathematics).
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Latest news from the Humanitas Programme
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With the announcement of this year's Visiting Professor in Contemporary Art, Maya Lin, we look back at a lecture given by artist Vik Muniz, “Class dismissed… Art, Creativity and Education”.
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Events Calendar, Weeks 7 - 8
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Friday 6 March
Resisting Neoliberal Globalization: Local Struggles and Transnational Networks
Part of the "Critical theories and world politics" interdisciplinary student discussion group
12:30pm to 2:00pm
History of Capitalism Reading Group
"The Dawn of Green: Manchester, Thirlmere, and Modern Environmentalism", Harriet Ritvo
12:30pm to 2:00pm
Curriculum Diversity
Led by Ruby Seresin and CRAE (Campaign for Racial Awareness and Equality)
12:45pm to 2:00pm
Feminism and Modernism in Norway
An Ibsen Phenomenon seminar
2:00pm
Anglo-Norman Reading Group
This group provides a relaxed and collaborative forum in which to hear about, read, translate and comment upon a wide variety of Anglo-Norman texts.
5:00pm to 6:30pm
Feminism in Oxford
International Women's Day 2015
5:15pm
Monday 9 March
Early English Books Bodleian Hackday
A hackfest to celebrate the release of 25,000 texts from the Early English Books Online project into the public domain
10:00am to 5:00pm
90 Seconds, 5 Questions
With Katherine Fender, DPhil Candidate English Literature, University of Oxford.
12:15pm to 1:30pm
Culture and Technology
A "Humanities and Science: In Coversation" discussion with Maria Blanco Lionel Tarassenko, Fritz Vollrath, Andrew Wilson and Gregory Radick
1:00pm to 2:00pm
History of Medicine seminar series
Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomy atlas, in the context of pre-Vesalian anatomical books
2:00pm
Gwyneth Lewis (former National Poet of Wales) On Clytemnestra
An Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama event
2:15pm
Besterman Enlightenment Workshop
Laura Anna Macor (University of Oxford), ‘The Young Friedrich Schiller and the European Enlightenment. Anthropology, Religion, and Ethics’
5:00pm
Tuesday 10 March
Gender, Women and Culture Seminar
Matthew Stevens (University of Swansea) – ‘Married Women and the Law in Late Medieval Northern Europe’.
12:00pm to 1:00pm
Humanities and Science at the Ashmolean: Ideas and Objects
Culture and Technology
2:15pm to 3:30pm
‘"Sum quia pictura": The Garrulous Image in the Early Renaissance'
Dr Peter Dent, University of Bristol
5:00pm
Wayne McGregor: Neuroscience and Dance
The choreographer talks about his choreographic practice with Dr Phil Barnard, MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (Cambridge) and Eckhard Thiemann (Arts Producer)
5:30pm to 7:00pm
Wednesday 11 March
Innovation in Healthcare Research
Free public exhibition looking at brain research at the University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospital NHS.
12:00pm to 6:00pm
The Perfect Theory: A Century of Geniuses and the Battle over General Relativity
A Book at Lunchtime discussion with Pedro Ferreira, Javier Lezaun, Alex Butterworth, Harvey Brown and Xenia de la Ossa
12:45pm to 1:45pm
Myth and the Senses
An interdisciplinary discussion group
1:15pm to 2:30pm
Research Brief Encounters
Presented by the Centre for Gender, Identity and Subjectivity
5:00pm
Misunderstanding prints
Part of the Slade lecture series on "The Print Before Photography: The European print in the age of the copper plate and wooden block"
5:00pm
War Crimes Trials and Investigations seminar series
Tim Thompson (Teesside University) "Do Anthropologists Give the Dead a Voice, Or Are They Just Ventriloquists...?"
5:00pm
Poetry Workshop: Rewriting History
Week 8: Sacred and Secular
7:00pm to 8:30pm
Thursday 12 March
Gender, Identity and Subjectivity
Graduate-led reading and discussion group
12:30pm to 1:30pm
Friday 13 March
History of Capitalism Reading Group
"Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America", Richard White
12:30pm to 2:00pm
Israel-Palestine
Panel organised by Dominic Davies
12:45pm to 2:00pm
Other-worldly love, II: Violence and the Sacred
Object handling session at the Ashmolean Museum
3:00pm to 5:00pm
The Human Brain in Action
Free public tour looking at brain research at the University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospital NHS.
6:00pm to 7:00pm
Saturday 14 March
Diversity in 20th and 21st Century Greek Popular Culture(s) and Media
Workshops discussing Greek popular culture(s) and media.
9:30am to 6:30pm
Cognition and Rehabilitation
Free public demonstration and cognitive tesing.
Saturday, March 14, 2015 - 10:00am to Sunday, March 15, 2015 - 4:00pm
Heresy from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages
An interdisciplinary conference
11:00am to 5:00pm
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We are pleased to announce that registration will open for Maya Lin’s Contemporary Art series on Monday 9th March. Maya Lin has created a powerful and highly influential body of work that includes large scale site specific installations, intimate studio artworks, architectural works and memorials. A committed environmentalist, Maya’s latest project 'What is missing?' brings awareness to habitat and species loss. She will give a lecture entitled 'Between art and architecture' chaired by Paul Hobson (Director, Modern Art Oxford) on Tuesday 5th May.
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