We mark the start of 2016 with the launch of our Annual Headline Series Humanities and the Digital Age. In the opening discussion on 21 January experts from across the humanities and cultural sector explore what it means to be human in the digital age. We also start a new chapter in the Book at Lunchtime series, with books examining how digital tools are reshaping research, the future of professions and storytelling. We welcome ideas for collaboration as part of the series, so please do get in touch if you work in this area. 

The Humanitas Programme starts the year with a series of events led by celebrated conductor Christian Thielemann. We also invite you to explore upcoming events hosted by our research networks and programmes and welcome applications for a range of funding opportunities. 

Opportunities

Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund Call Now Open
Please click here for more details
Deadline: Midday, Monday 25 January 2016

Call for Oxford researchers to take part in Oxfordshire Science Festival 2016
Please click here for more details
Deadline: Midday, Monday 25 January 2016

More opportunities can be found on the website here.

Highlighted events

A Conductor's Point of View

17:00-18:00, Thursday 21 January
T.S. Eliot Lecture Theatre, Merton College, Oxford

Celebrated conductor Christian Thielemann explores commonalities and differences between Wagner and Strauss. The lecture will be followed by audience questions and a drinks reception. Free and all welcome. 

Knowledge Machines

13:00-14:00 (lunch from 12:30), Wednesday 27 January
Radcliffe Humanities, Woodstock Road, Oxford

How have digital technologies changed research practices in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities? In this Book at Lunchtime discussion Kathryn Eccles (Research Fellow, Oxford Internet Institute) and James Smithies (Senior Lecturer in Digital Humanities, University of Canterbury, New Zealand) join the authors Eric Meyer (Associate Professor, Oxford Internet Institute) and Ralph Schroeder (Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Internet Institute) to explore the questions raised in their new book. 

Latest news from the Humanitas Programme

Christian Thielemann

Celebrated concert conductor Christian Thielemann will be joining us as Humanitas Visiting Professor in Opera Studies on 21 and 22 January. He will participate in a range of events exploring commonalities and differences between Wagner and Strauss, the role of the conductor, and the performance of opera. 

Thursday 21 January 2016

17:00-18:00 | 'A Conductor's Point of View: Commonalities and Differences Between Wagner and Strauss'

Friday 22 January 2016

11:00-13:00 | 'Kapellmeister or Conductor' - Christian Thielemann in conversation with Roger Allen

14:00-15:30 | 'Regietheater Revisited' - Roundtable discussion chaired by Peter Franklin with participants including Barry Millington

16:00-17:30 | 'Performing Opera' - Roundtable discussion with Roger Allen (chair), Matthew Reese, Peter Franklin, Barry Millington, Christian Thielemann, and Barbara Eichner

From the archive...

In this talk Humanitas Visiting Professor in Opera Studies 2012-13, Gerard Mortier, reflects on The Salzburg Festival circa 100 years after Hofmannsthal's idea about the festival. Our current Visiting Professor in Opera Studies, Christian Thielemann has been Artistic Director of the Salzburg Easter Festival since 2013.

Events Calendar, Weeks 0-2

Week 0

Wednesday 13 January

12:00pm to 1:00pm | Stress-free living taster session

Relaxation, meditation, and understanding stress.

Thursday 14 January

12:00pm to 6:00pm | Phenomenology and Literature: An afternoon workshop

How can phenomenology and literature inform each other?

Friday 15 January

12:00pm to 1:00pm | Wikipedia 15th birthday editathon: The social internet

Celebrate Wikipedia's 15th birthday with an editathon, short presentations and discussion

Week 1

Monday 18 January

5:00pm | The greatness of Catherine

Besterman Enlightenment Workshop with Marcus C. Levitt (University of Southern California).

5:30pm to 7:00pm | Award Ceremony: Jon Stallworthy poetry prize 2016

Wolfson College and the English Faculty will announce the winners of a new poetry competition for postgraduate students.

Wednesday 20 January

5:00pm to 7:00pm | August Clouds: Forensic architecture's 2014 Gaza investigation

Registration for the final Leverhulme-funded "Planned Violence" Keynote Lecture and Writer's Reading, is now open.

Thursday 21 January

1:00pm to 2:30pm | Médecins hors-la-loi: the practice of "illegal" medicine in Algeria during the First World War

Speaker: Hannah-Louise Clark (Trinity College, Oxford University)

1:00pm to 2:00pm | Letitia Landon: Portraiture and the slippery subject in post-Byronic literary culture

An Oxford Centre for Life-Writing talk with Lucasta Miller.

2:00pm to 3:30pm | "Spoken Language is a Prison": Ways of belonging and speaking in North-west Greenland

Speaker: Stephen Leonard (University of Oxford)

4:00pm to 6:00pm | Body awareness workshop

Yoga, pilates, and deep relaxation taster session.

5:00pm | A conductor's point of view

Christian Thielemann discusses Commonalities and Differences Between Wagner and Strauss

Thursday, January 21 -5:00pm to Friday, January 22 - 6:00pm | The materiality of medieval manuscripts

Henrike Lähnemann's Inaugural Lecture for the Chair in Medieval German Literature and Linguistics

5:30pm to 7:00pm | What does it mean to be human in the digital age?

A panel discussion exploring how the digital age has shaped, and will continue to shape, the human experience and the Humanities

5:30pm to 7:00pm | Schubert's winter journey: An illustrated talk

An Oxford Centre for Life-Writing event with Ian Bostridge (tenor).

Friday 22 January

11:00am to 1:00pm | Kapellmeister or conductor?

Christian Thielemann in conversation with Roger Allen

12:00pm to 1:30pm | Heidegger reading group

Graduate led reading group

2:00pm to 3:30pm | Regietheater revisited

Roundtable discussion chaired by Peter Franklin with participants including Christian Thielemann and Barry Millington

4:00pm to 5:30pm | Performing opera

Roundtable discussion chaired by Roger Allen with participants including Christian Thielemann, Matthew Reese, Peter Franklin, Barry Millington, and Barbara Eichner

5:00pm to 7:00pm | Epitaph for a saint: considerations on the epigraphical aspects of the burial of martyrs

Speaker: Paweł Nowakowski (University of Oxford, The Cult of Saints Project)

Week 2

Monday 25 January

12:45pm to 2:00pm | OCCT Discussion group

Led by graduate students and early-career researchers

5:00pm | The Play of Publicity in the Letters of Catherine the Great

Besterman Enlightenment Workshop with Kelsey Rubin-Detlev (University of Oxford).

Tuesday 26 January

5:00pm to 7:00pm | Britain’s Black Debt: Reparatory justice

Speaker: Professor Sir Hilary Beckles (Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies)

5:30pm to 7:00pm | Some of my best friends are biographers

Julian Barnes gives a Wienrebe Lecture for the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing.

Wednesday 27 January

12:00pm to 1:30pm | Heidegger reading group

Graduate led reading group

12:30pm to 2:00pm | Knowledge machines

A Book at Lunchtime discussion with Eric Meyer, Ralph Schroeder, Kathryn Eccles, and James Smithies

2:00pm to 3:30pm | The relation of literature and learning to social hierarchy in early modern Europe

Papers by Neil Rhodes (University of St Andrews) and Ingrid De Smet (University of Warwick)

2:30pm to 3:30pm | Why medical ethics needs more philosophy

The first in a series of workshops to encourage cross-fertilization between philosophers of medicine within the University.

5:00pm to 6:30pm | Translating contemporary French poetry

Part of the Translation and Criticism series