‘Must it be a man?’: the women who helped to make the Oxford English Dictionary

An examination of women's contribution to the University of Oxford, to mark the centenary of women's graduation.

‘Must it be a man?’ wrote Charles Herford to James Murray when the latter was seeking an assistant to work on his Oxford English Dictionary. The expectation in 1906, when the letter was written, was that such positions would ‘naturally’ fall to men, and this epitomises the assumptions which governed the University of Oxford until long into the modern era. In fact, however, by 1906 women occupied many and sometimes surprising roles within the University – roles which ranged from college principals to college servants; from sitters whose portraits graced Oxford’s walls to librarians who laboured behind the scenes; from scholars who produced the knowledge in Oxford’s books to those who produced the books themselves in the OUP bindery; from very public figures in Oxford life to those known as somebody’s wife or daughter, if they were known at all.
Although women’s Oxford story has often been one of absence and exclusion, this conference reveals the many women who enriched Oxford’s life and scholarship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Everyone – scholars, Oxford alumni, and anyone with an interest in the theme – is welcome to join distinguished speakers from Oxford and other universities for a day of discussion in the centenary year of Oxford degrees for women.

Layers of Protection: Everyday Life with Empowered Objects

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Tibetan Graduate Studies Seminar

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In her talk, Inger Vasstveit discusses “empowered objects” - small Buddhist objects that people wear on their person - in relation to the broader socio-political and cosmological environment in India

In this talk, I will focus on vital aspects connected to the ways Tibetans use and understand empowered objects. The term "empowered objects" refers to a wide range of small objects – infused with Buddhist powers – that people wore on their person. My interlocutors used the terms srung ba (protection) or simply byin rlabs (blessing) when referring to these objects in general. In English these objects are often termed amulets or charms. In my talk I term these objects "empowered objects" and I will present some of the objects that people commonly wore. I will also conceptualize the practice of producing and using empowered objects as a “technology” applied to cope with local, mundane concerns – such as travels, illnesses, social interactions and a possible major earthquake – and which simultaneously influenced people’s movements, perceptions and emotions. It is my argument that these powerful objects can be seen as empowering practice to maintain health and to navigate in a dynamic and capricious socio-political, physical and cosmological environment. At the same time, the practice can be understood as constitutive for the continuous making of a Buddhist lifeworld.

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Tibetan Graduate Studies Seminar

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Keywords

belief systems and religions

Diaspora studies

Department: Faculty of Oriental Studies

Date Added: 02/03/2021

Duration: 00:41:09

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Towards a plasticity of the mind – New-ish ethical conundrums in dementia care, treatment, and research

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Uehiro Oxford Institute

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A New St Cross Special Ethics Seminar with Dr David M Lyreskog.

It is no exaggeration that the philosophical and ethical dimensions of age-related cognitive decline and dementia have been discussed for millennia, nor is it without reason. To this day, we struggle with understanding and dealing with the conceptual and ethical complexities which these conditions give rise to. And yet, we keep encountering new problems, challenging us to again rethink our relationship with neurodegenerative disease, cognitive impairment, and personhood.
In this presentation I highlight phenomena in dementia care, prevention, and treatment, which have recently gained attention in dementia care and in the literature of the same – including relational identity adoption, paradoxical lucidity, and transformative experience – and discuss their ethical, philosophical, and practical implications. I argue that, to tackle the problems that arise, we may need to adjust our way of thinking about the human mind, to better make sense of what is at stake in dementia care and to deal with the consequences. I suggest that a framework allowing a spacial and temporal “plasticity of the mind” of sorts may help us in this endeavour, and inform our decision-making in care, prevention and treatment of dementia. I also address some of the potential issues with adopting such an approach, and discuss how to move on from here.

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Uehiro Oxford Institute

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Department: Uehiro Oxford Institute

Date Added: 01/03/2021

Duration: 00:39:07

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Net zero – why and how?

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Oxford Martin School: Public Lectures and Seminars

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The first discussion in the Oxford Net Zero Series, hosted by the Oxford Martin School, hones in on the fundamental motivation of the research programme: ‘Why net zero?

Join the Oxford Net Zero Initiative’s Research Director, Professor Sam Fankhauser; Director, Professor Myles Allen; Net Zero Policy Engagement Fellow, Kaya Axelsson as they discuss with the Chair, Executive Director. Dr Steve Smith, the meaning of the word ‘net’ in net zero, reviewing what is needed to mitigate global warming, as and before we fully phase out activities that generate greenhouse gas emissions.

The discussion will explore the framing opportunities and challenges that the term ‘net-zero’ offers for science, policy, and advocacy informing effective climate action, as well as the innovation required at scale to achieve the global goal.

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Oxford Martin School: Public Lectures and Seminars

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Department: Oxford Martin School

Date Added: 01/03/2021

Duration: 01:02:40

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Finding Today’s Slaves: Lessons Learned From Over A Decade of Measurement in Modern Slavery

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Department of Statistics

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Professor Davina Durgana, award-winning international human rights statistician and professor with almost 15 years of experience developing leading global models to assess risk to modern slavery, gives a talk on their work on modern slavery.

Abstract: Dr. Durgana will present her insights on the use of statistics in the global modern slavery vulnerability and prevalence field over the past decade. She will present work on the Global Estimates of Modern Slavery with the United Nations, Global Slavery Index, and on application of Multiple Systems Estimation throughout Europe with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. She will also discuss compelling developments within leading national governments on prevalence estimation and how this work engages with the global policy community.

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Department of Statistics

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Department: Department of Statistics

Date Added: 01/03/2021

Duration: 00:56:43

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Book at Lunchtime: Sophocles – Antigone and other tragedies

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TORCH | The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities

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TORCH Book at Lunchtime event on Sophocles: Antigone and other tragedies by Professor Oliver Taplin. With panellists Professor Karen Leeder and Dr Lucy Jackson.

Book at Lunchtime is a series of bite-sized book discussions held during term-time, with commentators from a range of disciplines. The events are free to attend and open to all.
Sophocles stands as one of the greatest dramatists of all time, and one of the most influential on artists and thinkers over the centuries. His plays are deeply disturbing and unpredictable, unrelenting and open-ended, refusing to present firm answers to the questions of human existence, or to provide a redemptive justification of the ways of gods to men-or women. These three tragedies portray the extremes of human suffering and emotion, turning the heroic myths into supreme works of poetry and dramatic action.
Professor Oliver Taplin's original and distinctive verse translations of Antigone, Deianeira and Electra convey the vitality of Sophocles' poetry and the vigour of the plays in performance, doing justice to both the sound of the poetry and the theatricality of the tragedies.
Panel includes:
Professor Oliver Taplin is an Emeritus Professor of Classics at Oxford University. His research has focused on the reception of poetry and drama through performance and material culture in both ancient and modern times. He co-founded the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama, and has collaborated on a number of high-profile theatre productions. In recent years he has turned his attention to translating Greek Drama as verse to be spoken and performed.
Professor Karen Leeder is a Professor of Modern Languages at Oxford University and a Fellow of New College, Oxford. She has published widely on modern German culture and is a prize-winning translator of contemporary German literature, most recently winning the English PEN award and an American PEN/Heim award for her translation of Ulrike Almut Sandig. She was a TORCH Knowledge Exchange Fellow with the Southbank Centre from 2014-15 and she currently works with MPT, Poet in the City, and The Poetry Society on her project Mediating Modern Poetry.
Dr Lucy Jackson is an Assistant Professor in Classics and Ancient History at Durham University. Her research focuses on ancient Greek and Roman theatre and performance, neo-Latin translations of Greek drama and the reception of classical theatre in the sixteenth century, and translation studies and theory in the ancient and modern worlds. Her most recent publication is The Chorus of Drama in the Fourth Century BCE.