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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261001T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261001T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
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UID:2060-1790863200-1790866800@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Wood Farm: the Oxford Suburb where City and Countryside Meet
DESCRIPTION:Liz Wooley is a freelance local historian: she is a writer\, speaker\, broadcaster\, tutor\, tour guide and project co-ordinator. She also manages community history projects\, researches and writes articles and reports (including house histories and company histories)\, gives talks and guided walks for Oxfordshire local history societies and other groups\, and teaches local history courses. \n  \nWood Farm is a mid-20th-century council housing estate\, but the history of this area goes back to the Roman period. In the 1450s the land passed to Magdalen College. It contained valuable woodland and pasture\, and disputes over the use of these resources between the college\, its tenant farmers\, and the villagers of Headington\, went on for centuries. In 1934 Wood Farm was bought by the car manufacturer William Morris\, and during the war part of it was requisitioned for a prisoner of war camp. After the war the PoW huts were converted into housing for otherwise homeless families. The council’s Wood Farm estate – carefully planned\, with community resources including a large area of woodland – developed over the subsequent two decades. This talk explores this rich and varied history. \n 
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/wood-farm-the-oxford-suburb-where-city-and-countryside-meet/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261008T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261008T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260804T103138Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260804T103138Z
UID:2065-1791468000-1791471600@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:David Etherington - A Life in the Law
DESCRIPTION:David Etherington KC read Law at Keble in the mid 70s (taught by the great Peter North) and was a member of OUDS and the OUS. He was the Moral Supervisor at Edward Greene’s in Pembroke St for several years before taking up a pupillage at 5 King’s Bench Walk in the Temple where his Head of Chambers was Michael Havers\, then Attorney General. The set moved to Red Lion Court (renamed as Red Lion Chambers and its current home) in 1997. As a junior barrister he did a mixture of criminal and common law work\, both for the claimant (or prosecutor) and for defendants. He was made a Recorder in 1997 and still sits as a judge in various Crown Courts for part of each year. He took Silk (then as a QC) in 1998. \nHis cases have included the Essex Range-Rover murders of 1995 (the subject of several films) and that of the so-called ‘Walthamstow Cannibal’ in 2009. He also represented a solicitor in Bristol charged with England’s largest ever legal aid fraud. More recently he appeared in the trial of gay serial killer Stephen Port. He maintains\, though\, that it is not always the ‘famous’ cases that are the most interesting but often the much smaller ones with quirky law\, witnesses and judges. He is a member of Middle Temple and was Reader there in 2022\, where his reading (with scenes acted from the original transcript) was on The Trial of the Seddons\, a 1912 cause célèbre that has always fascinated him. \nAs a ‘busman’s holiday’ David also was for a number of years a part-time legal adviser in legal films and dramas including Kavanagh QC and Judge John Deed. He was a member and\, chair for several years\, of the Professional Conduct Committee of the Bar. He also sits as a judge in the ecclesiastical courts\, was Chancellor of the dioceses of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich and Norwich and is currently the Chancellor of the diocese of London. He has also acted as a legal assessor for the General Dental Council and the General Optical Council. He has maintained his links with Oxford and Oxfordshire and for twenty years was a trustee of the Oxford School of Drama in Woodstock.
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/david-etherington-a-life-in-the-law/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261015T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261015T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260804T103541Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260804T103541Z
UID:2068-1792072800-1792076400@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Professor Greger Larsen - The Story of the Story of Domestication
DESCRIPTION:Greger Larson received his bachelor’s degree in 1996 from Claremont McKenna College\, a small liberal arts college in California. He read just about everything Stephen J Gould ever wrote over the following three years while he wandered the deserts of Turkmenistan and worked for an environmental consultancy in Azerbaijan. Deciding that evolution was cooler than oil\, Greger studied at Oxford and the University of Colorado before receiving his PhD in Zoology in 2006. He then spent two years in Uppsala\, Sweden on a European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) postdoctoral fellowship before starting a job in the department of archaeology at Durham University. Greger then moved to Oxford University in 2014 to become the Director of the Palaeogenomics and Bio-Archaeology Research Network where he is continuing his focus on the use of ancient DNA to study the pattern and process of domestication. He rarely wonders what his salary would be had he stuck to oil. \n 
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/professor-greger-larsen-the-story-of-the-story-of-domestication/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261022T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261022T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T161300Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260806T161300Z
UID:2093-1792677600-1792681200@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Professor Glen O'Hara - New Labour\, New Britain?  How Much did Tony Blair’s Governments Change the Country?
DESCRIPTION:Professor O’Hara was at Oxford University as an undergraduate and a postgraduate between 1993 and 1997\, where he won the Gladstone Prize for History and Politics. After working as a journalist at The Independent\, he moved back into academia at  University College London\, where he completed a PhD in 2002. In 2001 he was appointed Lecturer in Economic History at the  University of Bristol\, where he spent a year before moving to New College\, Oxford\, as Lecturer in Modern History. He moved to Oxford Brookes in January 2005. \n  \n 
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/professor-glen-ohara-new-labour-new-britain-how-much-did-tony-blairs-governments-change-the-country/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261029T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261029T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T161248Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260806T161248Z
UID:2095-1793282400-1793286000@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Alexander Massey - “What is Most Personal is Most Universal”: A Composer’s Response to Jewish Sacred Text
DESCRIPTION:Alexander Massey is a singer (opera\, oratorio\, jazz\, folk)\, multi-instrumentalist\, and published composer\, and taught professional singers and actors for many years. He has written on Jewish spirituality\, voice and communication\, education and research methodology. He is a leader of creative Jewish ritual and prayer\, and as an interfaith practitioner\, is a public speaker and performer\, co-leads a Scriptural Reasoning group\, serves on Oxfordshire’s Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE)\, and teaches about Judaism. \nA song is its own world\, and each invites us into a particular way of seeing\, hearing and feeling. The songs in this lecture recital—at turns yearning\, boisterous\, anxious\, hopeful\, celebratory\, and reflective—include texts from psalms\, Torah\, and the Prophets\, a verse from the 2nd century Talmud\, an incantation from the 9th century\, and a mystical poem from 18th century Eastern Europe. This illustrated talk offers insights into the compositional process\, and takes us on a journey through Judaism\, and music that gives voice to a wide range of human experience.
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/alexander-massey-what-is-most-personal-is-most-universal-a-composers-response-to-jewish-sacred-text/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261105T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261105T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T161216Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260806T161216Z
UID:2097-1793887200-1793890800@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Dr Oscar Patton - Remember\, Remember: Memorials of the Gunpowder Plot in Jacobean Britain
DESCRIPTION:Dr Oscar Patton is a historian of religion\, society\, and culture in Early Modern Britain\, and is currently a lecturer at Jesus College\, Oxford. His doctoral thesis looked at the post-Reformation Chapel Royal\, and he is currently developing this into a book. He has edited a volume of essays on music and ceremonial in royal\, cathedral\, and collegiate churches in sixteenth and seventeenth century England\, which will be published with the British Academy and Liverpool University Press in the Spring of 2027. He has also published articles in British Art Studies\, The Journal of Ecclesiastical History\, and The Court Historian
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/dr-oscar-patton-remember-remember-memorials-of-the-gunpowder-plot-in-jacobean-britain/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261112T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261112T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T161143Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260806T161143Z
UID:2099-1794492000-1794495600@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Professor Beth Breeze - Philanthropy: Why People Give
DESCRIPTION:Beth Breeze became Principal of Harris Manchester College\, Oxford in October 2025\, after 20 years at the University of Kent where she founded the Centre for Philanthropy and taught courses to practitioners including philanthropy advisers\, grant-makers\, charity leaders and fundraisers. The first decade of her career was spent working as a fundraiser and charity manager. \nHer research and writing include the annual Coutts Million Pound Donors Report (2008-2017); The Philanthropy Reader (2016\, co-edited with Michael Moody); The New Fundraisers (2017); In Defence of Philanthropy (2021); Advising Philanthropists: Principles and Practice (2013\, co-authored with Emma Beeston). Her latest book is Rich Expectations: why rich people give (published on 1 September 2025\, co-authored with Rhodri Davies and Theresa Lloyd). \nBeth shares knowledge and evidence-based insights with the global philanthropy community through keynote speeches\, media comment and meetings with policymakers. In recognition of her services to philanthropic research and fundraising Beth was awarded the OBE in 2022.
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/professor-beth-breeze-philanthropy-why-people-give/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261119T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261119T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T161106Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260806T161106Z
UID:2101-1795096800-1795100400@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Dr Muriel Pilkington - The Presbyterian Cavalier
DESCRIPTION:Dr Muriel Pilkington is an Oxford Modern History graduate. Her career was as a history and social economics teacher in Herts and then in Bucks\, where she was for 12 years headteacher of Wycombe High School\, which is a large grammar school for girls. She was also vice chair of the university senate at Buckinghamshire New University and area chairman of a Secondary Heads Association. When she retired to Oxfordshire\, she renewed her interest in local history and now gives a series of talks of local and general interest. \nJohn Buchan was so much more than the author of daring-do books such as the Thirty Nine Steps. In total\, he wrote over 100 books as well as innumerable articles. He was also\, amongst other accomplishments\, a scholar\, an editor\, a diplomat\, an MP\, a keen fisherman and walker\, a leader in the Scouting movement\, a great supporter of the film industry\, a devout member of the Church of Scotland and Governor General of Canada. Had he not died by tragic misadventure in 1940\, he would probably have been either the wartime British ambassador to the US or even one of Churchill’s war cabinet. \n  \n 
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/dr-muriel-pilkington-the-presbyterian-cavalier/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261126T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261126T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T161038Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260806T161038Z
UID:2103-1795701600-1795705200@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Professor Sonya Clegg - How to Make a Dodo: the Evolution of Island Birds
DESCRIPTION:Sonya Clegg is Professor of Evolutionary Ecology in the Department of Biology. Prior to moving to Oxford in 2014 she held a lectureship position in Australia\, and research fellowships and postdoctoral positions in San Francisco State University and Imperial College London. Sonya did her PhD at University of Queensland. She has broad interests in understanding repeated patterns of evolution\, measuring natural selection in the wild\, genetic variation in natural populations and island hopping across the Pacific to study birds. \nIsland-dwelling species have inspired evolutionary biologists such as Darwin and Wallace\, the architects of the theory of evolution by natural selection. Species on islands are often distinct and unusual. For instance\, the Dodo of Mauritius was a large\, flightless\, purportedly tame pigeon that evolved from a smaller\, flighted relative from Asia. While unique\, the Dodo provides an extreme example of an evolutionary journey that continues to play out to different extents in island bird species across the globe; a suite of changes referred to as the ‘island syndrome’. Common changes include initially small species evolving larger body size (and vice versa)\, reduced dispersal capacity\, increased tameness\, a wider ecological niche\, and a slowed pace of life. To understand this widespread phenomenon\, we need to quantify how selection pressures on islands differ from mainland areas\, how natural selection and chance events can combine to shape a particular evolutionary trajectory\, and how these processes manifest at the genomic level. Island-colonising silvereye birds in the South Pacific provide a replicated system to examine the drivers of the island syndrome. Professor Clegg will present results and insights that combine evolutionary\, ecological and genomic approaches and will conclude by reflecting on the plight of island species in the Anthropocene\, and how some may evade an evolutionary trap and thus avoid the fate of the Dodo. \n 
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/professor-sonya-clegg-how-to-make-a-dodo-the-evolution-of-island-birds/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261203T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261203T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T161007Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260809T125751Z
UID:2107-1796306400-1796310000@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Reverend Professor William Whyte - The University: A History in Stone\, Silk and Blood
DESCRIPTION:William Whyte is Professor of Social and Architectural History and a fellow of St John’s College. He chairs the Oxford Historical Society and the Victoria County History of Oxfordshire\, and also serves as a Curator of the Bodleian Library. An Anglican priest and honorary canon of Christ Church\, he is part of the team ministering in Wolvercote and Wytham as well as a member of the Oxford Diocesan Advisory Committee. Beyond Oxford\, he is a trustee of English Heritage and chair of the Blue Plaques Panel\, a trustee of Gladstone’s Library and the Radcliffe Trust\, and serves on the Fabric Commission of Westminster Abbey and the Heritage Committee of the British Academy. He oversaw the building of the Stephen A. Schwarzman centre for the Humanities and chairs the Fabric Committee for the University Church. As an historian\, his most recent books include Unlocking the Church: the lost secrets of Victorian sacred space (2017) and The University: a history in stone\, silk\, and blood (2026). He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Society of Antiquaries. \nThe university is often idealised as a sanctuary for disinterested reason\, where material concerns are set aside in favour of higher principles. Yet when we remember our own college experiences\, what springs to mind are not just lofty concepts but also material realities: cramped dorm rooms and musty library stacks\, gothic towers and freshly mown quads. \nThe University puts such seemingly inconsequential details at the centre of the institution’s 900-year history. William Whyte traces the intimate connections between the university’s shifting physical form and its evolving social and cultural meanings. From the medieval University of Paris\, where students purchased bundles of straw to use as chairs in otherwise-unfurnished classrooms\, to the ocean of concrete at postcolonial Nigeria’s Obafemi Awolowo University\, Whyte shows how competing visions of higher learning left their imprint on generations of university architecture\, landscaping\, and furniture. Along the way\, he highlights perennial fears that\, within the social space of the university\, the life of the mind would recede before worldly interests: that student bloodlines would be tainted by racial intermixing\, that courting donors with buildings named in their honour would become more important than research and education\, that the allure of powdered wigs and silk gowns would undermine scholarly discipline. \n  \n 
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/reverend-professor-william-whyte/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270114T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270114T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T150912Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260806T150912Z
UID:2073-1799935200-1799938800@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Dr Simon Wenham – Sculls\, Skiffs and Steamers: a History of Salter Bros\, 1858 to the Present
DESCRIPTION:Simon Wenham is a department tutor at Oxford University’s Lifelong Learning department\, where he teaches about Victorian Britain. He is the author of two books on the Thames: Pleasure Boating on the Thames: a History of Salter Bros Ltd and Hobbs of Henley: a History. He grew up in Oxford and has an interest in local history.
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/dr-simon-wenham-sculls-skiffs-and-steamers-a-history-of-salter-bros-1858-to-the-present/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270121T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270121T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T151110Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260806T151110Z
UID:2075-1800540000-1800543600@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Charlotte Ellis – My Granny and the Gestapo
DESCRIPTION:Oxford resident Charlie Ellis has a remarkable family story to share. Her grandmother was 14 years old when she was left stranded and separated from her parents in Brittany in 1939 as the Nazi invasion rolled across France. She had to rely on guile and survival instincts to survive behind enemy lines for five years\, facing internment\, escapes and arrest by the Gestapo. Charlie is currently writing a fictionalised account of this thrilling story\, so watch this space.
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/charlotte-ellis-my-granny-and-the-gestapo/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270128T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270128T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T151309Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260806T151309Z
UID:2077-1801144800-1801148400@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Megan Lea – A Historical Dictionary for the 21st Century: An Introduction to the OED
DESCRIPTION:Megan Lea is a lexicographer at the Oxford English Dictionary\, with experience both in revising existing dictionary entries and in adding new words and meanings as they enter the language. This talk will explore the OED’s function as a dynamic record of English past and present\, and explain how it has changed and expanded throughout its history.
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/megan-lea-a-historical-dictionary-for-the-21st-century-an-introduction-to-the-oed/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270204T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270204T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T151456Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260806T151456Z
UID:2079-1801749600-1801753200@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Professor Raihan Ismail – Religious Authority in Islam
DESCRIPTION:Professor Raihan Ismail is the His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies. She was elected as a Corresponding Fellow to the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 2024. Raihan’s research interests include Political Islam\, intra-Muslim relations\, and the intertwining nature of religion and politics in the Middle East. She convenes the Contemporary Islamic Studies program at the Middle East Centre\, St Antony’s College. She is the author of Saudi Clerics and Shia Islam (Oxford University Press\, 2016) and Rethinking Salafism: The Transnational Networks of Salafi ‘Ulama in Egypt\, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia (Oxford University Press\, 2021). Rethinking Salafism is the 2024 winner of the UK’s Muslim World Book Award. \nThis talk examines the nature of religious authority in Islam. It traces the evolution of religious authority and its proliferation across Muslim societies. It explores the production of religious authority in order to understand the complex dynamics of both religious institutions and informal clerical networks\, and the ways in which Muslims negotiate changing local and global contexts.
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/professor-raihan-ismail-religious-authority-in-islam/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270211T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270211T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T151547Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260806T151547Z
UID:2081-1802354400-1802358000@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Dr Ross King – The Surprising Secrets of Roman Success
DESCRIPTION:Dr Ross King is the author of numerous books on Italian and French art and history. His most recent book is The Shortest History of Ancient Rome. This illustrated lecture will explore some of the unexpected reasons why a city on the Tiber became the greatest empire of the ancient world.
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/dr-ross-king-the-surprising-secrets-of-roman-success/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270218T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270218T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T151739Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260806T151739Z
UID:2083-1802959200-1802962800@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Professor Glenn Roe – Enlightenment Influencers: Networks of Text Reuse in 18th-Century France
DESCRIPTION:Glenn Roe is Professor of Digital Scholarship and French Literature and a Fellow of Jesus College at the University of Oxford. His research explores the intersection of French literature\, the European Enlightenment and its aftermath\, and the digital humanities\, with particular emphasis on large-scale intertextuality\, computational literary history\, and the history of ideas. Before returning to Oxford\, Glenn was Professor of French Literature and Digital Humanities at Sorbonne University\, where he directed the Observatory of Texts\, Ideas\, and Corpora (ObTIC) and was member of the CELLF (UMR 8599) research laboratory. He previously held positions as Senior Lecturer in Digital Humanities at the Australian National University\, Mellon Post-doctoral Fellow in Digital Humanities at Oxford (Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages and the Oxford e-Research Centre)\, and Research Fellow at Wolfson College and the Voltaire Foundation.
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/professor-glenn-roe-enlightenment-influencers-networks-of-text-reuse-in-18th-century-france/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270225T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270225T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T151915Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260806T151915Z
UID:2085-1803564000-1803567600@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Bernard Lockett – The Music and Satire of Gilbert and Sullivan
DESCRIPTION:Bernard Lockett is a life-long enthusiast of Gilbert and Sullivan and whilst never a performer\, his interest is in the background of the works\, their heritage and place in British theatrical history and the influence that Gilbert and Sullivan have on to-day’s musical theatre genre. As an author\, two of his books are about Gilbert and Sullivan and has been a Trustee since 2010 of the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival that takes place annually in both Buxton and Malvern. \nThis talk will give the historical background and an assessment and overview of Gilbert and Sullivan works\, looking at their musicality and considering\, with reasons\, the vast amount of social and political satire within the shows. Bernard Lockett will also assess the heritage of Gilbert and Sullivan\, the world-wide popularity of the works in the 21st century and the modern production values.
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/bernard-lockett-the-music-and-satire-of-gilbert-and-sullivan/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270304T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270304T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T152122Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260809T125909Z
UID:2087-1804168800-1804172400@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Professor Oliver Taplin – Greek Tragedy in the Theatre
DESCRIPTION:Professor Oliver Taplin taught and researched Greek poetry and theatre at Oxford University\, with a special emphasis on their reception in performance. \nHis book Tragedy. The Dawn of Drama in Ancient Athens will be published by Princeton University Press in January 2027. In this talk he will pick up some key points from reactions to this book and will invite questions.
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/professor-oliver-taplin-tragedy-the-dawn-of-drama-in-ancient-athens/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270311T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270311T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T152308Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260806T152308Z
UID:2089-1804773600-1804777200@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Paul Walton – A History of the British Isles in (about) Thirty Brands
DESCRIPTION:Born in Staffordshire\, Paul read History at Brasenose College\, Oxford\, wrote Bluff Your Way in Marketing and helped unleash Quorn upon an unsuspecting world. In retirement\, Paul combines two of his passions as The Brand Historian\, guest lectures for the Oxford English Faculty\, creates poetry anthologies (the latest\, on the Côte d’Azur\, has just been published) and can often be found on the Croisette with his flute.
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/paul-walton-a-history-of-the-british-isles-in-about-thirty-brands/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270318T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270318T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T152434Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260806T152434Z
UID:2091-1805378400-1805382000@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Dominic Price – The Stained Glass and Chapels of Oxford: A Photographer’s Perspective
DESCRIPTION:Educated at both of Oxford’s universities\, Dominic Price has made the city his home since 1990. An Associate of the Royal Photographic Society\, he holds an MA in Photography from Falmouth University and has spent more than three decades as a schoolmaster. \nThis talk builds on his illustrated publication The Stained Glass & Chapels of Oxford\, the culmination of five years of focused research into the chapels within Oxford’s ring road. It will introduce a selection of the city’s diverse\, often overlooked chapels\, while also offering an insider’s perspective on the practical and technical challenges of capturing images of stained-glass windows in all their glory.
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/dominic-price-the-stained-glass-and-chapels-of-oxford-a-photographers-perspective/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270422T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270422T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T193522Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260806T193522Z
UID:2111-1808402400-1808406000@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Simon Mason - Anti-heroes in Literature and Why We Like Them
DESCRIPTION:Simon Mason is a writer of fiction. At first\, he wrote books for adults\, then books for children\, which grew up at roughly the same rate his own children grew up\, and now he is back writing books for adults again. In addition to his fiction he has also written a work of non-fiction\, The Rough Guide to Classic Novels. More recently\, he has been writing a series of crime thrillers featuring a mismatched pair of detectives in Oxford\, beginning with A Killing in November (shortlisted for the Golden Dagger) in 2022 and including\, most recently\, The Dangerous Stranger (2026). He is also writing a series of ‘missing persons’ mysteries: Alice: Missing Person and The Case of the Lonely Accountant (both 2024) and The Woman Who Laughed (2025). \nTom Ripley\, Long John Silver\, Becky Sharp\, Mr Toad . . . literature is full of badly behaved characters we love to read about. In crime fiction\, anti-heroes are not infrequently the detectives who are meant to be bringing the badly behaved to justice – think of Sherlock Holmes with his magnificent disregard for the law\, or\, more recently\, Jack Reacher\, avenging angel whose notion of justice is out of the Old Testament. Why do we love to read about them? What does this say about our relationship to good and bad behaviour\, issues of wrong-doing\, justice\, punishment and the law? Simon Mason\, whose books feature the sixteen-year-old dope-smoking\, truanting slacker Garvie Smith (who sees solving crimes as an interesting way to annoy the police) and DI Ryan Wilkins (mannerless trailer-park urchin constantly contravening the police code of conduct)\, considers some possible answers\, drawing widely on examples of characters who make us both shudder and applaud. \n 
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/simon-mason-anti-heroes-in-literature-and-why-we-like-them/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270429T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270429T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T193739Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260806T193739Z
UID:2115-1809007200-1809010800@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Dr Tamsin Mather -  From Fuming Volcanic Vents to Extinction Events
DESCRIPTION:Tamsin Mather is Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford and Associate Head of the Mathematical\, Physical and Life Sciences division for research and innovation. She was appointed to the Police Science Council in 2022 and chairs one the advisory boards of Two Magnolias\, a venture capital fund investing in businesses solving problems in sustainability and human health. She is a passionate advocate for science communication and diversity and has shared the excitement of Earth Sciences with the public through lectures\, podcasts\, media appearances\, and her 2024 book Adventures in Volcanoland. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2024 and awarded the OBE in the 2026 New Year Honours List. \nHer research mainly centres on volcanoes in a broad sense and is motivated by understanding them as hazards\, resources and agents of environmental change or maintenance on the local to planetary scale. Her field expeditions have taken her across the globe\, and she has also studied the emissions from a UK oil depot fire (Buncefield 2005) and is more broadly interested in issues surrounding pollution and air quality.
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/dr-tamsin-mather-from-fuming-volcanic-vents-to-extinction-events/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270506T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270506T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T193937Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260806T193937Z
UID:2119-1809612000-1809615600@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Dr Joe Milnes - Introduction to Fusion
DESCRIPTION:Joe Milnes joined the UK Atomic Energy Authority as a mechanical engineering graduate in 2000. During his career\, he held a variety of engineering and management roles across the JET\, MAST-U and ITER fusion research facilities\, and he is currently UKAEA’s Executive Director for Engineering and Computing. \nThis talk will explain what fusion is\, why we think it will be a critical part of the world’s energy mix in future\, and highlight the challenges involved as well as the progress being made towards building the first fusion powerplants.
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/dr-joe-milnes-introduction-to-fusion/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270513T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270513T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T194119Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260806T194119Z
UID:2121-1810216800-1810220400@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Melanie King - Tea\, Coffee and Chocolate: How We Fell in Love with Caffeine
DESCRIPTION:Melanie King is a social historian\, speaker\, and the author of eight books exploring subjects ranging from 18th-century health cures to espionage. She is\nalso the founder of The History Forum\, a popular online lecture series\nfeaturing history professionals\, running annually from September to May. \nMelanie holds a degree in International Relations from the University of\nSussex and has lived and worked across the globe. Her varied career includes\nroles at The Nation newspaper in Bangkok\, the EU in Brussels\, Chatham\nHouse in London\, and work with refugees in Thailand and the UK. Before\nbecoming a full-time writer and speaker in 2004\, she also served as a\nuniversity careers adviser.\nAn enthusiastic and widely travelled speaker\, Melanie is committed to making\nhistory unforgettable – she promises every talk or book includes at least one\n‘strange but true’ fact that audiences will always remember \nDid you know that three of our favourite beverages—tea\, coffee\, and\nchocolate—once stirred immense anxiety among the population when they\nwere first introduced to England in the seventeenth century? At the time\, some\nclaimed that drinking tea led to suicide\, that coffee diminished men’s\n‘ammunition\,’ and that chocolate was such a ‘violent inflamer of the passions’\nthat monks should be banned from consuming it.\nOver three hundred years later\, these remarkable beverages\, originally from\nChina\, Yemen\, and Mesoamerica respectively\, have become deeply woven \ninto Western culture. Besides being enthusiastically consumed by millions\,\nthey appear prominently in operas\, ballets\, movies\, books\, poems\, paintings\,\nplays\, and songs. New ways to enjoy them continue to be invented.\nJoin Melanie King as she explores how and why these three beverages\, at first\nso controversial\, became staples of the British diet.
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/melanie-king-tea-coffee-and-chocolate-how-we-fell-in-love-with-caffeine/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270520T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270520T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T194248Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260806T194248Z
UID:2123-1810821600-1810825200@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Dr Michelle Pfeffer - Divination\, Oracles and Omens
DESCRIPTION:Michelle Pfeffer is a historian of science and religion at Magdalen College\, Oxford. She is co-curator\, with David Zeitlyn\, of the Bodleian Library exhibition ‘Oracles\, Omens & Answers’ (Dec 24 – Apr 25)\, and co-editor\, also with David Zeitlyn\, of Divination\, Oracles\, and Omens (Bodleian Library Publishing\, 2025). Her work explores the history of astrology in the early modern period\, from astrologers attempts to forecast epidemic disease to the teaching of astrology in premodern universities\, including at Oxford. \nSome questions are hard to answer and always have been. Does my beloved love me back? Should my country go to war? Who stole my goats? Questions like these have been asked of diviners around the world throughout history – and still are today. From astrology and tarot to reading entrails\, divination comes in a wide variety of forms. Yet they all address the same human needs. They promise to tame uncertainty\, help us make decisions or simply satisfy our desire to understand. Drawing on an array of objects and texts displayed in the Bodleian exhibition ‘Oracles\, Omens & Answers’\, this talk will showcase divination techniques that different cultures have developed to cope with life’s uncertainties.
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/dr-michelle-pfeffer-divination-oracles-and-omens-2/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270527T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270527T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T194417Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260806T194417Z
UID:2125-1811426400-1811430000@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Professor Yang-Hui He - AI and the Future of Mathematics
DESCRIPTION:Professor Yang-Hui He is a Fellow at the London Institute for Mathematical Sciences and a tutor in mathematics at Merton College\, Oxford. After his BA in Princeton\, MA in Cambridge\, and PhD in MIT\, he joined Oxford as the FitzJames Fellow and an STFC Advanced Fellow. He works on the interface between geometry\, number theory and string theory. In 2017\, he helped launch the emerging field of AI-guided mathematical discovery. \nArtificial intelligence is no longer confined to crunching numbers—it is beginning to propose original theorems\, sketch proofs and reveal new and unexpected patterns in the abstract world of mathematics. Join Professor Yang-Hui He\, a pioneer in AI-assisted discovery\, as he explores how AI is transforming both the practice and philosophy of mathematical research.
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/professor-yang-hui-he-ai-and-the-future-of-mathematics/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270603T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270603T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T194531Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260806T194531Z
UID:2127-1812031200-1812034800@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Professor Tim Coulson - Predators: How Nature’s Killers Shaped Life on Earth
DESCRIPTION:Tim Coulson is Professor of Zoology at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on how predators impact ecology and evolution. He enjoys communicating science. He is talking about his second popular science book. The first was called “A Little History of Everything from the Big Bang to You”. \nThe title of this talk is the same as that of his latest book. He will explain how past predators have made us human\, how as predators we are changing earth\, and how predators might just help save humanity from itself.
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/professor-tim-coulson-predators-how-natures-killers-shaped-life-on-earth/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270610T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270610T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T194655Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260806T194655Z
UID:2129-1812636000-1812639600@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Dr Maya Corry - Beautiful Bodies: Sexuality\, Spirituality and Gender in Leonardo’s Milan
DESCRIPTION:Dr Maya Corry is Senior Lecturer in History of Art at Oxford Brookes University; her work focuses on Renaissance Italy. She is also active as a curator\, including as lead co-curator of the Madonnas & Miracles exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum\, Cambridge. The key themes of her research are gender\, sexuality\, the body and spirituality. Her monograph\, which is published with OUP\, considers the development of a curiously androgynous ideal of beauty in the work of Leonardo da Vinci and artists working alongside him in Milan\, and is titled: Beautiful Bodies: Sexuality\, Spirituality and Gender in Leonardo’s Milan.
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/dr-maya-corry-beautiful-bodies-sexuality-spirituality-and-gender-in-leonardos-milan/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270617T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270617T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T194833Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260806T194833Z
UID:2131-1813240800-1813244400@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Tom Brown - The Great Financial Crash of 2008: Did We Learn Anything?
DESCRIPTION:Tom Brown was born in London in 1956\, graduated from Jesus College\, Oxford in 1979 with a degree in Medieval and Modern Languages and then embarked on a 35-year career in international banking\, specializing in risk management in media and telecommunications and renewable energy finance including senior roles at Deutsche Bank and Norddeutsche Landesbank\, seeing the 2007-8 banking crisis unfurl from inside. His many interests include classical music and opera. He has previously given illustrated talks to u3a in 2023 on Britten’s operas and in 2025 on the London Underground.
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/tom-brown-the-great-financial-crash-of-2008-did-we-learn-anything/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270624T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270624T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T123948
CREATED:20260806T195008Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260806T195008Z
UID:2133-1813845600-1813849200@www.u3aoxford.org.uk
SUMMARY:Lizzy Rowe - Talking to Children about Art
DESCRIPTION:Lizzy Rowe\, is an Oxford graduate and resident. She completed her MA at the Courtauld Institute in 1999 and\, after working at English Heritage\, now gives talks and guided tours with art historical themes in addition to teaching Art History in primary schools. \nWhether you’re eight\, eighteen or eighty\, everyone can get something out of looking at art. Lizzy Rowe will describe some of the teaching techniques she uses\, what works and what doesn’t and share some of the often brilliant and sometimes hilarious things children have said. She will suggest that maybe the under-10s are the best art critics since they don’t have any preconceptions or prejudices and they’re not worried about coming up with the ‘right’ answer. This talk will be a light-hearted way of enjoying some familiar (and not-so-familiar) works of art through the eyes of a child and maybe learning a few things along the way.
URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk/event/lizzy-rowe-talking-to-children-about-art/
LOCATION:Rewley House\, Department for Continuing Education University of Oxford\, Rewley House\, 1 Wellington Square\, Oxford\, Oxfordshire\, OX1 2JA\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR