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X-WR-CALNAME:Oxford U3A
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://www.u3aoxford.org.uk
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Oxford U3A
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DTSTART:20270328T010000
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270225T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270225T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T150207
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:20260816T150207
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:20260816T150207
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:20260816T150207
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:20260816T150207
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:20260816T150207
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
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270506T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270506T150000
DTSTAMP:20260816T150207
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:20260816T150207
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:20260816T150207
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:20260816T150207
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:20260816T150207
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:20260816T150207
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:20260816T150207
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:20260816T150207
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
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