The Sociopolitical Phenomena of Possession and Exorcism (Week 6)
We end our term by looking at Nathan Devir's research on the reception of The Exorcist in Benin.
Where: Kendrew Quad (21 St Giles'), Room G5 The Demonology in Society reading and research group will be continuing its nefarious ways in Trinity 2026. The group focuses on the social science, history, and theology of demons, the Devil, and supernatural evil as they relate to politics, identity formation, and social conflict. Each week we will examine one academic paper or book chapter on these topics, gaining familiarity with subjects such as: the psychology of dehumanization, the conceptual development of the term “demon,” and contemporary political demonologies like QAnon. This term our focus is on possession and exorcism, with special attention paid to the 1971 novel The Exorcist and its 1973 film adaptation. Reading: Devir, Nathan P. 2023. "Reading The Exorcist in Benin: How Discussing a Catholic Devotional Novel about Conflicting Approaches to Psychospiritual Healing in the United States Can Provide a Contextualized Understanding of Ecumenical West African Theology, Familial Values, Moral Ecclesiology, and Notions of Psychospiritual Wellness." Renascence 75 (2): 73-151.
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 9am to 10am
Department: Theology and Religion (Department)
Organiser: Scott Maybell
Host: St John's College
Series: Demonology in Society
Audience: Member of University - ALL Format: In Person
Exhibition: Measured Truths
An exhibition of ceramics that interrogates how visual culture shapes narratives of race and medical history.
The body of work explores how visual culture has shaped and continues to shape narratives of race and medical practice. Through a series of ceramic sculptures, the exhibition examines histories of scientific racism and the role that medical imagery, photography, and visual representation have played in constructing ideas about Black bodies.
Thursday, 4 June 2026 to Friday, 12 June 2026, 9am - 5pm
Organiser: Toussaint J Miller
Host: Fusion Arts
Audience: Member of University - ALL Format: In Person
Transmitting and Preserving Languages in the Medieval and Early Modern Mediterranean: Second International Workshop
Balliol Interdisciplinary Institute Project
The workshop explores how and why languages were taught, learned, and sustained across the diverse and shifting socio-cultural landscapes of the late medieval and early modern Mediterranean. Integrating history with historical sociolinguistics and adopting a comparative and cross-disciplinary perspective, the workshop aims to identify shared trends, comparable elements, and distinctive features in language learning and transmission. This approach offers a renewed perspective on the interconnected Mediterranean world — a region where multilingualism, mobility, and intercultural exchange were and are central to daily life. The impact of these dynamics on language teaching, preservation, and use has often been underestimated. The event will include dedicated time for discussion and reflection, allowing participants to engage in a broader conversation about language and cultural transmission. At its core, the workshop presents the medieval and early modern Mediterranean as a space of teaching, learning, and multilingual exchange. This year, we will focus on Greek and Armenian. Please see the programme brochure for more information. To register for online attendance, please contact Ugo Mondini at ugo.mondini@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk This event is sponsored by the Balliol Interdisciplinary Institute, MGSA, NAASR, OCBR, and TORCH.
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 9am to 5pm
Speaker(s): Valentina Calzolari (University of Geneva), Anthony Kaldellis (University of Chicago), Andrea Cuomo (University of Ghent), Benedetta Contin (Austrian Academy of Sciences), Markéta Kulhánková (Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic), Karen Hamada (University of Tokyo), Marina Bazzani (University of Oxford)
Department: Balliol College (College)
Host: Daniel Gallaher and Ugo Mondini
Series: Balliol Interdisciplinary Institute
Audience: Public Format: Hybrid
Copyright the card game
Join Chris Morrison (Copyright & Licensing Specialist) and Ami Pendergrass (Copyright Literacy Lead) to play Copyright the Card Game. This interactive, games-based session introduces you to the key concepts of copyright law and allows you to apply them in practice. No prior knowledge is required, and the session caters for all whatever their level of experience with copyright. At the end of the session participants will be able to: explore how copyright really works in practice; interpret the legislation and apply the relevant legal concepts to their own work; practice using the exceptions and licences in sector-specific examples; and discuss the role of risk management in making decisions about the ethical creation and use of copyright material. Intended audience: Researcher and research student; Staff
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 9.30am to 12.30pm
Speaker(s): Chris Morrison, Ami Pendergrass
Department: Bodleian Information Skills (Unit)
Organiser: Helen Bond
Series: Bodleian iSkills - Workshops in Information Discovery and Scholarly Communications
Audience: Member of University - ALL Format: In Person
Shut up and Focus Session
Writing Group
Old Bar, Mansfield College Are you working on Queer History? Need dedicated time, community, and motivation to write? Join our weekly co-working writing group designed for postgraduate students researching and writing on LGBTQ+ and Queer History topics. Whether you're drafting chapters, revising, or just getting started, this space is here to support your work – with complimentary tea, coffee and biscuits!
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 9.30am to 12.20pm
Department: History (Department)
Series: History LGBTQ Plus Network
Audience: Member of University - ALL Format: In Person
How to prepare for a Career Development Review, for reviewees (in-person)
COURSE DETAILS This short practical session will help you understand more about the career context for research staff at Oxford and beyond. It will enable you to identify the skills and abilities that you need to develop and give you guidance on how to enhance them so you are prepared for a useful conversation in your next CDR. LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this session you will have: An understanding of the career challenges and opportunities facing research staff at Oxford. An understanding of the skills you need to acquire. Started to apply a process of developing these skills.
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 9.30am to 11am
Speaker(s): Jarlath Brine
Department: Maths, Physical & Life Sciences (Division)
Organiser: Dr Justin Hutchence
Host: MPLS Researcher Training & Development
Audience: Member of University - ALL Format: In Person
Systematic reviews, scoping reviews and other evidence reviews in medicine: getting started
In this 60-minute online workshop you will be introduced to the methodologies and principles underpinning the conduct of literature searches for systematic reviews, scoping reviews and other evidence reviews. The session will cover: Formulating a focused research question Preparing a protocol Developing a search strategy to address that research question Choosing appropriate databases and search engines Searching for grey literature and ongoing studies Managing your references in Covidence Documenting and reporting your search Please note, there won’t be an opportunity to search different databases during this session.
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 10am to 11am
Speaker(s): Carolyn Smith (Bodleian Libraries), Suzannah Bridge (Bodleian Libraries)
Department: Bodleian Information Skills (Unit)
Organiser: Helen Bond
Series: Bodleian iSkills - Workshops in Information Discovery and Scholarly Communications
Audience: Member of University - ALL Format: Online
Gene Transfer and Genome Editing of T cells for Cancer Immunotherapy
This seminar series brings world-class science to the Institute and members of the University of Oxford, with talks designed to feature fundamental and transformative science with topics of broad interest. In-person attendance is encouraged. Remote access is in view-only mode, and remote attendees will not be able to participate in the Q&A.
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 12pm to 1pm
Speaker(s): Professor Chiara Bonini
Department: Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (Unit)
Organiser: Yasmine Saito
Host: Dr Mara Cenerenti
Series: WIMM THURSDAY SEMINARS
Audience: Member of University - ALL Format: Hybrid
Witnessing a Wounded World: A Theology of Ecological Trauma (Book Launch)
Witnessing a Wounded World: A Theology of Ecological Trauma (Book Launch)
Dr Tim Middleton (Theology and Religion, Oxford) in conversation with Dr Stefan Skrimshire (Theology and Religious Studies, University of Leeds). What kind of traumas are being precipitated by anthropogenic climate change and accelerating biodiversity loss? What would it mean to envisage the Earth itself as traumatized? And how might a Christian theologian respond? From large-scale deforestation and opencast mining to rampaging wildfires and fracturing ice sheets, the Earth itself is subject to intense devastation. Witnessing a Wounded World analyzes such phenomena in terms of three traumatic ruptures—to communication, to flesh, and to time. Drawing on practices of witnessing and the insights of deep incarnation Christologies, Middleton proceeds to offer a theological account of this ecological trauma. Dr Tim Middleton is a Tutorial Fellow in Theology at Regent’s Park College Oxford as well as Research Fellow at the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion, and Research Affiliate at the Laudato Si’ Research Institute. His work focuses on the intersections of theology and religion with science, nature, and the environment.
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 12pm to 1.30pm
Speaker(s): Dr Tim Middleton (Theology and Religion, Regent's Park College Oxford), Dr Stefan Skrimshire (Theology and Religious Studies, University of Leeds)
Department: Humanities (Division)
Organiser: Environmental Humanities Programme
Host: Environmental Humanities TORCH
Series: Environmental Humanities Research Hub Seminar
Audience: Public Format: In Person
Law 101 for founders webinar: getting the basics right
An exclusive webinar on legal fundamentals for University of Oxford founders
Join Oxford Saïd Entrepreneurship Centre and serial entrepreneur and expert, Max Inglis for this free webinar covering the key legal fundamentals every founder needs to understand to avoid common pitfalls early on.
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 12.30pm to 1.30pm
Department: Said Business School (Department)
Host: Oxford Said Entrepreneurship Centre
Audience: Member of University - ALL Format: Online
Narrative CVs for Funding Applications
Narrative CVs are being adopted by many funders, nationally and internationally, to give researchers the opportunity to showcase a wider range of skills and experience than is possible in a traditional academic CV; an example is the UKRI Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI). Writing a narrative CV requires a different way of thinking about and describing your skills, experience and contributions to research and innovation compared to a traditional CV. Writing your first narrative CV will take some time and effort; you might not be sure about what activities to include, and how to describe their quality, relevance, and your involvement in them. This presentation will try to demystify and simplify narrative CVs by providing advice, prompts and suggestions for how to write one. Speakers Mary Muers Research Culture Facilitator, MSD Kanza Basit Senior Research Facilitator, SSD Gavin Bird Head of Research Facilitation and Support, SOGE, SSD Susan Black, Careers Adviser, Oxford Careers Service Everyone welcome, please register to receive the TEAMS link for this event If you are a student or researcher with a CareerConnect account, please register "here":https://oxford.targetconnect.net/leap/event.html?id=22972&service=Careers%20Service All other staff register "here":https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=G96VzPWXk0-0uv5ouFLPke7xLB0LNIFKuA055EWF9ZtUMDI4VEEwVVk3RkNGRE5MTjRWWDNLRFRRTy4u, the joining link will be in the registration confirmation email
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 12.30pm to 1.30pm
Speaker(s): Mary Muers, Kanza Basit, Gavin Bird;, Dr Susan Black
Department: Careers Service (Unit)
Audience: Member of University - ALL Format: Online
Montserrat: volcanic risk and economic opportunity on a small Caribbean island
A lecture from Dr Graham Ryan, Oxford Martin Visiting Fellow
Dr Graham Ryan will present an overview of the ongoing impacts of the Soufrière Hills volcano on the island of Montserrat, and the potential for magma-derived resources to support energy independence and sustainable access to critical metals. The island of Montserrat is a British overseas territory and small island developing state in the Eastern Caribbean. Over the past three decades, life on the island has been shaped by the impacts of the Soufrière Hills volcano. The eruption, which began in 1995, caused fatalities, displaced much of the population, and severely damaged the economy. Although eruptive activity last occurred sixteen years ago, ongoing volcanic unrest continues to create uncertainty and poses challenges for the island’s development. At the same time, Montserrat’s geology presents significant opportunities. The volcanic system offers the potential for an indigenous geothermal energy supply capable of powering the entire island. In addition, collaboration with the Oxford Martin School has opened the possibility of developing a new green industry focused on extracting critical metals from magma-derived geofluids. These prospects highlight how the island’s volcanic environment can also support future economic development.
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 12.30pm to 1.30pm
Speaker(s): Dr Graham Ryan (Montserrat Volcano Observatory)
Department: Oxford Martin School (Unit)
Organiser: Oxford Martin School Events Team
Audience: Public Format: Hybrid
Rethinking Methodologies in Epistemology: a decolonial approach through the lens of medicinal Cape plants
As Khoekhoegowab word in southern Africa and the Cape, Ausi means ‘older sister’; culturally known as the ‘respected’ one ‘with the knowledge’ in communities. Ausi holds invaluable intergenerational and deep-time knowledge of landscape, soil, plant anatomy, and of related cultural ecologies and ‘artefacts’. Ausi knowledge resiliently survived colonial displacement from land, and western extractive collection practices. How could a critical approach to the methodologies embedded in provenance through a ‘deep listening’ to ‘Ausi’ knowledge of landscape and plants help us to rethink the past and present beyond the limitations of the western knowledge-based archive?
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 12.50pm to 1.55pm
Speaker(s): Professor June Bam (Centre for Education Rights and Transformation, University of Johannesburg, South Africa, AfOx Fellow)
Department: Education (Department)
Audience: Member of University - ALL Format: Hybrid
Medical Grand Round - Geratology
MEDICAL GRAND ROUND Lecture Theatre 1 Level 3 John Radcliffe Hospital Thursday, 4 June 2026 13:00-14:00 hrs Lesson of the week, clinical cases and research. All clinical and academic staff and students welcome. Geratology Grand Round ‘The Battle for Platinum Care’ Dr Daisy Whitehouse Prof Ceri Battle (attending remotely)
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 1pm to 2pm
Department: Medical Sciences (Division)
Organiser: Prof Brian Angus
Audience: Other Format: In Person
Insight into Academia: Academic Application Materials
During this session we will share examples to explore the key building blocks of a strong academic CV and cover letter.
How can I make my job application stand out from the crowd? Whether it is for a PhD, postdoc, lectureship, or fellowship, a strong CV and supporting materials are vital to unlocking the next stage of the application process. During this session we will share examples to explore the key building blocks of a strong academic CV and cover letter, and work through how best to present your skills and experience. This session will focus on application materials for academic research and teaching positions only. By attending, you’ll: • Understand the typical structure and content of academic CVs • Explore the variety, structure and content of academic personal statements, statements of purpose, and other related academic application materials • Gain access to resources including template academic CVs and Cover Letters To get the most out of this workshop we strongly encourage you to look at the 'Academic Applications' page of our website before you attend.
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 1pm to 2pm
Department: Careers Service (Unit)
Organiser: Careers Service
Host: Careers Service
Audience: Member of University - ALL Format: Online
Advanced searching clinic for systematic reviews, scoping reviews and evidence syntheses in medicine
A practical 180-minute workshop where participants will work on searches for their review across multiple databases. Librarians from the Bodleian Health Care Libraries will be on hand to demonstrate online tools for facilitating the process and give practical advice on refining individual search strategies. By the end of this classroom-based session you will be able to: improve a search strategy that you are working on; adapt the search across multiple databases; use tools such as Yale MeSH Analyzer and Polyglot; describe alternative methods for identifying references, including citation chaser; use Covidence for your review; and report your search methods according to PRISMA-Search. Intended audience: Medicine and NHS; researcher and research student.
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 1.30pm to 4.30pm
Speaker(s): Nia Roberts, Kat Steiner
Department: Bodleian Information Skills (Unit)
Organiser: Helen Bond
Series: Bodleian iSkills - Workshops in Information Discovery and Scholarly Communications
Audience: Member of University - ALL Format: In Person
Title TBC
TBC
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 2pm to 3pm
Speaker(s): Eden Gage
Department: Biochemistry (Department)
Organiser: Eden Gage
Host: Eden Gage
Series: SBCB Seminar Series
Audience: Member of University - ALL Format: In Person
Reframing Transcultural Justice: From Early Arabo Islamic Philosophy to Postcolonial Critique
The seminar will be held in person at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. All welcome.
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 2pm to 3.30pm
Speaker(s): Dr Kaouther Karoui (University of Münster)
Organiser: Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies
Host: Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies
Series: Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies Seminars
Audience: Member of University - ALL Format: In Person
Deciphering the Archive - Egyptology and Near Eastern Studies in Letters
Oxford Seminar for Epistolary Research
Correspondence offers a unique view into the social mechanics of scholarship, revealing how networks form and how ideas and expertise circulate. This perspective is especially valuable for studying cross-cultural and transnational knowledge-making, a historically important yet vulnerable field. This talk explores the correspondence network of Egyptologist Jaroslav Černý to show how everyday exchanges helped shape an international scholarly community.
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 2pm to 3.30pm
Speaker(s): Hana Navratilova (University of Oxford)
Department: Voltaire Foundation (Department)
Organiser: Zoe Screti
Series: Oxford Seminar for Epistolary Research
Audience: Public Format: In Person
Dazzling butterflies, dazzled moths, and BehaveAI
Despite centuries of debate and research, arguments still rage over why undefended butterflies are so visually conspicuous in flight. Our latest research suggests that typical butterfly wing markings create visual illusions for birds that make it look like they are flying ‘the “wrong” way’. Multiple lines of evidence from motion vision modelling to genetic algorithms, phylogenetic analysis and behavioural validation show that this strategy is evolutionarily widespread and effective for confusing predator attacks. I'll also cover some of our latest work on how light pollution affects the behaviour and activity of moths, with 3D flight tracking highlighting their complex responses when lights of different intensities and spectra become visible mid-flight. Finally, I'll briefly introduce BehaveAI; a video analysis framework that can reliably track animals and determine their behaviour from patterns of movement. It achieves this by converting patterns of motion into false colours, allowing both human annotators and neural nets to determine the shape, speed and acceleration of animals and their body parts in each frame, making for far more robust detection and classification of tiny (<2px) camouflaged targets. Bio-Sketch: Visual information underpins many of the decisions made by animals, influencing their ecology and evolution. I've investigated a wide range of hypotheses from camouflage to light pollution and sexual selection, from blue-sky to applied conservation focus. I've worked across a vast range of species and often develop new open-source tools with which to see through the eyes of other animals. My undergrad and Master's were at Oxford (Pembroke), then a PhD on New Caledonian Crows at Birmingham, post-docs at Cambridge and Exeter, and I'm now Associate Prof. at Exeter (Cornwall).
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 2pm to 3pm
Speaker(s): Dr Jolyon Troscianko (Associate Professor at the University of Exeter)
Department: Biology (Department)
Organiser: Andrea Kastner
Host: Dr Robert Heathcote
Audience: Member of University - ALL Format: Hybrid
Fundamentals of open access
Are you baffled by open, confused by embargoes? Does the mention of the colour gold or green catapult you into a realm of perplexed irritation? Come to this session, where we’ll break down open access and all its many jargon terms, confusing publishing structures and hint at the advantages you can reap by publishing open. In this session you’ll learn: what is open access? Key terms – Gold, Green, Article Processing Charges; where to get more information and help; where to look for open access material; and useful tools to assist you in publishing open access. Intended audience: researcher and research student; staff
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 2.30pm to 4pm
Speaker(s): Sarah Humphreys
Department: Bodleian Information Skills (Unit)
Organiser: Helen Bond
Series: Bodleian iSkills - Workshops in Information Discovery and Scholarly Communications
Audience: Member of University - ALL Format: Online
Decoding T cell specificity at scale
Dr. Stephanie Gaglione is a postdoctoral scholar in the Marson lab at the UCSF-Gladstone Institute of Genomic Immunology. She completed her PhD at MIT with Michael Birnbam engineering high-throughput tools to synthesize and screen T cell receptors in the context of autoimmunity and cancer. Her work introduced an approach to reconstruct thousands of T cell receptors from sequences and map them against hundreds of antigens simultaneously, identifying autoreactive T cells in vitiligo lesions with transcriptomic signatures akin to T cells in melanoma. She expanded on this approach to examine T cell cross-reactivity, profiling millions of mutated TCRs against many antigens simultaneously to map the TCR-antigen interface. Stephanie is a Dunn School alum, previously working with Omer Dushek.
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 3pm to 4pm
Speaker(s): Dr Stephanie Gaglione (Gladstone Institute, San Francisco, USA)
Department: Pathology Dunn School (Department)
Organiser: Melissa Wright
Host: Prof Omer Dushek
Series: Dunn School of Pathology Research Seminars
Audience: Member of University - ALL Format: In Person
Public seminar: Gabriel Lopes & Gabrielle Messeder (University of Oxford)
Two talks
'Listening to the Archive: What Samba School Recordings Reveal, and Conceal' Abstract The samba school bateria - the percussion ensemble at the heart of Rio de Janeiro's carnival parade - is one of the most complex and powerful collective musical traditions of the twentieth century. Comprising up to 300 musicians playing entirely without melody instruments, the bateria is the engine of the samba school parade, driving dancers, floats, and singers through a sophisticated arrangement vocabulary built around groove, rhythmic variation, signal calls, and breaks. The samba school itself is a community organization rooted historically in the Black neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro. Created in the late 1920s, samba schools grew from the poor periphery of the city and carried with them the cultural memory and resilience of those communities. At a certain point, the Brazilian government deliberately adopted samba and the samba schools as symbols of national identity, a nationalist political project, most prominently during the Vargas era in the 1930s and 1940s, that reframed a Black community tradition as the soul of the nation. That political appropriation, and the irony embedded in it, remains central to understanding what the samba school represents in Brazilian culture today. The bateria sits at the core of this tradition. It is entirely percussion (no melody, no harmony in the conventional sense) yet it supports and drives every other element of the parade. Its arrangement language is built from four elements: the groove, the continuous rhythmic foundation; the turn, a short collective variation used to mark transitions; the repique call, a signal that starts or returns the groove; and the break, the moment where the entire ensemble stops simultaneously and re-enters together, one of the most viscerally powerful moments in live carnival performance. This lecture explores the bateria as a musical tradition, traces its historical development, and asks what seven decades of carnival recordings can, and cannot, tell us about how it became what it is today. Biography Gabriel Lopes has been a prominent figure in Brazilian music and Rio's Carnival culture since the early 2000s. Combining his roles as a seasoned musician, educator, and researcher, Gabriel has dedicated his career to preserving, teaching, and celebrating the rich traditions of samba school baterias. Gabriel's deep expertise as an educator is exemplified by his work with prestigious music institutions such as the Royal College of Music and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where he led workshops in 2019, 2023, and 2024. In 2023, he brought his unique approach to the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, and in 2024, he conducted workshops at Trinity School in Croydon. His ability to engage and inspire students, coupled with his extensive experience in high-profile educational settings, underscores his standing as a respected authority in Brazilian percussion. As a researcher and author, Gabriel has made significant contributions to the understanding of samba and samba school baterias. His published works include Mestre Dudu - As Paradinhas da Não Existe Mais Quente, As Bossas do Mestre Maurão, and Fundamentals of a Samba School Bateria. These bilingual books not only document the evolution of samba rhythms but also provide practical tools for musicians worldwide, featuring audio examples and musical notation for paradinhas and bossas. Through these publications, Gabriel preserves the legacy of samba school drumming while making it accessible to a global audience. As a performer, Gabriel has toured extensively with the renowned percussion group Monobloco, captivating audiences across Brazil, the USA, Europe, and Japan. His dynamic performances and integral contributions to Monobloco’s sound have solidified his reputation as a leading figure in the global samba scene. With Monobloco, he recorded two albums and two DVDs, contributing to the group’s dynamic legacy. Gabriel also played in Rocinha's bateria for over a decade and has been a member of Vila Isabel's bateria since 2019, specializing in the repique drum. As a composer, he achieved a career milestone by entering his samba composition into Mangueira's competition in 2016. From 2005 to 2019, Gabriel served as the mestre de bateria for Volta Alice, a carnival group (bloco) that became a cornerstone of Rio Carnival, attracting tens of thousands of revelers. He has also taught at Monobloco's workshops, preparing students for parades in Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, and São Paulo. His teaching extends internationally, with workshops held across the UK, Europe, the USA, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, both in-person and online. Through his brand, Samba Beats, Gabriel continues to share his passion for samba school baterias. His website, YouTube channel, and social media platforms provide a wealth of educational content, including tutorials, historical insights, and detailed analyses of samba rhythms. His dedication to teaching and research reflects his mission to preserve and celebrate the cultural and musical heritage of Brazil. Gabriel Lopes offers an unparalleled blend of practical expertise, academic research, and teaching excellence. His work not only connects audiences to the vibrant world of samba but also inspires the next generation of percussionists worldwide. 'Commemorating the Sambista Perfeito: Arlindo Cruz’s funeral in Madureira, Rio de Janeiro' Abstract This talk examines the local, emotional and spiritual significance of the roda de samba (samba circle) in Rio de Janeiro’s northern suburbs through the life, music, and funeral of the celebrated sambista Arlindo Cruz. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Rio, it situates Cruz as a paradigmatic figure whose oeuvre speaks to the aesthetics, values, and lived experiences of the subúrbio. Central to the discussion is the public all-night celebratory vigil (gurufim) held at the Império Serrano samba school in Madureira following Cruz’s death in August 2025. Here, as his body lay in state, a roda de samba played for hours in celebration of his life and to ease his passing into the next realm. I will discuss how one of the songs played throughout the night, Cruz’s composition O Meu Lugar (‘My Place’), articulates themes of place and local community, Afro-Brazilian religious practices and saudade (bittersweet sadness or longing). Read through Afro-Brazilian religious cosmologies and situated within broader Afro-Atlantic commemorative rituals, the gurufim, the roda, and the collective singing of Cruz’s repertoire position his death as a transition through which he becomes an ancestral sambista: one who can be invoked through song and whose canonical musical presence is sustained as part of samba’s evolving, living heritage. Finally, I seek to contribute to broader debates on affect, positionality, and the role of emotion in ethnographic knowledge production by briefly reflecting on my own affective response to Cruz’s gurufim, arguing that emotional resonance and personal grief are not incidental but central to understanding the roda as a therapeutic, embodied, and relational practice. Biography Dr Gabrielle Messeder is a Fitzjames Early Career Researcher in Music at Merton College, University of Oxford. Gabrielle completed her doctoral research on Brazilian music and dance in Lebanon at City in 2023, supervised by Professor Laudan Nooshin. Her current research project at Merton examines the social, economic, and creative importance of rodas de samba in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Previously, Gabrielle was visiting lecturer in Music at Goldsmiths and City, University of London, and was a Research Fellow at the University of Greenwich on the AHRC-funded project ‘Exploring cultural diversity in experimental sound’ (2021-23).
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 3pm to 4pm
Speaker(s): Gabriel Lopes, Gabrielle Messeder
Department: Music (Department)
Series: Graduate Research Colloquia
Audience: Public Format: In Person
Novel Ideas: MPhil Seminar Series
TBC
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 3.30pm to 4.30pm
Department: Economics (Department)
Series: Novel Ideas: MPhil Seminar Series
Audience: Member of University - ALL Format: In Person
Maize and the politics of provisioning in South Africa
Join us for the final seminar of the term with Dr Elizabeth Hull from SOAS, University of London
In rural South Africa, rising maize prices have contributed to growing hunger and political tensions. In Jozini, where maize is a staple food, the phrase isisu asikweletwa ('the stomach cannot be owed') captures the embodied experience of crisis and the limits of debt-mediated survival in a financialised food system. Drawing on long-term ethnographic work and recent interviews in the wake of price hikes, the paper explores how maize has become a focus of contestation over access to food. It argues that conceptualising food provisioning as a political field shaped by conflicts, obligations and claims, helps rethink the boundaries between every day politics and form politics in a context of weakening democracy.
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 4pm to 5pm
Speaker(s): Dr Elizabeth Hull (SOAS, University of London)
Department: Oxford Martin School (Unit)
Organiser: Lexi Earl
Host: Lexi Earl
Series: Future of Food seminars
Audience: Public Format: Hybrid
The Silent Songs of Josefine
Short musical performance (piano and voice) of original Kafka-inspired composition followed by a roundtable discussion.
Pianist Maki Sekiya and soprano Loré Lixenberg will perform a short excerpt from ‘The Silent Songs of Josefine,’ an original composition by Can Bilir born out of a creative collaboration with the research project Kafka’s Transformative Communities. There will then be a discussion with Oxford academics Carolin Duttlinger and Eric Clarke.
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 4pm to 5.30pm
Department: Medieval & Modern Languages (Department)
Organiser: Emma Grylls
Host: Emma Grylls
Series: N/A
Audience: Public Format: In Person
The search for satisfying methods in complex policy research: A journey spanning natural experimental methods, process tracing, systems thinking and community-based system dynamics
Online lecture followed by Q & A
In this talk, Dr Miriam Alvarado will introduce a motivating policy problem (a sugar-sweetened beverage tax in Barbados) and discuss the ways in which she has used a variety of methods and approaches, including interrupted time series analysis, process tracing, systems thinking and community-based system dynamics in an attempt to iteratively strengthen the quality of analytical insights and address the ‘what now/next’ question in relation to this policy. Along the way, Dr Alvarado and colleagues developed and used several thinking tools (e.g. ‘Work package Zero’), methodological guidance (steps to guide a systems-informed evaluation), and unusual combinations of existing methods (ITS and process tracing through an evidential pluralist lens). Dr Alvarado will reflect on the lessons learned and experiences across these approaches, and discuss exciting areas for future methodological development.
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 4pm to 5.30pm
Speaker(s): Dr Miriam Alvarado (University of Cambridge)
Department: Social Policy and Intervention (Department)
Organiser: Professor David Humphreys
Host: DSPI
Series: DSPI Seminar Series
Audience: Public Format: Hybrid
Health Economics Seminar
Health Economics Seminar
Online only
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 4pm to 5pm
Department: Economics (Department)
Series: Health Economics Seminar
Audience: Member of University - ALL Format: Online
Geography and Catholic censorship in Europe at the end of the sixteenth century
Online via Zoom Webinar
The Oxford Seminars in Cartography - Geography and Catholic censorship in Europe at the end of the sixteenth century
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 4.30pm to 6pm
Speaker(s): Jean-Marc Besse (L'École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris)
Department: Bodleian Libraries (Department)
Organiser: Nick Millea
Series: The Oxford Seminars in Cartography (TOSCA)
Audience: Member of University - ALL Format: Online
Geography and Catholic censorship in Europe at the end of the sixteenth century
TBC
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 4.30pm to 6pm
Speaker(s): Jean-Marc Besse
Department: Bodleian Libraries (Department)
Series: The Oxford Seminars in Cartography (TOSCA)
Audience: Member of University - ALL Format: Online