Wolfson College Podcasts

Lord Patten, Chancellor of Oxford University, gives the opening talk at Wolfson College's 50th Anniversary celebration weekend The presentation was introduced by the College President, Dame Hermione Lee.

The Annual Sarfraz Pakistan Lecture, Wolfson College, Oxford, 30 Nov 2015 Christophe Jaffrelot is Professor of Indian Politics and Sociology at the King's India Institute, and Research Director at the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique). He also teaches South Asian politics and history at Sciences Po (Paris) and is an Overseas Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He was Director of CERI (Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Internationales) at Sciences Po, between 2000 and 2008. His research interests include: theories of nationalism and democracy; mobilization of the lower castes and untouchables in India; Hindu nationalist movement; ethnic conflicts in Pakistan; the Dargah culture (with special reference to Ajmer sharif as a shared sacred space) and the relations between businessmen and politicians in India (with special reference to Gujaratis). This annual lecture aims to promote Pakistan studies within Oxford to a wide, non-specialist audience.

Ronald Syme Annual Lecture 2015 The Syme lecture is held every year in Michaelmas term, it was established in memory of the Roman Historian Sir Ronald Syme. Sir Ronald Syme was a Fellow of the College from 1970 until 1989. He is regarded as the twentieth century’s greatest historian of ancient Rome. Roger Bagnall’s lecture focused on the comparison between two males ‘ the councillor and the clerk’ from the Siwa Oasis, Ancient Egypt. The first case about a man named ‘Serenos’, the councillor, and the second, a man with no known name, the clerk. The Lecture was introduced by Prof Martin Goodman. Roger Bagnall is Leon Levy Director and Professor of Ancient History in the faculty of ‘Institute for the study of ancient world’ at New York University. He studied at Yale University and University of Toronto. Prof. Bagnall has a background in Ancient History, as he was Jay Professor of Greek and Latin and Professor of History at Columbia University for 33 years. He has a number of publications including: Women's Letters from Ancient Egypt, 300 BC-AD 800 (Ann Arbor 2006) (with R. Cribiore) and Amheida I. Ostraka from Trimithis, volume 1 (New York 2012) (with G. R. Ruffini).

Introducing a new strategic collaboration between Wolfson College and the Oxford e-Research Centre. A series of short informal talks to introduce members of the College to the range of work across the disciplines at the OeRC, with Acting President of Wolfson College, Christina Redfield The Wolfson Digital Research Cluster (Donna Kurtz, Director, Digital Research Cluster) The Oxford e-Research Centre (David De Roure, Director of the OeRC) Signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Collaboration by the Acting President and David De Roure Self-Introductions: three OeRC Associate Directors who have recently joined the College will talk briefly about their work Andrew Richards: e-Infrastruture, High Performance Computing, Supercomputing for Research Wesley Armour: Novel Architectures, Scientific Computing, Models and Simulation Susanna-Assunta Sansone: Data Curation, Management and Publication More current research at the OeRC Terhi Nurmikko-Fuller: Linked Data for Musicology Sarah Sparrow: Volunteer Computing to Simulate Climate and Extreme Weather

Sir Vince talks about some of the issues raised in his latest book 'After the Storm' Sir Vince Cable was Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills in the Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition government, from 2010 to 2015. He is releasing a book entitled After the Storm. ​The event is chaired by Dr Oscar Dahlsten and Professor Anne Deighton. This is a lecture organised by the Research Fellows of Wolfson College.

Bryan Sykes, Professor of Human Genetics, describes how he located and analysed as many DNA samples as possible with links to the Yeti. In doing so, he found himself entering a strange world of mystery and sensationalism, fraud and obsession.

Professor Chris Stringer, Research Leader in Human Origins at the Natural History Museum, London, gave the 2015 Haldane Lecture at Wolfson College, Oxford. He discusses how we are mostly, but not entirely, 'Out of Africa'. Human Evolution can be divided into two main phases. A pre-human phase in Africa prior to 2 million years ago, where walking upright had evolved but some other characteristics were still ape-like. And a human phase, with an increase in both brain size and behavioural complexity, and an expansion from Africa. Evidence points strongly to Africa as the major centre for the genetic, physical and behavioural origins of both ancient and modern humans, but new discoveries are prompting a rethink of some aspects of our evolutionary origins, including the likelihood of interbreeding between archaic humans (for example the Neanderthals) and modern humans. We are mostly, but not entirely, 'Out of Africa'. Chris Stringer first worked at the Natural HistoryMuseum in 1969-1970, but joined the permanent staff in 1973, where he is now a Research Leader in Human Origins. His early research was on the relationship of Neanderthals and early modern humans in Europe, but through his work on the Recent African Origin model for modern human origins, he now collaborates with archaeologists, dating specialists, and geneticists in attempting to reconstruct the evolution of modern humans globally. He's excavated at sites in Britain and abroad, and directed the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain project from 2001 until it finished in 2013. Now co-director of the follow-up Pathways to Ancient Britain project. Those projects led to the successful Britain: One Million Years of the Human Story exhibition in 2014. As well as many scientific papers, He's also written a number of books, most recently The Origin of Our Species (2012, published in the USA as Lone Survivors: how we came to be the only humans on Earth), and Britain: one million years of the human story (2014, with Rob Dinnis).

A lecture given by Professor Christopher Pelling, Oxford Regius Professor of Greek, is the first annual Syme Lecture to address the work of the great historian of Ancient Rome himself. Professor Pelling took a literary historiographical approach to Syme’s work; an approach that he agreed was contrary to Syme’s own opinions on biography (which he claimed was "so much easier than history"). Pelling defended his methodology by suggesting that Syme’s authorial presence was so evident throughout the book, “he wrote much as he talked”, that a ‘death of the author’ stance could never work with the manuscript. Pelling masterfully led the audience through an exploration of the changes made by Syme to the manuscript throughout the drafting process. He showed how some of the most “famous and controversial sentences were added at the end”, often as scribbles in the margins, and he continually rewrote key sentences, settling on the most provocative phrases, even if they did not make perfect grammatical sense. For example, the phrase ‘Caesar lay dead, striken by 23 wounds’, was originally drafted as ‘Caesar lay dead in the Senate House, bleeding from 23 wounds’, but Syme reworded it to startling effect. Professor Pelling also entertained the audience with anecdotes of his own interactions with the book and with Syme himself. He met Syme half a dozen times throughout his career, and confessed the appropriation of a sentence spoken by Syme at a Trinity Feast for the opening sentence of one of his books. Professor Lee articulated the thoughts of all present by thanking Professor Pelling for a fascinating lecture that “led brilliantly into the mindset of the writer”.

A lecture given by Professor Christopher Pelling, Oxford Regius Professor of Greek, is the first annual Syme Lecture to address the work of the great historian of Ancient Rome himself. Professor Pelling took a literary historiographical approach to Syme’s work; an approach that he agreed was contrary to Syme’s own opinions on biography (which he claimed was "so much easier than history"). Pelling defended his methodology by suggesting that Syme’s authorial presence was so evident throughout the book, “he wrote much as he talked”, that a ‘death of the author’ stance could never work with the manuscript. Pelling masterfully led the audience through an exploration of the changes made by Syme to the manuscript throughout the drafting process. He showed how some of the most “famous and controversial sentences were added at the end”, often as scribbles in the margins, and he continually rewrote key sentences, settling on the most provocative phrases, even if they did not make perfect grammatical sense. For example, the phrase ‘Caesar lay dead, striken by 23 wounds’, was originally drafted as ‘Caesar lay dead in the Senate House, bleeding from 23 wounds’, but Syme reworded it to startling effect. Professor Pelling also entertained the audience with anecdotes of his own interactions with the book and with Syme himself. He met Syme half a dozen times throughout his career, and confessed the appropriation of a sentence spoken by Syme at a Trinity Feast for the opening sentence of one of his books. Professor Lee articulated the thoughts of all present by thanking Professor Pelling for a fascinating lecture that “led brilliantly into the mindset of the writer”.

Mehmood Khan Achakzai, Leader and the Chairman of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, delivered the inaugural Sarfraz lecture on October 30th 2014, at Wolfson College, Oxford.

Walter Scheidel, Professor of Classics & History at Stanford University, gave the 2013 annual lecture held in memory of eminent Roman historian Sir Ronald Syme Lecture. The lecture was introduced by College President, Hermione Lee.

Kamila Shamsie, the Pakistani-born author of books including In the City by the Sea and Burnt Shadows, gives a talk as part of the 2014 Wolfson Lecture series on 'New Challenges for South Asian Writing in the 21st Century'.

Romesh Gunesekera, the celebrated British/Sri Lankan author of the Booker-prize nominated 'Reef', presents the first of the 2014 Wolfson Lecture series on 'New Challenges for South Asian Writing in the 21st century'.

Based on his latest book, Bryan Sykes, professor of human genetics at Oxford University, gave a public lecture at Wolfson College exploring the rich ancestral tapestry of the American nation. From the moment that our DNA fingerprints could be profiled, genes have served as invaluable forensic tools to settle legal matters, exonerate the innocent, and identify the dead. But, as geneticists like Bryan Sykes have revealed in recent groundbreaking work, they can also help answer larger existential questions: Where do we hail from? How did we get here? And in what ways are we all related? In DNA USA, Sykes, a professor of human genetics at the University of Oxford, delivers the most comprehensive genetic portrait yet of our country. Genealogy is big business in America because we crave links to an illustrious past, whether to Mayflower passages, Native American chieftains, or African queens. But it also reflects our insatiable curiosity about forebears who fled, by necessity or by force, countries and continents far away. In a land of new starts and reinventions, American family trees can be frustrating for their shallow roots. However, to Bryan Sykes that’s merely a pretext to dig deeper. In his best-selling work The Seven Daughters of Eve, Sykes showed how our mitochondrial DNA pointed to global matrilineal ancestors. In DNA USA he also utilizes the Y (or male) chromosomes and the new technique of “Chromosome Painting” to help settle arguments over lineage in our relatively young society. Though we are all born with surnames that tell one part of the story, those names fragment and mutate (and flat-out lie) with far more regularity than the DNA we inherit. Can a MacDonald in Houston rightly claim Gaelic ancestry? Is a Cohen in Milwaukee actually the descendant of Moses’s brother? Are African Americans with European surnames largely free of European chromosomes? Even more intriguingly, Sykes uses genetic analysis to ponder other long-unsolved mysteries such as when and how humans first inhabited the Americas, whether it was only by foot and across the Bering land bridge, and the unusual implications of Polynesian chromosomes “jumping” across Siberia and into the pre-Columbian Native American population. Like de Tocqueville with a DNA kit, Sykes travels across the country meeting (and swabbing) genealogists, anthropologists, celebrities, and average Americans to paint a fascinating genetic portrait of our nation. For fans of Henry Louis Gates’s series African American Lives or NBC’s Who Do You Think You Are?, DNA USA suggests an even richer American tapestry than we could ever imagine.

Wolfson's President, Professor Hermione Lee, gave an evocative lecture at Lincoln's Inn, London, entitled 'From Memory: Isaiah Berlin, Literary Encounters and Life-Stories' Professor Lee presented a lecture in the Old Hall concerning encounters between great men and women, and how they are remembered, narrated, and turned into legend. Professor Lee focused on an encounter between Wolfson College founder Isaiah Berlin and the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, which took place in Leningrad in 1945. Drawing on her research as one of our most renowned literary biographers, she recounted a number of other literary encounters, in order to explore questions about remembering and storytelling, disputed rival accounts, and how encounters can harden into myth. In dealing with life-writing, memory, and versions of the truth, the lecture addressed isues at the forefront of the College's Oxford Centre for Life Writing, one of a series of new research clusters at Wolfson

Steven Pinker gives a compelling account of the unacknowledged worldwide decline of violence in the 2014 Haldane Lecture Professor Pinker details how humanity has gone through a series of stages over the past 6,000 years through which rates of violence have declined dramatically. For example it has been determined that approximately 15% of Palaeolithic skeletons found show signs of unhealed violent trauma, suggested violence caused deaths, while the comparative worldwide number for the twentieth century is 0.06%. From interstate warfare to homicide, he shows how we are far less likely to die a violent death than any previous generation. Pinker concludes by assessing the various reasons for this decline in violence. He believes that the move towards peace is helped by ‘our better angels’: self-control, empathy, moral sense, and reason. A number of historical developments have contributed to this move, particularly the state monopolising violence, increasing commerce, an expanding circle of empathy, and the increase in literacy, education, and public discourse. He cautions, however, that this movement was not teleological and could be subject to pauses and reversals. The lecture is introduced by the President of Wolfson College, Professor Dame Hermione Lee.

Wolfson Fellow Professor Vlatko Vedral delivered a lecture on March 12th 2013 at the Royal Society in London. His presentation includes discussion of the applications of quantum physics in other areas of science and technology. Vlatko Vedral made his name developing a novel way of quantifying entanglement and applying it to macroscopic physical systems. He did his undergraduate and graduate studies at Imperial College London. Since June 2009 he has been in an entangled state of professorship at the University of Oxford (Governing Body Fellowship at Wolfson College) and at the National University of Singapore. He has held professorships at Imperial College, and University of Leeds and a number of visiting professorships in Canada, Austria, and Brazil. His research has won a number of awards, including the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award and the World Scientific (Physics Research) Medal and Prize. Further details of his lecture at the Royal Society may be found here: https://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/content/1578-evening-royal-society

Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society, presents the 2013 Wolfson Haldane Lecture. The speaker is introduced by College President, Hermione Lee.

Historian Stella Tillyard delivers the fourth Weinrebe Lecture in Life-Writing and Portraiture. The talk is introduced by College President Hermione Lee.

Biographer Paula Byrne (Perdita: The Life of Mary Robinson and Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead) delivers the second Weinrebe lecture on Life-Writing and Portraiture.