TORCH | The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities

Maria Misra - What Does Diversity Mean to Me?

28 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Opening event in TORCH Headline Series exploring 'Humanities & Identities' Maria Misra (Associate Professor in Modern History) speaks at the TORCH Ann...

Marvin Rees - What Does Diversity Mean to Me?

28 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Opening event in TORCH Headline Series exploring 'Humanities & Identities' Marvin Rees (Mayor of Bristol) speaks at the TORCH Annual Headline Series L...

Deborah Cameron - What Does Diversity Mean to Me?

28 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Opening event in TORCH Headline Series exploring 'Humanities & Identities Deborah Cameron (Professor of Language and Communication) speaks at the TORC...

Ellah Wakatama Allfrey - What Does Diversity Mean to Me?

28 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Opening event in TORCH Headline Series exploring 'Humanities & Identities' Ellah Wakatama Allfrey (editor and literary critic) speaks at the TORCH An...

Jay Stewart - What Does Diversity Mean to Me?

28 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Opening event in TORCH Headline Series exploring 'Humanities & Identities' Jay Stewart (co-founder of ‘Gendered Intelligence’) speaks at the TORCH...

Politics and Public Space in Contemporary Argentine Poetry

21 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Book at Lunchtime event. This book addresses the connection between political themes and literary form in the most recent Argentine poetry. Ben Bolli...

Exodus, Reckoning, Sacrifice: Three Meanings of Brexit

03 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Lecture with Kalypso Nicolaidis (St Antony’s College). Respondent: Anand Menon (King’s College London) Convenors: Timothy Garton Ash and Kalypso N...

Living Bilingual

22 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Elleke Boehmer (Director of TORCH) delivers a talk as part of the Creative Multilingualism and TORCH Bitesize Talks at Linguamania, Ashmolea...

Bilingualism and the Internet

22 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Scott Hale (Senior Data Scientist) delivers a talk as part of the Creative Multilingualism and TORCH Bitesize Talks at Linguamania, Ashmolean Museum. ...

A Tristan Tile in the Ashmolean

21 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Henrike Lähnemann (Professor of Medieval German Literature) delivers a talk as part of the Creative Multilingualism and TORCH Bitesize Talks at Lingu...

Do Objects Speak?

21 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Wen-chin Ouyang (Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature at the School of Oriental and African Studies) delivers a talk as part of the Creative...

Musings from Cloud Cuckoo Land

21 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Karen Park delivers a Creative Multilingualism and TORCH Bitesize talk as part of Linguamania Dr Karen Park (Assistant Professor at the University ...

The Spirits of Crossbones Graveyard

10 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The book's author Sondra Hausner (Professor of Anthropology, University of Oxford) will explore the issues raised in her book. Every month, a ragtag ...

Literature and the Public Good

01 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Part of the Book at Lunchtime series What is the public value of literary studies? What is the justification for literature at the present time? Liter...

Drawing the Line: Toward an Aesthetic of Transitional Justice

06 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

This Postcolonial Writing and Theory Seminar is on 'Drawing the Line: Toward an Aesthetic of Transitional Justice' with speaker Carrol Clarkson (Unive...

FRIGHT Friday - Stretched to Breaking Point

12 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Dan Holloway gives a talk for the FRIGHT Friday series of talks, held in the Ashmolean Museum on 25th November 2016.

FRIGHT Friday - Gothic Horror: Medicine and Monsters

12 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Andrew Papanikitas gives a talk for the FRIGHT Friday series of talks, held in the Ashmolean Museum on 25th November 2016.

FRIGHT Friday - Fear and Flesh: Gothic Medicine

12 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Barry Murname gives a talk for the FRIGHT Friday series of talks, held in the Ashmolean Museum on 25th November 2016.

FRIGHT Friday - Fear of Cats and Other Phobias

12 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Sally Shuttleworth gives a talk for the FRIGHT Friday series of talks, held in the Ashmolean Museum on 25th November 2016.

FRIGHT Friday - Parenting, Fear, Hope and Salvation

12 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Joshua Hordern gives a talk for the FRIGHT Friday series of talks, held in the Ashmolean Museum on 25th November 2016.

FRIGHT Friday - Embodying Life and Death

12 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Cathy Morgan gives a talk for the FRIGHT Friday series of talks, held in the Ashmolean Museum on 25th November 2016.

Martin Luther - Renegade and Prophet

08 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Part of the Book at Lunchtime series The Book at Lunchtime series looks at Professor Lyndal Roper's new book 'Martin Luther - Renegade and Prophet' . ...

What We Cannot Know

21 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Part of the TORCH Book at Lunchtime series Marcus du Sautoy (Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science), Anita Avramides (Reader in Ph...

The Prelude

21 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Part of the TORCH Book at Lunchtime series Editor of a new edition of William Wordsworth's 'The Prelude' James Engell discusses the book with Professo...

Interview with Neil MacGregor

12 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Neil MacGregor talks about the public engagement at the British Museum. Neil MacGregor talks about his lecture on 'The Fires of Faith', building works...

The Fires of Faith

07 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The Babsybanoo, Machionness of Winchester Lecture with Neil MacGregor Neil MacGregor (former British Museum Director) gives the Babsybanoo, Machionnes...

Digital Unwrapping: Homer, Herculaneum, and the Scroll from Ein Gedi

19 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

With Dirk Obbink (Associate Professor in Papyrology and Greek Literature, Faculty of Classics, University of Oxford) Dirk Obbink (Associate Professor ...

Digital Unwrapping: Homer, Herculaneum, and the Scroll from Ein Gedi

19 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

With Brent Seales (Professor of Computer Science, University of Kentucky) Brent Seales (Professor of Computer Science, University of Kentucky) discuss...

Digital Unwrapping: Homer, Herculaneum, and the Scroll from Ein Gedi

19 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

With Brent Seales and Dirk Obbink Brent Seales (Professor of Computer Science, University of Kentucky) and Dirk Obbink (Associate Professor in Papyrol...

Why We Need the Humanities

27 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

How has humanities scholarship influenced biomedical research and civil liberties and how can scholars serve the common good? Entrepreneur and schola...

The Prospect of Global History

27 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

How can global history can be applied instead of advocated? The new volume The Prospect of Global History examines this question and explores the fas...

Useful Frames and Dead Pasteboard

07 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah Hook looks at Victorian photographic card portraits, and charts their appearances in novels and poems from the period. She tells the story of l...

David Garrick's Wigless Celebrity

07 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Ruth Scobie's bite-sized talk on a portrait of David Garrick by Johan Zoffany Dr Ruth Scobie looks at a portrait by Johan Zoffany of the eighteenth-ce...

Chasing Butterflies: Capturing the Transience of Childhood

07 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Emily Knight talks at the Ashmolean Museum about eighteenth-century portraits of children. Throughout history we have attempted to capture the transie...

The Death Masks of Macbeth

07 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Simon Palfrey discusses the deaths and afterlives of Oliver Cromwell and Macbeth In this short talk Simon Palfrey explores the deathly after...

Andy Warhol's Girls

07 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Eleri Watson explores Andy Warhol's relationships with women. Eleri Watson gives a short talk at the Ashmolean Museum's Live Friday: Framed!, on her r...

Messages through Ashmolean Portraits

07 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Vicky McGuinness's bite-sized talk at Ashmolean LiveFriday: Framed Vicky McGuinness explores the historical contexts and identities communicated by so...

How English Became English

06 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

A Book at Lunchtime discussion looking at the English language and how it is developing with Simon Horobin, Faramerz Dabhoiwala, Martin Wynne, Philip ...

Rereading East Germany

05 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

A Book at Lunchtime discussion tracing the cultural legacy of the GDR with Karen Leeder, Dennis Tate, Sara Jones, Marc Silberman and Tom Smith 'Reread...

Thinking with Literature

28 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

A Book at Lunchtime discussion with Terence Cave about literature's links to cognitive science. Terence Cave, professor of French Literature and the a...

Knowledge Exchange Highlights

28 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Highlights from the Knowledge Exchange Showcase, 26 November 2015. Highlights from the Knowledge Exchange Showcase at Ertgeun House on the 26th Novemb...

Closing Reflections

08 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The closing reflections of speakers Professor Joshua Hordern and Stephen Bergman. Professor Joshua Hordern and Stephen Bergman offer their closing ref...

Book at Lunchtime: Arcadia

07 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

A Book at Lunchtime discussion of Iain Pears' interactive novel Arcadia “The Arcadia App is one of the most substantial and interesting works of int...

Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials'

04 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Margaret Kean explores how Philip Pullman plays with the idea of communication across different media in his trilogy Philip Pullman’s work has a dee...

Middle Earth and Tolkien's Digital Afterlives

04 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Stuart Lee traces how Tolkien's Middle-earth and especially 'The Lord of the Rings' have been reimagined through a range of digital technologies, from...

Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland

04 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst explores how every generation has created its own Wonderland, and why we are still so curious about Alice’s dreamworld 150 ...

Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland

04 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst explores how every generation has created its own Wonderland, and why we are still so curious about Alice’s dreamworld 150 ...

The Stories of Lewis Carroll, J.R.R. Tolkien and Philip Pullman

04 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Stuart Lee and Margaret Kean explore the digital afterlives of these celebrated storytellers The city of Oxford has been hom...

The Stories of Lewis Carroll, J.R.R. Tolkien and Philip Pullman

04 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Stuart Lee and Margaret Kean explore the digital afterlives of these celebrated storytellers The city of Oxford has been hom...

Are the Humanities More Digital than the Sciences?

02 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

A panel discussion with Howard Hotson, Andrew Prescott, Dave De Roure and Heather Viles Are the Humanities More Digital than the Sciences? A panel dis...

The Future of the Professions

16 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In an era when machines can out-perform human beings at most tasks what are the prospects for employment? In an era when machines can out-perform huma...

Heroes and Villains in Game of Thrones

10 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Carolyne Larrington gives a talk about Game of Thrones and the often complicated morality its characters have. Part of the Ashmolean Live Friday ev...

Intravenous anaesthesia on Turner's High Street

09 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Alessia Pannese explores a painted documentation of a relatively little known event in Oxford local history: the first intravenous anaesthesia duri...

Valour, betrayal and desire: heroes and villains in Indian paintings

09 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Nisha Somasundaram explores both male and female heroes and demons in Indian epics in this TORCH Bite-Size talk at the Ashmolean Museum LiveFriday. Th...

Live and Let Die - in Greek Epic

08 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Almut Fries explores the iconography of the black-figured wine jug in this TORCH Bite-Size talk at the Ashmolean Museum LiveFriday The Attic black-fig...

The Alfred Jewel and Kingship

08 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Amy Faulkner explores how Alfred’s translations question what it means to be a good king in this TORCH Bite-Size talk at the Ashmolean Museum LiveFr...

Great men and fallen heroes

08 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Jessica Goodman explores how the meaning of ‘hero’ shifted in France in the late eighteenth-century in this TORCH Bite-Size talk at the Ashmolean ...

Knowledge Machines

05 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

How have digital technologies changed research practices in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities? Professor Eric T. Meyer (Senior Research F...

Tom Chatfield on Humans and Machines in the Digital Age

26 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Tom Chatfield talks as part of the "What does it mean to be human in the digital age?" event Tom Chatfield (author and broadcaster) explores how techn...

Chris Fletcher on Libraries in the Digital Age

26 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Chris Fletcher talks as part of the "What does it mean to be human in the digital age?" event Chris Fletcher (Keeper of Special Collections at the Bod...

Chris Fletcher on Libraries in the Digital Age

26 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Chris Fletcher talks as part of the "What does it mean to be human in the digital age?" event Chris Fletcher (Keeper of Special Collections at the Bod...

Emma Smith on Forgetting in the Digital Age

26 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Emma Smith talks as part of the "What does it mean to be human in the digital age?" event In 2005, two neurologists diagnosed a new modern malaise - h...

Diane Lees on Museums and Heritage in the Digital Age

26 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Diane Lees talks as part of the "What does it mean to be human in the digital age?" event Diane Lees (Director-General of the Imperial War Museum Grou...

Diane Lees on Museums and Heritage in the Digital Age

26 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Diane Lees talks as part of the "What does it mean to be human in the digital age?" event Diane Lees (Director-General of the Imperial War Museum Grou...

What Does it Mean to be Human in the Digital Age?

22 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

A librarian, literary scholar, museum director and digital commentator explore how the digital age has shaped, and will continue to shape, the human e...

Crossing Boundaries: Medievalists in Cross-Disciplinary Conversation

13 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Launch event for the TORCH programme Oxford Medieval Studies The launch event for the TORCH programme Oxford Medieval Studies included speakers: Emma...

The Oxford Dodo: Culture at the Crossroads

07 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

An interdisciplinary panel discussion exploring the life and legacy of the dodo Why does the dodo continue to haunt our imagination? Why is it the pos...

The Dodo in the Museum

07 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Director of the Museum of Natural History, Paul Smith, gives a presentation at ‘The Oxford Dodo: Culture at the Crossroads’ Paul Smith (Director, ...

The Dodo in Literature

07 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Literary scholar Kirsten Shepherd-Barr’s presentation at ‘The Oxford Dodo: Culture at the Crossroads’ Kirsten Shepherd-Barr (Professor of Englis...

The Dodo, Animal Icons and De-Extinction

07 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Environmental researcher Paul Jepson’s presentation at ‘The Oxford Dodo: Culture at the Crossroads’ Paul Jepson (Researcher at the School of Geo...

The Dodo and Creativity

04 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Author Jasper Fforde’s presentation at ‘The Oxford Dodo: Culture at the Crossroads’ Author Jasper Fforde’s presentation at ‘The Oxford Dodo:...

The Dodo and Exploration

04 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Historian of Science Pietro Corsi’s presentation at ‘The Oxford Dodo: Culture at the Crossroads’ Historian of Science Pietro Corsi’s presentat...

Interview with Dr Sophie Ratcliffe

30 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Practical Medical Humanities Interview with Dr Sophie Ratcliffe as part of the Knowledge Exchange project (Compassion and Healthcare) discussing "Pra...

Interview with Dr Andrew Papanikitas

30 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

The importance of Medical Humanities in good medical practice An interview with Dr Andrew Papanikitas as part of the Knowledge Exchange project (Compa...

Interview with Dr Emma Mckenzie-Edwards

30 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

The use of Humanities in Medical Education Interview with Dr Emma Mckenzie-Edwards as part of the Knowledge Exchange project (Compassion and Healthcar...

Interview with Dr Marion Lynch

30 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Medical Humanities and Narratives Interview with Dr Marion Lynch as part of the Knowledge Exchange project (Compassion and Healthcare) discussing "Med...

Interview with Professor Stephen Lammers

30 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Medical Humanities and Narratives Interview with Professor Stephen Lammers as part of the Knowledge Exchange project (Compassion and Healthcare) disc...

Indian Arrivals, 1870-1915: Networks of British Empire

23 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Elleke Boehmer discusses her new book with Megan Robb, Faisal Devji and Santanu Das Elleke Boehmer (Professor of World Literature in English, Universi...

Comparative Encounters between Artaud, Michaux and the Zhuangzi

20 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Part of "Book at Lunchtime", a fortnightly series of bite size book discussions, with commentators from a range of disciplines. Xiaofan Amy Li discuss...

The Lord of the Rings: Tolkien's Legacy

09 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

60 years since the publication of the series' final volume, a distinguished panel explore Tolkien's literary legacy To celebrate the 60th anniversary ...

The Silk Roads: A New History of the World

27 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Peter Frankopan discusses his new book with Averil Cameron, Robert Moore and Elleke Boehmer Peter Frankopan (Director of the Oxford Centre for Byzanti...

Ted Hughes: The Unauthorised Life

20 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Jonathan Bate, Anne Farrar Donovan, Seamus Perry and Oliver Taplin discuss life-writing, poetry and the poet To celebrate the publication of Jonathan ...

The Pragmatic Enlightenment and Other Enlightenments

14 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Dennis Rasmussen (Tufts University, Boston) discusses his book 'The Pragmatic Enlightenment' Political theorist Dennis Rasmussen (Tufts University, Bo...

Too Valuable to Die?

14 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Silke Ackermann, Nigel Biggar and Liz Bruton debate the ethics of science and scientists going to war Silke Ackermann (Director, Museum of the History...

Too Valuable to Die?

14 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Silke Ackermann, Nigel Biggar and Liz Bruton debate the ethics of science and scientists going to war Silke Ackermann (Director, Museum of the History...

Periodic Tales

13 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Author Hugh Aldersey-Williams, historian of science Jo Hedesan and chemist Peter Battle discuss the ways in which the elements continue to inspire us ...

Interview with Michael Docherty

03 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

We catch up with Cancer Research UK's Director of Digital on fundraising in the digital age. Michael Docherty discusses how digital platforms have tra...

Fundraising through Digital

03 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Docherty (Cancer Research UK) on how clicktivists, slacktivists and hacktivists are helping us beat cancer sooner. At the Annual TORCH Digital...

Callaloo Creative Writing Reading by Maaza Mengiste

24 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Maaza reads from her novel dealing with the Italian invasion of Ethiopia during the early days of the Second World War

Callaloo Literary Lecture and Reading by Fred d'Aguiar

24 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Fred reads fiction and poems about his childhood in Guyana, remembering his father, and slavery

The Unspeakability of Trauma, the Unspeakability of Joy: The Pursuit of the Real at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century

18 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

A lecture by Amy Hollywood with response from Kate Kirkpatrick and Johannes Depnering.

Henry Adams, Henry James, and Minnie Temple: The Pursuit of the Real at the Turn of the 20th Century

18 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

A lecture by Amy Hollywood.

The Real, the True, and Critique: Mysticism in the Study of Religion

18 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

A lecture by Amy Hollywood with response from Vincent Gillespie and Joana Serrado.

Phenomenology and Health

15 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

A highlights video from the one-day conference Phenomenology is increasingly being employed as both a method of inquiry and a form of practice in a ra...

Leviathan and the Air Pump: Highlights

28 May 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Historians of Science David Wootton and Michael Hunter review the controversial book 50 years on Robert Boyle's air-pump experiments in 1659 provoked ...

Rubble Flora: Volker Braun Poetry Reading

20 May 2015

Contributed by Lukas

The German poet gives a special reading of old and new work and answers questions with David Constantine and Karen Leeder.

Theatre and Evolution from Ibsen to Beckett

20 May 2015

Contributed by Lukas

An interdisciplinary discussion of Kirsten Shepherd-Barr's book Kirsten Shepherd-Barr (Associate Professor of Modern Drama, University of Oxford) disc...

Aristotle on Perceiving Objects

14 May 2015

Contributed by Lukas

A discussion of Anna Marmodoro's book Anna Marmodoro (Fellow in Philosophy, Corpus Christi, University of Oxford) discusses her book Aristotle on Perc...

Light in Germany: Scenes from an Unknown Enlightenment

12 May 2015

Contributed by Lukas

A discussion of Jim Reed's book Jim Reed (Taylor Professor of German, University of Oxford) discusses his book Light in Germany: Scenes from an Unknow...

Leviathan and the Air Pump: Thirty Years On

12 May 2015

Contributed by Lukas

The historian of science David Wootton reviews the controversial dispute between Robert Boyle and Thomas Hobbes, followed by a reply from Boyle's biog...