Oxford Minds
The Social Sciences Division is launching a new digital curriculum enhancement programme for postgraduate students.
Oxford is built on people, and the way they engage with pressing global issues within and across disciplines. People matter more than ever. This new series will convene the great minds of Oxford and beyond to discuss the issues that matter to our graduate students. It aims to provide all our graduates with an educational experience that transcends disciplinary boundaries.
Serving as a graduate enrichment programme during extraordinary times, Oxford Minds is built upon three eight-week pillars: themes, theory and methods. The series will unfold on a fortnightly cycle. Four times per terms, a globally recognised speaker will give a public lecture on a specific topic. In each subsequent week, this will be followed by both an inter-disciplinary panel discussion and small, interactive discussion groups jointly facilitated by senior Oxford academics and doctoral students.
Starting in Michaelmas Term 2020-21, the first topic will be race. The Black Lives Matter and Rhodes Must Fall movements raised important and longstanding questions relating to race, globally and here in Oxford. This series consciously puts race at the top of its agenda for the academic year. What is racism? What is white privilege? How do the legacies of historical oppression play out in the present? And why do they matter for the work of a University? How can an awareness of race be systematically integrated into social science? What does it mean for research methods and theory that tries to make sense of the social world?
We are honoured to announce that the first Oxford Social Science Lecture will be given by Eusebius McKaiser, Broadcaster and author of ‘A Bantu in my bathroom: Debating race, sexuality and other uncomfortable South African topics’. The accompanying panel discussion will include Professor Simukai Chigudu, Associate Professor of African Politics in ODID.
The series will be convened by the Associate Head of the Social Sciences Division for Education (Professor Susan James Relly) and the Associate Head of the Social Sciences Division of Graduate and Research Training (Professor Alexander Betts).
