Alumni Weekend

Best-selling crime fiction writer of Wire in the Blood Val McDermind talks about what makes Oxford city so alluring to crime fiction writers. Part of the 2009 Oxford Alumni Weekend.

Professor MacFarlane gives a talk about modern Russia; from the fall of the Berlin Wall to today; including the rise of Vladimir Putin, the conflict between Chechnya, alleged human rights violations and Russia's relationship with the rest of the world. Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

Bodley's head librarian, Sarah Thomas, talks about the history of the Bodleian Library and the changes that are taking place within it, particularly the digitisation project -creating electronic digital versions of books- currently underway.

Using examples from her research, Professor Tracey illustrates some of the exciting developments in brain imaging -seeing exactly how the brain is affected by its environment-and discusses how this research impacts on modern medicine, law and society. Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

In the history of the University, women and music have shared a Cinderella-like status before the 20th Century. In this talk, Dr Wollenberg looks at how women composers have continued to change the face of Oxford music in new ways. Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

Dr McShane talks about the University's work in creating an improved vaccine against tuberculosis and she also talks about the urgency of this research. Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

Dame Stephanie gives a talk about her philanthropic work in autism, looking at the condition's history, its causes, the treatments, specialist education and society's position on autism. Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

Recent studies have shown that genes are strongly implicated in determining if children will develop language disorders. In this talk, Professor Bishop examines the role genetics play in language development and language disorders. Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

A talk assessing the role of women in ancient Egypt - looking at the changes in female religious roles in ancient Egyptian society as a barometer for wider social, cultural and political transformation. Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

This talk looks at the work done by the Young Lives Project, a study which tracks 12,000 children across 4 developing countries over a 15 year period trying to find a scientific answer to the question of the causes of childhood poverty. Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/