Welcome to the science and ideas Festival!
IF Oxford is 11 days of events for everyone to explore science, ideas and creativity. Come to shops, theatres and pubs across Oxford to experiment with hundreds of innovative ideas.
Some of our favourite Humanities-related events are highlighted below:
How do our minds and bodies alter as we age? Can attitudes change from one generation to the next? How have the built and natural environments around us changed in the last 200 years? What are our hopes and fears for the future and how different will it be? Join researchers at the Bodleian’s Weston Library to look into the past, present and future. This event includes hands-on activities all day and a Living Library of researchers and talks in the evening.
This walking tour explores imaginary maps of Oxford found in literature and discusses the tensions they bring to its modern realities. Walk in the footsteps of JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis, Salman Rushdie and Helen Fielding, and discover Oxford as a setting, an inspiration and a site of contention.
The brave new world of artificial intelligence is coming to a mobile phone, hospital or a supermarket near you. What are the challenges and opportunities autonomous systems may bring as they are more deeply integrated within our human experience? Join this conversation between the Rt Revd Steven Croft, the Bishop of Oxford, and Professor Luciano Floridi, Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information, University of Oxford.
What makes a simple tune become an anthem that causes skin to tingle, makes hearts beat faster, or brings some people close to tears? Join Professor of Experimental Neuropathology, Daniel Anthony and a host of music and experiments that highlight the power music has over mood, physiology and the mind.
Join musician and Oxford Contemporary Music Boom Artist Emma Smith for a multimedia live performance. Using double bass, loops and visuals, she’ll explore the geopolitical landscape in which we find ourselves and ways to connect and feel grounded in times of trauma, chaos and mass migration.
Other highlights include:
- What IF…? 2019
- The annual Charles Simonyi lecture
- Fe Fi Fo Fum: battle for the iron crown
- The Most Unknown
- Learning languages is fun!
- In our blood
- The Breakup Monologues with Rosie Wilby
- Heroes and villains
- Maths: It’s all Greek to me!
- Who cares about old pictures?
- 111 – One hundred and eleven
- Only Expansion
- Poetry of science
- When children became evil
- Victorian Oxford through the stereoscope
- Remains II: Twenty Future Fossils
- Research in harmony
- Now and Then
