The Oxford University Museum of Natural History is home to the world’s only soft tissue dodo remains. This public event in collaboration between TORCH and the Museum celebrates the life and legacy of the famous creature, as well as providing an opportunity to view the dodo.
Speakers: Paul Smith (Director, Oxford University Museum of Natural History), Pietro Corsi (Historian of Science), Jasper Fforde (Author of the Thursday Next series), Paul Jepson (Environmental Researcher) & Kirsten Shepherd-Barr (Literary Scholar).
'The dodo: an icon of extinction, and a powerful symbol of humanity's impact on the environment. It crosses disciplinary lines, encompassing literature, science, the arts, geography. It haunts our imagination, from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland to David Quammen's The Song of the Dodo to the Natural History Museum's very own exhibit on this extraordinary and elusive creative. What did it sound like? How did it really look? Why are we left to reconstruct, from a few bones, this creature that seems so real and touches us so immediately?' - Kirsten Shepherd-Barr
This event is part of Being Human 2015, the UK’s only national festival of the humanities.
TORCH will be providing a ‘pop-up creche’ facility for this event at the Oxford University Natural History Museum, in the Education Centre. There is a limited number of spaces available for up to 12 year olds and this is booked on a first come, first served basis. The facility will be managed by an external crèche company who are all trained and certified to provide this service. For further information, please contact Victoria McGuinness victoria.mcguinness@humanities.ox.ac.uk
The image includes sections of an Oxford skyline by artist Abi Daker (with permission of the artist) and ‘The Dodo, and the Guiney pig’ by George Edwards (Wikimedia Commons).
