Digital Week Ten: Humanities and Science

For the tenth week of TORCH Goes Digital, we focused on the theme of “Humanities and Science”. Together with leading researchers from the University of Oxford and beyond, the TORCH team curated a wonderful programme of blog posts, podcasts, news articles, poems, performances and more.

Popular content included How the Mouse Lost its Tail, Or, Lamarck's Dangerous Idea, from Professor Jessica Riskin (University of Stanford), delivered as part of a TORCH Crisis, Extremes, and Apocalypse network event. Another popular discussion took place between Wayne McGregor (Director, Random Dance), Dr Phil Barnard, (MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge) and Eckhard Thiemann (Arts Producer). These speakers explored the point where dance, choreography and science can meet. 

We also were proud to showcase The Oxford Dodo: Culture at the Crossroad, an interdisciplinary panel which explored the life and legacy of the dodo in collaboration between TORCH and the Museum of Natural History. We were delighted to highlight a number of discussions and presentations from this event, including The Dodo and Exploration and The Dodo in the Museum.

To celebrate the #TORCHGoesDigital! theme for this week, the TORCH Heritage programme highlighted a number of Trusted Source articles, including What is biodiversity? by Sophie Pierce and What is the Anthropocene? by Scott Ashley.

On the evening of Thursday 28 May, from 5.00pm-6.00pm, we had our eighth Big Tent, Live Events! live-streamed discussion, Living with Pandemics: Finding New Narratives. Dr Erica Charters and Robin Gorna examined how societies have responded to pandemics, throughout the world, and throughout time. #TORCHGoesDigital! and our Big Tent, Live Events! would not be the successes they are without your interest, appreciation and interaction.