Principal John Bowers will be in conversation with his guest speaker, Brasenose College alumnus James Johnson. James is a political adviser and pollster, having previously served as the Senior Opinion Research and Strategy Adviser to Prime Minister Theresa May. In that capacity he conducted opinion research and private polling, and presented recommendations to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, as well as the rest of Whitehall and the Conservative Party. James is now a founding partner of the leading polling firm, J.L. Partners.

This talk navigates rural, peri-urban, and urban contemporary fairs and festivals as sites of displaying South Asian ‘folk’ performances. As displays alongside other tangible cultural objects and artefacts, such performances often negotiate ‘authenticity’ both through the performers’ role-playing as well as the audiences’ reception. In this sense, these performances at once become truncated prototypes, showcases, and souvenir acts. More importantly, the sites of contemporary fair and festival performances are sought after by marginal performers as objectified capital.

Principal John Bowers will be in conversation with Brasenose College alumnus Siddarth Shrikanth.

COP28 closed with an agreement, that for the first time in three decades, includes oil and gas.

But what does the agreement mean in real terms? And is keeping the global temperature limit of 1.5°C within reach.

Join us as our panel of academics share their thoughts after attending COP28 and look forward to what it means for COP29 and the world over the coming years.

Panel:

Professor Myles Allen, Director, Oxford Net Zero
Dr Abrar Chaudhury, Senior Associate, Oxford Net Zero
Professor Benito Müller, Managing Director, Oxford Climate Policy (Chair)