Science | Oxford Literary Festival

Sonia Contera

Nano Comes to Life: How Nanotechnology Is Transforming Medicine and the Future of Biology
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sun 29 Sunday, 29 March 2020 See this event
Chris Lintott

The Crowd and the Cosmos: Adventures in Zooniverse
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Mon 30 Monday, 30 March 2020 See this event
Robin Dunbar

Friends: The New Science of Friendships and Relationships
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Tue 31 Tuesday, 31 March 2020 See this event
Jim Al-Khalili

The World According to Physics
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Tue 31 Tuesday, 31 March 2020 See this event
Adam Kucharski

The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread and Why they Stop
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
Sue Armstrong

Borrowed Time: The Science of How and Why We Age
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 12:00pm Thu 2 Thursday, 2 April 2020 See this event
Susan Blackmore

Seeing Myself: The New Science of Out-of-Body Experiences
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Thu 2 Thursday, 2 April 2020 See this event
Richard Swinburne

Are we Bodies or Souls?
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Thu 2 Thursday, 2 April 2020 See this event
Steve Jones

Here Comes the Sun: How it Makes us What we are
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Fri 3 Friday, 3 April 2020 See this event
Hugo Mercier

Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 6:00pm Fri 3 Friday, 3 April 2020 See this event
Maggie Aderin-Pocock

An Interactive Tour of Space
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Sat 4 Saturday, 4 April 2020 See this event
Arthur Miller

The Artist in the Machine: The World of AI-Powered Creativity
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 2:00pm Sat 4 Saturday, 4 April 2020 See this event
Josh Berson

The Meat Question: Animals, Humans and the Deep History of Food
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sat 4 Saturday, 4 April 2020 See this event
Ainissa Ramirez

The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another
Cohen Quad: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Sat 4 Saturday, 4 April 2020 See this event
Jack Price

The Future of Brain Repair: A Realist’s Guide to Stem Cell Therapy
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sun 5 Sunday, 5 April 2020 See this event
David Robert Grimes

The Irrational Ape
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sun 5 Sunday, 5 April 2020 See this event
Andrew Robinson

Einstein on the Run: How Britain Saved the World’s Greatest Scientist
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Sun 5 Sunday, 5 April 2020 See this event
Mark Hanson and Peter Gluckman

Ingenious: The Unintended Consequences of Human Innovation
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sun 5 Sunday, 5 April 2020 See this event

Festival information:

I came away buzzing and reassured that we still have in this century a wide ranging community fascinated not just by famous authors (I’ve rarely seen so many concentrated in one place) but by challenging ideas and questions.

A stimulating and rewarding on-stage conversation; a lively informed and tolerant audience; privileged access to the great treasures of the Bodleian, and finally, wonderfully interesting dinner companions to help me conclude the best day I have enjoyed at any festival – anywhere.

The Oxford Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

It was a privilege for me to visit the festival to receive the Bodley Medal. As an incidental blessing I saw Oxford at its most mysterious and atmospheric. It was a day of piercing cold and as I walked through the twilight from the Sheldonian to Christ Church, the streets were empty and the whole city was shutting itself away. Christ Church was silent except for the footfall of unseen persons around corners and the sounds of evensong creeping from behind closed doors. For the first time I understood thoroughly the power of college ghost stories.

Often as an author, I only occasionally get to meet the public who buy and read my books. The Oxford Literary Festival was a special opportunity for me and certainly one of the highlights of my career – it was an honour I will never forget.

I loved the whole atmosphere of the Oxford Literary Festival. From breakfast, alongside some of the attendees, who were talking books with each other a mile a minute, to the public event at The Sheldonian where everyone was lively and engaged – I felt I had arrived in a kind of literary heaven.

Every literary festival stays in an author’s mind for slightly individual reasons. I shall remember the Oxford festival for: - the size of the audience: at the top end of the range - their intelligence – this makes a huge difference for a speaker. In the Oxford audience I encountered many experts in the field my book covered and even one of the ambassadors I’d quoted - the beauty and the grace of the place itself – incomparable - the willingness of my hearers to buy books afterwards; I’ve never sold more.

The Oxford Literary Festival has in my mind become the leading literary festival of the year. The organisation, the roster of speakers, the ambience and the sheer quality of it all is superb. May it now go from strength to strength each year stretching its ambition more and more. I believe it will.

FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival partners & sponsors

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Partner of Jewish programme

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Supporters of the Irish programme

MIT Press. Sponsors of the programme of American literature and culture

Festival London hotel partner

Festival on-site and online bookseller

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Patron donor for the programme of Irish literature and culture

Worcester College

Lincoln College

11th St Hilda's day at the festival

St Cross College

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