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Danny-robins
Danny Robins
Chris-french
Christopher French
Deborah-hyde
Deborah Hyde
Stephenlaw
Stephen Law

Into the Uncanny

Danny Robins, Christopher French and Deborah Hyde chaired Stephen Law

Saturday, 16 March 2024

12:00pm

1 hour

Sheldonian Theatre

£8 - £15

Playwright and BBC podcaster Danny Robins, anomalistic psychologist Professor Christopher French and sceptic and cultural anthropologist Deborah Hyde debate whether ghosts are real or simply a product of the human mind. 

The ghosts of today don’t live in castles or stately homes, they’re in normal houses and workplaces, witnessed by ordinary people like us. Now we just need to figure out what they are – the dead returning from ‘the other side’? Or the product of that equally mysterious location, the human mind?

Robins says he is a sceptic who wants to believe. His award-winning BBC podcasts, Uncanny, The Battersea Poltergeist and The Witch Farm, and his hit West End play 2:22 - A Ghost Story, have made him ‘the UK’s go-to-ghost guy’, and he’s on a mission to try to solve this greatest of all mysteries – is the impossible possible?

French is professor emeritus in anomalistic psychology, Goldsmiths. He researches the psychology of paranormal beliefs and anomalous experiences. French appears frequently on radio and television (including Haunted Homes) casting a sceptical eye over paranormal claims. His most recent book is The Science of Weird Shit: Why Our Minds Conjure Up The Paranormal.

Hyde is a British sceptic, folklorist, cultural anthropologist, Ufologist, fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and was editor-in-chief of The Skeptic. She writes and lectures extensively about superstition, cryptozoology, religion and belief in the paranormal, with special regard to the folklore, psychology and sociology behind these phenomena. Hyde is known as a ‘vampire expert’.

Discussions are chaired by Dr Stephen Law, a philosopher and academic, author of bestselling introductions to philosophy for adults and children, editor of the Royal Institute of Philosophy Journal Think, and the festival’s major projects director.

Owen Mumford Ltd are supporters of the festival’s science and medicine programme and the festival’s annual award for science and innovation.

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The Oxford Literary Festival sponsors, donors & partners

The Telegraph Festival media partner University of Oxford European Union Supported by the Delegation of the European Union to the UK Bodleian Libraries Festival cultural partner Oxford Martin School Festival ideas partner Oxford Mathematics Spanish Embassy The Spanish Embassy: supporters of the programme of Spanish literature and culture Spain Arts and Culture Cervantes Institute, London The Cervantes Institute, London elBullifoundation Embassy of Peru Embassy of Peru Embassy of Chile in the UK Embassy of Chile Iberia British Airways Embassy of the Dominican Republic Embassy of the Dominican Republic Institut Ramon Llull Promoting Catalan culture and language worldwide Blackwell’s Festival on-site and online bookseller Sotheby’s Symington Wines of the Douro Valley Compassion in World Farming Pasture to Plate Oxford Business College Where learning meets opportunity: education partners of the festival Old Bank Hotel Five-star hotel partners of The Oxford Collection Old Parsonage Hotel Five-star hotel partners of The Oxford Collection Oxford Brookes University Oxford International Centre for Publishing Gravita Accountants to the festival Confucius Institute Voltaire Foundation Felicity Bryan Associates Goldmoney Properties Princeton University Press Prestige publishing partner. Celebrating 25 years in Europe in 2024 Oxford University Department for Continuing Education Jewish Book Week Partner of Oxford Literary Festival Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize Jim Mellon Miles Young Tim and Marion Stevenson Martin and Elise Becket Smith Ian and Carol Sellars David Isaac Mary and Cecil Quillen Supporters of the programme of American literature and culture Other donors Yale University Press London New College New College founded 1379 Exeter College Exeter College: college home of the festival. Founded 1314 Worcester College Worcester College founded 1714 Lincoln College Lincoln College founded 1427 Trinity College Trinity College founded 1555 Magdalen College Magdalen College founded 1458 Brasenose College Brasenose College founded in 1512 Reuben College Reuben College founded in 2019 Harris Manchester College Harris Manchester College founded 1893 Pusey House Founded 1884 New Dutch Writing Human Ecology Project MACROVegan Bear Ram Elk Festival Digital Strategy & Web Design Racalia Olive Oil Olive oil from Sicily Paul Bloomfield Ltd University of Oxford Alumni Office Alumni Office The Sheldonian Theatre Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies Oxford University Images Oxford University Images CAV Oxford The Litmus Partnership Schoolreaders Science Oxford Windrush Group The Oxford Times BBC Radio Oxford Local radio partner Conference Oxford Ox in a Box OX magazine Africa programme American programme