Society

Eric Kaufmann, Nicola Kelly, Keon West and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown chaired by Stephen Law

Oxford Debate: The Changing Landscape of Racism
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sat 29 Saturday, 29 March 2025 See this event
Josh Cohen

All the Rage: Why Anger Drives the World
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 6:00pm Sat 29 Saturday, 29 March 2025 See this event
Lionel Shriver

Mania: What if Calling Someone Stupid was Illegal
Trinity College, Levene Building: Auditorium 10:00am Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Ekow Eshun

The Strangers: Five Extraordinary Black Men and the Worlds That Made Them
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 12:00pm Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Philippe Sands talks to Richard Ovenden

38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in London and a Nazi in Patagonia
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Justin Schlosberg, Tony Sewell and Zoe Strimpel chaired by Stephen Law

Oxford Debates: Immigration and the 2024 Riots
Trinity College, Levene Building: Auditorium 2:00pm Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Guy Leschziner

Seven Deadly Sins: The Biology of Being Human
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
James Rebanks talks to Dinah Rose

President of Magdalen Lecture: The Place of Tides
Sheldonian Theatre 5:00pm Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Diarmaid MacCulloch talks to Jane Shaw

Lower than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Andrew Blick

Could it Happen Here: The Day a Prime Minister Refuses to Resign
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Nigel Shadbolt

As if Human: Ethics and Artificial Intelligence
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Susana Monsó

Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death
Department for Continuing Education: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Peter Lamont

Radical Thinking: How to see the Bigger Picture – with Magic
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Wendy Moore

Jack and Eve: Two Women In Love and At War
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Tue 1 Tuesday, 1 April 2025 See this event
Megan Davis

Bay of Thieves and Fighting Corruption
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Tue 1 Tuesday, 1 April 2025 See this event
Chris Atkins, Gen Glaister and Rob McKeon chaired by Stephen Law

Oxford Debate. Banged Up: Perspectives of an Ex-prisoner, Ex-prison officer, and Parole Board Member
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Tue 1 Tuesday, 1 April 2025 See this event
John Kay and Julia Hobsbawm

The Future of Work and Business
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Tue 1 Tuesday, 1 April 2025 See this event
Daniel Susskind, Carissa Veliz and Linda Eggert chaired by David Edmonds

The Morality of Artificial Intelligence
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Tue 1 Tuesday, 1 April 2025 See this event
Jeremy Mynott

The Story of Nature: A Human History
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 12:00pm Wed 2 Wednesday, 2 April 2025 See this event
Vybarr Cregan-Reid

We are What We Read
Bodleian: Convocation House 12:00pm Wed 2 Wednesday, 2 April 2025 See this event
A C Grayling talks to Stephen Law

Discriminations: Achieving Peace in the Culture Wars
Pusey House: Chapel 2:00pm Wed 2 Wednesday, 2 April 2025 See this event
Lamorna Ash

Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever: A New Generation’s Search for Religion
Department for Continuing Education: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Wed 2 Wednesday, 2 April 2025 See this event
Roberto Trotta

Starborn: How the Stars Made Us – and Who We Would Be Without Them
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Wed 2 Wednesday, 2 April 2025 See this event
Paul Caruana Galizia

A Death in Malta: An Assassination and a Family’s Quest for Justice
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 2:00pm Wed 2 Wednesday, 2 April 2025 See this event
Thomas Hale and Hannah Ritchie

Charting the Path to a Sustainable Planet
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Wed 2 Wednesday, 2 April 2025 See this event
Rachel Shabi

Off-White: The Truth about Antisemitism
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Wed 2 Wednesday, 2 April 2025 See this event
Paul Collier

Left Behind: A New Economics for Neglected Places
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Wed 2 Wednesday, 2 April 2025 See this event
Beaty Rubens

Listen In: How Radio Changed the Home
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Sheilagh Ogilvie

Controlling Contagion: Epidemics and Institutions from the Black Death to Covid
Department for Continuing Education: Lecture Theatre 10:00am Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Julie Summers

British Vogue: The Biography of an Icon
Department for Continuing Education: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
John Heathershaw and Tena Prelec chaired by Oliver Bullough

Indulging Kleptocracy: British Service Providers, Post-communist Elites, and the Enabling of Corruption
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Simon Heffer

Scarcely English: An A-Z of Assaults on Our Language
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Gavin Francis

The Bridge Between Worlds: A Brief History of Connection
Department for Continuing Education: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Grace Blakeley and Zoe Strimpel chaired by Stephen Law

Oxford Debate. Is Britain Broken? If it is, how do we fix it?
Department for Continuing Education: Lecture Theatre 10:00am Fri 4 Friday, 4 April 2025 See this event
Phil Tinline

Ghosts of Iron Mountain
Bodleian: Convocation House 12:00pm Fri 4 Friday, 4 April 2025 See this event
T J Clark

Those Passions: On Art and Politics
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Fri 4 Friday, 4 April 2025 See this event
Rod Dreher talks to Iain McGilchrist

Living in Wonder: Finding Mystery and Meaning in a Secular Age
Pusey House: Chapel 2:00pm Fri 4 Friday, 4 April 2025 See this event
Grace Blakeley, Matthew Goodwin and Justin Schlosberg chaired by Stephen Law

Oxford Debate: Rising Fascism?
Department for Continuing Education: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Fri 4 Friday, 4 April 2025 See this event
Ian Goldin

The Shortest History of Migration
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Fri 4 Friday, 4 April 2025 See this event
David Gann talks to Jim Mellon

Jim Mellon Future Tech Interview: The Promise of Limitless Energy
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Fri 4 Friday, 4 April 2025 See this event
Darrin McMahon

Equality: The History of Elusive Idea
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sat 5 Saturday, 5 April 2025 See this event
Tony Juniper talks to Tom Heap

Just Earth: How a Fairer World will save the Planet
Pusey House: Chapel 2:00pm Sat 5 Saturday, 5 April 2025 See this event
Jordi Pigem talks to Iain McGilchrist

Consciousness or Collapse
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sat 5 Saturday, 5 April 2025 See this event
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Nigel Biggar and Matthew Goodwin chaired by Gary Francione

Oxford Debates. Woke and Free Speech: Universities and Beyond
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Sat 5 Saturday, 5 April 2025 See this event
Robert D Kaplan

The American Lecture. Wasteland: A World in Permanent Crisis
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Sat 5 Saturday, 5 April 2025 See this event
Jan Brokken

Baltic Souls: Remarkable Life Stories from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sun 6 Sunday, 6 April 2025 See this event
Marietje Schaake

The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sun 6 Sunday, 6 April 2025 See this event
Danny Dorling

Seven Children: Inequality and Britain’s Next Generation
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 2:00pm Sun 6 Sunday, 6 April 2025 See this event
Thomas Levenson

So Very Small: How Humans Discovered the Microcosmos
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Sun 6 Sunday, 6 April 2025 See this event

Festival information:

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 festival is the most elegant and atmospheric of literary festivals. It’s a pleasure to both attend and perform there.

The night in Oxford was the most beautiful event I have ever done. Not just the spectacular setting (of the Sheldonian), but an unforgettable evening.

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.

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.

The Oxford Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

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 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.