Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities

Hear economists, entrepreneurs and Oxford academics debate how policy, business and individual choices could shape a fairer economy. Explore ideas from de-growth to middle-out economics, then experience artist Maija Tammi’s video installation.

Hear novelist Samantha Harvey and composer Nitin Sawhney unpack how Booker Prize-winning novel Orbital sparked new music and a wider collaboration with artists, academics and archaeologists. Professor Yadvinder Malhi guides a conversation on Earth, imagination and human connection at the Schwarzman Centre in Oxford.

Hear novelists Joanna Kavenna and Kim Stanley Robinson discuss inequality with economic anthropologist Jason Hickel and Oxford academics, linking literature, justice and ideas for practical policy. The event also features a video installation by artist Maija Tammi.

Artist Edmund de Waal leads an illustrated exploration of the Psalms across cultures and centuries, tracing their influence on music, poetry, sacred art and dance. Hear how they move across Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions, then join the open audience Q&A.

Hear an immersive artist, ecosystem scientist and economist connect art, data and economics to explore how humanity can flourish within the limits of a living planet. This free, 90-minute in-person talk takes place in Oxford; booking is required.

Hear novelist Kiran Desai discuss fiction and the contemporary condition with postcolonial thinker Homi Bhabha. They’ll explore how literature responds to global modernity and forces shaping our world, with Desai reflecting on The Inheritance of Loss and The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny.

Professor Suzanne Aspden leads an hour-long, in-person introduction to Handel’s Theodora, with insights from the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists team. Explore its historical and musical context, and themes of faith, freedom and utopia, before the evening performance.

Hear novelist Ali Smith discuss how her fiction responds to social and political pressures and imagines different futures with Peter Boxall. The conversation connects her novels, from early work to the Seasonal Quartet and recent writing, to an international conference on utopian thinking today.