Since its inception in 2000, the St. Clare’s Seminar Series has provided an opportunity for students to explore a stimulating range of issues and ideas. Each semester the series is linked by a common theme. Themes in previous years have included ‘The City and Modern Life’, ‘The Body and Society’, ‘Culture and Power’, and ‘Rebels and Martyrs’.
The theme for Spring Semester 2014 is 'Women and Men'.
As Simone de Beauvoir argued in The Second Sex (1949), ‘One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman’. This classic formulation makes an important distinction between sex and gender, and suggests that gender is culturally determined. Is this feminist formulation as true for men as it is for women? What role does biology play in the differences between women and men? How is gender represented in culture, and how do these representations change over time and across different societies? This interdisciplinary series will explore these questions from a variety of critical and theoretical perspectives.
Students are welcome to attend the talks held on Wednesday afternoons at the Bardwell Road campus. Here's a list of the upcoming seminars:
- Wednesday 12 February
An Unsuitable Job: Women and Crime Fiction
Victoria Staveley, St. Clare’s College, Oxford
- Wednesday 19 February
Which Witch is Which?: Perceptions of Women during the English Witch Trials
David Chaplin, St. Clare’s College, Oxford
- Wednesday 5 March
The Men and Women of Nauru: Lifestyle Changes in a Small Island Nation
Amy McLennan, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford - Wednesday 12 March
Considerations of Sex and Gender in Psychotherapy
Niamh Moriarty, PPC Worldwide, Oxford - Wednesday 19 March
‘Is this the right room for an argument?’: Gender and Debate
Coral Milburn, Green Templeton College, Oxford
- Wednesday 26 March
When Boy Meets Girl: Falling in Love?
Dr Anna Scarnà, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford