The 2026 Neill Law Lecturer, Lord Burnett of Maldon will be giving a talk on Sentence inflation, its causes and consequences for prisons, rehabilitation and public finances on Friday 20 January in the All Souls College Library at 5pm. 

All welcome to attend but reservations are required via the below link:

Register here.

Permanently Temporary Cities: Refugee Camps

Esther da Costa Meyer

5pm Wednesday 25 February

Auditorium, St John's College, University of Oxford

(Free Admission)

Many camps are now the size of cities, with populations in the hundreds of thousands. Around the globe, architects and NGOs operating on a shoestring budget, struggle to design shelters and schools responsive to the needs of refugees traumatized by persecution and genocide.

Brasilia: Planned Exclusion

Esther da Costa Meyer

5pm Wednesday 18 February

Auditorium, St John's College, University of Oxford

(Free Admission)

Inaugurated in 1960, the new capital of Brazil was designed by architects Oscar Niemeyer and Lúcio Costa. While the elegance of Niemeyer’s concrete shells elicited admiration, the workers who built Brasília were exiled in shantytowns far from the city.

Accra and Kumasi: Architecture and Decolonization

Esther da Costa Meyer

5pm Wednesday 11 February

Auditorium, St John's College, University of Oxford

(Free Admission)

After the election of Kwame Nkrumah as president of the Republic of Ghana in 1960, Ghanaian architects explored new building models that were both modern and culturally sensitive, alongside foreign architects attracted to the vibrant cosmopolitan environment.

Colonial Algiers: Architecture and Segregation

Esther da Costa Meyer

5pm Wednesday 4 February

Auditorium, St John's College, University of Oxford

(Free Admission)

A look at the architecture of Algiers in the 1950s when the French tried to counter the calls for independence by erecting housing projects, often by excellent architects. The Algerians reacted to these top-down initiatives, often using buildings against the grain.

Shanghai

Esther da Costa Meyer

5pm Wednesday 28 January

Auditorium, St John's College, University of Oxford

(Free Admission)

An overview of Shanghai during the 1920s and 30s, when Chinese architects responded forcefully with alternatives to the models of modern architecture promoted by the Western and Japanese occupying powers, a formidable but minuscule minority of the population.

Nineteenth-Century Paris: Memories and Counter-Memories

Esther da Costa Meyer

5pm Wednesday 21 January

Auditorium, St John's College, University of Oxford

(Free Admission)

The radical urban transformation of Paris under Napoleon III left a swath of destruction to make way for new boulevards and upscale buildings. Demolitions also uncovered archaeological ruins and other disquieting finds that challenged the city’s views of itself and of its history.