Coming to an End - an interactive museum experience and panel discussion

6 November 10:00 to 15 November 17:00
Ashmolean Museum

This event is part of the Being Human Festival, the UK’s national festival of the humanities

 

 

photo of a stone carving of the Buddha's death with reclining figure surrounded by people.

Unknown Artist, The Death of the Buddha, or Mahaparinirvana, grey schist, c.200 CE

(Copyright @Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford)

This is an open panel-led public conversation involving academics, museum curators, and expert patient tutors (people living with chronic neurological diseases who co-deliver teaching sessions for the Medical School) as well as a self-guided museum trail at the Ashmolean museum in Oxford that the public will be invited to take before or after the panel discussion. It will involve experts from TORCH Medical Humanities Hub, the ANTITHESES Platform and the Uehiro Oxford Institute at Oxford in dialogue with the public.

See below for more information about the self-guided museum trail and the panel discussion event.

 

Coming to an End- An interactive museum experience (self-guided trail)

Time and date

Thursday 6 November 2025 to Saturday 15 November 2025, 10:00 - 17:00

Venue

Ashmolean Museum, Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PH (accessibility information: Ashmolean Museum access page)

Description

Take part in a self-guided museum trail, hosted at the Ashmolean Museum, exploring issues of death, dying and end-of-life care. Adapted from an innovative, award-winning trail forming part of the Oxford medical curriculum, this activity is co-created by a multidisciplinary team spanning the humanities and medical sciences divisions and including the perspectives of expert patient tutors.

The self-guided trail can be done between museum hours at your own convenience.  Drop-in event - no booking required.

This event is part of the Being Human Festival, the UK’s national festival of the humanities, taking place 6 - 15 November 2025. Led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, with generous support from Research England, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy. For further information please see the Being Human Festival page.
 

Panel discussion event

Time and date

The panel-led public discussion event will be held on Friday 14th  of November from 1-2pm. 

Venue

Ashmolean Museum, Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PH (accessibility information: Ashmolean Museum access page)

Description

An open panel-led public conversation involving academics, museum curators, and expert patient tutors (people living with chronic neurological diseases who co-deliver teaching sessions for the Medical School) as well as a self-guided museum trail at the Ashmolean museum in Oxford that the public will be invited to take before or after the panel discussion. It will involve experts from TORCH Medical Humanities Hub, the ANTITHESES Platform and the Uehiro Oxford Institute at Oxford in dialogue with the public.

This event is part of the Being Human Festival, the UK’s national festival of the humanities, taking place 6 - 15 November 2025. Led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, with generous support from Research England, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy. For further information please see the Being Human Festival page.  

Speakers

Introduction by Dr Jim Harris, Teaching Curator, Ashmolean Museum

Chaired by Professor Dominic Wilkinson, Deputy Director Uehiro Oxford Institute and Director of Medical Ethics at the University of Oxford

Dr Victoria Bradley, Consultant in and the Clinical Lead for Palliative Medicine at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Honorary Senior Lecturer in Palliative Medicine

Dr Halina Suwalowska, Social Scientist and Researcher in Global Health Bioethics at the Ethox Centre

Eleanor Kerfoot, Historian and DPhil candidate at Balliol College

Booking

Please note booking is required to attend the panel discussion.

Book at Eventbrite