HT19 Public Lecture: Professor John Harris

Xenia: Refugees, Displaced Persons and Reciprocity

What has happened to our culture today that strangers to our shores are not welcomed, not given the protection of our laws and the warmth of our hospitality. What has happened to civilization?  Refugees, displaced persons and desperate would-be migrants are treated as creatures of no consequence, no interests and no rights. Great Britain, a nation built on migration: Celts, Saxons, Danes, Romans, Normans, Huguenots, Jews, West Indians, Asians from India, Pakistan, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) Singapore and so many others has turned its back on contemporary strangers and on ancient values. To understand this tragedy and both the origins and possible solutions to its disastrous effects, we need to start in the bronze age, nearly three thousand years ago, with one of the most complex and human of humans ever imagined, Odysseus of Ithaca.

Venue: Lecture Theatre, Oxford Martin School, 34 Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BD

Booking:  Public event - all welcome. Booking required.

Followed by drinks reception (19:00-19:45)

Book online