Part of the Lifelong Fellowship portfolio, the Scholars’ Library is a monthly book talk series, open to Scholars and the general public. In each event, Scholars present, discover and debate their literary works with those in the community and beyond.
Join the Scholars' Library mailing list to hear about upcoming events and availability of recordings of previous events.
In our August event, T. A. Barron (Colorado & Balliol 1974) will discuss his latest book, Naming Nature: A Cabinet of Natural Curiosities for Word Lovers.
“What a glorious book — a celebration of nature’s beauty, a love poem to language, and a heartfelt plea to save the environment for all living creatures. An inspiring book for all to treasure!”
— Jane Goodall, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace.
Mark Abley (Saskatchewan & St John's 1975) talk about his new book, Numb: The Politics of Overwhelm, addressing the relentless barrage of news of horrific events. We also discuss some of his earlier works, including biographies of his father, and of Duncan Scott Campbell, his work on lost languages, and his poetry.
Australia’s climate debate has long focused on three central pillars: clean power, future economic prosperity and protecting the planet. Thom (Australia-at-Large & St Antony's 2014) outlines why the next wave of climate and energy policy in Australia must focus intently on middle Australia, designing policies that make sense from the Cabinet Room to every lounge room across the mortgage belts and beyond.
Africa is undergoing an astounding transformation that will usher in a new era of political volatility and experimentation in the coming years. The region is in the midst of a historically unprecedented demographic surge that has skewed the median age in most countries to below twenty years old. Michelle Gavin (Arizona & Lincoln 1996) argues that these clear trends will result in an increase in political volatility.
When maps come up short and the path ahead is uncertain, how do we find our way? Visionary climate leader Katharine K. Wilkinson (Tennessee & Trinity 2006) offers a compassionate and empowering guide to navigating from ache to action, doubt to possibility.
What if the mainstay of mental health care involved cancelling onerous debt, giving poor people free housing, and paying reparations to the descendants of slavery and colonialism? In Empire of Madness, Dr. Khameer Kidia (Zimbabwe & St Hugh's 2011) re-evaluates the Western approach to mental health, which medicates symptoms instead of changing the structures that harm the human psyche.
Justin Fox (South African College School, Newlands & Brasenose 1991) discusses his extensive bibliography of travel writing, and his series of WWII naval thrillers featuring Jack Pembroke. The fourth book in the series, Malta Inferno, was published in March 2026.
Shooting Up: A Memoir of Heroin, AIDS, Love and Loss is a coming-of-age memoir about the AIDS epidemic among heroin addicts through the eyes of a child who becomes a young man. Jonathan Tepper (North Carolina & Christ Church 1998) grew up as a precocious American missionary kid in San Blas, a neighborhood of Madrid, Spain with the highest rate of heroin use and juvenile crime in all of Europe in the 1980s. As an act of love, his parents started a drug rehabilitation center.
Andrew Zawacki (Virginia & University 1994) reads from and discusses his three most recent books of poems and photography: These Late Eclipses, Endscape, and Unsun: f/11.
Randal Pinkett (New Jersey & Keble 1994) discusses his book Campus CEO: : The Student Entrepreneur's Guide to Launching a Multi-million Dollar Business with Gift Gwawawa (Zimbabwe & University 2023). Randal talks about how to develop a successful business plan, secure funding, maintain a healthy balance between work and school, and manage a successful endeavor... and what he learned from winning The Apprentice in 2005.
Paul (New Mexico & University 1973) talks about Chasing the Chameleon, the latest book in his Cash McCahill series of legal thrillers. We also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the first two books in the series being published in the COVID era, how his legal career has informed his writing, and his reflections on the current state of the US justice system.
Dr Maya Shankar (Connecticut & New College 2007) discusses her book The Other Side of Change - Who We Become When Life Makes Other Plans with Chishimba Kasanga (Zambia & Wolfson 2021). When life throws a curveball, it can feel like we’re free-falling into the unknown. But what if upheaval was a chance to reimagine ourselves, rather than something to just endure?
Robert McGill (Ontario & Wadham 1999), in conversation with Siobhan Phillips (New York & New College 1999), discusses his book Simple Creatures. A 2025 finalist for the Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, Simple Creatures consider what it means to live with less in the twenty-first century.
David Quammen (Ohio & Merton 1970) reflects on his writing career that bridges spy fiction, evolutionary biology, ecology, and the complex relationship between humans and the natural world.
Jaz Brisack (Mississippi & Wadham 2019), in conversation with Shruti Iyer (India and St Antony’s, 2019), discusses their book Get on the Job and Organize: Standing Up for a Better Workplace and a Better World. With an accessible tone, a deep love of labor history, and profound empathy, Brisack puts recent efforts into the context of Americans’ long tradition of organizing.
In Moral Debt, Brian Wong (Hong Kong & Balliol 2020) draws upon methods of political theory, empirical politics, legal philosophy, and applied ethics, to advance the novel account of Collective Moral Debt Reparative Justice.
Gladys Ngetich (Kenya & Oriel 2015) talks about her book Awaken Your Potential: 9 Practical Tools to Be Invincible. It is an exploration of 9 powerful tools to help you unlock the version of yourself you’ve been quietly longing to meet. These tools include turning setbacks into comebacks, taking intentional risks, and overcoming fear and imposter syndrome.
In Mindset Matters, Dan Porterfield (Maryland & Hertford 1984) advances a powerful new argument about the value of residential undergraduate education and its role in developing growth mindsets among students
Andrew (Illinois & Pembroke 1977) talks about his trilogy of thrillers set in 1930-40s United States, his prescient novel on AI-generated poetry, and his 1990s political satire that was only published 15 years later.
In Fearless Speech, Mary Anne Franks (Louisiana & Wadham 1999) emphasizes the distinction between what speech a democratic society should protect and what speech a democratic society should promote.
In How Not to Die (Too Soon), Devi Sridhar (Florida & Wolfson 2003) talks about holding governments accountable for policies that can significantly extend our lifespans, shifting the focus from individual responsibility to societal accountability.
In Key to the City, Sara Bronin (Texas & Magdalen 2001) demystifies the power of zoning; an inscrutable organizing force in our lives and invites us to see zoning as a revolutionary vehicle for change!
In South Pole, Elizabeth Leane (South Australia & Magdalen 1995) explores the important challenges that this strange place poses to humanity. What is its lure? How and why should people live there? How can creative artists respond to its apparent blankness? What can it teach us about our planet and ourselves?
In the ground-breaking The Science of Racism Professor Keon West cuts through the divisive anecdotes and rhetoric with decades’ worth of clear, factual, rigorous, quantitative science, to reveal truths about racism that are shocking and tragic, but also (somehow) funny and entertaining.
Ron (Missouri & Balliol 1967) discusses his series of "cosy mystery" books, the Sleuthing Silvers, and The Pilfered Papyrus, based on a real-life academic scandal at Oxford.
David which tells the story of his journey from atheism to Christian faith, through a series of encounters that force him to reconsider his view of the world, religion and the nature of human knowledge.
