Meeting Minds: Oxford University Alumni Weekend

The 11th annual University of Oxford Alumni Weekend.

As part of the weekend, Merton's Director of Music, Benjamin Nicholas, performed a special organ concert on Saturday 16 September.

There were three further Merton-related events taking place across the weekend:

• Friday - 4:00pm-5:00pm - What are the challenges facing the continued existence of wildlife?
  Wildlife is in decline around the world, and yet a healthy environment is fundamental to human survival. Merton's Professor EJ Milner-Gulland joined Dr Susan Canney to discuss how conservationists need to work at all scales from the local to the global to find ways for humans and wildlife to live together peaceably.
• Friday - 4:00pm-5:00pm - The sound of ancient Greek music
  Nearly all ancient Greek poetry from Homer to Euripides was originally sung to music, but until recently it was thought that the music was lost. Recent research has begun to rediscover melodies and instruments used in Classical times. Mertonian Armand D’Angour (1979) showcased some of the latest sounds revealed by this cutting-edge research.
• Saturday - 2:30pm-3:30pm - What makes the Middle Ages global? The view from Asia, the Americas and Africa
  Dr Catherine Holmes (Balliol, 1994), Dr Amanda Power, and Mertonian Dr Conrad Leyser (1982), three of Oxford University's most distinguished medieval historians, discussed what makes the medieval world 'global'. They focused on Asia, the Americas and Africa, looking at the comparisons and connections between these different world regions in the period 500–1500.