# Event Details - **Event Name**: Decoding the Hand: A History of Magic, Medicine and Science - **Event Start and End Date**: Tue, 25 Nov, 2025 at 04:30 pm – Tue, 25 Nov, 2025 at 06:00 pm - **Event Description**: Divination, Oracles, and Omens NetworkAbout this EventProf. Alison Bashford, 'Decoding the Hand: A History of Magic, Medicine and Science'Tuesday 25 November 2025, 4.30pmSummer Common Room, Magdalen CollegeIn Decoding the Hand: A History of Magic, Medicine and Science, Alison Bashford explores the long connections between early modern chiromancy, nineteenth-century revivals of kabbalistic palmistry, sometimes reworked as ‘medical palmistry’, and a suite of twentieth century biomedical interventions, including the hand-based ‘dermatoglyphics’. Not only for fortune-telling palmists were the future and the past, health, and character laid bare in the hand, but for other experts in bodies and minds as well: anatomists, psychiatrists, embryologists, primatologists, evolutionary biologists, geneticists. Part diagnostics, part prognostics as well as prognostication, she explains an enduring search for how our bodily surfaces might reveal an inner self—a soul, a character, an identity.Alison Bashford FBA is Scientia Professor of History at University of New South Wales, previously Vere Harmsworth Professor at Cambridge. She is author of An Intimate History of Evolution: The Story of the Huxley Family (Allen Lane, 2022), winner of the Nib Literary Award, and shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize. Her most recent edited book is New Earth Histories: Geo-cosmologies and the Making of the Modern World (Chicago) with Kern and Bobbette. In 2021, she received the Dan David Prize for her contributions to the history of medicine.This event, open to all, is supported by the TORCH Network 'Divination, Oracles, and Omens', the Calleva Research Centre at Magdalen College, and the Centre for the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology in the History Faculty.____Eventbrite processes data (including any personal data you may submit by responding to this invitation) outside of the European Economic Area. Please only submit any personal data which you are happy to have processed in this way, and in accordance with Eventbrite’s privacy policy applicable to attendees (available here: Eventbrite Privacy Policy | Eventbrite Help Centre). If you prefer not to use Eventbrite for responding to this invitation, you may respond directly to torch@humanities.ox.ac.uk.Divination, Oracles, and Omens Network - **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/oxford/decoding-the-hand-a-history-of-magic-medicine-and-science/100001644655852929 - **Event Categories**: art, literary-art, health-wellness - **Interested Audience**: - total_interested_count: 0 ## Ticket Details - **Ticket URL**: https://consumer.pxf.io/c/1339408/3151484/39691?partnerpropertyid=1191892&MediaPartnerPropertyId=1191892&svlink=14105511&level=1&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eventbrite.com%2Fe%2Fdecoding-the-hand-a-history-of-magic-medicine-and-science-tickets-1644655852929 - **Ticket Price Range**: min: 0, max: 0, currency: GBP ## Event venue details - **city**: Oxford - **state**: EN - **country**: United Kingdom - **location**: Magdalen College - **lat**: 51.7519686 - **long**: -1.2475933 - **full address**: Magdalen College, High Street, Oxford, United Kingdom ## Event Organizer details - **affiliate_id**: 10 - **organizer**: TORCH | The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (https://allevents.in/org/torch-|-the-oxford-research-centre-in-the-humanities/17688115) ## Event gallery - **Alt text**: banner - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events7/banners/551e67058604804d83a53a8551ef92717d4fd80e7857a88fee30ce041547b12a-rimg-w860-h1290-dc817b7d-gmir.jpg?v=1761926106 - **Alt text**: thumbnail - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events7/banners/25b3e6a193437ea3ac181728f1535bb213dcbc626bc0a5b788c3a7a6ec65b979-rimg-w400-h400-dc817b7d-gmir.jpg?v=1761926105 ## FAQs - **Q**: When is the event happening? - **A:** Tue, 25 Nov, 2025 at 04:30 pm - **Q**: Where is the event happening? - **A:** Magdalen College, High Street, Oxford, United Kingdom - **Q**: What is the ticket price? - **A:** starting from 0 up to 0 GBP - **Q**: Who is organizing the event? - **A:** TORCH | The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities - **Q**: What type of event is this? - **A:** art, literary-art, health-wellness - **Q**: Where can I find ticket details about Decoding the Hand: A History of Magic, Medicine and Science ? - **A:** You can find ticket details about this event on AllEvents. ## Structured Data (JSON-LD) ```json [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Event", "name": "Decoding the Hand: A History of Magic, Medicine and Science", "image": "https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events7/banners/551e67058604804d83a53a8551ef92717d4fd80e7857a88fee30ce041547b12a-rimg-w860-h1290-dc817b7d-gmir.jpg?v=1761926106", "startDate": "2025-11-25", "endDate": "2025-11-25", "url": "https://allevents.in/oxford/decoding-the-hand-a-history-of-magic-medicine-and-science/100001644655852929", "location": { "@type": "Place", "name": "Magdalen College", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "High Street", "postalCode": "OX1 4AU", "addressLocality": "Oxford", "addressRegion": "EN", "addressCountry": "GB" }, "geo": { "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": "51.7519686", "longitude": "-1.2475933" } }, "eventAttendanceMode": "https://schema.org/OfflineEventAttendanceMode", "description": "Divination, Oracles, and Omens Network", "offers": [ { "@type": "AggregateOffer", "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock", "priceCurrency": "GBP", "availabilityStarts": "2026-04-04", "availabilityEnds": "2025-11-25", "validFrom": "2026-04-04", "lowPrice": "0.00", "highPrice": "0.00", "price": "0.00", "url": "https://allevents.in/oxford/decoding-the-hand-a-history-of-magic-medicine-and-science/100001644655852929" }, { "@type": "Offer", "availability": "https://schema.org/SoldOut", "priceCurrency": "GBP", "availabilityStarts": "2026-04-04", "availabilityEnds": "", "validFrom": "2026-04-04", "url": "https://allevents.in/oxford/decoding-the-hand-a-history-of-magic-medicine-and-science/100001644655852929", "price": 0, "name": "General Admission" } ], "organizer": [ { "@type": "Organization", "name": "TORCH The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities", "url": "https://allevents.in/org/torch-|-the-oxford-research-centre-in-the-humanities/17688115", "description": "TORCH stimulates, supports and promotes research activity of the very highest quality that transcends disciplinary and institutional boundaries, and engages with wider audiences. " } ] } ] ```