Dates for the Diary (events in Somerville unless otherwise stated)
College Report
2023
2024
NOVEMBER
FEBRUARY
18
03
Literary Lunch with Suzanne Heywood (1987, Zoology) in conversation with Rebecca Jones (1985, History)
DECEMBER 04
Alumni Carol Concert in the Chapel
05
Alumni Carol Concert at Temple Church, London
Supporters’ Lunch
MARCH 16
Medics Day with Professor Kamila Hawthorne MBE (1978, Medicine)
16
Spring Meeting with Professor Dame Angela McLean (1979, Maths)
MAY 18
The Penrose Society Lunch
JUNE 8
Commemoration Service
SEPTEMBER
Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6HD T: +44 (0) 1865 270600 www.some.ox.ac.uk Registered charity no. 1139440
05
1964 60th Reunion Dinner
07
Gaudy 2000 - 2007
19–20
1974 Golden Reunion
21
Alumni Formal Hall and Bop
2022-2023
College Report 2022-2023
In memory of Elizabeth Cooke (1964, History) 1945-2023 Secretary of the Somerville Association 1988-2023
Contents
Visitor, Principal, Fellows, Lecturers, Staff
3
The Year in Review Principal’s Report
7
Treasurer’s Report
10
Fellows’ and Lecturers’ Activities
12
Report on Junior Research Fellowships
15
JCR Report
16
MCR Report
17
Library Report
18
Members’ Notes Presidents’ Reports
21
Somerville Association Officers and Commitee
22
Horsman Awards
22
Somerville Senior Members Fund
22
Life Before Somerville: Teresa Gwilt
24
Members’ News
26
Births
33
Marriages
33
Deaths
34
Obituaries
36
Academic Report Examination Results
56
Prizes
58
Students Entering College
62
Distinguished Friends of Somerville
66
Somerville Development Board Members
66
Notices Legacies
68
Editor: Jack Evans Telephone: 01865 270632 Email: development.office@some.ox.ac.uk
Visitor, Principal, Fellows, Lecturers, Staff Visitor The Rt Hon The Lord Patten of Barnes, CH, PC, Chancellor of the University
Principal Jan Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, PC, MA, (BA Lond)
Vice-Principal Lois McNay, MA, (PhD Cantab), Professor of the Theory of Politics, Shirley Williams Fellow in Politics and Tutor in Politics
Fellows Prateek Agrawal, (B.Tech Bombay, PhD Maryland), Associate Professor of Physics and Tutor in Physics Daniel Anthony, MA, (PhD Lond), Professor of Experimental Neuropathology and Tutor in Medicine
James Ravi Kirkpatrick, BPhil MA DPhil (BA R’dg, MLitt St And), Fixed-Term Fellow in Philosophy
Elena Seiradake, (PhD Heidelberg), Professor of Molecular Biology and Tutor in Biochemistry
Robin Klemm, PhD Dresden, Associate Professor in Medicine and Tutor in Medicine
Francesca Southerden, BA, MSt, DPhil, Associate Professor of Italian and Tutor in Italian
Margaryta Klymak, MSc Edin, PhD Dublin, Tutor in Economics
Charles Spence, MA, (PhD Cantab), Professor of Experimental Psychology and Tutor in Experimental Psychology
Jonathan Burton, MA, (PhD Cantab), Professor of Organic Chemistry and Tutor in Chemistry
Markos Koumaditis, (BA Ionian, MA Royal Holloway, PhD KCL) FCIPD, Human Resources Director
Dan Ciubotaru, (BSc, MA Babes-Bolyai, PhD Cornell), The Diana Brown Fellow and Tutor in Pure Mathematics; Professor of Mathematics
Renaud Lambiotte, (MPhys PhD ULB Brussels), Professor of Networks and Nonlinear Systems and Tutor in Mathematics
Robert Davies, DPhil (BSc Toronto, MSc Ottowa), Associate Professor of Statistics and Tutor in Statistics
Louise Mycock, (BA Durh, MA, PhD Manc), Associate Professor of Linguistics and Tutor in Linguistics
Julie Dickson, MA, DPhil, (LLB Glasgow), Professor of Legal Philosophy and Tutor in Law
Karen Nielsen, (Cand mag, Cand philol Trondheim, MA, PhD Cornell), Associate Professor of Philosophy and Tutor in Philosophy
Samantha Dieckmann, (PhD Sydney), Associate Professor in Music and Tutor in Music Beate Dignas, MA, DPhil, (Staatsexamen Münster), Associate Professor of Ancient History, Barbara Craig Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History Emily Flashman, DPhil (BSc Soton), Associate Professor in Molecular Plant Sciences and Tutor in Biology Christopher Hare, BCL, (Dip d’Etudes Jurid Poitiers, MA Cantab, LLM Harvard), Associate Professor of Law and Tutor in Law Michael Hayward, MA, DPhil, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry and Tutor in Chemistry Michelle Jackson, BSc PhD London, Associate Professor of Zoology and Tutor in Biology Simon Robert Kemp, BA, MPhil, (PhD Cantab), Associate Professor in French and Tutor in French
Natalia Nowakowska, MA, MSt, DPhil, Professor of Early Modern History and Tutor in History Patricia Owens, (BSc Brist, MPhil Camb, DPhil Aberystwyth), Associate Professor of International Relations and Tutor in International Relations Vivien Parmentier, PhD, Associate Professor in Physical Climate Science and Tutor in Physics Luke Pitcher, MA, MSt, DPhil, (PGCert Durham), Associate Professor of Classics and Tutor in Classics Charlotte Potts, DPhil, (BA Victoria New Zealand, MA UCL), FSA, Sybille Haynes Associate Professor of Etruscan and Italic Archaeology and Art, Katherine and Leonard Woolley Fellow in Classical Archaeology and Tutor in Classical Archaeology
Fiona Stafford, MA, MPhil, DPhil, (BA Leicester), FRSE, FBA, D. Litt (Leic), Professor of English Language and Literature, Tutor in English Literature Almut Maria Vera Suerbaum, MA, (Dr phil, Staatsexamen, Münster), Associate Professor of German and Tutor in German Annie Sutherland, MA, DPhil, (MA Cantab), Associate Professor in Old and Middle English, Rosemary Woolf Fellow and Tutor in English Benjamin John Thompson, MA, DPhil, (MA, PhD Cantab), FRHistS, Associate Professor of Medieval History and Tutor in History and Associate Head (Education), Humanities Division Damian Tyler, (MSci, PhD Nott), Professor of Physiological Metabolism Konstantina Vogiatzaki, MA (Master's NTUA, PhD Imp), Associate Professor of Engineering Science, Tutor in Engineering Science Philip West, MA, (PhD Cantab), Associate Professor of English, Times Fellow and Tutor in English Faridah Zaman, (BA, MPhil, PhD Cantab), Associate Professor in History and Tutor in History Noa Zilberman, MA (BSc, MSc, PhD Tel Aviv), Associate Professor of Engineering Science, Tutor in Engineering Science
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Professorial Fellows Stephen Roberts, MA, DPhil, FREng, FIET, FRSS, MIOP, RAEng-Man Professor of Machine Learning Steven Simon, MA, (PhD Harvard), Professor of Theoretical and Condensed Matter Physics Iyiola Solanke, (BA Lond, MSc DPhil LSE), Jacques Delors Professor of European Law Matthew John Andrew Wood, MA, DPhil, (MB, ChB Cape Town), FMedSci, Professor of Neuroscience
Administrative Fellows Sara Kalim, MA Director of Development Andrew Parker, MA, (BA Liverpool), ACMA, Treasurer Stephen Rayner, MA, (PhD Durham), FRAS, MInstP, Senior Tutor, Tutor for Graduates and Tutor for Admissions
Senior Research Fellows Amalia Coldea, (MA, PhD Cluj-Napoca) Stephanie Dalley, MA, (MA Cantab, PhD London), FSA Colin Espie, (BSc MAppSci PhD DSc(Med) Glas), CPsychol, FMedSci, FBPsS, FRCGP(Hon), FAASM, Professor of Behavioural Sleep Medicine Sir Marc Feldmann, AC, BSc(Med), MB BS, PhD, MD(Hon), DMSc(Hon), FAA, FMedSci, FRCP, FRCPath, FRS, Professor of Cellular Immunology Manuele Gragnolati, MA, (Laurea in Lettere Classiche, Pavia, PhD Columbia, DEA Paris)
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Sarah Gurr, MA, (BSc, PhD London, ARCS, DIC), Professor of Molecular Plant Pathology John Ingram, (BSc KCL, MSc R'dg, PhD Wageningen NL) Joanna Innes, MA, (MA Cantab) Muhammad Kassim Javaid, (BMedSci, MBBS, PhD London), MRCP, Professor of Osteoporosis and Adult Rare Bone Diseases Patricia Kingori, (BA MSc RHUL, MSc UCL, PhD LSHTM, Professor of Global Health Ethics Philip Kreager, DPhil Simon Kyle, (MA, PhD Glasgow), Professor of Neuroscience Aditi Lahiri, CBE, BA MA DPhil Calcutta, DPhil Brown Catherine Mary MacRobert, MA, DPhil Boris Motik, (MSc Zagreb, PhD Karlsruhe), Professor of Computer Science Frans Plank, (Statsexamen Munich, MLitt Edin, MA Regensburg, DPhil Hanover) Philip Poole, (BSc, PhD Murdoch) Mason Porter, MA, (BS Caltech, MS PhD Cornell) Franklyn Prochaska, (PhD Northwestern University), FRHS
Premila Webster, MBE, DPhil, FHEA, FFPH
Lisa Forsberg, BA Stockholm, MA PhD KCL, Philosophy
Jennifer Welsh, MA, DPhil (BA Saskatchewan)
Robert Hein, DPhil (BSc Jacobs), Chemistry
Senior Associates Aaron Maniam, MPP MA DPhil (MA Yale) Jane Robinson, BA
Gowri Kurup, (BT IIT Bombay, MSc PhD Cornell), Physics
Research Fellows
Yvonne Lu, (BEng Jilin, PhD Sussex), International Relations
Naveed Akbar BSc (Hons) MSc, PhD Dundee, FHEA Siddharth Arora DPhil (BTech DAIICT India), Healthcare/ Energy Pelagia Goulimari BA, MPhil Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, MA Essex, PhD Southampton, Feminist Studies Jim Harris BA, MA, PhD Courtald Insitute of Art, Lond., Ashmolean Dan Rogers, (MEng, PhD Imp Lond.), Engineering Justin Sirignano, (BSE Princeton, PhD Stanford), Mathematics
Junior Research Fellows Jesus Aguirre Gutierrez, (Msc, PhD Amsterdam), Biological sciences
Tessa Rajak, MA, DPhil, FSA
Dania Albini, (BA MSt Parma, PhD Swansea ), Zoology
Owen Rees, MA, (PhD Cantab), ARCO, Professor of Music
Charlotte Albury, PGCert DPhil Oxf (BA (Hon s.)MSc Durh) AFHEA, Medicine
Alex David Rogers, (BSc, PhD Liv) Rajesh Thakker, MA, DM, (MA, MD Cantab), FRS, FRCP, FRCPath, FMedSci Renier van der Hoorn, (BSc, MSc Leiden, PhD Wageningen) Roman Walczak, MA, (MSc Warsaw, Dr rer nat Heidelberg) Stephen Weatherill, MA, (MA Cantab, MSc Edinburgh)
Hussam Hussein, (BA, MA Trieste, MA College of Europe, Warsaw, PhD UEA),International Relations
Joel Alves, (BSc MSc Porto, PhD Camb), Social Sciences Sophie Arana, (BA FU Berlin, MSc Radboud, PhD International Max Planck School), Psychology Joanna Demaree-Cotton, BA BPhil (PhD Yale), Philosophy Georgia Drew, (BSc Exeter, PhD Liverpool), Biological Sciences
Eoghan Mulholland, (MEng, PhD Queen's Belf), Medicine Shobhana Nagraj, DPhil (BSc UCL, MPhil Camb), Medicine Hadrien Oliveri, (MEng Grenoble Institute of Technology, PhD Montpellier), Mathematics Jay Patel, DPhil (MChem Warw), Physics Amanda Rojek, MSc DPhil (BM BCh Queensland), Medicine Gitalee Sarker, (MBBS Dhaka, MSc Bonn, Dr sc ETH Zurich), Medicine Marion Schuller, DPhil (BSc MSc Ludwig-Maximilians), Medicine Ludovic Scyboz, (BSc, MSc ETH Zurich, PhD MPP Munich), Physics Jemima Tabeart, (MMath Bath, MRes Imp/R'dg, PhD EPSRC R'dg), Mathematics Bjorn Vahsen, MSc (DM GeorgAugust), Medicine George Ward, (BA MSc UCL, MS PhD MIT Sloan School of Management), Economics Lewis Webb, (BA MPhil Adelaide, BMSc Flinders, PhD Gothenburg), Classics
British Academy Fellow Vilija Velyvyte, MJur, MPhil, DPhil (Bachelor of Laws Master of International Law Mykolas Romeris University), Law
Career Development Fellow Fay Probert, (BSc, MSc, PhD Warwick), Chemistry
Sir Geoffrey Leigh Vicky Maltby, MA Robert Ng Lord Powell of Bayswater, KCMG, OBE
Emeritus Fellows
Mr Gavin Ralston, MA
Margaret Adams, MA, DPhil
Wafic Rida Saïd
Pauline Adams, MA, BLitt, (Dipl Lib Lond)
Kevin Scollan, MA
Lesley Brown, BPhil, MA Marian Ellina Stamp Dawkins, CBE, MA DPhil, FRS Katherine Duncan-Jones (d.16.10.2022), MA, BLitt, FRSL Karin Erdmann, MA Oxf, Dr rer nat Giessen Barbara Fitzgerald Harvey, CBE, MA, BLitt, FBA, FRHistS Judith Heyer, MA, (PhD London)
Susan Scollan, MA Gopal Subramanium, SA, Bencher (Hon.), Gray’s Inn
Honorary Fellows Kiri Jeanette Te Kanawa, DBE, AC ONZ, Hon DMus Carolyn Emma Kirkby, DBE, OBE, MA, Hon DMus, (Hon DMus Bath, Hon DLitt Salf), FGSM
Julianne Mott Jack, MA
Joyce Maire Reynolds, MA, (Hon DLitt Newcastle-uponTyne), FBA
Carole Jordan, DBE, MA, (PhD London), FRS
Hazel Mary Fox (Lady Fox), CMG, QC, MA
Norma MacManaway, MA, (MA, MPhil Dublin, DEA Paris)
Averil Millicent Cameron, DBE, MA, DLitt (PhD London), FBA, FSA
Anne Manuel, MA (LLB Reading, MA, MSc, PhD Bristol) Helen Morton, MA, (MSc Boston, MA Cantab) Hilary Ockendon, MA, DPhil, (Hon DSc Southampton) Josephine Peach, BSc, MA, DPhil Stephen Guy Pulman, MA, (MA, PhD Essex), FBA Frances Julia Stewart, MA, DPhil, FAcSS Richard Stone, MA, DPhil, FREng, FSAE, FIMechE Adrianne Tooke, MA, (BA London, PhD Cantab) Angela Vincent, MA, MB, BS, (MSc London), FRS, FMedSci
Baroness O’Neill of Bengarve, CH, CBE, MA Hon DCL, (PhD Harvard), FBA, Hon FRS, FMedSci Kay Elizabeth Davies, DBE, CBE, MA, DPhil, (Hon DSc Victoria Canada), FRS, FMedSci Baroness Jay of Paddington, PC, BA Irangani Manel Abeysekera, MA Paula Pimlott Brownlee, MA, DPhil Julia Stretton Higgins, DBE, CBE, MA, DPhil, Hon DSc, FRS, CChem, FRSC, CEng, FIM, FREng Doreen Elizabeth Boyce, MA, (PhD Pittsburgh)
Foundation Fellows
Ruth Hilary Finnegan, OBE, MA, BLitt, DPhil, FBA
Lady Margaret Elliott (d.06/11/2022), MBE, MA
Janet Margaret Bately, CBE, MA, FBA
Lord Glendonbrook, CBE
Margaret Kenyon (Mrs), MA
Clara Elizabeth Mary Freeman (Mrs), OBE, MA
Akua Kuenyehia, BCL, (LLB University of Ghana)
Jenny Glusker, MA, DPhil
Baroness Wolf of Dulwich, CBE, BA, MPhil
Ann Rosamund Oakley, MA, (PhD London, Hon DLitt Salford), AcSS
Lorna Margaret Hutson, BA DPhil Oxf, FBA
Baroness Lucy Neville-Rolfe, DBE, CMG, MA
Caroline Mary Series, BA, (PhD Harvard), FRS
Judith Ann Kathleen Howard, CBE, DPhil, (BSc Bristol), FRS
Sacha Romanovitch
Victoria Glendinning, CBE, MA
Alice Prochaska, MA, DPhil, FRHistS
Nicola Ralston, BA
Margaret Casely-Hayford, CBE, MA
Antonia Byatt, DBE, CBE, FRSL, BA
Dame Elan Closs Stephens, DBE, BA
Anna Laura Momigliano Lepschy, MA, BLitt
June Raine, DBE, CBE, BA MSc BMBCh, MRCP
Rosalind Mary Marsden, DCMG, MA, DPhil
Clair Wills, BA DPhil Oxf, HMRIA
Harriet Maunsell, OBE, MA
Farhana Yamin, BA Oxf
Hilary Spurling, CBE, BA
Julia Yeomans, BA DPhil Oxf, FRS
Catherine Jane Royle de Camprubi, MA Nancy Rothwell, DBE, BSc, DS, (PhD London), FMedSci, FRS Baroness Shriti Vadera, PC, BA Elizabeth Mary Keegan, DBE, MA Carole Hillenbrand, CBE, OBE, BA, (BA Cantab, PhD Edinburgh), FBA, FRSE, FRAS, FRHistS Angela McLean, DBE, BA, (MA Berkeley, PhD Lond), FRS Michele Moody-Adams, BA, (BA Wellesley, PhD Harvard) Judith Parker, DBE, QC, MA Esther Rantzen, DBE, CBE, MA Caroline Barron, OBE, MA, (PhD London), FRHistS Emma Rothschild, CMG, MA Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Kt, (BSc Baroda, PhD Ohio), Nobel Laureate, FRS (President) Tessa Ross, CBE, BA Joanna Haigh, CBE, MA, DPhil, FRS, FRMetS
Bolanle Awe, DPhil (MSt St And) Afua Kyei, MChem
Stipendiary Lecturers Alice Barron, BA Nott, MMus Royal Academy of Music, DPhil Oxf, Music Jacob Bird, MSt DPhil (BA Cambs), Music Alice Blackwood, A.B University of Chicago, MPhil DPhil Oxf, History Richard Brearton, MPhys, DPhil, Physics Adam Brown, BSc Maryland College Park, PhD Utah, Mathematics Juliette Caucheteux, MPA LSE, MSc École nationale des ponts et chaussées (Paris), Economics Esther Cavett, BMus University of London, PhD King's College London, Music Xon de Ros, DPhil, (Fellow of LMH), Spanish
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Clea Desebrook, BA Manchester, MSc, Psychology Susan Bilynskyj Dunning, BA Seattle Pacific , MA PhD Toronto, Classics Kamel El Omari, (BSc Paris VII, MSc PhD Paris VI), Biochemistry Rachel Exley, (BSc Leeds, PhD Paris XI), Medicine Reuben Green, MMath (MSc PhD Kent), Mathematics David Harris, MA, DPhil, Biochemistry
Retaining Fee Lectures Susan Anthony, (MBBS London), MRCP, FRCR, Medicine
Graeme Smith, MPhys, DPhil, Physics Stephen Smith, BA MPhil Oxf, MA Open, PhD RHUL, Classical Archaelogy Kerstin Timm, PhD Camb, Medicine John Traill, DPhil (BA MMus UEA), Music Damian Tyler, (MSci, PhD Nott), Medicine Timothy Walker, MA, Horti Praefectus, Plant Sciences Lewis Webb, (BA MPhil Adelaide, BMSc Flinders, PhD Gothenburg), Classics Anna Wimore, PGCE, MA, MSt, German Amina Zarzi, BA MA Constantine, French
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Communications
Saphire Richards, Graduate and Tutorial Officer
Matt Phipps, (BA York, MPhil Cantab), Communications Manager
Access and
Richard Ashdowne, Outreach MA DPhil Oxf, Linguistics Hannah Pack , (MA Cantab, Vilma de Gasperin, DPhil, PGCE Oxford Brookes), Access (Laurea Padua), Modern and Outreach Officer Languages
Departmental Lecturers
Charlotte Hemmings, BA (MA PhD SOAS), Linguistics Pippa Byrne, BA MSt DPhil, History Matthew Hosty, BA MSt DPhil, Classics Alonso Gurmendi, LL.B Lima, LL.M Georgetown , Gillian Lamb, MPhil (BA International Relations London), History Chiara Martini, BPhil Oxf Quentin Miller, DPhil, (BMath (BA MA Bologna and DijonWaterloo, Canada), Computer Bourgogne), Philosophy Science Dean Sheppard, MChem, Ain Neuhaus, MA DPhil DPhil, Chemistry BMBCH Oxf, Medicine Linus Ubl, Mst, DPhil, (BA, Michael Newsome, MEng Oxf, MA, Eichstätt-Ingolstdt), Engineering Science German Naomi Petela, MBioChem, DPhil, Biochemistry Nisha Singh, MSc, DPhil, Medicine
Victoria Wilson, Scholarships and Funding Officer
College Lecturer
Hanne Eckhoff, (Cand. Mag. Cand. Philol. Doctor artium Oslo), Russian
Lecturer in Medicine Helen Ashdown, BMBCh, (MA Cantab), MRCP, MRCPG, DCH PGDip (Health Res), Janet Vaughan Tutor in Clinical Medicine
Academic Office Lucy Young,(BA Aberystwyth), Academic Registrar Joanne Ockwell, (BA, MA University of Gloucester), Welfare support and Policy Officer
Margaret Thatcher Scholarship Trust Jessica Mannix, (MA St Andrews), Campaign Director Claire Cockcroft, MA (PhD Cantab), Director of the Thatcher Scholarship Programme
Alumni Relations Liz Cooke, MA, Joint Secretary to the Alumni Association Lisa Gygax, MA, Joint Secretary to the Alumni Association
Conferences and Catering Dave Simpson, Catering and Conference Manager
Treasury
Oxford India Centre
Elaine Boorman, College Accountant
Radhika Khosla, MPhys, (PhD Chicago), Research Director
IT
Vinita Govindarajan, (BA Christ University Bangalore, PGDip Asian College of Journalism), MSc, Partnerships and Communications Manager
Chris Bamber, Systems Manager
Library Sarah Butler, (BA Leeds, MA MCLIP University College, London), Librarian and Head of Information Service Susan Elizabeth Purver, MA, Assistant Librarian Matthew Roper, MA, (MA Durham), Library Assistant
Development Office Clare Finch, Deputy Development Director Rebecca Coker, (BA Durham, MPhil Cantab), Senior Development Executive Niamh Walshe, (BA, MSc Edinburgh), Regular Giving and Alumni Relations Executive
Porters’ Lodge Mark Ealey, Lodge Manager
Chapel Arzhia Habibi, (BA Nottingham, IMICS National Chengchi University), Chapel Scholar and Director William Dawes, (PGDip RAM, BMus (Hons) Edinburgh), Director of Chapel Music
Estates Steve Johnson, Estates Manager
Gardens Alastair Mallick, Head Gardener
Principal’s Report The academic year 2022-23 has seen a welcome return to normality here at Somerville. Freed from lockdowns and uncertainty, our community has embraced its familiar round of tutorials and lectures, labs and libraries, and the welcome respites in-between. And yet change is undeniably in the air. Following the pandemic and subsequent humanitarian crises, there is a real sense that we’re living with greater awareness not only of our own vulnerability, but our responsibility to others. Here at Somerville, where public service has always been integral to our ethos, this sense of responsibility has touched every part of our community and defined many of this year’s landmark achievements. Our work as a College of Sanctuary continues to serve as a beacon, galvanising support and extending the promise of transformative change. In November, we hosted a ‘Celebration of Sanctuary’, where our Sanctuary Scholars discussed with MPs, charity directors and activists how the higher education sector can do more to support refugees. Since then, we have received enough support to increase the number of current Sanctuary Scholars to eight, alongside two alumni. Being a College of Sanctuary is only one way, however, in which we are honouring Somerville’s founding commitment to include the excluded. We are also finding a myriad of other means to update this promise for the twenty-first century. At the start of this academic year, we welcomed our first Opportunity Oxford students to Somerville. Seven talented students from under-represented backgrounds took part in an academic and social programme designed to bridge the gap between school and university, giving them the confidence to prosper at Oxford. Also this year, Somerville became one of ten Oxford colleges participating in the University’s new Astrophoria programme. This innovative scheme invites students with academic potential who have experienced severe personal disadvantage to undertake a foundation year in college in preparation for their Oxford degrees. It is wonderful that our two Astrophoria students met the requisite entry conditions to start their foundation years, prior to degrees in History and PPE. Broadening the intake of graduate research is another tough nut to crack, due to the steep financial barriers in pursuing a Masters. But here, also, Somerville is making a difference. At the end of this academic year, two of our Fellows, Professor Louise Mycock and Professor Noa Zilberman, acted as mentors in the Uniq+ programme. This entailed supervising four undergraduates as they completed seven-week, paid research internships with new projects on linguistics and sustainable networking that will super-charge the research skills and prospects of the students involved.
BARONESS JAN ROYALL. PHOTO: OXFORD ATELIER
Our JCR has also been carrying on the work of expanding inclusion this year. Second-year French and Linguistics student Holly Cobb won the Oxford SU’s Increasing Access award in 2023 for her work reaching out to fellow young carers in the University and prospective applicants. Our JCR Committee, meanwhile, pioneered its first BAME Careers Event, at which Somerville alumni and tutors shared their career advice with students from across the university. Our two hubs of research and scholarship, the MTST and the OICSD, continue to act as trail-blazers for academic excellence and inclusivity. Both celebrated their tenth anniversaries this year, the MTST by appointing its fiftieth scholar, Singaporean physicist Milton Lee, and the OICSD by launching two new scholarship programmes. The Cyril Shroff Scholarships will bring three law and public policy scholars to Oxford each year in a bid to empower the next generation of progressive change in India. Meanwhile, the Savitribai Phule scholar saw the OICSD make history with the creation of the UK’s first graduate scholarship dedicated to Indian students from marginalised and underrepresented (Dalit, Bahujan and Adivasi) backgrounds. The entire Somerville community has been involved in several initiatives seeking to break down barriers and invite greater openness. Our new Librarian, Sarah Butler, created a popular exhibition space in the Loggia designed to widen access to the Library and special holdings from the Archives. She consolidated this with a special exhibition recognising the contribution of College staff over the years for Oxford Open
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SOMERVILLE'S 2022 OPPORTUNITY OXFORD STUDENTS
JAN ROYALL JOINED BY PANELLISTS, SUPPORTERS AND MEMBERS OF THE SOMERVILLE TEAM FOLLOWING OUR CELEBRATION OF SANCTUARY. PHOTO: OXFORD ATELIER
Doors. Our JCR Arts Officers also did their part, creating an exciting, self-guided tour of the College’s artworks, open for all to enjoy. Finally, in November 2022, we marked the 150th anniversary of Mary Somerville’s death with a unique collaborative effort to transcribe some of Somerville’s unpublished correspondence – a fitting way to commemorate our eponymous role-model’s status as one of the greatest polymaths and communicators of her age.
graphene. Another Professorial Fellow, Professor Steve Roberts, was part of a winning bid to the Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, which will fund 60 researchers applying AI techniques across natural sciences, engineering and mathematical sciences. Our Engineering Fellows, Professor Noa Zilberman and Professor Konstantina Vogiatzaki, also secured funding for major projects with a focus on sustainability in computing and energy storage, respectively.
Our community has been strengthened in other ways this year. We appointed three outstanding academics to our Governing Body: Professor Iyiola Solanke, who is the university’s new Jacques Delors Professor in European Law; molecular plant biologist Professor Emily Flashman and engineer Professor Konstantina Vogiatzaki. We also welcomed as an Additional Fellow Dr Markos Koumaditis, the University of Oxford’s newly appointed HR Director.
In addition to their research, our Fellows are also, clearly, brilliant teachers. The excellent academic performance of both the JCR and MCR is testament to this. This year, JCR successes include Johannes Keil, who was awarded the George Humphrey Prize for Best Overall Performance in Psychology Papers in FHS of Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics. Another finalist, historian Max Buckby, was awarded the Arnold Ancient History Prize for best thesis on an Ancient History topic. Yusuf Usumez won the British Computer Society Prize for best performance in Computer Science Prelims, while Jessica Scott was joint recipient of the Andrew Colin Prize for best performance in beginners’ Russian. Finally, medic Martha Hughes won the Society for Academic Primary Care’s medical student prize 2023.
It was also a great privilege to appoint several new Honorary Fellows this year. These are Afua Kyei, current CFO of the Bank of England; literary scholar Professor Clair Wills of the University of Cambridge; climate activist Farhana Yamin, physicist Professor Julia Yeomans of the University of Oxford; and Professor Bolanle Awe, historian and Pro-Chancellor of the University of Nigeria. Together, our SCR continues to push boundaries and gain plaudits for the strength of its research. Professor Patricia Owens won a second Susan Strange Prize for Best Book in International Studies for her co-edited anthology Women’s International Thought: Towards a New Canon. Our Senior Research Fellow Professor Patricia Kingori was awarded a £6.5m Wellcome Grant for a new research project examining global health narratives around the end of crises. In the field of science and technology, our Professorial Fellow in Physics, Professor Steven Simon, was on the team of theoretical physicists that received a Frontiers of Science Award for uncovering the superconducting potential of twisted bilayer
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The MCR also shone academically in 2022-23. OICSD scholar Aradhana Cherupara Vadekkethil won the Best Doctoral Student Prize at the Society of Legal Scholars’ Annual Conference 2023. Her fellow OICSD scholar Medha Mukherjee won the Frederick Soddy Postgraduate Award. Development economist Arth Mishra won the George Webb Medley Prize and the Arthur Lewis Prize for Best Examination Essays in Development Economics. In the wider world, Somervillians continue to distinguish themselves at the highest level. Eight of our alumni were recognised in the New Year Honours and King’s Birthday Honours. Our warmest congratulations go to Dr Philippa Tudor, Dr Ann Olivarius, Dr Joel Meyer, Professor Caroline Series, Carolyn Regan, Dr Natalie Shenker, Professor Robyn Owens and
YOUNG CARER AMBASSADOR HOLLY COBB. PHOTO: JACK EVANS
PROFESSOR PATRICIA KINGORI. PHOTO: JACK EVANS
Professor Deborah Bateson on being recognised for their many and varied achievements.
Berlin and Paris. And who can forget our Family Day, where 500 Somervillians and their families joined us for a day of academic masterclasses alongside riotous chocolate-making, climbing and slushies?
It was also a delight this year to see Angela McLean appointed to the role of Government Chief Scientific Adviser, where she becomes the first woman to hold that role. Another stellar appointment was that of Dame Elan Closs-Stephens to the role of Acting Chair of the BBC Board – not an easy job, perhaps, but one where Elan will undoubtedly make great inroads for equality and progress. Against such triumphs, as always, we must measure our losses. This year, we were deeply saddened by the deaths of two Honorary Fellows, the outstanding classicist Joyce Reynolds and our former Tutorial Fellow in English, the eminent Shakespearean scholar Professor Katherine Duncan-Jones. Another deeply felt loss this year was that of Liz Cooke, the irreplaceable Secretary of the Somerville Association. It is no exaggeration to say that Liz wrote the book on alumni relations at Oxford, and her kindness, tact, wry humour and keen intelligence will, I know, be missed by generations of you. Indeed, to many of us, Liz was Somerville – a paragon of our values and outlook on the world. Naturally, our Development team has been hit especially hard by this loss. And yet, under the leadership of Development Director Sara Kalim, the team has continued to do an excellent job this year. They have been instrumental in the conversations that secured many of the scholarships I referenced above. They have also, perhaps more importantly, been instrumental in keeping our community together through events, reunions and special occasions. One of the stand-out events I particularly remember from the last year was the ‘Lots More Joy’ auction in May, which raised £56,000 for our areas of greatest need. There have also been alumni meet-ups in the South-West, City Group meetings, London Group outings, and trips to visit our alumni networks in
Such a plethora of events in a sense provides a fitting valediction to Liz, because what she cared about most was people, their stories and their lives. Her tireless work on this Report was ample evidence of that commitment. However, I have no doubt that we shall find a more fitting and permanent way to commemorate Liz in the coming year. In the meantime, the building work continues next door on the new Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, reminding us that the university’s centre of gravity is shifting inexorably towards Somerville. As a College, we are preparing to meet this new opportunity in a number of ways. There are plans afoot for a new building to provide accommodation and muchneeded teaching spaces. Thanks to our Estates Manager, Steve Johnson, and Treasurer Andrew Parker, we have also secured £123,000 of Salix funding from the government to begin the essential planning required to decarbonise our existing estate. Of course, changes to the fabric of Somerville are only one way in which we plan for the future. We are also committed to securing our Fellowships and unique tutorial system, proofing ourselves against financial shocks, and most of all ensuring that we remain true to the values which made Somerville extraordinary in the past, and which continue to fortify us today. January 2024 will mark five years until the 150th anniversary of Somerville’s foundation. It is right that we should look back at such times, remembering great Somervillians of the past. In doing so, we can be reassured that we are looking to the future with the same ambition and clarity they possessed. JAN ROYALL, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, Principal of Somerville
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Treasurer’s Report Operationally, 2022-23 has represented a return to prepandemic levels of activity. College social events have returned to their normal intensity with weekly guest nights during term time in particular proving to be very popular, fuelled by the quality of our catering. Our conference business and commercial events have returned to their pre-Covid levels and the rental income from our 17 shops has recovered, with pandemic-related arrears being steadily cleared. Financially 2022-23 has been quite tight. As anticipated our costs, most notably utility costs, have risen quite sharply as the cost of living crisis has continued to bite. Our income has not risen commensurately, partly because we took a very deliberate decision to support our students by only increasing college rents by 5.5% and college catering costs by 2%, and partly because the external macro-economic climate, dominated as it is by the cost-of-living crisis, the war in Ukraine and the ongoing impact of Brexit, has put paid to any growth in our endowment. Consequently we have had to draw down more than we normally would from our endowment this year to make ends meet. Although we have increased student rents and catering costs in line with inflation for the coming year (8%), we expect 2023-24 to be very similar with the pressure on our endowment continuing, and the theme for the year will be one of very careful cost control and cutting our cloth according to our means. ANDREW PARKER, COLLEGE TREASURER. PHOTO: JOHN CAIRNS
There are no major capital projects taking place over the summer although we are doing work to improve disabled access to the MCR, replacing the Holtby/House boiler and upgrading student toilet facilities in Darbishire. Finally this year, we were awarded a £120k grant under the government’s Salix scheme to be used to produce a building by building route map to get the college to net zero carbon on its operations by 2040. The issue then will be to establish how that work can be funded over the next couple of decades. ANDREW PARKER
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PHOTO: JACK EVANS
Fellows’ and Lecturers’ Activities Biology During the 2022-2023 academic year, Emily Flashman delivered her Royal Society of Chemistry Norman Heatley prize lecture at the RSC Dalton conference in Warwick and the RSC Chemical Biology conference in London. She also presented her group's work on oxygen-sensing enzymes in plants at the International Society for Plant Anaerobiosis meeting in Germany and the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution meeting in Italy.
Classics This year, Luke Pitcher published chapters on four ancient historians (Polybius, Appian, Cassius Dio, and Herodian) for the volume Speech in Ancient Greek Literature, edited by Mathieu de Bakker and Irene de Jong; a short study of historians in retirement, from Xenophon to Arnold Toynbee; an article on how subsequent GrecoRoman historians reacted to Thucydides; and another on Cassius Dio’s place in the historiographical tradition. He addressed a conference in Dresden on civil disorder in the work of Herodian. Along with Steve Rayner and Louise Mycock, he represented the Somerville Dons side for Radio Four’s quiz 'The Third Degree'.
Engineering Stephen Robert’s interests continue to lie in the theory and methodology of intelligent algorithms for large-scale, real-world problems. In late 2022 Stephen and colleagues were part of a winning bid to the Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme. The Oxford Schmidt programme supports some 60 postdoctoral researchers to apply AI techniques across the natural sciences, engineering and mathematical sciences. Stephen is co-lead of this programme. He continues to be Associate Head of the Department of Engineering Science (Research) and co-Director of the Oxford ELLIS unit.
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Noa Zilberman has this year secured funding for several key projects related to her research in sustainable computing. A joint UKRI-NSF grant will support a project on Carbon-Aware Networks for which Noa is Principal Investigator, as well as a UKRI Net-Zero Digital Research Infrastructure Scoping Project, for which Noa is Co-Investigator and Oxford lead. Noa is also leading all the networking research in a new €9.2m EU Horizon project, ‘SMARTEDGE’, providing secure, reliable and scalable edge intelligence for applications in manufacturing, automotive, and healthcare. Her group’s research has been presented at a range of conferences and events, including the Linux Forum Energy Summit and the Internet Architecture Board’s workshop on the Environmental Impact of Internet Applications and Systems. This year, Noa has also been appointed IEEE Communications Society Distinguished Lecturer, promoted to a Senior Member of ACM and received the MPLS Policy Impact Award for research on sustainable and resilient computing infrastructure. Konstantina Vogiatzaki this year secured EPSRC funding for two sustainable engineering projects. The first is focused upon Stored Up-valued Concentrated Cold Energy System or ‘SUCCES’, and will aim to reveal how small communities can store energy sustainably without batteries through liquid air energy storage. This technology has already been proven effective at large scale but Konstantina and her team hope to ascertain what would happen if an LAES plant could be efficiently deployed at smaller (<50MW) scale, and be integrated with other aspects of the energy network that require cooling at cryogenic temperatures such as the long term storage of bio methane and green hydrogen. The second project for which Konstantina has secured EPSRC funding looks at real-time digital optimisation and decision making for energy and transport systems. A shared project involving Cambridge, Imperial, Edinburgh and Oxford universities, the focus is on delivering fundamental scientific machine learning methods and practical
digital twins to optimise intractable engineering problems for net zero.
English Fiona Stafford found Michaelmas 2022 to be the first since 2019 that seemed remotely 'normal' - meeting Freshers without worrying about social distancing and facemasks, which made everything easier all round. English Finalists still had to grapple with eight-hour online exams, but most of the Covid-related strangeness has gone. If the receding pandemic was a cause for cheer, October was blighted nevertheless by the news of Katherine Duncan-Jones's death. Like many of her former colleagues and students, Fiona was deeply saddened by this loss, though found the many warm tributes to Katherine heartening. The year was much taken up with teaching (always a pleasure), both in College and the wider University. Fiona has also continued to lead the Environmental Humanities Programme at TORCH and is pleased to see the growing interest in the natural world and new ways in which the Humanities contribute to tackling the Climate and biodiversity emergencies. One of the year's highlights was a special outdoor event for English students at the Oxford Botanic Garden, which involved the ancient experience of listening to a storyteller under a tree (light rain only adding to the atmosphere!). This year, Fiona has written an essay on 'John Clare's Plants' and another on 'Wood' in Romantic period objects. Her new book on landscape will be published in February 2024. In December, Radio 4's In Our Time programme chose Persuasion as their Christmas topic, so Fiona had the great pleasure of rereading the novel for the discussion. When asked if it is her favourite Austen novel, she replied 'Yes at least until I reread one of the others...' Annie Sutherland has taken on the role of Director of Schools Liaison for the English Faculty, which has meant she has
been very involved in the organisation of all of the faculty’s outreach activities and Open Days. This is giving her very valuable insights into some of the challenges that we face in recruiting students to study for Humanities degrees, and she is learning a great deal about the importance of engaging with young people at an early stage in their secondary school career. In terms of her own research, she has completed work on three articles in the field of early medieval female spirituality, all of which will be published next year. She is looking forward to a period of sabbatical next year.
History Benjamin Thompson is coming to the end of his four years as Associate Head of Humanities with overall responsibility for Education across the Division, both undergraduate and postgraduate. The first half of his tenure was dominated by managing Covid, but amongst much else he has also: contributed to the planning and construction of the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities now being built next to Somerville; created the Humanities strand of the new Astrophoria Foundation Year; worked on many other Access and associated funding initiatives such as Black Academic Futures; and laid the foundations for a new all-humanities undergraduate degree at Oxford. The launch of a new report on The Value of the Humanities at Oxford shows how both students and employers value the knowledge and flexible skills which students take with them not only into the workplace but also into all aspects of their lives.
Law Following the publication of Julie Dickson’s book on the methodology of legal philosophy, Elucidating Law (Oxford University Press 2022), the Oxford Jurisprudence Discussion Group hosted a very enjoyable book launch discussion seminar at University College, Oxford in October 2022. Professor Dickson and two commentators discussed themes from the book with the audience, and it was lovely to catch up with many old friends and colleagues. Professor Dickson will also give an invited seminar on the book at
the University of Toulouse Capitole 1 in September 2023. From October 2023, she is looking forward to welcoming her new colleague, Aradhana Cherupara Vadekkethil, who is starting a threeyear Early Career Fellowship in Law at Somerville. This post has been made possible by the generous donations of alumni and friends of the Somerville Law School, and Professor Dickson extends her sincere thanks to them. Iyiola Solanke joined Somerville as Jacques Delors Professor of EU Law in August 2022. In her first year she was a Visiting Professor at the University of Hawaii Richardson School of Law, delivering a course on 'Race, Law and Social Justice in Europe’. She also delivered one Keynote (Copenhagen) and two Annual Lectures (Kellogg College and Berlin); spoke on two plenary panels (EUSA and the SLS) and addressed conferences in Bruges, Copenhagen, Helsinki and Pittsburgh on EU law and intersectional discrimination. In addition, she spoke on various topics at seven non-academic events, including the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the UK Health Safety Authority (UKHSA) and the Ilkley Literature Festival. Iyiola’s contribution to Outreach events included participating in the Somerville College BAME Careers 'Speed-dating' event, delivering a 'Taster Lecture' on de-colonising EU Law for a Target Oxbridge/Rare Recruitment Year 10 Webinar and an Enrichment Lecture on EU Law at the Faculty of Law Summer School. Finally, she was an EDI Associate for the Social Science Division, developing her project on De-Colonising EU Law and overseeing the publication of the second edition of her textbook EU Law (CUP, 2022).
Linguistics It has been a busy year in Linguistics for Louise Mycock. Alongside continuing her ongoing research into the history of the ProTag construction (‘It’s a good book, that’), Louise convened a meeting of the research group ‘Syntax Beyond the Canon: Cutting-Edge Studies of Non-Canonical Syntax in English’ here at Oxford. The group plans to publish an edited volume of their research next year. In March, Louise and second-year Modern Languages and Linguistics
student Lizzy Abel had the pleasure of representing Somerville’s linguists in the Radio 4 quiz ‘The Third Degree’, which pits three tutors against three of their respective tutees. In a more formal set of examinations, the college’s undergraduate linguists achieved great success in Final Honour Schools, with half of the cohort achieving Firsts. Alongside her teaching and research, Louise has continued to support the College’s Access and Outreach work. This included taking part in the College’s Open Days, providing sessions on Linguistics for the UNIQ summer school and running a project for UNIQ+, the University’s flagship graduate access scheme for talented undergraduates from under-represented groups. Under Louise’s supervision, two undergraduate students with a keen interest in linguistics will undertake qualitative analysis of linguistic data from a corpus of 13th – 20th Century drama, introducing them to graduate-level research and sharing expert guidance on how best to navigate the postgraduate humanities environment. Next year, Somerville will welcome the University’s new Professor in Linguistics, Professor Colin Phillips, as a Professorial Fellow, reinforcing our College’s long-standing commitment to the subject.
Mathematics The return to a more normal research life has this year given Renaud Lambiotte a welcome opportunity to attend conferences in person for the first time in a very, very long time. In June 2023, he was the keynote speaker at Netsci 2023, in Vienna, where he gave a talk on different results that he and his students are currently developing on the theory of signed networks. Speaking of travelling, Renaud is actually sending this update from Shanghai, where he is visiting colleagues as part of a bilateral exchange programme supported by the Royal Society.
Psychology James Ravi Kirkpatrick has been working on a number of manuscripts in the philosophy of language, with topics ranging from generic generalisations and impersonal pronouns to definite descriptions and proper names. He continues his collaboration with his colleagues in Yale, USA and Trinity
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College, Oxford. He has had a mammoth 50-page paper published in Linguistics & Philosophy. In Michaelmas, James will be travelling to Université Côte d’Azur, Nice to give a talk on quantifiers at the 12th joint meeting of Semantics and Philosophy in Europe Colloquium.
Politics Patricia Owens this year received a second Susan Strange Prize for Best Book in International Studies for her co-edited anthology, Women’s International Thought: Towards a New Canon (Cambridge University Press, 2022). The volume, which explores how women transformed the field of international relations in the 20th century, also received the International Studies Association Theory Section Best Edited Volume Award. With Kim Hutchings, she also won the American Political Science Association OkinYoung Award in Feminist Political Theory for Best Article in English Language in 2021. Alongside her teaching and research, Patricia continues as Director of the award-winning Leverhulme Research Project, ‘Women and the History of International Thought’.
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PHOTO: JOHN CAIRNS
Junior Research Fellows’ Activities As always, the academic year 2022/23 has been a busy one for our Junior Research Fellows. George Ward, our Mary Ewart JRF, continues his work on Economics, looking at subjective wellbeing in workplace settings. His most recent publication, in ‘Management Science’, combines theory and empirical evidence from call centres at British Telecom on the ways that work mood influences performance.
Hassam Hussein works in the Department of Politics and International Relations on transboundary resource management in the Jordan and Nile Basins. Hassam is exploring how and why transboundary freshwater agreements change over time. Hassam was elected in 2023 as a member of the Global Young Academy.
Marion Schuller investigates bacterial toxin-antitoxin systems which form part of bacterial defence against viruses. The work could have implications for the treatment of cancer.
Charlotte Albury continues her research into clinical communication. A paper about weight loss messaging sparked the interest of the media and Charlotte was interviewed for the Daily Mail, with features in The Times, The Guardian, and The Sun. Charlotte has been selected to lead a multidisciplinary team across four universities to investigate whether the ‘Healthy Weight Coach’ role has been integrated into primary care systems. Charlotte is also embarking on a new project exploring whether people experiencing long-term conditions and socioeconomic deprivation are underserved by current disease prevention advice and support.
Ludovic Scyboz has been working on improving the accuracy and precision of high energy particle collision simulations to improve the interpretation of data from particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Amanda Rojek is based in the Pandemic Sciences Institute. Amanda’s work focuses on improving the medical treatment of patients during emerging infectious diseases outbreaks. Amanda’s focus is on Ebola and related viruses. Amanda is also involved in the world’s first treatment trial for monkeypox. Hadrien Olivieri uses mathematical modelling to improve our understanding of problems related to biological development, behaviour, physiology and epidemiology. Recent challenges have included plant growth, brain development and human epidemiology. A highlight this year has been studying the mechanics of prey capture in carnivorous pitcher plants. Lisa Forsberg researches in moral and legal philosophy. Among other things, Lisa is working on consent and rights against interference with a person’s body or mind. Lisa has presented papers on the scope of medical exemption in criminal law and consent-sensitive duties with respect to children and various other topics. Lisa also co-organised the British Academy Early Career Researcher Network’s Conference on Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion in March 2023. Yvonne Lu continues her work on developing AI models for clinical and biomedical research. In addition to publishing five papers and one book chapter, she also secured £113,670 in funding from Diabetes UK for a PhD Studentship and $85,265 from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support her work on the Large Language Model project to build frontline healthcare worker capacity in rural India. Björn Vahsen uses human stem cells to study motor neuron disease (MND) in a dish. Björn’s specific focus is on the role of brain immune cells in the commonest form of MND due to genetic errors. Björn also works to raise awareness of MND – see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1STtBtaiX4. Jemima Tabeart applies techniques from numerical linear algebra to improve the efficiency and accuracy of computational tasks involving complex data. A key application of this work is in weather forecasting. There are also applications of importance in industry.
Shobhana Nagraj supervised a landscape analysis of major global stakeholders working on preterm birth and interventions for preterm babies in Indonesia and India with the support of philanthropic funding from the Leo and Mia Foundation. In the UK, she worked with the NHS, local government and community organisations on malnutrition and child poverty, including a roundtable hosted at Somerville which has generated further meetings aimed at setting up the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation trust as an ‘anchor’ institute to reduce health inequalities. She also visited the House of Lords to speak about universal free school meals and NHS workforce issues. Lewis Webb continued his epigraphical work with the Understanding Urban Identities Project at the Etruscan city of Vulci in Italy and the Greek-Swedish Palamas Archaeological Project at the ancient sites at Vlochos and Metamorfosi in Palamas in Greece. Lewis’ publication projects this year have included co-edited volumes on Women in Roman Historiography with Dr Olivia Elder and Women, Wealth, and Power in the Roman Republic with Professor Catherine Steel, a monograph on Senatorial women in the Middle Republic, and assuming editing responsibilities for the new book series Women in Ancient Cultures. In December, he completed his Swedish Research Council postdoctoral project ‘(In)visible women: Female spatial practices and visibility in urban spaces in Republican Rome’ and was granted a further three years of funding by the SRC for a new project on civic religion and crisis management in Republican Rome. Lewis leaves Somerville in October to take up a new post as Departmental Lecturer at Merton College. He is very grateful for his time at Somerville, which he will always treasure, and remember donec rursus impleat orbem.
DR STEVE RAYNER, Senior Tutor
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JCR Report This year has been one of positive change and enthusiasm for the JCR, underpinned by the luxury of a return to relative normality after the complex challenges posed by the pandemic. The JCR committee has worked collaboratively, both internally and alongside senior management, to implement numerous improvements to college life that will benefit the Somervillians of today and tomorrow alike. These include the creation of a Prescription Fund to provide economic relief for students requiring purchased medications, election of a JCR Working Class Officer, and securing over £5000 for a refurbishment of the college gym. The establishment of a distinct Arts Fund within the JCR budget has allowed us to subsidise the creative endeavours of our student community more effectively, with a number of individuals playing lead roles and receiving critical acclaim for their work in various drama productions. The journalistic prowess of our undergraduates burns bright, with students both founding their own publications and reaching senior editorial positions in established student news outlets. Our annual Arts Week was a great success, offering a huge range of events and activities. Somerville continues to excel in sports, with numerous Blues players and captains within the undergraduate population, alongside a brilliant victory in the Women's Hockey Cuppers. A particular highlight was our annual Sports Day vs Girton! The acquisition of the BT Sport channel for the Terrace and a college punt hire for the summer has proved popular amongst students.
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This year also marked the revival of the Somerville BAME formal, a brilliant and inspiring night for the celebration of diversity that involved over 200 BAME students across the university, alongside a large celebration for Lunar New Year in the Flora Anderson Hall. Impressive collaboration across JCR committee members has driven a significant increase in the number of intersectional events hosted, including QPOC and BAME X Working Class forums. I am proud to say that the JCR has also looked beyond college in its efforts this year. Multiple individuals have held positions on the Oxford RAG committee, with others volunteering weekly for a diverse range of local charities in Oxfordshire. The reestablishment of our relationship with Molly's Library in Ghana has been fruitful and productive, and the JCR's contribution to the Shoeboxes for Ukraine initiative demonstrated our support for those tragically impacted by the war. I am truly grateful for the efforts and support of every single person that has volunteered their time for the JCR during my tenure. None of this could have happened without an exceptionally knowledgeable committee that truly embodied the progressive and excellent spirit of Somerville. I am confident that this impactful work will continue, and wish both the incoming President and the JCR Committee all the very best for 2023/4. MEI WHATTAM, JCR President
PHOTO: JACK EVANS
SOMERVILLE'S NEW MCR MEMBERS CELEBRATE THEIR MATRICULATION
MCR Report The 2022-23 academic year saw many important and exciting developments for the MCR. During the summer before our new members arrived, the common room purchased a new Roland digital baby grand piano to replace our upright that had fallen into disrepair. Recent members of the MCR will know that this piano was previously dedicated to Rafa Baptista Ochoa, a Somerville alumnus who very sadly took his own life midway through his DPhil in 2017. Somerville MCR now has one of the finest pianos of any common room in Oxford; a fitting legacy for a dearly missed friend and talented musician. Featuring the same dedicative plaque as the piano it replaced, it will enable music-making in the MCR to continue for a great many years to come. Despite a small committee of continuing graduates, Freshers’ Week 2022 was a success, and we welcomed a very social and lively cohort of new students into Oxford life. Our themed BOPs this year were particularly strong, gaining us notoriety among many other common rooms (and even earning us a formal claim of trademark infringement from another College, swiftly refuted!). The kinds of liveliness that were last seen preCOVID were well and truly back at Somerville this year, with many of our newcomers choosing to fully embrace College life and our array of open-mic nights, exchange formals, and even a boat party on the Thames…
For me, however, two updates from the MCR stand out above all others: this year, the MCR made progress with two initiatives to improve the lives of graduate students with disabilities within College. In Hilary term, the common room voted to create a grant to help reimburse the prescription costs and NHS prepayment certificates of members – it is hoped this will ease the everyday costs of medication, which disproportionately affect members with long-term disabilities. Additionally, after years of planning and COVID-related interruption, it is fantastic to note that efforts to make the first floor of Margery Fry House, the home of our common room, accessible to wheelchairs have now proceeded to the next phase. Put simply, the positive impact these will have on disabled graduate students’ experience in Somerville when eventually completed cannot be overstated. Our MCR is nothing without the rich array of fantastic people who make up our common room, and the efforts of those that volunteer on the committee. My wholehearted thanks go to all our members who made it another great year to be in Somerville MCR.
ISAAC WALTON, MCR President
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Library Report 2022-23 Our collections As one of the largest college libraries with approximately 120,000 volumes, careful management of the print collection is important. We continue to receive many fantastic donations to the library on a diverse range of topics which reflect the varied research interests and outputs of our many alumni. An ethnography of taxi drivers and a book on tea caddies have been two items which illustrate this point well, but there are many more examples. A significant donation was several early editions of the works of Mary Somerville signed by the author in some instances. We thank all of our donors, a full list of whom you will find after this report, for their continued support of the collection. In total we received 389 gifts, making up a fifth of the 1,768 items we added to the collection this year. To balance our acquisitions, we have also carried out a careful weeding (or de-selection) exercise of our printed journals.
The majority of our journals are now available to read online and the printed versions are consulted infrequently at best, and usually never. By offering the titles to other libraries including the British Library’s UK Research Reserve, we were able to help fill gaps in other collections, and to create a significant gap on our own shelves. This space will allow us to shelve more coherently and tidily our existing book collections and to continue finding space for our purchases and gifts. Supporters of the Archives and special collections were equally generous in their donations. We received some fascinating donations, including the notebooks of Ethel Thomas (History, 1909). Added to other Ethel Thomas materials in the archive, we have an unusually complete and informative body of information about a woman’s educational experience in the early part of the 20th century. Artefacts were also represented in the donation of a Meissen coffee pot and some silver-plated wine flutes.
WORKS IN SOMERVILLE'S COLLECTION WERE GIVEN NEW HOMES IN OFFICES AROUND THE COLLEGE THIS SUMMER
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Work continues to ensure information about our collections is readily available to us and in some cases to the wider world. The Library team has carried out an extensive data tidying project to support the move to a new library management system, ALMA, to be implemented by the University during the summer. Cataloguing of the archives continues onto Epexio, and by the end of summer we will have moved the records of all our artworks and chattels to this same database. Finally, Emma Sherratt, an alumna and our most recent volunteer in the Library, continues the work of Jane Macintyre in scouring the volumes in the John Stuart Mill Library for marginalia, as we near the end of the unscoured volumes in that collection. Emma’s role also involves supporting several digitisation projects which will come to fruition in 2023/24. Our thanks to Jane for a year of unstinting support.
Our visitors We continued to receive a steady stream of visitors to both the Library and the Archives, to consult material not available in other collections. We welcomed 36 researchers to the Library who consulted between them 40 items. In the Archives we answered 112 enquiries. While many of the enquirers were satisfied with emailed responses, including receipt of digitised material, we continued to receive a number of visitors in person, 27 in total. This translates into a significant time commitment on the part of the Archivist, as many visits need supervision. The John Stuart Mill collection received three international visitors, and we accommodated requests to view various paintings in our collection, including Mary Somerville’s paintings and, quite specifically, the Minton hanging in the HR team’s office. July was particularly busy in satisfying requests for tours and talks for various Summer Schools residing in Oxford.
Our events A significant development was the conversion of part of the library loggia to an exhibition space. The library has a longrunning tradition of exhibiting its wonderful book and archival collections, and this new space will allow us to continue this tradition. It was launched in April with the inaugural display of the works of a local artist, Luke King-Salter, whose paintings were inspired by the 1904 college production of Demeter, a play written by Robert Bridges and put on in celebration of the opening of the Library. Since the initial exhibition we have also displayed the works of women artists in the collection donated to us by Rosemary FitzGibbon, and are currently displaying the hidden gems of the Somerville artworks collection as we aim to have all artworks out of store and on display by the end of the year. Promotion of the John Stuart Mill Library continued apace in 2022/23, with open days in both November and May, the annual seminar in March and the lecture in May. Guest speakers at the seminar included Dr Jeremy Fix from Keble College, Julie Jack from Somerville College, and Prof Albert Pionke from the University of Alabama, who provided an update of the Mill Marginalia project. The annual lecture was delivered by Prof Duncan Bell of the University of Cambridge. My thanks to all our speakers for their time and generous support of this important collection.
'LANDSCAPE WITH WINDBLOWN TREES' BY PAUL MODERSOHN-BECKER
Our wider contribution While the new exhibition space allows us to explore our collections in-house, objects from our collections also travel to contribute to exhibitions around the UK. 'Landscape with windblown trees' by Modersohn-Becker featured in the exhibition 'Making Modernism' at the Royal Academy, the plaster bust of Mary Somerville and some of her notebooks were loaned to the Bodleian’s Weston Library for the exhibition 'A New Power', and three letters from the Mary Somerville papers featured in an exhibition at Chawton House, 'Quills and Characters'. The exhibition 'A New Power' explored the growing body of research into Mary Somerville’s role in early photography and experiments with light. If the enquiries made of us are anything to go by, there appears to be a resurgence of interest in the work of Mary Somerville. Items from the Mary Somerville collection were included in a ‘Transcribe-a-thon’, and the results were made available on the Somerville website. This is my first annual report for the Library. I feel hugely privileged to have joined the college in August 2022, succeeding Anne Manuel who had been librarian since 2009. As with every new role, there has been so much to discover and learn, so many people to meet and so many wonderful opportunities to pursue. This report provides just the highlights of what has been for me personally a very eventful year, even if for the Library it is very much business as usual. I say here a huge thank you to the excellent teams who support me in my role, and in the context of this report, to Susan Purver, Matthew Roper and Kate O’Donnell in particular. It is because of their knowledge and dedication that we have so much to celebrate. SARAH BUTLER College Librarian
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List of Library Donors 2022-2023 Margaret Adams (Chemistry, 1958) (gift of books Ex libris Cathy King (Mary Ewart Research Fellow, 1973-1975)
Nelson Goering (British Academy Fellow)* Carl Graves
Angelika Arend (Manyoni, DPhil Modern Languages, 1977)* Balladine Publishing Elizabeth Bingham (Loxley, History, 1957)*
Lisa Gygax Suzanne Heywood (Cook, Zoology, 1987)*
Susan Purver Tessa Rajak (Goldsmith, Lit. Hum., 1965) Susan Reigler (Zoology, 1977) and Peggy Noe Stevens* Kate Richenburg (Frank, DPhil Physical Sciences, 1966)*
Joanna Innes* Royal Academy of Arts*
Bodleian Libraries (Public Engagement Dept.) Mark Bostridge* Lalage Bown* Alison Brierley (Mowat, Modern Languages, 1972) Nicky Britten (1972, Maths)* Christ Church College Library Marieke Clarke (History, 1959) William Cooke Laura Davis (History, 1993)*
St Edmund Hall library Sarah Kwok (PPL, 2020) Joanna Seddon (History, 1972)* Meriel de Laszlo (Medicine, 1968)* Sabina Lovibond (Lit. Hum., 1970)*
Robert Service (via St Antony’s College Library)
Ella Lowry (History, 2021)
Emma Smith (English, 1988)*
Anne Manuel
Iyiola Solanke*
Patrick McCafferty (MSt Creative Writing, 2022)*
Fiona Stafford Peter Turner
Madeleine A Melvin J.S. Watts (English, 1979)* Valerie Mendes*
Audrey Donnithorne (PPE, 1945)
Jacqueline Mitton (Pardoe, Physics, 1972) and Simon Mitton*
Jane Everson (Mellor, DPhil. Modern Languages, 1974)*
Nuffield College Library
Ruth Finnegan (Murray, Lit. Hum., 1952)* Rosemary FitzGibbon (History of Art, 1967)
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John Kenyon
Oxford School of Global and Area Studies Yolanda Powell (History & Modern Languages, 1969)*
Jane Wickenden (Stemp, English, 1980)* Isobel Williams (Jeffares, English, 1972)* Laura Wilson (English, 1982)*
* Indicates donor’s own publication
Photo by John Cairns
The Somerville Association President’s Report 2022-2023 The privilege of serving as President of the Somerville Association alongside a terrific committee, alumni groups, professional networks, year representatives and the college team has been one of the year’s more special joys for me. I have the honour of being the last President of the Somerville Association to have worked with Liz Cooke, our amazing Joint Secretary. Lisa Gygax, I and the rest of our global community will miss Liz in more ways than we can imagine. Our association will remain indebted to her vision, efforts and commitment. Following my first year in this wonderful role, I have been hugely impressed by Somerville’s vibrant and varied alumni events calendar. This programme is an important manifestation of the strength of the Somerville community. I have much enjoyed connecting with Somervillians at the Association’s “flagship” events such as the spring AGM, commemoration service and the newly instated formal hall and bop. Thanks to Somerville’s state of the art digital infrastructure, I was able to remotely participate in the spring meeting from Salt Lake City where I was attending a genetic medicine conference. Furthermore, it has been a delight to participate in events organised by alumni groups, networks and regions. To name just a few, the City Group’s conversation with Duncan Weldon (2001, PPE) and Peter Mandelson, former European Trade Commissioner and British First Secretary of State, London Group’s Heritage Walk tracing the number 15 bus route that links the Cities of London and Westminster, Somervillians in the South West’s afternoon tea at Stedcombe House, Axmouth and the Medics Group annual meeting at college. These events are just a small flavour of our vibrant calendar, which sees alumni welcomed to gaudies, year reunions, annual lectures and more across the year. On behalf of all Somervillians I warmly appreciate the generosity of our college, the efforts of many teams of dedicated volunteers and our stellar college staff that organise and host these events often with both in-person and virtual access. Also, we are fortunate to have a dedicated fund to provide financial assistance to
DR NERMEEN VARAWALLA. PHOTO: JACK EVANS
enable all Somervillians to enjoy attending events. I take this opportunity to remind you not to hesitate to enquire about accessing this fund at the time of event booking by contacting Lisa Gygax at lisa.gygax@some.ox.ac.uk. The new academic year begins this October and there are many exciting opportunities to meet fellow Somervillians at alumni events. Occasions coming up include the Monica Fooks Memorial Lecture with Professor Sir Simon Wessely on November 9th; the Literary Lunch on November 18th; and our Alumni Carol Concert at Temple Church on December 1st. I urge you to attend as many events as you can to enjoy and celebrate our exceptional Somerville community and to connect with Somervillians across all ages, geographies and sectors of interest. DR NERMEEN VARAWALLA (1989)
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Horsman Awards The Alice Horsman Scholarship was established in 1953. Alice Horsman (1908, Classics) was a great traveller who wished to provide opportunities for former Somerville students to experience other countries and peoples, whether through travel, research or further study. The Alice Horsman Scholarship is open to all Somerville undergraduate and graduate alumni with the exception of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery students at other Oxford colleges. Applicants should be in need of financial support for a project involving travel, research or further study that is intended to enhance their career prospects. Applicants who have secured a place on the Teach First, Police Now or Step Up to Social Work schemes will be looked on favourably. Priority will be given to applicants who have not received previous awards. For information about the application process please email academic.office@some.ox.ac.uk.
The Somerville Senior Members’ Fund This Fund was established to provide small sums to help alumni with unforeseen expenses and hardship. We have also been able to use it to subsidise the cost of individuals attending College events which would otherwise have been unaffordable for them. We hope that people who find themselves in need will not hesitate to call upon the Fund. We are glad to hear from third parties who think that help would be appreciated. We are always grateful for donations to this Fund. Applications for grants should be addressed to development.office@some.ox.ac.uk
Applications are accepted each term.
Somerville Association Officers and Committee as of March 2023 President
Committee Members
Dr Nermeen Varawalla (1989), elected 5 March 2022
Isabel Ireland (2013, English) Joanne Magan (1984, PPE) Hilary Manning (1977, History) Pia Pasternack (1982, Philosophy & Mod Langs) Virginia Ross (MCR, 1966) Joe Smith (2013, Mod Langs) Zoe Sprigings (2004, History)
Joint Secretaries Liz Cooke (Greenwood, 1964) Lisa Gygax (1987)
Fellows Appointed by the College Benjamin Thompson (Fellow and Tutor in Medieval History) Fiona Stafford (Fellow and Tutor in English) Luke Pitcher (Fellow and Tutor in Classics) Francesca Southerden (Fellow and Tutor in Mod Langs )
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PHOTO: OXFORD ATELIER
Life Before Somerville: Teresa Gwilt (Teighe, 1976, Modern Languages) Tomorrow would be the last day of the school term: 5th June 1967. The school was Scuola Madonna della Guardia, Tripoli, Libya, and I was nine years old. My geography project was due in the morning, and I hadn’t quite finished it, but it was bed-time, and you didn’t argue. I was so worried I forced myself to stay awake until everyone was asleep, then I crept into the living room, closed the door, turned on the light and set about finishing my drawings – typical produce and other outputs from each region of Italy. I persevered, drawing and colouring, eyes heavy, determined to get something down for each page. It was such an odd night, and it has stuck in my mind. The next day, the Six Day War broke out. The morning started normally enough, the excitement of the last day of term tempered by the knowledge that I would be handing in a project that wasn’t good enough. The first hint that something unusual was going on was when the parents of the Jewish girls started to arrive to collect them from class. Gradually other parents turned up to pick up their children. Occasionally a nun came into the classroom, spoke quietly to the teacher, then disappeared again. It wasn’t long before I too was whisked away by my Dad. I was never asked for my project, and at least was spared that humiliation. Back home there was a feeling a bit like the excitement before our annual trip to England. Mum was packing and I remember being told we were going away for a few days. We were going to stay in Dad’s office building, at the oil company where he worked. What an adventure! I grabbed my much-loved Barbie doll so she could share the fun. Later I found out that Dad’s office building was designed to be blast-proof and could be locked down. The basement was kitted out with rows of camp-beds – presumably part of an emergency contingency plan. Our bed fellows were mostly American families and I remember eating corned beef hash for the first time. Some days later we were transferred to a local hotel. There was so much space to run around in and other children to play with. Sharing a room with my parents, eating in the restaurant, going up and down in the lift - the adventure went on and on. One day the father of a girl I had become friends with took us both out of the hotel – maybe he was curious. We walked past the armed guards at the hotel doors and along deserted streets around the hotel and that’s when I saw burned-out cars
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CHANNELLING RICHARD THE LIONHEART, CARNIVAL 1967
and gaping holes where shop windows had been. I don’t know where we went, or how long we were out – probably not long. When we got back and I told my parents I had been outside the hotel, they were so cross and I couldn’t understand why. I had been with an adult, so that made it OK, and I thought they would share my excitement at the extraordinary things I had seen. I don’t know at what point it was decided it was safe for us to return home, but life was subtly different when we did, more cautious and restricted. As children, we were shielded from much of what was going on, sometimes just a few streets away. We knew we had to keep the shutters closed, but then we were used to that, to keep out the worst of the heat. I recall one occasion when we were peering down from our first floor apartment into the street below at what I understood later was an angry mob looking up at our windows and shouting “English! English!”. According to Mum, it was our downstairs neighbour, himself Libyan, who assured them there were only Arabs living in the building and eventually, reluctantly, the mob drifted away, still looking back, unconvinced.
DAY OUT AT SABRATHA ROMAN RUINS, EARLY 60s
I can’t begin to imagine Mum’s terror watching this unfold just a few metres away. My brother was just five years old and my sister still a baby. I don’t remember Dad being there, so presumably he was at work. He was the company’s procurement manager and all-purpose “fixer”. I learned later that much of his work in those extraordinary days involved patrolling the deserted streets of the largely American district of Giorgimpopoli, checking that properties were secure and feeding the pets of his American colleagues who presumably were still in hiding.
Eventually things returned to some kind of normality, and we even went back to school in the Autumn, but it was a shortlived extension to the family’s deep-rooted relationship with Libya, where my mother was born in 1930 of Sicilian parents, my grandmother having met my grandfather for the first time when the ship bringing her from Sicily docked in Tripoli just days before the wedding. Arranged marriages were still the norm. In 1969, when Gaddafi came to power, the family relocated to Malta for safety and peace of mind, while Dad continued to work in Libya and he would visit us on his field breaks from the oil wells of the Sahara. As a family, we were, and we felt, displaced, particularly Mum who continues to pine for the land of her birth more than half a century later. Neither of my parents ever really adjusted to life in the UK – our much anticipated return to England in 1971 proved a disappointment to them both, particularly Dad, who found a country he no longer recognised, having spent most of his adult life under the blistering Libyan sun, more at home among the people, culture, sights, sounds and smells of this unique, colourful and captivating country, than his own countrymen. And even for me, who only lived there for my first eleven years, the memories remain powerful and vibrant. The mournful notes of the muezzin’s call drifting in the evening sky, the exotic and mysterious interiors of our Arab neighbours’ homes glimpsed from the street, the acrid smell of goat leather and the sound of brass and silver being hammered in the souk, catechism and embroidery lessons in the shade of the trees in the school playground – the simple rhythm of our lives marked by the Catholic calendar, and the comforting sound of the BBC World Service theme tune on the radio each evening.
DAD IN HIS HAPPY PLACE, SOMEWHERE IN THE SAHARA
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Members’ News and Publications If you have a news item which you would like to appear in the next College Report, please send in your contribution before July 31st to development.office@some.ox.ac.uk
1952 Judith Taylor (Mundlak) writes: ‘In 2021 I published my 7th book Women And Gardens myself because of the pandemic. I am now happy to tell you that the University of New Mexico Press is going to publish it as a scholarly book, probably in the spring of 2025. At my age, 89, that is a little far off but it does give me a reason to try and stay in good health. I have augmented the text with stories about amazing women flower breeders, including an Italian grandmother and granddaughter duo and a Tasmanian nun. I have also unearthed about forty illustrations for the new edition.’
1956 Hannah Edmonds (Oppenheimer) lost her beloved husband early in 2022 and is now planning a move to Hampstead Garden Suburb to be closer to her daughter, son and their families. Her eldest son now lives in Switzerland and her youngest in New York, and across the two sides of the Atlantic she now has 11 grandchildren. Helen Brock (Hughes) writes: ‘Old archaeologists never die. They just get older. I am at work on three reports on beads and sealstones from excavations in Crete and Mycenae, on an article about beads and spindle whorls from a site in Cyprus and on a book with a coauthor in Poland. It would help if I had more youthful energy these days! The splendid ‘Labyrinth’ exhibition on Minoan Crete at the Ashmolean in the Spring was something I was pleased to have a very small hand in. My other enterprise is dispersing books before the walls of our house burst. I keep in touch with Shelagh Eltis (Owen, 1956) by telephone and am closely in touch with Shelagh’s cousin by marriage Ruth Davis (Hochwald, 1956) in New York, who has a big project
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tracing the history of Jews in her native Czechslovakia (as was). I lend her a hand with arrangements at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. I also see Charlotte Graves Taylor (1959) once a month or so. We have a drink and enjoy talking about literature and bemoaning modern manners. I miss Katherine Duncan-Jones very much. For several years I was part of her active support network until her death last October and saw her often, as we lived nearby.'
1961 Vivette Glover (Luttrell) writes: ‘I am continuing my research into prenatal maternal depression, anxiety and stress and their effects on the fetus and the child. I no longer have my own research group (being now 80) but continue to work with others. I do not walk very well, but Zoom is a great boon, and we can collaborate across the world. During the last year zooms have been with people in UK, USA, Australia, Switzerland, India, South Africa, The Gambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe. We have been publishing our research, carried out in The Gambia, which shows that if pregnant women join groups to sing and dance, this lowers their level of depression and anxiety. I also frequently see my three children and three grandchildren, which is a great pleasure.’ Margaret Rustin (Barrett) writes: ‘This year I had my eightieth birthday and also celebrated sixty years of marriage, so important personal milestones, but it was also the year in which a book of mine was published, comprising papers written to describe aspects of my clinical work as a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist working for more than 50 years in the NHS. I have co-written and edited a number of other books, but this was the first to focus fully on my own work. I trained at the Tavistock Clinic and remained there as a staff
member, involved both in clinical work and in teaching future generations of child psychotherapists and child psychiatrists. The book's title is Finding a way to the Child and it is published by Routledge in the New Library of Psychoanalysis series. Although this may seem a long way from my Somerville start as a Classics scholar, there are deep continuities which I like to keep in mind.’
1962 Mandakranta Bose has published a number of books and articles in the last year, including Women in the Hindu World (San Rafael, CA: Mandala Publishing. Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies publications series. 2023.); “Debatable Devotion: Candrāvatī’s Rāmāyaṇa.” (In Medhóta´ śrávaḥ I. Felicitation volume in honour of Mislav Jezić, eds. Ivan Andrijanić et al. New Delhi: Dev Publishers, and Croatian Academy of Science and Arts, 2023.); “Sītā: Icon of Moral Affirmation.” (In Vedic Roots, Epic Trunks, Purāṇic Foliage, eds. Ivan Andrijanić & Sven Sellmer. DICSEP vol. 7. Zagreb & New Delhi: Croatian Academy of Science and Arts & Dev Publishers, 2023.); “A Requiem for Women: Narrative Strategy, Rhetoric, and Ideology in Candrāvatī’s Bengali Rāmāyaṇa.” (Oxford Journal of Hindu Studies, 2022-2023.); and “Uparūpaka and the Evolution of the Performing Arts in India.” (Studia Orientalia 123, 2022) Christine Lee (Pounder) writes: ‘In March I was given the 2023 EAHAD (European Association for Haemophilia and Allied Disorders) Recognition Award for outstanding contribution to the haemophilia and allied disorders field. This was timely recognition by my peers having spent the last five years providing evidence for the Infected Blood Inquiry, which has been universally misreported as a scandal. The infections were an unforeseen tragedy, but they were certainly not a scandal.’
1963 Elizabeth Young (Allen) has lived in New Zealand for 43 years now. She had a heartwarming catchup with fellow Somervillians Carola Haigh (Pickering) and Sue Black on a recent visit to the UK when she fulfilled a lifelong dream of visiting the Orkney Islands (which she had last visited when only days old).
1964 Alison Skilbeck writes: ‘I visited Somerville quite a few times during the year, and I have to say how strange it will now seem, to visit and not to be welcomed by dear Liz Cooke, much missed. The supporters' lunch was as fascinating as ever, with wildly diverse presentations (!), and I managed to take a session with a terrific group of third years, working on their Communications Skills. They were really responsive. I spent the whole of August '22 on the Edinburgh Fringe, reviving my 'Mrs Roosevelt Flies to London', last seen there in 2016, and performed at my year's 2014 Gaudy. It's amazing what a solo piece can gain by an absence, for whatever reason; certainly the darkening state of the world meant greater gravity and resonance, and more tears at the end. I've continued to work freelance for RADA and RADA Business, alongside acting, and also to refine and rehearse my latest show 'Alison Skilbeck's Uncommon Ground' which premiered in Edinburgh this August - see next year's report…'
1965 Shirley Vinall (Jones) writes: ‘The Society for Pirandello Studies has just published Volume 43 of Pirandello Studies, the twenty-fourth annual volume which I have edited. This year I have also been contributing to Stories for a Year, a collaborative international project to produce a complete English translation and scholarly edition of all of Pirandello’s 244 short stories: www.pirandellointranslation.org. I am very proud that my transcription, translation and extensive study of the Llyfr yr Achau, the book of family history compiled by my grandfather, Rev. William Evans (Wil Ifan), Archdruid of Wales 1947-50, was accepted this year into the collections of the National Library of Wales, where it will be held with the rest of his papers.’
THE COVER OF 'MY DISAPPEARING UNCLE', A NEW BOOK BY KATHY HENDERSON (1966)
GILLIAN GREENWOOD (1970) COLLECTS HER MSC
1966 Kathy Henderson writes: ‘After many years writing and illustrating books for children, this year My Disappearing Uncle. Europe, War and the Stories of a Scattered Family was published by the History Press on 16th March. It’s one of those books that’s been creeping up on me for a lifetime. A mixture of memoir, detective work, political and economic history and sheer luck, it springs from the stories I grew up with, the stories that took the place of the family that wasn’t there. It was these that brought us the lives of the wonderful women who went before us - and opened the door on two hundred years of European turmoil.‘
my second book, The Basque Children in Britain: Committees, colonies and concerts. It narrates how and why nearly 4,000 children were evacuated to Britain from the Basque Country in May 1937. Focusing on the many difficulties - political, financial and social - that faced the volunteers who looked after the children, it also features first-hand accounts by some of the children themselves. Tony and I (Exeter, 1970) still split our time between Nay in SW France and London - and we are delighted that the four-star rating for our holiday rental, Maison Berchon, was confirmed for the third time by the inspection agency in June 2023.
1967
Caroline Series received a CBE in the King's Birthday Honours for her service to Mathematics. It follows her previous awards of the London Mathematical Society’s Junior Whitehead Prize in 1987 and Senior Anne Bennett Prize in 2014.
Michele Roberts writes: ‘My new pamphlet of poems In Between is published by Melos Press (autumn 2023). In summer 2023 I gave the inaugural lecture at the conference of the Association of French Studies, on Colette. I also spoke about Colette at an event celebrating her at the French Institute in London. My book on Colette will come out from OUP in August 2024. Also, in August 2024 Les Fugitives press will publish my French Cooking for One, a mixture of memoir and recipes.’
1969 Yolanda Powell (Radcliffe-Genge) writes: ‘In December 2022, I published
1970 Gillian Greenwood (Wells) writes: ‘During Covid, I decided to plunge back into academia. In September 2022 I finished an M.Sc. at U.C.L. in Theoretical Psychoanalysis (emphasis on the theoretical and historical) having completed my dissertation on Anna Freud and the effects of the Second World War on psychoanalytical thinking. I was thrilled to graduate with
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Distinction and receive my diploma in July 2023. I was so pleased to have done it. I found the course testing but very stimulating, and loved meeting the younger people in my department. I was probably the oldest post graduate at the ceremony by some way, but that made it all the more rewarding.’ Sabina Lovibond was invited to speak at a conference on ‘Critical Naturalism’ at the University of Paris in December 2022. She also published Essays on Ethics and Culture with Oxford University Press. Judith McClure writes: ‘I was delighted in January 2023 to become a Trustee of Newbattle Abbey College Trust. Newbattle Abbey College, Dalkeith is an excellent residential (if desired) College, of which the aim is the giving of educational opportunities to adults who have had little chance so far, whatever their age, in a magnificent mansion in beautiful grounds. I so admire the generosity of the Marquis of Lothian in 1937 and his wonderful mission, which has so much relevance today. It is good to see Universities involved: Principal Peter Mathieson from Edinburgh is often present online and contributes eloquently; Sally Mapstone from St Andrews is also strongly involved, and the College has a working partnership with Queen Margaret University, among others. I am impressed by the Principal, Roddy Henry, who took over in late 2021. He was previously Depute Principal of Inverness College 2013-21, and before that for 3 years a member of HM Inspectorate of Education, working in Inverness. He treats everyone connected with Newbattle Abbey College, whether staff at all levels, students, Board Members and Trustees, on absolutely equal terms. Students are a complete mix of ages, from sixteen to the seventies. I met a distinguished gentleman whose life was transformed at the age of 16, when he had no qualifications, by the opportunities given to him by the College. He has had a distinguished career in local government: he worked for Edinburgh City Council 1989 - 2010, during which time he developed the Duke of Edinburgh Award in the Edinburgh area, for which he received the MBE. He has always been committed to charitable support and fund-raising, having volunteered
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for both the John Muir Trust and the National Trust for Scotland. The National Trust for Scotland presented him with the George Waterston Memorial Award for outstanding voluntary commitment. He was instrumental in establishing The Green Team, and is now its honorary Patron. We are now working together in supporting the development of the amazing Newbattle Abbey College. Like Somerville College, brilliantly exemplified in so many contributions to its Somerville College Magazine 2023, its fundamental educational commitment lies at its heart.’
1972 Laura Barnett (Weidenfeld) writes: ‘This has been an emotionally charged year in many ways: working towards the publication of my first fully authored (as opposed to edited) book on psychotherapy The Heart of Therapy, developing compassion, understanding and boundaries. This is my first book aimed at both a professional and a lay audience. This has also involved the strange process of selecting a voice to be my alter ego for the audiobook recording. In addition, this year has brought my 70th birthday, with its attendant reflections and celebrations, and my eighth grandchild - my daughter’s first baby, a daughter - thus creating an ongoing female line.’ Jane Lethem retired from her role as Head of Clinical Psychology at CAMHS for Central and West London NHS Foundation Trust at the end of July. Natasha Robinson writes: ‘The peaceful routine of semiretirement, grandparenting and gardening was suddenly shaken in August 2022 when my sister and her husband were arrested and given a year’s prison sentence in Myanmar where the family lived, and we immediately became in loco parentis with the arrival in Oxford of 2 nieces. It was a very difficult time for us all, with only minimal contact possible with my sister. Then suddenly, 3 months later, my sister was unexpectedly released, deported, and joined us for breakfast the next day.‘ Isobel Williams writes: ‘To my surprise, I finished my Catullus translations. Switch: The Complete Catullus (Carcanet Press) is illustrated with my drawings of Japanese rope bondage (shibari) – a fitting context for the
poet’s voluntary emotional enslavement and strict formal skill. He is the switch, oscillating between dominant and submissive. This autumn I’ll be giving talks about it in Oxford and London, including at the Ancient World Breakfast Club at Godolphin and Latymer. Despite the early hour I’m addicted to it – the members are friendly and it’s open to anyone who can get to Hammersmith at 8am (7.30am for breakfast) on Fridays.’
1975 Christa Laird has published her fifth historical novel for young adults, This Dark Heart, with The Book Guild in October 2022. The book is set in Judaea under King Herod, and imagines the story of one of King Herod’s young bodyguards - a reluctant one - and provides a fresh perspective on the massacre of the innocents. Robyn Owens was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the King’s Birthday Honours for her significant service to science in the fields of computer vision and mathematics. Carolyn Regan was awarded a CBE in the King’s Birthday Honours in recognition of her exceptional contribution to public service. Susan Scott won the Blaise Pascal Medal in Physics (European Academy of Sciences), Walter Boas Medal (Australian Institute of Physics), Walter Burfitt Prize (The Royal Society of New South Wales) and the Thomas Ranken Lyle Medal for Mathematics & Physics (Australian Academy of Science). She was also appointed as a Vice-Chancellor’s Professorial Fellow at Aston University.
1976 Anne Cowan writes: ‘I moved back to Oxford after the death of my husband, Andrew, last summer. We had planned to come together, he to a nursing home in Headington, me to a house nearby. Sadly, he died two weeks before the move so I moved alone but haven’t looked back. I have reconnected with primary education and am now a governor at Windmill School and have joined ARCh (Assisted Reading for Children in Oxfordshire) as a volunteer reader in one of the Cowley schools. One of my sons is Director of Music at St Peter’s College, so I have the opportunity to enjoy his work and also that of his friends and colleagues,
one of whom is Director of Music at Somerville! I have enjoyed becoming part of the congregation at Holy Trinity, Headington Quarry, sitting near the beautiful memorial window to CS Lewis (I am feeling very spoilt). I have also been delighted to be a follower of Asylum Welcome, now patronised by Jan Royall, and hugely supported by Somerville as an original College of Sanctuary.
1977 Deborah Bateson was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to medicine through research and education, and to reproductive health. She is currently Professor of Practice at the Daffodil Centre, a joint venture between the University of Sydney and Cancer Council NSW, where her work is driven by equity in access to evidence-based, patientcentred care in cancer control, with a focus on the elimination of cervical cancer in Australia and the Pacific. Of her time at Somerville, Professor Bateson recalls, ‘Somerville provided me with an extraordinarily strong foundation for my work in reproductive health and now in the equitable elimination of cervical cancer in Australia and our neighbouring Asia Pacific countries. As the only biochemistry student in my year, I was enormously fortunate to have weekly one-on-one tutorials with the redoubtable Jean Banister (often over a glass of sherry), who embodied scientific rigour and curiosity and set me on course for the career in research that lay ahead.’
1978 Libby Ancrum writes: ‘Retirement has turned out to be very busy. I am increasingly involved in local politics and pleased to report good progress in working towards a more liberal ethos in the town where I live. I am especially pleased that as a town councillor I initiated Sevenoaks joining the City of Sanctuary movement and becoming the first town council of Sanctuary in the U.K. The award is in recognition of its ongoing work to support those fleeing violence and persecution and embedding inclusion and welcome across a variety of council services as well as working collaboratively with refugee support organisations.‘
Angela Bonaccorso writes: ‘I had a very nice long work/vacation stay in Japan in March this year with my Japanese husband. 1/3 conference (Japanese colleagues are wonderful to me), 1/3 of the time friends and family and 1/3 various onsens at the Izu peninsula (visited the house where Kawabata wrote the Izu Dancer) and Kyoto. As our son is probably going to spend several months in Japan next year we hope to go again. It would be nice to get in touch with Alumni there. Second point is about the biography of my former supervisor Prof. D. M. Brink, which I wrote with Dr. Sukumar for the Biographical Memories of Fellows of the Royal Society. For those who are not familiar with it, the journal contains extremely inspiring biographies of outstanding researchers. In our case it could be interesting for a large audience, because the initial part of our article outlines the beginning of the Department of Theoretical Physics in Oxford and of the Nuclear Physics research at Oxford and Harwell. It can be read at https://royalsocietypublishing. org/doi/10.1098/rsbm.2022.0020’ Katrina Crossley (Clapham) writes: ‘After almost three decades in Brighton, we have moved to Scotland for adventures new and to be near family and friends. Work with the International Law Book Facility continues, and I recently became a trustee of the Legal Action Group. There are plenty of diversions here in North Berwick, including volunteering for Save the Children, swimming in the sea, and learning about sea birds.’ Dr Ann Olivarius received an OBE for services to justice and to women and equality in the New Year Honours. She was also made King’s Counsel honoris causa by the Ministry of Justice in recognition of her “leading role in the fields of women’s rights, sexual harassment and sexual abuse” and for being at “the forefront of the fight against image-based sexual abuse and privacy violations, [playing an] instrumental part in lobbying Parliament to pass laws against the disclosure of non-consensual private images.” Philippa Tudor was made CBE in the New Year Honours, marking the end of her 40 year career serving the House of Lords after her retirement last October.
1979 Julia Gasper writes: ‘I gave a talk to the group Academics for Academic Freedom at Derby in March. It was well attended. The movement is growing fast.’
1980 Deborah Taylor writes: ‘In December 2022 I finished my year as Treasurer of Inner Temple, and also left the judiciary after 17 years for a new challenge. I am fortunate in now having a number of new roles. In March 2023 I was appointed Chair of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, which decides cases involving doctors’ fitness to practice. In July 2023 I was appointed Chair of the new Criminal Legal Aid Advisory Board, set up to advise the Lord Chancellor. In July I also became a Trustee of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, and I am on the Advisory Board for Durham University Law School. This all keeps me busy, but not too busy to enjoy family life and travelling.’ Alexia (Wai-Chun) Tye has left salaried life, quitting her finance director role at the Oceanographic Institute at the beginning of the pandemic to transition into a non-executive director professional life, with a portfolio of board directorships and governance roles in the UK, Europe and North America, centred on climate, sustainability and technology. She has renewed her mandate as Trustee and Audit Committee member of the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), an institute for worldleading environmental science research headquartered near Oxford. Alexia has also taken on similar responsibilities at the International Bureau for Children’s Rights, an NGO based in Montreal. She is also a pro bono Adviser to the Fondation Vaincre Alzheimer, a medical research foundation. Her board role in the sustainability reporting software startup Greenomy concluded when the company was successfully acquired by Euroclear last year. In France, where she lives, Alexia has just co-created a charity, l’Hospitalité Musicale, which runs cultural activities around the great organ of the chapel of the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris. She has also been appointed Conseiller Artistique of Renaissance de l’Orgue de Bordeaux, an organisation that promotes the cultural heritage of Bordeaux organs.”
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1982
1984
1988
Melanie Chatfield writes: ‘I read Modern History 1982-5, and after graduating I trained as a solicitor. After a long career in company and commercial law first in a law firm and then in various in-house roles in industry, I found myself in the higher education/ research sector, as General Counsel to the Francis Crick Institute in London. In recent years, I have branched out into broader strategic project roles. In 2021 I finally did something which seems interesting enough to report, and moved to Okinawa, Japan, to take up a senior management role at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University. I am living in Okinawa now, and thoroughly enjoying getting to know this fascinating part of a fascinating and lovely country in more depth. There must be some other Somervillians in Japan... and if not, it's time we got some out here - maybe some budding scientists who like the idea of studying on a beautiful subtropical island?’
Fiona Forsyth writes: ‘My fourth book, “Blood and Shadows”, was published in August 2022, and concluded the Sestius trilogy, which follows the fortunes of a Roman senator through the turbulent years of the transition from Republic to Empire in the first century BCE. I’m now developing a series which stars the poet Ovid as he endures exile on the shores of the Black Sea. Life as a writer, I have discovered, involves more time on social media than is healthy, but I now have procrastination perfected.’
Angela Brown writes: ‘This year has been one excitement after another with my acceptance in January to the Masters in Fine Art Practice degree at Glasgow School of Art, starting in September 2023, and then simple pure joy with my wedding to Anne (a former Edinburgh University lecturer) in May; this was one of the first lesbian weddings in the Scottish Presbyterian Church! It was lovely that my friend Talya Baker (Cohen) (French and Linguistics 1988) was able to be there.
1985
I am continuing to work as an artist between Scotland and Athens, Greece, reflecting my Ancient History background. I hope my late and much missed tutor Miriam Griffin would be proud! I also had a solo exhibition, ‘Luminous Sentiment', during this year’s Edinburgh Festival and was delighted with its success. And finally…the ovarian cancer I was treated for three years ago remains well-behaved and in full remission, every year of which is the biggest blessing of all…’
Anneli Harvey (neé Mclachlan) writes: ‘On July 2023 I began a new job as Director of teaching and learning and professional growth across the four campuses of the International School of Los Angeles. I am looking forward to this new challenge, working on harmonising our bilingual curriculum. I also published in March a new Key Stage 3 French book for OUP, Vif.’ Madhura Swaminathan writes: ‘In December, I was invited to join the board of the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, a centre of excellence in science working for resource-poor farmers in Asia and other developing countries. It was emotional to visit Los Banos in the Philippines, where IRRI is located, as a board member, where my father had been the Director General 30 years ago. The highlight of the year was being on stage as translator for Dr. Aleida Guevara (medical doctor, activist, and daughter of Che Guevara) at the national conference of the All India Democratic Women's Association, the largest organisation of women in India, held in Kerala.‘
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Rachel Glennerster writes: "This year we launched the Market Shaping Accelerator at the University of Chicago of which I am one of the faculty directors. At the Accelerator we are looking at the most effective ways to incentivize private markets to invest in innovation to solve the world's most pressing problems. While I am still doing some work on the economics of lowincome countries, it has been fun to shift much of my focus to the economics of innovation, pandemic preparedness, and climate change. Having spent 13 years running a center at MIT and a break working for the UK government, it has also been good to build a new team of smart, enthusiastic young economists."
1986 Diana Havenhand writes: ‘I have had a change of direction in the last couple of years - after nearly 30 years practising as a solicitor, I am now combining studying for a degree in portrait painting at Art Academy London (commissions welcome!) and caring for elderly parents. Whether I return to the law remains to be seen!’
1987 Sally Prentice writes: ‘I have spent the last year as an interim director of a family foundation which has been fascinating but I am looking forward to doing something new in 2024. I am enjoying chairing the board of trustees of St Michael’s Fellowship, a charity that improves children’s life chances by working with their mums and dads to enable them to develop their parenting skills. I would be interested in connecting with Somervillians who work in or are trustees of charities and I am happy to talk to Somervillians thinking about moving into the charity sector.’
1989 Fareda Banda chaired the Caine Prize for African Writing with a stellar group of women judges-the first all-female judging panel in the history of the prize. The shortlist was announced in early July, with the final award made on October 2nd. Philippa Hoskin writes: ‘The past year was both satisfying and surprisingly eventful. In my role as Director of the Parker Library, at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, I was delighted to learn that our application for inclusion on the UNESCO UK Memory of the World scheme on behalf of the 1500-yearold St Augustine’s Gospels, had been successful. More unexpected, was the necessity of my accompanying these Gospel Books down to Westminster Abbey to play a part in the Coronation. Spending the service in St Edward’s chapel, just behind the altar screen, in the company of the Crown jewels is something I'm not likely to forget. Otherwise, I have also taken on the role of Vice-President at Corpus and am busy with our project to commemorate 40 years of women as students and fellows at college.‘
1990 Susan Owens published Imagining England’s Past, with Thames and Hudson. The book examines how the making and manipulation of ‘the days of old’ have shaped and continue to shape England’s literature, art, music, architecture and fashion. Catherine Penn (Magness) writes: ‘'The last year has sadly been dominated by the sudden death of my husband, Richard (Hertford 1991) in August 2022. Many of my Somervillian friends will remember Richard as we met at Oxford and married in the summer after our graduation. Our two sons are now both living in Oxford as DPhil students, and it has become a much-appreciated place of retreat and rest for me over this past year. I am still living in Bristol and working as an assistant practitioner on the nurse team of a GP surgery, and continue to be very involved with my church community.’
1992 Sophie Agrell writes: ‘Since the start of COVID-19, my life has been entirely centred on our smallholding in Ayrshire. Working from home has become permanent and I enjoy both the absence of commuting and associated pressures (getting all smallholding chores done in time to leave for work was somewhere between exhausting and impossible) and the comfort of working from home in an armchair full of dogs rather than sitting uncomfortably at an office desk. Many people got lockdown puppies. We got lockdown goats - I finally yielded to my wife, Rosemary's persuasion and it is one of the best choices I ever made. Goats are huge fun and very humanfocused. They know their names, come when called and seek out human company - quite unlike sheep, who are focused on the flock and mostly regard humans with suspicion. We now have 11 goats and are self-sufficient in milk, yoghurt, some types of cheese (soft cheese, feta, halloumi) and butter. We keep Anglo Nubian goats (the ones with long floppy ears), a couple of British (mixed breed) goats and English goats. English goats are an ancient breed, now at risk. If you have ever seen 'Outlander', the goats are English goats and related to mine. In the last couple of years, I have started to show our goats and this year took
them for the first time to the Royal Highland Show, Scotland's largest and most prestigious agricultural show. I was delighted beyond words to win the English milker class with my goat Kenside Lillie, and to win Reserve Best Goatling (year old goat) with my first home-bred British goat, Monksfield Zoe. Every single goat I took returned home with at least one rosette, which makes me very proud.‘
1993
1995 Sarah Wall-Randell (née Wall) writes: ‘I wanted to share the news that I was promoted to the rank of full professor of English at my institution, Wellesley College in Massachusetts, USA. I was a Visiting Student in 1995-6, and it was my work in that year with the late Katherine Duncan-Jones and with alumna Emma Smith that set me on the path of Renaissance literary scholarship that I have pursued ever since.’
Anita Howard continues writing and teaching. She performs with the Cork Yarnspinners Storytelling Group, the Harbour Parishes Drama Group and the Hunter’s Moon Theatre Company, featuring in a touring production of John B. Keane’s The Year of the Hiker during 2022 – 23. Her prose and poetry appear in various publications, including the Querencia Press Autumn 2022 Anthology, the December 2022 issue of Mslexia, and the Boundless 2023 Anthology of the Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival. She chairs monthly Open Mic sessions online as a member of Toastmasters International and facilitates the Somerville Whodunnit Online Book Club for alumni.
1996
1994
1997
Cornelius Grupen writes: ‘In 2022, my short story New Life won the Vigilius Award and was included in an anthology. In collaboration with photographer Robert Goetzfried, I also published a trilogy of speculative fiction inspired by found objects – a bike pedal, the cap of a gas tank, a stuffed toy animal. In my day job as a ghostwriter for executives and thought leaders, I have started working on a new book in collaboration with Harvard Business School. Drawing on the example of Socrates, the book will explore the power of simple questions to challenge prejudice, uncover hidden knowledge, and help readers focus on what really matters in their jobs and in their lives.’
Natlie Shenker was awarded an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours for her service to charity and to human milk banking.
Anne Madden’s historical fiction novel, The Wilderness Way is due for its paperback and e-book release on 7th December 2023. Set in Donegal, Ireland and the United States during the American Civil War, it is based on a true story examining eviction, emigration and the ripple effect of conflict.
Helen Cowan (Goddard) has started a new role as a Lecturer in Adult Nursing at Oxford Brookes University. Stefan Dobrev writes: ‘I had the privilege to be appointed to Governing Board of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, effective last summer (so just about in your date range). The Institute is a body of the EU that disperses several billion euro in grants to foster innovation through collaboration in ecosystems that bring together academia, industry and entrepreneurs. Now that the UK is back in Horizon Europe, the program should help Oxford, too.’
Dr Mahlet “Milly” Zimeta (née Getachew, 1997, PPE) after Somerville went on to do postgraduate study in Philosophy at King’s College, Cambridge. King’s was one of the first of Cambridge’s all-male Colleges to admit women students. To celebrate the 50year anniversary, award-winning art photographer Jooney Woodward was commissioned to create portraits of 50 women from the College’s history. Milly was one of the 50 women selected. The portraits were displayed in King’s College Chapel and are now part of the College’s permanent art collection: an online version of the exhibition is also available at: https:// festivalofwomenatkings.com/ The Chapel exhibition was accompanied by a soundtrack of subjects’ favourite musical works: Milly’s choice was “Got Your Money” by ODB from the WuTang Clan.
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Associate of Somerville, the equivalent of a Senior Research Fellow, but for individuals whose contributions lie outside traditional academia. Aaron will supervise graduate students interested in public policy and development issues, and contribute to the College's chapel and career guidance programmes, particularly for students keen on government careers.
2000
STACEY BERRIMAN
1998 Anastasia Byard (Stacey Berriman) writes: ‘2022/23 has been a busy year for me. I have moved organisations this year, taking on a new role as Chief Financial Officer at The Bishop Konstant Catholic Academy Trust, a 15 school trust here in Yorkshire. This year has also seen the publication of a book to which I was a contributor - ‘If I were Education Secretary…’ where I made the case for a more long term and holistic approach to tackling the issues which land at the door of schools. After nearly three years and 15 exams, I am now just one exam away from achieving my CIMA accountancy qualification - something of a departure given my degree focus on Old and Medieval English! The high points of this year have been recognition for my academic success during my accountancy studies - I achieved the CIMA Global Excellence Award Student of the Year, competing against CIMA students around the world, achieved joint first in the world on one of my case study exams, and won the PQ Magazine Awards Apprentice of the Year. Hopefully 2023/24 will see me finally achieve my CGMA designation and get back on with my renovation project of a house!’ Dr Aaron Maniam has been appointed Fellow of Practice and Director, Digital Education Transformation at the Blavatnik School of Government - just next door to Somerville on Walton Street. He was previously a senior civil servant in the Singapore government. He will concurrently be a Senior
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Joel Meyer received an MBE in the New Year Honours in recognition of his services to the NHS during the Covid-19 pandemic. Joel is an Intensive Care Consultant at Guy’s and St Thomas’ who co-founded the pioneering Life Lines service that enabled families of intensive care patients to be virtually present at their loved ones’ bedsides during lockdown.
2002 Panayiotis Xenophontos writes: ‘In March 2022, immediately following Russia’s most recent invasion of Ukraine, I started a charity which works with Ukrainians in various ways both inside and outside of Ukraine. To date we have raised over £500k and are currently concentrating all our efforts and resources on rebuilding bombed/ damaged homes and buildings in eastern Ukraine, in villages around the city of Kharkiv; we have rebuilt over 600 buildings so far.’
2003 Zoe Cook (Smith) writes: ‘Our third child, Rafe, was born on 24th October 2022. Little brother to Lara and Alexis. I’m attaching a picture of Rafe here (see right). We all came to the recent Family Day and had such a special, memorable time. Thanks so much to everyone who made that day so wonderful.’
2008 Alex Gunn and his wife Pippa Gunn (2009) are enjoying life as a family of four following the birth of their daughter, Rosalie Elisabeth Gunn, on 18th April 2023.
2009 Becca-Jane Schofield married Harry Haslam in a Quaker ceremony at Wandsworth Friends' Meeting House on 29th April. We celebrated with friends and family in a reception at Old Luxter's
Barn in Henley on 27th May, with several Somerville alumni in attendance!
2011 Olivia Arigho Stiles writes: ‘I was awarded my PhD in Sociology last year (although I remain a historian at heart), and this September I'm starting a post as Lecturer in Latin American Studies at the University of Essex. My PhD examined the rise of ecological thought within highland Indigenous movements in Bolivia, 1920-1990. I've since been a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Indigenous Ecologies and Environmental Crisis research project at UCL.’
2012 Jonny Lawrence completed his DPhil at Oxford in October 2022 and took up a role as Departmental Lecturer in Classical Arabic Literature at the University. He has recently moved to New York for his new post as Assistant Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Cornell University. Brigitte Stenhouse writes: ‘My PhD thesis, Mary Somerville: Being and Becoming A Mathematician was awarded one of the 2023 Dissertation Prizes by the Division for the History of Science and Technology, of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science. The thesis was examined at The Open University in 2021.’
2013 William Aslet has been appointed Scott Opler Junior Research Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford. He hopes his new post will provide him with many future opportunities to revisit Somerville.
2016 Stratton Weiss Hibbs is the youngest director ever appointed to the East Texas Symphony Orchestra Board (Term: August 2022-August 2024). On April 21, 2023, Stratton was also named an Honorary Board Member by Junior Achievement for his outstanding volunteer service.
Births Gunn To Philippa Gunn (2009) and Alex Gunn (2008) on 18th April 2023 a daughter Rosalie Elizabeth Gunn
Evans To Rowena Evans (2009) and Zoltan Kis in April 2023 a son Oscar
Wu-Khor To Jonathan Wu-Khor (Zeyang Wu, 2014) and Chantel Khor-Wu on 12 March 2023 a son Oliver Qiuhe
Cook To Zoe Cook (née Smith, 2003, Modern History) and James Cook a son Rafe ROSE GUNN AND FAMILY
RAFE COOK
Marriages
SEAMAN - ROSS
TAM
SCHOFIELD - HASLAM
HOLDEN - HOERSCH
Evans – Kis
Tam
Holden - Hoersch
In August 2022 Rowena Evans (2009, Mathematics) to Zoltan Kis
On 29th July 2023, Kazia Tam (2015, Experimental Psychology) to Jun-An Tam (2015, PPE)
On 1st July 2023 Marina Holden (2012, Modern Languages) to Jonas Hoersch (2012, PPE)
Seaman – Ross On 24th September 2022 Beth Seaman (2004, Psychology and Physiology) to Matthew Ross
Schofield – Haslam On 29th April 2023, Becca-Jane Scholfield (2009, Classical Archaeology and Ancient History) to Harry Haslam
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Deaths Fellows Carter April Carter (Tutor and Fellow in Politics, 1976-1984) on 16 August 2022 Aged 84
Duncan-Jones Katherine Duncan-Jones (Mary Ewart Research Fellow, 1963-5, Tutor and Fellow in English, 1966-2001, Senior Research Fellow, 2001-2012, Emeritus Fellow, 2012-2022) on 16 October 2022 Aged 81
Lamont Claire Lamont (1966, Mary Ewart Research Fellow 1969-71) on 9 April 2023 Aged 81 DPhil English
Tooke Adrianne Jill Tooke (Tutor and Fellow in French, 1981-2008, Emeritus Fellow, 2008-2023) on 2 March 2023 Aged 76
Reynolds Joyce Maire Reynolds (1937, Honorary Fellow 1990) on 11 September 2022 Aged 103
Elliot Margaret Ruth Elliot (1945, Foundation Fellow, 2004) on 6 November 2022 Aged 95
Binns
Heath
Ruth Binns née Marsden (1944) Mod Langs
Margaret Alice Heath née Bragg (1950) on 26 December 2022 Aged 91 History
Bosanquet
Johnson
Joanna Camilla Bosanquet (1968) on 16 July 2022 Aged 72 (DPhil)
Joan Mary Johnson née Munden (1953) on 3 January 2023 Aged 87 PPE
Bowker
Lack
Margaret Bowker née Roper (1955) on 8 November 2022 Aged 86 History
Cansick Alicia Phyllis Cansick née CarewRobinson (1965) on 28 May 2022 Aged 73 Mathematics
Cave Kathryn (‘Kate’) Patricia Moir Cave née Wilson (1966) on 3 December 2021 Aged 73 PPE
Cramer Inge Cramer (1971) on 7 May 2022 Aged 69 PPE
Davies Janetta Kathrine (Jan) Davies née Hawthorn (1964) on 23 August 2022 Aged 76 Mod Langs
Donson
Lonsbrough Elizabeth Annie Uttley Lonsbrough née Nelson (1942) on 15 May 2022 Aged 98 History
Longmate Jill Caroline Longmate (1978) on 29 March 2023 Aged 63 History
Low Mary Isobel Low (1945) on 17 January 2022 Aged 97 History
Lucas Patricia Adrienne Lucas (1949) on 30 December 2022 Aged 91 Lit Hum
Mackie
Helen Cripps Donson (1951) on 11 July 2022 Aged 89 Mod Langs
Penelope Jane Mackie (1971) on 5 December 2022 Aged 69 PPE
Durie
Mackie
Catherine Elizabeth Durie née Green (1971) on 9 October 2022
Foakes Rachel Janetta Foakes née Bladon (1987) on 28 November 2022 Aged 53 History
Fortescue Nancy Katharine Forstescue (1953) on 24 October 2022 Aged 87 Mod Langs
Green Rosslyn Yeo Green née Hawkins (1953) on 28 September 2022 Aged 97 History
Hall Ann Hall (1954) on 10 April 2022 Aged 86 Geography
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Katherine Joan Lack née Taylor (1977) in 2021 Aged 62 Agriculture & Forest Science
Mary Therese (Sister Elizabeth) Mackie (1961) in February 2023 Aged 88 Lit Hum
Martin Stephanie Mary Jennifer Martin née King (1971) on 18 March 2023 Aged 69 Mathematics
Mawson Helen Mary Mawson, née Fuller (1957) on 19 June 2023 aged 85 Lit Hum
Merrick Olive Edith Merrick née Lovegrove (1951) in 2022 History
Minney Penelope (Penny) Minney née Hughes on 22 February 2023 Aged 88 Lit Hum
PHOTO: OXFORD ATELIER
Morrison
Seglow
Yates
Isobel Margaret Stewart Morrison née Taylor on 16 August 2022 Aged 87 PPE
Mary Jean Aird Seglow née Moncrieff (1955) on 13 November 2022 Aged 85 PPE
Elizabeth Mally Yates née Shaw (1949) on 25th June 2023 aged 92
Stockwell
Daphne Flora Wall (1950) on 14 September 2022 Aged 90 Mod Langs
Ndungu Anne Wanjiru Ndungu aged 36 D Phil Clinical Medicine
Newton Dorothy Margaret Newton née Casley (1951) on 6 January 2023 Aged 90 Mod Langs
Osborn
Juliet Mary Stockwell née Butler (1958) on 14 October 2021 Aged 82 Maths
Stokes Prudence Mary Stokes née Watling (1948) in February 2022 Aged 92 History
Lesley Margaret Osborn née Clough (1969) on 10 May 2022 Aged 73 Dip. Social Admin.
Swatman
Potts
Tollemache
Barbara Phyllis Potts née Kidman (1949) on 14 March 2022 Aged 94 Physiology
Rands Susan Mary Rands née Connely (1948) on 25 March 2022 Aged 91 English
Rice Ellen Elizabeth Rice on 5 April 2023 Aged 71 History
Robert
Rosemary Ann Swatman née Cox (1967) in September 2022 Aged 74 History
Nadia Tollemache née Benziger (1954) in July 2022 Aged 87 Jurisprudence
Trench Sylvia Trench née Maizels (1954) on 28 October 2022 Aged 86 PPE
Wall
Watkins Patricia Anne Watkins née Bennett (1971) on 30 March 2022 Aged 71 Jurisprudence
Webber Miriam Leah Webber née Kay (1943) on 13 September 2022 Aged 97 PPE
Webber Cerys Ann Webber née James (1981) on 18 May 2022 Aged 59 Physics
Wood Susan Meriel Wood née Chenevix-Trench (1942) on 30 December 2022 Aged 97 History
Trueta Amelia Katherine Trueta née Strubell (1943) History and Mod Langs Pass School
Auriol Holt Roberts (1967) on 30 November 2022 Aged 74 Lit Hum
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Obituaries The following alumni have died recently and we plan to include their obituaries in next year’s college report: Elizabeth Cooke (1964); Helen Mary Mawson, née Fuller (1957); Dr Ruth Lister (1944); Elizabeth Mally Yates (Shaw, 1949).
FELLOWS April Carter (Tutor and Fellow in Politics, 1976-1984) April Carter was born in 1937 and died in 2022. From her early twenties April’s academic interests grew out of her political concerns. In her final years at school she had been destined to read Classics. She won a place at Oxford but did not take it up and in 1958, appalled that nuclear warfare would mean mass annihilation, joined and became secretary to the recently established Direct Action Committee against Nuclear War (DAC), precursor of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Committee of 100. DAC’s aims were to prevent Britain adopting a nuclear defence strategy through protest and civil disobedience. DAC organised the first Aldermaston March from London to Aldermaston in 1959, and incursions into rocket bases to prevent the installation of nuclear missiles. After such a protest at Swaffham, April was imprisoned. In 1960 April helped organise and participated in an international protest against French testing of nuclear weapons in the Sahara. And in a further concrete expression of her belief that the peace movement should be international, in 1961, April organised with Bayard Rustin the European section of the San Francisco to Moscow March organised by the American Committee for Non-violent Action to stimulate public concern about nuclear warfare in the countries they marched through. After a brief spell as an assistant editor at Peace News, April then chose to deepen her understanding of politics by reading Politics at the London School of Economics graduating with a First in 1965. After her graduation she was appointed to a lectureship in the Politics Department at the recently established University of Lancaster. April’s Oxford PhD was a study of democratisation in a communist-run country, Yugoslavia, published as Democratic Reform in Yugoslavia; the Changing Role of the Party by Princeton University Press. April’s subsequent academic positions were interspersed with periods devoted to writing and political activity. She held a lectureship at Somerville, a Research Fellowship with the Stockholm International Peace Institute, where she studied disarmament talks, a research which was published as Success and Failure in Arms Control Negotiations in 1989 by Oxford University Press. She held a lectureship at the University of Queensland. After her retirement she was appointed Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Peace and Reconciliation at the University of Coventry. Political activity involved her continued support for CND, of which she was elected Chairperson in 1970. She was also
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deeply committed to aupporting struggles for democracy. In 1968 the suppression by Soviet troops of the Prague Spring, a democratizing movement within the communist party of Czechoslovakia, moved April to work with War Resisters’ International to organise the Support Czechoslovakia movement which saw contemporaneous protests with banners and leaflets in Moscow, Warsaw, Budapest and Sofia. April and a colleague went to Budapest where they were briefly imprisoned. Subsequently April was prominently involved in helping Czech exiles by smuggling opposition literature into Czechoslovakia, an activity for which she later received an award for her contribution to Czech freedom by the government of the Czech Republic. In 1980, April worked with Professor Adam Roberts and Michael Randle, her colleague from DAC days, on the Alternative Defence Commission (ADC) based in the Peace Studies Department at Bradford University. The Commission was intended to move the anti-nuclear movement from protest to constructive recommendations on how Britain could develop a credible defence policy without relying on nuclear weapons. The ADC published reports and three publications resulted from it: Defence without the Bomb, London: Taylor & Francis, 1983; Without the bomb: Non-nuclear defence policies for Britain, London: Paladin, 1985; and The politics of alternative defence: a role for a non-nuclear Britain, London: Paladin, 1987. She also published books on Anarchism, Democracy, and the Women’s Movement. April’s latest publications, co-edited with Michael Randle and Howard Clarke, comprised three volumes of annotated bibliographies of studies on non-violent protest throughout the world: People Power and Protest since 1945 (2006); A Guide to Civil Resistance: A Bibliography of People Power and Nonviolent Protest (2013 and 2015), which, according to Professor Paul Rogers, “ remain the best guides to many decades of nonviolent action right across the world”. The Bibliography moved online and April continued to contribute to it after she became very frail and housebound. April Carter was courageous and determined in her political life and she applied her formidable intelligence to developing the ideas and publishing information which underpinned her beliefs in peace and democracy. Fay Carter, sister
Katherine Duncan Jones (Mary Ewart Research Fellow, 1963-65; Tutorial Fellow, 1966-2001; Senior Research fellow, 2001-2022) ‘I don’t believe’, wrote Katherine Duncan-Jones in her revisionist biography Ungentle Shakespeare: Scenes from a Life (2001), ’that any Elizabethans, even Shakespeare, were what might now be called “nice” – liberal, unprejudiced, unselfish’. It is an epitome of her fresh look at Shakespeare’s life and works, at once deeply immersed, and head-on-one-side detached. After studying as a student at St Hilda’s College, Katherine Duncan-Jones became Mary Ewart Research Fellow at Somerville in 1963, beginning an association that would last six decades, only briefly interrupted by a fellowship at New Hall in Cambridge from 1965-6. She was appointed Professor by the University of Oxford in 1998. KDJ, as she was often known, began her career working on the Elizabethan courtier Philip Sidney, and was, for generations, the voice framing Sidney’s works for modern readers. She edited his poetry in 1973, his prose works with Jan van Dorsten in 1977, prepared a selection of verse and prose for OUP in 1989, and the standard edition of the Arcadia in 1985. In 1991 she published the still-definitive biography, Sir Philip Sidney. Courtier Poet. Sidney had been the subject of adulatory commentary for centuries, beginning after his untimely death in 1586: Katherine’s biography revealed the man behind this myth, and carefully, compassionately, but unflinchingly traced his increasing sense of frustration and self-indulgence. Its combination of admiration and objectivity was a foretaste of her method with a more famously mythical biography, Shakespeare. Katherine’s work of the 1990s and early 2000s was firmly on Shakespeare. She produced a remarkable edition of his sonnets for the Arden series: it was an editorial task that had seen off at least two previous scholars. Her method, first writing out each poem in her own distinctively and stylishly wonky script (appropriately, there was more than a touch of Elizabeth I in her handwriting), was coolly immersive: she could recite them from memory, while also recognising their erotic cruelty and misogyny. This edition (1997, second ed. 2010), and her book reconnecting Shakespeare with the literary culture of his period, Ungentle Shakespeare, and its sequel, Shakespeare: Upstart Crow to Sweet Swan (2011) will be her lasting scholarly legacy. Always committed to theatre, long before production was a standard element of Shakespeare editing and scholarship, she reviewed theatre productions with lively energy for the Times Literary Supplement. Her support for the performance of forgotten plays was legendary, and she was an enthusiastic advocate of gender neutral casting long before it became standard theatrical practice. Her numerous journal articles often deployed archival discoveries to situate Shakespeare and his contemporaries. She was an inspiring example of someone whose career, energy and professional authority really took off in mid-life. Her discovery of Ben Jonson’s epitaph on his onetime collaborator Thomas Nashe in the archives of Berkeley Castle was published in 1995: in the same collection she found new sonnets by the young Elizabeth Carey; elsewhere she also uncovered a late reference that may well extend the
KATHERINE DUNCAN JONES
known life of Will Kemp, the comedian for whom Shakespeare wrote Dogberry. She was equally at home in modern theatre, in Elizabethan prose, in poetry, and in the archives, and was a fixture of the Upper Reading Room in the Bodleian Library. Above all, Katherine was a scholarly interlocutor unafraid of controversy and debate: as she herself put it, ‘a fearless teller of difficult truths’. Her students experienced this usually as gentle and permissive, but with peers it could be forthright and sometimes implacable. Her signature scholarship – detailed and archival, challenging orthodoxies, and always steeped in decades of reading the Elizabethan poets – will continue to be cited. As a dedicated tutor, she might be even more pleased at the impact she has had on former pupils, inspired by her unshowy and practical commitment to women’s education. Her generosity to younger scholars was consistent and enabling. Above all, she was fun, with a capacity to inspire, and indulge, fits of laughter and attacks of the giggles. Perhaps we could borrow from that Ben Jonson poem she brought to life from the archive: Farewell greate spirite my pen attird in blacke Shall whilst I am still weepe & mourn thie lacke. Professor Emma Smith (1988, English)
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Margaret Ruth Elliot (Whale, 1945; Foundation Fellow, 2004-2022) My mother was born Margaret Whale in Altrincham in Cheshire in 1927, the eldest in a family of five. Their father JS Whale was a celebrated protestant theologian and preacher. The family moved first to Oxford and then to Cambridge when he became principal of Cheshunt College. Margaret was at the Perse School for Girls. Then the war came, young men were no longer training for ordination at Cheshunt and her father needed a new job. That turned out to be as headmaster of Mill Hill school. The school was evacuated from North London to St Bee’s in Cumbria during the war and Margaret joined the sixth form as the only girl in that boys’ school. Margaret won many school prizes at the Perse and the Latin and Greek that she learned at St Bee’s won her a major scholarship to Somerville. She remained very proud of that achievement to the end of her days. She read Greats at Somerville, but the more important life event of those years was meeting my father Gerald Elliot, a few years older, back from the war and doing his degree at New College. They were truly blessed in that marriage. They were intellectual equals, fully a match for each other and both strong characters. She was only 22 when they married in 1950. After a short spell in Norway they settled in Edinburgh and she was still only 30 by the time we three children had all been born. Margaret and Gerald played a team game. His role in the partnership was to go out to the office and earn their living in his family company Christian Salvesen. Hers was to run the other family enterprise of children, au pairs, cleaners, tradesmen. Far from frustration of not having a conventional career of her own she was glad and grateful that there was no need for her to go out and earn money. But that never stopped her putting her considerable energy and organisational skills to good use in the community, complementing his successful business career. Among many projects she was an adviser with the Citizens Advice Bureau and gave 35 years as a trustee of Edinburgh Zoo where Gerald had a long-standing family connection. Her
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last big job was in organising the friends of the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, recognised with an MBE. Margaret and Gerald’s friends and relations all remember them as generous hosts in their wonderful parties, and their big house was perfect for marking decades of marriage, big birthdays, grandchildren's christenings. Gerald was knighted in 1986 and the role of Lady Elliot was one that she inhabited fully and graciously. Apart from their active social life in the city, Margaret and Gerald had a parallel life of summer weekends at their cottage in Berwickshire which they bought in 1960 and owned for 57 years, giving them great pleasure in country pursuits. This was the place where their three children brought our prospective spouses and then our own children, Margaret’s 9 grandchildren She proudly saw all those grandchildren well into adulthood and the birth of 11 great grandchildren. Throughout their long lives, Margaret and Gerald were great travellers. Living in Norway she learned decent Norwegian, laying the foundation for many happy family holidays with Norwegian friends on the Oslo fjord. Gerald's business took them to Peru in the 1970s, adding Spanish to their list of languages. His skill as an Urdu interpreter in the Indian Army during the war took them back many times to India, Pakistan and Persia on holiday. And Margaret and Gerald were considerable patrons of the arts and education through their charitable fund, Binks Trust. Music and opera were great enthusiasms and they shared a discerning eye for modern Scottish painting, filling the huge walls in their Edinburgh house with some quite arresting images. In the frailty of old age her spirit was indomitable. Lying at home in end of life care she declared “I'm thinking of having a party” – and so she did for her 95th birthday a few weeks before she died. Jo Elliot, son
Claire Lamont (Mary Ewart Research Fellow, 1969-71)
CLAIRE LAMONT
Claire Lamont was a proud Scotswoman, her name (that of her clan) pronounced with stress upon its first and not, as in French, on its second syllable. An undergraduate at Edinburgh University, Claire came to Oxford to study for her B. Litt. at St Hilda’s College (1966-68), undertaking research into the intellectual and literary associations of the eighteenth-century family the Fraser-Tytlers of Loch Ness. After a stint working for antiquarian booksellers Dawsons of Pall Mall (1968-69), she was appointed a Mary Ewart Research Fellow at Somerville (1969-71). The formidable Somerville English Fellow Mary Lascelles oversaw Claire’s work, becoming an abiding influence. Claire joined Newcastle University in 1971 as a Lecturer in the School of English Language and Literature and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1984. She was Head of Department from 1989 to 1992 and promoted to Professor in 2001. From 1998 to 2001, Claire was Public Orator at Newcastle, presenting the great and the good for honorary degrees. She retired in 2007. These are the bare facts of a distinguished career. But there is far more to say. Claire was a much-admired teacher of generations of undergraduates and postgraduates at Newcastle who remember her with love. She was a major figure nationally and internationally in the fields of English and Scottish Literature of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Her intellectual curiosity was wide: the writings of Johnson and Boswell, Jane Austen, Walter Scott and the novels of their era, Romantic poetry, literature and architecture. She loved Scottish folk ballads, the poetry of Burns, Crabbe, Wordsworth, and Scott. While still a student, she rediscovered a lost manuscript of an eighteenth-century poem in a Scottish castle; manuscripts, the origins of creativity, and details of craftsmanship would continue to fascinate her. She published widely: her elegant, economic style favouring the essay form and her meticulous scholarship drawing her to editing. For her
edition of Walter Scott’s Waverley (1981), she received the British Academy’s Rose Mary Crawshay Prize in 1983. In an article on Scott, published in 2009, the scholar Michael Gamer described Claire’s Waverley edition as ‘foundational’ (‘Waverley and the Object of (Literary) History’, Modern Language Quarterly, 70 (2009), 498). And so it was. Scott was unfashionable, his novels, kept alive in re-issues, were based on the late collected edition of 1832-3, compiled in Scott’s old age and heavy with historical clutter. In 1981 Claire gave Waverley freshness: her text was that of the novel’s first edition of July 1814, corrected against the surviving manuscript. Her reasoning was bold: ‘The publication of Waverley was an event not only in the history of the novel, but in the development of the historical consciousness of Europe. For these reasons the text of 1814 is of interest.’ Editorial choices shape the terms on which we engage with texts as critics and readers. Two years later in 1983, the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels was proposed. Completed in 30 volumes in 2012, it followed the principles Claire had established, retracing in print the excitement that these novels created on their first publication. Under the general editorship of David Hewitt, Claire Lamont was, from first to last, one of the Edinburgh Edition’s guiding stars. Later Claire would begin another ambitious project, a study of architecture and domestic interiors through poetry and the novel, producing a string of essays: on domestic detail in Crabbe’s poetry; on the modernity of Austen’s world. In Hilary Term 2021, a research seminar held in Oxford celebrated Claire’s work, with contributions from leading editors and Romanticists, all touched by her influence. Kathryn Sutherland
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Joyce Maire Reynolds (1937; Honorary Fellow, 1988-2022) Born in 1918, Joyce came to Somerville in 1937 to read Classics, gaining a First in 1944 after taking leave from her studies in 1941 to work as a temporary civil servant at the Board of Trade. After graduating, she returned there for the rest of the war. What she learned there about the levers of government would go on to influence her glittering academic career focused on the ancient Roman world. In 1945, she won a research scholarship to the British School at Rome. She quickly became the leading expert on Roman inscriptions and the workshops that had produced them (particularly inscriptions from the Greco-Roman city of Aphrodisias, now in modern Turkey), using them as a springboard to explore historical questions about Roman government and the relationship between the imperial centre and the provinces. She took up the role of Director of Studies in Classics at Newnham College, Cambridge and in 1957 she was appointed to a Lectureship in Classics at Cambridge University. In 1982 she was made a Fellow of the British Academy. She was Reader in the Epigraphy of the Roman World at Cambridge in 1983-4. Reynolds is a Gold Medallist of the Society of Antiquaries and Fellow of the British Academy. Joyce will be remembered both as a brilliant scholar, who became the first woman to win the Kenyon Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Classical Studies in 2017 aged 99; and, during her long tenure at Newnham College, Cambridge, as a rigorous, and inspiring educator. She taught a number of eminent classicists including Dame Mary Beard, who discussed her fond recollection of the power of Reynolds’ teaching and the firmly sceptical approach it encouraged (‘Do you really know that, Miss Beard? Is that the only way you can interpret the evidence?’).
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JOYCE REYNOLDS
At the time of her death aged 103, Joyce was the oldest living Somervillian. We had the privilege of hosting Joyce in Somerville for a 100th birthday lunch in Radcliffe House. Joyce gave a short speech to the gathering of her peers and former students, talking about the role Somerville had played in her life. She will be sorely missed by both the Somerville community and the wider academic world.
Adrianne Jill Tooke (Tutor and Fellow in French, 1981-2008, Emeritus Fellow 2008-2023) Adrianne Tooke was born in Norwich in September 1946. She attended The Blythe School, then a girls’ grammar school. In 1965 she went up to Newnham College Cambridge to read for the Modern Languages tripos. Next came King’s College London, where she met Richard Smith, and took a First. Kate was born, and the family moved to Essex, from where she commuted to Cambridge as a graduate student, supervised by Alison Fairlie. Adrianne’s doctoral thesis was about the great French writer, Gustave Flaubert. She realised how much pleasure she derived from ‘getting things right’, and her research established the first accurate reading of his early piece of travel writing, Par les champs et par les grèves. She published her edition of this in 1987, in the Textes Littéraires Français series. Next came her important book, Flaubert and the Pictorial Arts for OUP (2000), a fruit of much painstaking but pleasurable sleuthing. She later applied her skills in textual scholarship and careful annotation in a fresh area, contributing significantly to seven of the thirteen-plus volumes of Benjamin Constant’s Correspondance générale. But specifically academic study of this sort was not all she did: concerned to ‘spread the word’ to English-speaking readers, she translated Flaubert’s Sentimental Education for Wordsworth Classics (2003), accompanied by a plainly written, penetrating Introduction. In 1981, and following time at Bedford College London, Adrianne had come finally to Oxford, appointed to a CUF Lectureship in French and a fellowship of Somerville. As a tutor in Modern Languages, she followed Elizabeth Armstrong, and joined Christina Roaf and Olive Sayce. She knew well how fortunate she was – in her College, in her colleagues, and in their successors. The most alert of readers, she had a glorious gift for communicating her insights and making them attractive. This was evident alike in her lectures, tutorials, seminars, and graduate supervision. She admired the Flaubertian appetite for life, his humour, his wisdom and self-knowledge as a novelist. She shared – she exemplified – his affectionate, nuanced,
ADRIANNE TOOKE
and perceptive attitude to difference. His phrase ‘Ça fait rêver’ spoke to her. She worked hard at things. Adrianne (‘Ada’) was a sensitive, a faithful, friend. Her conversation explored widely, searched deeply. And she was fun, open to life’s comic as well as its more searing aspects. She had an eye for others’ foibles and her own. Unsparing towards herself and generous to others, she would have responded to this eulogy with disbelief. She retired in 2008, happily. Her latter years, however, were tough going, hit by grief, by failing eyesight, cognitive disturbance, and overwhelming anxiety; the closing months were particularly so marked. But she enjoyed throughout the loving support of Kate, together with the kindness of devoted fellow Somervillians. Eric Southworth, Emeritus Fellow, St Peter’s
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ALUMNI
AMELIA TRUETA
Amèlia Trueta (1943) Amèlia Trueta (Meli to her friends) was always proud of her Somerville days and sported a small college shield on her living room wall till her dying day (August 8th 2022). The very fact that she was able to enter Somerville to read History is somewhat of a feat, for to do so she had to master English after the arrival of her family in England as Catalan refugees fleeing the Franco military dictatorship in 1939. Her father, Josep Trueta - later Nuffield Professor of Orthopaedics at Oxford University - had been chief surgeon at a major Barcelona hospital during the Spanish Civil War and had devised a new method to treat gangrene, until then a huge wartime killer. My mother’s first “exploit” on arriving in England - at age 15 - had been to help translate her father’s treatise on war wound treatment, a method that was to make him famous worldwide. The only copy of the book was one in Catalan that the family had been able to smuggle out of Barcelona. My mother and an army doctor with an inkling of French were confined in an office until the translation was complete, a step that with hindsight must probably be seen as crucial to see Trueta into the Nuffield Chair of Orthopaedics (1947) and his long career as director of the Wingfield - later Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre that was to become one of the leading orthopaedic hospitals in the world. After graduation, and like so many women of that period, Amèlia was never able to take up a career as a historian and
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MIRIAM WEBBER
married my father, Michael Strubell (1918-2001) also a history graduate (Pembroke College) as well as an ex-RAF Pilot. Amèlia and Michael were to have two sons (Michael 1949-2022) and Toni (1952) and lived in London, Madrid and Barcelona. In her later years she was much admired as Honorary President of the Anglo-Catalan Society. She worked to restore the memory and honour of her father, Josep Trueta and had his book The Spirit of Catalonia (Oxford University Press, 1946) edited and translated into different languages. She also finished the last chapters of her father’s autobiography-cum-biography Trueta: Surgeon in War and Peace (Gollanz 1980), tasks that her studies in history must have been most useful for. In her last years she was also a much admired activist in the Catalan independence movement and member of the Catalan National Assembly. She is known to have maintained correspondence with jailed Catalan government members as recently as 2017, notably speaker Carme Forcadell and president Puigdemont. She conserved a good sense of humour right to the end (97 years) and, in relation to Somerville, used to like remembering that one Catalan newspaper that had interviewed her, had titled the piece: “I saw Margaret Thatcher in her pyjamas”. An anecdote surely amusing both for English and Catalan senses of humour. A great mother and a great woman. Toni Strubell Trueta, daughter
Miriam Webber (1943)
Dr Christian Carritt (1946)
Miriam Webber was born Karnovsky, (later Kay), into Glasgow’s Jewish community in 1925. Her family were part of the turn of the century migration of Jews from the Russian Empire, escaping pogroms and persecution. Her father ran a famous Dolls’ Hospital above his shop in Trongate. Her lifelong love of gardening came from helping him. She had an unusual amount of freedom and responsibility as a teenage evacuee with her younger brother.
Dr Christian Carritt, who has died aged 96, was one of the foremost private London GPs from the 1950s until she finally wound down her practice in her eighties. In the post-war era, when women’s choices were constrained by the Beveridge report’s emphasis on traditional marriage and the nuclear family as a foundation of the new welfare state, she helped push the boundaries in the role and acceptance of women doctors.
In 1943, she went to Somerville College, Oxford to study PPE, rather than to a Scottish university as expected by her school. She enjoyed university life, taking an active part in the film society, rowing and attending concerts. Highlights at wartime Somerville included digging up the college gardens to grow veg, making marmalade in a college kitchen and studying philosophy. Known as “Wee Scottie”, she said she felt like the odd one out. Moving to London to do an MA at the LSE, she was sacked from her first youth work job after whistleblowing about child abuse. Looking back, she reflected “…I don’t always go about righting wrongs in the most tactful way.” Back in Glasgow, she did teacher training and met and married Simon Webber, a recently qualified accountant. They moved to Manchester, then, for the next 20+ years, Simon’s career with British Steel took them to different steel producing areas. Miriam fitted part time teaching in schools and colleges around taking care of their home and three children. She also volunteered for the Family Planning Association and the Marriage Guidance Council (now Relate) and created a garden wherever they lived.
Christian Carritt was born in 1927 to the musicologist, Graham Carritt and his wife Norah Begg. Following early schooling in London she moved to Benenden School, which had been evacuated during WW2 to Cornwall. There she excelled, became head of school and in 1945, when tossing up between music and medicine, plumped for the offer of a scholarship to read Natural Sciences at Somerville College, Oxford. Christian loved Somerville and always spoke with admiration about other influential Somervillians (including her own GP in Oxford, Dr Dorothea Maude, who was a pioneering woman doctor who had qualified in 1906 and subsequently set up five field hospitals for Serbian refugees during WW1), and Evelyn (later Baroness) Sharp, one of the first generation of women to go into the Civil Service in the 1920s.
Miriam was an atheist and a liberal. She believed in the importance of the individual and individual freedoms. She supported equal rights for women though she didn’t like being called a feminist. They settled in Baslow, Derbyshire in 1975. At the age of 50, Miriam went back to university and qualified as a social worker. She said her colleagues didn’t know what to make of her, but clients welcomed an older woman who might have experienced some of the problems of family life. She worked full time as a Senior Social Worker in Sheffield, before retiring in her early 60s to join Simon in his retirement. They travelled widely, including Russia, China, Iran and Japan. Long distance walks in the UK were another favourite activity. They both volunteered locally and Miriam was elected as a councillor then Chair of the parish council. They pursued their shared love of music, art, gardening and – eventually - five grandchildren. Diagnosed with Parkinsons in her 70s, Miriam stayed active mentally and physically as long as she could. In their 90s she and Simon decided to move together to a local nursing home. Miriam had a great love of life nearly to the end. One carer remembered “she asked me to put on her wellies and take her out to splash in the puddles, such joy it brought to her face”. Simon died in 2020 and Miriam last September. At her funeral we celebrated a long life lived to the full. Alex Webber (daughter, 1972)
CHRISTIAN CARRITT
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She graduated from Oxford in Animal Physiology and went on to University College Hospital, where she endured all the insinuations, bigotry and unwelcome attentions young female medical students had to face in those days. The experience prompted her to go solo as a London general practitioner, setting up (aged 28) in Onslow Square. Over the next fifteen years, she built up her practice. She made it look effortless, but it was not. Behind her calm and charming façade, there was boundless energy and grit. Friends became patients; patients became friends. Everyone relied on her, day and night – not only the glamorous, but also the young, vulnerable, lonely, or compromised, her modest fees adjusted accordingly. Her reputation for intuitive diagnosis, before the days of instant blood tests or MRI scans, were key in securing prompt appointments for her referrals. Somehow, she managed to fit in home-visits, too, and was still visiting elderly patients when she was well into her 80s. Inevitably, her generosity towards her patients and commitment to her vocation took a toll on her private life. At the age of 43, she married Robert Skiff, a US diplomat. She closed her practice when he was subsequently posted, first to Fiji and then, in 1974, to Bangkok. There she set up a popular diplomatic household, along with her new-born son, Luke (who had been born with Downes Syndrome), and the colourful, devoted Soko, who had joined the family as a house boy in Fiji. In Bangkok, she indulged her passion for cooking and gardening previously denied to her by the frenzy of her medical work. Houseguests were staggered by the steady flow of Thai princesses, cabinet-ministers and ambassadors beating a path to her dinner-table, well beyond normal permitted protocols. Robert’s diplomatic career nevertheless atrophied and he was recalled to Washington. There, Christian, in record time, at the age of 52, passed the relevant US medical exams with
distinction. When her twin, David, was dying from cancer, she returned to London in 1982. She separated from Robert. Within months of her arriving back in London, Christian reopened her London practice. The patients flocked back, along with their partners, children and grandchildren. There then began a whole new phase of her life, managing a household in Gloucester Road, along with Luke and Soko, whilst trying to restrain the practice again taking over every waking hour (the medical practice was in the basement). It was also a busy social time - she was a regular guest at Chatsworth and Glyndebourne. Nevertheless, she considered one of her greatest achievements was creating opportunities for Luke (who survives her), enabling him to live out his adult life outside of the constraints of a rigid institution, to make friends wherever he goes, and to imbue in all her friends an affection and extensive support network for him. ‘Somerville’, she said in later life, ‘taught me to learn and to live’ and she maintained a strong affection for the college, making generous donations in her lifetime and pledging a substantial proportion of her estate after her death. Luke Hughes
Elizabeth McLean (1950) Elizabeth McLean was born in 1932 as Elizabeth ‘Lizzie’ Hunter, to Donald and Mathilde Hunter. Mathilde, or ‘Thilo’, was born in Switzerland, the eldest of nine children, and so inherited much of the responsibility for raising her siblings, until her father Gustav, realising that no happiness would follow as
LIZZIE WITH HER GREAT FRIEND BRIDGET DAVIES HAVING TEA WITH SOMERVILLE PRINCIPAL JAN ROYALL
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a Swiss housewife, sent her to England. She studied medicine at Somerville, one of the first women to do so. Donald, raised with four brothers in the East End, also studied medicine, and met Thilo as her teacher in London. Soon, his family would travel to Europe for a Swiss wedding, and shortly four children were born, of whom Lizzie was the third. As war began, the children were sent across the ocean to Canada, where among the woods and the snow Lizzie skied and sailed, and seeded a love of nature and flowers that would last her entire life. There she met Bridget Davies, who would remain her close friend all her life, and on returning to England they studied medicine together at Somerville. She loved her time at Oxford, where she sailed Fireflies, played music, and learned country dances. In her third year she met Andre Mclean, whom she would marry in 1955. Her clinical training years were spent in London, with Sunday lunches at her parents’ house, where Donald would quiz her and Andre on medical specimens he bought home, and she would return the favour by placing images of young women in swimsuits in his lecture slides. When they appeared projected in lectures, he would thunder: “I know who has done this, and Lizzie, you will hear from me!” After her first year of house jobs, she gave birth to Thomas and then Adam, and became a research assistant in Eric Ross’ endocrinology lab, till in 1960 she sailed across the Atlantic again, this time to warmer seas in Jamaica. There Angela was born, and Lizzie studied Veno-occlusive disease, a dysfunction of the liver of young children on the island. Her rodent studies helped trace the disease to alkaloids in plants used for tea, even though Donald teased, “You’re just a rat doctor!”. The family ate mangos, swam in the Northern reefs, and hiked into the mountains with the children in donkey baskets. After three years in Jamaica, they spent a year in Oak Park, Chicago, where Lizzie continued her research into alkaloids. They left Lake Michigan’s biting snows in 1965, and returned home to England, where Martha was born, and Lizzie trained as a psychiatrist. She rapidly became a consultant and eventually medical director of Springfield Hospital, helping to establish an NHS clinic within the affordable housing near Battersea Park. She retired in 1992, and in the same year separated from Andre. Returning to Oxfordshire, she tended a beautiful garden filled with morning light, and studied music at the Open University. She sang and played in string quartets at Pigotts music camp and founded the U3A madrigal group. She still maintained a great interest in medicine: when she suffered Guillain-Barre syndrome in 2014, she was shocked at not being allowed to attend the Grand Round in person, where her case would be presented. She married David Thomas in 2011, and later cared for him with great love until he passed in 2019. In 2018, she herself suffered a stroke, and spent her remaining years in peace at home, to the end enjoying all things that grow, and sitting at her piano to play songs with her right hand. She died in her bed and is buried in the brown earth and slate of Stonesfield. Tom van Oss and Andre McLean, grandson and first husband
Daphne Wall (1950)
“Finding great joy in my own garden I often think of Somerville’s and especially its beautiful trees.”
DAPHNE WALL
My mother Daphne Wall, who died aged 90 on 14 September 2022, was a writer and teacher who relished her years at Somerville. Parties, punting and picnics took up most of her time; to her amazement, she graduated in 1953 with an honours degree in French. Born in Folkestone, Daphne spent an idyllic early childhood with her English parents in Le Vésinet, near Paris, where her father was an accountant. They fled days before the German invasion in June 1940, leaving everything behind – including a beloved pet Labrador, and caught the last boat to England. Daphne captures an eight-year old’s perspective in an unpublished memoir that also vividly depicts her later school life in Putney and North Wales during the war, her days in Oxford, her career in publishing in London and as a diplomat in India in the 1950s. Posted to Calcutta as a Second Secretary she fell in love with a Bengali, Toon Ghose, whom she had originally met in London. They travelled together around India and Kashmir – with Toon pretending to be her driver – and made a memorable trip to Rajasthan with the film director James Ivory. Daphne and Toon returned to England and married in Manchester in 1961 where she became a television producer for Granada Television, working with Michael Parkinson and John Freeman. My sister Nandita was born in 1963 followed by my brother Sumi, and I was born in 1970. She gave up her career to raise us and to support my father to become a pilot: we moved to Sussex for his job as one of the first Indian flying instructors in the country. The typewriter was always going in our house, and Daphne became a published author of the children’s books Bediga and Harry (Lutterworth Press, 1973). Our house was full of books, art, and fun. At Easter, we would receive clues from the Easter Bunny written in rhyming couplets. She encouraged us to question everything (‘why should God be a man?’) and as soon as we were teenagers to travel independently. She suggested I should try for Oxford even though my head teacher told me the odds were against me. Somerville seemed an obvious choice and like Mum I had three happy years there. Daphne was an environmentalist, organic gardener and member of Friends of the Earth long before climate change was widely understood. In the 1970s when a road-building scheme threatened a local stretch of the South Downs, she started a community campaign that saved it from destruction.
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When she and Toon separated in the 1980s, she moved to Brighton and became part of the city’s artistic community, organising play-readings, painting and presenting a programme on BBC Radio Sussex. She also started a business for students learning English as a foreign language. Writing, reading and gardening were constant pleasures, and she carried on teaching into her 80s, a staunch believer in everyone’s ability to learn. She adored her children and grandchildren and showed immense fortitude when her eldest daughter died in 2020. She still kept endless ‘projects on the go’: translating Collette’s novels into English; writing drama and further memoir and arranging Nandita’s poems. Thanks to the wonderful support of friends and neighbours, she lived in her own home until a few days before she died. We shall miss her wit, intellect and sparkling conversation. Watching the sparrows in her garden just days before she died she said: ‘If I could do it all again I would study zoology’. Katie Ghose (1988), Daughter
Olive Merrick (Lovegrove, 1951) Olive was born in 1932 in Leyton, Essex. Her father was a Railway Controller and her mother a secretary. At the age of three, Olive gained a younger sister, Brenda, and the two were close for all their lives, calling each other ‘Kid’. Their childhood was characterised by moving home and school every 2 or 3 years, attending eight different schools all over the country, as their father rapidly climbed the ranks of the railway service, but Olive still managed to be Head Girl, and gained a place to read History at Somerville College in Oxford. It was here that she found both her Christian faith and her calling to be a teacher. She specialised in early Medieval History with St Augustine as her specialist subject, before doing a teaching qualification in Oxford. Her tutor from Oxford says in a reference ‘She has a delightful personality, for she combines seriousness of purpose with a reluctance to take herself too seriously; and her strong sense of humour, courtesy and kindness have combined to make her a most acceptable member of the community’. Jobs followed, first in Clarendon School, and latterly becoming head in Rochdale among others. When the family moved down to the South East, Olive also moved down to be Headmistress of Ravensbourne School for Girls, seeing it through its transition from a Grammar School to a Comprehensive School whilst maintaining its high standards of Education. She remained there until it merged with the Boys School to become The Ravensbourne School as it is now. Apart from her commitment to education, Olive was a family orientated person. She was very helpful to Brenda, who was widowed at a young age, and was then a single parent, and played a very present role in her niece Rachel’s growing up. Olive spent many holidays towing a caravan around the UK and Europe, with her Mum and Dad, Brenda and Rachel. Her Dad made many scrapbooks of the family tours, with Olive looking very stylish visiting places of interest, and having picnics by the wayside with a fold up picnic table and deck chairs. Later, Olive
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cared for her father when he was very ill, and her mother when she developed dementia and moved to a care home, making full use of the opportunity sitting with her to knit Postman Pat and Rupert Bear jumpers for young relatives. It was having moved to Bromley that Olive met the love of her life, Leslie, at a photography evening class. Romance blossomed and they were married in August 1978. Marriage to Leslie completed Olive – she was at her most relaxed and happy that we had ever seen her. Alas it was not to last – Leslie sadly died of cancer in 1981 after only 3 very happy years of marriage. Olive threw herself into local life, being Chair of the National Trust group and organising several tours and holidays for local members. She was on the PCC of St George’s Church. She was also Chair of the Chilchester Court Residents Association. She had lunch in London with her old staff members who had become firm friends, and enjoyed theatre trips, trips to museums and art galleries and all the delights of London. She was also able to indulge her passion for travel, with many visits abroad. Olive was as much at home having fun showing someone the French High Life on holiday at her pad in Mougins Le Haut, as she was sitting on a towel on the beach with the family having tomato soup from a flask with her great nieces and nephews. She remained stylish and smart throughout. She was generous with her time and hospitality to a wide circle of friends, and in sharing her various pads, in Mougins, the Dover Den and the flat in Worthing with friends and family who were able to visit for holidays. Olive had a quiet faith which sustained her through all the ups and downs of life, but combined it with an enjoyment of all life had to offer, and generous support offered to all those around her. Even in her final days in Hall Grange through the fog of her dementia she remained polite and kind, and she will be much missed by us all. Snow was always Good Luck in our family after Olive’s Dad got recognised for his role in getting the trains through in a particularly snowy winter. So perhaps it is fitting that she should have her send off in a snowy patch of weather – she will be laughing from on High!
Joan Johnson (1953) “The funny thing about not being able to remember, is that I can remember that I can’t remember.” That was Joan in old age, reflecting on another failure to finish articulating a sentence before she forgot what the salient point was. One could tell she’d read Philosophy! As a young woman, she had been the first – though by no means the last – pupil of Swanwick Grammar School, Derbyshire, to go up to Oxford on a scholarship. Was that the first step on a life of pioneering, plaudits, and super-charged salaries? No! Without this in any way lessening her regard for Somerville, her own road through life, often painful and frustrating, was to be one of being there for other people: highly observant; sometimes sharply questioning; but enabling and encouraging.
In the world of scholarship, for example, leading (from the front) a team working on contract to McMaster University, to provide background research for an edition of the private papers of Bertrand Russell. “[We] had one incomparable advantage over the small army of researchers employed at the Russell Centre in Hamilton, Ontario. We could be in London, Oxford, Cambridge, or wherever was required (including country churchyards to check gravestone inscriptions) at very little notice. For years we worked in libraries, private archives, Somerset House, the Public Record Office, and so on, in pursuit of small items of information, which taken together, explained and expanded Russell’s often very brief references.” – A labour of love, as well as commercially profitable on a modest scale. All the same, it was most gratifying when, on publication of one the early volumes, a reviewer mentioned and praised the quality of the detective work on which the explanatory notes depended. Joan’s most high-profile achievement was a proxime accessit (‘runner-up’) in The Sunday Telegraph ‘mini saga’ competition. Her story, 50-words-plus-title ‘The Wilder shores of love’, was published in a book of the best entries, and broadcast on her beloved Radio 4. She and her dear husband of nigh-on 50 years, Harry, were touched by the number of people who read/heard, appreciated, and wrote to her to say so. Bodley’s Librarian said he wished all authors could be so brief: it would do wonders for his shelving problems. Jennifer Brooker
Isobel Margaret Stewart Morrison (Taylor, 1953) Born in Saltcoats, Ayrshire, Isobel’s father James was then research director at ICI’s Nobel Division in Ardeer, later knighted for his war work. Her mother Margaret, a linguist, was a formidable ‘home front’ homemaker. Alongside older brothers Robert and Stewart, Isobel swam in a seawater pool, and sailed. A shining scholar, she proceeded from local Ardrossan Academy to St Leonard’s in St Andrews and then to Somerville College, Oxford, where she studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics. Later, the London School of Economics awarded her a Master of Science in studies on wage structure. At Somerville, Isobel met Dr Marjorie Harding (Aitken) and Anne Glennerster (Craine) — lifelong friends. With brother Stewart, at Magdalen, Isobel hosted tea parties. But it was through Presbyterian circles, the Iona Society, that she met Angus W. Morrison, a Scot studying Greats at Trinity. The delights of punting and formal balls led to marriage in London in 1958, with Marjorie matron of honour, Anne bridesmaid. Taking a rented flat in Edinburgh, Angus studied divinity and Isobel launched their tradition of hospitality by entertaining friends with Madeira wine and cake. In 1959, their first child arrived and, following Angus’s ordination as a minister of the Church of Scotland, Isobel assumed the myriad responsibilities
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of a ‘manse wife’. These ranged from leading the, then, Woman’s Guild to sharing their home with people needing a haven. The couple raised their family with love, subtlety and... originality. They nurtured everyone, not simply churchgoers, in parishes in Elgin, Moray; Whithorn in Wigtownshire; Cults near Aberdeen, Braid in Edinburgh and Kildalton and Oa on the Hebridean island of Islay. Early on, with three children under five, Isobel created a playgroup and helped organise a national meeting of the Scottish Pre-school Play Association. Having produced her own couturestandard wedding dress, she now sewed and knitted outfits for her family. Later, Isobel became an enrolled nurse on geriatric wards in Aberdeen and Edinburgh. A qualified aquarobics teacher, she brought patients to the club she ran. She completed a course in health economics at Warwick University, remotely. Joining the regulatory body for nurses in the UK, her wisdom and acuteness were greatly valued. Their children grown, Isobel and Angus crossed the Equator, sailed the Panama Canal, visited friends in the United States. On retirement, remaining in Port Ellen, Islay, Isobel volunteered six days a week: as a church elder, with Girl Guides, Credit Union, Homestart, founding a book festival… She pursued a serious interest in climate-friendly alternative technology. For fun, she learned line dancing, and cheered on Andy Murray. Visting Somerville recently with daughter Mary and granddaughter Jasmine, Isobel said: “I am grateful for Somerville making me assess what is needed and realise, that with application, it can, more often than not, be achieved.” At home until her final weeks, Isobel died mid-August 2022. Angus followed soon after. Buried together on Islay, they are survived by daughters Lennox and Mary and son Peter, and younger generations.
Nadja Tollemache (1954) Our mother was born Nadja Benziger in Bournemouth, England on 15 July 1936. She was the first born of Eva Tollemache from England (“Granny England” as we knew her) and Victor Benziger (Grosspapa) from Switzerland. They had met the year before on a ship destined for South Africa on which Granny was a pianist. The family travelled to Luxembourg in 1938 and just made it out on the last train to Switzerland before war started. They stayed in Switzerland for the duration of the war and, out of fear of a possible communist takeover of Europe, moved back to England in 1948. With all that travel the use of language was an essential skill. Mum was exposed to many languages while growing up: English, Swiss German, High German and French with some Italian at home, and Latin at church and school. These language skills equipped Mum to become a great communicator and instilled her love of language. Mum was never without a book and could always tell you the root of a word. Mum’s formal education didn’t begin until she was 8 as it was felt unsafe to allow her to go to school until Rodi her younger
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brother could accompany her. They would walk or ski to school at Illgau, 3 km away in the next valley. The school had only one teacher who split the day teaching older children in the first half of the day and younger children in the afternoon. Mum compensated for her late start by reading voraciously. She was scolded when caught reading Encyclopaedia Brockhaus about Geburt (birth) as an 8 yr old and at another time for reading The Count of Monte Cristo, considered unsuitable material for a young girl. After the family’s return to the UK in 1948, mum’s education continued at convent schools. She was awarded a scholarship to Somerville College Oxford in 1954 where she completed her Master of Arts in law, graduating in 1957, and was admitted to the bar in 1960. After graduation, Mum taught at the University of Chicago for a year (on a Bigelow Fellowship) before completing her pupilage under Sir Edward Gardner. As a young fresh faced woman she would have needed fortitude to face her often older and largely male students. In 1960, on a return home for holidays, Mum met her second cousin Hugh Tollemache. After a whirlwind romance of only 7 meetings they married and headed to New Zealand. Mum’s first employment there was as a librarian in the Auckland law school library. She then applied for a lecturing role at the law school. Her interviewer Professor Jack Northey did not seem perturbed when she mentioned that she was pregnant, although he suggested they get the paperwork underway quickly! In starting this position she became the first female academic at the Auckland Law school. Her growing family was a source of fascination and amusement for her students, for whom a female teacher was a rarity (particularly one who drove a two-seater Morgan sports car while heavily pregnant). Life combining family and and a developing academic career would have frazzled most people, but Mum was also actively involved in our school PTAs, church, establishing a Trust enabling families into their first homes, and local politics. She encouraged us to take up music and ballet lessons, camps, judo, sailing, fencing, equestrian, and athletics. She was adept
at hanging out yet another load of washing while on the way out the door in heels and in the evening ironing mountains of linen on the Elna press.
young art teacher by the name of Alasdair Gray. The two would go on share a life-long caring friendship that would inspire some of Gray’s work.
She was honoured to be asked to serve on various national and international committees including UNESCO, requiring frequent trips to Paris; the World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology; and the National Office of Professional Standards. In 1987, Mum was appointed New Zealand’s first female Ombudsman (her appointment elicited discussion in Hansard about whether the title needed to be changed, but the word’s Swedish origins meant this was considered unnecessary). While Mum found the Official Information Act aspect fascinating and challenging, it was her work with prisoners incarcerated across the country that affected her most.
In 1975, she married her second-husband Phillip Hobsbaum, a poet, Professor at the University of Glasgow, and literary critic. They were married for 30 years until Phillip passed in 2005. As a couple, they had a significant influence on the literary circles of Glasgow, hosting many a soiree where artists and writers could gather.
After one term, Mum was not reappointed, which led to suggestions in parliament that the role had become politicised. Her talents were not left un-utilised for long: she was soon appointed to set up NZ’s first Banking Ombudsman scheme. It was another role which Mum relished as she used her extensive skills and compassion to protect those who needed a champion. After 5 years, Mum returned to Auckland and a more relaxed pace of life including more travel with Dad. Once Mum’s appointments became less onerous she had more time to spend with the family, particularly the next generation. She was profoundly affected by dad’s death in 2020. As she looked back on her life she also recounted many amazing early memories that were new to many of us, treasures that we can all return to. You leave us a high bar to follow; such goodness, ethics and loving strength.
Rosemary Hobsbaum (1955) Raised in Ilfracombe, Rosemary Hobsbaum (nee Phillips) won a scholarship to Oxford, where she studied English at Somerville College. Arriving at University in 1955, Rosemary was a curious, excited, and devoted student. The daughter of a single mother, she was the first in her family to attend University. During her time at Somerville, Rosemary made life-long friends and beautiful core memories.
In her career, she went on to also hold a Guidance role on top of teaching at several different schools. Rosemary is remembered fondly by her students as a caring, attentive, and thoughtful faculty member. She was also a Director on the board of the Citizens Theatre – she was a great advocate for theatre in education. After retirement and the death of Phillip, she moved to Reading to be close to her daughter Mary. She continued to mentor many young people and be an organizer for people in her community. She became a school governor at Reading Girls' School, and she was an active member of the local party, attending meetings, pounding the streets in to her 80s. Her commitment to helping students, to guiding her community, and to learning remained strong until she passed. Rosemary was a truly inspiring woman, ahead of her time, challenging the norms and expectations people held for women. She was witty, well read, curious, and clever — traits she passed down to her daughters and grandchildren. She loved literature and learning. Her interest in such subjects naturally spread to her colleagues, friends, students, and family alike. The woman Rosemary became is partly thanks to her time at Somerville college as it was there where she found her lifelong passion for the study and teaching of English Literature. Rosemary will be loved and missed always. Rosemary is survived by her daughters Jane and Mary, and grandchildren Amy, Jacob, Gregor and Sam. Amy Lloyd, granddaughter
Rosemary’s time at Somerville College shaped her political outlook and provided her with the tools to enter the work force — at a time that was less inviting and respectful towards women. She was a life-long supporter of the Labour Party and a feminist inspiration to her daughters and granddaughters. She heavily credits her experiences — both social and academic— at Somerville for her progressive beliefs. Her passion for English Literature only further flourished while at university. This education would set her up for a successful and meaningful career in Scotland’s newly formed comprehensive school system. Rosemary met her first husband, George Singleton, while at Oxford and would later have two daughters, Jane and Mary. After graduating from Oxford, she moved to Glasgow — George’s native city. At her very first teaching job, she met a
ROSEMARY HOBSBAUM
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Kate Wilson (1966) Kathryn (Kate) Wilson was born in Aldershot in 1948. Her parents, Harry and Eve, had grown up in Belfast, which explains why Kate associated the Belfast accent not with Ian Paisley but with ‘kind uncles who would give me half-a-crown’. Kate’s mother was a teacher and her father was a defence scientist and, after Kate started at Aldershot County High School, the family moved to his Washington Embassy posting in 1962. Kate’s three siblings, including Deirdre (Somerville 1961), were somewhat older and perhaps her feelings of isolation as a child, with a string of imaginary friends and fantasies, laid the foundations for her later writing. After three years at school in the States, Kate was sent back to England to attend the sixth form of Wycombe Abbey. Her school friend Yvonne Whiteman recalls ‘Kate arriving at Wycombe Abbey when I was feeling particularly cheerless and friendless, bringing with her the Beach Boys, The Lord of the Rings, Nietzsche and Lawrence Durrell. Suddenly the world lit up.’ Kate and her friends were ‘like-minded teenage rebels’, attending Beatles and Stones concerts and dancing in cellar jazz clubs when they could escape ‘the 18th - century Gothic walls of our ladylike boarding school’. At Oxford, Kate was still a party lover who always enjoyed ‘dancing my socks off’. She read PPE at Somerville; after graduation, she spent a year studying philosophy at MIT. She married Martin Cave in 1972; in 1974 they moved to Uxbridge – Martin had an economics lectureship at Brunel University – and brought up their children Eleanor, Joe and Alice, there, with spells in the USA and Australia. Kate somehow found time to become an ace tennis player as well as being a super-dedicated and loving mother. Although she followed Martin’s career, in terms of location, Kate had highly portable interests and talents – editing and, most notably, writing fiction. From 1984 onwards, she published many inspirational books for children. In 1994 Something Else, illustrated by Chris Riddell, was awarded the first UNESCO Prize for Children’s Literature. Still in print, in
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many languages, it has sold well over a quarter of a million copies. Maurice Lyon, her editor at Penguin Books, writes ‘she was a very special writer with an acute eye for the way children see the world. It was a great joy and privilege to work with her on Something Else. It’s the book I am most proud to have been associated with. Her books have that wonderful quality of being able to make you laugh out loud at the same time as being profoundly moving. Kate leaves a wonderful legacy of writing and is a real loss to children’s literature’. While pursuing her writing career, Kate was also an editor at Frances Lincoln – Frances (1964) was a close Somerville friend. Her most arduous achievement was editing a new edition of Wainwright’s Walks – all seven volumes – and undertaking many of the Lake District walks herself to get a closer insight. Kate loved walking, with family, friends, or alone: she regularly walked on nearby Primrose Hill and Hampstead Heath, even during her illness. The moral of Something Else, that we should embrace difference, was central to Kate’s personal philosophy. Her compassion and hatred of injustice, cruelty and intolerance were expressed in her volunteer work for the Samaritans and for refugee charities. Kate had exceptional inner resources and determination, qualities much needed when she was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2014. She resolutely chose a rigorous diet and alternative therapies then, later, innovative NHS treatments at the Royal Free Hospital. Thankfully, and remarkably, she was able to enjoy seven more years with family, friends and her beloved grandchildren. She died peacefully at home with her family on 3 December 2021. Even during the worst times, Kate radiated the same, spiritual, sense of inner peace and tranquillity. But she was never solemn and she had a wickedly subversive wit. As a friend, she was the perfect companion for walks, outings to galleries and theatres and - just fun. Barbara Goodwin (1966)
Rosemary Swatman (Cox, 1967) Rosemary had an unconventional and challenging background. Her mother was Italian and was swept off to London from a very poor background in Turin, by her father who had fought his way up from the toe of Italy. Her mother spoke no English for three years. Later her father returned to Africa for several years - mostly on his own. Rosemary ended up at a grammar school in north London. She was the first pupil ever to get to Oxford from that school, coming to Somerville to read history. Academia, and striving for the best, was central to her character. Her brother Robert recounts coming home after nights on the tiles to find Rosemary still at her books - impervious and oblivious to time (she was often oblivious to time!). Rosemary was one of the first people I spoke to on arriving at Somerville, and we quickly became close friends, chatting over cups of instant coffee late into the evening. I joined the University Yacht Club and persuaded Rosemary to do so too; when the opportunity came to join an Easter sailing trip on the Norfolk Broads, and we needed a fourth person for our boat, I asked Rosemary if she would like to come. Her husband Philip recalls “falling in love at first sight, each on the decks of our respective yachts on a freezing March day”. Sailing was a passion for both of them for the rest of her life, although Philip reports that ‘Rosemary spent the next fifty years trying to tie a bowline’. Rosemary and Philip lived in south London in various houses for most of their married lives, moving down to the south coast just a few years ago. While I and my future husband lived in London in the first two years after graduating, we saw them fairly often, but much less frequently once we moved to the Midlands – just for rare weekend and two memorable holidays – one in Tuscany and the other sailing in a regatta in Antigua. I am therefore indebted to Philip and her daughters for much of this obituary. Rosemary stayed in Oxford after graduation to do a course in social work, while Philip completed his degree. She then worked for the Children’s Society on adoption placements. Once the children were born, she stopped work. They had three children, Harriet, Richard and Rowena. Philip had a successful career initially as an economist and later as a merchant banker. His work was very demanding, and he needed her support to run the home and help entertain clients, which involved many trips to the theatre and opera; Rosemary seemed willing to accept this role. Two spells overseas early on in their married life, in Kenya and Malaysia, gave them opportunity to enjoy a wonderful time in both places. Somehow this marriage of opposites worked. Rosemary was very much given to an inner life of the mind. Philip recalls “one day when I was bent on some simple hedonism and asked her what she was thinking about. “…Oh, truth and beauty,” she replied.” Rosemary was a modest, studious and quiet person when not entertaining her guests. Reading books and keeping up with current affairs were very important for her. She thought a person had a duty to take an interest in the world beyond oneself, and for her, current affairs, politics and art, were much more interesting than dwelling on personal or people-problems.
ROSEMARY SWATMAN
She enjoyed her children, their partners, grandchildren, friends, art and travel, and for many years she sang in the Barnes Choir. Her daughter Harriet writes: “As a mother, she was exactly as she was with plants - a constant, nurturing and peaceful presence, letting us all develop in our own ways, applying no pressure or judgement. While she was a willing listener when we wanted to offload our problems, she had confidence in us to work them out on our own. She was someone whose comfort we could rely on.” Rosemary was endowed with great empathy and generosity of spirit and could get on with anyone. One of her greatest pleasures was in conversing with her many female friends. She was great company whether at dinner, on holidays, or accompanying Philip on the annual fishing and shooting parties. Despite their obvious wealth she had no airs or graces. I remember being surprised on lunching in their mansion on the edge of Kingston that we ate off plastic plates! Rosemary was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease around 2016. I saw her soon after and thought she looked unwell, but she assured me that her consultant had said she should enjoy a further ten good years. Sadly, various falls led to rapid deterioration in her physical and then her mental condition, and it was hard to observe the change in her during her last few months. Despite the huge difficulties which her illness imposed on her last years she considered that she had had a wonderful life. She leaves a tremendous legacy of happy children and husband and many very great friendships. No one could want more except perhaps living a little longer. Rachel Berger, with help from Philip and Harriet Swatman
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Penelope Mackie (1971) Penelope Mackie, who took a B.A., B.Phil and D.Phil at Somerville, was a highly regarded teacher of philosophy at universities in the US and the UK. She was admired for her philosophical acumen by her pupils and her philosophical colleagues, and loved by all who got to know her for her quietly mischievous sense of fun and her staunch integrity. At the time of her death from cancer, on her sixty-ninth birthday, she was a member of the philosophy department at Nottingham, where she had served as Head of Department and where she published her best known work How Things Might Have Been (2006). Born in Australia to academic parents who moved to the UK, she came to Somerville in 1971 from Oxford High School GDST. After Classics Mods, where she had already shown huge promise in her philosophy options, she changed to PPE (Economics and Philosophy), rising to the challenge of taking finals Economic papers without the foundation of prelims. It was in Philosophy that she really shone; the legendary tutor Mike Inwood of Trinity wrote a four word report: ‘Miss Mackie is superb’. Initially known as Penny to her fellow undergraduates and graduates—she was MCR President for a spell when pursuing graduate work in philosophy—she announced during her doctoral studies that henceforth she was to be called Penelope, perhaps to acquire some gravitas that she felt her short stature denied her. While she was studying in Oxford for the D.Phil, her father, the philosopher J.L.Mackie, died in post, and Penelope shared with her mother the task of bringing out two volumes of his collected papers. From 1986-1990 she taught in the US, and while at Virginia Commonwealth University she met her husband-to-be, Bob Frazier, also a philosopher. The couple moved to the UK, and Penelope had teaching posts first at New College (Oxford), then Birmingham and finally Nottingham. They lived latterly in Oxford, where Bob had a teaching position, and where they took an active and welcome part in philosophy gatherings with friends. It was in such informal gatherings that I saw a lot of Penelope in recent years, and I always welcomed her gentle but incisive contributions to academic discussions, and her wit and bonhomie at our occasional meals together. In 2020 within weeks of each other both Penelope and Bob were diagnosed with the cancer from which both would die two years later. Tragically, Bob was too ill to be at the funeral of his beloved Penelope, and his death followed within two months. In philosophy, Penelope had wide-ranging knowledge and expertise, including ancient Greek philosophy and early modern Western philosophy especially Berkeley and Hume; she was at the cutting edge of research and writing on topics in contemporary metaphysics such as identity and necessity. For recreation she wrote comic poems, sometimes with a philosophical slant. A frequent winner or runner-up in The Spectator’s verse competitions, she even had a piece of comic verse entitled A Modern Metaphysical Song published in the centenary edition of Mind, a top philosophical journal. Penelope, who is survived by siblings, is tremendously missed by her friends who appreciated her warmth and fun, and by
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PENELOPE MACKIE
colleagues who appreciated her wisdom, her penetrating intellect and her outstanding collegiality. Lesley Brown, Emeritus Fellow in Philosophy, Penelope’s tutor and then friend for over forty years Penelope’s prize winning verse, 'Selfie' Edmund C. Bentley Should have been informed, gently, That of his own verses in the genre, very few Are good examples of the clerihew.
Ellen Rice (1975) Ellen was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on November19th, 1951. Her father Phil was a schoolteacher and basketball coach; her mother, Anita, worked as an administrator for a range of organisations. Between 1965 and 1969, she attended the Ellis School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and there began her lifetime fascination with the ancient world of Greece and Rome. between 1969 and 1973 she attended Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachussets, gaining a B.A. Summa Cum Laude in Classics, with a major in Latin and Greek (the compulsory science course was in geology). A visit to Cambridge after graduation led to a successful application to Newnham College, to which she was admitted in 1973, gaining B. A. in Classics in 1975. One of her tutors was the redoubtable Joyce Reynolds, and Saturday morning classes with her on epigraphy led to a long relationship with Greek inscriptions. In 1975 she began doctoral research in Somerville College, Oxford, the fourth female-only institution at which she studied. Her thesis topic was the analysis of a fragmentary text of a larger work about ancient Alexandria by
the Hellenistic author Kallixeinos of Rhodes. It described a vast and spectacular procession staged by Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt from 284 to 246 BC. Ellen’s conclusions were published in 1983 by Oxford University Press under the title ‘The Grand Procession of Ptolemy Phiadelphus’. The last part of her thesis was completed after her election, in 1978, to a Junior Research Fellowship at Wolfson College, Oxford, an institution that she would serve in diverse roles until retirement in 2020 and after. It was on her first evening in Wolfson that she met her partner and husband of the following 45 years, Jim Kennedy, a geologist.
In the late 1990’s, Ellen was approached by Sutton Publishing to contribute biographies of Alexander the Great and Cleopatra to their Sutton Pocket Biographies series. Alexander was first published in 1997, with a second edition in 2004; there was a Greek version, one with a cover at least in Chinese, and a version published in Portuguese in Rio de Janeiro in 2005; in all there were 7 editions. Cleopatra was published in 1999. Otherwise, there were biographies in Who was Who in the Greek World, publications on ancient Rhodes (notably the grottos), texts of Rhodian family monuments, and innumerable reviews.
Returning to the thesis, elements present in Kallixeinos’ text included many curiosities that were discussed and explained, including a cast of thousands: maenads, satyrs, and the rest; tableaux, automata, a giant phallus etc. The birds and animals fascinated Ellen: asses, bears, camels, cattle, dogs, elephants, giraffes, goats, horses, lynxes, onagers, oryx, peacocks, Saiga antelope, sheep, and a single rhinoceros. The elephants, too, intrigued her: surely not elderly survivors of Alexander the Great’s army (he died in 323 B.C.), but if not from here, then from where did they emanate? A possible solution lay in descriptions of what might have been elephant training facilities in northern Sudan. Such is the folly of youth that we took off in the spring of 1979 to Khartoum, and, with Sudanese colleagues, visited sites by the Nile in the ancient Kingdom of Meroe, specifically the site of Mussawarat es Sofra, with a great enclosure and carvings of elephants, originally thought to be a training area for the beasts, but now, alas, interpreted as a walled garden.
To return to Wolfson, Ellen was successively a Junior Research Fellow and then Senior Research Fellow, and was elected to the Governing Body in 1988, where she served until 2020: 32 years in all. Of these six were devoted to the College Development Campaign, with ten as Domestic Bursar, presiding over the running of everything from the gardening staff, day nursey, and catering, to accommodation. As successive Bursars and Presidents learnt, she was a woman of firm principle. There were other contributions, as student advisor, as a member of every committee from Academic Policy to Wine, and organiser of lecture series and editing the results: Revolution and Counter-Revolution (1991) and The Sea and History (1995). Her last contribution, extending into retirement was as Fellow Archivist.
This trip, our first (and nearly last) was followed, during most Easter vacations, with trips related to Ellen’s research interests, across mainland Greece, Turkey from the Aegean Shore to the Syrian border, but notably to ancient Rhodes.
College responsibilities did not preclude contributions to University life, tutoring, lecturing (the Alexander the Great option), acting as assessor and examiner in Ancient and Modern History, serving as Senior Pro Proctor, and, unlikely as it may seem, as a member of the University Delegacy of Military Instruction. A full and busy life, cut short. Jim Kennedy
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Jill Caroline Longmate (1978) Born in 1959, Jill grew up near Richmond Park, and had a lifelong love of walking, deciding never to drive a car. The only child, of two published historians, Elizabeth Longmate (Taylor, 1947), and Norman Longmate (Worcester, 1947), she relished the sound of the typewriter resounding through the family home, the company of books and, as a teenager, exchange visits to France. Inspired by her parents’ encouragement, and well taught at the state schools she insisted on attending, she followed her mother to Somerville, where she read Modern History, and became particularly enthused by the French Revolution, and by Political Thought. Oxford allowed Jill to discover an interest in politics, through attending debates at the Union, and hearing about feminism, anarchism and Spare Rib magazine, from a fellow Somervillian, who had switched from History to PPE. Jill failed to convince Dr Jennifer Loach when she argued the case, at High Table, for women’s history to be added to what she felt to be a rather dated syllabus (although the same tutor once praised her for having ‘plenty of original ideas’ and ‘being provocative in tutorials’). Similarly, though Agatha Ramm described Jill as ‘a bold thinker’, when she asked Dr Ramm to teach her European history beyond 1914, she was turned down, with the argument that this would merely constitute journalism. Her one actual foray into student journalism left Jill disillusioned, when her serious article about the prevalence of homeless people on the streets of Oxford in Cherwell was given a sensationalist twist without consulting her, or those at Simon House, who had given her interviews on the promise that the subject would be treated sensitively. Equally comfortable with solitude, or socialising with a small group of close friends, Jill enjoyed hosting port and poetry evenings in her room, and cycling round the countryside with the Lucky Jim Society in search of historic churches and country pubs. She was props manager for After Magritte, played a Major-General’s daughter in The Pirates of Penzance at the Oxford Playhouse, and sang in oratorios with the Kodaly choir, and with the Opera Club in Spohr’s Jessonda. Determined to prove herself capable of punting a mixed group during the weekend break from Finals, all was going smoothly, until she did a graceful, unintentional, cartwheel into Parson’s Pleasure, to the merriment of all, including the man who then took over the pole. Always aware of her possible bisexuality, Jill felt unable to disclose, or to act upon it, even when an invitation to a women’s disco arrived in every Somervillian’s pigeon hole. She was unsure whether free counselling, which was available to students, would really be kept confidential; and felt she should give men a chance, going out with a theatre director, then an artist, and finally a rock musician lawyer, but found her feelings for women persisting inconveniently into her PGCE year at Bristol University. When she moved to Brighton, to take up her first teaching job at Portslade Community College, she and her landlady fell in love, so she finally took the plunge into the lesbian scene. Despite her sexuality forcing her to lead a double life (in an era when she could have been sacked for having a female partner) Jill’s teaching career flourished, with a move to
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Haywards Heath Sixth Form College. There, she loved teaching A level Politics, as she wrote in an article for the Mid-Sussex Times in 1987; and post-war British history, including a module on women’s history, to Access students, and became Head of Politics, and Equal Opportunities Co-ordinator. She also wrote tri-annual essays on politics and gender, for Causeway Press, and a book Women and Politics: Progress without Power? for the Politics Association, in 1996, who had given her their first ever NEC post ‘with responsibility for women’s role’. On a women’s walk, she was recruited to join Brighton Ourstory Project, a lesbian and gay oral history group, and became one of the editors of their book Daring Hearts: lesbian and gay lives in 50s and 60s Brighton (QueenSpark, 1992). Inspired by an Arvon course exercise, to write a love-poem between women, ‘At the Opera’, she adopted the pen-name Jill Gardiner, and felt rewarded when it won a £250 prize. Having a pseudonym enabled her to be herself, encouraged by the inclusive poetry scene, where she became Chair of Brighton Poets in 1994. Jill always wanted primarily to be a writer. Using verse from an early age to express her undeclared love for women, she aspired to write novels in her teens and twenties, but found it too hard to produce one that satisfied her, within the time constraints of fitting fiction into school holidays. She realised, reluctantly, that her talent was mainly for nonfiction, and embarked on a social history of lesbians, based around women’s memories of the longest lasting lesbian club in the world. From the Closet to the Screen: Women at the Gateways Club 1945-85, based on 80 interviews, and research in libraries and archives, was published by Pandora Press in 2003. It was her passion for finishing this book that persuaded Jill to reduce her hours in teaching, then to resign, becoming the College Librarian instead. After completing an MA in Library and Information Studies at University College London in 2006, she moved to Brighton and Hove Sixth Form College in 2007. In 2019, her collection With Some Wild Woman: Poems 1989-2019 was published by Tollington Press. At the time of her death she was working on a biography of the author Maureen Duffy, a project chosen partly to fit round frequent visits to her father, after ill health confined him to home with live-in carers. In later life, Jill also enjoyed time with her partner, and with friends, continuing to travel throughout Europe, and returning to social events at Somerville. She died in Brighton on 29th March 2023.
Dr Anne Ndungu (2012) Science was Anne’s passion, and she was brilliant in her work. She graduated in 2010 with a first-class Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from Kenyatta University in Kenya. During her first degree, she won a Japanese studentship for one year study at Nagasaki University in Japan, where she studied antibody response to a malaria-causing parasite, Plasmodium Berghei. After her first degree, Anne worked as a research assistant at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kenya, investigating the effects of acute childhood malnutrition on the immune system. This is when she was first introduced to the University of Oxford as partner in that Programme.
Anne then won a highly prestigious MRC studentship to study for a DPhil in Oxford between 2012 and 2015. Based at the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, and supervised by Professor Adrian Hill, Dr Stephen Chapman and Dr Kate Elliott, Anne investigated the role of rare genetic mutations underlying susceptibility to invasive bacterial infections in individuals presenting to intensive care in the UK. She presented her work at several international conferences and authored several papers from her work.
Anne also took on genomic work on endometriosis, another very common and poorly understood women’s health condition that causes pain and infertility in 100s of millions of women worldwide. She analysed data from The UK biobank to uncover rare genetic variants associated with endometriosis, and she worked closely with Dr Nilufer Rahmioglu analysing gene expression data for the lining of the uterus, the endometrium, and relating this to genetic risk and disease mechanisms of endometriosis.
After her DPhil, Anne continued at the Wellcome Centre to do postdoctoral research with Professor Mark McCarthy. In her work, she used complex analysis techniques to integrate largescale molecular data - DNA sequencing, gene expression, and metabolite data - to uncover mechanisms underlying type 2 diabetes. She authored a number of high impact papers in this area, including in 2020 a first author paper in the prestigious American Journal of Human Genetics.
Anne was co-author on a paper that will come out shortly in Nature Genetics, and together with Nilufer she was preparing a first-author paper on her gene expression work. Nilufer and I are committed to get this work published, in Anne’s honour. Last but not least, Anne also had her ongoing work accepted as an oral presentation at the World Congress of Endometriosis in Edinburgh, this coming May, and together we were planning our travel there.
Then, in March 2020, we were fortunate to have Anne join our Oxford Endometriosis Care Centre. She led genomic analyses in our scientific collaboration with Bayer to try and find novel treatment targets for common women’s health conditions, in particular uterine fibroids. Uterine fibroids are common benign growths in and on the uterus that can cause excessive bleeding and discomfort, and are associated with pregnancy complications and miscarriage. Uterine fibroids are much more common and more severe among black women, which may have a genetic basis, and this was one of the reasons, Anne told me, that she was very keen to research this area.
Anne was simply loved by everyone around her. She was extremely kind, always ready to help others, and keen to join in when there was fun to be had. One of the last few events we had together was a skating trip to Oxford’s ice rink with the group last December. Anne told me beforehand: “Krina, I will come but I do NOT and will NOT skate!” And true to her word, she laughed - a lot - from the sideline along with the other non-ice lovers. We also had fun at our Christmas dinner last December, the first one we could hold as a Department since the pandemic. We giggled at Christmas Pudding, a concept that neither of us had got our taste buds accustomed to since moving to the UK, and we pulled funny faces in the photo booth.
Anne’s arrival in our group in March 2020 exactly coincided with the arrival of COVID-19. And we all remember very well the impact that followed. However, Anne took all this in her stride, working on her analyses remotely and interacting with the research teams in both Oxford and Berlin. Despite not being able to meet in person as often as in normal times, Anne quickly became a treasured member of the team, known for her expertise and dedication.
I shall treasure these memories of Anne, always, and am very grateful for the time we spent together. Rest in peace, dear Anne, we will miss you very much. Krina Zondervan
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Academic Report 2022-23 Examination Results UNDERGRADUATE RESULTS
Experimental Psychology Class I Class II.I
Ancient and Modern History Class I
Max Buckby
Class II.I
Lowri Woollard
Class III
Sam McLoughlin
Biology (MBiol) Class I Class I
Emily Haasz Charlotte Yates
Class II.I
Weiyu Kan
Classical Archaeology and Ancient History Class I
Matilda Trueblood
Class II.I
Archie O’Neil
Classics and Modern Languages Class II.I
Hamish Smith
Classics and Oriental Studies Class II.I
Sophia Mazjub
Computer Science (BA) Class II.I
Alfie Brazier Becky Hore
Class II.II
Finian Bassford
Ella Johnson Lily Sheldon Jemima Storey
Class II.I
Alec Joad Jack Kerslake Ella Myers Sam Thomas
***
Sonny Pickering
History and Economics Class I
Michelle Chan
Class II.I
Alexander McFadzean
History and English Class II.I
Saeed Haris
Class II.I
Miles Keat Anahy Mercardo Zambrana
Class II.II
Sam Morley
English Language and Literature Class I
Caitlin Kelly
Class II.I
Mark D’Arcy Isabella Fergusson Agnes Halladay
European and Middle Eastern Languages Class I
Lucas Jones
Kate Dorkins
Jurisprudence Class I
Kirsty Chan
Class II.I
Tia Dabare Finley Davis Benjamin Freeborn Hana Khan Darren Leow Yee Kiat Jamie Phillips Alex Strapps
Distinction Alex Pay Kai Pischke Class I
Christina Boving Foster
History and Modern Languages Class I
Literae Humaniores Class I
Giuseppe Maurino
Class II.II
Giulia Mereghetti Eileen Zoratti
Distinction Phoebe Daly-Jones Reuben Frost Charlie Kidd Kitty Towler Merit
***
James Atkinson Amy Moynihan
Class II.I
Caitlin Gardner Alisha Kenward Sarafina Otis Ellie Walker
Medicine – Graduate Entry Pass
Class I
Sofia Justham Bello Oliver Greaves
Class II.I
Abi Charlton Lauren Keane
***
Isobel McDonach
Molecular and Cellular Biology (MBioChem) Class I
Benedek Pap
Mathematics and Computer Science (MMathCompSci)
Amy Roberts
Music Class II.I
Bobby Clark Jake Timmins Mar Umbert Kimura
Philosophy, Politics and Economics Class II.I
Natasha Arbon-Stuckle Maria Rotaru Sam Williamson
***
Ruby Cooper Helena Holter Calvin Lee Isabella Mencattelli Leah O’Grady Juin Khai Ong Jamie Walker
Ylas Sadki
Distinction Alex Grey
Sara Hosseinzadeh William Thornton Huiyuan Xiao
Modern Languages
Mathematics (MMath) Pass
Andra Mircea Miles Soloman
Class I
Mathematical &Theoretical Physics (MMathPhys)
Distinction River Newbury
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Mathematics and Statistics (MMath)
Medicine - Preclinical
Class I
Computer Science (MCompSci)
Engineering Science (MEng)
Molly Cohen Parker Joly Joshua Polychronopulos Johnson Shi Thomas Stone
History
Jamie Walker
Chemistry (MChem)
Hannah Andrews Ingrid Yu
Physics Class II.I
Hazel Wilks
Physics (MPhys) Class I
Class II.I
Calum Holker John Pearce Jacob Zohar Corinne Barker Joseph Spruce
Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics (PPL) Class I
Johannes Keil
*** Declared to have deserved Honours
Students who have been awarded DDH have enough marks to have passed but are awaiting the final grade from the examiners. All students are offered the choice, at the start of their course, of opting out of any public list that the University or College may produce. In 2023 there was a results embargo and so at the time of compiling this list we are still waiting for several exam results and grades to be confirmed. The following results have been achieved and are presented without reference to subject or name: Class I = 8, Class II.I = 12, Class II.II = 5, DDH = 1
POSTGRADUATE RESULTS Bachelor of Civil Law
MSc Sleep Science Pass
Tapomay Bannerjee
MSc Statistical Science Merit
Nicola Jennings
Distinction
Alistair Ahamed Sophie Hill
Merit
Ishani Mookherjee Meghmala Mukherjee
Pass
John Choi
MSt English (1550 – 1700)
****
Payal Agarwal Saurabh Gupta Saras Sawhney
Distinction
Medicine – Clinical Distinction
Joseph Salf Charlie Sneddon
MPhil Development Studies Distinction
Nina Archarya
****
Nikhil Gowd
MPhil Greek and/or Roman History Distinction
Joel Pollatschek
MPhil History - Medieval History Distinction
Allie Trice
MPhil History – Modern British History, 1850 - Present Pass
Beto Wetter
MSt Ancient Philosophy Pass
Benedict Hamlyn
MPhil Music (Musicology) Pass
Trina Bannerjee
MSc African Studies Merit
Ebenezer Agetiba
MSc Biodiversity, Conservation and Management Pass
Holly Kembrey
MSc Economics for Development Distinction
Arth Mishra
Pass
Ritheka Sundar
MSc Financial Economics Pass
Charlotte Zhao
MSc Mathematical and Computational Finance Merit
Chuxuan Yang
Pass
Elsa Guan Xueya Luo
MSc Refugee and Forced Migration Studies Merit
Nicole Fan
MSt Global and Imperial History Distinction
Devanshika Bajpai
MSt History – Medieval History Pass
Erin O’Neill
****
Selina Schoelles
MSt History - US History ****
Reuben Cook
MSt History of Art and Visual Culture Pass
Shayan Sheikh
MSt Late Antique and Byzantine Studies Distinction
Ash Brahim
MSt Linguistics and Phonetics Merit
Leticia Cortellete Melo Nicholas Hayes
Pass
Barbara Hlachova
MPhil International Relations Merit
Alice Mo
MSt Medieval Studies Merit
Kelli Anderson
MSt Modern Languages Distinction
Matthias Franz (German) Sam Pearson (French
MSt Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies ****
Klarke Stricklen
****Declared to have deserved Masters Students who have been awarded DDM have enough marks to have passed but are awaiting the final grade from the examiners. All students are offered the choice, at the start of their course, of opting out of any public list that the University or College may produce. In 2023 there was a results embargo and so at the time of compiling this list we are still waiting for several exam results and grades to be confirmed. The following results have been achieved and are presented without reference to subject or name: Merit = 1, Pass = 2
Mohammed Haji Meagan Toumayan
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Scholarships and Exhibitions awarded to students for work of especial merit David Scourse Medical Scholarship Amy Moynihan (Medicine - Preclinical), Sarafina Otis (Medicine - Preclinical)
Florence Hughes Scholarship David Schramm (Medicine - Graduate Entry)
Herbert Bull and Ethel Mary Bull Scholarship Mei Whattam (Classical Archaeology and Ancient History), George Seager (Literae Humaniores)
Jean Ginsburg Medical Scholarship Ellie Walker (Medicine - Preclinical)
June Barraclough Scholarship Eleanor Harvey (English Language and Literature), Daisy Hawkins (English Language and Literature)
Maria and Tina Bentivoglio Scholarship Holly Cobain (Modern Languages), Anna Hull (Modern Languages), Tarka Abraham (Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry), Amy Roberts (Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry), Angie Wyatt (Music, Zoe Campbell (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), Ruby Cooper (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), Cameron Hodgkinson (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), Helena Holter (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), Isabella Mencattelli (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), Maria Rotaru (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), Isaac Tay (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), Vivek Thakrar (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), Haibei Li (Physics), John Pearce (Physics), Emma Stratford (Physics), Kaiyun Sun (Physics), Yuancheng Xu (Physics), Johannes Keil (Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics), Emily Shurmer (Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics)
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Maria and Tina Bentivoglio Exhibition Isabella Hind (Modern Languages), Lizzy Abel (Modern Languages and Linguistics), Calum Holker (Physics), Jacob Zohar (Physics)
(History), James Heesom (History), Ella Myers (History), Emma Schütze (History), Decarno Wallace (History), Charlotte Arben (Mathematics), Luke Baynham (Mathematics), Mackensie Kim (Mathematics), James Atkinson (Medicine - Preclinical), Alisha Kenward (Medicine - Preclinical)
Undergraduate Scholarship Mirren Black (Biology), Eloise Hedgecott (Biology), Alice Penrose (Biology), Philippa Rolfe (Biology), Evan Slater (Biology), Jamie Walker (Biology), Tom Drayton (Chemistry), Louis Govani (Chemistry), Emily Haasz (Chemistry), Chengxuan Liang (Chemistry), Amaar Sardharwalla (Chemistry), Harry Sherratt (Chemistry), Hengyi Zhang (Chemistry), Alex Pay (Computer Science), Kai Pischke (Computer Science), Sam Broadhurst (Engineering Science), Miles Keat (Engineering Science), Haris Saeed (Engineering Science), Alistair WhiteHorne (Engineering Science), George Whittle (Engineering Science), Laurie Yin (Engineering Science), Christina He (Engineering Science), Ingrid Yu (Engineering Science), Katie Birch (History), Ella Johnson (History), Matyas Knol (History), Sonny Pickering (History), Anna Roizes (History), Jemima Storey (History), Sam Thomas (History), Michelle Chan (History and Economics), Alexander McFadzean (History and Economics), Naomi Hyde (Jurisprudence), Ylias Sadki (Mathematical and Theoretical Physics), Jason Bell (Mathematics), Adam Broomhead (Mathematics), Alex Grey (Mathematics), Reuben Hillyard (Mathematics), Dominic Miller (Mathematics), John Wortley (Mathematics), Richard Zhang (Mathematics), Wuyang Chen (Mathematics and Computer Science), Miranda Conn (Mathematics and Computer Science), River Newbury (Mathematics and Computer Science), Dimitar Oparlakov (Mathematics and Computer Science)e, Jessica Richards (Mathematics and Computer Science), Reuben Frost (Mathematics and Statistics), Charlie Kidd (Mathematics and Statistics)
Undergraduate Exhibition Katie Driver (Biology), Amy Lovewell (Biology), Emma Thornton (Biology), Rosie Thorogood (Chemistry), Mason Wakley (Chemistry), Aneira Farrelly
Exam Prizes to Undergraduates and Graduates This list is accurate at the time of print and some awards may be made after this date. Awards with an * were not listed in the 2021-22 report, and are therefore included here.
Alyson Bailes Prize Anna Roizes (History)
Archibald Jackson Prize Huihan Yao (Advanced Computer Science)*, Alastair Ahamed (Civil Law), Sophie Hill (Civil Law), Meesha Williams (Creative Writing)*, Nina Acharya (Development Studies)*, Sarah Pacey-Parker (Diplomatic Studies)*, Arth Mishra (Economics for Development), Nicole Fan (English), Brendon Tankwa (Environmental Change and Management)*, Devanshika Bajpai (Global and Imperial History), Joel Pollatschek (Greek and/or Roman History)*, Allie Trice (History), Eleanor Sherlock (Integrated Immunology)*, Ash Brahim (Late Antique and Byzantine Studies), Joseph Salf (Medicine Clinical), Charlie Sneddon (Medicine - Clinical), Matthias Franz (Modern Languages), Sam Pearson (Modern Languages), Sumedha Chakravarthy (Modern South Asian Studies)*, Setare Torkieh (Pharmacology)*, Roshan Melwani (Public Policy)*, Neele Haxel (Radiation Biology)*, Rachana Bodani (Sleep Medicine)*, Brent Elliott (Sleep Medicine)*, Solveig Magnusdottir (Sleep Medicine)*, Stephanie Armbruster (Statistical Science)*, Diego Martinez Taboada (Statistical Science)*, Joe Richardson (Statistical Science)*
Cerrie Hughes Prize Eleanor Harvey English Language and Literature
College Prize
Mary Somerville Prize
Henry Morris (Ancient and Modern History), Hanpeng Cai (Chemistry), Jude Collings (Chemistry), Tasfia Karim, (Chemistry), Charlotte Lim (Chemistry), Yusuf Usumez (Computer Science), Sam Broadhurst (Engineering Science), William Carr (Engineering Science), Alistair White-Horne (Engineering Science), George Whittle (Engineering Science), Sheikh Mohiddin (Experimental Psychology), Hannah Clarke (History), Zoe North (History), Flora Prideaux (History), Ashlyn Cheong Cheong (Jurisprudence), Ming Song Oh (Jurisprudence), Anya Biletsky (Literae Humaniores), Jason Bell (Mathematics), Ben Chung (Mathematics), Jack Garland (Mathematics), Dominic Miller (Mathematics), Anaya Shah (Mathematics), Yang Gao (Mathematics and Computer Science), Dimitar Oparlakov (Mathematics and Computer Science), Jessica Richards (Mathematics and Computer Science), Jem Jiang (Medicine - Preclinical), Lily Wei (Medicine - Preclinical), Leena Kharabanda (Modern Languages), Oliver Sandall (Modern Languages), Jess Scott (Modern Languages), Leo Woodward (Modern Languages and Linguistics), Dan Kimberley (Music), Erin Townsend (Music), Kaiyun Sun (Physics)
Max Buckby (Ancient and Modern History), Eloise Hedgecott (Biology), Alice Penrose (Biology), Jamie Walker (Biology), Emily Haasz (Chemistry), Charlotte Yates (Chemistry), Matilda Trueblood (Classical Archaeology and Ancient History), Alex Pay (Computer Science), Kai Pischke (Computer Science), James Leader (Engineering Science)*, Haris Saeed Engineering Science, Jiale Wang (Engineering Science)*, Caitlin Kelly (English Language and Literature), Lucas Jones (European and Middle Eastern Languages), Hannah Andrews (Experimental Psychology), Ingrid Yu (Experimental Psychology), Ella Johnson (History), Matyas Knol (History), Daisy Murphy (History), Emma Schütze (History), Lily Sheldon (History), Jemima Storey (History), Michelle Chan (History and Economics), Kate Dorkins (History and Modern Languages), Kristy Chan (Jurisprudence), Giuseppe Maurino (Literae Humaniores), Adam Broomhead (Mathematics), Alex Grey (Mathematics), River Newbury (Mathematics and Computer Science), Phoebe Daly-Jones (Mathematics and Statistics), Reuben Frost (Mathematics and Statistics), Charlie Kidd (Mathematics and Statistics), Kitty Towler (Mathematics and Statistics), James Atkinson (Medicine - Preclinical), Amy Moynihan (Medicine - Preclinical), Oliver Greaves (Modern Languages), Sofia Justham Bello (Modern Languages), Rosanna Suvini (Modern
Languages), Dulcie Havers (Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry), Amy Roberts (Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry), Emer Shell (Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry), Calum Holker (Physics), John Pearce (Physics), Jacob Zohar (Physics), Johannes Keil (Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics), Sarah Kwok (Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics)
Principal's Prize Althea Rosa Ludovica Sovani (Classics and Oriental Studies)*, Alex Pay (Computer Science)*, Kai Pischke (Computer Science)*, Haris Saeed (Engineering Science)*, Lucy Thynne (English Language and Literature)*, Devanshika Bajpai (History)*, Magdalena Kosciolek (History)*, Richard Wagenländer (Jurisprudence)*, Ylias Sadki (Mathematical and Theoretical Physics)*, Alex Grey (Mathematics)*, Charlie Kidd (Mathematics and Statistics)*, Abigail Punt (Medicine Preclinical)*, Asher Sandbach (Modern Languages and Linguistics)*, Merlyn Latimer Smith (Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry)*, Chloe Green (Music)*, Susannah Ames (Philosophy, Politics and Economics)*, Chuqiao Lin (Physics)*, Kieran Moore (Physics)*, Migara Kumarasinghe (Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics)*
Sarah Smithson Prize Abi Charlton (Modern Languages and Linguistics)
PHOTO: JACK EVANS
Alumni Awards Alice Horsman Scholarship Tess Little 2010, Martha MacLaren 2014, Lucy Thynne 2019
Awards for Travel, Projects and Internments
Anne Clements Travel Grant Martin Fernandez Pascual (Chemistry), Valeria Atik (European and Middle Eastern Languages), Diya Badami (History), Ajakaiye (History and Modern Languages), Sara Hosseinzadeh (Medicine - Graduate Entry), William Thornton (Medicine - Graduate Entry), Tarka Abraham (Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry)
Alcuin Award
Carmen Blacker Travel Grant
Paddy Ryce (History), Audrey Raynes (Literae Humaniores), Minshu Gupta (Medicine - Preclinical)
Rosie Maxton (History), Misbah Reshi (Law), Anya Biletsky (Literae Humaniores), Ishmael Maxwell (Modern South Asian Studies)
Alcuin Award Reuben Cook (History), Aneira Farrelly (History), Anna Roizes (History), Maisie Witherden (History), Ajakaiye (History) and Modern Languages, Kate Dorkins (History and Modern Languages)
Alice Horsman Grant Alice Mo (Ancient Philosophy), Bethany Smith (Biology), Matilda Trueblood (Classical Archaeology and Ancient History), Alfie Brazier (Computer Science), Autumn Clarke (English Language and Literature), Jemma Lasswell (English Language and Literature), Hannah Andrews (Experimental Psychology), Parker Joly (Experimental Psychology), Charlotte Zhao (Financial Economics), Ella Johnson (History), Daisy Murphy (History), Ella Myers (History), Emma Schütze (History), Lily Sheldon (History), Jemima Storey (History), Maisie Witherden (History), Christina Boving Foster (History and English), Kate Dorkins (History and Modern Languages), Finley Davis (Jurisprudence), Benjamin Freeborn (Jurisprudence), Emma Toner (Jurisprudence), Riverb Newbury (Mathematics and Computer Science), Rosanna Suvini (Modern Languages), Maya Szaniecki (Modern Languages), Emer Shell (Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry), Tristan I'Anson-Sparks (Music), Natasha Arbon-Stuckle (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), Isabella Mencattelli (Philosophy), (Politics and Economics), Leah O'Grady (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), Jamie Walker (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), Joseph Spruce (Physics), Hazel Wilks (Physics), Johannes Keil (Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics)
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Catherine Hughes Grant Jamie Walker (Biology), Sejal Kapoor (Clinical Neurosciences), Patrick McCafferty (Creative Writing), Oli Jupe (English Language and Literature), Caitlin Kelly (English Language and Literature), Keziah Carlier (Experimental Psychology), Tianyi Zhang (Experimental Psychology), Medha Mukherjee (Geography and the Environment), Reuben Cook (History), Aneira Farrelly (History), Kasturi Pindar (History), Anna Roizes (History), Michelle Chan (History and Economics), Ajakaiye (History and Modern Languages), Alex Strapps (Jurisprudence), Harriet Breakey (Literae Humaniores), June Sang Lee (Materials), Benjamin Peters (Mathematics and Foundations of Computer Science), Raphaella Ridley (Medicine - Clinical), Joseph Salf (Medicine - Clinical), Charlie Sneddon (Medicine - Clinical), William Thornton (Medicine - Graduate Entry), Huiyuan Xiao (Medicine - Graduate Entry), James Atkinson (Medicine - Preclinical), Rufaro Tom (Medicine Preclinica), Isobel McDonach (Modern Languages), Maya Szaniecki (Modern Languages), Jade Carlin (Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry), Michelle Stanley (Music), Isabella Mencattelli (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), Corinne Barker (Physics), Annabella Meech (Physics)
Catherine Hughes Internship Award Annabel Thomas (Ancient and Modern History), Lowri Woollard (Ancient and Modern History), Emma Thornton (Biology), Hengyi Zhang (Chemistry), Mei Whattam (Classical
Archaeology and Ancient History), Esraa Shaban (Clinical and Therapeutic Neuroscience), Katie Birch (History), Jason Bell (Mathematics), Francess Adlard (Medicine - Graduate Entry), Rohan Silvestro (Modern Languages), Maria Rotaru (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), Kaiyun Sun (Physics), Hazel Wilks (Physics), Francesca Dakin (Primary Health Care), Jamie Chua (Psychology and Linguistics), Klarke Stricklen (Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies)
Dr Stephanie Dalley Internship Award Sharmarke Dubow (Public Policy)
Geiringer Travel Grant Ryden Nelson (Classical Archaeology and Ancient History), Devanshika Bajpai (History), Ash Brahim (Late Antique and Byzantine Studies), June Sang Lee (Materials), Joseph Salf (Medicine Clinical), Charlie Sneddon (Medicine Clinical), Isabella Mencattelli (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), Maggie Chen (Physics), Francesca Dakin (Primary Health Care)
Hansell Travel Grant Amritha Raghavan (Biology), Vicky Lee (Chemical Biology), Tereza Kacerova (Chemistry), Hui Min Tay (Chemistry), Mason Wakley (Chemistry), Weronika Glinka (Classical Archaeology and Ancient History), Matilda Kennedy (Classics and Modern Languages), Esraa Shaban (Clinical and Therapeutic Neuroscience), Anna O'Hanlon (Clinical Embryology), Jack Parsons (Engineering Science), Guanxiong Zhang (Engineering Science), Zimo Zhao (Engineering Science), Reyam Rammahi (English), Keziah Carlier (Experimental Psychology), Reuben Cook (History), Guillermo Íñiguez Martínez (Law), Joshua Booth (Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics), Reuben Hillyard (Mathematics), Benjamin Peters (Mathematics and Foundations of Computer Science), Adam Isherwood (Medical Sciences), Anurag Choksey (Medicine - Clinical), Abigail Punt (Medicine - Clinical), Lucy Thompson (Medicine - Graduate Entry), Clara MacCallum (Medicine - Preclinical), Oliver Sandall (Modern Languages), Cameron Hodgkinson
(Philosophy, Politics and Economics), Aarthee Parimelalaghan (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), Chloe Riley (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), Erik Rydow (Physics), Joseph Ward (Politics), Rui Huang (Population Health), Elizabeth Morris (Primary Health Care), Gauri Chandra (Public Policy), Hakmin Mun (Women's and Reproductive Health), Klarke Stricklen (Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies)
Maria and Tina Bentivoglio Travel Grant Matthew Morecroft (Biology), Patrick McCafferty (Creative Writing), Oli Jupe (English Language and Literature), Finley Davis (Jurisprudence), Amy Moynihan, (Medicine - Preclinical), Ellie Walker (Medicine - Preclinical), Ellie Baird (Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry), Emer Shell (Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry), Trina Banerjee (Music)
Monica Britton Travel Grant Luca Ricci (Ancient History), Caitlin Campbell (Classical Archaeology and Ancient History), Harriet Breakey (Literae Humaniores), George Seager (Literae Humaniores), Isaac Tay (Philosophy, Politics and Economics)
Olive Sayce Travel Grant Ursula White (English Language and Literature), Grace Bostock Westland (Modern Languages), Eve McCafferty (Modern Languages)
Rhabanus Maurus Award Flo Johnston (English and Modern Languages), Zoe Howell (Modern Languages), Rosanna Suvini (Modern Languages), Maya Szaniecki (Modern Languages)
Thatcher Development Award
Medical Fund Scholarship
Eloise Hedgecott (Biology), Alice Penrose (Biology), Grace Copeland (Creative Writing), Ursula White (English Language and Literature), Dom Sloper (Medicine - Preclinical), Dulcie Havers (Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry), Amy Roberts (Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry), Ruby Cooper (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), Emma Stratford (Physics)
Anurag Choksey (Medicine - Clinical), Charlie Sneddon (Medicine - Clinical), Robert Temple (Medicine - Clinical), David Schramm (Medicine - Graduate Entry), Lucy Thompson (Medicine Graduate Entry)
Wilma Crowther Travel Grant Katie Blake (Biology), Huiyuan Xiao (Medicine - Graduate Entry)
Other Awards Chloe and Helen Morton Choral Scholarship Steph Garrett (Literae Humaniores), Niamh Robinson-Wakefield (Modern Languages)
Daphne Robinson Language Award Roo Foreman (Ancient and Modern History), Hannah Ugboma (Biology), Mason Wakley (Chemistry), Guan Xiong Lam (English Language and Literature), Flora Symington (English Language and Literature), Hannah Andrews (Experimental Psychology), Ella Myers (History), Jemima Storey (History), James Atkinson (Medicine - Preclinical), Amy Moynihan (Medicine - Preclinical), Sarafina Otis (Medicine - Preclinical), Madelina Gordon (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), Cameron Hodgkinson (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), Aarthee Parimelalaghan (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), Maria IlieNiculescu (Psychology and Linguistics), Emily Shurmer (Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics), Martha Wells (Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics)
Pat Harris Spirit of Somerville Award David Cao (Clinical Medicine), Katie Walker (Physics)
Sports and Wellbeing Award Marshall Hunt (Chemistry), Hui Min Tay (Chemistry), Bethan Belcher (English Language and Literature), Daniel Mackay (English Language and Literature), Parker Joly (Experimental Psychology), Brendon Tankwa (Geography and the Environment), Paddy Ryce (History), Theo Saitch (History), Sana Shah (History), Decarno Wallace (History), Naomi Hyde (Jurisprudence), Barbora Hlachova (Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics), Zoe Schwerkolt (Mathematics and Foundations of Computer Science), Adam Isherwood (Medical Sciences), Isaac Walton (Medical Sciences), Lucy Thompson (Medicine - Graduate Entry), Greaves (Modern Languages), Holly Cobb (Modern Languages and Linguistics), Bobby Clark (Music), Corinne Barker (Physics), Natalie Harrington (Physics), John Pearce (Physics), Sally Hartmanis (Population Health), Francesca Dakin (Primary Health Care), Shine Park (Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics), Douglass Wang (Statistical Science), Hakmin Mun (Women's and Reproductive Health)
Rita Bradshaw Travel Grant Katie Driver (Biology), Amy Lovewell (Biology), Christina Monroe (Classical Archaeology), Sejal Kapoor (Clinical Neurosciences), Alistair White-Horne (Engineering Science), Enes Morina (History), Lyndsay Weatherall (Modern Languages), Michelle Stanley (Music), Joseph Spruce (Physics), Mario Aguiriano (Politics)
Margaret Irene Seymour Music Award George Whittle (Engineering Science), Amy Moynihan (Medicine - Preclinical), Lauren Keane (Modern Languages and Linguistics), Zaira Barakat (Music), Erin Townsend (Music), Mar Umbert Kimura (Music), Briana Williams (Music)
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Engineering Science
History
Marion Bouedec Ecole Jeannine Manuel, Paris
Violet Aitchison Brighton Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College
William Carr Greenhead College, Huddersfield
Hannah Clarke Simon Langton Girls' Grammar School
Natalie Cotterill King Edward VI College, Nuneaton
Miriam Curtis King Edward VII School, Sheffield
Henry Morris Nower Hill High School
Prasidhee Hathi Aylesbury High School
Hector Ravenscroft Harris Westminster Sixth Form
Alan Gatehouse Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet
Sulaiman Sheikh King's College School
Pearl Hankinson St. Edward's School, Poole
English and Modern Languages
Zoe North Lancaster Royal Grammar School
Undergraduate Students Entering College Ancient and Modern History Roo Foreman Sir John Deanes College
Katie Simpson Wrenn School
Biology Oliver Eyre Brockenhurst College Hugh Jones Wimbledon College, London SW19 Catherine Stephenson Durham Johnston Comprehensive School Pippa Threlfall Bradford Grammar School Alice Thynne King Edward VI College, Stourbridge Marcus Williamson Whitburn Church of England Academy
Flo Johnston King Edward VI Five Ways School Zaynab Ravat The Beauchamp College
English Language and Literature Bethan Belcher Hills Road Sixth Form College Rea Formica Lady Margaret School Nuha Hasan Watford Grammar School for Girls Allie Holtom Wycombe High School, High Wycombe
Flora Prideaux Westminster School Alfie Roberts West London Free School Tom Wells Theale Green School
History and Economics Julia Kitto Esher College
Jurisprudence Ashlyn Cheong Cheong Anglo-Chinese Junior College, Singapore Luke Dubberley Notre Dame High School, Norwich
Chemistry
Hugo Jeudy Ecole Jeannine Manuel, Paris
Hanpeng Cai Wuhan Britain-China School
Guan Xiong Lam Hwa Chong Institution, Singapore
Sophie Farrell Kingston Grammar School
Jude Collings Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood
Daniel Mackay Bedford Modern School
Callum Lloyd Finham Park School
Tilly Moor St Leonard's Catholic School
Tasfia Karim Lady Margaret School
Ciara Morris Exeter School
Mong Song Oh Raffles Junior College, Singapore
Charlotte Lim Streatham and Clapham High School
Franek Noga Camden School for Girls
Mahi Patel The Heathland School Gabriel Perez Pineda London Academy of Excellence
Classical Archaeology and Ancient History
Iris Sibirica Sir John Deanes College Amelia Wolf Redborne Upper School and Community College
European and Middle Eastern Languages
Eden Kilgour Newstead Wood School
Cadence Webley St Georges College, Addlestone
Literae Humaniores Maisie Angus Streatham and Clapham High School Erka Arslan Coombe Girls' School
Tala Al-Chikh Ahmad Lycée International de Londres Winston Churchill
Oscar Brant Winchester College
Sam Berthon Hampton School Jess Markham Outwood Academy Newbold
Experimental Psychology
Anastasia Jones St Paul's Girl's School
Classics and Modern Languages Matilda Kennedy All Saints Roman Catholic School, York
Computer Science Nabil Ervatra SMANU M.H. Thamrin, Jakarta Joseph Simkin The Pingle Academy Yusuf Usumez Robert College
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Ben Paulwell Ferndown Upper School
Charlotte Gardhouse Badminton School
Harriet Breakey Greenhead College, Huddersfield
Mathematics
Sheikh Mohiddin Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet
Lorna Campbell Newstead Wood School
Hira Xu Apply Online Overseas
Daohan Chen Apply Online Overseas Ben Chung Hills Road Sixth Form College Jack Garland Wimbledon College, London SW19 Anaya Shah Kingsdale Foundation School Grace Yu BASIS International School Park Lane Harbour, China
Mathematics and Computer Science Yang Gao Shanghai Pinghe School Phoenix Solti Oakham School, Careers Department
Medical Sciences Ursula Batchelor St Marylebone Church of England School Sophia Clyde Roedean School Tasneem Mazai Hill House School, Doncaster Sophie O'Mahony Balcarras School Dom Sloper Churston Ferrers Grammar School Claudia Tremble St Dunstan's College
Medicine - Graduate Entry Francess Adlard UK University College London Pippa Boering Queen Mary University of London
PHOTO: JACK EVANS
Music
Physics
Katie Mellor UK Royal Holloway and Bedford New College
Zaira Barakat The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial RC School
Kenrick Cheung Ying Wa College, Hong Kong
Emma Hunt Durham High School for Girls
Modern Languages
Dan Kimberley Apply Online UK
Kostadin Chuchulayn Integral Educational Programmes Ltd, Bulgaria
Angelina Giannino Nottingham High School
Erin Townsend Brighton Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College
Joe Endacott Calday Grange Grammar School
Philosophy and Linguistics
Kaitlyn Ingvarsdottir Lancaster Royal Grammar School
Eden Greaves Monmouth School for Girls Zoe Howell Chelmsford County High School, Chelmsford
Tahira Abdul Apply Online UK
Leena Kharabanda Frankfurt International School
Jacob Conway St David's Catholic College, Penylan
Oliver Sandall Manchester Grammar School Jess Scott Arden School, Solihull
Philosophy, Politics and Economics
Joel Testar Bedford Modern School
Danae Ali St Augustine Girls' High School, Trinidad and Tobago
Modern Languages and Linguistics
Lucy Fang Apply Online Overseas
Corinna Watts Twyford Church of England High School
Carrick Gibb Jordanhill School
Leo Woodward Sir Thomas Rich's School
Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry
Keiran Milne Redborne Upper School and Community College Ziyuan Nie WLSA Shanghai Academy Jasmine Reid Guildford High School
Psychology and Linguistics Jamie Chua Cheltenham Ladies' College Maria Ilie-Niculescu Apply Online Overseas
Heather Fishburn King Alfred's Academy Madelina Gordon Abbotsleigh, Wahroonga NSW Malachy Marsh Brighton Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College
Nathan Chapplow Hampton School
Chloe Riley City of Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College
Nicole Choi Wellington College International Tianjin
Samuel Williamson St Benet's College, University of Oxford
Tarini Kadambi UWC South East Asia, East Campus
Wuwen Wong Hwa Chong Institution, Singapore
Anna Wang Simon Langton School for Boys
Joanna Xuan Shanghai United International School Gubei Campus
Elizabeth Wang St Paul's Girl's School
Xiya Yu Vision Academy
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Graduate Students Entering College Bachelor of Civil Law
DPhil Population Health
Ning Zhang Nankai University, China
Maria Kathia Cardenas Garcia Santillan Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands
DPhil Engineering Science Sawsan El Zahr Lebanese American University, Lebanon
Sally Hartmanis University of Melbourne Tzu-Ying Liu University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Payal Agarwal Amity University, Gautam Budh Nagar, India
Ziyun Liang Huazhong (Central China) University of Science and Technology
Alastair Ahamed The University of Oxford
DPhil Experimental Psychology
Saurabh Gupta National Law School of India University Bangalore India
Deng Pan Peking University, China
DPhil Psychiatry
Tianyi Zhang Sun Yat-sen University, China
Matthew Atkins The University of Greenwich
Sophie Hill King's College London
Abednego Masai University of Nairobi, Kenya
Ishani Mookherjee O. P. Jindal Global University, India
DPhil Geography and the Environment
Meghmala Mukherjee Not Listed Saras Sawhney King's College London
Medha Mukherjee The University of Oxford
Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery
DPhil History
Nina Acharya The University of Oxford
Kristin Hindmarch The University of Oxford
Sana Shah University of Kashmir, Srinagar, India
Master of Public Policy
Martha Hughes The University of Oxford
DPhil Ion Channels and Membrane Transport in H D
Duncan MarsdenThe University of Oxford Abigail Punt The University of Oxford Bilal Qureshi The University of Oxford Raphaella Ridley The University of Oxford Robin Von Bonsdorff The University of Oxford
Brendon Tankwa The University of Oxford
Mehtab Hayre Simon Fraser University Burnaby BC Canada
DPhil Law
Ebenezer Oloyede Not listed Megan Smith The University of Sussex
DPhil Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation
Emily Ang National University of Singapore Sharmarke Dubow Cape Breton University, Canada Siddhi Pal Ashoka University, India
MPhil Development Studies
Guillermo Íñiguez Martínez The University of Cambridge
Hailey Clarke University of British Columbia, Canada
Bachelor of Philosophy
Misbah Reshi The University of Oxford
Alexander Satola University of Michigan System - Ann Arbor MI, USA
MPhil Economics
DPhil Mathematics
Ramiz Razzak Harvard University, USA
DPhil Biology Katie Blake The University of Plymouth Devi Satarkar University of Pune, India
DPhil Chemistry Riju Dey Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur Tereza Kacerova University College London
Den Waidmann The University of Oxford
Dayin Wijaya New York University Abu Dhabi
Charlotte Lees Imperial College of Science, Technology & Medicine, UK
MPhil History
DPhil Pharmacology
MPhil Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics
DPhil Physics
Althea Rosa Ludovica Sovani The University of Oxford
Jamie Lynch The University of Oxford
Chuqiao Lin The University of Oxford
DPhil Classical Archaeology
Harrison Nicholls The University of Exeter
Christina Monroe The University of Oxford
Jairus Tristan Patoc The University of Manchester
DPhil Clinical Medicine
Erik Rydow The University of Oxford
Chor Lai Lam University College London
Kasturi Pindar The University of Sheffield
Ross McLeod The University of Glasgow
Xiaofei Li Yantai University, China
DPhil Clinical Neurosciences
Ling Shuai The University of Manchester
DPhil Medical Sciences
Giuseppe Di Pietra Universita di Catania Italy
Linzhen Kong University of Science and Technology of China
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DPhil Computational Discovery
Eryk Ratajczyk University College London
Ari Warrington The University of Oxford
MPhil Music Trina Banerjee The University of Oxford
MPhil Politics Sofia Marchetti London School of Economics and Political Science
MSc Advanced Computer Science
MSc Mathematics and Foundations of Comp Sci
Mikhail Baranchuk McGill University, Canada
Nayan Nayan Rajesh Krea University, Sri City, Andhra Pradesh, India
Xiao Sun Zhejiang University, China
Benjamin Peters Universitat des Saarlandes in Saarbrucken Germany
MSc African Studies
MSc Statistical Science Douglass Wang The University of Cambridge
MSt Ancient Philosophy Alice Mo UNY at Stony Brook, USA
Zoe Schwerkolt University of Melbourne
MSt Creative Writing
MSc Clinical Embryology
MSc Modelling for Global Health
Grace Copeland The University of Cambridge
Anna O'Hanlon University of Sydney
Tarek Alrefae New York University, USA
MSc Economics for Development
MSc Modern South Asian Studies
Arth Mishra London School of Economics and Political Science
Kankana Chatterjee Jadavpur University Calcutta India
Ritheka Sundar Stella Maris College, India
Ishmael Maxwell Carleton College, USA
MSc Education
MSc Radiation Biology
Andrianna Bashar Independent University, Bangladesh
Ke Li University College London
MSc Financial Economics
MSc Refugee and Forced Migration Studies
Ebenezer Agetiba University of Ghana
Charlotte Zhao The University of Oxford
MSc Global Healthcare Leadership (PT)
Mohammed Haji Haramaya University (formerly Alemaya University), Ethiopia Meagan Toumayan University of Chicago, USA
Lucy Gibson The University of Bristol Harry Ledgerwood The University of St Andrews Amber Marino The University of Cambridge
MSt English Nicole Fan University College London
MSt Global and Imperial History Devanshika Bajpai The University of Oxford
MSt History Reuben Cook The University of Oxford Erin O'Neill The University of Oxford Selina Schoelles The University of Oxford
James Castro University of California, Los Angeles
MSc Sleep Medicine
Olamide Folorunso University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Dani Breitinger-Blatt Bournemouth University
Rachel Mayer University of Arizona, USA
MSt History of Art and Visual Culture
Sanjay Rishi The University of Warwick
Juan Cote Orozco Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, Columbia
Shayan Sheikh O. P. Jindal Global University, India
MSc in Applied Digital Health
Tharmini Danisious University Jaffna Sri Lanka
MSt in Modern Languages
Yunus Essajee Mangalore University, Mangalore, India
Matthias Franz Rheinische FriedrichWilhelms-Universitat Bonn Germany
Tushar Gosavi University of Mumbai, India
Sam Pearson The University of Exeter
Illia Skarha-Bandurov Luhansk State Medical University, Ukraine
MSc Mathematical and Computational Finance Elsa Guan McMaster University, Canada Xueya Luo Central University of Finance and Economics, China Chuxuan Yang Xiamen (Amoy) University Fujian China
Miso Miloslavic Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara. Mexico Husna Moola University of Cape Town, South Africa
Thomas Vallely The University of Oxford
MSt Late Antique and Byzantine Studies Ash Brahim American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Brooke Quinn Pitt Community College, USA
MSt Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics
MSc Mathematical Modelling and Scientific Comp
You Jiang Tan National University of Singapore
Leticia Cortellete Melo Not Listed
Sebastian Yap University of California, Los Angeles
Vijay Thirunavukarasu The Royal College of Surgeons of England
Barbora Hlachova University of Massachusetts at Amherst, USA
MSc Mathematical Sciences
MSc Sleep Medicine (PGDip conversion)
Yuanyuan Yang University College London
Umair Akram The University of Oxford Steven Khov The University of Oxford Finn Broksoe Olsen The University of Oxford
Nicholas Hayes The University of Oxford
MSt Music Chloe Green The University of Oxford
MSt Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Klarke Stricklen The University of Oxford
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Distinguished Friends of Somerville
Somerville Development Board Members
Elizabeth Bingham (Loxley, 1957)
as of March 2023
Kay Brock (Stewart Sandeman, 1972) Ginny Covell (Hardman Lea, 1973)
Co-Chair
Charlotte Morgan (1969)
Sybella Stanley (1979)
Karen Richardson (1972)
Co-Chair
Sue Robson (Bodger, 1966)
Ayla Busch (1989)
Virginia Ross Susan Scholefield (1973)
Basma Alireza (1991)
Eleanor Sturdy (Burton, 1984)
Judith Buttigieg (1988)
Judith Unwin
Sophie Forsyth (Wallis,1989)
Mai Yamani
Lynn Haight (Schofield, 1966) Niels Kröner (1996) Vicky Maltby (Elton, 1974) Nicola Ralston (Thomas, 1974) Judith Unwin (1973)
Somerville Campaign Board Members Omar Davis (1997) Emma Haight (1999) Dan Mobley (1994) Sundeep Sandhu (1994)
Honorary Development Board Members Tom Bolt Doreen Boyce (Vaughan, 1953) Paddy Crossley (Earnshaw, 1956) Clara Freeman (Jones, 1971) Sam Gyimah (1995) Margaret Kenyon (Parry, 1959) Nadine Majaro (1975) Harriet Maunsell (1962) Hilary Newiss (1974) Roger Pilgrim Sian Thomas Marshall (Thomas, 1989)
For full details see the college website at www.some.ox.ac.uk/alumni/the-development-board
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PHOTO: JOHN CAIRNS
Legacies Legacies are a vital source of support for the College. Here, we name all of those who have left legacies to support Somerville, and record our deep gratitude to them for the gift they have made to generations of future Somervillians. We would particularly like to take the opportunity to honour two individuals whose recent legacies have made a significant and lasting difference.
Mary I. Low (1945)
Jane-Kerin Moffat (1949)
Legacy Benefactors in 2022/23 Sarah J. Broadie (1960, Literae Humaniore) Bridget A. Davies (1950, Physiological Sciences) Olwen B, Davies (1941, Modern History)
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Ann Hall (1954, Geography)
Haroutune H. Matossian
Dorothy M. Newton (1951, Modern Languages)
Margaret A. Heath (1950, Modern History)
Jane-Kerin Moffat (1949, Philosophy, Politics and Economics)
Olga Olver (1942, Modern Languages)
William T. Leeming Mary I. Low (1945, Modern History and Languages)
Lynden M. Moore (1954, Philosophy, Politics and Economics)
Mary J. Seglow (1955, Philosophy, Politics and Economics) Hugh M. Stewart
Dates for the Diary (events in Somerville unless otherwise stated)
2023
2024
NOVEMBER
FEBRUARY
18
03 Supporters’ Lunch
Literary Lunch with Suzanne Heywood (1987, Zoology) in conversation with Rebecca Jones (1985, History)
DECEMBER 04
Alumni Carol Concert in the Chapel
05
Alumni Carol Concert at Temple Church, London
MARCH 16 Medics Day with Professor Kamila Hawthorne MBE (1978, Medicine) 16 Spring Meeting with Professor Dame Angela McLean (1979, Maths)
MAY 18 The Penrose Society Lunch
JUNE 8 Commemoration Service
SEPTEMBER 05 1964 60th Reunion Dinner 07 Gaudy 2000 - 2007 19–20 1974 Golden Reunion 21 Alumni Formal Hall and Bop
Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6HD T: +44 (0) 1865 270600 www.some.ox.ac.uk Registered charity no. 1139440
College Report 2022-2023