Principal’s Message

Our college was created for a single purpose: to open doors that had been sealed shut for centuries.

Openness is a force with a quiet but exponential power. It is made by the tension of selflessness and ambition; of dreams and pragmatism. It is born of hope and the refusal to accept the fallacy that this world cannot be changed for the better. Above all, to be open is to reach out to others; to listen to their ideas and experiences, and to be fearless in expressing your own in return. That is at the heart of what it means to be a Somervillian.

This year, our Medieval Research Group of Somerville scholars past and present published their fourth book, Openness in Medieval Europe. In her article for the magazine (page 23), Professor Almut Suerbaum explains how the group’s latest publication takes on the prevailing view of the medieval world as closed and uncommunicative and turns it on its head, demonstrating instead that openness suffused the medieval outlook.

This magazine embraces that same mission: to show how our college is making Oxford a place far different to its stereotypes. In a world where the social isolation of Covid-19 still afflicts us all, where dwindling opportunity and growing inequality are compounded by the cynical erosion of our democratic values and new war, we need proof that openness not only survives, but defies.

Fortunately, there is evidence of openness in all its forms both here at Somerville and within our alumni community. It is there in Dr Fay Probert’s work to help revolutionise diagnostic medicine with a radically interdisciplinary approach (page 9), and in Sunethra Bandaranaike’s work to end shame and improve the lives of disabled children and their families in Sri Lanka (page 11).

It is there in our college’s past, as exemplified by the work of Eleanor Rathbone to extend the dual promise of democracy and safety to women and refugees around the world (page 20). It is there in our present, when an eminent judge such as Deborah Taylor fights for greater diversity at the Bar (page 16), or a chemist such as Jane Awty decides to change her path entirely to become a family-focused wine-grower tackling climate change (page 14).

It is openness to the suffering of others that underpins both Alexander Starritt’s novel We Germans and his decision to gift the proceeds of winning the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for that novel to establish a new Sanctuary Scholarship here at Somerville (page 6).

Open-hearted affection, meanwhile, is the defining note of the tributes paid to Professor Richard Stone (page 34), who retires this year having been a Fellow at Somerville since 1993. I shall always be grateful to Richard for the counsel he gave as Vice-Principal during the pandemic – but it is his students’ unmistakable warmth which provides the true measure of Richard’s intellectual brilliance and lasting impact.

Finally, openness is there in our future. This is most eloquently expressed by the sight of our students once again reading, working and socialising on our beautiful quadrangle (page 31), properly reunited for the first normal academic year since the pandemic began. However, the same resolve to embrace openness is also evident in the work they are doing – from Aneeska Sohal’s efforts to create a new conversation around mental health (page 30) to Danielle Welbeck’s musical journey with the Aseda Gospel Choir (page 32).

The drive to say the unsaid, challenge the unchallenged, and support the disadvantaged is alive in every part of our Somerville community: students, staff, alumni, and academics. I am proud to contribute my own small part to this endeavour – and to share with you all the record of such openness at the end of another busy, successful year.