35 Years of Women in Univ Breaking through, leading the way
Breaking through, leading the way On behalf of the Fellows and students of Univ, I warmly welcome you back to celebrate the 35th anniversary of women as junior members of the College. We are delighted to honour that pivotal moment when women ‘broke through’ and positively changed the make-up and dynamic of Univ forever. We also celebrate how women lead the way towards helping the College achieve its aspirations of greater equality and academic excellence. Univ was in the vanguard of the second group of Oxford colleges to go mixed in the late 1970s. The University had planned for a gradual evolution to mixed colleges over a decade or more by assigning permission to colleges by random ballot. Univ was not chosen in 1979, mutinied, and went ahead anyway. We weren’t going to be left behind. Some veterans of the first intake of women in 1979 and the early 1980s reported that although they were treated perfectly correctly and politely, women were a minority bolted onto to what was still very much a men’s college. Today’s women at Univ do not say that. Among the undergraduates women are equal to men in numbers, boats on the river, election to JCR office and much else besides. Although a lot of ground has been covered over the last 35 years, we still recognise that there is quite some distance to travel. I trust you will enjoy yourselves at this weekend’s talks, discussions, and festivities. I hope you will feel inspired by the talent, accomplishment, and fortitude of Univ women past and present. Thank you for joining us. Sir Ivor Crewe Master
Celebrating Univ’s new tradition 35 years is not a very long time in the grand scheme of things, especially in the history of University College. Nevertheless, the last 35 years are an important period in the College’s history when women became full participants. When we arrived at University College and learned of the early fellows and students, we all felt an enormous sense of respect for the people – of all genders – who had worked so hard to make the College an inclusive space for women. In making sense of our own roles and responsibilities as women and men in the academy in general, and as members of Univ in particular, it was important to us that we reflect on this important period in the College’s history. Furthermore, it was important to us that we reflect on this period not only as individuals, but together as a College community. Reflection is about remembering our history, but it is not only about our history. Reflection is also about considering our values, and reaffirming our commitments. As we look forward to the next 35 years of women at Univ, we honor those women who played such an important role in the life of the College. We also look forward to future generations of women following in their footsteps. In the short period of 35 years, and thanks to the leadership of the women who we honour this weekend, we have a new tradition at Univ: at Univ, women help to lead the way. Julia Brouard (2012, Chemistry) 2
Professor Helen Cooper Honorary Fellow, University College, Oxford 1968
BA, New Hall, Cambridge
1971
PhD, New Hall Cambridge
1978 Appointed Beaverbrook Fellow in English and becomes first female Fellow, University College, Oxford 1978
First book, Pastoral: Mediaeval into Renaissance is published by D S Brewer
1983 The Structure of the Canterbury Tales, Duckworth and University of Georgia Press 1996 Oxford Guides to Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales, Oxford University Press 1998 Sir Thomas Malory: Le Morte Darthur - Winchester Manuscript, Oxford University Press (Oxford World’s Classics) 1999 The Four Last Things in Chaucer and Dante: Ugolino in the House of Rumour. New Medieval Literatures 3 2000
Receives two-year fellowship from the British Academy
2003
Chaucerian Representation; Chaucerian Poetics. In: New Readings of Chaucer’s Poetry, (ed. Robert G. Benson and Susan J. Ridyard). D S Brewer
2004 The English Romance in Time: Transforming Motifs from Geoffrey of Monmouth to the Death of Shakespeare, Oxford University Press 2004 Appointed Professor of Medieval and Renaissance in English, Magdalene College, Cambridge 2010
Latest book, Shakespeare and the Medieval World is published by A&C Black
2014
Elected Honorary Fellow, University College, Oxford
The following article originally appeared in the 2004 Record, to mark the occasion of Professor Cooper’s departure from Univ. Professor Helen Cooper is leaving Univ after 26 years to take up the professorship of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge. When Helen became Beaverbrook Fellow in English she also became the College’s first female member of Governing Body. Fortunately there are more than a few others at Univ now, and Helen has played an integral part in transforming the College into a modern institution that remains fully in touch with its past. Her task was not made any easier by the fact that some years passed before the second woman was elected. At the time she was appointed there was only one Fellow in English, the redoubtable Scot, Roy Park. Before going on to warn of the machinations of Faculty representatives on appointment committees, Roy wrote a letter to me remembering being told that Helen might prove to be a bit ‘soft’ on the undergraduates. In the event he was assured in tutes that it was Helen ‘we’re really afraid of’. In fact, I don’t think Helen ever inspired fear, but she did commend immense respect as well as love from undergraduates, and no one messed her around. She has been a fantastic teacher, communicating enthusiasm for medieval and renaissance studies, and effortlessly managing the retooling required in the early years to teach twentieth-century literature on top (a combination rarely seen). It seems entirely typical of her flexible literary intelligence that out of the latter experience she was able to publish a paper showing James Joyce to have been an avid Chaucerian. She is one of those academics for whom teaching and research are seamless activities. A long line of gifted pupils testify to this fact. While also generously serving the College as Tutor for Admissions from 1985 to 1989 and Senior Tutor from 1997 to 2000, she still managed to create a reputation as one of the world’s foremost Chaucer scholars. She has crowned the achievement of her time at Univ with the publication of The English Romance in Time (Oxford University Press), June, 2004. We should feel proud that this magnum opus came out with Univ on the book jacket. For myself, working with Helen over the past eight years has been both an education and a delight. Whether trying to explain that Sir Thomas Wyatt was not part of the anti-hunting lobby at the court of Henry VIII or explaining that a ford was not really ‘a kind of bridge’, she was always calm and encouraging with interviewees at that critical time in December. Her quiet but determined influence will be sorely missed. J.A. Mee
Order of events Friday 21st November 2014 5.30pm Lecture by Professor Helen Cooper, Honorary Fellow
6.30pm Drinks Reception in the Alington and Butler Rooms Formal Display of Commissioned Portrait of Helen Cooper
7.15pm Dinner in Hall Speakers: Sir Ivor Crewe, Master Dr Catherine Holmes, A.D.M. Cox Old Members’ Tutorial Fellow in Medieval History and Associate Professor of Medieval History
Saturday 22nd November 2014 11.00am-12.15pm Panel Discussion of Univ Novelists: ‘Studying with Professor Helen Cooper: Univ and Beyond’ Panelists: Amanda Brookfield (1979, English) Alison Pindar (1991, English) Anna Lawrence (1991, English)
3
University College Oxford OX1 4BH www.univ.ox.ac.uk