A Publication of the UGA at Oxford Program
2010
A Message from Dr. Kalpen Trivedi Director of the UGA at Oxford Study Abroad Program Dear Alumni and Friends, t gives me great pleasure to welcome all our alumni, friends, and readers to another issue of the Oxford Bulldog. 2009 was a banner year for the UGA at Oxford Program in a number of ways, and the following pages chronicle the important occasions and achievements of our 20th anniversary year, but I would like to highlight some of these here. In 2009, along with celebrating a significant anniversary of the Program, we also bid farewell to Associate Provost for International Education and founder of the Program, Dr. Judith Shaw. Her retirement was marked during the Summer Program by a series of events including a special dinner for Program alumni and friends and the dedication of a tree in the garden of the UGA at Oxford Center. We’re very glad that Judy has agreed to serve on the UGA at Oxford Development Board and will thus continue her association with the Program. Equally, we’re very pleased to welcome Dr. Kavita Pandit as the new Associate Provost for International Education at UGA. I look forward to working closely with her as the Oxford Program embarks upon its next 20 years. I have written in previous issues of this newsletter how the greatest challenge facing the Program is raising enough money in scholarship support to make the studyabroad experience available to all students regardless of their ability to pay. In 2009, despite the tough economic climate, we were fortunate in that we saw only a very small dip in participation numbers, well below national and even UGA statistics. Concurrently, however, we did experience a great upsurge in the number of applications for financial support. Thanks to the efforts of the UGA at Oxford Development Board and the UGA Foundation, we were able to help a number of students on our Program. The Development Board continues to grow, and it is a matter of great pride that in 2009 we were able to secure the endowment of the Judith D. Shaw Scholarship and establish an important partnership with the British American Business Group in Atlanta. I cannot thank enough the members of our Board for their generosity and their efforts, and indeed all others who responded to our mail campaign. This effort, while significant, is merely a beginning. We must continue to grow the Shaw and Ploughman endowments through sustained contributions to the point that we can make participation a financial reality for all students. It is also in this conjunction that I would like to welcome on board for the next couple of years, Jennifer Sonenberg, our brilliant graduate assistant, whose primary responsibilities are working with the Board and our alumni. As I am fond of saying at pre-departure orientations for our students, the UGA at Oxford Program is first and foremost an academic program. It is, therefore, always a pleasure to celebrate the academic achievements of members of our community, and we are highlighting in this issue some of our students who are achieving great things, including two who have begun graduate careers at Oxford University in Michaelmas 2009, Gregory Ariall and Shawn Tucker. I hope that these stories will inspire many of you to reconnect with us and with each other, either through the newsletter or by attending the annual tailgate before the Homecoming game, where it is always a pleasure to visit with alumni, parents, and friends. More immediate to our office, I would like to congratulate James McClung, the Program’s Associate Director, on his own significant academic achievement of earning his Ph.D. It would be remiss of me not to express my continued gratitude to the Oxford faculty and staff, in Athens and in Oxford, and the OIE staff for all their efforts in the ongoing success and growth of the Program. I shall end by extending good wishes for 2010 to all our readers.
UGA at Oxford Program Staff Director Dr. Kalpen Trivedi Associate Director Dr. James McClung Assistant Director Margaret Faz Perry Business Manager Dr. Angela E. Pfile Administrative Assistant Frances Molyneux Graduate Assistant Jennifer Sonenberg Development Officer Linda DePascale
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Recycling at Oxford, by Conor Little (Fall 2009)
P Dear Alumni and Friends of UGA at Oxford, I am thrilled and excited to be rejoining UGA as Associate Provost of International Education at a time that the field is experiencing tremendous growth and is full of new opportunities. I thank my predecessor, Judy Shaw, for all her contributions to UGA’s international efforts. Under her leadership, UGA has become a national leader in study abroad, and UGA at Oxford will long be seen as part of her legacy while at UGA. My first couple of months at UGA were full of events related to the Oxford Program. The UGA at Oxford homecoming weekend tailgate in early November was a great way to meet program alumni and professors and hear firsthand accounts of the transformational experiences while in Oxford! The tailgate itself has become a real tradition and seems to be growing every year. I look forward to seeing all of you again and many new faces at the next one. The Oxford Board met the evening before the tailgate. It was a pleasure to meet many of the board members for the first time. I am deeply appreciative of the hard work and support of these individuals and their willingness to give generously of their valuable time to promote and advance UGA at Oxford. I also thank the Board for endowing the Judith Shaw scholarship. Over the last few months I have also had the chance to get to know Annabelle Malins, the new British Consul General in Atlanta. Her office is well acquainted with our efforts in the UK and the UGA-Oxford links provide a superb springboard for building more extensive collaborations in the UK. In the coming years I anticipate that UGA at Oxford will form the hub of what we hope will be a strong web of connections across the Atlantic. I am looking forward to my first trip to Oxford in March. It will be a chance for me to see in person all the wonderful things I have heard about from you – High table, the Trinity College lawns, and of course, the magnificent facility on 104 Banbury Road. I wish you all a healthy and happy 2010 and look forward to an exciting year for the UGA at Oxford Program and UGA’s international activities.
lastic in one hand, the other popping open trash can after trash can, eyes darting all about – imagine, gentle reader, my jet laginduced stupor turning to sad confusion as I drop my water bottle into the trash. It lands with the sickening k’tang of its red cap hitting the aluminum wall of the bin, immediately echoed in the hollow plotl-otll of the bottle itself. Somehow, there’s no sound sadder than a plastic bottle rattling where it oughtn’t. This may be a rather melodramatic rendering of a simple episode, yet it was this first experience in the kitchen at 104 Banbury that set off a chain of events which, I hope, made the Earth a little happier in one corner of existence. One house meeting and impromptu suggestion later, I took on the responsibility of setting up a recycling program for the house. After setting aside a separate trash can for our recyclables and locating the nearest community recycling bins, I turned to the task of mustering a team to help the weekly take-out program get rolling. I am proud to say that my fellow Planeteers at the house – Jordan Warren, Janie Hettinger, and Tara Jayne-O’Donnell – were not difficult to find. There is nothing more heartening to me than to know that we have so many Earth-conscious, respectful spirits in our generation. Within the very first week of its inception, our recycling program was a success. We provided a relief to long-time recyclers, and even inspired some students who had never recycled at all. Our beloved Barbara Bradshaw was and remains a pivotal part of the recycling effort – it is thanks to her hard work and ingenuity that we obtained our own street-side pickup bin for the house. There is still more that can be done; however, through future generations of UGA at Oxford students I hope 104 Banbury will become as ecologically positive as it can be. The success of our recycling program, even at such an early stage as this, highlights the simplicity and ease of maintaining an ecological lifestyle. It is deceptively easy to see ecological living as a matter of ‘duties’ or ‘good habits’ – take this recycling out, clean up this litter, turn off this light; yet to see it in this way is to disregard the personal lessons an ecological lifestyle can teach. Living ecologically reveals a new way to understand your place in nature, fosters the virtue of human humility, and instills a deep respect and fond love for the land that supports us. I can only hope that our continuing work for the environment at 104 Banbury helps foster these virtues in successive generations of students.
—Kavita Pandit Ozzie the Oxford Ox became the symbol of Conor’s efforts in the Center. A Publication of the UGA at Oxford Program
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Faculty Notes Art and Literature in the City of Dreaming Spires Dr. Aidan Wasley, English, Franklin Fall 2008
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tudents who participate in the UGA at Oxford Program are typically and understandably excited about their experience, but it’s just as much fun for the faculty who go with them. As a resident faculty member with the Program in the Fall of 2008, my enthusiasm for going to Oxford was both personal and professional, and it proved to be a true highlight of my nine years of teaching at UGA. My parents moved to America from England before I was born and whereas I’d spent considerable time in Britain when I was growing up, this was a chance to spend almost half a year living there as an adult and get to know the place in a new, more sustained way. And, as a teacher of modern British literature, Oxford is the perfect place to work since the whole city is a classroom. As part of the Program, I taught a seminar on British art and culture between the World Wars, a period Virginia Woolf famously called, in the title of her final novel, “between the acts.” As part of the class, we studied novels, poems, memoirs, films, paintings, and music from the period, and it was a remarkable opportunity to put the works of art in explicit dialogue with the culture—and, in many cases, the city— that produced them. After reading poets of the First World War like Wilfred Owen and Isaac Rosenberg, who recorded the cataclysmic trauma of that war in the British national psyche, we were able to clearly see the persistence of that memory both in the shrines, chapels, and war memorials all over Oxford in honor of the many students who’d died in the war, and in ninetieth anniversary of the Armistice that Fall, marked by Britons across the country—as it is every year—with the wearing of a red poppy on the coatlapel, in commemoration of the blood-red flowers that bloomed on the blasted Flanders battlefields. And it was moving to be able to read poems by Keith Douglas, killed a few days after D-Day in 1944, and then walk to nearby Merton College to see the memorial archway in which Douglas’s name, along with dozens of other Merton students who died in both World Wars, is engraved. We looked at paintings by Paul Nash, the most famous
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war artist of the period, in the seminar room of the UGA House at 104 Banbury Road, which is literally next door to the house where Nash himself once lived (and which had itself served, until 2007, as the home of UGA in Oxford). After reading George Orwell’s first-person accounts of industrial poverty and economic injustice in the 1930s and watching a documentary film from the period on the problem of housing the urban poor, I could literally walk around the corner from my comfortable flat in Summertown, just up the road from the UGA House, to see the site of the infamous Cutteslowe Wall, where upscale housing developers in 1938 had literally walled off an adjacent housing project to keep the poor residents from mingling with their better-off neighbors and marooning them from access to shops and schools (the Wall stayed up, astonishingly, until 1959, by which time it had become a well-known emblem of class-division in Britain). And of course it was fun to be able to say you were doing “research” by hanging out in the King’s Arms, the Turf Tavern, or any of the other countless cozy Oxford pubs where writers we were reading like T.S. Eliot, Evelyn Waugh, and Graham Greene had likewise tippled. It was a particular thrill for me, as a scholar of W.H. Auden, to amble around what Auden called in his poems “this talkative city” and to make the academic pilgrimage to Christ Church College to see the rooms where Auden lived while a student there in the 1920s and to dodge the caravans of Harry Potter fans converging on the Christ Church Common Room (which doubles as the Hogwarts dining hall in the films) to check out the little portrait of Auden that hangs on the wall there. But my encounters with the UGA students on the Program were every bit as memorable as my encounters with Oxford’s literary ghosts. I happily recall impromptu gatherings out on the back patio of the UGA House for student poetry readings; a one-act play written and performed by our students for an Oxford-wide drama contest; a weekly film series curated by Ryan Perry and Emily Kane, our triumphantly cheerful and capable graduate student RAs; a spectacular student-prepared Thanksgiving dinner, complete with turkey and all the trimmings, including some now-legendary mac and cheese; and an illuminating trip to Stonehenge and Salisbury during the first week of the Program, commemorated— unluckily for me—in photos on Facebook of my jetlagged and undercaffeinated self snoozing slack-jawed on the bus ride back
Auden patiently watches over the throngs of Harry Potter tourists in Christ Church College Hall.
to Oxford. While my dignity might have suffered a momentary hit, my enthusiasm for the Oxford Program is permanent. It is unquestionably one of the jewels of a UGA education, for students and teachers alike, and I’m looking forward to many future conversations—both with dead poets and with very lively UGA students—in Auden’s talkative city.
Anti-Trusts, Business Scandals, and Chicken Soup for the Soul Dr. Marisa Pagnattaro Business, Terry Summer 2009 Class Excursion: Dublin Teaching in the Terry at Oxford Program is always a joy, particularly with students who are ready to be challenged and committed to a discussion of issues. The class, International Law for Business: Emphasis on the EU, began in Dublin and a meeting with a partner at Pricewaterhouse Coopers. Our topic was “Investing in Ireland” and included an examination of the many and varied business incentives used to increase awareness of opportunity in Ireland and promote business growth and investment in the country. We also heard local perspectives about the upcoming vote on the EU Treaty of Lisbon,
including its potential impact on business. We learned even more about the debate at the European Union Commission office, along with information about EU institutions. The following day, we took an early morning ferry to Wales and drove the lovely English countryside to our ultimate destination: 104 Banbury Road, Oxford. We were greeted by the house garden in full bloom and the fragrance of lavender.
the EU be enlarged to include Turkey? Is the EU Antitrust Commission Action against Microsoft justified? Presentations focused on topics such as: dumping actions against China; opposing genetically modified produce and hormone-treated beef; protecting the “Champagne” trademark; and prosecuting bribery at Siemens. We had provocative discussions, often informed by local news from The Guardian, The Times or BBC broadcasts.
Oral Arguments and Presentations: Trinity College
Negotiating Contracts: 104 Banbury Road
The next week, we settled into our classroom at Trinity College, feeling the intellectual weight of centuries. After discussing the legal landscape and risks of doing business in the EU, students made formal pro or con arguments and presentations on critical international issues. Topics of debate included: What should the EU response be to the Iranian presidential election? Should
A highlight of the class was a contract negotiation exercise that included mock teams from “Mattel, UK” charged with developing role model dolls for young girls and entering into sales contracts with mock teams from “Union King,” a manufacturer in Shenzhen, China. Meeting at the UGA Center, we marveled at its 19th century architecture and made full use of its 21st century wireless Internet. Negotiations were often heated as teams wrangled on price terms, protection of intellectual property and mandatory EU standards for toys. We also enjoyed the kitchen, making a huge batch of homemade chicken soup to fend off the mid-semester colds spawned by the damp English climate that was plaguing much of the class. Law & Ethics: UK v. US We wrapped up the term reading The Art of the Steal: Inside the Sotheby’s-Christie’s Auction House Scandal, discussing the staggering greed that landed the Chairman of Sotheby’s in jail and resulted in him paying a fine in the millions of dollars. This was contrasted with the Christie’s executives, who were not prosecuted at all, and our consideration of legal and ethical differences in the UK and US
Dr. Ehlers stands on the wall of Old Sarum, the oldest human habitation in Britain.
Walking Through History Dr. Ben Ehlers, History, Franklin Spring 2009
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he UGA at Oxford session in the Spring of 2009 revealed the many opportunities available to students and faculty alike. Our group trip to Stonehenge and Salisbury gave us the chance to get to know one another, and to come to grips with the ancient roots of English society, by contrast to our comparatively young nation. I tried to take advantage of the historical setting in my course on Philip II of Spain and Queen Elizabeth, which featured a walking tour retracing Elizabeth’s steps during her first regal visit to St. Mary’s church and Christ Church College (even if the latter site is now more remembered as the setting of the Harry Potter movies). Oxford invites exploration, whether riding along the canal on a rented bike or running along the footpaths to the north of town, one of which I discovered leads to the medieval church of Holyrood. The students approached their classes and activities with this spirit of inquiry, a testament to the value of this study abroad program.
Dr. Pagnattarro and her family enjoyed some travel time during her stay.
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Program Notes
20 th Anniversary Celebration and Dr. Shaw’s Retirement UGA at Oxford is known for many things. Students experience life-changing academic challenges under the careful and demanding tutelage of Oxford University’s famed faculty. The Programs bridge the divide between American and British academics, hopefully for the betterment of all involved, and over the years, we have expanded our curriculum and other academic efforts to respond to the ever-shifting and greater demand of the UGA community. If you have been a regular reader of the Oxford Bulldog, you may recall that last year’s issue featured a number of announcements about a series of events planned to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the ever-expanding UGA at Oxford Program in concert with a celebration to honor the retirement of our founder, Dr. Judith Shaw.
Who would have guessed two decades ago that UGA at Oxford would have become one of the premiere study abroad experiences at one of the highest-ranking institutions in the US for percentage of students having a study abroad experience? Perhaps Dr. Shaw did, even as she first began to work out the complicated and unique relations between the oldest public University in the US and the oldest Englishspeaking University in the world. As the summer began, all associated with the Program took a moment to reflect on just how far the UGA at Oxford endeavor has come. From a very small group of twelve in its infancy to the now over 200 students a year who spend time testing themselves alongside some of the brightest and most eminent faculty and students in the world, the Program has grown in ways many would have thought inconceivable. Plant a Tree, Honor Your Roots The monumental task of determining the best manner of honoring UGA at Oxford’s founder, Dr. Judith D. Shaw, became literally monumental as the summer drew closer. In an effort to symbolize what Dr. Shaw has been to the Program, President Adams’s office, in conjunction with the UGA at Oxford staff, decided to plant a tree in the already beautiful garden at the UGA at Oxford Centre in Oxford. An indication of both solid foundational leadership and the possibilities and strength for growth and expansion, a tree seemed only fitting President Adams spoke to the assembled students and guests at the tree dedication as Provost Mace and honoree, Dr. Shaw, looked on.
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to honor what Dr. Shaw had accomplished while looking forward to what the next twenty years might bring to our Programs. Of course, it could not be just any tree. After much debate and consideration, along with the advice of our tireless garden design team in Oxford, we selected a Magnolia “Susan” as the perfect addition to our lawn area. On Sunday, 12 July 2009, President and Mrs. Adams, Provost Mace, and a number of distinguished UGA at Oxford guests enjoyed a beautiful reception in the English summer weather, and the President spoke briefly about Dr. Shaw and what she had built through her tireless efforts and many years of service to the University of Georgia. President Adams was then assisted by a Terry College Summer Program participant, Susan Spicknall, in revealing the stone marker at the base of the newlyplanted tree, which reads in part: This tree has been planted in honour of Dr. Judith D. Shaw Founder, UGA at Oxford Program Tireless Supporter of International Education Standing in the shadow of a beautiful and perfectly-suited student residence and learning facility, it was easy to see the legacy that Dr. Shaw would be leaving behind, and with big shoes to fill, we in the UGA at Oxford office are happy to say that we will do our best to live up to the high standards she has set in addition to the high standards Oxford University has come to expect out of its relations with the students, faculty and staff of the University of Georgia. Endow a Fund, Branch Out to the Future As a further testament to the clear impact she has had on many students’ lives, we are proud to announce publicly here for the first time that a Scholarship has been endowed in honor of Dr. Shaw. The fund first began some years ago with a generous donation by a former Program participant Jeff Hancock. Over the last two years,
the UGA at Oxford Development Board, chaired by Ken Parris, himself a founder of the Ploughman Scholarship for UGA at Oxford students, has dedicated much of its fund-raising efforts to the completion of the endowment for the scholarship begun by Mr. Hancock. At the Fall 2009 meeting of the Board, with Dr. Shaw in attendance as a new Board Member, Mr. Parris passed along the good news; with little time left to spare, the Judith Davis Shaw Scholarship had been endowed. The Board was not happy to stop there, however. The Shaw Scholarship has been identified as an area of focus for further development, and with the continued efforts of all associated with the Program and the continued generosity of our alumni and friends, we hope to increase the funding, with the ultimate goal of providing full scholarships for a small number of students a year who would otherwise not have the opportunity to study on our programs. Celebrate a Program, Thank Our Friends The following Monday night, 13 July 2009, was a night for celebrating not just the retirement of Dr.Shaw but the entire twentyyear history of UGA’s association with one of the finest institutions of higher learning in the world. With both long-standing and newer friends of our efforts in attendance, the student body of the collected Franklin, Grady, and Terry Summer Programs dined in Hall at Trinity College alongside the Presidents of UGA, Trinity and Keble Colleges. Also in attendance were board members Joe Irving, GA Senator John Wiles, Mary Adams, Oxford Tutors from the full span of our twenty years, and representatives from the Bodleian Library as well as the other US Colleges and Universities who have played a role in helping to make what UGA at Oxford is today. After dinner, President Adams and Provost Mace spoke of the great honor and pride that UGA takes in its association with Keble and Trinity Colleges, with Oxford University in general and in particular of a debt of gratitude owed to Oxford faculty, who are the lynchpin of our entire operation. Dr. Adams reminded us all that without the continued and willing involvement of some
Sen. John Wiles, Dr. Kasee Laster and Mrs. Mary Adams enjoy the reception after the ceremony on what was a fine English summer day.
of the most eminent faculty in their respective fields, the UGA students on our Programs would simply not be afforded the full Oxford experience. Provost Mace challenged all in attendance to truly consider the value of the opportunities the Program affords and to consider how we might further build upon the relations between the two institutions. Look Ahead, but Remember Your Foundations As the UGA at Oxford Program heads into its next twenty years and beyond, it is clear that greatest resource we enjoy is people. Due to the dedication and hard work Provost Mace and Dr. Shaw take a moment to pose with the of people like Dr. Shaw, newly-planted Magnolia “Susan” and the Scottish stone and through the continued marker. support of Presidents and administrators like Dr. Adams, will hold as many exciting developments, Dr. Mace, Dame Averil and Sir Ivor, lessons learned and lives altered as have our we can feel certain that our mission of first twenty. providing students with an unforgettable Boundless thanks to all who have and challenging experience abroad will be supported us in our first twenty years, and met. With the continued interest of eagerfor information on how you can help to to-be-challenged UGA students who are further our mission, please call or write: themselves looking for more from a study (706) 542-2244, oxford@uga.edu. abroad program than the typical fare, we are confident that the next twenty years A Publication of the UGA at Oxford Program
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UGA at Oxford & Franklin College
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his annual gathering for alumni, friends and family of UGA at Oxford and Franklin College has become one of the most anticipated events of the year for everyone involved on both sides of the Atlantic. As has been our good fortune now for several years running, there couldn’t have been better weather for a fantastic gathering of UGA at Oxford and Franklin College fans and invitees. This year’s honored Oxford guest was Barbara Bradshaw. Barbara has played the confidant, house mother, academic advisor, travel agent, and scores upon scores of other roles over her long association with the UGA at Oxford Program. As the manager of the UGA at Oxford Centre, first at 106 Banbury Road in Oxford, now at 104, Barbara has had direct and formative contact with nearly every single UGA student who has spent time in the famous University town of Oxford for nearly two-thirds of the Program’s existence. It was therefore only fitting that Barbara should visit Athens as the Homecoming guest. After experiencing a rather prolonged and arduous journey to the US, Barbara finally made a safe arrival in Atlanta on the Thursday before the football festivities began. With an opportunity first to enjoy some traditional Southern breakfast foods, she was able to spend some time touring the UGA campus, which she had last visited nearly ten years ago. Finding it much changed, and all for the better, as she put it, Barbara spent a whirlwind day, meeting one old friend after another, all over Athens. In the afternoon, Barbara attended the fall meeting of the UGA at Oxford Development Board, speaking briefly to those assembled about the challenges and joys of semester after semester of welcoming intrepid UGA students into and helping to shepherd them through one of the most exciting opportunities of their academic lives. As the tailgate began on Saturday, Barbara was inundated with photo requests and well-wishers, her effect on the lives of so many students and parents plainly obvious. With over 250 alumni, friends and family in attendance from both Franklin College and UGA at Oxford, it is clear that with honored guests like Mrs. Bradshaw, the 20th Anniversary Tailgate and reunion only further demonstrates the deep connections felt by all involved with the UGA at Oxford Program. This year’s tailgate will take place, as always, on the patio in front of Park Hall on Homecoming Saturday, 16 October 2010. Please mark your calendars and plan to attend. We would love to see you there!
Ken Parris (Board Chair) and his wife Andrea have graciously endowed the Ploughman Scholarship for over ten years. Barbara takes a moment to catch up with triple-alumnus Jonathan Foggin and Program friend, Professor Peter Appel, UGA Law School. Summer 2009 participants, Ashley McMahon, Chris Hellmann, Susan Spicknall and Chelsea Lentini enjoyed a reunion photo in the November sun. Faculty alumnus Dr. Aidan Wasley, English Department, and grad student alumna Emily Kane rehash old tales with Barbara as the festivities wind to a close.
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Alumni Notes Editor’s Note: The following article is reprinted in part from The American, a student-run magazine relating Oxford University events and activities. David Reynolds, the UGA at Oxford student profiled here, has now participated in UGA at Oxford Programs in Fall 07, Fall 08, Spring 09, and Fall 09.
LCDR David Reynolds Commercial Pilot, Navy Reserve, Oxford University QB! The quarterback’s 37 years old, two thirds of the line are American, and the fullback is a Rhodes scholar. That the hallowed architecture of one of the world’s most famous university cities hides an American football team is a secret probably few residents realize. Surely Oxford means boat racing and rugby, not gridiron? David Reynolds is something of a renaissance man. With a degree in Marine Biology already, he has returned to education to add History and Archeology to his knowledge. To do this, he’s taken time out from being a commercial pilot for South West Airlines and a Navy Reserve. So why is he playing football? Like most American boys I grew up playing football. I played a little in high school but quit the team, something I regretted for years since and is probably one of the reasons I wanted to play now with the Cavaliers. I played intramural flag football when I was in college at Auburn. After I graduated, I served as an officer, pilot, and flight instructor in the US Navy for a total of 10 years. In both of my squadrons, I played flag football. I have studied the game since I was a kid and would throw football every day if I could, though I’ve admittedly never been the fastest guy around. How did you end up at Oxford? A few years ago I was deployed on an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf and started doing research about going back to school. I had always wanted to study at Oxford and was trying to find an exchange program that would allow me to do that once I left the Navy. On a whim I googled ‘British Collegiate American Football.’ When I learned there might be a way for me to play football again, that sealed it for me. What do you think of the standard of play in the BUAFL? How seriously do the players take it? I am pretty impressed with the standard of play over here. What the British members on our team may lack in experience, compared with guys who grew up in the States, they make up for in attitude and intensity. Our team may lack the financial resources of a college football team in the States, but they approach the sport just as seriously. I have been pretty impressed with how quickly guys have picked up their position after being introduced to it for the first time just a few months ago.
LtCol Gaines Ward is serving as Branch Head of Aviation Safety HQMC, Safety Division and is stationed in Washington D.C. He now has over 18 years of active service and can count himself among those intrepid souls who made the first trip to Oxford with Dr. Shaw in the late 1980s. Gaines has moved his family more times than he can count, living in Virginia four times as well as spending four years in Japan. After reading last year’s Anniversary edition of the Oxford Bulldog, Gaines has begun making contact with a number of fellow students from his days in the UK as well as with Dr. Shaw. We in the Oxford Program office thank Gaines of his service and encourage all those with whom we may have lost touch over the years to reach out; we’d love to hear from you! Gregory Ariall (Summer ’06, Fall ‘07) and Shawn Tucker (SPIA ’08, Fall ‘08) are the latest fine examples of what time spent on the UGA at Oxford Program can produce in terms of student opportunity. Both Gregory and Shawn began graduate degree programs at Oxford University the past Michelmas (Fall) term. As a result of their familiarity and contact with faculty and departments during their time spent on the UGA at Oxford Program, both of these young men have parlayed slots in exclusive graduate study courses. Gregory is reading English Literature at Worcester College, Oxford University, and Shawn has begun studying International Development at Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University. Our sincerest congratulations and best wishes to both Gregory and Shawn, and we hope they are only a sign of further good things to come from our Program participants! Emily Fall (Spring 2005) received a Fulbright Scholarship in 2008, and in 2009 she used the funding to travel to Jordan to conduct research on Palestinian refugees living in the area. Emily’s research has led her all over the Middle East; she spent time living in Damascus, Syria and working part-time as an intern at the Douma Registration Facility for Iraqi refugees and as a a substitute teacher at the Damascus Community School. Before Syria, she lived in Egypt and travelled to the UAE, Oman, Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus. She is currently considering graduate school programs.
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New donations help keep student aid in place
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here are few who have not been affected in one way or another by the current – to put it mildly – sour economy. The University of Georgia and the Oxford Program, too, have been forced to tighten belts all around. Due to necessary budget decisions made by the State Legislature and the Governor’s office in the past year, the UGA Foundation has decided on a protective stance for endowed scholarships. This choice will help to safeguard against further loss to endowments and ensure future health of the funds. As a result of this understandable necessity, however, we have been faced with a sobering reality: the temporary, open-ended loss of some of our most popular student aid Programs. As a way of alleviating the need vacuum left by the withdrawal of these scholarships in the short-term, we are happy to report that through the generosity of one individual and one group of Atlanta-area business people we are able to temporarily fund student aid packages for this year’s applicants. Joe Irving, a founding member of the UGA at Oxford Development Board, donated generously this past year in an effort to help students who had Joe Irving
suddenly been faced with the loss of scholarship opportunities on our programs. Joe’s son Michael is an alumnus of the Program, and as the financial officer for the Development Board, Joe has seen directly the benefits of participation on our programs and the unfortunate loss of funds to aid students. The British American Business Group (BABG) is a group of business people based in Atlanta and dedicated to promoting trade and economic interaction between the US and the UK. For many years, the BABG has helped to encourage growth on many levels across the Atlantic, and their generous donation to our student assistance fund in this past year is only evidence of their commitment to furthering their mission on many levels. The former British Consul General in Atlanta, Martin Rickerd, was instrumental in working with Ray Gilbert, Executive Director of the BABG, to identify UGA at Oxford’s need and securing the funds to help our students. We hope all in the UGA at Oxford family, past, present and future will join us in saying a big thanks to Joe, Ray and the BABG for coming to the rescue at a time when such assistance was sorely needed. For more information on how you can help the UGA at Oxford Program, please see our website: www.uga.edu/oxford. For more information on the BABG, including membership details, please see their website: www.babg.org/
The UGA at Oxford Program is proud to announce that it now has a page on its website for alumni to update their contact information, www.uga.edu/oxford/Update.php. Completed in October of 2009, the page allows alums to update both their mailing and email addresses as well as specify online networks of which they are a part so that staff may be able to best communicate upcoming program events such as the Alumni Homecoming Tailgate and the anticipated UGA versus Oxford Union Debate. Alongside the help of her husband, a web-designer, Jennifer Sonenberg, the program’s Graduate Assistant, designed the backbone of the updating system to make it as easy as possible for alumni to electronically update their information. We would like to encourage you all to complete the update form on our website. Please see the inset below for information pertaining to a special contest the Program is conducting for those who complete their updated contact information on the website. After you complete the form, we welcome your comments and suggestions on how we might further improve the contents of the form, so please feel free to contact our Graduate Assistant, Jennifer Sonenberg at jls@uga.edu.
Update your information and win an iPod Nano! As if maintaining your close ties with the Oxford Program wasn’t a reward in itself, we want to offer you the opportunity for an added bonus. Beginning with the publication of this year’s newsletter and running through the last day of class in UGA’s Spring 2010 semester (Thursday, 29 April), anyone who updates their alumni information using our new online system will automatically have their name entered in a drawing for a brand-new iPod Nano! Already updated your info? Don’t worry; simply complete the online process again to make yourself eligible for the drawing. For more information, check out the update page at www.uga.edu/oxford/Update.php.
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Oxford Bulldog
NEW ADDITIONS Jennifer Sonenberg, Graduate Assistant, is a 2003 Graduate of the University of Georgia and holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Education. She comes to Athens from Roswell, Georgia where she taught high school English as well as Talented and Gifted Internships for six years. She is currently working towards her Master’s degree in English Education, focusing on the relationship between literacy and technology in education, and plans on pursuing a Doctoral degree in Early Jenn and her husband Wade relocated to Modern English afterwards. Jennifer will Athens in Summer 2009. be serving for at least two years as an assistant for alumni and development relations within the Oxford office. While teaching, she embedded her love of William Shakespeare’s texts into her classroom by assisting her students in the creation of Shakespearean Fan-fiction as well as helping her English Department organize a school-wide Shakespeare Festival; therefore, she is more than excited to be traveling to Oxford this summer as one of the program’s Graduate Assistants. While in Oxford, she hopes to not only take a Shakespearean class from an Oxford Don but also to utilize her teaching background by helping undergraduate students with their studies.
Junemester is Back! One of the great challenges of running a successful study abroad program is balancing a winning formula with a need for innovation and advancement into new areas of opportunity for students. Semesterlong programs offer an authentic Oxford experience unmatched by almost any other Program in the country, and Summer programs offer a perfect slice of life in the Oxford system, combining UK faculty with several of UGA’s most popular majors, but for some time, there had been an obvious need for something else, something unique among the UGA at Oxford offerings. Thus: the return of Junemester. In June 2009, the Program was reinstituted after a hiatus of several years. Increased demand for a short early-Summer program had become clear, and the Junemester model certainly fit the bill. With fifteen students enrolled, UGA faculty Dr. Richard Menke and Instructor Dr. Kathleen Anderson embarked on a whirlwind two-week academic tour of the OxfordLondon environs. Designed to offer a wealth of experience and educational opportunity in a very short stint, the Program features a small number of classes including many relevant site visits. Dr. Anderson’s “Shakespeare at the Theatre” course saw over a half dozen performances of plays they had been reading and discussing in class only a few weeks before back in Athens. Dr. Menke describes the experience as intense, but ultimately rewarding: “You get to know your students very well, very quickly. [. . .] It is a great way to get to know our students in a way we often don’t manage to in our classes [on campus].” The courserelated excursions on Junemester allow for a great deal of immediacy in the student’s understanding of the materials they are reading in class. It may seem like a simple consideration but visiting Rudyard Kipling’s home was for the students an excellent way to apprehend even the simplest features of his life and times as they relate to his work. It is one thing, as Dr. Menke states, to “read Kipling stories about cars,” but another thing entirely to “[see] Kipling’s cars, it was great!” The 2010 Junemester Program is now accepting applications. For more information on our Junemester Programs, including course listings, please see the Program website: www.uga.edu/oxford.
Mark your Calendars for these upcoming UGA at Oxfordsponsored events: 19-20 April 2010, President Adams and the UGA at Oxford Program are happy to welcome Sir Ivor Roberts to the University of Georgia. Sir Ivor is President of Trinity College, Oxford University and a former diplomat in service of the crown in Great Britain. In his nearly 40 years’ service, Sir Ivor has been credited, perhaps most notably, for playing a pivotal role in negotiations for the release of British soldiers held hostage by the Bosnian Serbs in May/ June 1995. Spring 2011, The UGA at Oxford Program is once again proud to announce the return of one of UGA’s finest traditions: the UGA versus Oxford Union Debate Competition. Come and see some of UGA’s finest debaters square off against representatives from one of the oldest and most well-known debate societies in the world! Dates are still tentative, but plan ahead now so that you don’t miss the opportunity to see this trans-Atlantic tradition in its fourth iteration. UGA’s record is currently 1 for 3, so come out and help support the team as they look to even the score with the Brits!
UGA at Oxford The University of Georgia 326A Park Hall Athens, GA 30602
NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE
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Permit No. 165 Athens, Georgia
2010-2011
UGA at Oxford Program Calendar Early Admit Deadlines available for 2010 programs. Please see the UGA at Oxford website: www.uga.edu/oxford
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SPIA at Oxford Spring 2010 Thursday, December 31 – Saturday, March 13
SPIA at Oxford Spring 2011 Friday, December 31 – Saturday, March 12
SPIA at Oxford Spring 2010 (Early Admission) Thursday, December 31 – Saturday, March 13
SPIA at Oxford Spring 2011 (Early Admission) Friday, December 31 – Saturday, March 12
UGA / OSU Law at Oxford Spring 2010 Friday, December 31 – Saturday, April 17 Franklin at Oxford Spring 2010 Thursday, March 25 – Saturday, June 19 Foundation Fellows at Oxford Maymester 2010 Sunday, May 9 – Thursday, June 10 Franklin at Oxford Junemester 2010 Saturday, June 12 – Sunday, June 27 UGA Oxford – Washington Program 2010 Thursday, June 10 – Sunday, July 4 (In D. C.) Tuesday, July 6 – Saturday, July 31 (In Oxford) Franklin at Oxford Summer 2010 Sunday, July 4 – Friday, August 13 Terry at Oxford Summer 2010 Sunday, July 4 – Friday, August 13
UGA / OSU Law at Oxford Spring 2011 Saturday, January 8 – Saturday, April 23 Franklin at Oxford Spring 2011 Thursday, March 31 – Saturday, June 25 Foundation Fellows at Oxford Maymester 2011 Sunday, May 8 – Thursday, June 9 Franklin at Oxford Junemester 2011 Saturday, June 18 – Sunday, July 3 Franklin at Oxford Summer 2011 Early July – Mid-August Terry at Oxford Summer 2011 Early July – Mid-August
Grady at Oxford Summer 2010 Sunday, July 4 – Friday, August 13
Grady at Oxford Summer 2011 Early July – Mid-August
Franklin at Oxford Fall 2010 Thursday, September 9 – Saturday, December 4
Franklin at Oxford Fall 2011 Thursday, September 8 – Saturday, December 3