2013/14
Mansfield
inside...
Architects’ perspective on East Range and Love Lane page 8
Contents Message from the Principal College news
3 4-7
Shaping the future
8
From memory lane to Love Lane
9
A term at Mansfield
10-12
Senior Tutor’s Report
13
Bursar’s Report
14
JCR President’s Report
15
MCR President’s Report
16
A year in Development
17
Access Report
18-19
College life
20-26
Visiting Student Programme
27
Human rights
28
A Japanese journey Cycling across America
29 30-31
Reach for the (neutron) stars: interview with Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell
32-34
Parliamentary daggers: a conversation with Chris Bryant MP
36-39
Mansfield College and the Great War
40-43
Serendipity: tales of the unexpected in theatrical and literary exchanges
44-45
Alumni news
46-47
Obituaries 48-50 College and University prizes 2014
51
Examination results 2014
52-53
Fellows’ research and publications
54-55
Events calendar
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Produced by the Development Office at Mansfield College Photo credits: Keiko Ikeuchi (Cover & all photos except where specified) Richard Waite (p2: middle & bottom left; p13; p35) Courtesy of the authors (p4: middle left, top right & bottom right; p7: top & middle left; p24 top right; p25 top left; p26 top right; p27: bottom right & top left; p29-31; p40; p42-45; p46 bottom left; p47, p48-50; p54-55)
Mansfield College Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3TF Registered Charity Number 1143860 Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at: E development@mansfield.ox.ac.uk W www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk Contents/Credits Editor: Aparajita Kashyap, Alumni Relations Officer Copy-editor: Phil Harriss Design and printing: Windrush Group
The Development Office would like to thank all of those - students, staff, alumni and friends - who have contributed to this year’s magazine. Follow us on www.facebook.com/mansfieldoxford twitter.com/mansfieldoxford www.linkedin/groups/gid=1093187&trk=hb_side_g www.flickr.com/92606800@n08/ issu.com/ mansfieldoxford
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Message from the Principal
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC The new academic year has started with gusto. We have a whole new batch of students from home and abroad, and a larger group of postgraduates than ever before – all to add to the gaiety of Mansfield life. There is a very different feel to much of the College, with our new kitchens providing state-of-the-art facilities, so that our culinary fare is even more impressive and the staff no longer have to work in Dickensian gloom. The lovely new eating facilities in The Crypt under the Old Hall provide a modern space for informal gathering, as well as an attractive student bar. And there on the edge of our Quad is a beautiful Terrace where students can take their books and a cappuccino. The transformation includes an atrium to the rear of the Chapel, which is a beautiful airy, light addition – with plenty of loos – and a gracious staircase bonding the Chapel to the East Range. And the Chapel itself has evolved into a wonderful flexible space now to be called the Chapel Hall, where church services can take place as always, but the glorious building can also bring together our community in greater numbers to break bread at formal dining and deepen our friendships. The College is feeling upbeat and excited about the future. Our ambition to raise the funding for the Love Lane project – to create new residential accommodation for our students as well as house a world-leading Institute of Human Rights – is coming closer to realisation. With your help and that of visionary benefactors, we will get there.
Our students continue to be the reason Mansfield is special. We seem to strike so lucky with those who become part of this great place. The real joy of being Principal is getting to know this amazing range of young people who are all so clever and talented. They give me faith in the future because they care so much about our world and want to make a difference. We have been very lucky to receive the generous loan of a beautiful sculpture by the world-renowned artist Sir Antony Gormley, which now graces our central lawn. To me it symbolises the power of education. The base of the sculpture is the mould in which the image of a human form would have been fired to become a bronze statue. However, the statue that is balanced on the top does not conform to the shape of the mould. The arms are not straight to the side but embracing the world. The sculpture reminds us that none of us should be limited by constricting moulds. We should all find our own shape, our own way of being, developing through learning and through the experiences of life. We should all embrace the world with open arms and an open heart. I hope this coming year brings success to us all and to Mansfield College. Thank you for helping me and all the Fellows in that great endeavour.
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College news
Professor Ros Ballaster
Professor Jason Smith
Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell
News in brief Professor Ros Ballaster
From January 2014 to January 2015 Ros, Tutorial Fellow in English at Mansfield, has held a Knowledge Exchange Fellowship from the Oxford Humanities Division to work with the Royal & Derngate Theatre in Northampton, adding literary value to its in-house productions. She was chair of the steering committee for an international conference held September 26th-29th 2014, on ‘Women Writing Across Cultures: Past, Present and Future’ at St Hilda’s College. Her project website on ‘Georgian Theatre and the Novel 1714-1832’ has also been launched and is available at http://georgiantheatrenovel.wordpress.com/
Professor James Marrow
James, Fellow in Materials Science at Mansfield, has been awarded the ESIS Fellowship by the European Structural Integrity Society. This highly regarded Fellowship was awarded during the 20th European Conference of Fracture in Trondheim, Norway, which took place June 30th to July 4th 2014.
Professor Jason Smith
Jason, Tutorial Fellow in Materials Science at Mansfield, leads Oxford’s involvement in the new Centre for Doctoral Training in Diamond Science and Technology, funded by a grant of £4.5m from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. He was also appointed Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Warwick from October 2014 to September 2019.
Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Jocelyn, Professorial Fellow in Physics at Mansfield, has been elected by the Royal Society of Edinburgh to be its next President. The election followed a ballot of all RSE Fellows that saw an overwhelming response in favour of her nomination. She succeeded the former President, Sir John Arbuthnott MRIA, PRSE, in October 2014.
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Commenting on the election, Sir John said, ‘I am delighted to welcome Dame Jocelyn as my successor. Her scientific standing, her public profile and her great breadth of experience will greatly benefit the Royal Society of Edinburgh.’
Professor Georgina Born
Georgina, Fellow at Mansfield and Professor of Music and Anthropology at Oxford, was elected to the British Academy in July 2014. She is one of 42 highly distinguished UK academics who were elected as Fellows in recognition of their outstanding research. Georgina directs the European Research Council funded research programme, ‘Music, Digitisation, Mediation: Towards Interdisciplinary Music Studies’. She is currently the Schulich Distinguished Visiting Professor and Dean’s Chair in Music at the Schulich School of Music, McGill University, and also holds this year the Bloch Distinguished Visiting Professorship, Department of Music, University of California, Berkeley.
Professor Georgina Born
College news
Portrait of an Oxford college
Mansfield College Contents: 1. Origins and Reinvention 2. The College Buildings 3. Governance and Access 4. Three Principals Look Back 5. Three Thematic Perspectives 6. College Life: Then and Now General Editors: Stephen Blundell and Michael Freeden Photography: Keiko Ikeuchi
From various perspectives, this book tells the interwoven stories of Mansfield’s past and present, its extraordinary growth and development, and its ambitions for the future. It features stunning new photographs by the College’s photographer in residence, Keiko Ikeuchi, as well as never-before published pictures from Mansfield’s archive.
Specifications: Hardback, 176 pages, 270 x 230mm over 150 illustrations, ISBN: 9781906507497 Publication: July 2012 New price: £20 Copies of the book are available: Online at tmiltd.com By phone on +44 (0) 20 7336 0144 Please contact the Development Office on + 44 (0) 1865 270998 for more information.
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College news
News in brief Arrivals Academics Dr Vanessa Berenguer-Rico Tutorial Fellow in Economics Vanessa Berenguer-Rico is an Associate Professor at the Department of Economics. She holds a PhD in Economics from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and a BA and Diploma of Advanced Studies in Economics from Universitat de Barcelona. Before joining Mansfield she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Nuffield College for three years. Her research interests are econometrics, time series analysis and applied macroeconomics.
Dr Andrew Higgins Tutorial Fellow in Law Andrew Higgins is the Associate Professor in Civil Procedure at the Law Faculty. He has taught civil procedure on Oxford’s BCL/ MJur course since 2008 and has also taught contract and tort for University College and New College respectively. From 2015 Andrew will take on the General Editorship of Civil Justice Quarterly. Andrew completed a DPhil at Oxford on legal professional privilege in 2011, and published a book, Legal Professional Privilege for Corporations: A Guide to Four Major Common Law Jurisdictions, with Oxford University Press in 2014. He has been a visiting scholar with NYU’s Hauser Global Law School Program and an occasional guest lecturer in civil procedure at Melbourne Law School. Andrew has also been a practising barrister at the Victorian Bar since 2011. His main area of practice is mass tort litigation and he has worked on asbestos, thalidomide and tobacco litigation, among others. He received awards for his work exposing British American Tobacco’s ‘document retention policies’ in McCabe v
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British American Tobacco, including from a coalition of public health NGOs. Andrew’s main research interests are civil procedure, tort and causation.
Dr Matti Vihola Tutorial Fellow in Statistics Matti Vihola, University Lecturer in Statistics, received his PhD in Mathematics from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland in 2010, where he continued as a Postdoctoral Researcher until joining Oxford in August 2014. His main research interests are in computational statistics and applied probability. Particular interests include general state-space Markov chains, and development and analysis of various algorithms such as Markov chain Monte Carlo, sequential Monte Carlo and stochastic approximation (stochastic gradient) methods.
College news
New staff Keith Smith
Professor Pamela Clemit
Keith joined the Porter’s Lodge in summer 2014. He was raised in Oxford, and has previously worked in managerial positions in restaurants, nightclubs, and bars.
Visiting Fellow in English
Helen Brooks
Pam Clemit is Professor of English Studies at Durham University. Her books include The Godwinian Novel (Oxford, 1993). She has published numerous scholarly and critical editions of William Godwin’s and Mary Shelley’s writings. She received her doctorate from the University of Oxford, and took her BA and MPhil at Mansfield. She is a Visiting Research Fellow at Mansfield 2014/15.
Helen joined the College Office in April 2014 as Access and Admissions Administrator, replacing Jenny Medland. She studied Classics at St John’s College, and subsequently worked there in the Admissions Office before coming to Mansfield.
Professor James Foster
Peter was appointed as a Front of House Manager early in 2014 to replace the long-serving Monika Dziasek. He joins us from Witney Lakes Resort where he held a position of Food and Beverage Manager. Previously, Peter was a Butler at Keble College and also worked at the prestigious Carlton Club in London.
Visiting Fellow in Economics James Foster is Professor of Economics and International Affairs at The Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University. He has been a visiting professor at the London School of Economics, Cornell, Essex University, Oxford, Harvard, and the University of the Americas in Puebla, Mexico. He is a Visiting Research Fellow at Mansfield 2014/15. Professor Foster’s research focuses on welfare economics — using economic tools to evaluate the well-being of people. This research includes work on: multidimensional poverty with Oxford’s Sabina Alkire; economic inequality with Harvard’s Amartya Sen; poverty and inclusive growth with Miguel Szekely, former Undersecretary of Social Development in Mexico; and literacy with Kaushik Basu, Chief Economist of the World Bank. He regularly teaches courses in economic development, and has co-taught a doctoral seminar on Social Choice and Welfare Economics with Dr. Sen and a large undergraduate course on Game Theory and Strategic Thinking with Dr. Basu. His multidimensional poverty measure with Dr. Alkire has been adopted as an official measure by many countries, the latest of which is Chile.
Peter Nagy
Departures Revd Tanya Stormo Rasmussen Chaplain Fellow and Tutor for Welfare We bid goodbye to The Revd Tanya Stormo Rasmussen, who left College in September 2014. She joined Mansfield in 2008 and has been a great source of support and welfare for students. We wish her all the best.
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Shaping the future Stuart Cade and Andy Matthews, of Rick Mather Architects, describe the two major developments that are set to transform Mansfield. The East Range project has already been realised, to great acclaim; now the College is about to embark on a yet more ambitious enterprise – the Love Lane Building.
East Range The East Range has been a fascinating project to design and realise. Within the historic Champneys building, we removed later additions, restored original features and integrated new modern services. This was a painstaking and rewarding challenge, to make the building more suitable for 21st-century College use. The removal of the existing cramped Victorian kitchens created the opportunity for a new café and bar, which has been eagerly used by students throughout the day since opening in September 2014. A new stone floor, which provides a memory of the removed internal walls, connects the café space to the new atrium and out on to the external sunken terrace. Warm weather this autumn meant that more people took advantage of the new south-facing terrace; we look forward to seeing many events being enjoyed here throughout the year. During construction, this area proved very popular with the builders due to its sunny aspect, and it became a popular lunchtime location. We have exposed original spaces and created new ones within the existing buildings. For instance, the historic ceiling in the Old Hall was skilfully restored to its original splendour by craftsmen, and now shows a level of detail that was not previously seen for decades. A surprise discovery was a large stone-lined niche on the front wall of the café, which has been transformed into a banquette seat. The Tower has also been fully refurbished to provide new tutor rooms within the historic architecture. The gable façades to the East Range and Chapel have been revealed and restored by stonework specialists. The new link space allows these two areas to be seen and appreciated, as well as directly connecting the East Range and the Chapel. The new building is topped by two large roof lights that allow natural light to penetrate into these spaces, as well as giving views of the East Range façade. We look forward to seeing Mansfield students enjoying the new spaces.
Love Lane In July 2013 Rick Mather Architects updated the design for the proposed Love Lane Building. We have since gained planning consent for a lower-ground floor to extend the facilities, and so provide for the College’s future requirements. The project will create space for a new Institute of Human Rights on the lower levels, as well as a 200-seat multipurpose auditorium. A series of light-filled double-height spaces will link these lower levels, promoting open access and communication opportunities. On the ground floor we have created common rooms, which open on to a new sunken terrace set within a newly landscaped garden. A total of 78 en-suite student bedrooms will be located on the upper floors, many of which will have views over the Quad and towards the Chapel and East Range. These are accessed from their own private naturally lit staircase. The form of the building was developed to respect the two key constraints of the site, namely the 17th-century Civil War rampart, which curves around the rear of the site, and the fine Gothic Revival façade of the Principal’s Lodgings. This building is designed to allow the student rooms to have generous corner windows, as well as providing further visual interest in the façade treatment. With specialists, we have devised a low-energy strategy, which will require minimal energy input to run due to the building’s highly insulated façade and roof. Any additional energy requirements will be sourced on site from photovoltaic panels, as well as ground-source heating – further reducing energy consumption in the long term. The design was highly commended at the City Planning Committee for its design and environmental approach, when permission was granted in 2013. Rick Mather Architects are delighted to continue to work with the College to deliver this exciting and unique building that will effect a radical transformation, providing generous and much-needed new facilities.
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From memory lane to Love Lane Daniel Seiderer (MBA, 2007), President of the Mansfield College Association, reflects on the help the Association has been able to give to students – and to the College itself. Daniel Seiderer (left) I have had the pleasure of going back to Oxford a few times this year. For me, every visit – and particularly those to Mansfield College – is a trip down memory lane. Returning to Oxford, and being back at Mansfield, reminds me of the great and happy times I had there as a student.
Speaking of students, I was especially impressed when recently walking around Mansfield after attending a dinner at College, to see that, even late at night, students were still sitting in the new café area that has been created underneath the old dining hall. They were lost in their books and obviously studying eagerly. Seeing those students made me really proud of the work the Mansfield Association has done in supporting them in any way we possibly can. The Association has, for example, most recently supported a student’s study trip to Russia; it is currently helping nine Mansfield students to train with the legal non-profit organisation, Amicus; and it has helped a student to participate in the Oxford University Drama Society summer tour. I’m particularly proud of awarding the Mansfield Association Women in Science Prize to Ellen Hang for her excellent achievements in her Prelims, and congratulate her on her well-deserved scholar’s gown!
Having the new café and terrace area has made such a huge difference to the fabric of daily life for students here at Mansfield. It’s the ideal place to get a much-needed caffeine fix after working in the library, but also for all the second years dispersed in Cowley, it’s become a real social hub – I now can’t picture College life without it!
While I’m sure that the Mansfield Association’s support is important to, and appreciated by, the students, the College is looking at a much bigger project that – if realised – will open up completely new opportunities for Mansfield’s students: the Love Lane project. The Love Lane Building will not only host the Institute of Human Rights, but will also offer new space for the students. A total of 78 rooms for student accommodation will be created, along with new seminar rooms and a 200-seat auditorium – offering space for learning and guaranteeing that Mansfield remains for its students what it has always been: a special place. To find out more about this fascinating project, I can only encourage you to contact the wonderful people at Mansfield’s alumni office.
Sara Semic (History, 2013)
Photo: Andy Matthews
Alternatively, you can simply attend any of the numerous forthcoming events for alumni, which take place in Oxford, London and elsewhere. My personal highlights will be Oxford’s European Reunion in Vienna (April 24th to 26th) to which, I hope, many Mansfield alumni will make it, and the Summer Garden Party at the College on June 27th. As Donald Macdonald of Boat Club fame has agreed to speak at the dinner, this surely is an event not to be missed. Staying in touch with our College is fun! And it is great to see the progress that Mansfield is making. For me personally, it’s even more rewarding to understand how we as alumni can support our College and its current students in their progress. I hope reading this magazine helps you to take your own little trip down memory lane. I also hope it encourages you to stay in touch with the College and attend one of the events. And I would be really happy if you, like me, went from a stroll down memory lane on to full-hearted support of Mansfield’s Love Lane project, as this will ensure that the College remains as great a place for future generations as it has been for us. Mansfield 2013/14
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College life
A term at Mansfield It was a dark and rainy day. Almost all of them were in January. But the Quad was a luscious, if squishy green, and the reports from home were brutal – snow and more snow in New York. I sat in my semiprivate office, a desk in the corner of the first-floor lounge in the Principal’s lodgings, finishing my seventh book. The work progressed slowly, inconclusively. The humidity clobbered my sinuses; most days, I felt as if I were the top half – the upside down half – of the brilliant Gormley statue in the middle of the Quad. My wife and I were inexplicably happy, nonetheless, even when lashed by tiny wind-launched drizzle pellets on our daily walks into town. The rain is more frequent but smaller, somehow, in England. We settled in easily for Hilary Term at Mansfield College. Oxford had the effect of a down comforter, or eiderdown, upon us; and we dislodged ourselves grudgingly three months later. The time flew without seeming to pass. Ever since – even now, in the glorious and not at all subtle North American summer sun – we have been trying to figure out the narcotic spell Mansfield, and Oxford, and England, cast over us. Why were we so happy? It wasn’t a brash, Big Gulp American sort of glee. It was more of a prim, artisanal sort of contentment, our darker moods softened by a nice cuppa and a scone with clotted cream. In America, the clichéd knock on the British used to be that they were polite but two-faced: snootily disdainful of Yanks. That has been reinforced by the double-edged sword of Downton Abbey, which has reinforced our sense of inferiority while miraculously making us nostalgic for your past. In actual life, as opposed to television, my wife Victoria and I found the unrelenting politeness and good cheer a simple pleasure – and certainly a relief from the honking and bleating at home. At dinner parties in England, people talked rather than bragged. I much preferred getting the bad news from Jon Snow or Jeremy Paxman than from Rush Limbaugh or Al Sharpton. British politics, though uninspiring, was more reassuring than the paralytic squabble back home; UKIP was milquetoast compared to the Tea Party. The one aesthetically upsetting issue was Scottish secession: what would happen to the Union Jack, the Lion and Unicorn? 10 Mansfield 2013/14
Victoria, a designer, lamented the impending aridity of disentanglement. We were both chuffed when David Bowie expressed our feelings elegantly: ‘Please stay with us’, he said to the Scots. And so, Great Britain was, for us, as advertised: so green, so pleasant – even more so given the buffering provided by Oxford itself, the bells marking the hours, the birdsong even in January, the daily surprises at the open market, the proximity of truly great bookstores, the comfort food and drink of pubs like the Turf and the Bear. That, in itself, would have been enough to keep us satisfied in perpetuity. But there was also Mansfield College, gorgeous even in the midst of a massive rebuilding project. The book I was writing concerned American veterans of the recent wars, a hopeful book – I hoped – about the communitarian ties that bound them into a fellowship and separated them from the gluttonous libertarianism that has quietly undermined American society since the end of World War II. My belief was that these veterans were not the psychological basket-cases who crowded the news with their personal misfortunes, but assets from whom the rest of us could learn the best practices of citizenship and community: the security that comes from being part of something larger than yourself. I found, quietly, at Mansfield, that it is easier to write about community when you are part of one. We were embraced by the Mansfield community and fell in love. We became kindlier, gentler – for a few months, at least. We were devoted to Friday night high table. The ritual that began with tea at 4pm, then a lecture at 5pm, then a drinks party at 6.30pm, then dinner (and more drinks), and then post-mortems, and still more drinks, in the Senior
College life Joe Klein
Political Columnist for Time magazine and Author of Primary Colours.
Oxford had the effect of a down comforter upon us; and we dislodged ourselves grudgingly three months later.
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College life
A term at Mansfield continued... Common Room. We loved the ritual of marching into the Chapel/Dining Hall – and I must say the Chapel made for a truly inspiring dining hall – as the students stood, then the gavel to order by the Principal, Baroness Helena Kennedy, followed by her simple, secular prayer, in Latin and in English: ‘Anything worth having is worth sharing with others’. My introduction to Friday high table was the Robert Burns dinner, which involved a bowl of whisky passed round the table, and exotic incantations – especially the prayer over the haggis, which was rehearsed by a formidable knifewielding woman undergraduate, in a fetching Scottish lilt. By meal’s end, the candles were flickering golden and the magnificent vaulted ceiling ever more vaulty, and the path back to the Senior Common Room far more circuitous than it usually was, and the conversation, as always, brilliant.
I must say a word about Helena Kennedy. She is an old friend, but her invitation to spend a term at Mansfield gave us the opportunity to see the Baroness in full flight, a magnificent sight to behold. She is bewitchingly clever, of course, but also hilarious and indefatigable. She was wildly generous to us, even when I nearly gave her a heart attack by announcing in one of my lectures that I was a proud capitalist; there were a few gasps in the room, but I was not escorted to the Porter’s Lodge and packed off to the colonies. No one even bothered to make the counterargument. We are now returned to New York and missing the grace and quiet, the cleverness and beauty and, above all, the community we experienced at Mansfield, all of which seem too serene and delicate to be experienced over here, in our harsher, newer world.
In actual life, as opposed to television, my wife Victoria and I found the unrelenting politeness and good cheer a simple pleasure...
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Photo: Robert Trafford
Senior Tutor’s Report
Lucinda Rumsey In 2014 Mansfield was 25th in the Norrington table. This is lower than the past three recordbreaking years, but shouldn’t detract from our students’ excellent results. And we did break one record; 95% of our students were awarded a 2.i or First, our highest ever proportion of students getting a 2.i or above. A total of 15 out of 60 finalists were awarded Firsts, and 20 students were awarded distinctions in first-year exams. Many individual subjects had very strong years. Engineering had its best year ever with three Firsts in Schools. There were also three distinctions in Prelims, all of them in the top 20 in the University, with Ludovico Lazzeretti awarded a Gibbs Prize. Both of our Philosophy and Theology finalists, and one Theology and Religion finalist, were awarded Firsts, with Aidan Hampton (Theology) and Adam Sewell (Philosophy and Theology) also receiving Gibbs prizes. There were three Firsts in History, two in Law, two in Maths, and one each in Physics, Geography and Theology and Religion. Gibbs prizes were also awarded to two of the students with distinctions in English Prelims, Helena Wilson and Athanassia Williamson. Other Prelims distinctions were distributed across PPE, Law, History, Oriental Studies, Geography (with Frances Thompson winning the John House Prize for Geography Prelims), Physics, Maths, and
Materials, with Lev Chechik joint winner of the Armourers & Brasiers’ Company/Rolls-Royce Prize for outstanding performance in Materials Prelims. Also in Materials, Katherine Lumley won the prize for the best Materials Team Design Project, and in Oriental Studies Lily Fletcher won the Abramson Prize for the best FHS performance in Modern Hebrew Literature. As I write, we are just starting a new year, with what may be our largest ever number of students: 72 undergraduate freshers, 78 new graduates. We are also very pleased to welcome three new fellows: Vanessa Berenguer-Rico (Economics), Matti Vihola (Statistics) and Andrew Higgins (Law). Everyone, new and returning, is getting used to unfamiliar stairways and spaces. Our new atrium and café are complete, and the refurbished Tower is back in use. My own new office in the Tower has a view over the Quad, from which I can see the cycle of the academic year turning. A few weeks ago we had our late-summer open day with several hundred visitors, followed the next day by the Friends and Family day, when the College was filled with our freshers bringing their families and friends on a pre-term visit. Now the signs of the new term are evident outside: parents carrying boxes and students greeting each other. As the freshers get settled, the UCAS forms for new applicants start pouring in, and round it goes.
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Bursar’s Report
Allan Dodd
of brilliant work by a dedicated team of academics, administrative and operational staff who work extremely hard to get the most out of what we have.
I sometimes wonder whether our current and former students understand fully the relative disparities in wealth between the Oxford colleges, and the consequent disadvantage with which a college like ours has to work. Sure, everyone knows that Mansfield is a relatively poor college, but just how big is the gap? Well, the most recent table of college ‘taxable wealth’ (a measure of all college wealth including endowment) puts the median level of wealth at around £70m – achieved by colleges such as Oriel or Exeter. Other ‘poor’ colleges such as LMH, Teddy Hall, Somerville or St Hilda’s are in the £40£50m range. Mansfield is at £11.3m. As other income sources – such as student fees, student rents and meal charges – are the same or very similar across all colleges, it is the variation in taxable wealth that makes the difference to student and staff experience. The numbers do not lie; many things that are taken for granted at other colleges simply do not happen here. I hope this doesn’t sound like a whinge – I love it at Mansfield, and I think we do fantastic things with our limited resources, but it is a struggle and will remain so for as long as the level of difference I have sketched out above remains. So, how are we doing in financial terms and in other areas of the Bursar’s responsibilities? The 2013/14 published accounts will show a reasonably large surplus, mainly because the curious form of charity accounting that we are obliged to use treats all donations as income. Consequently, all of the donations that are starting to come in for the Love Lane Building, for example, count as in-year income, even if we intend it for longer term capital purposes. More realistically, in operating terms – income from fees, rents, meal charges, conferences, etc, compared with day-to-day operating expenditure – we did slightly better than break-even. That is a really good outcome, and the result
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Over the year we also completed the East Range project, about which more below; completed the refurbishment of all the bathrooms in staircases A-D; expanded and refurbished the Development Office to accommodate additional staff; refurbished the accommodation provided to our off-site Junior Dean; installed energy-efficient LED technology to replace the least efficient of the College’s lighting; commissioned the restoration of the ceiling in the Old Hall; and continued the electrical testing and upgrade of wiring and circuitry to those parts of the College not yet tested (and I think I can confirm that – for the first time in many years – the wiring is now pretty much in a sound state). What else of the Bursar’s responsibilities? Our catering continues to be first class, despite operating from temporary facilities for 18 months; our conference business continues to grow strongly, despite the limitations of the quantum and quality of our accommodation; our IT provision continues to improve and become more robust; our accommodation team has relocated eight Fellows into new or refurbished rooms while juggling furniture, paintings and other valuables in and out of storage; and our porters continue to offer a wonderfully friendly and helpful welcome to our many visitors. For me, the main issue that has kept me awake at night has been the East Range project. Those who have watched Grand Designs over the years will know that it always seems to be the glass that causes the problems – and there is a considerable amount of glass in the new East Range… As a result, together with numerous other issues that working with historic listed buildings always involve, the project came in very late. But the key thing is that it is finished, it looks great, and it will be a fantastic asset. Please come to see it. I am very proud of what we achieve, but to return to the beginning of this piece, it isn’t easy when the playing field is so uneven. So, when you see appeals for help, I hope you can see both why we need it, and the great things that your support delivers.
JCR President’s Report Patrick Ferguson Theology, 2012 It has been a very exciting time, over the past couple of terms, to be the JCR President. The role has enabled me to serve with a committed and enthusiastic JCR Bench (kindly and fervently supported by our predecessors from the outgoing Bench), as well as to interact at a very hands-on level with a deeply involved JCR. In addition, my period in the post has coincided with a time of great development for the College and it has been a pleasure to follow the progress closely. I refer chiefly, of course, to the construction works in the College, both those ongoing and those still planned. While the East Range project is now complete and generating much excitement – ever growing as students take the tour of the new facilities – attention now turns to the latest and greatest project, the Mansfield Human Rights Institute. Not only will the 78 new bedrooms provide a great boost to the state of Mansfield’s student housing, as it is unquestionably a great convenience to have such good and plentiful on-site accommodation, but the Human Rights Institute is also of independent interest for our College members. Testament to such, the students of the College have established a Mansfield Human Rights Forum, providing an opportunity for students to involve themselves in campaigns already existing in Oxford, or to set up something entirely new. Current initiatives include the ‘Amicus’ project, affiliated with ‘Reprieve’, providing research for pro bono lawyers in the USA defending inmates on death row, and supporting campaigns for the abolition of the death penalty. The works on East Range have regrettably resulted in a reshuffling of College room use, with the JCR moving into the smaller Council Room. However, we look
forward to making good use of the new bar and cafeteria area in the East Range, as well as moving into the far more spacious Chapel for dining. The much-needed kitchen improvements will, it is hoped, also make the catering staff’s job a lot easier, and the refurbished bathrooms in the John Marsh building provide another popular improvement to the College’s accommodation. My presidency has also been very interesting in the University-wide settings of Prescom – the forum in which all college JCR Presidents gather once a fortnight to discuss various college-specific or University issues – and of the fortnightly OUSU Council. A major topic of conversation during the latter has been the subject of NUS disaffiliation, a motion that did not pass. Had it done so, the implications would have been significant as the student body would no longer have had the clout of such a powerful student union’s representation. However, disaffiliation would arguably have avoided the kerfuffle of vying for the NUS’s attention, and struggling to get our needs and interests across forcefully. A fascinating project discussed during Prescom and brought as a motion to Mansfield’s JCR and Governing Body was the funding of a Reach Scholar – a scholar of exceptional promise from a low-income country, whose time at the University would be funded entirely by the JCR, College, and University. Unfortunately, Mansfield could not afford to fund such a scholarship this year, even if we were to join forces with another small college to split the costs. However, the idea has been formulated into a standing motion until we can afford to back the scheme – just one instance of a promising project on the College’s agenda, both at a JCR and an SCR level. It has been a fantastic year at Mansfield College with plenty of exciting initiatives and individual triumphs. We wish all of our leavers well as they move on and graduate from the University, but look forward to welcoming them back soon on visits to Mansfield. Now, we turn our attention to the forthcoming academic year, looking forward to a new intake of freshers, an eventual new JCR Bench, and to making the most of the works on East Range!
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MCR President’s Report Peter Bergamin DPhil Oriental Studies, 2013 This has been a year of change on many levels for Mansfield’s MCR. We welcome the opening of the College’s East Range after its renovation, and the new teaching and social spaces that it offers. In addition, we moved into our own permanent MCR space at the beginning of the academic year. We will thus have more opportunities than ever before for interacting with our fellow Mansfielders: good news indeed for such a tight-knit college. The MCR Bench has been working very hard this year to introduce initiatives that it hopes will make a lasting impact on Mansfield, even after its current members’ studies here are over. The past year saw the beginning of MCR Brunches, interspersed at various intervals throughout each term. These served the dual purpose of providing a relaxed environment to meet and greet (and eat!), and to discuss any welfare issues in an informal setting. Beginning in Hilary 2015, we will be training two MCR members to provide Peer Welfare Support. In addition, we have introduced an initiative whereby
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the MCR and JCR Senior Benches meet once or twice each term to discuss any mutual business and to identify areas that could benefit from more effective cooperation. All this, of course, is in addition to the more traditional events on the Mansfield MCR calendar, such as the termly Mahony Lecture and MCR/SCR dinner, Robert Burns Night celebrations, Thanksgiving Dinner, and our annual Christmas Dinner and Party on Friday of 8th week in Michaelmas. In 0th week of Michaelmas 2014, we welcomed a new group of Mansfield MCR freshers. All of us on the Bench look forward to making this new generation feel at home at Mansfield as quickly as possible. To Mansfield MCR members old and new – or indeed, somewhere in between – may you all have a productive and successful year.
A year in Development
Helen Jones Development Director As you will have seen throughout this edition of the Mansfield Magazine, it has been an exciting year here in College. The reopening of the East Range has helped to transform the space, with new facilities for all. Please do come back and see the work that has been undertaken – and thank you to those of you who have helped to make it a reality. We have enjoyed meeting many more of you over the past year, whether it be at the Arts of Literary Adaptation dinner led by Ros Ballaster, a very special evening to recognise Janet Dyson retiring and her contribution to Mansfield, the 1887 Society event, the Boat Club London reception and College dinner, the Annual Hands Lecture, or the North American Reunion weekend. Thank you for joining us and sharing your experiences, and as ever, please let us know of any ideas for future events you may have. We have listened to your views on the types of events you would like to see in College. In response, we shall be looking to run more anniversary and year-group dinners, starting with an event for alumni who matriculated 30–35 years ago. Following requests from our Science alumni, we also held a Science Dinner in November. As mentioned by the Bursar in his Report, having more alumni supporting College at any level really does have an impact on what we are able to offer our students. The positive changes to Mansfield, many of which wouldn’t have been possible without the support of our alumni and friends, are visible all around College. We particularly welcome regular gifts, which enable us to plan for the future – including thinking about our next significant project, the building of Love Lane.
The Love Lane Building Campaign will be College’s most ambitious fundraising project to date. It will enable us to provide accommodation for the majority of students on-site, enhancing Mansfield’s special sense of community. Love Lane will provide 78 en-suite study bedrooms and a state-of-the-art auditorium and seminar rooms. You will have seen referenced already in the article by Stuart Cade and Andy Matthews of Rick Mather Architects, the impact that this project will have. Our aim is to raise a total of £6m, and already progress has been inspiring. The generous support of a small group of alumni so far, along with a £2m match-funding gift from Guy and Julia Hands, has left us with another £2m to raise. As you hear more about this project over the coming months, we hope you will think about your personal giving to College, to help make it a reality: https://www.campaign. ox.ac.uk/mansfield-college We are grateful for your help in a range of ways: whether through careers talks, internships, venues for events, articles for newsletters, or pro bono support. Talking with students about your experiences and life after Mansfield is also greatly welcomed. We are keen to establish a network of volunteer year-group representatives, to allow us to engage with more alumni from each year. Do let us know if you would be interested in providing support in this way. Please keep in touch – and remember to keep a look out over the coming months for our new College website, which will include a film outlining the Love Lane Project and celebrating life here at Mansfield.
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Access Report Lucinda Rumsey Tutor for Admissions Access work can be repetitive. Every year with a new generation of students we return to the same messages, strive to break down the same misconceptions. The most effective access work builds relationships with schools and students over time. As term starts Helen Brooks, our new Access and Admissions Administrator, is renewing contact with our schools in Kent and Yorkshire, setting up the annual round of activities. This will take her out to the schools, and bring the students back to Mansfield, building those relationships.
One of our long-standing relationships is with King Edward VI Sixth Form College, Stourbridge. In late June we hosted a residential for them at Mansfield. I have attended this residential (popularly known as Geek Camp) for a few years now, and it is usually held at a youth hostel near Stourbridge, but this year we brought 40 students and teachers to Mansfield. One of the benefits of residentials is that sixth formers move swiftly from awe to familiarity with their surroundings. Feeling at home in Oxford breaks down the first barrier to making an application.
Some of our work has considerable longevity. Helen Etty (Mansfield’s Academic Registrar and formerly Access Manager for Mansfield’s FE Initiative) has just run our 11th season of Open Days for FE and sixth form colleges. The students are a fresh group each year, but many of the FE staff attending are established and valued colleagues. In the teacher sessions our discussions about developments in university admissions and sixth form education are mutually illuminating.
In August we hosted a Social Mobility Foundation visit to Oxford (whose Programme Coordinator, Mansfield graduate Isobel Plant, is coincidentally a former student of King Edward VI Sixth Form). The Foundation aims to improve social mobility for young people from low-income backgrounds. We regularly take part in SMF’s Oxbridge workshops, hosted by Linklaters in London, but this August 150 students from all over the UK came to spend the morning with us. We gave a tour of the College and a talk on applying to Oxford. Feedback showed that two things
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A little extra spark: access in action Harry Mason Engineering, 2011, Access Ambassador My name is Harry. I’m a fourth year reading Engineering Science at Mansfield College. And the fact I’m able to write that I am indeed a student at Oxford is still a little alien for me. The reason I’m here is not because of access work (although Mansfield started outreach at my school in Yorkshire the year I applied), but because one of my teachers insisted I give it a shot. I had no idea what Oxford was like, and even while applying it was just some sort of vague notion. I saw the University properly for the first time at my interviews. I would not have had the self-belief to apply under my own steam, and wouldn’t have had the knowledge how to, if it hadn’t been for my teachers.
Visitors from the Social Mobility Foundation. Photo: Isobel Plant
particularly stuck in students’ minds: the beauty of our library, and the quality and variety of Mansfield cake, which Neil our Catering Manager provided at short notice and in huge quantities. The outreach we do with schools in our regions gives us the chance to introduce younger children to university study. I was very proud to be appointed Chancellor of Croydon Children’s University this year. Supported by local charity The Hive, Croydon, the Children’s University is an aspiration-raising project, encouraging young people aged five to 15 to engage in out-of-school-hours learning. Their success is celebrated with a graduation event and my first official engagement is this year’s degree ceremony. A group of the older student mentors are visiting Mansfield this term to meet our own Access Ambassadors, so in a few years we hope to see some graduates of the Children’s University graduating again in the Sheldonian.
I am lucky enough to know at first hand what being able to speak directly to current students can do. When carrying out access work, odd moments stick in your mind. You don’t remember every school and every question you answer. But there is one person I definitely do remember. It was an open day, and he walked through the gates with his mum. I’m fairly sure she was taller than him, despite him being in the sixth form. He was clearly nervous, and looked like he thought he didn’t belong. Since he wanted to do Engineering, I was tasked with showing him around. So, I started answering his questions. It was clear that he was looking for confirmation that he wasn’t right for Oxford. What he didn’t realise – with his worries about not being practical enough, and about not having studied Further Maths at A level – was that his experience was just as mine had been. When he left Mansfield, I can remember him looking much happier, and his mum taking me aside to tell me that ‘if this was a sale, I think you have just made it’. I have seen many students of all sorts exploring Oxford, discovering what the place is really like, getting lost in the many secrets the city holds. Some of them got lost under my care (just once, in my first year, and we all got lost together; a lovely afternoon was had by everyone). I have seen the idea of being able to apply here turn into reality, when visitors from my very first event as an Access Ambassador turned up two years ago, as fully matriculated students. Some people are lucky enough to have that special teacher to inspire them. Many students go to a school where it is understood how the Oxbridge application process works. Some are both intelligent enough to come here, and selfconfident enough to believe they can. For the ones without that help and lacking in confidence, a little extra spark of motivation is needed. As an Ambassador, I’ve had the chance, just occasionally, to provide that spark. Mansfield 2013/14
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College life
Sports Report Sarab Sethi Engineering, 2012
Mansfield has a history of being incredibly strong in its sporting endeavours for such a small college, and this year we have definitely continued the trend. While reading the reports from individual captains, I was taken aback not only by the breadth of different activities available, but also by the quality of the teams that have been competing in intercollegiate tournaments.
Special mention must firstly go to the basketball club, which achieved the fantastic feat of winning their cuppers tournament this year. The men’s Firsts football team also had a great season, but luck was not on their side as a few forfeits by other colleges at the back end of the season meant they narrowly missed out on promotion. The hockey club reclaimed the Division 3 title in Hilary of 2014, taking them back up to Division 2 for Michaelmas. At the University level, Mansfield students really made an impact with several blues and half-blues being won across a variety of sports – not forgetting the many players who represented the lower University teams too. Notably, 2nd year Iain Mandale was picked for the winning Isis crew in the Boat Race; 3rd year Priyanaz Chatterji continued to play Mansfield Blues for the Blues women’s cricket team (as well as representing Scotland), and Holly Winfield remarkably won a blue in her first year, as she was part of the women’s team that won the swimming varsity match.
Darts
Tom Bates Jurisprudence, 2012 The recently revived darts team had another successful season, narrowly missing out on promotion after finishing second in the league. Captain Jan Greenshaw also represented the University in the National Championships, which Oxford won!
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Pool
Chris Speller Geography, 2012 Once again, potting balls at Mansfield has grown in strength. Despite a shaky start, the team finished high in the league, earning a spot in the play-offs – only to lose out narrowly to a strong Magdalen side. Special mention to Tom Clarke here, for a spectacular finish on the black, leaving the packed Magdalen JCR in tatters. An excellent performance in the singles cuppers competition was seen from Hyder Razak, who having comfortably dispatched a county player, went on to lose narrowly to the eventual winner of the tournament in a closely fought contest. Growing interest in the sport and a heightened fresher presence at the table has set the wheels in motion for two teams in the coming season: on cue to take the baize by storm.
Basketball
Alex Edwards Materials Science, 2010 The college basketball season is made up of the college league, which runs through Michaelmas and Hilary terms. Then, in Trinity, the much-anticipated college cuppers is played. Generally, college basketball is a very informal competition where everyone is encouraged to participate; however, everyone still plays hard to win.
College life
The last cuppers victory for Merton-Mansfield came four years ago. Despite a delayed start to the season (poor organisation of the league), the fearless Merton-Mansfield basketball team had an outstanding year, winning college cuppers! Coming off a semi-final exit to St Catz/Balliol last year, the M&Ms started off well with the arrival of Ludovico Lazzaretti, Brian Kim, Mantas Abazorius and Moritz Kramer. These new additions to the returning crew of captain Alexander Edwards, Ulysse Schnyder and David Harper made a formidable team.
Netball
Clementine Collett Theology, 2013 Mansfield has been in Division 1 for college netball this year. For such a small college this is a huge achievement. Even though being in the top division means we’ve been competing against the best college teams throughout the University and playing extremely tough matches, we have still maintained a great Mansfield spirit that focuses on the fun of the game and on good teamwork. During Michaelmas and Hilary terms, team practices were on a Saturday morning and were followed by a match most weeks.
Badminton
Tamsyn Woodman English Language and Literature, 2012 This year has marked the beginning of badminton for Mansfield, merging with St John’s College and seeing the start of the ‘Johns-field’ team with captains Joseph Manktelow and Tamsyn Woodman from Mansfield, and James Foster from St John’s. Previously, St John’s badminton club suffered a deficiency of female players, so the arrival of Mansfield’s Katherine Hazelton and Tamsyn Woodman revived the mixed squad, which has now been promoted to Division 1. Playing alongside the women, James Foster, Joe Manktelow and James Zhou in particular all gave strong performances. The men’s squad too achieved considerable success. Despite being knocked out of the first round of cuppers by a formidable Magdalen College squad, we finished in a respectable third place in Division 2 of the league. We hope our newly collaborating colleges will continue the relationship, to see St John’s-Mansfield Badminton Club succeeding further in years to come.
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College life
Sports Report Football
Ulysse Schnyder Engineering, 2012 A roller coaster of a season ended in heartbreak as Merton-Mansfield just missed out on promotion to the Premier Division, finishing third behind Keble and New after New ‘won’ their last two games through forfeits by their opponents. Despite a poor start, including a 5-1 loss to eventual champions Keble, we managed to rescue the season through a series of hard-fought victories, most notably a 3-2 comeback win over Keble to give them their first dropped points, and a morale-boosting 7-1 win over Lincoln.
successes and remain undefeated in league matches. This year we beat off teams from St John’s, Wadham/Green Templeton and New colleges, and came from 1-0 down to claim a memorable 2-1 victory over Jesus. We enjoyed a highly successful cuppers campaign, including a 12-0 trouncing of Christ Church/Oriel, and we narrowly missed out on a semifinal spot after losing 1-0 in the quarter final to the formidable Worcester, who went on to win the trophy. The Mansfield contingent in the team was particularly strong this year and included Imy Buchan, Rachel Milton, Mina Pollman and Gabriella Alziari. Equally indispensable were our stellar strikers, Kayli Johnson and Onayomi Rosenior-Patten, our daring keeper, Sophie Smith, and our ever-enthusiastic coach, Ose Ikhena.
Hockey
However, some poor displays in between wins ended up costing us in our quest for promotion, as the rush to schedule all the games postponed from flooding meant we had to play a few games missing many key players. The Merton-Mansfield 2nds were unable to maintain their position in the JCR Reserves First Division, winning only two games this season. But while the results could have been better, the priority is for everyone to have a good time playing football, which was definitely achieved.
Women’s Football
Charley Turton English Language and Literature, Merton College 2012 This has been another outstanding year for the Merton-Mansfield women’s football team. After being promoted to Division 2 last year, we’ve built on our
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Sarab Sethi Engineering, 2012 Michaelmas season in 2013 was hugely testing as the Mansfield-Merton M&Ms were playing in the dizzying heights of Division 2, but without many of last year’s star players. Unfortunately, this resulted in relegation, despite the contest going right to the last game. However, the team came together in these times of need, and in the second season we took Division 3 by storm. Brushing teams away on a weekly basis, we ultimately reclaimed the league title (grabbing us a coveted invitation to Merton Sports Dinner).
College life
Photo: Tom Plumptre
One overriding positive to take from this year was the massive commitment shown by everyone. For every game the captain was afforded the luxury of picking a team, and undoubtedly this commitment translated into marked improvements in the quality of our hockey. The end of the year unfortunately meant the loss of many M&M hockey legends (notably past captains Dan Crowe and Keishi Kohara), but there will always be space on the team for celebrity appearances if any of the leavers are back in Oxford.
Tennis
Chris Speller Geography, 2012 The tennis team had a strong season. It was solid in the league and only narrowly lost out in a cuppers nail-biter that went down to a final set (and a dubious switch in personnel from the opposition). The team had good fun in the sun and we’re looking forward to next season.
Cricket
Joseph Manktelow Materials Science, 2012 A mixed season for the MansfieldMerton M&Ms began with a closely fought contest against the alumni, before five consecutive unplayed games (a mixture of rain and opposition forfeits) frustrated a strong squad. M&Ms finally got underway in the second round of cuppers, against a Balliol side featuring several University players. Despite an extremely good innings from debutant Alan Clarke, a batting collapse resulted in a below-par total and an easy win for Balliol.
The final couple of league games saw good individual batting performances from Sarab Sethi, John Dean and Will Tilston in particular, but loose bowling often failed to capitalise on this. However, a mid-table finish in Division 2, with the core of the squad remaining for 2015, should be a good base from which to build next year.
Rowing
Daniel Orford Engineering, 2011 The year 2013/14 was very successful for Mansfield College Boat Club. The prolonged rain in Hilary meant that the river was closed for many, many weeks, and inevitably caused Torpids to be cancelled. However, the men and women at MCBC did not let minor problems such as the boathouse flooding get in the way of training. We trained hard in Hilary, even managing to get off the Isis to train at Eton Dorney a few times, enabling the crews to be in a good position for Summer Eights. Mansfield entered four crews into Eights with impressive results. The Women’s Second Eight gained experience with two strong row-overs; the Women’s First Eight were able to get quite an impressive bump on the third day in a new boat generously donated by Yang-Wahn Hew and Friends of MCBC; the ‘promising’ Men’s First Eight were dealt some typical bumps bad luck; and the Men’s Second Eight were just an unsuccessful appeal off winning blades. The overall haul was five bumps and eight row-overs. Roll on next season, which sees our 50th anniversary and the 200th anniversary of Eights week!
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College life
Charities and campaigns Hannah Dewhirst PPE, 2012 The past year has been busy at Mansfield for charitable work. From individual efforts in aid of animal welfare to numerous large-scale events, our students are continuing to support causes close to their hearts. Teaming up with OUSU’s ‘Raise And Give’ (RAG) campaign, Mansfield students added a competitive element to Hilary term’s music and performance night. We had some fantastic entrants and raised a substantial sum from on-the-door donations and bucket collections. Hilary term also saw us celebrate the decision by Mansfield’s governing body to establish the Living Wage as standard for all staff. This announcement marked the culmination of the hard work of many Mansfield students across the years, and we had a wonderful turnout of over 30 students for the congratulatory photo with our Principal Helena Kennedy, members of staff and lots of balloons. Throughout the year, Mansfield also participated in the Student Switch Off campaign: a nationwide movement to raise awareness about saving and conserving energy. From being involved in mini-quizzes to attending training sessions, Mansfield did well and ended up ranking 10th out of the 28 colleges participating.
The year also saw us continue to donate to charities for which our JCR members had voted; these included Rape Crisis UK, Farm Africa and Cancer Research, as well as our regular donation to Aston-Mansfield. We continued to strengthen our special and historic relationship with AstonMansfield, culminating in another visit to its community centre in Newham, London. As usual the staff, volunteers and Young Achievers at the Froud Centre gave us the warmest of welcomes and we spent a lovely day playing games, enjoying a barbecue and making new friends. We can’t wait to have them back again to Mansfield in Michaelmas. Finally, as well as our JCR supporting the charity Country Holidays for Inner City Kids (CHICKs), which provides breaks for disadvantaged children, some students put particular passion into running a summer fair. This was held midway through Trinity, in glorious sunshine, and included fete games such as ‘Name a Mansfield Teddy Bear’, and a cake sale. The event was well-attended and we were delighted to raise hundreds of pounds for this wonderful cause.
Gender Equality Society Lauren O’Neill English Language and Literature, 2012 Mansfield Gender Equality Society is a group that exists to promote gender equality within our College, and within the University at large. Last year when we began, we were only the third college in Oxford to establish a gender-equality group, and now they exist at almost every college. We are proud of Mansfield’s history of dissent and its forward-thinking atmosphere, and we wish to add to this legacy. In 2014, we celebrated International Women’s Day with a fundraising event, the proceeds of which were sent to Oxford Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre. This charity undertakes powerful, practical work with local people (mainly women) in crisis; for Michaelmas 2014 we are planning a joint event with some College actors, in order to fundraise further for this crucially important organisation. The group meets fortnightly, and our meetings usually take the form of an informal, non-judgmental discussion group on a loose topic. In our first year, we had a lot of valuable discussions and many of our members took part in University-wide activism. We only hope that the group continues to grow from strength to strength in the coming months, and are very excited about where the next academic year will take us.
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College life
Mansfield Poetry Society Harry Mason Engineering, 2011
Quidditch James Burnett History, 2011 On February 1st/2nd 2014, three students from Mansfield College travelled to Brussels to compete in the European Quidditch Cup, a competition between European teams playing the sport of quidditch, inspired by the game in JK Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter’ series. Priya Shah (PPE), Rachel Dishington (History and English), and James Burnett (History), all of whom graduated from Mansfield in July 2014, were representing the Radcliffe Chimeras, the first team of Oxford University Quidditch Club, which is one of the world’s largest quidditch clubs. Quidditch is a fast-paced and dynamic sport, mixed-gender and with full physical contact. It incorporates tactical elements from, among other sports, rugby, basketball, and dodgeball. Chasers compete to score hoops, worth ten points, with the quaffle (a volleyball), while beaters use dodgeballs (known as bludgers) to disrupt the flow of play in their team’s favour by hitting players to temporarily remove them from the game. Simultaneously, seekers from each team wrestle with one another and a neutral snitch runner, to claim a ball-in-a-sock hanging from the latter’s waist: a feat that ends the game and is worth 30 points. The Radcliffe Chimeras went into the tournament as British champions, and emerged with the European title as well, defeating holders Paris Phénix by a score of 100*-30 in the final (* denotes the snitch catch). In July 2014, both Dishington and Burnett, along with many other OUQC players, went on to represent the United Kingdom’s national team at the International Quidditch Association’s Global Games in British Columbia, where they were placed fourth behind the United States, Australia, and Canada. Anyone wishing to find out more about this fast-growing and emerging sport, which prioritises inclusivity and friendly competition, should consult www. quidditchuk.org or www.oxfordquidditch.com, and is welcome to contact Mansfield College to be put in touch with me.
Unexpectedly to both myself and people around me, I find myself writing about Mansfield Poetry Society. It was formed by Lotty Turner (English, 2010) and myself in 2011/12, so we’ve now entered our third year as a society – and progress shows no signs of slowing. Our poetry readings have recently been rivalling the open mic nights for numbers of performers, and our audience has been growing too. If you were to come down to one of our readings (and why shouldn’t you?), you’d be amazed by the range of poetry on display at such a small college. From medieval to modern, from haiku to hip-hop, there’s not a style of verse that someone in Mansfield hasn’t attempted to perform. Recently, there has also been an increase in original writings. With monthly themes (such as colour, personal history and, of course, love for February), and an ever-encouraging atmosphere, we’ve seen more and more people start to pick up the pen – or keyboard. Whichever medium they use, they’re writing poetry. Finally, I’d like to mention some highlights from the year. Daniel Shipley (Physics, 2012) performing a very enthusiastic speech from the works of Tolkien certainly gave some a shock; a deeply personal poem on mental health by Chase Padusniak (JYA, 2013) moved all those listening; and the everhilarious stand-up poetry from Tasha Dhanraj (Theology, 2012) left us all laughing. But the poem I loved the most was from mature student Martin Reeves (History, 2010). Martin is, well, more experienced in life than the average student. But we were lucky enough to hear a love poem he wrote to his now wife back when he was 14. It was touching, sweet, and exactly the reason I’m glad this society exists. If you’re reading this Martin, thank you.
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College life Iain Mandale- far left
The 1887 Society Chris Speller Geography, 2012
The 43rd annual dinner of Mansfield’s geographical association, the 1887 Society, took place on May 10th 2014 when Klaus Dodds, Professor of Geopolitics at Royal Holloway, University of London, entertained students, tutors, alumni and guests as speaker. Each year this four-course black-tie dinner serves to bring past and present students together, along with friends and tutors. Due to near-complete building works, the dinner was held in the Chapel, providing an idyllic setting for these encounters. Klaus spoke about his experiences as an academic in geopolitics, providing anecdotes of the trials and tribulations he faced while engaged in research, particularly in the Arctic. His open admission of where he got it wrong offered amusement to all, and welcome hope to students currently looking into their own dissertations. More generally, the 1887 Society continues to act as a meeting point for bringing geographers together across the years, with socials such as a wine tasting with Tony Lemon held during the year. The Society has also hosted speakers in the College, with insightful talks on topics such as Ben Hennig’s alternative approach to mapping and Ruth Evans’ work on gendered and intergenerational struggles over land in West Africa. As the University geography society has reformed (previously the Herbertson Society), there is set to be more speakers and socials across the University in coming years. Nevertheless, the 1887 Society will continue to provide a platform within Mansfield to bridge the gap between the different academic years. In the coming year the Society hopes to repeat a thoroughly enjoyed careers event held in January 2013, so if any alumni are interested in offering a glimpse into the world beyond university, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Email : development@mansfield.ox.ac.uk 26 Mansfield 2013/14
Competing in the Reserve Boat Race and U23 World Championships Iain Mandale Physics, 2012 This year I had, for the second time, the pleasure of representing Oxford in the reserve boat Isis, which also featured ex-Mansfield rower Chris Fairweather at stroke. Chris had raced in this crew two years ago, winning by an impressive five lengths over Goldie, whereas my previous experience was a much tighter win by a third of a length. We went into the race as an undefeated crew, and having tried to avoid the pressure for as long as we could, eventually accepted the fact that we were undoubtedly favourites. The race was a straightforward affair in the end, and we won by 13 lengths (39 seconds). Throughout the trialling process I have received fantastic support from the College, for which I am very grateful – it really does help. Before the summer term I took part in the GB Rowing Team final trials, where you compete as an individual to earn an invitation to further testing – which may lead on to selection for the World Championships. I was in the lightweight category, for rowers under 70kg. I didn’t do very well, but well enough to be invited to further testing, where I secured a seat in the U23 Lightweight Four to compete in Varese, at the Under-23 World Champs. After I had sat my exams, the crew met at the lake in Reading to start a twoweek residential camp to bring us together in peak fitness for the race. It was a humid, stormy trip in Italy but conditions were good for all of the racing. In our final we went off hard, looking to beat our performance in the heat, and the previous year’s champions – the Italian home favourites. As it turned out, the threat came from the Spaniards three lanes across, and we could never put enough pressure on them to come through. However, we held off repeated attacks to win a silver medal. Second place, but a good race and experience.
Music at Mansfield John Oxlade, Director of Music Variety has been the watchword of this year’s music-making in College. Performances have ranged from the JCR informal concert, appearances by ‘Out of the Blue’ (an all-male a cappella group), a wide array of successful lunchtime recitals by members of College and visiting professional musicians, three major Sunday evening concerts in Chapel and regular services on Wednesdays, to the Carol Service and the Commemoration Service featuring our excellent choir. The choir also gave a concert at the Holywell Music Room, helping to raise over £700 for Shelter. We welcomed Grace West from the USA and Ben Williams (now SCR) to join our six Choral Scholars: Charlotte Warne, Sophie Giles, Rebecca Dellar, Charles Roe, Roshan Forouhi, and Alex Chalk. We are also very grateful to Helena Wilson, Bernhard Clemm and Rory Morrison for their continuing commitment to the choir. Finally, my warmest thanks to Tanya Rasmussen, our Chaplain, for fostering and supporting the musical talents of the students in so many ways over the past six years.
VISITING STUDENT PROGRAMME
Mansfield’s Visiting Student Programme, 2013/14 Helen Lacey, Director of the Visiting Student Programme at Mansfield, reports on this year’s developments, including new links with the University of Virginia. Taking on the role of Director of the Visiting Student Programme is a new and exciting challenge. I have been teaching visiting students for their papers in Medieval History since I arrived at the College in 2006, but the directorship now gives me the opportunity to meet with representatives from our partner institutions abroad – including Barnard, Boston, Georgetown, Wheaton and George Mason University – and to forge new links in the years ahead. We are delighted to be adding the University of Virginia as new partner institution in the near future and renewing our first and longest association with Holy Cross. The class of 2013/14 was hugely successful academically, and contributed to the life of the College in numerous fields, including drama, music, rowing and American football. An important new initiative was also set up by one of our visiting students, Amy Fly (Dickinson), who organised training for students to help lawyers with death row cases through the London-based organisation Amicus. This project is based at Mansfield, and the longer-term aim is to attach it to the Oxford Institute of Human Rights. Prizes for academic excellence were awarded to Mina Pollmann (Georgetown), Chase Padusniak (Holy Cross),
Grace West (Boston College) and Robert Lazo (Kenyon College). We look forward to keeping in touch with all of our visiting students and hearing about their progress in the years ahead. We have recently welcomed the class of 2014/15, with students from universities including: Boston College, Wellesley, Cornell, Georgetown, Wheaton, Haverford, Dickinson, Holy Cross, Santa Clara University, George Mason University, Trinity University, University of Michigan, Bates College, Goucher College, University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern University and Harvard University. The new admissions round for the 2015/16 academic year is soon to open and we look forward to an exciting and successful year ahead. Helen Lacey took up the position of Director of the Visiting Student Programme in Trinity Term 2014. She is Supernumerary Fellow in Late Medieval History at Mansfield, with publications including The Royal Pardon: Access to Mercy in Fourteenth-Century England published by Boydell & Brewer in 2009.
A Visiting Student who found a home Emily Glassford VSP 2013/14, Northwestern University Sometimes, my mother knows me better than I know myself. When I first made the decision to apply to Oxford’s Visiting Student Programme, she said, ‘Once you go to Oxford, you’ll never want to come home’. Although I was excited to spend the year in a country whose history I had loved since early childhood, as well as study at one of the world’s best universities, I had no idea how correct my mother’s prediction would be.
gatherings at Renault House, and champagne and chocolates with Mansfield friends helped make an ideal year abroad for me. Who knew that going to the Rad Cam with a flatmate, or debating some aspect of historiography with a tutor, could be almost as much fun as playing croquet on the Mansfield Quad or eating enormous amounts of chocolate in formal attire?
I arrived feeling somewhat intimidated by the Oxford bubble and its famous academic reputation, the bevy of accents, and the entirely foreign vocabulary – thoughts of the Rad Cam, the Bod, subfusc, tutes, pidges, and bops come to mind – but found the University an intellectual dream and Mansfield a welcoming and loving community. My time at Oxford was an intense intellectual experience, far from the ‘holiday’ year abroad you hear about elsewhere. Tutorials,
By the time the end of Trinity approached, I found myself tempted to miss my flight. However, I left Mansfield with great memories, friendships, four folders of essays, and sunburn from croquet that would last for about two weeks. At least I have one other thought to keep me upbeat during my sadly American year: there’s always the hope of postgrad in Oxford. Mansfield 2013/14
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HUMAN RIGHTS
Amicus: legal help on death row
drug protocols in lethal injections. We were also able to listen to two death-row exonerees speak about their experiences on death row, which gave a harrowing insight into the mind-set of someone awaiting the death penalty.
A number of students were given the opportunity to attend the Amicus death-penalty training weekends in Hilary 2014. Amicus is a small, UK-based organisation that helps provide representation for those facing the death penalty in the United States. It primarily assists by placing interns in the offices of US attorneys for a period of three months, but also seeks out groups of students in the UK who are willing to act as legal researchers on a pro bono basis.
Following the training, we are now able to contribute towards Amicus’ work. Four students – Amy Fly (VSP 2013/14), Grace Wyld (History and English, second year), Hector Craft (Law, second year) and Samantha Pellegrino (VSP 2013/14) – carried out original research and wrote reports for the Amicus Yearbook, a state-by-state reference guide that details any activity surrounding death-penalty issues in the previous year. The reports act as a useful starting point for anybody interested in death-penalty developments at a state level, and are free to access for all; they will appear on the Amicus website shortly.
Hector Craft Jurisprudence, 2012
We were fortunate enough to be funded by the Mansfield Association, which generously subsidised the participation of Mansfield students. Without the support of the Association, it would have been impossible for so many Mansfield students to be involved. We learnt a great deal about the American legal system, and in particular the legal processes involved in death-penalty cases, right through from first hearing to final appeals. The talks informed us about issues such as jury selection; the impacts of race, poverty, intellectual disability and mental health; and the current problems regarding
Turning to the future, we may have the opportunity to get involved in Amicus casework, assisting directly in the preparation of capital defence cases. Further, through the platform of the Mansfield Human Rights Forum, we have opened up Amicus training to students across the whole University, and will have facilitated over 60 students attending the training sessions during Michaelmas 2014.
The Mansfield Human Rights Forum Maisie Havelock-Smith Jurisprudence, 2012
The Mansfield Human Rights Forum is a new student initiative formed to encourage students to engage with human rights issues. It aims to show the positive impact that such engagement can have on the violations being addressed. We want to encourage individuals to challenge human rights violations in whatever capacity they can, through inclusive, hands-on project work. Mansfield College, as a community, has great scope to overcome any misconceptions about the demands that are required by committing to human rights campaigning. Our vision is to make every member of Mansfield College an ambassador for human rights. We appreciate that dedicating hours weekly, in a high-pressure, academic environment, can be difficult. Thus, through the work of those who do wish to involve themselves in a greater capacity, and by the organisation of projects, we want to reach out to the wider Mansfield, and University, community. We hope to create a platform to educate and inform about human rights, while allowing others to start up their own projects, bringing to life their individual visions of human rights work on a cause that personally touches them. The aim is to get human rights ‘trending’ as a topic of student conversation. The Forum has successfully signed up 60 University of Oxford students to engage in case work with death28 Mansfield 2013/14
row charity, Amicus. We are very excited about speaker events and new projects in the coming academic year, including a long-term campaign highlighting the need for education reform in prisons, and working with other student groups in their continued efforts to bring about the closing of Campsfield House. Both new projects open up the opportunity for hands-on student involvement and interaction with wider communities. The Committee would be delighted to hear from students and alumni wishing to get involved, or with ideas to help new projects materialise. We have also recently started an online blog, to which anyone is welcome to contribute as a means of writing about a human rights issue that has particularly moved them. We are extremely excited to see the Forum grow, and thus produce new opportunities for involvement, and we are proud that this student initiative poignantly complements and strengthens Mansfield’s celebrated ethos of social progress and equality. We invite all interested individuals to visit our website and get in touch! http://www.mansfieldhuman.com/about/4584340555
A Japanese journey Paige Bolduc VSP 2011, recounts her year as a Fulbright scholar in Japan – researching contemporary Japanese feminist literary criticism, but still finding time for a spot of snow shovelling. Thanks to a Fulbright US Student Program grant, I had the opportunity to study as a research student in the Graduate Department of Languages and Cultures at Nagoya University in Nagoya, Japan, from September 2013 to August 2014. My project focused on examining contemporary trends in feminist literary criticism in Japan. While the majority of my research was conducted through reading articles and books to which I gained access through the university, I also interviewed several graduate students and literary scholars about contemporary trends and debates regarding feminist theory and criticism in current Japanese academia. As well as conducting this research, I was able to attend Japanese language classes every morning and audit two or three graduate seminars each semester. One of the most productive and inspiring academic experiences of the year for me was participating in an international Cultural Studies conference in Osaka at the end of May. In addition to receiving enthusiastic and rigorous feedback on my own research, I found this conference particularly stimulating because its interdisciplinary focus brought scholars and students from many countries. Presentations were on a huge range of topics: from sociological research of Bhutanese refugees in the UK; to a textual analysis of the archaic min’ yõ or ‘folk song’, collections of the Heian Period; via an anthropological feminist critique of gender inequality in the Japanese family registry. It was fascinating to learn about the diverse research areas from scholars who came from all over the world. Listening to their presentations also often encouraged me to conceptualise the relevance of my own project in different ways. For the first time since my year at Mansfield (during which I made good use of the long breaks between terms), I made travelling a priority and had the great fortune to visit a large variety of geographical, cultural, and socioeconomic environments. Unforgettable experiences included snow shovelling in a tiny rural town called Nishiwaga in northern Japan in early February; touring the atomic bomb memorials in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the cherry blossom season; and visiting the famous active volcano, Mount Aso, and the home of one of my favourite Japanese authors, Natsume Sõseki(1867-1916), in Kyushu (southern Japan). The places and people I encountered during my travels were perhaps the very best part of my Fulbright year. Memories of the many kindnesses that I received from strangers along the way will
encourage me to go out of my way to help those who seem lost or uncertain in the future. Thanks to modern technology and increasing academic resources, I could have done research on Japanese feminist literary criticism from just about anywhere in the world. However, having the opportunity to study under the guidance of a scholar at Nagoya University has taken my research in productive directions that I couldn’t have even imagined on my own. Interacting with both Japanese and international students and professors on a daily basis has challenged me not only to reconsider how I conceptualise my own research, but also the ways in which I approach education and collaborative learning generally. In addition to offering a chance to improve my Japanese language abilities in the most meaningful and memorable of ways – through daily interactions with real people – this Fulbright experience has enabled me to become more passionate about my research than ever would have been possible from outside of Japan. Through my personal and cultural experiences as a member of a Japanese community, I have been able to see how my research interests are relevant in society today. What’s more, the personal and professional relationships I have made this year will undoubtedly continue to influence my research and plans even after I return to the USA. This Fulbright experience has changed me as a person. I have not only gained a greater understanding of the complexity and diversity of Japanese society and culture, but by meeting and learning from a vast number of people from many countries during my stay, I am more aware of important social issues and difficulties facing people around the world. No matter where I live in the future, I hope to be a more thoughtful, engaged, and better global citizen. My time as a visiting student at Mansfield undoubtedly helped prepare me to take advantage of the academic, cultural, and personal opportunities that a Fulbright grant entails. I would be thrilled if my experience encouraged Mansfield students to apply for a Fulbright, and would be happy to speak in depth to anyone about the programme and/or the application process. There’s a wide range of Fulbright research grants that enable US students to study in other countries, as well as grants for non-American students to study in the USA. Please feel free to contact me at: paige.bolduc@gmail.com
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Cycling across With help from the Mansfield Association, Thomas Blower (BA English Language and Literature, 2012) found himself on the USA’s Atlantic coast, alone with his bicycle. He started pedalling, heading west‌
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America Having cycled solo the 900 miles from John O’Groats to Land’s End when I was 16, I considered myself a reasonably keen cyclist – and I was looking for a challenge. The idea of cycling coast-to-coast across America had once been a distant dream, but after a year and a half of planning, training and fundraising, I found myself landing in the USA for the very first time. My route took me through eight states over a course of six and a half weeks. Starting from Wilmington, North Carolina, I headed west, over the Great Smoky Mountains and into Tennessee, where I stopped to enjoy the rich musical culture of Nashville and Memphis. From there I crossed the Mississippi and experienced the sweltering heat of the hills of north-western Arkansas, before riding over the Arkansas River and into Oklahoma and the beginning of the ‘West’. From here, the towns started to show signs of the 19thcentury expansion of America across the continent. As the land flattened, and the kudzu-covered mountains and hills of the east gave way to the increasingly arid plains of the Midwest, I joined historic Route 66 in Oklahoma City, and from there battled strong headwinds as I crossed the panhandle of Texas. The sense of geographical transition was even greater when I reached the border with New Mexico, as the plains fell away into sweeping, dusty red valleys. After visiting the cities of Santa Fe and Albuquerque, I continued west into the high desert on the border with Arizona.
The aridity of New Mexico into Arizona, as I headed through the Navajo Nation (bigger than the Republic of Ireland, the largest of the USA’s Native American reservations), was broken only by the San Francisco Mountains around Flagstaff and Williams, where I was lucky enough to be driven to the Grand Canyon. Route 66 took me through Kingman and the Black Mountains of western Arizona before crossing the Colorado River and rising once more out of Needles, California, and into the Mojave Desert, where I slept in the almost-abandoned ghost town of Amboy. I then headed into the Morongo Basin and the Coachella Valley, home to some of the finest desert rock bands in the world: inspired by the jagged mountains and lonely, burning sands of the desert. I meandered through the cities of Desert Hot Springs and Palm Springs, before heading the final few miles through the Los Angeles sprawl, arriving at Seal Beach CA after six weeks of cycling and with 2809.6 miles on the clock. The thought of cycling alone had been a bit worrying during the planning stages, especially as I am a type-one diabetic, but in practice it turned out to be an incredibly rewarding and fulfilling way to travel. I stayed in a variety of places – motels, churches, people’s homes – and the range of experiences this way of travelling afforded me, with its lows (sleeping under a concrete bench by the insectfriendly Tennessee River) and its highs (climbing a volcano in the middle of the Mojave Desert), created an incredibly rich picture of the United States of America. It is a land of extremes, and a land that has so much to offer – musically, socially, geographically – to those travelling by bicycle. I’d like to thank the staff and students of Mansfield for all their support, and particularly the Mansfield Association for their generosity in helping to fund my trip. Without their help I would not have been able to realise what I can honestly say has been one of the best experiences of my life. Also, thank you to all who sponsored me; I have raised, thus far, more than £1,500 for Amnesty International.
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Reach for the (neutron) stars Interview with Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell Katherine Danks Materials Science, 2012
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In 1967 Jocelyn Bell Burnell made what can only be described as one of the most significant contributions to Astronomy in the 20th century; as a graduate student she detected pulsars, which are rapidly spinning neutron stars that remain after the death of a larger star. The radio signal they emit was first recorded and identified by Jocelyn and her research supervisor, while she was completing her doctorate. Since then she has held the position of President of the Royal Astronomical Society (2000-2004) and of the Institute of Physics (2008-2010). I met with Professor Bell Burnell to talk about her interests in science, her career and her work with other women in science. When was the first time you realised you were interested in science? I had an interest probably for a long time. My father was an architect and also a very good teacher, and he used to take me as his surveying assistant. I would stand in a bed of nettles holding the surveying pole while he read the theodolite, then move to another part of the field and repeat the measurements. Driving home, he would let me reduce the data. He always arranged that we went round in a circle, which was good practice, so you should end up at the same height as you started. And I would say to dad going home, ‘We ended up 10ft higher than we started’. And he would say ‘No, we didn’t! Check your arithmetic!’ So I was doing that from quite an early age, but we did not actually start science until secondary school, about age 12, and that is where it really hit me. Did you find that there was opposition to you studying science? Yes. The assumption was that the girls would do domestic science and the boys would do science. Now, this was in rural Northern Ireland in the mid-1950s, but there was still the assumption that girls would not do science. After the first meeting of the class, when I had to go to domestic science in spite of my protests, I told my parents what had happened and they hit the roof. And so did a couple of other sets of parents. So the next time the science class met there were three girls and all the boys. The teacher made the girls sit right under his nose, you know, right in front of the teacher’s desk, as if we were dynamite.
Your doctoral research resulted in an important contribution to Astronomy. At first you were unaware of the significance of your data and jested that the signal could even be ‘little green men’. Can you describe the feelings you had when you realised that this was something more than noise or interference? Well, the realisation came slowly. The first thing you are presented with is a crazy result, an inexplicable result. Clearly remarkable, but you do not quite know in what way. And you have to start by assuming there is something wrong and convincing yourself that it is OK. You start by assuming that your equipment is wrong and then you assume that maybe there is interference from outside, or something like that. Gradually, and it took about a month to do all these checks, we established that it was not interference; we established that it was not a fault with the equipment. We managed to get an estimate for the distance of the source, whatever it was, and it turned out to be way out in the galaxy, beyond the Sun and the planets. We had one or two hypotheses that we were testing, so we were continuing to take data. But finding the second one was actually in a sense much more important. The second one was very similar, but not identical, and from a different part of the sky. That then suggests this is a new kind of celestial population, and it makes it much easier to publish the result. When you only have one of something and it is peculiar, not to say crazy, it is actually quite hard to know how to publish it, how to play the publication. Once you have more than one you are on much safer ground, so it gets easier. And you found initially that your results were not accepted by your supervisor and others in the field. The advisor took a little bit of persuading. He jumped to the conclusion that it was interference. Which is absolutely reasonable given the kind of signal it was. But I was pretty sure it was not, from other observations I had had of it, and he very quickly came round.
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Your doctoral research contributed to work that went on to receive a Nobel Prize, which you did not share in. Some are indignant that you did not share in that prize, but you do not take that view? Our picture of the way we do science has changed. When I was young the picture was that there was a senior man, and inevitably a man, in a white coat, probably, and this senior man had under him a load of minions, who were not really expected to think; they just had to do what he told them to do. If there was praise or prizes, he got it. If there was trouble, he got it. The minions were not affected. During my lifetime we have changed the picture; we now see scientific research as being done by a group of people working together as a team. Each person in the team has different strengths and contributes from their strengths. If a team makes a major discovery, that is great, but in terms of prizes there is a problem, since nearly every prize is set up to be awarded to one or two people. The problem is now sufficiently huge that some of the learned bodies are setting up more prizes, this time for groups or teams. At the time when I was a graduate student, the assumption was that there was this senior man in the white coat who got the prizes or got the blame, and that is the way it worked out. Do you think the fact you are female put you at a disadvantage with regards to the Nobel Prize? No, I think it was because I was a student. There may have been other instances where being female was a disadvantage, but not there. They just did not know I existed, let alone know what sex I was. Do you feel that there is still a gender gap in the scientific field? Yes, there are all sorts of things to watch. It is quite well-documented that when women take up a job they get offered a lower salary than a male counterpart. If it is a research job then they may be given a smaller laboratory or less money to buy equipment. There are quite a lot of unconscious biases that we are learning about, identifying and recognising.
How are departments becoming ‘women friendly’? There are lots of things you can look at to do with the statistics of the people in your department. What is your proportion of female staff? When you are recruiting, what proportion of applicants are female? Does the same proportion get called to interview? Does the same proportion get job offers? And if not, why not? With undergraduates you can see how results compare for male and female cohorts. There is some evidence, for instance, that in the physical sciences you have a fair number of women going up to Bachelor’s level, but a smaller proportion stay on to Master’s level. The Master’s-level cohort is then more masculine. Why? What is that saying? There is a lot you can do by looking at your statistics. And not just looking at them but wondering what they are telling you, and beginning to address what you think might be the issues. How do you think we can encourage more women to do science? It is not just a case of encouraging more women, it is encouraging their parents as well. There are programmes aimed at secondary schools to get more girls doing science GCSEs and A-Levels. They have up until now neglected the parents, which I think was a mistake, but that is gradually being rectified. Role models are very important, too, and mentoring. Some schools have experimented with girl-only sets, since what can happen is the boys hog the equipment and the little girl is there writing down the data. What advice would you give to a young woman who is aspiring to go into research in the scientific field? I think it is a wonderful area to work in. You get really valuable training as a research student, for example, and you can go in so many directions at the end of it because you have acquired so many transferrable skills. You get some of them as an undergraduate, but you get even more by doing research projects.
What do you think is the most significant change with regards to women in science? One thing that is turning out to be very important is funding. Some of the research-funding bodies are saying that universities cannot apply for funding unless they demonstrate they are ‘women friendly’. And, boy, doesn’t money speak? So there has been a bit of a mad run-around for departments to get themselves accredited as ‘women friendly’. Many thanks to Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell for sharing her experiences and valuable insights into the world of scientific research. 34 Mansfield 2013/14
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Mansfield College OXFORD
Parliamentary daggers, Ultravox, and the Sarah Glover Tea Society A conversation with Chris Bryant MP
Luke Charters-Reid (PPE, 2013) interviewed Chris Bryant, currently the Labour Member of Parliament for Rhondda and the Shadow Minister for Welfare Reform, following a lecture as part of the Mansfield Series. Chris was asked about his life, his parliamentary career, and his new book, Parliament: The Biography, which was the subject of his lecture and charts Parliament’s history from its inception to the completion of the Acts of Union in 1801. Volume two was published in August 2014, and picks up from 1801. Chris is an alumnus of Mansfield, and read English. Chris Bryant’s new book Parliament: The Biography can be seen as a response to the expenses crisis and as an attempt to restore public confidence in the institution of Parliament. By emphasising that current MPs are no more morally reprehensible than their ancient predecessors, Bryant hopes to explain recurring scandal in terms of humanity’s – rather than Parliament’s – flaws. Why do you think some academics and politicians view Parliament with such high esteem and with such awe and veneration? It’s about the use of power in the end isn’t it? It’s about who gets to decide what. And I think we – though there are many failings in our modern parliamentary system – are not a particularly corrupt country. We are a fairly transparent country. You know, the expenses saga notwithstanding, most people involved in British politics are there because they want to change the world, not because they want to make money.
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Parliament: The Biography ‘busts’ so many myths, such as the reasoning behind the lines on the carpets of the chamber in the House of Commons [they are not there for the purposes of sword-fighting] – why is busting parliamentary myths so important? Because if you have a kind of overly grandiose view of British history, I think the danger is that you don’t spot the flaws that there are in today’s system, and you tend to want to preserve things in aspic. And that’s why you need to see clearly. You need to see what lies underneath. But you also need to see clearly what lies underneath. Is the distrust people currently have in politics because of the politicians of the time or our institutions? Or is it about politics’ incapacity to bring about change? It’s a good question. We will have had universal male suffrage for 100 years by the end of this decade. And
You mentioned in the book some House of Commons members who were elected 16 times. So, how many more times would you like to be re-elected? I don’t know actually. There’s part of me that thinks that MPs shouldn’t go on forever. They get a bit institutionalised. But then of course we all think more highly of ourselves than anybody else does. So then you think, ‘Well, I won’t be institutionalised’. And I have never been a special advisor. I don’t like politicians who play safe before they play courage. So maybe there’s a value for me still carrying on. I don’t like the fact that Parliament’s five years now. I think they should be four years. Five years is far too long. And you also mention that bishops historically have proved highly useful in collecting taxes. What’s the role of religion in the British state now?
I wonder whether… people had an over-estimation of what politics could deliver. Democracy has got to mature a bit more. Has there ever been independently minded MPs or a parliamentary Golden Age? I don’t think there was ever a perfect era. Edmund Burke and Canning are often cited as great parliamentarians. Were they very independent? Not really. And of course when Burke did his big speech to the electors of Bristol, they promptly deselected him. He didn’t win the next General Election. And he changed political allegiance. He massively fell out with Fox and Sheridan. It was a very funny moment, when he is very angry about armed robbers in the city and throws down a dagger on the floor of the House of Commons to show that there are people all over the city who have knives like this, and Sheridan says: ‘Oh, it’s time for dinner. Where’s the fork?’ And everybody laughs. So I don’t know. Sheridan was probably the greatest speaker, apparently [giving] great speeches, but we don’t have verbatim records of most of what he said, so…
Well religion has been an enormously motivating thing in British politics, and in every country’s politics to be honest. Both in favour of things, and against things. You know the campaign against the slave trade wouldn’t have happened without people of Wilberforce’s sort of view, and a whole set of other people from the Clapham Sect. I wouldn’t keep bishops in the House of Lords. Bishops were originally there because they were the biggest landowners in the country. They managed the diocesan lands – as well as being the people who were trained as clerks, clerics. And therefore very useful to the administration of justice and all sorts of other things. Most Lord Chancellors in the early days, and Lord Treasurers for that matter, were bishops. But that’s all gone now. And I don’t see the role in the same way at all. The bishops got it in the neck when they voted the wrong way on the Reform Act – the first Reform Act in 1830 in the House of Lords – and some of them had their houses burnt down. So how has religion affected your political career? When I left Mansfield I went to read Theology for ordination in the Church of England, and I had five years as a curate. But when I was at Mansfield, I was a Conservative, but, um… [Chris grimaces] At theological college I spent part of my time in training in a parish in Newcastle. It was a very tough, working class parish. And that changed my views about a lot of things. Then I went to live in Latin America and I found out that we were selling things to Chile, to the
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dictatorship in Chile, which we shouldn’t have been. That changed my politics quite radically. And that was through religion in a way. Though I’m not a very religious person now. I still have a faith, but I wouldn’t call myself religious. What was the turning point for you moving away from religion? Well, the big change was that when I was here, apart from a few moments of shenanigans, I was broadly speaking heterosexual. I am not very heterosexual at all now. But I only really came to understand that when I was about 24. In those days, you know, it was very rare for people to be openly gay at Oxford. When I really came to terms with that, it was at a time when the Church of England had just changed from ‘don’t ask, don’t tell, we don’t want to know’ – you know, you get on with your private life it’s your private life – to ‘everybody wants to know everything about everybody, and, by the way, we don’t approve of homosexual clergy’. So that’s what made the change really. I decided I didn’t want to live a lie in the Church. I didn’t want to pretend to be something I’m not. I wanted to be able to live with a partner. So I left. You were the first MP to be married in a civil partnership in the House of Commons. How do you feel about Labour not delivering what the Conservatives and the Liberals have just done with new legislation and… would you like to get remarried given the marriage equality?
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Well I’m not going to propose to my partner in the middle of this interview! And legally at the moment we can’t get married. We can only be civilly partnered, unless we get divorced and then remarry, bizarrely, because they haven’t sorted out the legislation for that bit yet. I don’t know why. When I was first involved in Labour Party politics in the early 1990s, if you were in favour of LGBT rights, you were described as loony lefty by the Conservatives. Unanimously. You were condemned. All the newspapers attacked you. For Neil Kinnock and for others it was just thought that you shouldn’t go there. Tony Blair was very courageous on all this stuff. He was very good. As was Jack Straw whose best mate at school died – he committed suicide – when his family found out that he was gay. And so we had to move quite carefully on all these issues when we came into government. We did a lot. I’m glad that the vast majority of Labour MPs voted for gay marriage or marriage equality, and Cameron wouldn’t have got it through without us. But, you know, I’m glad that Cameron did it as well. I don’t think that he really believes in it if I’m honest. I think it was part of a strategy to soften the Tory image. You’re fluent in Spanish and I’ve also seen that you play for the Commons rugby team. What other special hobbies do you have? I don’t play for the rugby team any more because the last time I played I broke my leg playing rugby at Twickenham! But I can say that I played rugby at
Twickenham and I broke my leg there. My brother can’t say that, although he’s a much better rugby player than I ever was. [Chris then says a very long Spanish phrase, which, regrettably, I couldn’t understand with my basic Spanish.] The thing is that when we lived in Spain I was a child, so my vocabulary is quite childish. I can say roadrunner in Spanish, which is correcaminos. But I can’t say gross domestic product. Although I think it is bruto something… no, I don’t know what it is. Memories of Mansfield? Memories of Oxford? What are your fondest and what are your best? Well, I was in Room A13 when I was here. I don’t know whether that still exists. That’s over there, yep. Still exists!
What was that? There were five of us, and every afternoon, God knows why, but every afternoon we would have tea in each other’s room and we would have a guest every week. Sarah Glover founded the College. [She was the sister of George and Elizabeth Mansfield, after whom the College is named.] There’s a portrait of her in the Hall. And it looks as if she’s holding a teacup, but the teacup isn’t there. So we founded the Sarah Glover Tea Society and we had a different guest every afternoon and we took a photograph of them and that’s it. Interesting! Do you have any negative memories of Oxford? Um… ah, we lost at a croquet competition I remember. William Hague getting elected as President of the Union. That was quite bad. Did you sense a rivalry when you were here between colleges?
And ah… well, you probably haven’t even heard of Ultravox. Ultravox had a song called ‘Vienna’, which started da dum, da da dadum, boom boom boom, dadum, da da dadum… I always thought the words were ‘Aunty Ethel’ but apparently they’re ‘Ah, Vienna’. And there’s a bit in it where it goes diddle iddle diddle iddle diddle iddle. We spent a whole afternoon getting every room on the staircase to play the song two beats apart on all our stereos. Very loud. So you had it going diddle diddle… so that it was overlapping – it was very hard work. And we set up the Sarah Glover Tea Society [laughs].
Well, there was Christ Church and there was Magdalen. They were the big Tory sort of places. I mean, I was one of the very few public school boys here at Mansfield. And I was very lucky with John Creaser. He was a really good tutor, and the good thing was that, because [Mansfield] is small and he was an expert on Milton, we were farmed out to all the other experts across the University on whatever subject we wanted. That was brilliant, because you were seeing the person who is known for the subject. I did Dickens with Carey, and so on and so on. Which was brilliant.
Parliament: The Biography (Vol. 1 – Ancestral Voices) is published by Doubleday and is available from all good bookshops for £25. Parliament: The Biography (Vol. 2 – Reform), which charts British parliamentary history since the completion of the Acts of Union in 1801, was published on August 14th, 2014.
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Carved oak lectern – memorial to Lt R J Selbie
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Mansfield College and the Great War David Seymour (History, 1973) surveys the College community’s response to the war.
When war began, Mansfield was a small, non-residential, Congregational theological college preparing men, and one woman, for theological degrees and ordination. The College was not part of Oxford University, but insisted that its students were. Some students were already members of other colleges when they embarked on their Mansfield courses; others became Non-Collegiate students on arrival from other universities. Arts students were admitted to complete non-theological degrees at colleges of the University before their Mansfield course. In Michaelmas 1914, returning and new full members of the College comprised 18 theologians, all graduates, and four arts men. Some external students had the privilege of attending lectures. Mansfield’s student numbers were small; Exeter and Trinity each mustered 50 freshmen a year. In October the College received a request from the YMCA for ‘expert workers’ for the huts they were providing wherever British servicemen were stationed. Mansfield’s Board of Education authorised the Principal to release men for short periods to the YMCA, a decision amended in June 1915 to include any form of ‘approved national service’. Men left during Michaelmas 1914 for YMCA work at White City and Portsmouth. Two men arranged leave until the end of Hilary Term 1915, serving the YMCA at Havre, Rouen and in Cairo. During Hilary 1915, two more left for Havre, returning in April. Of those alumni and current students who served, most opted for pastoral work appropriate to their calling and experience. As well as the YMCA they worked for the British Red Cross Society, the Friends’ Ambulance Unit (FAU), the Friends’ Relief Fund in Serbia, and many, mostly alumni, became army chaplains. Augustus Cullen, at Havre YMCA, reported: ‘Tired and cold and hungry, the first thing these men see on landing is the YMCA Recreation Room. There they can get such things as tea and cake, tobacco and cigarettes, chocolate and matches – all English; there, after their long and inevitably uncomfortable journey they can rest, play games, read the latest English papers or join in a sing-song; there they find facilities for writing letters.’ They enjoyed
‘the comradeship that they find there; and many of them stay for the short prayers at the close.’ In November 1916 Clifford Lawson applied to become an army chaplain. In his application he drew attention to his three months, frequently under fire, in charge of a YMCA hut within 4000 yards of the German front line. His agreement to serve as a chaplain was countersigned by Mansfield’s Principal. He embarked for France in January 1917 and renewed his contract in December. In February 1919 he caught influenza while chaplain at the 4th Stationary Hospital at St Omer. On recovery he took three weeks of sick leave at home in Mexborough and returned to France on April 19th. On demobilisation in November 1919 he was chaplain to the 62nd Labour Group. Reflecting their spiritual calling, several of those who chose to volunteer for the army found this a difficult decision. Writing in the College magazine about George Haydock’s death, in 1956, his friend Noel Whitfield remembered the difficulty of Haydock’s decision to serve in a military capacity: ‘Only those who knew him could understand what agony of soul he suffered before deciding that his duty lay in the direction of Military Service.’ Although initially declared fit, Haydock was later discharged as medically unfit and returned to Mansfield as JCR president. At the term’s first JCR meeting Whitfield, the secretary, recorded Haydock speaking of those already at war doing so in loyalty to faithfulness and freedom. ‘They have responded to the highest call of duty and sacrifice. What of ourselves? If we believe we have chosen the better way then it was for us to justify our choice.’ Completing his BLitt in June 1915, Haydock finally secured a commission. Transferring from the infantry to the Royal Flying Corps he joined 34 Squadron in France in February 1917. Here he was severely injured when his aircraft’s machine gun malfunctioned, causing parts of the propeller to fly into the wing. In landing the machine he suffered Mansfield 2013/14
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Mansfield College 1914 Eight of the men mentioned in the article are pictured here:
Mansfield College and the Great War fractures to the base of his skull and both arms, as well as deafness in his right ear and double vision in his right eye. He was declared permanently unfit for pilot duties, and relinquished his commission in September 1918. In Hilary 1919 the JCR president wrote: ‘We were glad to have Haydock – an ex-President of the House – with us for the term.’ PG Simmonds, a year from ordination, wrote of ‘prayerfully and deliberately’ coming to his decision to take a commission in the army, ‘to safeguard the interests of a Society of which I am a member, and which has in it so much good that I dare not let it go; the cry of generations unborn has called me to do what I can to prevent Germany from realising her dreams.’ CJ Cadoux, the only member of the SCR to gain experience under fire, did so as a pacifist serving with the 42 Mansfield 2013/14
Back row: Noel Whitfield (2nd from left), Clifford Lawson (3rd from left), P G Simmonds (5th from left). Middle row: C J Cadoux (1st from left), George Haydock (2nd from left), Augustus Cullen (9th from left) Seated: Nathaniel Micklem (1st from left), the Principal (5th from left).
FAU in Dunkirk and Poperinghe for three months in 1915. The manciple, Charles Symonds, since 1910 an officer in the Territorial Force, began the demanding job of Quartermaster of the 3rd Southern General Hospital, based in the Examination Schools, on August 5th 1914, and with him went three men he had trained as kitchen boys. Bursar’s clerk, Alfred James, and JCR servant, William Buckingham, also joined the army. As men left for ‘approved national service’ numbers declined. In 1915 four theological students and two Arts men were admitted, but one soon joined the army and another the FAU. At Michaelmas 1916 only eight men were in College. In 1917 two men, one prevented from service by serious illness, joined the College and in 1918 two, discharged wounded from the army, arrived. Mansfield House
University Settlement (now Aston-Mansfield) saw a gradual decline in the number of volunteer helpers from the College. The Settlement’s magazine noted the turning point in January 1916: ‘The beginning of the Christmas term usually brings us several visitors from Oxford. This year, of course, there have been hardly any.’ From those associated locally with the Settlement about 200 men joined the colours, of whom 36 were lost. Although not taken over by the Government, as some colleges were, Mansfield found wartime uses for its site. After an initial decline in numbers, resulting from the absence of many undergraduates, attendance at Chapel services improved with the presence of those stationed in Oxford and of wounded soldiers. In 1917 the United Army Board introduced a Parade Service at Mansfield for trainees from the Royal Flying Corps, with the Principal as Honorary Chaplain. In the summer of 1916 the Wounded Soldiers’ Garden Club had a marquee erected on the upper lawn, using the large lecture room the following winter. Mansfield provided heating, lighting and help from College servants, and local people donated the teas. Between 400 and 500 men attended every afternoon, and in three years 250,000 ‘very ample teas’ were served. For a short time the Serbian Relief Committee used two classrooms to educate refugees. Mansfield also opened its lectures to men and women from other colleges and provided a venue for conferences. Following the Armistice, Chapel congregations revived. College chaplain, alumnus Nathaniel Micklem, recently returned from YMCA work, described them as ‘unusually
large’, despite the discontinuance of the Parade Services. ‘During the two terms that I have been here’, he wrote in June 1919, ‘Oxford has been filling up and reviving.’ The decline in student numbers reversed in 1919 when 14 theologians and four Arts men, many returning from service, were admitted. In Trinity Term, 14 external students, mostly Allied servicemen, joined. The College Reports maintained a positive tone throughout the war, speaking of work being ‘steadily carried on in all departments, notwithstanding the depletion of numbers and the distractions of the present time’. The 1920 Report mentioned the encouraging revival in numbers. The war, however, still influenced College organisation. The ‘great diversity of attainment’ possessed by the ex-servicemen, ‘owing to the exigencies of the war’, obliged the College to offer modified theological courses. When, in June 1922, the men departed who had swelled the student body in the first post-war session, the College felt the last consequence of the war on its numbers. In 1918 the Principal presented a lectern to the Chapel in memory of his son, Lieutenant RJ Selbie (Wadham, 1910), killed in action near Ypres on June 13th 1916 with the 13th Canadian Battalion. During Hilary Term 1921 two memorial inscriptions were placed on a pillar in the Chapel to commemorate the deaths in action of two students: 2nd Lt PG Simmonds, killed on the Somme on July 1st 1916 with Queen Victoria’s Rifles, and 2nd Lt EA Claxton, killed at Hollebeke on July 31st 1917 with the King’s Royal Rifle Corps. The memorials in the Chapel reflect the enduring effect of the war on the College community.
Mansfield College War Memorial
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Serendipity: tales of the unexpected in theatrical and literary exchanges Ros Ballaster, Professorial Fellow in English, describes her new role as Knowledge Exchange Fellow with a Northampton theatre, and announces the launch of the Mansfield Media Group. In 1754, Horace Walpole coined the word serendipity: ‘the faculty or event of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident’. I’ve been enjoying some serendipity since January 2014 when I added a new role to my work in Oxford: that of a ‘Knowledge Exchange’ Fellow in the Humanities. Knowledge exchange is the new buzz phrase in academic research for a two-way process whereby academics work with nonacademic partners (people, institutions, policy makers) to foster the mutually beneficial sharing of ideas, data, experience, and expertise. This isn’t about academics talking about their work and engaging the public with their ideas (though that can be part of it). It is about both parties understanding the kinds of knowledge required for excellence in their field and finding ways of sharing this knowledge. I have a specific research interest in English theatre of the 18th century and how it relates to the rise of the novel. Just launched is my project website on ‘Georgian theatre and the novel’ (http://georgiantheatrenovel. wordpress.com/). Theatre has always relied on adapting prose fictions, and early in the history of the novel, prose fictions drew on theatrical styles and traditions. In the 18th century, the theatre was the big player in town in terms of circulating stories to a mass public; the novel was a nervous arriviste trying to elbow its way into the market. I’ve become interested in exploring how writers and performers travelled between the two genres and how they mutually informed each other. In October 2013 I ran a workshop at Mansfield on the interaction of theatre and novel in 18th-century England. Thirty scholars, directors and actors worked together for two days giving presentations, performing play texts, discussing issues around performance, reception, and text. This was another serendipitous occasion in which I could bring together expertise from among the students I had worked with over the years, and Mansfield’s history as a creative laboratory for theatrical experiment. 44 Mansfield 2013/14
Two ex-English students from Mansfield attended, Abigail Anderson and Laura Baggaley, both gifted directors with amazing skills in bringing 18th-century theatre to life. The John Hodgson Theatre Research Trust generously provided funding to pay the actors and directors who spent a feverish day getting script-inhand performances of two short interludes of the period up on their feet for the assembled workshoppers. John Hodgson’s legacy funds a theatre research post in English at the College – John studied English at Mansfield and went on to an eminent career in directing and writing about theatre, with a strong interest especially in the theory and practice of improvisation. Two current students (Lauren O’Neill and Amy Dutton) gamely took small parts in one of the plays, working alongside professional actors and directors; both did us proud (you can see their performances in YouTube clips on the project website).
As I’ve settled into the role and been able to be involved in productions in development, I have started to arrange consultancies and workshops in Oxford and Northampton to support scriptwriting, research and adding literary value to productions. A new play based on Arthurian legends about Merlin, and a new theatrical adaptation of Pat Barker’s trilogy Regeneration, connect productively with the work of Oxford medievalists and scholars here who work on war poetry and the wonderful Oxford digital project of the Great War Archive (see the open access site http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa/).
Serendipity struck again when the artistic team at Northampton’s Royal & Derngate theatre saw a notice – placed by the Humanities Division’s newly formed ‘Knowledge Exchange’ group – encouraging art and heritage institutions to consider ways of working with Oxford research academics. The theatre put in an enquiry about a possible partnership, which came to me. This must be what blind dates are like, I thought, as I arrived in Northampton to try and persuade two young men hoping to meet an expert on Pinter, Stoppard, or Beckett, that I was in fact the person they were looking for.
There are unexpected benefits alongside the challenges of bringing two different worlds together. For me there has been the pleasure both of making new contacts and renewing old ones. It transpired that the creative director at the Royal, James Dacre, knew Mansfield College through his brother who took his degree here. Another serendipitous moment was captured in an email from a Mansfield English alumnus, Mike Walton, who attended A Tale of Two Cities and read my programme article on the novel and its treatment of the French Revolutionary year. He writes, ‘I guess I should be telling you it was both the greatest of surprises and the least of surprises!’
The Royal is a beautiful 19th-century theatre: opened in 1884 and seating around 450. Here, the small artistic team puts on ‘made in Northampton’ productions, rehearsed and produced on site. These fizz with invention, are beautiful to behold, and take bold choices that push the boundaries of regional theatre. The ambition in our Knowledge Exchange work is to bring together the research-rich culture of Oxford with expertise in devising and delivering relevant and challenging theatre to a local audience. This process is helping us both to understand how active scholarship might better inform the entertainment and educational purposes of theatre. Since I started in January 2014, I’ve been involved in four productions. I’ve written articles for programmes, and attended rehearsals for two plays: a new adaptation by Mike Poulton (who recently adapted Wolf Hall for the Royal Shakespeare Company) of Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities and a contemporary reworking of a farce by Georges Feydeau, Every Last Trick.
I’m trying to facilitate those moments of serendipity by matching academic and theatrical expertise. The aim is to produce genuine exchanges of mutual benefit – both to the playwright and production team and to the academic scholar gaining experience in outreach and communicating research to non-specialist audiences.
Serendipity is also described as ‘looking for one thing and finding another’. These new connections and reconnections have prompted me to take the initiative and pursue a long-held ambition to enable alumni who work in the arts and media to network with each other and with our current students. To this end, Mansfield plans to launch a Media Group. We want to celebrate the strength, creativity and variety of achievements in this field among our number. Our aim is to provide opportunities for alumni working in the media (broadcast, arts, theatre, print and electronic, publishing) to network with each other and to communicate with students interested in pursuing careers in the field. If your work relates to any aspect of the media or you have worked in similar fields in the past, and would like to be involved with or be informed about this new initiative, do get in touch! Who knows what serendipity the group might generate? Email to register your interest with the Alumni Relations Officer at alumni.officer@ mansfield.ox.ac.uk Mansfield 2013/14
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ALUMNI NEWS
New York reception Emily Petersell VSP, 2010/2011
It never ceases to amaze me that people whose paths have never crossed before, and who are generations apart, can become instant friends due to just one commonality: having attended Mansfield College. It is a curious and marvellous thing to be greeted like an old friend by brandnew acquaintances, but that happened to many people at the Mansfield College reception in New York City in April. It seems that Mansfield alumni are just as open and inviting to new people as the College’s infamous circular and unguarded ‘Quad’.
willing and eager to support the College and its continuing commitment to social justice. Since the event, several USbased alumni have made donations to support the ongoing projects at Mansfield College. I hope that the Mansfield old members in my home country (and other countries!) will continue to support the College. In spite of their varying interests, busy careers, and geographical distance from Oxford, Mansfield’s US alumni certainly came together to support the College and one another at the New York reception. It was well attended and enjoyed by all. I look forward to the next Mansfield College event in the United States.
I am pleased to report that the New York reception was attended not only by local alumni, but also by alumni from all over the United States. Some had travelled from as far away as Texas. Equally as impressive as this geographical diversity was the diversity of professions and interests in the room. Mansfield alumni are truly doing great work around the world, from finance to law to publishing books on religion and philosophy. In addition to connecting with friends old and new, alumni at the event in New York had the opportunity to reconnect with the College and learn about its new developments, including the plans to build an Institute of Human Rights. There was a general buzz of excitement in the room during Baroness Helena Kennedy’s presentation, and it was clear that even from across an ocean, Mansfield alumni are Photo: Christian Grattan
Telling the truth Sue Unerman Modern History, 1979 My first book was Tell the Truth (Benbella, 2012), about the impact of the digital and social landscape on marketing. My next book is more general. It is about women and work, and how to get the career you deserve. Much of the career advice for women consists of being told to work harder and be better than men. I, and my coauthor Kathryn Jacob (CEO of Pearl & Dean), don’t believe that’s the only strategy for success. It certainly wasn’t ours. We’re not convinced that it works at all. Real concerted success comes from having a range of tactics to deploy when necessary. There are many women in the workforce, but the proportion in senior management is still hugely below the average you would expect. When I started in the workplace after graduating from Mansfield, it was clear that there were no visible barriers any more to women rising to the top. Yet there has been no radical change in the make up of people running most businesses. There may be one or two women around the board table, but in most places (and my firm, MediaCom London, is one of the few exceptions) companies continue to be managed by men. Gender diversity is proven to be good for profit and successful growth. It’s time to see a step change. I’m still in the process of writing and interviewing for the book (one of my interviews was with the College Principal), so if any reader has a view I’d be interested in your experience. Please contact Sue.unerman@mediacom.com.
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ALUMNI NEWS
First encountering the game at Mansfield, Richard Smith Mathematics, 1993 is now an international croquet player after representing England at recent World Championships in Adelaide and London. He was victorious in the Shield consolation event in the London 2013 Championships, which included a win over Australia’s number two, and he is now closing in on a top 50 world ranking. Competition croquet is a little different from the way Richard recalls it being played at Mansfield, with somewhat flatter courts and narrower hoops, but if it wasn’t for those summer afternoons on the Quad then he wouldn’t be an international sportsman today! Andrew Walker BA Geography, 2001 married Suzanna Mason in October 2013, and they have just had their first child: a baby girl born on August 28th, 2014, weighing 8lb 3oz. They have named her Mina Isabella Walker. Congratulations to the happy parents!
Photo: Andrew Page
Photo: Peter May
Matches made in Mansfield
Benjamin Shockley and Kate Johnson (now Kate Shockley) were married on August 22nd, 2014. They met at Mansfield and got together at the end of Freshers’ Week in their first year. They both read English and matriculated in 2005. Ben and Kate pass on special thanks to Ros and Lucinda! Lucinda May BA English Language and Literature, 2006 and Martin Slater BA Physics, 2005 also tied the knot in August 2014. As might be imagined, there was quite a Mansfield contingent among the wedding guests. Congratulations to both couples!
Edward White BA Modern History, 2000 brought out his first biography in February 2014, a book looking at the life and work of Carl Van Vechten. It is published by FSG and entitled The Tastemaker – Carl Van Vechten and the Birth of Modern America.
Photo:Wikipedia
Philip Jones Geography, 1978 is a Vice Admiral in the Royal Navy and currently serves as the Fleet Commander and Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff. He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the Queen’s 2014 Birthday Honours and was knighted by the Queen at an Investiture Ceremony at Buckingham Palace on October 9th, 2014. Mansfield 2013/14
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OBITUARIES
Iain Miller Modern Languages and Linguistics, 1964 April 26th1945 – May 22nd 2014 Iain enriched the lives of many at Mansfield during his time as a Modern Languages undergraduate. Always charming, witty and a wonderful companion in and around College, he was often seen with glamorous blonde women in his classic MG sports car. The car also served as transport for his double bass, which Iain was frequently asked to play in concerts. Music was one of the key notes of his life and he came up to Oxford with a formidable reputation as a player with the National Youth Orchestra. He continued to play in London until shortly before his death. Close Mansfield friends, Tony Lunch and Adrian Hall, conspired with him in the famous Irish Sherry caper. Sherry was the aperitif of choice in the 1960s and when a source was located in Jericho – sold in unmarked 50-litre casks – it was just too good a deal for Iain and the team. Empty bottles were borrowed from College and the amber liquid rebottled. Countless sherry parties were organised to get rid of the stuff, and all this just weeks before finals. Why it was dubbed Irish Sherry was a mystery, but it coloured nearly 50 years of greetings between the trio in ‘oirish accents’! Iain’s main claim to sporting stardom was his appearance in the Mansfield sailing cuppers squad in 1967. Despite little experience, he filled the vital ‘third man’ slot and helped the team achieve victory. This was Mansfield’s first ever cuppers win and we were awarded a bumps supper. After leaving Oxford, Iain went to the INSEAD business school in France, and, after a brief attempt at corporate life, settled happily into his selfemployed international-business operation. He worked in Germany and France, often to be seen visiting clients on his trusty motorbike, one of his lifelong passions. Mansfield played a vital and enduring place in Iain’s life. It was in the Chapel that he married Cathy in 1971. They lived in London throughout their wonderfully happy life, which was cut tragically short by his cancer. Cathy looked after him with great devotion during the last months. One of Iain’s favourite songs was ‘Keep on Running’ by the Spencer Davis Group (Mansfield Ball, 1964). He did indeed keep on running, weekly in London right until the end, refusing to give in to the illness. An inspiration to the end. By Anthony Lunch (Geography, 1964)
The Reverend Dr John Bradshaw Theology, 1949 May 27th, 1924 – February 6th, 2014 John Bradshaw left school in Wembley at 16 to become an electrical engineering apprentice and study part-time for a university degree. He inherited his parents’ strong religious convictions and spoke warmly of how members of Wembley Park Congregational Church cared for young people, encouraging their search for practical ways of expressing faith in society. In 1945 he began teaching mathematics at Tiffins Boys School in Kingston-upon-Thames. At
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the same time, he studied Psychology, obtaining a second BSc and an MSc on the development of religious belief in children and young people. Eventually he superintended Religious Education throughout the school. His church recommended him for ordination training in the Congregational tradition, and in 1949 he entered Mansfield College. A born leader, John was one of the few Theology students who regularly tossed comments and questions to Oxford University’s senior professors. He was president of Mansfield JCR, and won a bump supper for the College after stroking a formidable St Catherine’s Society third Eight. His mellifluous singing in concerts evoked warm applause, but not everyone welcomed his sharp criticisms in sermon class. After Theology finals he obtained a DPhil on the interface between Psychology and Theology, spending a year in the University of Chicago, training in Client-Centred Therapy with Carl Rogers. On his return from the USA in 1954, John and his fiancée Muriel Quick were married. John was ordained and they were commissioned by the London Missionary Society to ministry in Samoa. As Principal of Malua Theological College he supervised a busy programme of rebuilding and upgrading, helped develop the Pacific Conference of Churches and spent long hours on ecumenical Bible translation. But his health suffered. At the end of 1963 the Bradshaw family left Samoa for the cooler climate of the UK. From 1965 to 1983 John taught in the Aston College of Advanced Technology, which became the University of Aston in Birmingham, specialising in Communication Science and Linguistics. For five years he directed the ground-breaking counselling centre at Carrs Lane United Reformed Church. He later ministered in pastorates at Olton, Hall Green and Digbeth-in-the-Field. Before his last illness he completed a wideranging autobiography. He is survived by his wife Muriel and their three children. By the Reverend Donald Schofield (Theology, 1949)
The Very Reverend Lynda Patterson Theology, 1992 February 6th, 1974 July 19th, 2014 Lynda was one of the first applicants I interviewed after returning to Mansfield as a Fellow, and I felt already that I had ‘struck gold’. She had an extensive knowledge of the Bible and Theology, but had also read reams of English Literature, as Donald Sykes discovered, and had a passion for Geology. She was clever, articulate and above all witty (not many interviewees realise how much it helps their cause to tell the odd joke). Lynda was also a wonderful tutee: reading outside the prescribed bibliography, and assessing the arguments of so-called authorities with that sharp independent judgment of hers. Of course she got a brilliant First. Her MSt was a triumph too and she was admitted to read for a DPhil. She never finished it, partly because of all the other responsibilities she took on in College, partly because she could not bring herself to write until she had read absolutely everything published in her chosen field. She was elected as Junior Dean and was legendary in that role. The door to her study on the backstairs of the Principal’s Lodgings was always open to students in any kind of trouble – including the trouble of an imminent essay crisis – for Lynda, the polymath, could tackle any
OBITUARIES
problem thrown at her from whatever discipline. When that post ran out she was appointed Junior Chaplain; she was the most provocative, thoughtful and often hilarious preacher I have ever heard. Without accommodation in College, she came to live with me in East Oxford; and I will always treasure our conversations in the evenings often joined by her successor, David Elliott.
Apart from his many talents, Nick was a very good and moral man. He was a very staunch friend to many, and not a few have been grateful for the help he has freely given. He will be much missed.
When I had a year’s sabbatical she was appointed Theology tutor and Director of Studies; she was as good a tutor as I had once been (if not better), providing copious invaluable feedback on students’ essays. I visited her in New Zealand after she moved there, helping out at her church in Auckland before taking a trip round the South Island together. We visited Christchurch, little knowing that after responding to a call to ordained ministry, she would end up a Director of its Theology House, and later as Dean of the Cathedral.
The Reverend Johannes Helmut Starck Theology, 1958 October 18th, 1930 – August 7th, 2014
She experienced personal tragedies in those last years, including the dreadful earthquake that caused fatalities and widespread destruction. But she came through it all with great courage and resilience. And now we have lost her – at such a young age. May she rest in peace. She was and will remain one of Mansfield’s all-time greats. By the Reverend John Muddiman (Emeritus Fellow, Mansfield College)
Nicholas Edmund Valner Jurisprudence, 1973 September 14th, 1953 July 13th, 2014 Nick and I went up to Mansfield in October 1973 to read Jurisprudence. We met at the beginning of 0th week. My sister Jane went up to St Anne’s at the same time, also to read Jurisprudence. On the first evening as I went over to visit her, Nick asked if he could tag along. They married in 1979 and were together for the rest of his life. Nick was an active member of the College. He played tennis for Mansfield and also played soccer for the College in cuppers. He was a keen member of the Boat Club too, his enthusiasm and drive making him perfect for coxing. The First Eight won its oars, and Nick his rudder, in 1975 with him at the helm. On qualifying he joined the litigation team and soon started his practice in the music industry in which he made his reputation. The firm had acted for the Beatles for some years, and Nick eventually took over the responsibility for looking after their interests. This involved some very heavyweight litigation in which Nick forged an exceptional reputation as a litigator and mediator on both sides of the Atlantic. Nick subsequently joined the national firm Eversheds. He continued to be heavily involved with the music industry, acting for many luminaries of that world, including Elton John and Jimi Hendrix: artists not commonly thought of together. When Nick retired from Eversheds he continued to work for favoured clients from an office he created in his garden. It was notable that the last person from outside the family who visited him only a couple of days before his death was Olivia Harrison, the widow of George, and their son Dhani. When he was not working, Nick was a countryman – despite having lived all his life in the Guildford area. He liked to shoot, and throughout his life he would have at least a couple of well-trained Labradors to help him. His main love though, apart from his family, was to fish. He was never happier than on the riverbank, fly fishing, whether locally on the Wey or on the Test in Hampshire, or salmon fishing on a ‘boys’ week’ up in Scotland.
By Richard O’Sullivan (Jurisprudence, 1973)
In August we received the sad news that our old friend, Helmut Starck, had died in his 84th year at his home in Krefeld, Germany. Helmut came to spend the academic year 1958/9 with us at Mansfield on a World Council of Churches scholarship, after study in Germany under Eberhard Bethge (the friend and biographer of Dietrich Bonhoeffer), and prior to ordination as a pastor in the Evangelischen Kirche in the Rhineland. His first charge was of the congregation meeting in the delightful old church at Gruiten, near his native Mettmann, midway between Dusseldorf and Wuppertal. Then he crossed the Rhine and for almost 20 years until his retirement was pastor in the impressive Friedenskirche in the centre of Krefeld. Helmut’s abiding commitment was to the reconciliation of Christians and Jews in post-war Germany. In the 1960s, in the palmy days before the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank, each summer he organised groups of young people to work at Nes Ammim, a Christian kibbutz north of Haifa. While at the Friedenskirche, with his wife Renate, he undertook a ministry of peace-making by travelling extensively to establish a network of the worldwide diaspora of Krefeld Jews that had survived the Holocaust. He was instrumental also in the erection of a bronze plaque, on the site of a former synagogue in the city centre, commemorating the names of those who had perished. In 2001, he was honoured by the civic authorities in Krefeld with their official recognition of these achievements. He is survived by Renate and by their three children, Michael (himself an EKD pastor), Dorothee and Barbara, and by their five grandchildren. By the Reverend William ‘Bill’ Sewell, Theology 1956
The Reverend David Goodall Theology, 1946; Bursar, Mansfield College 1957-1963 December 30th 1922 October 25th 2014 Revd David Goodall was ‘a man of parts’: one-time bursar and chaplain, musician, expert on hymns and part-time milkman as a way of visiting parishioners at Brill. His ministry at Mansfield, 1957-1963, included chaplaincy to the flourishing University Congregational Society. For this he will forever be remembered for the generous, caring and humorous way in which he and his wife Megan befriended us and made us welcome in their home every Sunday evening in term times. Later he was a minister in Stockport and Birkenhead. The lighting in the College Chapel/Dining Hall is dedicated to the memory of his father Revd Dr Norman Goodall, also an alumnus of our College. By Donald Norwood (Theology, 1959-1966)
Mansfield 2013/14
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OBITUARIES
Dr Sachiho Naito Passed away on July 3rd, 2014 A good friend of Mansfield and a Bancroft Fellow since 2003, Dr Sachiho Naito has died in Tokyo in his 90th year following a short illness. Naito was the second son of Naito Aro, a scholar of French literature and holder of the L’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur, famous for his translation of Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s Le Petit Prince. Naito opted for engineering, graduated from Tokyo University and taught at universities in Japan and Thailand. In 1972 he founded the Naito Sachiho Consultancy Ltd, consulting on environmental, hydrological and nuclear-related matters. From 1989 to 1991 he was President of Kanto Gakuin University (KGU), thereafter spending 18 years as Chairman of the Board of Trustees, finally stepping down at the age of 85 after celebrating KGU’s 125th anniversary. Dr Naito was deeply committed to Kanto Gakuin’s links with Mansfield, resulting in a mutually beneficial 20-year relationship. In 1995, KGU and Ebara Corporation, a well-known Japanese environmental engineering company, contributed very generously to help fund the Garden Building. Just before his sudden death, he was planning a visit to Oxford with KGU’s new President to discuss the agreement that gives the right to a visiting fellowship at Mansfield and an annual Kanto Gakuin summer school in College.
Born in Oldham, he graduated from Manchester University with a BA in French, and read Theology at Mansfield in preparation for the ministry. He mastered Greek and Hebrew, which he used to good effect in his distinctive exegetical preaching. One day he chanced to see a poster advertising work in the mission field. ‘I could do that!’, he thought; and with his knowledge of French, what seemed more natural than that he would be sent to Madagascar? Donald was ordained in 1952 at Digbeth-in-the-Field, Birmingham, where he ministered for a year while preparing for service with the London Missionary Society. With Jean, whom he had married on completion of his studies at Mansfield, he set off for Mandritsara in 1953, where they made their home until 1972. Their three sons were born there and Donald, with apparently effortless ease, added Malagasy to his linguistic repertoire and preached regularly in that language. He returned to the UK to serve at Peckham for the next 10 years, and at Bromley for the following 11, until retirement. Nevertheless, he continued to maintain lively contacts with Madagascar, and attended the yearly meetings of the Anglo-French Colloque, which linked members of the French Reformed Churches and of the URC. Jean and Donald formed long-standing friendships in the Colloque. Its sessions were enriched by Donald’s love of theology, his leadership skills, his ability to preach in French, his musical accomplishments, and his sense of humour. He retired to Witney, and joined St Columba’s Church, Oxford, where he played the organ. At Mansfield he was a regular attender at Chapel services and breakfasts and speaker events.
Dr Naito was a keen rugby enthusiast and through his efforts, the KGU Rugby Football Club developed a series of reciprocal matches with Oxford. KGURFC was a Japanese university rugby finalist nine times, winning on five occasions, and was the only student team to beat Oxford in its nine visits to Japan. This was not just about sport – Naito arranged for some of the KGURFC players to study at Oxford. The first of these was Takuro Miuchi who, to Naito’s immense happiness, gained a blue and went on to captain the Japan national side, becoming one of Japan’s greatest rugby players and appearing in two World Cups: 2003 and 2007.
By The Revd Fleur Houston (Friend of Mansfield College)
Even in retirement, Naito continued to work on projects in his field of water and nuclear risk. In 2012, following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, he published a report on the nature of radioactive risk to the environment in which he referred back to a 1955 US publication How to survive an Atomic Bomb, which he had translated into Japanese in his youth. A fine engineer, scholar, long-term strategist and true internationalist, Dr Naito will be sadly missed by family, friends, students and rugby players alike. Mansfield’s relationship with KGU is just a small part of his memorial.
Mark read for a BA in English Language and Literature, and went on to earn an MLitt at Mansfield. He tutored for several colleges at Oxford and held a lecturing post at St Edmund Hall. A gifted lecturer, he was popular among his students and always challenged them to think beyond their comfort level.
By Rosemary Cragg (Friend of Mansfield College)
Donald Schofield Theology, 1949 February 28th 1928 October 12th 2014 Three elements in Donald’s life were seamlessly interwoven: his delight in the French language; his ministry in the UK and Madagascar; and the pleasure he took in his family.
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Mark Allen English Language and Literature, 1980 November 8th 1960 January 8th 2014
Photo: Boston University
Mark taught British Literature in the Boston University (BU) Oxford Honors Study Program from 1986 until the programme was closed in 2008. He had been teaching in BU’s London Program since 1996 and was the coordinator and lead lecturer for the literature track of the English History and Literature Program. Mark was a passionate and subtle critic of the poetry of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He published reviews and articles on Romanticism in several academic journals and also worked for the Oxford English Dictionary as a historical reader specialising in the works of Coleridge. As a tribute to him, colleagues and friends have purchased for the Mansfield library the 2001 Princeton University Press edition of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poems.
2014 Prizes
College and University prizes 2014 Scholarships
COLLEGE PRIZES
UNIVERSITY PRIZES
Thomas Babb (Mathematics) Thomas Barnett (English) Emmeline Skinner Cassidy (Oriental Studies) Lev Chechik (Materials) Alexander Clark (PPE) Mark Collett (History) Wojciech Dziwulski (Engineering) Jack Frigaard (Engineering) Qianjun Hang (Physics) Mark Hattersley (Mathematics) Thomas Jollans (Physics) Jordan Juritz (Physics) Ludovico Lazzeretti (Engineering) Jessica Loring (Geography) Jonathan Mellor (Law) Alex Nim (Physics) Lara Pysden (Geography) Yakang Qi (Mathematics) Martha Rhodes (History) Frances Thompson (Geography) Perry Wang (Mathematics) Athanassia Williamson (English) Helena Wilson (English)
Worsley Prize for Law Sean Tan and Emma Foubister
Armourers’ & Brasiers’ Company Prize for outstanding overall performance in Prelims Lev Chechik (Materials)
Exhibitions Joanna Hawkins (History) Danting Hu (Engineering) Harry Mason (Engineering) Daniel Orford (Engineering) Samuel Peacock (Human Sciences) Rusheb Shah (Materials) Elliott Thornley (Philosophy & Theology) Jack Violet (Mathematics) Elliot Warriner-Bacon (Physics) Shuai Xie (Engineering)
Horton Davies Prize for best 2nd-year work in Theology Luke Cornelius Mason Lowance Prize in honour of John Creaser for best 2nd-year English essay Kathryn Butterworth Mason Lowance Prize in memory of Malcolm Parkes for best distinction-level performance in English Helena Wilson Mahony Prize for best 2nd-year performance in History Rebecca Hird Sarah & Peter Harkness Prize for Prelims Lev Chechik (Engineering) College Essay Prize Satyajit Sankurathripati (Visiting Student) Henty Prize for outstanding 2nd-year work in Geography Emma Nelmes Visiting Student Prize for 2013/14 Mina Pollmann (Georgetown University)
Gibbs Prize for extended essay Aidan Hampton (Philosophy & Theology) Proxime accessit Gibbs Prize for Prelims Ludovico Lazzeretti (Engineering) Prize for the best Materials team design project Katherine Lumley (Materials) Commendation for practical work in Part B David MacDougal (Physics) Gibbs Prize for FHS Philosophy papers Adam Sewell (Philosophy & Theology) John House Prize (proxime accesserunt) for Prelims Frances Thompson (Geography) Gibbs Prize for Prelims Athanassia Williamson (English) Helena Wilson (English)
Science Prize Qianjun Hang (Physics) John Sykes Prize for best Part I Materials results Ina Sorensen
Choral Scholars 2013/14 Alexander Chalk Rebecca Dellar Roshan Forouhi Sophie Giles Charles Roe Charlotte Warne
Mansfield 2013/14
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EXAMINATION RESULTS 2014
DOCTORATE (DPhil) Geography Pass
Janet Banfield
History Pass
Aled Davies
Materials Science Pass Cheng Cheng Physics Pass
Nakita Noel
MSc Economic & Social History Pass Joshua Burge MSc Environmental Change & Management Pass Moritz Koenig MSc Mathematical & Computational Finance Pass Ruirui Guo MSc Mathematics & Foundations of Computer Science Dist Manuel Aprile
Politics Pass
Rosine Kelz Dana Mills
Statistics Pass
MSc Nature, Society & Environmental Policy Pass Julian Sartorius
Valentina Iotchkova
MSc Social Science of the Internet Pass Asha Fereydouni Freya Griffiths Sumin Lee
Systems Biology Pass Daniel Harvey Theology Pass
Gratian Vandici
MASTERS/GRADUATE DEGREES MPhil Geography & the Environment Pass Chung-Han Yang MPhil Politics Pass Bernhard Clemm von Hohenberg Joshua Niderost MPhil Theology Dist Matthew Anderson Pass John Haglund MSc Applied Statistics Dist Yan Liu Pass Yining Cai Guangxin Feng MSc Biodiversity, Conservation & Management Pass Stella Kondylas MSc Clinical Embryology Pass William Davis Christos Kyprianou
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MSc Water Science, Policy & Management Pass Marijn Korndewal MSt English & American Studies Pass Joshua Wilson MSt Jewish Studies Pass Abir Lal Mitra MSt Medieval Studies Pass Glenn Cahilly-Bretzin MSt Theology Pass Joanna Williams
BCL Dist Pass
Jeerapa Leelawattanachai Jan Mathias Raheim Konstantinos Sidiropoulos Wanqing Xu Sam Goodman Dalton Hale
MASTER OF ENGINEERING (MEng) Engineering Science Class I Samuel Knight David Wharton Class 2.i Imogen Buchan Engineering, Economics & Management Class I Christopher Lee Evans Materials Science Class 2.i Sarah Connolly Katherine Hazelton Class 2.ii Alexander Edwards Jun Li Materials, Economics & Management Class 2.i George Heppel
MASTER OF MATHEMATICS (MMath) Mathematics Class I Adrian David Class 2.i Robert Peck
MSt Women’s Studies Dist Rebecca Birrell
MASTER OF PHYSICS (MPhys)
MBA Dist Pass
Physics Class 2.i
Lucy Coutinho Girish Deshpande Adrian Johnson Kelvin Lam Xiaotian Mao
Master of Public Policy Pass Alan Clarke MJuris Pass
Kristin Boosfeld
Kristiyan Ivanov Daniel Keeling
BACHELOR OF ARTS (BA) English Language & Literature Class 2.i Rachel Brook Amy Dutton Jan Greenshaw Rebecca Loxton Charles Roe
EXAMINATION RESULTS 2014
Pass
Abigail Rose Bethany White Katherine Humphries
Geography Class I Class 2.i
Selina Denton Charlotte Eynon James Fisher Grace Garside Kathryn Isaac Thomas Sowerby Daniel Tarry
History Class I Class 2.i
Enrica Biasi Celia McLuskie Samuel Tarran James Burnett Joseph Morris Martin Reeves
History & English Class 2.i Rachel Dishington History & Politics Class 2.i Beth Collett Human Sciences Class 2.i Rachel Cain Priyanaz Chatterji Amy Smith Jurisprudence Class I Sean Tan Class 2.i Temisan Boyo Harinder Dhesi Natasha Halligan Wai Yin Deborah Lo Jurisprudence (English Law with Law Studies in Europe) Class I Emma Foubister Class 2.i Katharine Gingell Mathematics Class I Guo-Liang Ma Class 2.i Reuben Adams Thomas Clarke PPE Class 2.i Shahenda Darwich Rachel Milton Priya Shah Charlotte Warne
Philosophy & Theology Class I Alexander Chalk Adam Sewell Physics Class I Calin Mocanu Theology Class I Class 2.i
Aidan Hampton Joseph de Quay Sophie Giles
MODERATIONS English Dist Pass
Thomas Barnett Athanassia Williamson Helena Wilson Sophie Burks James Costello O’Reilly Isabel Linehan Natasha Somi Fay Watson
Jurisprudence Dist Jonathan Mellor Pass Lisa Robertson Jonathan Sorrell Jurisprudence (English Law with Law Studies in Europe) Pass Jehanara Mehta-Jamooji Grace Shobowale
PRELIMINARY EXAMINATIONS Engineering Dist Pass Geography Dist Pass History Dist
Wojciech Dziwulski Jack Frigaard Ludovico Lazzeretti Danting Hu Shuai Xie Jessica Loring Lara Pysden Frances Thompson Rachael Kershaw Holly Leadbitter Ryan Lewis David Smith Mark Collett Martha Rhodes
Pass Jordan Dilworth Jack Edmunds William Ferris Sara Semic Sophie Wright History & Politics Pass Holly Winfield Human Sciences Pass Samuel Peacock Materials Science Dist Lev Chechik Pass Tabitha Jones Rusheb Shah Tinger Wen James Zhou Mathematics Dist Mark Hattersley Yakang Qi Pei Yi Perry Wang Pass Leilah Forward Rhys Williams Oriental Studies Dist Emmeline Skinner Cassidy Pass Tine Aistrup PPE Dist Pass
Alexander Clark Luke Charters-Reid Andrea Cigala Roshan Forouhi Gina Sternberg Miranda Stock
Philosophy & Theology Pass Elliott Thornley Physics Dist Pass
Qianjun Hang Jordan Juritz Sarah Barker George Rodrigues-Fowler Elliot Warriner-Bacon
Theology Pass
Clementine Collett Helen Harvey
Diploma in Legal Studies Pass Louise de Vogue Mansfield 2013/14
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Fellows’ Research and Publications
Ros Ballaster Professor of 18th-Century Studies and Tutorial Fellow in English
Stephen Blundell Professorial Fellow in Physics
You can follow Ros on her blog http:/enlightenedfeministinoxford.wordpress. com/ Twitter: @BallasterRos
Stephen’s new book, written with former Mansfield lecturer Tom Lancaster (now at Durham), Quantum Field Theory for the Gifted Amateur, has been published by Oxford University Press.
Recent publications ‘Turan numbers of bipartite graphs plus an odd cycle,’ Allen, P., Keevash, P., Sudakov, B. and Verstraete, J., in Journal of Combinational Theory, Series B 106 (2014).
Recent publications ‘Upper critical field of NaFe1-xCoxAs superconductors,’ Ghannadzadeh, S., et al., in Physical Review B 89, 054502 (2014).
‘A geometric theory for hypergraph matching,’ Keevash, P., and Mycroft, R., in Memoirs of the American Mathematical Society 233 (2014), number 1098.
‘Dipolar ordering in a molecular nanomagnet detected using muon spin relaxation,’ Pratt, F. L., et al., in Physical Review B 89, 144420 (2014).
‘On a conjecture of Erdos and Simonovits: Even cycles,’ Keevash, P., Sudakov, B. and Verstraëte, J., in Combinatorica 33 (2013).
Recent publications ‘The Sea-Born Tale: Eighteenth-Century English Translation of The Thousand and One Nights and the Lure of Elemental Difference,’ Ballaster, R., in Scheherazade’s Children: Global Encounters with the Arabian Nights (New York and London: New York University Press, 2013). Reviews: English Women Staging Islam 1696-1707, Andrea, B., ed., in Early Modern Women Journal 8 (2013). Prologues and Epilogues of Restoration Theatre – Gender and comedy, performance and print, Solomon, D., in The Times Literary Supplement (March 21, 2014). Pam Berry Supernumerary Fellow in Geography Recent publications Cross-sectoral interactions of adaptation and mitigation measures,’ Berry, P.M., Brown, S., Chen, M., Kontogianni, A., Rolands, O., Simpson, G. and Skourtos, M., in Climatic Change (August 2014). ‘Linkages between biodiversity attributes and ecosystem services: A systematic review,’ Harrison, P.A., Berry, P.M., Simpson, G., Haslett, J.R., Blicharska, M., Bucur, M., Dunford, R., Egoh, B., Garcia-Llorente, M., Geamana, N., Geertsema, W., Lommelen, E., Meiresonne, L. and Turkelboom, F., in Ecosystem Services (2014). ‘Incorporating cross-sectoral effects into analysis of the cost-effectiveness of climate change adaptation measures,’ Skourtos, M., Tourkolias, C., Damigos, D., Kontogianni, A., Harrison, P.A. and Berry, P., in Climatic Change (June 2014). ‘Regional impacts of climate change on agriculture and the role of adaptation,’ Berry, P., Ramirez-Villegas, J., Bramley, H., Mgonja, M. A. and Mohanty, S., in Plant Genetic Resources and Climate Change, Jackson, M., Ford-Lloyd, B. and Parry, M. (eds.). (CABI Publishing, 2013). 54 Mansfield 2013/14
Tutorial Fellow in Mathematics
‘Controlling Magnetic Order and Quantum Disorder in Molecule-Based Magnets’, Lancaster, T., et al., in Physical Review Lett. 112, 207201 (2014).
‘A hypergraph Turan theorem via lagrangians of intersecting families,’ Hefetz, D., and Keevash, P., in Journal of Combinational Theory, Series A 120 (2013).
Pamela Clemit Visiting Fellow in English 2014/15
David Lincicum Tutorial Fellow in Theology
Pamela Clemit’s latest book, Volume II of the OUP edition of The Letters of William Godwin, 6 vols. (of which she is the General Editor), was published on October 16th, 2014. William Godwin (1756-1836) was a leading radical philosopher, novelist, and social thinker of the British Enlightenment. He came to prominence in the early 1790s. The influence of his social theories was acknowledged by almost every significant literary figure in Britain for the next quartercentury, and endured much longer in Europe. He was the husband of Mary Wollstonecraft, the early advocate of women’s rights; the father of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein (1818); and the father-in-law of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Volume II covers the year 1798 to 1805. It includes around 240 fully annotated letters, newly transcribed from original manuscripts. They reveal Godwin adapting to changes in public mood, seeking compromise in his philosophical commitments, rebuilding his social circles, and remaking himself as the author of novels, plays, biographies, and children’s books. The edition provides information about many other literary, political, and artistic figures of note. Andrew Higgins Associate Professor of Civil Procedure Recent publications Legal Professional Privilege for Corporations: A Guide to Four Major Common Law Jurisdictions, Higgins, A. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014). Peter Keevash
Recent publications Ferdinand Christian Baur und die Geschichte des frühen Christentums, Bauspieß, M., Landmesser, C. and Lincicum, D. (eds.). Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 333 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014). Studies in Matthew and Early Christianity, Bockmuehl, M., and Lincicum, D. (eds.), Stanton, G. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 309 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013). James Marrow Tutorial Fellow in Materials Science Recent publications ‘Rich tomography techniques for the analysis of microstructure and deformation’, Baimpas, N., Xie, M., Song, X. U., Hofmann, F., Abbey, B., Marrow, J., … Korsunsky, A. M., in International Journal of Computational Methods, 11 (03), 1343006 (2014). ‘In situ synchrotron tomographic quantification of granular and intragranular deformation during semi-solid compression of an equiaxed dendritic Al–Cu alloy,’ Cai, B., Karagadde, S., Yuan, L., Marrow, T. J., Connolley, T., and Lee, P. D., in Acta
Fellows’ Research and Publications 15mm
‘A quantitative three-dimensional in situ study of a short fatigue crack in a magnesium alloy,’ Marrow, T. J., Mostafavi, M., Hashimoto, T., and Thompson, G. E., in International Journal of Fatigue, 66 (2014). ‘3D Cellular Automata Finite Element Method with Explicit Microstructure: Modeling Quasi-brittle Fracture using Meshfree Damage Propagation,’ SaucedoMora, L., and Marrow, T. J., in Procedia Materials Science (Vol. 3, 2014). ‘Grain boundary structure and intergranular stress corrosion crack initiation in high temperature water of a thermally sensitised austenitic stainless steel, observed in situ,’ Stratulat, A., Duff, J., and Marrow, T. J., in Corrosion Science, 85 (2014). ‘Reducing risk and accelerating delivery of a neutron source for fusion materials research,’ Surrey, E., Porton, M., Davenne, T., Findlay, D., Letchford, A., Thomason, J., Roberts, S.G., Marrow, J., Seryi, A., Connolly, B., Owen, H., in Fusion Engineering and Design, 89 (4) (2014). ‘In situ quantitative three-dimensional characterisation of sub-indentation cracking in polycrystalline alumina,’ Vertyagina, Y., Mostafavi, M., Reinhard, C., Atwood, R., and Marrow, T. J., in Journal of the European Ceramic Society, 34 (12) (2014). Derek McCormack Tutorial Fellow in Geography Recent Publications Refrains for Moving Bodies: Experience and Experiment in Affective Spaces, McCormack, D.P. (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013). ‘Atmospheric Things and Circumstantial Excursions,’ McCormack, D.P., in Cultural Geographies, 21 (4) (2014). ‘Pipes and Cables,’ McCormack, D. P., in The Routledge Handbook of Mobilities, Adey, P., et al (eds.). (London: Routledge, 2014).
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Richard Powell Tutorial Fellow in Geography POLAR GEOPOLITICS? Richard was awarded the following grants during 2013/14: British Academy/ Leverhulme Trust Small Research Grant, 2014/15, ‘Towards an historical geography of Arctic exceptionality: Franz Boas, Knud Rasmussen and geographical practice.’ American Philosophical Society, Library Resident Research Fellowship, 2014/15, ‘Geography, anthropology and the Arctic: Franz Boas and disciplinary debates about field practice.’ John Fell OUP Research Fund Grant, 2013/14, ‘Greenland and theories of environment and society: a scoping study of the archives.’ RCUK/ESRC Global Uncertainties Impact Support Grant, 2013, ‘Impacts of polar geopolitics for UK policy in the Arctic and Antarctic.’ Recent publications Polar Geopolitics? Knowledges, Resources and Legal Regimes, Powell, R. C. and Dodds K. (eds.). (Edward Elgar: Cheltenham and Northampton, MA, 2014). ‘Polar Geopolitics,’ Powell, R. C. and Dodds K., in Polar Geopolitics? Knowledges, Resources and Legal Regimes, Powell, R. C. and Dodds K. (eds.). (Edward Elgar: Cheltenham and Northampton, MA, 2014). ‘Subarctic Backyards? Britain, Scotland and the paradoxical politics of the European High North,’ Powell, R. C., in Northern Review 37 (Fall, 2013). ‘The Arctic Policy Framework and Beyond: The UK as a Polar Actor,’ Powell, R. C. and Dodds K., in RUSI Newsbrief 33 (6) (2013). POLAR GEOPOLITICS?
‘This is a strong, balanced and provocative collection that is truly more than the sum of its parts, thanks to well-informed editorial hands. I am sure that this volume will become a standard reference for the European perspective in future discussions of polar geopolitics, for many years to come. This is a very valuable book.’ – Frances D. Abele, Carleton University, Canada
The polar regions (the Arctic and Antarctic) have enjoyed widespread public attention in recent years, as issues of conservation, sustainability, resource speculation and geopolitical manoeuvring have all garnered considerable international media interest. This critical collection of new and original papers – the first of its kind – offers a comprehensive exploration of these and other topics, consolidating the emergent field of polar geopolitics.
The expert international contributors to this volume offer a range of insightful comparative, interdisciplinary and global perspectives on polar issues. Key topics discussed include resource extraction, regime formation, knowledge construction, border issues, governance and treaties, and indigenous livelihoods. Contributions from scholars of history, geography, political science, anthropology and international law make this a truly comprehensive take on the current state and future prospects of both the polar regions and polar geopolitics as a distinct discipline. Students and professors of geopolitics, political science and geography – especially those with an interest in the polar regions – will find much of value in this book’s concrete expression of a new and fascinating field.
Richard C. Powell is University Lecturer in Human Geography at Oxford University, UK and Klaus Dodds is Professor of Geopolitics at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK.
Cover image courtesy of www.hipkiss.org
CONTACT Andy Driver TEL 07944 643920 EMAIL andy@ombdesign.co.uk
EDITED BY
Richard C. Powell and Klaus Dodds
Knowledges, Resources and Legal Regimes
Richard C. Powell Klaus Dodds
‘3D Studies of Damage by Combined X-ray Tomography and Digital Volume Correlation,’ Marrow, J., Reinhard, C., Vertyagina, Y., Saucedo-Mora, L., Collins, D., and Mostafavi, M., in Procedia Materials Science (Vol. 3, 2014).
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Materialia, 76 (2014). ‘Three-dimensional observation and imagebased modelling of thermal strains in polycrystalline alumina,’ Gonzalez, D., King, A., Mostafavi, M., Reischig, P., du Roscoat, S. R., Ludwig, W., … Marrow, T. J., in Acta Materialia, 61 (20) (2013).
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JOB NO 1277 DATE SENT 07.11.13 TITLE Polar Geopolitics? EDITOR Vicki Litherland PRODUCTION CONTROLLER Ilsa Williamson ORDER 50220 SPINE BULK 23mm JACKET SIZE Royal PPC 234mm x 156mm COLOURS CMYK PLEASE NOTE Colours on printed laser proofs may differ slightly to those viewed on PDFs due to the nature of laser printing compared to the colour values seen on screen.
Powell, R. C. Review of Withers, C. W. J., Geography and science in Britain, 18311939: A study of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in Progress in Human Geography 37 (6) (2013). Joel Rasmussen Tutorial Fellow in Theology & Religion Recent publications William James and William James the Transatlantic transatlantic conversation Conversation: Pragmatism, Pluralism, and Philosophy of Religion, Halliwell, M. and Rasmussen, J. (eds.). (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014). ‘William James, A Pluralistic Universe, and the Ancient Quarrel between Philosophy and Poetry,’ in William James and the Transatlantic Conversation: Pragmatism, Pluralism, and Philosophy of Religion, edited by
martin halliwell & joel d. s. rasmussen
and the
Pragmatism, Pluralism, & Philosophy of Religion
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Halliwell, M. and Rasmussen, J. (eds.). (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014). Alison Salvesen Supernumerary Fellow in Oriental Studies Recent publications ‘Aquila, Symmachus and the Translation of Proof-texts,’ Salvesen, A., in Die Septuaginta: Text, Wirkung, Rezeption, Kraus, W. and Kreuzer, S. (eds.). WUNT 325 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014). ‘The Tabernacle Accounts in LXX Exodus and their Reception in Hellenistic Judaism,’ Salvesen, A., in In the Footsteps of Sherlock Holmes: Studies in the Biblical Text in Honour of Anneli Aejmelaeus, De Troyer, K., Law, T. M. and Liljeström, M. (eds.). CBET 72 (Leuven: Peeters, 2014). ‘Tradunt Hebraei… The problem of the function and reception of Jewish midrash in Jerome,’ Salvesen, A., in Midrash Unbound: Transformations and Innovations, Fishbane M. and Weinberg J. (eds.). (Littmann Library, 2013). Jason Smith Hewlett Packard Tutorial Fellow in Materials Science Recent publications ‘Strong coupling between the chlorosome of a photosynthetic bacteria and a confined cavity mode,’ in Nature Communications, Coles, D., et al. (in press). ‘Open-access optical microcavities for labon-a-chip refractive index sensing,’ Trichet A., et al., in Lab on a Chip, Vol. 14 (2014). ‘Dual doping effects (site blockage and electronic promotion) imposed by adatoms on Pd nanocrystals for catalytic hydrogen production,’ Jones, S., et al., in Chemical Communications (2014). ‘Nanojunction-mediated photocatalytic enhancement in heterostructured CdS/ZnO, CdSe/ZnO, and CdTe/ZnO nanocrystals,’ Eley, C., et al., in Angewandte Chemie, International Edition, Vol. 53 (2014), . ‘Dynamics in next-generation solar cells: time-resolved surface photovoltage measurements of quantum dots chemically linked to ZnO (10¯10),’ Spencer, B. F., et al., in Faraday Discussions (2014). ‘Strong exciton-photon coupling in open semiconductor microcavities,’ Dufferwiel S., et al, in Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104 (2014). ‘Directional plasmonic scattering from metal nanoparticles in thin-film environments,’ Powell, A. W., et al., in Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104 (2014).
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Events Calendar 2015 Events held at College unless otherwise specified
JANUARY
JUNE
Saturday 31st Law Moot Court and Dinner Moot Court in Old JCR in the afternoon, followed by dinner in the evening. Further information and invitations will be sent out in due course. Please RSVP to development@mansfield.ox.ac.uk
Thursday 4th Adam von Trott Lecture Lecture to be given by Revd Donald Norwood, Theology 1959. Time: 5pm Topic: Embattled Beliefs
FEBRUARY
Monday 9th London Drinks Reception Venue: BBC Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London W1A 1AA Further information and invitations will be sent out in due course. Please RSVP to development@mansfield.ox.ac.uk
Saturday 6th Gaudy (1980-85) We invite all alumni who matriculated 30-35 years ago (in the years 1980-85) to come back to College for an evening of drinks, dinner, and catching up. The Principal will be there along with Development team members, and we all look forward to welcoming you back to Mansfield.
MARCH
Further information and invitations will be sent out in due course. Please RSVP to: development@mansfield.ox.ac.uk
Saturday 7th Old Boys’ Rugby Match and Dinner The day will begin with a match against the current MMRFC team (kick-off 2pm) and will be followed by a black tie dinner in the evening. A great opportunity to see old friends and shake off those rugby cobwebs! Timings: Drinks reception at 6:45pm, followed by dinner at 7:30pm. Tickets: £40 per person for alumni. To participate in the match, please contact Frederick Overton (f.h.overton@gmail.com) and Ben Hickman (bhickman1989@gmail.com). To book your place at the dinner, please contact Mansfield College at: development@mansfield.ox.ac.uk
APRIL
MCBC London Drinks Reception The Oxford and Cambridge Club, Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5HD Date TBC; potentially week of April 6-10th. New York Alumni Event Date and Venue TBC Further information and invitations will be sent out in due course. Friday 24th to Sunday 26th Meeting Minds: Alumni Weekend in Europe Vienna Please visit www.alumniweekend.ox.ac.uk for programme and booking. Daniel Seiderer (Mansfield Association President) will be hosting a dinner on behalf of the College on Friday 24th – do join us for what promises to be a lovely evening! We will send out more information once details are confirmed. Old Boys’ Cricket Match vs. the M&Ms First XI Date and Venue TBC Please note this event is provisional and dependent upon sufficient prior interest being expressed. Please get in touch with the Development Office as early as possible if you would be interested in taking part.
MAY
Annual Hands Lecture Date and Speaker TBC Saturday 9th The 1887 Society Annual Dinner at College The annual dinner of the Society of current and former Mansfield Geographers. Saturday 30th MCBC Eights Week Dinner at College Come and cheer Mansfield crews on by the Isis on the Saturday of Eights Week! Join us afterwards for dinner and speeches from the MCBC captains. This year is the 50th anniversary of the MCBC being founded, and it promises to be a special evening.
56 Mansfield 2013/14
Saturday 27th Garden Party, Commemoration Service, and Mansfield Association Dinner Our annual event to celebrate the end of another academic year. Open to all alumni, students, College staff, SCR members and all family and friends of the College. TBC USA Alumni Reunion, Location TBC Further information and invitations will be sent out in due course.
SEPTEMBER
Friday 18th to Sunday 20th Oxford Alumni Weekend Programme and booking information will be posted on http://www. alumniweekend.ox.ac.uk/ later in the year. We aim to build on the success of September 2014’s alumni dinner and hope that more of you will attend. Further information and invitations will be sent out in due course.
NOVEMBER
Thursday 19th The Adam von Trott Annual Lecture and Drinks Reception Lecture to be given by Professor Margaret MacMillan, Warden of St Antony’s College. Time: 5pm
DATES OF TERM FOR 2015 Hilary 2015: January 18th to March 14th Trinity 2015: April 26th to June 20th Michaelmas 2015: October 11th to December 5th
Mansfield Lecture Series As well as all these exciting events, please don’t forget our regular lecture series, every Friday at 5pm during term time. More information on speakers will be announced on our website.
Our events calendar is always subject to additions, which we shall keep you informed about via e-Newsletter and on our website. For further information on any of these events, or to book a place, please contact the Alumni Officer, Aparajita Kashyap: Email: alumni.officer@mansfield.ox.ac.uk Telephone: 0044 (0) 1865 270 998
We look forward to seeing you all in the coming year!