Oriel News – Issue 24 – 2022

AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHNNIE BODEN HIDDEN TREASURES: THE ORIEL SWORD

MOLECULAR-LEVEL FIGHT AGAINST CANCER

OrieLENSes

SPOTLIGHT

CONVERSATION WITH ORIEL’S TREASURER

FOCUS:

& CULTURAL SECTOR

WELCOME FROM THE PROVOST

It seems to me that the overriding theme of the last year has been one of renewal and rediscovery. Renewing social bonds, rediscovering activities that we enjoy, and understanding the value of many things we previously took for granted.

Renewal is a theme that is important to me, not just in my role as Oriel’s Provost but also in my work for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport as Commissioner for Cultural Recovery and Renewal. I advise the government on how to protect our culture and heritage, how it can be helped to recover and continue to flourish. You will read later on in our Industry Focus about some of our alumni working in the cultural sphere. It is marvellous to see that we have such a range of talent in what I consider to be a vital sector.

Michaelmas term was a time of transition as we welcomed not just a new cohort of students but also our new Treasurer, Margaret Jones, and new Director of Development, Marco Zhang. Their arrival has given us all the opportunity to rediscover Oriel in new ways through their depth of experience and fresh perspectives. We have an outstanding team in place and I am filled with optimism for the coming years as we move ever closer towards the celebration of our 700th year in 2026.

The sporting and social life of our students has fully returned, with major successes in University-level sports as well as collegiate level football, netball and basketball. Oriel rowing triumphed, with our Men’s First Eight taking the outright lead for the greatest number of Summer Eights Headships ever from Christ Church. The Women’s First Eight finished in their highest ever position on the river. With many other crews winning blades or coming close, the Bump Supper was not quiet! Shakespeare returned to Front Quad with a brilliantly imaginative production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream to round off the year.

On the academic side, this year’s Finalists have achieved some remarkable successes –with high numbers of Firsts in PPE, Physics, Theology and English, and 14 students being

awarded University prizes in a whole range of subjects from Medical Sciences to Law (up from 8 in 2020 and 2021). The academic life of Oriel has been further enhanced by the creation of new scholarships that have attracted some of the most talented young researchers into our MCR. This year, we have introduced some new lecture series that have been well received by audiences across the University. The David N. Lyon Speaker Series on the Politics of Sex and Gender Equality in Diverse Societies featured high-profile speakers such as Baroness Ruth Hunt and Human Rights Campaigner Peter Tatchell. Thanks to our Fellow in Politics, Professor Teresa Bejan, we had a riveting lecture from the journalist David Patrikarakos, just back from being in Ukraine. This was swiftly followed in Hilary term by the inaugural Rex Nettleford Lecture on Colonialism and its Legacies, which attracted a diverse audience not just from Oriel and around the University but many alumni, too.

Many of these activities, as with so much of what we do here to enhance the experiences of our students, would not have been possible without the generous support of you, our alumni, our benefactors. For example, thanks to your efforts, we have enough funds to support not one but two Ukrainian refugee scholars next academic

year. In addition to this, at a time when many people are concerned about the cost of living, Orielenses continue to make donations large and small to our Student Support Fund to help us ensure that no student is denied access to all that Oriel can offer for reasons of financial hardship.

It has been a pleasure to see so many of you over the course of the year, whether in Oxford or elsewhere. Oriel remains your college, your place, and we hope you know that you are always welcome here.

Floreat Oriel!

The Provost, Lord Mendoza (1978, Geography), talking to Orielenses at the Raleigh Garden Party

The cast of this year’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream

COLLEGE NEWS

A Note from the New Director of Development

I am delighted to join Oriel at this exciting juncture, with just four years until we celebrate the momentous 700th anniversary of the College’s foundation by Adam de Brome in 1326. I have greatly enjoyed meeting with so many alumni over the past months, and it is clear how important Oriel remains for members of our tightly woven community. I would like to thank everyone for making me feel so warmly welcomed. My predecessor, Sean Power, was known to many Orielenses and our warmest wishes go to him as he moves on to the next chapter in his life. Sean worked with many of you during his decade here, and my team and I look forward to building on his great accomplishments over the coming years.

I am joined by dedicated colleagues in the Development and Alumni Office working to bring our community ever closer together. Many of you will already know some of them: Verity Armstrong has compiled this wonderful magazine and delivers the monthly Oriel e-newsletters. Kathryn Ferguson oversees our incredible programme of online and in-person events, many of which sell out year-on-year. Bobby Higson oversees the operational side of the office, while Louisa Chandler’s research skills help our fundraising and alumni relations efforts. This year, joining me as a newcomer to Oriel is James Fletcher, Deputy Director of Development, who will work alongside me to communicate with generous donors about pressing Oriel projects as we reach the crescendo of the ambitious 700th Anniversary Campaign. It is thrilling to see what a transformative impact philanthropy can have at Oriel.

Whether you would like to share your news, discuss College projects, reflect upon Oriel events or arrange an impromptu visit to College, please feel able to write to us directly – our contact details can be found at the back of this magazine. All of us in the Development and Alumni Office look forward to being in touch with you in the not-too-distant future.

New Portraits in Hall

Two new portraits were commissioned by College to celebrate the many achievements of Regius Professor of History, Lyndal Roper, and of Oriel and Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture, Hindy Najman, the first women to hold these prestigious Chairs.

Professor Roper became a Fellow of Oriel in 2011, when she was appointed as Regius Professor of History by the University. She is the first woman, and the first Australian, to hold this post, which was created by the University in 1724. Her research focuses on German history of the 16th to 18th centuries, with a particular focus on gender and the Reformation, witchcraft, and visual culture. You can read more about her new book on Martin Luther in the ‘Fellows’ News’ section.

Professor Najman was appointed as Oriel and Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture in 2015. She is the first woman to hold this important Chair in Theology since its foundation in 1883. She has written on the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Rabbinic Literature, and Pseudepigrapha. She founded the Centre for the Study of the Bible at Oriel College in 2017 to promote the interdisciplinary study of the Bible across the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Oriel commissioned artist Nneka Uzoigwe to create these portraits to celebrate these distinguished academics and to inspire future generations of students. They can now be seen in Hall.

Professor Lyndal Roper

Professor Hindy Najman

John Cairns

Back Row L-R: Louisa, Kathryn, Bobby, Verity Front Row L-R: James and Marco

A Year of Innovation: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Activities

The year has been a productive one for Oriel’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion work. Rather than attempting an exhaustive list of activities and events, which can be found by visiting the EDI section of our website, I have chosen to focus here on a few of the headline initiatives.

A year-long partnership with charity Generating Genius ran through the academic year to launch their STEM@Oxford programme, which supports a cohort of 32 Year 12 students from Black African and Caribbean backgrounds as they prepare to apply for university. Students from schools in London and Birmingham visited Oriel and benefited from a host of workshops and academic taster sessions to help them gain an understanding of life at Oxford and of the application process. Feedback has been positive. The students reported that the personal statement workshop and academic taster events in particular helped to demystify Oxford and make the thought of studying here ‘seem much less intimidating’.

The arrival in Hall of a new portrait of alumnus Professor Rex Nettleford coincided with the launch of two initiatives celebrating his life and work. Nettleford read for the MPhil in Political Science as a Rhodes Scholar at Oriel in 1957. He subsequently worked at the University of the West Indies, where he focused on issues of identity, race and colonial legacies, becoming Vice-Chancellor in 1998 and an Honorary Fellow of Oriel that same year.

The Rex Nettleford Essay Competition was launched in Michaelmas term. Directed at Year 12 students, it sought to promote engagement with discussions about the legacies of colonialism. We were delighted with the volume and standard of entries for the prize, and awarded two prizes and six commendations. Winners Alisha Mafaas and Panod Pongpattanapun both wrote on the topic of language as a tool for colonial domination. Alisha’s essay explored the colonisation of Sri Lanka by the Portuguese from 1505 to 1658, while Panod made use of linguistic theory to discuss the effects of languages in colonial policies in South Africa during the period of British colonial domination from the early 1800s.

The winners and commended entrants were among the guests of honour at another of the year’s significant initiatives, the inaugural Rex Nettleford Lecture on Colonialism and its Legacies, which took place in Trinity term. Professor Nandini Chatterjee of the University of Exeter was the first invited speaker and she delivered a lively and engaging lecture entitled: ‘Coming from, not staying at the roots: dealing with colonial legacies of language and law in South Asia and beyond’. Her

Winners and highly commended entrants from this year’s Rex Nettleford Essay Competition for Year 12 students

title looked back to Nettleford, who had argued that you cannot truly ‘go back to the roots’ of a culture but must continue to grow out from them. Professor Chatterjee explored the challenges posed by attempts to ‘decolonise’ cultures with examples from her research into South Asian law and language, particularly in the Mughal empire. She suggested that the way forward could be to discard the idea of an unsullied precolonial past and instead to work creatively and ethically towards a future embracing impurity, humanity and playfulness.

This busy year also saw the creation of scholarships targeting under-represented communities, Junior Research Fellowships aimed at expanding our academic understanding, and the hugely successful David N. Lyon Speaker Series on The Politics of Sex and Gender Equality in Diverse Societies. As well as looking outwards, we have spent time looking inwards, inviting input from students and members of staff on how the College can effectively develop EDI in its policies and processes. We look forward to continuing this work in the months and years to come.

David Maw, Tutor for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Scholarship Support for Talented Graduates

The support of our generous donors helps us to create new graduate scholarships that provide vital financial assistance for academically talented students from all over the world.

When war broke out in Ukraine, discussions began within the University about what Oxford could do to help. Through the Graduate Scholarship Scheme for Ukraine Refugees, Oriel pledged to provide full financial support to a graduate refugee student for the 2022-23 academic year. We reached out to alumni for help, and were overwhelmed by the response we received. Within just seven weeks our alumni, current staff and students raised in excess of the £25,000 needed to fund the scholarship for this year.

In July, thanks to a donation by an African Orielensis, we launched a new Oriel Sub-Saharan Africa Scholarship, the purpose of which is to ‘empower African graduate students who hope one day to solve some of Africa’s toughest problems’.

Several other students will join us this year thanks to graduate scholarships funded by the generosity of our alumni. This includes our first Black Academic Futures Scholar and the first recipient of the James Meade Scholarship. Each scholarship enriches the life and opportunities of the recipient and enhances the academic life of the College.

Torpids and Summer Eights Triumph

After two years of disruption due to floods and the pandemic, Torpids made a welcome return in 7th Week of Hilary term. Oriel’s crews made up for lost time with outstanding performances across the board. M1 retained Head of the River and four boats won blades. Summer Eights did not disappoint either. Oriel’s Men’s First VIII fought off a strong challenge from Christ Church on the final day of Summer Eights to retain the Headship they have held since 2019. It was a very successful week overall for Oriel’s boats, with the M3 and M5 crews gaining blades and W1 and W2 narrowly missing out. W1 reached their highest ever position of seventh on the river, a great foundation on which to build for next year.

Bea Vernon Awarded Elis White Trophy

Current student Bea Vernon was awarded the 2022 Elis White Memorial Trophy, presented by the Provost, for most improved rower.

The Elis White Memorial Trophy was created in memory of Elis Rhisiart White (1984-2008), who studied PPE at Oriel from 2002 to 2005 and was an active member of the Oriel College Boat Club (OCBC). Since 2010, the Memorial Trophy has been awarded annually to the Club’s most improved novice in recognition of their efforts and progress made during the year.

A New Era for the Boat House

On Saturday 18 September, the Tortoise Club was joined by friends of the Boat Club past and present during a ceremony to reopen the Boat House after its latest renovations. The major works included knocking down the central wall and opening up the once divided space –a line of rowing machines now stretches to the rear wall. This was complemented by new taraflex comfort sports flooring throughout the main room. Leading on from the main room, new doors on the WC and pantry areas were fitted along with a new kitchen unit in the pantry. New standing mirrors can now be repositioned for rowers to keep an eye on their technique, with lockers also fitted to store their belongings.

Torpids M1

Torpids

Bea Vernon with the Provost

Michael Johnson Rugby Shield Awarded to Ben Eastwood

Now that College life is back to normal and clubs and societies can once again flourish, we are delighted that the Michael Johnson Rugby Shield has been awarded for the second time. The shield is in memory of Orielensis Mike Johnson (1979, PPE), who tragically died in March 2017; rugby was one of Mike’s passions. The Oriel Rugby Club’s (OCRFC) captain, Joshua Williams, has chosen to award the shield to Ben Eastwood (2013, Chemistry).

Joshua explains, ‘The Oriel Rugby Club had taken a big hit during government lockdowns, and at the start of the academic year 2021-22 there were very few in Oriel who had actually ever played for OCRFC (or indeed even trained). Ben Eastwood had a long and successful career with the Oriel Rugby Club during his four years as an undergraduate. This was before he left to do a graduate medicine degree at St. Anne’s, but the fact he was no longer a current Oriel student did not stop him from giving so much time, energy and commitment to Oriel rugby in order to resurrect it from the ashes. Without Ben’s commitment and experience I don’t know where Oriel rugby would be; he helped to run our training, played for us in Cuppers and ran our first rugby drinks. His input on the culture and traditions of the OCRFC was particularly valuable as these are the kinds of things that would have been completely lost without the presence of a member who

had experienced them himself. Ben had no obligation to help the Club or me as captain, especially as he was doing his Finals for medicine at the time; he has contributed to the Rugby team this year enormously and we are all very grateful to him for his help and support.’

Ben has also been pivotal in founding an Oriel Rugby alumni group, The Hare Club – which aims to develop the fellowship shared by Oriel alumni who have been a part of OCRFC.

Oriel Students Contribute to University’s Sporting Success

As well as representing College, some of Oriel’s athletes have been competing in sport at university level.

In March, Oriel undergraduate Erin Robinson scored a vital 71st minute goal for the Oxford Women’s Blues in the Varsity Football Match against Cambridge, levelling the score at 2-2 and taking the match to penalties, which Oxford went on to win.

In rugby, undergraduate Louis Jackson, the youngest OURFC Varsity Captain in 31 years, led Oxford to victory against 14-man Cambridge in the Varsity Match in April.

Graduate students Charlie Elwes, a Bronze medallist for Team GB in the Tokyo Olympics, and Liam Corrigan, who competed for the USA in Tokyo, were part of the victorious Oxford Boat Race crew –the first win for Oxford’s men since 2017.

It has been an incredible year for Oriel students at university level sport and we are sure this will continue into the future.

Erin Robinson celebrates pulling Oxford level

The victorious Oxford Varsity team

Ben Eastwood with the Provost

L-R: Geertje Bol, David Lyon, Peter Tatchell, Professor Teresa Bejan, Lord Mendoza

David N. Lyon Speaker Series

Explores the Politics of Sex and Gender Equality

At the beginning of LGBTQ+ History Month in February this year, Oriel launched the inaugural David N. Lyon Speaker Series on The Politics of Sex and Gender Equality in Diverse Societies.

The six-part series, organised by David N. Lyon Scholar Geertje Bol and Fellow in Politics Professor Teresa Bejan, shone a light on some of the challenges faced in achieving true equality for everyone in modern liberal democracies. The speakers explored, among other things, the tensions that can and do arise when the equal recognition of sexual orientations and/or gender identities confronts corresponding claims of religious and cultural traditions and their members. They also delved into what equality really means, discussing the difference between accommodation and true, radical transformation.

The lecture series ran throughout Hilary and Trinity terms and featured speakers such as Baroness Hunt of Bethnal Green, former Chief Executive of LGBTQ+ equality charity Stonewall, and Human Rights Campaigner Peter Tatchell, one of the organisers of Britain’s first Gay Pride march in 1972. The lectures were filmed for those who couldn’t attend in person and can be found on the Oriel College YouTube channel.

Generously sponsored by Orielensis David N. Lyon (1980, Modern History), this year’s lecture series places Oriel at the forefront of this area of research and debate at Oxford and provides a strong foundation for further exploration in the future.

Join the Oriel Alumni Advisory Committee

The Oriel Alumni Advisory Committee (OAAC) is a committee of the College representing the interests of all alumni and helping foster relations between the College and its former students, former staff, and friends.

OAAC members support Oriel with advice and feedback in many areas, including our events strategy, focus for publications and how we communicate with alumni. The OAAC’s terms of reference stipulate a regular turnover of members and, after a one-year extension due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the terms of six members will come to an end in 2023. Since one of the objectives of the OAAC is to seek to reflect the diversity of those it represents, this will be a significant opportunity to refresh the membership.

In particular, the committee is looking to recruit members who matriculated in the 1950s, 1960s and 1990s, as these decades will have no representation once current committee members’ terms end. However, Orielenses who have matriculated in any decade are also encouraged to apply, as having a wide representation of alumni is important to the success of OAAC’s work and, by extension, to the College’s programme of engaging with our community.

Meetings take place twice a year, usually via a hybrid meeting in February and in Oriel on the Saturday morning of the Alumni Weekend in September. Orielenses who live outside the UK are warmly invited to apply, even if they can usually only join via conference calls.

To express interest in applying, please email development.office@oriel.ox.ac.uk. If you would like to know more about the committee, please email us or visit: alumni.oriel.ox.ac.uk/oriel-alumni-advisory-committee/

John

Cairns

THE PERKS OF BEING AN ORIELENSIS

There are many benefits to being alumni of Oriel.

Orielenses are welcome to STAY AT ORIEL in Magpie Lane House, Oriel’s 14th century Cottage.

There are a number of ALUMNI GROUPS available to join which focus on subject, sport or area of interest.

There is a diverse range of ALUMNI EVENTS. From dinners to garden parties to tours, there is something for everyone.

ORIEL CONNECT is an online networking and mentoring service for Orielenses and current students.

Orielenses are always welcome to VISIT COLLEGE. Get in touch to arrange a visit.

MY OXFORD CARD gives you access to a range of benefits such as discounts and access to University buildings.

To find out more visit: alumni.oriel.ox.ac.uk/alumni-benefits-and-groups/alumni-benefits/ Alternatively, email the Development Team: development.office@oriel.ox.ac.uk

JCR REPORT

The last President to pen this piece noted the difficulties faced by members during the pandemic. Now, learning to live with Coronavirus has posed different challenges to members. Fortunately, the JCR has had the support of senior members and, importantly, of our Welfare Officers. We have seen the continuation of ‘Tea & Toast’ alongside the exciting addition of new events, such as ceramics painting. The last President also spoke of his hope that the renowned Oriel spirit would ensure a full revival of College life. Of course, the JCR did not disappoint!

Michaelmas saw the Common Room welcome a new cohort of Freshers with matriculation ceremonies in both the Sheldonian and the University Church, with which Oriel has most interesting historic connections. Freshers were also treated to the return of Oriel’s characteristically lively week of festivities. Our Entertainment Representatives organised various visits to local watering holes and the first ‘Bop’ of the season with an ‘Into the Wild’ theme. The timetable also included rounders and ice cream at Bartlemas, the Boat Club barbecue, and a ‘History of Oriel’ tour. There was also a return to the Freshers’ Dinner, enabling new students to dine and socialise with their Tutors in the excellently restored Hall before the real work began. Several events, such as the ‘Re-Fresher’ Dinner, were also organised for last year’s intake to ensure no loss of Oriel tradition due to Covid-19.

Hilary term continued the trend of ceremonial dinners thanks to the hard work of the Hall staff. A ‘Roaring Twenties’ themed Halfway Hall was expertly organised by our Vice-President, who had the pleasure of bestowing an array of humorous awards commemorating the Second Years’ time at Oriel thus far. College Marriage Formals were also a highlight of the term and drew attention to the lifetime bonds forged at Oriel. To the best of my knowledge, the JCR did not witness a real marriage ceremony within its ranks, but did have the privilege of celebrating our major College feast of Candlemas. In Trinity, we had a Festal Evensong in Chapel followed by the St George’s Day Gaudy at which I gave the Loyal Toast in the year of Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee – a particularly proud moment as an Ulsterman.

With the coming of spring and the end of restrictions Oriel has gone from strength to strength in the sporting arena or, more accurately, the river. Torpids brought even more success than usual, with M1 maintaining Headship and the Boat Club bringing home four blades in one campaign –possibly for the first time in history. Summer Eights saw M1 maintain Headship and W1 bumping three places to seventh on the river – the highest Oriel women have ever been in the competition. Oriel fielded eight boats in total, with M3 and M5 winning blades and W2 bumping up three places, narrowly missing out on Blades. M2 bumped up two

places, and our high-spirited M4 boat bumped up one place and managed to break a blade in half in the process. A personal highlight of this campaign was watching the M1 of 1970 glide down the river with a level of technique, power, and endurance I can only aspire to.

The football team finished second in their division and secured a promotion to the second division, which I am reliably informed is the first time they have done so since 2004. The rugby team enjoyed great success too, suffering only one loss and qualifying for the Plate semi-finals in Trinity, giving a very commendable performance. Oriel’s two netball teams are also in the top 10 of their league. We have a new rollerskating club growing under the watchful eye of Mr Iggulden! Although not technically a sport (well, maybe more than the last mention), we saw the much-anticipated return of the annual Pancake Race in First Quad. The sporting community at Oriel is well and truly flourishing.

The past couple of years have impressed upon me what a joy and privilege it is to be an Orielensis. After watching and talking to some of the 1970 M1 crew, I can say they are the embodiment of the Oriel spirit, and I hope all members maintain such a strong and personal connection with Oriel long after graduation. We have had a truly marvellous year and there is much to look forward to. Floreat Oriel!

Josh Scott, JCR President (2022)

Pancake Race Winners (L to R): Tom Wild, Millan George, Finn Andrews, Jack Olsburgh

Halfway Hall for Second Years

Cookie Night organised by the Welfare Deans

MCR REPORT

Well, what a year it has been. It’s a thrill to help get the MCR up and running again after Covid-19 put so many fun events on hold which normally make up an integral part of life at Oriel. The academic year started with the usual excitement of Early Arrivals and Freshers’ Week. It was a beginning of the idyllic Oxford type, filled with sunlit punting, Pimms on mossy banks, and nights carousing in good company. To cap it all off, we finished Freshers’ Week with the first Grand Formal of the year. It was a wonderful opportunity to welcome everyone, new and old, to Oriel for the year ahead. After dinner, it was off to the MCR Bar for a libation to the academic gods. As ever, the MCR Bar has proved to be a fantastic asset to the Common Room, once again providing the perfect melting pot for graduates to meet each other in a friendly club-like setting. Throughout the year we have also welcomed guests from the SCR, the JCR, and outside of College – drawn by the magnetism of those purple lights streaming through the windows onto Oriel Square, no doubt.

As Michaelmas term properly set in, the MCR’s array of activities and events increased. From jazz nights to pub crawls, to reading groups and a newly introduced late breakfast on Tuesdays, there was something for everyone. For me, however, the highlights of the term were the events of ‘Oxmas’ and the reintroduction of an MCR Ceilidh. Chapel, a much-loved part of Oriel, was decorated beautifully in advance of Christmas, and the Choir performed two stellar carol services. After each service, a feast was held in Hall. There is nothing quite like seeing everyone massed in Hall, crowned with colourful paper and filled with the merriment of the season. The Ceilidh likewise proved to be a jovial chance for MCR members to mix together and learn some funky moves – a fun send-off for the end of term.

Hilary term saw some highs and low. Right at the start of term, an outbreak of Omicron saw a swathe of postgrads confined to their rooms (myself included). However, in a wonderful display of friendship and the MCR’s communal spirit, everyone pulled together to ensure that isolating people were well fed and had company from time to time. The term did pick up after that, however, with the continuation of our normal term card. This included a delightfully romantic Valentine’s Formal this year. Hilary also saw sporting

success for the College. Once again, the men retained Headship of the River for Torpids, and across the Boat Club four out of five boats were awarded blades this season.

As ever, the first five weeks of Trinity were a blur of activity as everyone rushed to grab a last burst of fun before the trial of examinations. Events kicked off early on with a delightful visit from one of our sister colleges, Trinity College Dublin, which resulted in much boozing, food, and accidentally tipping one of the MCR Welfare Officers into the river during a punting mishap. Calmer, but no less fun, events this term have included a Eurovision-watching party and a Jubilee picnic (held indoors due to the weather, in true English fashion). Even greater sporting success was achieved this term, with men retaining Headship in Summer Eights, the women bumping up to the highest position Oriel Women have ever been on the river, and the cricket team now going into the cuppers semi-final. What a season!

As I close, I am filled with gratitude for being part of such a wonderful community. I look forward to seeing it thrive next year and ever into the future. Floreat Oriel.

Guy Cabral, MCR President (2021–22)

Oxmas Dinner

Fun in the MCR Bar

Ceilidh celebrations

Oriel

My day can vary so much as I wear many hats as the Lodge Manager.

INSIDE

STORY

Samuel Henry, Lodge Manager

How long have you worked at Oriel?

I have had the pleasure of working at Oriel since September 2018. Before that, I worked at Merton College as a Senior Porter, New College as College Porter, and Corpus Christi as Bar Manager (going back to 2008).

What does a normal day look like for you?

My day can vary so much as I wear many hats as the Lodge Manager. I am also the College’s Fire, Health and Safety Officer, covering all the College sites from the Boat House to the sports ground, and everything in between. So, I could be doing health and safety audits; dealing with security issues; attending various meetings; as well as managing the day-to-day issues of the Lodge, or training students to drive the College minibus.

What is your favourite part of being the Lodge Manager?

With my roles I get to interact with all members of staff, students, and Fellows. No two days are the same.

What is the most challenging aspect of your role?

As I mentioned earlier, my role covers such a wide range of responsibilities that the challenging part is deciding what tasks need completing first.

Where is your favourite place in College and why?

I would have to say the Lodge – you get chance to meet so many different people from all walks of life.

What is your proudest achievement?

Winning music pub of the year (across the whole of the UK) two years running in 2008 and 2009.

Do you have any unusual hobbies?

No, not really. I play golf quite a bit, and watch rugby and enjoy walking at the weekends. I have a keen interest in history and enjoy going to National Trust houses to look at how people used to live.

Do you do any voluntary work or work in the community?

I am a parish councillor in my village.

What one luxury would you take on a desert island?

A wind-up radio so I could listen to music.

What is the one piece of ‘life’ advice you would offer to a student? ‘Treat others as you wish to be treated.’

Whom would you invite to Formal Hall (dead or alive)?

It would have to be the Rugby World Cup winning side of 2003.

RESEARCH ORIE LENS ES

THE LIMITS OF RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL CLAIMS IN FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS CASES

Oriel postgraduate Surabhi Shukla has just completed her DPhil in Law. Her recent thesis tests the limits of religious and cultural claims in fundamental rights litigation, using India as a case study. We hear more about her research here.

deas of religion and culture are entangled with the idea of a nation, and this entanglement exerts demands on what the laws of that nation ‘should’ look like. In secular, constitutional democracies, religion and culture are assumed to be of legal importance only in deciding the scope of religious and cultural freedom, maintaining communal harmony, and determining the scope of minority protection laws. However, across jurisdictions, courts have been influenced by religion and culture in determining other human rights as well. This phenomenon is especially observed in cases concerning gender and sexuality: abortion, surrogacy, sexual orientation and gender identity, marital rape, sex work, euthanasia, bar dancing, beauty pageants, etc. Examples of arguments that typify this phenomenon include: same-sex marriage does not qualify for the protection of holy matrimony; queerness is a western import; dharma does not permit euthanasia; etc.

This phenomenon sits uneasily in a secular democracy, with a liberal constitution at its helm. Such a state promises to govern only through constitutional values, not religion and culture. Yet legal scholars have paid insufficient attention to how these invisible, but potent, forces shape fundamental human rights in a country. This is the core question of my doctorate.

Those who do study this phenomenon typically belong to one of two deconstructive

persuasions. They are either postcolonial or feminist legal scholars who show how the law is shaped by religion and culture, or they are constitutional law scholars/human rights scholars who show that religion and culture is diverse and permits a variety of practices, making a claim for expanded fundamental rights. However, this question is one that should concern every constitutional law scholar. Anyone who takes the constitution seriously should be concerned by how, and to what extent, judges can provide religious or cultural readings to constitutions. My research provides a unique way of looking at the question that offers a possibility to combine deconstructive work with more traditional constitutional theory and evidence law.

Specifically, what I bring to the table is a perspective based at the intersection of evidence law, constitutional theory, and socio-legal method. Evidence law is oftneglected when discussing this question. My research on the population of gender and sexuality themes identified above shows that a majority of the religious and cultural claims made in court are admitted without requiring proof, a fundamental failure of the rule of law. However, these judicial moves have not been questioned, and their potential in litigation and academic critique has not been explored. What I also propose is a methodical way of extracting and investigating religious and cultural claims from judgments,

showing the value of deconstructive work in ‘doing’ traditional law. Not only does this extrapolation exercise force us to confront several assumptions about the source of religious and cultural claims, but it also demonstrates that religious and cultural claims are not always rights-reducing, making it difficult to make a pre-emptive objection to them from a liberal constitutional perspective. What I offer instead is a principled way of reckoning with such claims, one based in evidence law, constitutional interpretation, and constitutional doctrine.

I propose that the limits of religious and cultural claims in shaping fundamental rights must be constructed through specific engagement with the constitution of a country, offering a bespoke theory for answering this question in the Indian context. What I want to impress upon readers is that answering this question requires paying close attention to the constitutional context – each country might need to grapple with a slightly different legal puzzle, and a onesize-fits-all approach will not be productive. This perspective will also contribute towards decolonising constitutional law and theory, because we need to recognise that the starting point of each country is different: their constitutions have had different journeys, and unique traditions on which they stand. Until we understand them, we cannot offer solutions from the above.

SCR SPOTLIGHT – TIM ELLIOTT

A MOLECULAR-LEVEL FIGHT AGAINST CANCER

Professor Tim Elliott joined Oriel’s Fellowship in 2021 and is a world leader in the field of cancer immunology research. His discoveries in the areas of antigen processing, T cell regulation, and immunodominance have been incorporated into the development of new cancer immunotherapies, and he is the recipient of a Royal Society/ Wolfson Research Merit Award. He is also the Director of the Oxford Centre for Immuno-oncology and co-directs the world-leading Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Oxford Centre. His lab in the OxCIO investigates the origin and consequences of T lymphocyte specificity to cancer. In this article, he describes how a deep understanding of the molecular details of antigen presentation will help design new anti-cancer vaccines and immunotherapies.

E ach time we are infected, white blood cells called cytotoxic T lymphocytes, or CTL, make their way to the site of infection to kill off cells in our body that have been enslaved by the offending virus into making multiple copies of itself. In doing so, they shut down the virus’s ability to spread, and spare us from a nasty infection. I have spent most of my life in science investigating how CTL are able to tell the difference between a normal cell and an infected one, and how this knowledge can be applied to understanding how CTL might discriminate between a normal cell and one that is diseased in some other way – for example by cancer. These investigations have taken me on a fascinating journey across boundaries of scale and discipline, spanning events that occur in nanoseconds at the atomic level through to events that occur over the course of years in human beings.

It turns out that CTL recognise short fragments of viral proteins (peptides) that are offered to them like a trophy by specialised molecules, called MHC I, which are made on the surface of every cell in our body. This discovery was made in Oxford by Alain Townsend in the late 1980s and it captured my imagination enough to prompt me to leave my job at MIT to join Alain’s lab and explore this new field, called ‘antigen presentation’. My lab still works on how MHC I selects which peptides to present out of the many millions it can choose from, and how it can do this quickly and reproducibly.

Our research has shown that the answer to this question lies in the way

MHC I molecules ‘wriggle’ as they sit on a membrane inside the cell – something the scientific community calls ‘protein dynamics’. This isn’t easy to observe directly, as we don’t (yet) have super high-resolution movie cameras that can watch MHC I molecules at work. Instead, we had to piece together the story by using computational methods to infer motion from ‘stills’ taken by x-rays of protein crystals. When we coupled this with another discipline, called computational systems modelling, via a collaboration with computer scientists at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, we were able to come up with a plausible mechanism for how the immense repertoire of peptides is filtered to select trophies that are likely to stimulate our immune system to act.

With our computer model in place, we can set it to work to make specific predictions about which peptides will be selected for presentation to CTL by an infected cell or a cancer cell – and test these predictions in real-life immune responses. For example, we scanned the genome of a commonly used experimental cancer and fed the data into our model. This generated a list of about a million peptides, ranked according to how abundant they are predicted to be at the cancer cell surface, and hence how good they are likely to be at attracting the attention of our CTL. When we tested the prediction in the lab by measuring CTL reactivity to a sample of the list, we found that the model was pretty good at identifying which peptides would be selected and which would not.

This example illustrates how important it is to understand the sequence of events that precede antigen presentation if we are to design vaccines that work by activating our T cells. These will be an important part of our armoury for fighting cancer in the future, and I hope one day we might be able to design vaccines to prevent common cancers.

What’s more, we found our model could simulate changes in antigen presentation that accompany changes which occur in tumours as a result of chemotherapy or radiotherapy, and we are hoping this information could then be used to make vaccines that are optimised for use in combination with more conventional cancer treatments – perhaps enabling the use of lower, less toxic doses to achieve results that are durable.

We will need to do more work to find out whether these discoveries can be translated into clinically useful treatments for patients … but after more than 30 years of working in this field, my instincts tell me we are close to something

A snapshot of the peptide loading complex (PLC) helping MHC I molecules select peptides to present at the surface of cancer cells.

Yellow = MHC I, Green = the master-component of the PLC, tapasin. Other players are ERp57 (purple) and calreticulin (orange). The peptide selection process requires the PLC to be plastic and dynamic and for the MHC I molecule to transition between multiple shapes.

exciting, and my experience assures me we are going to have a lot of fun discovering more about our immune system along the way.

We will need to do more work to find out whether these discoveries can be translated into clinically useful treatments for patients … but after more than 30 years of working in this field, my instincts tell me we are close to something exciting.

FELLOWS’ NEWS

New Academics Join Oriel Fellowship

Dr Cécile Bishop, Kelleher Fellow in French and Associate Professor of Postcolonial Francophone Literatures and Culture, and Professor Charlie Wilson, Jackson Senior Research Fellow in Energy, joined Oriel’s Fellowship this year.

Charlie Wilson is also Professor of Energy and Climate Change in the Environmental Change Institute at the University’s School of Geography and the Environment, where he also leads the energy programme. His research interests lie at the intersection between innovation, people, and policy in the field of energy and climate change mitigation. He works both at a macro systems level on scenarios and modelling of net-zero transformations, and at a micro level on innovation processes, technology adoption, and pro-environmental behaviour. Before coming to Oxford, he spent 11 years with the

Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia.

Prior to Oriel, Dr Bishop was most recently Assistant Professor of French Literature, Thought and Culture at NYU. Her research focuses on postcolonial francophone literatures and visual culture, with a particular emphasis on the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa, and the representation of race in French culture. Her first book, Postcolonial Criticism and Representations of African Dictatorship: The Aesthetics of Tyranny (Legenda, 2014), questioned the politicised rhetoric of much postcolonial criticism. Dr Bishop’s current book project, Forms of Blackness, re-examines the relationship between race and the aesthetic in France in both written and visual representations.

Oriel Fellows Awarded Professorships in University’s Recognition of Distinction

This year, four of Oriel’s Fellows – Teresa Bejan (Fellow in Politics), Justin Coon (Emmott Fellow in Engineering Science), Bruno Currie (Mason Monro Fellow in Classics), and Patrick Farrell (Fellow & Tutor in Mathematics and Professor of Scientific Computing) – were awarded Professorships. Through the University’s Recognition of Distinction exercise, the title of Professor is conferred on those whose research, teaching, and citizenship is deemed to be of outstanding quality, and who have built a significant international reputation because of this.

Professor Roper Publishes Latest Book on Martin Luther

Fellow and Regius Professor of History Lyndal Roper has published her latest book, Living

I Was Your Plague: Martin Luther’s World and Legacy. Martin Luther was a controversial figure during his lifetime, eliciting strong emotions in friends and enemies alike, and his outsized persona has left an indelible mark on the world today. In this book Professor Roper, a renowned Luther biographer, explores how Luther carefully crafted his own image. She looks at how he has been portrayed in his own time and ours, painting a unique portrait of the man who set in motion a revolution that sundered Western Christendom.

John Cairns

Professor Charlie Wilson

Dr Cécile Bishop

Professor Teresa Bejan

Professor Justin Coon

Professor Bruno Currie

Professor Patrick Farrell

Keiko

Ikeuchi

Professor Cox Appointed to Co-Lead a National Research Network to Transform the Health of Older People

new tools and interventions to help people stay healthy as they grow old, and to develop treatments for conditions for which little can be done today. UKANet is one response to the UK Government’s pledge to increase the healthy life expectancy of the population by an extra five years by 2035 without increasing inequality.

Professor Lynne Cox is co-leading a new UKRI-funded national research network that will focus on transforming the health of older people and boosting the economy. The UK Ageing network (www.ukanet.org.uk) brings together researchers from many academic disciplines across the country, grouped into 11 focused research networks, to increase our understanding of how the ageing process causes illness and impairment in later life, and what can be done to intervene to improve health and wellbeing. It aims to inform the nationwide research agenda for the development of

With Britain experiencing an ageing population, the research by teams on the network (including Professor Cox’s own research in biological mechanisms of ageing) will play an important role in society’s future. She says, ‘Major scientific advances over the past decade have shown that different age-related diseases stem from core biological processes that can be modified to improve health in later life. It may be possible not only to treat age-related diseases at cause, but also to take a preventative approach. The interdisciplinary nature of the new ageing networks allows us to draw in expertise from across all academic disciplines and to work with clinicians, biotech, industry, and policy makers to put research findings into practice.’ The launch of the networks is described in a new paper in The Lancet Healthy Longevity (DOI: https://doi. org/10.1016/S2666-7568(22)00095-2).

Professor Cox’s work is also supported by the Mellon Longevity Science Programme in Oriel, funded by philanthropist and Orielensis Jim Mellon (1975, PPE), to study ageing and senescence. You can read more on the work carried out by the first Mellon Longevity Graduate Scholar, Loren Kell, in the 2021 issue of Oriel News

Professor Yadvinder Malhi to Lead New Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery in Oxford

Professor Justin Coon Publishes Book on Mobile Communications

Professor Justin Coon, Emmott Fellow and Tutor in Engineering Science, has co-authored a new book entitled The Technology and Business of Mobile Communications: An Introduction. A team of expert telecommunications researchers and consultants explore the technical and business aspects of mobile telecommunications. The book offers a complete overview of an industry that has seen rapid technical and economic changes while retaining the ability to provide end users with communications coverage and capacity.

Oriel’s Jackson Senior Research Fellow in Biodiversity and Conservation, Professor Yadvinder Malhi, is set to lead the new £10 million Oxford-based Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery. The Centre will undertake research that aims to help halt and reverse the ongoing loss and degradation of nature and its biodiversity. On top of the 10-year Leverhulme funding, the Centre, led by Professor Malhi, will receive £5 million in co-funding from the University of Oxford, which will support fundamental crossdisciplinary research.

Professor Malhi says, ‘There has never been more awareness of the urgency of restoring nature in our landscapes, our lives, and our economic aspirations. I am incredibly excited for Oxford to have been awarded this Centre, which will harness the expertise and insight available across the University and its local, national, and international partners to address this urgent and timely challenge.’

Jake Bryant

FELLOWS’

A CONVERSATION WITH ORIEL’S TREASURER

Margaret Jones, former CEO of the Cyber Security Challenge and former Director of Corporate Services for the Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens, was appointed as Oriel’s new Treasurer in September 2021. We caught up with her a few months into her new role.

Tell us about your role as Oriel’s Treasurer. It is fascinating. At the moment I am focused on the financial recovery of the College postCovid-19, but that is such a broad task. It means working with the Investment Advisory Committee on the strategic financial direction of the College and the stewardship of the endowment funds, re-establishing our conference business through partnerships (such as that with CBL WorldStrides and our Summer Institute), and looking deep into the operational effectiveness of the College to ensure every penny that finds its lucky way to Oriel is put to hard work. The variety is hugely enjoyable; I might find myself some days talking to the Maintenance team to ensure the Oriel Sword is back up on the wall in the Hall after the renovation work, on others interviewing students for the Oriel Ball Committee or engaging with our delightful alumni. What makes it unique, though, is that all of this is done within a very deep-thinking community of academics, many of whom contribute just as much to my work as to the academic life of the College.

What are your current priorities for Oriel?

When I started last Michaelmas term, my main priority was to set the College on the road to post-Covid-19 financial recovery.

Oriel’s endowment has performed well, but the impact of Covid-19 on our conference business set the College to running a deficit budget. My predecessor, Wilf Stephenson, had taken care, re-financing the long-term borrowing of the College and initiating important capital investment projects, such as the East Range (which renovates the dining and kitchen facilities) and the purchase of property at Jeune Street to further develop our campus there to provide additional graduate accommodation. I’ve mentioned my priorities already, but let me tell you a little more about each.

Re-establishing our conference business has been centred around the Oriel Summer Institute, in partnership with CBL WorldStrides. Although run successfully in the past, the Oriel academic community saw an opportunity to develop this, reinforcing the style and quality of Oriel into the student experience. A new Advisory Panel of senior academics was set up to manage it and we have launched new and exciting programmes to appeal to a wider international audience. Our programmes are now designed to

ORIEL’S

allow US students to apply for credits in their home universities, and we have added Theology to the list of subjects offered for the first time. The Summer Institute is not just about gaining income; it broadens Oriel’s ability to engage with high-achieving undergraduates, including those who have not been awarded a place at Oxford but would benefit from an intensive course at Oriel to augment their studies.

The East Range project is all about rejuvenating the heart of the social life of College, the places where people make friends, enjoy eating together, and relax after the heavy workloads that our students and academics need to tackle. Expensive, certainly, but completely necessary, and very challenging to deliver in a site located in the city centre, physically constrained and affecting precious heritage buildings. During the pandemic, the College took advantage of the student absence to move ahead with a key part of the East Range project, the renovation of the Hall. That first step has been much appreciated as students and academics have returned to College, with our Formal Halls regularly packed. I have spent time scrutinising the remainder of the project, talking to our whole community to ensure that we get the value to Oriel we need from such a large investment. With a clear business case and a refreshed project brief, we have recruited project managers (TMD), who recently completed a similar project for Somerville College, and are moving forward confidently.

Oriel was able to purchase land on Jeune Street next to the James Mellon Hall (JMH) and the Goldie, Larmenier, and David Paterson buildings. This is going to be our 5th Quad and will be designed to make sure we create a harmonious whole, incorporating the existing accommodation while adding much needed facilities for our students. 5th Quad is part of the strategic vision for Oriel’s growth in the future, providing an oasis for graduate students close to the main site, offering the living-

out experience but retaining the important College community. Being in a lively part of Oxford, this is a very different project to the East Range, working alongside quite different local stakeholders, including the Ultimate Picture Palace and the Big Society pub.

What is the most enjoyable aspect of your role?

Definitely the variety of work, but I also really enjoy walking around the beautiful Quads and talking to such a range of people to find out what is important to them. One element I hadn’t anticipated was the strength of support from Orielenses, who care deeply about College. As well as their financial generosity, Oriel is very fortunate that so many are also generous with their time and expertise, working with us on College committees and providing valuable external insights for our work.

The pandemic knocked everyone sideways; how well prepared was Oriel for such a crisis, and how do we come back stronger?

Oriel did well during the pandemic, but inevitably we are seeing unexpected consequences. If anything, we have suffered more as we have navigated our way out of it, with waves of illness affecting our Kitchen and Hall teams particularly, requiring us to use all the new ways of working and skills that we learnt over the pandemic in earnest. I think that one consequence of the pandemic is that the students coming up to Oriel as Freshers have not had the same social engagement during their ‘remote or online’ Sixth Form years as they normally would, including the opportunity to take on leadership roles within their schools. Consequently, the students have needed more support when they have joined Oriel, and our Junior Deans have done a tremendous job this year providing that help. Creating the right environment of support and challenge has been key to making sure their talents are properly nurtured.

The pandemic has also taught us that we can work differently in College and be

even more efficient with our time. We will be introducing a hybrid working policy that embeds what we have learnt about the benefits of working remotely, and will continue to invest in audiovisual (AV) equipment, hiring an AV technician to aid events and communications. College is fortunate to have great staff who have really pulled together over the last few years, and I will be looking to ensure the can-do and learning culture that was so much in evidence during the pandemic is properly supported as we move forwards.

We are now facing new challenges with energy cost inflation. While College has not been complacent with its sustainability initiatives, we now have a new and urgent impetus to reduce our carbon footprint. The new capital projects provide an obvious opportunity to drive down energy usage, but this focus has also been core to our recent discussions with students on rent rises, where we worked collaboratively on ways they could help us reduce and control energy costs.

Oriel doesn’t have a full decarbonisation strategy yet, but the Governing Body is keen to develop one, and that will be something we will start tackling in a more comprehensive way over the next year.

We all appreciate the immersive nature of your position within College, but what do you like to do to unwind?

When I need a quick break after a very busy day in College, sometimes I go outside and find a tourist or two and invite them in for an informal tour around Oriel. It is lovely to share a little of what we have here, and they are always grateful for the invitation. The Boat Club’s successes and traditions fascinate them, and I have found the new entrance gate, donated by Orielensis Robin Stainer (1967, Philosophy), is a great conversation starter with its ‘lucky’ tortoise. When at home, I am a keen orienteer and travel all over the UK as well as internationally to compete. I also enjoy open-water swimming, but nowadays only with a wetsuit!

The East Range project is all about rejuvenating the heart of the social life of College, the places where people make friends, enjoy eating together, and relax after the heavy workloads that our students and academics need to tackle.

THE ORIEL SWORD HIDDEN TREASURES

When the newly refurbished Hall reopened last year, some eagleeyed Orielenses noted with concern that the Oriel Sword was missing from above High Table. Having now been fully restored as part of the Hall renovation project, it is now back where it belongs. The restoration presented a fantastic importunity to research the sword’s history and dispel some myths about its origins along the way.

Contrary to popular myth, it is not the Founder’s sword. The Oriel Sword is a two-handed sword with a pommel and crossguard with two guard rings, and dates back to 16th century Europe. A number of 15th century illuminated manuscripts that illustrate historical subjects picture soldiers wielding swords with two hands. A two-handed sword’s noticeably long hilt is distinguished by a grip long enough to accommodate both hands (not overlapped) within the space between cross and pommel.

When the sword was removed in preparation for the Hall’s renovations, the conservator reported the sword to be in fair condition, but dusty and dirty and with the sword’s grip missing. The sword and scabbard were cleaned and polished and a new grip was made out of beechwood based on the shape of the grip photographed in 1912.

At the beginning of the blade, on both sides, there are a few inches of engraved decoration. On one side of the blade, the face is marked with the date 1423 (although this has been tampered with and could have originally said 1523) and a heraldic shield, surmounted by the initials R and D. On the opposite face, there is a motto, ‘PVGNA. PRO. PATRIA’, and stylised foliage or tree, including three stars or mullets. There are possible traces of more decorative etching noted further down the blade on the shield side.

The Oriel Record in 1938 discusses the origins of the Oriel Sword in detail: ‘As to the known history of the sword: it is certain that for many years it was preserved at the Manor Farm of the former College estate of Swainswick, near Bath. The earliest reference to it seems to be in Collinson’s History of Somerset (1791), where he says that “in the mansion-house … is preserved an old military sword, ascribed by the vulgar to King Bladud”. Collinson does not give any support to the tradition mentioned by later writers, that it was found in the roof of an old bard at Swainswick, and that this barn was possibly known as Pickwick’s Barn.’ Somewhere in the mid-1800s, the sword vanished from Swainswick and temporarily went into private hands, until it was recovered in

The sword has an overall length of 162 cm and weighs 3 kg

1870 by Mr Richard Shackell, then tenant of Manor Farm. The Record notes: ‘At this period the sword was regarded by the people of Swainswick as a village institution, and was carried in procession in local rejoinings; for instance in 1872 the sword was borne to the Parish Church at the Thanksgiving for the recovery of the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), and at local “bean feasts” the stalwarts of the village vied with each other in attempts to draw the sword from its scabbard without stooping.’

Around 1900, the sword was lent to the Corporation of Bath, making its journey from Swainswick to Bath tied to the top bar of a bicycle. The Record goes on to say: ‘The circumstances and sequel of this loan may be told in the words of Mr L. L. Price, who was at that time Treasurer of the College: “A Bath antiquarian, a Major Davis, propounded a theory that it rightfully belonged to the Corporation of Bath, and contended that it should properly be restored, or handed over, to their custody. But the College, advised by my predecessor as Treasurer, our own archivist of justly formidable repute (Dr Shadwell), and unwilling to accept that version of its antecedents, was in consequence not prepared to transfer the sword itself. It assented to a duplicate being made to pass into the possession of the City of Bath. I believe that the urban authorities forthwith had that copy carried regularly at municipal functions in the accompanying processions, and I heard that they specially selected or engaged for the purpose a bearer of proportionate height and appropriate dignity. I myself brought back the sword to the College (where it was deemed to be safer henceforth than at Swainswick) from Messrs. Wilkinson of Pall Mall, who had been commissioned to make the copy.” It may be added that, according to legend, Mr Price completed his journey back to the College in a Hansom-cab, holding the sword upright before him. This was in or about the year 1902, and since that time the sword has remained at Oriel. Swainswick was sold, with other College estates, soon after the War.’

The Oriel Sword’s origin and history before Swainswick is unknown, but we are glad that it has been restored and once again hangs above High Table, adding an air of mystery to Formal Halls for future generations.

The Oriel Sword back in Hall after treatment

The Oriel Sword before (top left), during (left) and after (above) treatment

John Cairns

HIDDEN

ORIEL CALLING

I t has been a bumper year for Telephone Campaigns at Oriel. Due to recent restrictions, we held two campaigns in one academic year. Both were among our most successful to date, raising over £440,000 between them to support current students.

These campaigns also foster special connections across generations of Orielenses – a well-placed word of advice can be a great asset to a current student. Eva Hogan (2021), JCR Women’s Officer, said of her time as a telethon caller: ‘Sharing experiences of Oriel across the decades, as well as feeling utterly inspired by sometimes windy and unexpected career paths, is something that is so unique. I am hoping to see some alumni that I called in person over the next few terms!’

During our latest campaign, in March, our team of 13 students worked for two weeks to build and strengthen connections with Orielenses across the world. Despite a spell of unseasonably good

weather, over 300 alumni picked up the phone and chatted to our students, and more than half of the Orielenses we reached made a gift to the campaign. Malcolm McKenzie (1977, English) was one of them: ‘I was surprised at how a simple call made me feel such a strong connection to Oriel. So much of what I was told about Oriel today impressed and delighted me. I was especially pleased to find out that a modest gift to financially assist scholars can make such a difference to their opportunities while at Oriel.’

A massive thank you to all those who took time to speak with us and be a part of Oriel’s wonderful community, including those generous alumni who made a gift this year. You are ensuring that Oriel can go on assisting students in financial need, widening access to the College among disadvantaged groups and remaining a home for world-class teaching and ground-breaking research. Thank you!

FROM SPIRES TO INSPIRING

Last year, British clothing brand Boden celebrated its 30th anniversary of great British style. In 1991, Johnnie Boden (1980, PPE) founded this clothing brand from his living room floor with just eight menswear pieces in its collection. Thirty years later, Boden is selling clothes for women, men, and children to two million active customers a year. Through its catalogue and website, to date it has sold to 12 million total customers in over 145 countries. We were delighted to get the opportunity to find out about Johnnie’s journey from his Oriel days to creating his global brand.

Rory Lindsay Photography

FROM

FROM

What was your time at Oriel like?

I loved my time at Oriel, but there was always a sense that I had made the wrong subject choice. I came up reading Law, which didn’t suit me. Then I changed to PPE, but in reality I should have read History from the start, as I have always really enjoyed that subject. Consequently, I felt slightly unfulfilled academically, but that was entirely my own fault, and I still thought all my old Dons, like Richard Tur and David Giles, were marvellous. I have very happy memories of life at Oriel, including playing cricket for College. However, I didn’t row at a time when it was a very strong rowing community, so felt a little detached at times, but I’m almost embarrassed to admit I was also very lucky to have a ready-made social life among the other colleges due to coming up with so many other Etonians.

A favourite memory of Oriel was my first-year rooms. I really lucked out because my rooms were above Hall, and the views of the city were the epitome of the ‘dreaming spires’. One of my other highlights at Oriel was organising the Commemoration Ball in 1982. The Bursar at the time, Brigadier Browne, was very supportive of what we were trying to achieve and we really pushed the boat out! It had a ‘tropical’ theme and was great fun, with lots of risqué performers. It was quite a change from the usual Commem Balls, and was a huge success. Back then it felt like Oxford life was much less pressured, so there was plenty of opportunity to do these extra activities and learn valuable lessons along the way. Social skills are so important, and less evident in recent graduates.

What did your career look like after graduating from Oriel?

I decided to go into the City as a stockbroker because I couldn’t really think of anything else to do – the money was good, friends were encouraging me to join them, and it all seemed rather glamorous. However, it turned out that I was very ill-suited to this career

because I didn’t have a feel for markets. I worked for some great companies but didn’t find it in any way rewarding.

I think one of my key mistakes back then was always trying to please other people, and I did what I thought my parents and contemporaries expected me to do as a dutiful son and friend. I didn’t really have a clear sense of who I was and what I was really good at. As a young person, I had always been very interested in clothes and what my mother’s friends were wearing. My father had been in the army, but he had a very creative side, which I think I inherited. As an adult I used to enjoy going to Portobello Market and a second-hand shop called ‘Flip’ in Covent Garden to buy trainers and linen trousers. It was a real passion of mine, but my father considered fashion to be a hobby, not a job, so to the City I went.

In 1988, the company for which I worked sent me to their office in New York’s MidTown Financial District, and I noticed that my male colleagues were buying lots of clothes from upmarket catalogues like J Crew and Land’s End. It seemed perfect because they chose items from these glossy catalogues and they would turn up in boxes without the need to even leave their desk –what’s not to love! I saw a gap in the market in Britain and thought that could work well. Then I had an extraordinary stroke of luck in that my uncle left me some money when he died, and for which I will be forever grateful (and to Mrs Thatcher for relaxing inheritance tax rules). Not only could I buy a flat, but I also had a bit left over that meant I could later start the business.

At that time, I couldn’t quite take the plunge into setting up a mail-order business, but my girlfriend (now my wife), Sophie, gave me an ultimatum: ‘If you don’t do it, I’m going to leave you!’ She told me I had had an incredible start in life and was wasting it. I didn’t have any experience of setting up a business at all, but my parents always said that if you know how to talk to people and

say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ it’s amazing how many people will help you. For example, I got chatting to someone at a pub and he gave me the contact of Keith Powell at a trouser factory in Yorkshire. I went up to meet Keith at his factory and noticed that in his office he had a photo of his son playing cricket. I was a keen cricketer too, so we got chatting about it. By the end of chatting all things cricket and hearing about his family, I asked him to make some men’s trousers, which he gladly did. My ability to talk to people meant that I quickly built up a network of manufacturers and suppliers.

The Boden days

We launched our men’s clothes in 1991, but by 1993 we had diversified into women’s clothes, as you had to follow the money, and then children’s clothes in 1996. Delivering clothing inspiration through the catalogues at that time was very unique.

I started off doing literally everything in the business, but one of the key aspects of growing a successful business is selfawareness – realising that you aren’t going to be great at every aspect. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses; you have to find people that are better than you at doing certain roles and work out what to step back from and what aspects you feel really strongly about and hold onto those. I know that I am not a good manager, so I recognise that and I try to hire the right people.

30 years of Boden

Over the last 30 years I have made every mistake in the book: from choosing the wrong product or factory, hiring the wrong people (including someone defrauding us), and being burgled, to having to leverage our house to keep the company afloat in the early years. It was hand-to-mouth for about 10 years and it wasn’t easy, but I have never regretted doing it and have always enjoyed it and continue to enjoy it. You just have to learn from your mistakes.

I started off doing literally everything in the business, but one of the key aspects of growing a successful business is self-awareness – realising that you aren’t going to be great at every aspect.

In the early years, we would run products for six years and they would still be selling consistently. In contrast, these days, society is constantly being bombarded with fashion inspiration via the internet, social media, and influencers. Women in general have become even more fashion-aware and want ‘newness’ from a very competitive market. A lot more innovation is required now, but our signature style runs through this. We are also working harder than ever to make everything in a sustainable and ethical manner, from using ethical factories to removing glitter from our products.

I always say that selling clothes is not an important job compared to many other careers, so you can at least make it fun. My aim in life is to make clothes that make people feel great, which I take very seriously, but my outlook is that you have to have a bit of humour and fun with it all too. I am very passionate about design and we pride ourselves on our creativity, which threads through our clothes all the way to our marketing. My wife and three daughters give a lot of feedback on products and marketing, and are very opinionated! It is so useful and keeps me on my toes. My middle daughter works at the business now and is very keen. When we celebrated the 30th anniversary of Boden last year, I did eventually manage to persuade Sophie and the girls to do a Boden photoshoot with me. They have been such an important influence, but certainly don’t crave the limelight.

It’s been amazing celebrating 30 years and I am still loving what I do. I find it quite hard to relax, but it’s great that I can now do half my job remotely so I would like to spend a bit more time travelling. I am looking forward to the next 30 years of a thriving business with happy staff and customers and, most importantly, I want my children to be happy, to work hard, and to be fulfilled.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Be really honest about what you’re good at, and don’t try to impress others. Be really hard-working and single-minded, but also a good listener (to staff and above all customers), and take that feedback on board. Be sure you ask people to criticise every aspect of your business, and look at competitors for best practice. Failure is not a dirty word; just move on. Be prepared to sacrifice things, such as an expensive taste, when you are growing a business. And also having a partner – whether it’s a girlfriend/ boyfriend, business partner, or best friend – is incredibly helpful for a sounding board and moral support. You can’t do it on your own.

The key is to find something that you really love. If your passion coincides with your ability, then that’s a ‘bingo’ moment. Try lots of holiday jobs and talk to lots of people in various professions. Make a list of all your friends and get them to freely talk about their jobs – the good, the bad, and the ugly. For every conversation you have, you will find out something useful to help direct you. Ask your friends/acquaintances if they think you are suited to a job. Honesty, honesty, honesty!

Johnnie has certainly mastered the art of creating and sustaining a truly successful business through recognising his passion and strengths – and with a refreshing injection of honesty and humour to boot…

Johnnie with his wife, Sophie, and three daughters Anna, Katie and Stella

FROM

FOCUS: CULTURAL AND CREATIVE

Anthony Sargent

Anthony Sargent CBE (1969, PPE) worked for the BBC as a radio and TV presenter, producer, and manager for 13 years before being appointed Artistic Projects Director at London’s Southbank Centre. Moving to Birmingham City Council as Head of Arts, he created Birmingham’s first Arts Strategy and led all the Council’s major arts projects and festivals. After returning to the BBC in the management team for the nationwide Radio and TV Millennium Music Live festival, he was founding General Director for 15 years of Sage Gateshead (England’s award-winning international centre for music performance and education) before moving to Canada to lead Luminato Festival Toronto as CEO into its second decade.

Anthony was awarded a CBE in 2013 for his services to the arts and is now an international cultural advisor. Most recently, he has written two significant research reports on the lessons learnt within the cultural and creative sector during the pandemic. Both reports are published on www.culturehive.co.uk.1 The following is an overview of the second, which was published in the summer.

TWO YEARS OF CONSTANT LEARNING –NEW FOUNDATIONS FOR A NEW WORLD

I have just finished writing (spring 2022) a study following up one published last autumn, inspired by the international attempts to analyse the multiple impacts of Covid-19. My two studies are built on those foundations, but they aim to do something different. From that mountain of retrospective evidence, I wanted to derive some positive forwardlooking messages, of significant lessons and learnings from the pandemic.

Unless some new escape variant reignites the Covid-19 flame, it seems reasonable now to regard the pandemic as nearing its end. Live culture has returned (albeit with some residual hesitancies) as our towns and cities have limped back to life. International travel is possible again and much of the world is starting to look more as we remember it from the distant pre-Covid-19 times.

But for all the elements of familiarity, there are changes. We walk past shuttered shops, bars, and theatres we know are unlikely ever to reopen. Services once provided quickly and efficiently are now randomly slow and disorganised, reflecting staffing fallout from the pandemic.

And we have experienced an unprecedented explosion of online culture, delighting existing audiences and expanding access for many communities previously excluded. Artists have been quickly gaining far more comfort and confidence in the digital space, while discovering much greater expressive breadth in the ways it can be used. Some of these new online experiments have not outlasted the pandemic, but we can see others starting to evolve for the future.

There have also been changes in the relationship between cultural institutions and their audiences and communities. After a lifetime’s experience in communicating with their communities, the pandemic posed completely fresh challenges for cultural producers and presenters. Suddenly there was no upcoming programme to communicate, nor was there any authoritative sense of when programming would resume or when cultural buildings would reopen. For some organisations, that represented an existential crisis, while others were inspired to rethink the whole nature of their relationships with their communities, giving those relationships real depth beyond the crisply transactional approaches of earlier times.

Some of the most far-reaching international learnings from these two years have been in the kinds of leadership that proved most effective in navigating this utterly novel kind of crisis, with all its interlocking effects. It has been interesting to

see how cultural organisations, big and small, reacted, and in particular how the agility of small organisations often made riding the tumultuous waves of the pandemic easier than for larger, less flexible institutions. It has become ever clearer that the hierarchical leadership styles of old are hopelessly unsuited to times of rapid and volatile change; and the sudden explosion of mutualhelp networks, which crossed all previous boundaries of geography, artform, scale, and profit/non-profit status, gave leaders enormously valuable collaborative ways of addressing the challenges of Covid-19.

For the sector as a whole, the pandemic shone a fiercely revealing light on the whole issue of work – what it is, how and where we do it, and how we are contracted and remunerated. In recognising that a third of the sector’s global workforce are not full-time institutional employees but instead work in a range of freelance, contract, and self-employed modes, we can

For the sector as a whole, the pandemic shone a fiercely revealing light on the whole issue of work – what it is, how and where we do it, and how we are contracted and remunerated.

no longer evade the professional and moral responsibility to embrace those essential workers in better supported ways. In truth, it should not have needed the disturbing rise in mental health issues and burnout stress for us to recognise the challenges the sector needs to address with its workplace cultures and practices.

From the start, one of the pandemic’s clearest lessons has been how uneven was governmental comprehension of the cultural sector around the world. We have learnt that we need more effective informational advocacy programmes addressed to policy makers and political stakeholders, helping them better understand the structure and dynamic of the sector’s complex transnational ecology and also its multiple paybacks to society.

Before the pandemic’s seriousness was widely understood, people expected Covid-19 to prove an intense but shortrun shock, with ‘business as usual’ quickly

returning as after a bad dream. It was only when the pandemic’s severity and scale became clearer, profoundly changing the ways people worked and lived, that some of those changes started looking like better versions of life before Covid-19, and the appealing idea of ‘new normals’ started winning currency.

We are now at a critical fork in the road. We know we can do so many things better, some in evolved ways, others in wholly transformed ways. We know the learnings of the past two years could lead us to live better lives, professionally and personally, and that this is now a personal rather than an institutional choice. Each of us now carries our own individual sliver of the shared responsibility to absorb the positive learnings from the horrors of Covid-19. We need to make the right choices for the learnings from the pandemic to become the springboard into a new world that two years ago was unimaginable.

1 Covid-19 and the global cultural and creative sector: What have we learned so far? by Anthony Sargent can be found at www.culturehive.co.uk/CVIresources/ covid-19-and-the-global-cultural-andcreative-sector/ (Oct 2021) and Covid-19 and the global cultural and creative sector. Two years of constant learning – new foundations for a new world by Anthony Sargent can be found at www.culturehive.co.uk/CVIresources/ covid-19-global-cultural-creativesector-two-years-constant-learning/

Theater in Quarantine – Mask Study 1, created by Jon Levin, Katie Rose McLaughlin and Joshua William Gelb; 1 April 2020

Pictured: Joshua William Gelb

Nick Newman

1976, Modern History

Role:

Cartoonist and writer

Where has life taken you since you left Oriel? After a brief spell as a business journalist on Management Today, I became a freelance cartoonist. Since then I have worked for Private Eye, The Spectator, and Punch, and many other publications. I’m currently the pocket cartoonist for the Sunday Times, where I’ve worked since 1989. What started as a sideline as a sketch writer for the TV satirical puppet show Spitting Image led to writing for Dawn French and Harry Enfield, as well as for films, TV comedies, and drama and comedy for radio. My BBC film The Wipers Times, which I co-wrote with my longstanding writing partner Ian Hislop, won the Broadcast Press Guild award for best single drama and was nominated for a BAFTA. Rewritten as a play, it toured extensively (including the Oxford Playhouse) before going onto the West End. Our most recent play, Spike, opened at the Watermill Theatre, Newbury in January 2022 and is touring this autumn, including the Oxford Playhouse the week beginning 27 October.

What do you most enjoy about being a cartoonist and writer in this sector?

Getting published in print is still immensely exciting, as all cartooning involves a lot of rejection. Likewise, getting anything onto the radio, stage, or screen is generally the result of years of slog – so when it happens it seems like a miracle! When cartoons receive a good response, it’s equally thrilling – as is the audience and critical reaction to plays and films (sometimes!).

What motivates you?

From an early age I just wanted to be published, so wrote and drew for magazines while at Oxford, which inspired me to consider it as a career. Money is of limited interest, although some jobs have paid very well – but most work for the arts is poorly paid. The satisfaction of getting something onto the screen, radio, or stage is paramount.

Critical reaction can both inflate and deflate.

What has been one of the greatest challenges in your job?

Coping with rejection. It’s part and parcel of

a cartoonist’s life, which is why the collective noun for a group of cartoonists is a whinge.

As a screenwriter, the toughest challenge is dealing with the myriad executives who will have a view on your work, which leads to multiple rewrites with no guarantee that the result will ever see the light of day. Having a sense of hope is essential! Writing for the stage has provided the most satisfying of all my writing experiences, as the route from the written word to performed work is the most direct. Still, while the experience can be exhilarating, live performance can also be quite terrifying!

How did you get into the sector?

I started drawing cartoons at school, and while at Oriel I started my own ‘humorous’ magazine with a friend from Teddy Hall. This was called Passing Wind, which I handed onto

my old school friend Ian Hislop when he arrived in Oxford. It started our co-writing career, which flourished after leaving Oxford. Meanwhile, I started sending cartoons to magazines while at Oriel, sold some gags to Yachting Monthly, and decided I could hack it as a freelancer. This didn’t happen for four years! Many piddles make a puddle, as they say, and eventually I built up enough regular work to quit journalism.

Who or what inspired you during your time at Oriel?

My Tutor, Dr Jeremy Catto, was always immensely encouraging and supportive of my writing and cartooning exploits. What proved most inspirational was Oxford student journalism. Going to the Bodleian and digging out old copies of Mesopotamia and Parson’s Pleasure, produced by my future

Private Eye colleagues Richard Ingrams, Willie Rushton, and Paul Foot, inspired us to attempt our own satirical magazine. Also, I assumed that Oxford would be teeming with brilliant humorous writers and cartoonists and was surprised to find it wasn’t (with a handful of notable exceptions, such as the writer Richard Curtis, and my cartoonist colleague Kathryn Lamb). The general lack of competition indicated that there might be a career in it.

What has been your greatest personal/ professional triumph?

Getting published in Private Eye and Punch was an immense thrill, as all my cartooning heroes worked for those titles. But the success of our film and play The Wipers Times has proved a surprising and enduring pleasure. Wipers was involved in the amazing

WW1 centenary commemorations in Ypres in 2017 and is now an A Level set text.

What is the one piece of ‘life’ advice you would give to a current student?

Whenever I’m doubting my chosen path, I think of the note my cartoonist friend David Austin had pinned over his desk: ‘You could be classifying mosses’. Apologies to moss classifiers – who probably have an excusatory note over their desks saying ‘You could be drawing cartoons’.

What advice would you give for a student wishing to join your industry?

Forget it – there are far too many cartoonists and writers around as it is! But if you’re determined enough, keep at it, be patient, and good luck.

Elisabeth Gray 2002, English Literature and Language

Roles:

Director, producer, writer, and actor You can find out more about my work at: www.elisabethgray.org and www.daseggproductions.com

Where has life taken you since you left Oriel? Life has taken me on a grand adventure. I’ve lived all over the place and have had the good fortune to dip my toe into a wide range of artistic ventures. As soon as I left Oriel, I was commissioned by one of my Tutors to write a play about Sylvia Plath. This play won the Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival and helped me realise early on that the most satisfying pathway through the arts was a generative and self-guided one. I’ve also acted on Broadway (Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Yours Unfaithfully), off-Broadway, performed as a voice-over actor and TV actor, and have more recently ventured into producing and directing.

Meanwhile, I’ve enjoyed a simultaneous career as an entrepreneur in the education sector. I am Founder and Director of Oxford Tutors USA (www.OxfordTutorsUSA.com); I have definitely enjoyed applying my creativity to support students, parents, and schools and lead an amazing team of fellow educators.

What do you most enjoy about being in this sector?

Improbability. There’s a seed of gambling in the creative act. In whatever capacity one is participating – whether as a writer, actor, director, or producer – the precariousness of creating lends a thrill. It so rarely ‘works’ but when it does there is nothing more dazzling. I experience this same sort of excitement in entrepreneurship and other forms of creative problem solving.

What motivates you?

Curiosity and excitement. As Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote, ‘There lives a dearest freshness deep down things’. I am motivated by discovering that freshness whether I’m acting or writing or teaching … or just having a conversation with a stranger.

What is one of the greatest challenges in your job?

Uncertainty and collaboration are two of the greatest challenges in the arts – and the intersectionality of these two challenges is a challenge unto itself.

How did you get into the sector?

Growing up in the parochial American

South, at the age of three I vowed to become a ‘British actress’ – whatever that meant. While the origin of this mysterious mission remains unknown, 15 years later, I determined that reading English at Oxford would be the next best step to achieving the dream. I signed with one of the top international talent agencies while still at Oxford, and while I was sadly kicked out of the country after completing my degree, I had agent representation. RSC producer

Thelma Holt, who helped many Oxford students get their starts, introduced me to the Geffen Playhouse in LA. From there, the journey began. Sadly, 15 years later, I’m not a British actress, but I’m closer than I was as a toddler country bumpkin watching Masterpiece Theatre in the rural South.

Who or what inspired you during your time at Oriel?

Oh, everything. My time at Oriel was the most formative, inspirational season of my life. The education I received in those years reading English with Dr Tom MacFaul and Dr Sally Bayley set the stage for my life as a writer. As an actor, I was very active in OUDS at the university level and performed in more than 25 plays – of particular joy was

Writing for the stage has provided the most satisfying of all my writing experiences, as the route from the written word to performed work is the most direct.

the production of Twelfth Night staged in Second Quad by the Oriel Dramatic Society and directed by Dr James Methven. I also established my most meaningful friendships and collaborations during those years … a special shout out to Silvana Williams ’02!

What has been your greatest personal/ professional triumph?

I’ll let you know when it happens…

What is the one piece of ‘life’ advice you would give to a current student?

There’s a wonderful line from a Nick Laird poem: ‘Time is how you spend your love.’ Savour your time – at Oriel and beyond.

Having worked hard to achieve the goal

of attending Oxford, it’s easy to become focused on the next goal – and the next, and the next. I wish in my time at Oriel I had slowed to enjoy the present.

What advice would you give for a student wishing to join your industry?

Be patient. Engage the arts with an understanding that this vocation requires not only creativity in work, but also in life.

You’ve got to discover a way to provide for yourself without expectation of winning the celebrity lottery and allow yourself the ripeness of a lifetime for your creativity to unfold. It’s an adventure!

Elisabeth Gray with Tony nominee Max von Essen in Yours Unfaithfully by Miles Malleson, directed by Jonathan Bank. This play will transfer to Jermyn Street Theatre, London in 2023, starring Elisabeth again. Photo by Richard Termine.

George Prince 2002, Modern History

Role: Programming Manager at the Royal Albert Hall

Where has life taken you since you left Oriel?

After graduating, I decided to pursue a career in the arts, applying for roles with publishing firms, auction houses, and a live music agency. I met the director at the music agency for a coffee and we clicked, so I started a six-month trial and worked insanely hard to learn as much as I could. Over the next 10 years, I worked my way up to Head of Live Music, booking global tours for artists – including Buena Vista Social Club, Tony Allen, Tinariwen, and Sam Lee – at festivals, including Glastonbury and Coachella. It was great fun, and I learnt an incredible amount. Then, in 2016, I joined the Royal Albert Hall, building a new team to plan and deliver our growing series of

in-house productions and promotions. I have promoted shows with artists from Kylie Minogue to Robert Plant to Nigel Kennedy, delivered major projects with partners including Disney and English National Ballet, and developed the Hall’s first touring productions. It’s been intense and challenging, and I’ve loved every minute.

What do you most enjoy about being a programming manager in this sector?

Collaborating on creative projects with world-class artists (including some of my heroes) is extremely exciting. The moment the audience leaps up in standing ovation at the end of a show you’ve been working on for two years … it’s difficult to describe how remarkable that feels. And building a team that is bursting with passion and talent keeps me energised, even when facing the many challenges that come with showbiz!

What motivates you?

Building relationships is a huge motivator for me. I absolutely love meeting people and to have that as a key part of my career is ideal. Turning a phone call, a meeting, or a drink at a conference into a new project feels amazing. I have built up my network throughout my career and have made many new connections and friends around the world.

What has been one of the greatest challenges in your job?

Building a new area of business within a 150-year-old institution such as the Royal Albert Hall comes with huge demands. I need to constantly innovate, drive commercial growth, and develop artistic quality. I also need to ensure that the whole organisation is engaged and positive about the process. This requires a lot of diplomacy, and a willingness to listen. Happily, it is a challenge I thoroughly enjoy.

How did you get into the sector?

Upon graduating, I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do. Historians often seemed to go into the law, so I flirted with the idea of training as a barrister. Following some work experience, I realised that the law was not for me and decided to look into a career in the arts, taking rather a scattergun approach to those first applications! My plan was to get any experience available and then to build from there. As it was, I found that working in a highly commercial music environment was a great match for me. Negotiation, management, relationship building, those were all skills I quickly developed. I worked my socks off for 10 years at the agency, learning everything that I could and always being open to feedback that could help my development.

Who or what inspired you during your time at Oriel?

My Tutors, Dr Beddard and Dr Catto, inspired me to question everything, to look at every assumption from another perspective. I continue to apply that to my thinking in all areas of my life today. I am still very close to the friends I made at Oriel, and watching how we all approach life in the ‘real world’ is a constant inspiration.

Michael Redina

INDUSTRY

What has been your greatest personal/ professional triumph?

I will always take huge pride in turning a chat with my all-time hero, Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant, into promoting his album launch at the Hall. He is still one of the greatest singers in the world, and he defied the old warning to ‘never meet your heroes’ by being an absolute delight.

More generally, I have maintained a leadership style that promotes a supportive, trusting, and empowering working culture. Seeing the positive impact of this across the organisation is perhaps my greatest source of job satisfaction.

What is the one piece of ‘life’ advice you would give to a current student?

Oriel and Oxford have almost endless opportunities for students. My advice would be to get stuck in! I rowed, played football, organised the Pantin Society feast, joined the Dilettante Society, and spent a lot of time with friends from around the University. And I absolutely loved reading History. By the time I left, I felt I had left no stone unturned. Those eight-week terms fly by, so don’t get weighed down thinking about the future, seize every opportunity that comes your way and enjoy it!

What advice would you give for a student wishing to join your industry?

Part of what makes the music industry exciting is the lack of any real structure. This can also make it seem pretty unapproachable. When I am looking at CVs for junior and entry-level roles, I will always focus on those who have taken the initiative to do something themselves – starting club nights, writing blogs, working in local radio, etc. The experience gained from these activities provides a platform for a career in events and demonstrates the passion required to make things happen.

Nathalie Paarlberg 2006, Theology

Role:

I am the Director of Turquoise Mountain in Myanmar, an international NGO working to revive historic neighbourhoods and traditional crafts in order to create jobs, skills, and a renewed sense of pride in areas where culture is under threat.

I lead teams to restore and rebuild historic buildings in Yangon; train local artisans, builders, and craft businesses; document traditions at risk of disappearing; offer arts education; and support the social and economic development of artisan communities. I also manage a social business, including a jewellery workshop and textiles atelier, and work with artisans to develop and launch collections for international buyers in order to bring back income to the communities we work with. We have about 40 staff members across the country and are currently working with over 400 artisans.

Where has life taken you since you left Oriel? I’ve always had a passion for religion and art. I wrote my Bachelor’s thesis at Oriel on religious art in the Middle Ages, which led me to do a Masters in Art History at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. Upon graduation, I was set to pursue further studies at University College London, but instead I ended up in investment banking at Credit Suisse. This decision was not so much fuelled by an interest in finance as it was by the sudden death of my youngest brother.

I craved structure and discipline, worried that the prospect of sitting alone in a library would not do the job of getting me out of bed in the morning, and impulsively decided that joining the graduate programme at Credit Suisse was the way forward.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I found banking wasn’t for me, and after two and a half years I handed in my resignation and went back to the drawing board. As a Theology undergraduate at Oriel, I had chosen the comparative religion track and studied Hinduism at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. Studying the Subcontinent and its religious traditions and culture was something I had absolutely loved. I enrolled in a research degree in South Asian Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands and spent the next years learning Hindi, Urdu, and Persian and working in South Asia on various cultural projects including: cataloguing the art collection of a 14th century monastery in the Indian Himalaya; to being the Political and Cultural Affairs Officer at the Embassy of the Netherlands in Bangladesh; and eventually working as a researcher in Afghanistan. I left South Asia in 2017 to train as a diplomat with the Dutch foreign service, but when a vacancy came up with Turquoise Mountain in Afghanistan I couldn’t help but think this was my dream job. The organisation uniquely combined my interests in culture, development, and conflict – and in a region

of the world I’d grown to love so deeply. I was the organisation’s Deputy Director in Kabul for two years, during which time I got married and had a son. As his first birthday approached, we decided it was time to move to more child-friendly environments, and I was able to take up the position of Country Director with Turquoise Mountain in Myanmar at the end of 2019 – of course we didn’t quite see the military coup coming… I now live in Yangon with my husband, son, and baby daughter.

What do you most enjoy about working in the cultural heritage sector?

I live and work in places that dominate the news for all the wrong reasons – war, military coups, humanitarian crises – but which have an incredibly rich cultural heritage that not many people get to explore. One doesn’t tend to spend a summer holiday in Afghanistan, and sadly Myanmar also seems, once again, out of bounds. And yet these countries have so much to offer: Afghanistan was once at the heart of the Silk Road, a crossroads of culture and religion. Think of the Buddhas of Bamiyan or Herat, a great city of medieval Islamic learning and architecture where you can still visit a fort that was first established by Alexander the Great. Myanmar, with its 135-plus ethnic groups, has an unsurpassed variety of textile traditions, and Yangon is one of the last cities in Asia with its historic core still largely intact. All of this is simply heaven for a culture buff like me.

I also enjoy the hands-on and varied aspects of my role, which can encompass everything from leading the renovation of a historic building to designing a contemporary arts curriculum or building a business in high-end handmade jewellery.

What motivates you?

I truly believe that cultural heritage can be an engine for positive impact, whether

that’s creating more liveable cities, providing artisans with meaningful jobs and income, increasing business opportunities for women, or fostering dialogue and solidarity.

In addition, the stories of war and poverty we read about in the papers are mostly true, but they do not make up the whole truth. I get to see another side and, crucially, I get to tell another story. I see it as part of my mission to provide a platform for local stories of beauty and creativity, to paint a picture of Myanmar and Afghanistan that has more depth, colour, and variation.

What is one of the greatest challenges in your job?

Navigating the security landscape is one of the more challenging aspects of my job, whether that’s partnering with carpet weavers in a Taliban-controlled area or dealing with an artisan community that from one day to the next has become displaced. I remember one night in Kabul when we were woken up by heavy gunfire – we immediately grabbed our baby and headed for the safe room. It turned out Afghanistan had beaten Pakistan in cricket, a cause for celebratory gunfire if there ever was one! In Myanmar, the banking system has completely collapsed after the coup, so we’re back to handcarrying cash across the border for all our operations. I’ve become very adept at crisis management throughout the years.

Who or what inspired you during your time at Oriel?

My time at Oriel was a very formative period.

I felt thoroughly at home, but also very grateful for the opportunity to be there. There were not many Dutch people taking their undergraduate degree at Oxford – I think it was me and one other girl – so being there never felt self-evident.

I loved the intellectual rigour. Coming from a country where there is a much more

vocational approach to choosing the subject of your university degree, it was wonderful to be surrounded by classicists, theologians, and philosophers – and in such an evocative and inspiring setting. Being at Oriel helped me believe in myself and pursue a career in my chosen industry, even if that meant starting back at square one.

What has been your greatest personal/ professional triumph?

The last two years have been tough. The coup plummeted a country already struggling with the pandemic into crisis. The political, economic, and cultural landscape changed. I’m proud of how we can use culture to support people when they need it the most. Culture really is a basic need; it is vital to a sense of community, identity, and belonging – especially in worlds that are turned upside down due to conflict.

On a more personal level, one of my triumphs has been to refuse to settle for work that made me unhappy. I was pretty jaded when working in finance, but chose to find my spark again. Another has been to persevere. I had applied for a position with Turquoise Mountain earlier, which I did not get, but I kept on badgering them until finally – about two years later – they did offer me a job: one that has filled me with a sense of purpose, and that I deeply enjoy doing.

What is the one piece of ‘life’ advice you would give to a current student?

In terms of career advice: you can always reinvent yourself and your career. I would not say this to everyone, because I know there are so many people who do not have this luxury and liberty, but carrying a degree from Oxford University is a privilege and allows you so much more flexibility than many others have.

What advice would you give for a student wishing to join your industry?

Find your niche. The cultural sector is very broad – from auction houses to museum work, to cultural heritage protection, and so on. Working for a non-governmental organisation like I do is very different from running a fine art gallery in terms of day-today activities, but also in terms of the type of people the work attracts. So, find out what fits you.

The stories of war and poverty we read about in the papers are mostly true, but they do not make up the whole truth. I get to see another side and, crucially, I get to tell another story.

Ruth Angus 2012, DPhil Astrophysics

Role:

Assistant Curator and Professor of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History

Where has life taken you since you left Oriel? After graduating in 2016, I moved to New York City and have been here ever since. I did a two-year stint as an astronomy postdoc at Columbia University before becoming a curator at the Natural History Museum here in NYC. I still conduct astronomy research and lead a research lab at the Museum, but I also work on ways to communicate science to our visitors, online audiences, and NYCbased communities through our education programmes.

On the research side of things, I specialise in measuring the ages of stars via their rotation rates. I use those stellar ages to study the evolution of extrasolar planets. To conduct my research, I use billions of images of millions of stars taken with NASA and ESA space telescopes. I lead a research lab of students and postdocs who are based at the Museum, at Columbia University, and at the nearby Flatiron Institute.

As a curator, part of my job is to find creative ways to disseminate scientific research to the public. I spend a lot of time thinking about how to engage public audiences via storytelling, both in traditional museum settings – via exhibitions and planetarium shows – but also in other types of media: books, plays, and films, for example.

What do you most enjoy about working in this sector?

Working in a museum is a privilege that I don’t take for granted. Science museums are special places that combine science and creativity in a unique way. They also serve as a reminder that science is for everyone, not just for a few people sitting in their ivory towers.

What motivates you?

I’d like to say that I’m motivated by discovering new things about the universe, and that does motivate me sometimes, but I’m more often motivated by building towards a big picture. For example, building a research programme that solves fundamental problems in astrophysics, building a community of interactive scientists and storytellers in New York City, or building a cohesive research lab where everyone collaborates seamlessly and supports each other (I know, eyeroll).

What has been one of the greatest challenges in your job?

Managing my time. I’m always juggling my responsibilities in research, teaching, and outreach.

How did you get into the sector?

I became a museum curator through a conventional academic route: I got my PhD, did a postdoc, then got a faculty position (albeit at a museum instead of a university).

My job is a lot like being a regular academic, with less teaching and more outreach.

Who or what inspired you during your time at Oriel?

The astrophysics professors and department at Oxford. I didn’t intend to stay in astronomy when I started my DPhil – I was planning to move into the arts sector after graduating, but I got hooked. I owe a lot of that to my DPhil supervisor, Suzanne Aigrain.

What has been your greatest personal/ professional triumph?

Getting a DPhil in astrophysics is definitely up there.

What is the one piece of ‘life’ advice you would give to a current student?

I never knew with conviction what I wanted to do, but I always kept my career options broad and that served me well. Astrophysics might seem a little niche, but a PhD in a STEM field probably opens more doors than it closes and keeps lots of possible future paths open. My advice would be, if you don’t know exactly what you want to do (and as long as you’re doing something you love), try to make decisions that keep as many future options open whenever possible. Maybe you’ll end up with a dream job you never expected.

What advice would you give for a student wishing to join your industry?

Working in a museum is great fun and there are lots of routes into the industry. At the American Museum of Natural History, there are a few options, and I would imagine many of them would apply to other museums too.

With a PhD in science, you could become a curator or a collections specialist (someone who manages the specimens). If you have a teaching background, you could work on our Education Team. If you have experience in event planning, you could work in our Public Programs Team. We also have teams of people who work on fundraising, marketing, data visualisation, and graphic design; people who create content for our social media and YouTube channels; an operations team that keeps the museum running; and many more roles. Museums often have volunteer programmes, so if you’re interested in working at a museum you could always see if you like the environment by volunteering. Our volunteer jobs run the gamut from sorting fossils to leading tours.

©

Julianne

Dalcanton

AN ORIELENSIS, A SUFFRAGIST, AND THE OLD VIC

T homas Hughes (1822–1896), author of Tom Brown’s Schooldays, is one of Oriel’s better-known alumni, but one part of his story has remained untold: his commercial partnership with an entrepreneurial Victorian business woman, Emma Cons (1838–1912).

When Hughes graduated from Oxford in 1844, he exchanged one bar for another and took rooms in Lincoln’s Inn. The chaplain of Lincoln’s Inn at that time was Frederick Denison (F.D.) Maurice. In 1848, Denison founded the Christian Socialist Movement, which sought to address social inequality through political and economic action and was sympathetic to the co-operative movement. Hughes was one of the early joiners, editing its Journal of Association in 1852.

Hughes was also one of the founders of the Working Men’s College in Bloomsbury, which opened in 1854. Among its lecturers was John Ruskin. Ruskin was friends with a young Octavia Hill – who later co-founded the National Trust – through her mother, Caroline, who was running the Ladies Guild, a co-operative crafts workshop. Emma Cons was a student of Caroline’s mother and the same age as Octavia, which is how the two became friends. In 1856, Ruskin helped Octavia get a job at the Working Men’s College.

Emma is sometimes described as a philanthropist, creating an impression that she came from money. In fact, her family was poor, and Emma was working from an early age in skilled craft jobs. She even spent two years round the corner from Oriel in the early 1860s, working on the

restoration of the stained glass in Merton College’s chapel. In 1864, when Ruskin gave Octavia Hill the funding to start a social housing scheme in Marylebone, Octavia employed Emma as one of her rent collectors. It is probably through Octavia’s network that Emma met Thomas Hughes.

Seeing men drinking the family rent money made Emma an advocate of the temperance movement. In 1875, she joined forces with Hughes, now President of the Working Men’s College (where he was unsuccessfully pushing for women to be admitted). They opened a coffee shop, ‘The Cat and Comfort’, in Covent Garden. Its aim was to offer a pleasant, teetotal alternative to the many pubs in the area. Emma set up a working girls’ club on the same premises, with a piano and a library as well as job counselling services and a crèche for working mothers.

Lizzie Broadbent (1989, Classics) is in the middle of a project telling the forgotten stories of Victorian business women, and has found an intriguing Oriel connection.

Thomas Hughes

AN

Soon after this, at the end of 1876, Emma founded her first social enterprise, the Coffee Taverns Company. She was 38 and now had access to an influential network. Joining Hughes as one of the directors was Ernest Hart, editor of the British Medical Journal and brother-in-law of the social reformer Henrietta Barnett. The first Duke of Westminster was one of the vice-presidents and the bankers were Coutts and Co.

The company’s first venue, at 344 Edgware Road, was open from 5am to midnight Monday to Saturday and 1pm to 11pm on Sundays. It sold cocoa, tea, and coffee and advertised that ‘working men and women can bring their own dinners and eat them in this establishment’. By the end of 1877, the company had two more coffee taverns near Billingsgate fish market and in Seven Dials, Covent Garden. Some decried the ‘low and seemingly ridiculous price at which the articles are sold’, but the profit margin was 7% and the chain quickly expanded.

In April 1878, the company issued its second Annual Report. Its first three sites now had 4,000 customers a day and were selling 26,500 drinks, 1,646 loaves of bread, 384 pounds of beef and ham, and 30 dozen eggs every week. The company also issued a pamphlet, Practical Hints for the Management

of Coffee Taverns, to help other entrepreneurs. The report made ‘special mention of the invaluable service which Miss Cons has rendered’. William Gladstone was added to the list of vice-presidents and Florence Nightingale wrote asking to buy shares. By March 1879, the chain had expanded to 16 venues, adding nine more the following year, at which point it was serving 30,000 customers daily.

This model, an enterprise with a clear social purpose that generated enough income to sustain itself and attract high-profile supporters, was one Emma broadly tried to follow from then on, with varying degrees of success. Next was a housing scheme, the South London Dwellings Company, on the corner of Lambeth Road and Kennington Road, which she formed in 1879. It was as a director of this business that Emma became the first woman to address the Institute of Directors in 1908.

Emma lived on site and so got to know the local neighbourhood, including the nearby Royal Victoria Theatre, which at that point was empty. She wanted to transform it into a multi-purpose venue run on temperance lines, which would make the arts accessible to all. She used money from the coffee business and raised additional funds

from, among others, the composer Arthur Sullivan, who would have been flush with his profits from The Pirates of Penzance. 1880 saw the formation of the Coffee Music Halls Company, and in October it was granted a music and dancing licence.

Key to putting the company on a firmer financial footing and maintaining its longterm viability was purchasing the freehold, which became a condition of Charity Commission funding. The Coffee Taverns Company was wound up in 1885 to release funds. By then Hughes had moved up to Chester to work as a county court judge, and their working relationship had ended.

After a prolonged period of campaigning and fundraising efforts, the Royal Victoria Hall Foundation was finally established. It was made up of a coalition of partners, including the University of London, the Royal Academy of Music, and the Borough Road Polytechnic Institute, all united in the purpose of making the Old Vic a place for ‘the benefit and enjoyment of the people forever’. Emma died in 1912, but the Old Vic lives on and, with it, a small piece of Oriel history.

Emma Cons is sometimes described as a philanthropist, creating an impression that she came from money. In fact, her family was poor, and Emma was working from an early age in skilled craft jobs.

Emma Cons

British Library

AN

SUFFRAGIST,

THE FUTURE OF AVIATION

Mike Brown (1977, Geography) has 35 years of experience in the airport industry in strategy development, master planning, forecasting, and economic impact studies. He recently released his new book, Strategic Airport Planning, and discusses the sector for us here.

Airport planning has never been more challenging, nor more important. The trajectory of recovery from the pandemic is uncertain in terms of timing and velocity. Furthermore, climate change is a very real concern, particularly given the extreme weather events many places in the world have endured this year. Then there are the changes in patterns of living and working, and even social attitudes to air travel, that the pandemic has wrought.

International passenger volumes in 2021 were 80% below 2019 levels and improving; then Omicron hit.

Virtual meetings have established themselves as ‘good enough’ substitutes for a lot of business travel, and celebrating Grandma’s birthday on Zoom has proven strangely satisfactory too.

Bill Gates is predicting that over 50% of business travel is going away, while Stephen Poloz, former Governor of the Bank of Canada, remarked recently that business travel could well be confined to the ‘ceremonial’ – for example, signing the final deal, while the hard yards of negotiating will be done virtually.

Making some assumptions about the diversion of business travel to virtual, there could be a permanent loss of between 5% and 10% of an airport’s total passenger volumes over the next five years. This will flow through to air carriers’ business models, which have relied on the front of the bus to subsidise the back and to support their hub and spoke networks.

Meanwhile, your cocktail party conversation about flying to Tuscany for the weekend to sample wine in an artisan vineyard may increasingly fall on disapproving ears.

Airports will have to come back from the pandemic cleaner, greener, leaner, and keener:

• Cleaner, as in Covid-19 sanitation and spacing protocols will outlast the pandemic;

• Greener, in that concern about the impact of air travel on climate change has not gone away, plus the collective sense of achievement in conquering Covid-19 will spill over into renewed vigour in tackling emissions;

• Leaner, in that margins will be under pressure because customers expect continuous improvement in processes – ‘virtual’ represents real competition, and airports’ pricing power will ebb; and

• Keener, in terms of being even more actively engaged in the community’s economic and social wellbeing due to the fissures the pandemic has exposed.

It’s said that those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it. The dominant mode of intercity transportation at the time of the last pandemic, the railway, never recovered after the Spanish Flu. A combination of new technology in the form of the automobile and other railway industry failings in innovation, reliability, and customer service saw the number of railway trips per capita decline in the interwar years. While I am not predicting this fate for aviation postCovid-19, it does illustrate that a mode of transport cannot take its market position for granted.

LEAVING A LEGACY

Like you, I spent a formative (or indeed transformative) part of my life at Oriel and, despite the passing of time, have kept a special interest in College and its successive generations.

In the late 1990s, the Trustees of the Oriel Development Trust recruited Robin Harland (1951, English), who had been in charge of Development at The National Trust, as a Trustee to lead on legacies. This led to the formation of the Adam de Brome Society to honour our Founder’s vision by making provision for College in our wills.

The Society provides a wonderful way for College to thank legators, and the annual Adam de Brome lunch in Hall gives members the opportunity to return to College each year and celebrate Oriel’s many achievements. It is a delightful way for us who are pledging a bequest for many decades into the future to have our cake now and eat it too!

If you have already made provision for Oriel and would like to inform College, or if you would like to know more about making a gift by will, please contact Marco Zhang, Director of Development at marco.zhang@oriel.ox.ac.uk We are always looking to welcome new members, and find new ways to celebrate this incredible institution together.

John Cook (1965, History) Adam de Brome Fellow

Professor Peter Stoward’s Bequest

Like many academics, my father’s work was more than a job – it defined much of who he was. And Oriel was the crucible in which that began. Coming from a humble background, his Foundation Scholarship to King Edward’s School, Birmingham enabled him to win an Open Scholarship to Oriel. Here, his first degree in Chemistry and subsequent PhD provided the foundation for his life’s work in the then fledgling field of Histochemistry.

From a very early age I was aware that he had gone to Oriel. His feathers ties were his default choice for much of his working life (apart from the occasional appearance of a Royal Microscopical Society one), and a painting of the geraniums on the steps always hung in his study. But it was only when I was going through his papers in 2021, after his death at the age of 86, that I discovered he had always intended that Oriel had a place

in the various versions of his will dating back to the early 1960s; either as the backstop beneficiary once his family had been appropriately provided for or, as in the final version of his will, made once I was an adult, as recipient of half of his pecuniary estate. Oriel had provided the foundation for his life, and will use his financial bequest to add to his scientific legacy through the support it provides to the next generation.

My own time at Oxford was spent at Pembroke, but I’m enjoying my new connection with Oriel through its Development Office and look forward to following the research his money funds at the College.

Helena Smalman-Smith, daughter of the late Professor Peter Stoward (1954, Chemistry)

Peter Stoward punting with the future Mrs Stoward in 1963.

ALUMNI NEWS

Honorary Fellowships Awarded to John Cook and Geoffrey Austin

John Cook (1965, Modern History) and Geoffrey Austin (1983, Chemistry) have been elected to Honorary Fellowships in recognition of their considerable service to Oriel over the years.

John Cook studied Modern History at Oriel (he was also the Rugby Captain for Oriel in 1967) and has long been a supporter of the College. He has given his time generously, serving as Chair of the College’s Investment Advisory Committee from 2012 until 2020. In 2019, John was appointed as the College’s Adam de Brome Fellow, presiding over Oriel’s legacy giving society.

Geoffrey Austin studied Chemistry at Oriel and is the current Chair of the Oriel Alumni Advisory Committee. He was previously President of the Oriel Society from 2012 to 2019 and, from 2006 until 2011 (when it combined with the College), Chairman of the Oriel College Development Trust. Geoffrey was also a member of the Independent Commission of Inquiry into issues associated with memorials to Cecil Rhodes, which completed its report in May 2021.

Both John and Geoffrey have shown an extraordinary level of commitment to Oriel, generously giving their time and expertise to ensure that future generations of Orielenses can benefit from the educational experience that they themselves received. We are delighted that they have accepted these Honorary Fellowships in recognition of their contributions.

Nicola Willey Awarded an MBE

Nicola Willey (1993, Geography) was awarded an MBE in the 2022

New Year Honours List for Services to UK Science and Innovation Overseas. Nicola was recognised for her work as the Regional Director for Science and Innovation, based at the British High Commission in Singapore. She was responsible for promoting partnerships on science and innovation between the UK and countries in the ASEAN region, supporting development and contributing to UK science strengths. Nicola and her family have now returned to the UK and she has taken up a new position at the FCDO in London.

Ian Robinson Awarded OBE

Dr Ian Robinson (1973, Physics) was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2021 for his services to Measurement Science. Ian works at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and has made major contributions to the area of dc and low-frequency electrical and electro-mechanical measurements.

His current focus is leading a team to build the next-generation Kibble balance that can be used by laboratories across the globe and contribute to a stable, robust worldwide mass scale.

John Cook

Geoffrey Austin

John Cairns

Claire Toogood Appointed Queen’s Counsel

Orielensis Claire Toogood (1991, Law), member of the Oriel Advisory Alumni Committee, was successful in her application for Silk and was appointed Queen’s Counsel at a ceremony in Westminster Hall on 21 March. Claire specialises in clinical negligence and product liability.

Harry Hortyn Given Queen’s Award for Enterprise

Harry Hortyn (2005, PPE) and Robert Phipps co-founded Oxford Summer Courses in 2010 to share the Trinity term experience with international students. In 2016 they founded a charity, Universify Education, to work with UK students from disadvantaged backgrounds to improve their aspirations and attainment and help them feel at home in highly selective university environments like Oxford. Ten years on, Harry and Robert were recently invited back to College to receive the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade 2020, presented by the Rt. Hon. Sir Tony Baldry, DL.

Harry would like to thank the College for the support provided to help him launch the business in 2010, hosted at JMH, and for hosting the award ceremony!

James Thomson Appointed Master of the Worshipful Company of Grocers

James Thomson (1985, Geology) has been appointed Master of the Worshipful Company of Grocers and his year will run to July 2023. The Grocers’ Company ranks second in the order of precedence of the City Livery companies. The Grocers support education, philanthropy and City civic.

James was re-elected in March as a Common Councillor for the City of London where his principal role is Chair of the City of London Police Authority. He has also recently been appointed to the board of the Serious Fraud Office.

Edmund Tarleton Receives Royal Academy Senior Research Fellowship

Professor Edmund Tarleton (2004, MSc and DPhil in Materials) has recently been awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering Senior Research Fellowship for an ambitious energy production programme. ‘Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production’ (STEP) aims to deliver a prototype fusion reactor in collaboration with the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) that could pave the way for commercial reactors and potentially provide unlimited energy.

Masoud Shah Photography

John

Cairns

Oriel

Artificial Intelligence: Law and Regulation

Professor Suzanne Rab (1990, Law) has just had chapters published in a new book, Artificial Intelligence: Law and Regulation. The book provides an extensive overview and analysis of the law and regulation as it applies to the technology and uses of Artificial Intelligence (AI). It examines the human and ethical concerns associated with the technology, the history of AI and AI in commercial contexts. Suzanne wrote the chapters on competition law and telecoms.

Suzanne combines a full-time practice as a barrister and mediator at Serle Court Chambers with academic positions at both the University of Oxford and Brunel University London.

Hugo Spowers Awarded MBE in Jubilee Honours

Hugo Spowers (1978, Engineering Science) was awarded an MBE for services to technology in Her Majesty The Queen’s Jubilee Honours. Hugo is the chief engineer and founder of Riversimple, which is developing hydrogen fuel cell cars as a zero emission alternative that is not dependent on critical materials or significant behaviour change. The purpose of the company is to eliminate the environmental impact of personal transport.

Sebastian Grigg and Guy Mansfield Elected to the House of Lords as Hereditary Peers

Both Sebastian Grigg (1984, Modern History), now the 4th Lord Altrincham, and Guy Mansfield QC (1968, Jurisprudence), now Lord Sandhurst, were elected as hereditary peers to the House of Lords in 2021.

The Altrincham title was given to Edward Grigg in 1945 but disclaimed for life by the writer and journalist John Grigg in 1963, events that were recreated in Season 2, Episode 5 of The Crown. Sebastian was a very senior banker who advised the government after the crash of 2008.

During his time at Oriel, Guy was JCR President and coxed the 1st VIII. He went on to become the Chairman of the Bar Council and Deputy High Court Judge. After a successful hereditary peers’ byelection, he made his maiden speech on the Second Reading of the Police, Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill on 14 September 2021. More recently, both Guy and Sebastian spoke about education in the 2022 Schools Bill.

Special Distinction to Reverend Michael Garnett

Reverend Michael Garnett (1955, Theology) has lived in in Peru since 1967. During the recent bicentenary celebrations in Cajamarca (the city where the Inca Empire fell in 1532) commemorating the political independence of Peru from Spain in 1821, Michael was awarded a special distinction by the Municipality. The award recognises his intellectual, artistic and spiritual contribution to the wellbeing of the city.

Sebastian Grigg

Guy Mansfield

ORIEL WEDDING BELLS

Rosie Shuttleworth (2010, Modern Languages) married fellow Orielensis Cameron Griffiths (2010, Medicine) in Oriel Chapel on 7 August 2021. The ceremony was followed by drinks in Second Quad, dinner in Hall, and an evening in the bar. ‘It was great to be back in Oriel for such a happy occasion!’ said Rosie.

Orielenses Alasdair George Cameron (2012, Music) and Johanna Maria Hockmann (2011, Music) were married in College on 25 July 2021. The ceremony was held in the Chapel, led by Revd Dr Robert Wainwright, and was made particularly special by the musical contributions of Fellow in Music Dr David Maw and his choice of choir.

Mark Johnson (2011, Medicine and Former MCR President, 2015–16) and Naomi Bullivant (2011, Classics) were married at the Bodleian Library on 15 August 2021, followed by a reception at Oriel.

Rebecca Leigh (2013, Classics and Modern Languages) and Jamie Wallis (2015, Synthetic Biology) were married on Saturday 28 May in Sandford-on-Thames. There was a great Oriel turnout at the wedding.

Matthew Pattimore Photography

BOOK CORNER

Understanding Corruption

Orielenses Professor Robert Barrington (1984, Modern History) and Professor Elizabeth David-Barrett (1992, PPE) have co-authored a book, along with Sam Power and Daniel Hough, entitled Understanding Corruption. The book tells the story of how corruption happens in practice, illustrated through detailed case studies that span the globe and encompassing bribery, political corruption, kleptocracy, and corrupt capital. In March, Orielenses were able to hear Robert and Liz discuss the topic of ‘Understanding Corruption’ in more detail, when they were joined by fellow panellists Dominic Martin (1983, Classics) and Emeritus Fellow Mark Philp (1983, DPhil Politics) for an online panel discussion event.

The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind

Andrew O’Shaughnessy (1982, Modern History) has published his book, The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind: Thomas Jefferson’s Idea of a University. Already renowned as a statesman, Thomas Jefferson in his retirement from government turned his attention to the founding of an institution of higher learning, the University of Virginia. The book offers a twin biography of Jefferson in retirement and of the University of Virginia in its earliest years. Just as Jefferson’s proclamation that ‘all men are created equal’ was tainted by the ongoing institution of slavery, however, so was his university. O’Shaughnessy addresses this tragic conflict in Jefferson’s conception of the university and society, showing how Jefferson’s loftier aspirations for the university were not fully realised.

Boccaccio, Chaucer, and Stories for an

Uncertain World

Professor Robert W. Hanning (1958, English Language and Literature) has published his monograph, Boccaccio, Chaucer, and Stories for an Uncertain World: Agency in the Decameron and the Canterbury Tales, through the Oxford University Press. This is a comparative study of late medieval Europe’s two greatest story collections, based in turn on two premises: first, that a society’s storytelling provides a crucial index of its self-definition and its aspirations; and next, that the stories in the Decameron and the Canterbury Tales explore the many paths towards personal agency.

Design and Order

Nigel C. Lewis (1969, Engineering Science and Economics) has published Design and Order –Perceptual Experience of Built Form – Principles in the Planning and Making of Place (WileyBlackwell). This book offers an integrated understanding of both the principles and the perception of the design of built environments and public spaces. It outlines the fundamental characteristics that are evident in the creation of built form and illustrates how they determine the experience of resultant places. Nigel is a designer initially trained at Arup, and he has been responsible for and involved in the planning, design, development, and project management of major buildings and infrastructure projects worldwide.

Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945

Mel Hecker (1972, Social Anthrophology) has published Volume IV of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945 with Indiana University Press. Based on the research of more than 30 scholars from several countries and edited by a team of Museum historians, this volume significantly adds to the historiography of Nazi Germany’s armed forces, the Wehrmacht. It documents the extent and complexity of the Wehrmacht camp system and this agency’s widespread involvement in war crimes and mass murder. Mel is the Publications Officer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Contributing Editor to the volume.

Just Drink the Bleach

Tudor Lomas (1968, PPE) has published his book, Just Drink the Bleach: Surviving One Year of Covid, Lockdown and False News. It is a narrative of the lived experience of the pandemic and the shifting story of surviving the virus, lockdowns, and the destabilising torrent of false news. It’s a day-today running journal of what happened, what we got wrong, and what it means to us now.

ORIELENSIA

Wildlord

Philip Womack (2000, Classics and English) has released his latest novel, Wildlord. It is a fantasy for teenagers set on a Suffolk farm, and it explores love, time, and history. Philip has also written other books, such as How to Teach Classics to Your Dog and The Arrow of Apollo. He has recently welcomed two daughters, Xenia and Amalia, sisters for Arthur.

The Way Workbook

Vernon Sankey (1968, Modern Languages) has released his latest book The Way Workbook. This book, co-written with Ms K. Lockwood, is a selfhelp course for learning comprehensively to manage stress and live a happier, more contented life. The workbook, endorsed by the Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, comprises eight explanatory modules, 18 exercises, several quizzes, and over 90 quotes from many of the greatest minds.

Oriel’s Library has a collection know as ‘Orielensia’ which features books by and about former students. If you have a book you would like to submit, please email library@oriel.ox.ac.uk

YOUR VIEWS

In every issue we like to feature a few photographs from student days gone by. This issue features photographs from Orielensis Fiona Lovatt (1991, Classics and Modern Languages), who is also a member of our Oriel Women’s Network Steering Group.

If you have photos of your time here that you would like to see included in a future edition, do let us know.

A series of photos from Eights Week, 1992, showing the boathouses on the final day; Oriel Men’s 1st Eight bumping back to Head of the River on the same day (what a moment! You can see from the pinholes, it made it onto the pinboard over my desk); and the customary celebration in First Quad afterwards.

I don’t think I ever really appreciated the beauty of my surroundings until Oriel life was almost over. This shot was taken in the week after Finals, Trinity term, 1995.

In the bar. Where else?!?! With the much-loved and much-missed Jake Summers (1991, Biology).

Finishing Finals!