Durham First issue 35

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:52 Page 1

Issue 32 Spring/Summer 2012

Issue 34

Summer 2013

Issue 35

Winter 2014

DF

DF

DF

DURHAM ROWERS COME BACK TO DURHAM

From 1815 to the 2012 Olympics

What’s on this summer and autumn

KLUTE GOES UPMARKET Today’s students outraged

THE MAN WHO JOINED THE SUPREMES

CAN YOU TELL IF YOUR CHILD IS GAY?

A profile of Lord Justice Hughes

Sex research centre opens

THE ADVENTURES OF A ‘FRESHMONNE’ FROM THE 1840s Cartoons of student life Durham First – the magazine for alumni and friends of Durham University

Durham First – the magazine for alumni and friends of Durham University

Winter 2013

Durham First

DF

Issue 33

Issue 31 Autumn/Winter 2011

Issue 29 Autum/Winter 2010 The magazine for alumni and friends of Durham University

ON WINNING GOLD

DF

Sophie Hosking THE MAN WHO SOLD GOLDMAN SACHS A profile of Lucas van Praag

A WITNESS TO THE RISE OF AL-QAEDA Book extract: Storm Warning

ROBERT SWAN CAMPAIGNING FOR OUR SURVIVAL ON THIS PLANET

THE NEW CHANCELLOR

PLUS… COLLEGES: What did yours mean to you?

Your college ethos FUNDING CUTS: Challenges and opportunities

CAN DURHAM BE A BRAND?

By Saatchi & Saatchi

‘YOU DO NOT KNOW THE FACTS OF LIFE’ A fresher’s memoir of 1952 St Mary’s

Issue 30 Spring/Summer 2011

Durham First – the magazine for alumni and friends of Durham University

Durham First Careers: Durham alumni on their career paths

p05

Durham University Strategy 2010–2020

Changes afoot at Palace Green Library

p10

p13

Durham First – the magazine for alumni and friends of Durham University

DF Durham First John Steel QC on life at the Bar, flying and his passion for Durham

p11

Raising the game: a successful sporting year for Team Durham

Durham space researchers the best in Europe

p7

Durham First Dianne Hayter on her political career

Kabul University – winning the fight to educate women

Durham Law School – Then and Now

p07

p09

p11

p17

Issue 28 Spring/Summer 2010

Issue 25 Autumn 2008

The magazine for alumni and friends of Durham University

The magazine for alumni and friends of Durham University

Climbing High: one alumna’s journey which led to the Moving Mountains Project p15

Issue 27 Autumn/Winter 2009

Durham Dates: Alumni reveal all about meeting ‘The One’ at Durham. p03

ON FIRE! Career tips from the top: Lorraine Heggessey, the First Lady of British Media. p03

International City of Light MY IOWA CHILDHOOD Bill Bryson’s farewell

AFTER THE WALL Private equity in Eastern Europe

PLANET DURHAM Are you on the map?

CHINA’S RICH LIST From the man who makes it

THE FIRST BA IN AFRICA? The Durham college in Sierra Leone Durham First – the magazine for alumni and friends of Durham University

IN THIS ISSUE: YOUR PULL-OUT-AND-KEEP 2014 ALUMNI EVENTS CALENDAR I DURHAM VS OXBRIDGE – THE ARCHITECTURAL BATTLE I HOW THE BUDDHA’S BIRTHPLACE WAS FOUND I THE LAST DURHAM FIRST Durham First – the magazine for alumni and friends of Durham University

The magazine for alumni and friends of Durham University

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:52 Page 2

Issue 30 Spring/Summer 2011

02

DF

ON FIRE! International City of Light MY IOWA CHILDHOOD Bill Bryson’s farewell

AFTER THE WALL Private equity in Eastern Europe

PLANET DURHAM Are you on the map?

CHINA’S RICH LIST From the man who makes it

THE FIRST BA IN AFRICA? The Durham college in Sierra Leone Durham First – the magazine for alumni and friends of Durham University

1

2

3

4

5

THIS FIRST SHALL BE LAST This is the last edition of Durham First. It has been around for almost 20 years in various formats, so in this final issue we thought we would reflect on how much it has changed.

1: Kingsgate – Issue 1 (1991-94)

4: Durham First – Issue 19 (2005-11)

Kingsgate was the University’s first modern alumni magazine. It was created in 1991 with the purpose of showing our alumni that Durham was a thriving, contemporary university after the eighties boom in higher education.

A more compact format was introduced to coincide with the creation of a new University logo, and this award-winning iteration had the look and feel of a consumer-publishing magazine, with strong full-page images and an emphasis on the visual appeal of short-form content reflecting the wide range of activity across a modern, global university.

2: Durham First – Issue 1 (1995-98) The origin of the name Durham First is lost in the mists of time, but these years documented the importance of both higher-education policy and the North East in the DNA of the emerging Blair government, with many Labour politicians appearing in the magazine. Issue 2 featured an interview with the then shadow cabinet policy-maker Mo Mowlam MP (BA Anthropology, Trevs, 1968-71).

3: Durham First – Issue 8 (1998-2004) This was the classic, large-format edition with generous, beautifully designed spreads and arresting full-cover images. Although its design had a retro 1960s feel (and was almost certainly very expensive to post), the magazine covered research developments in nano-technology, genetic engineering and wearable technology, with the editorial line anticipating many of our current concerns.

5: Durham First – Issue 30 (2011-14) DF, the final incarnation, a combination of full-bleed covers and portrait photography that complemented an editorially-led magazine with cover stories such as ‘You do not know the facts of life’, ‘Can you tell if your child is gay?’ and ‘Klute goes upmarket: Today’s students outraged’.

Next summer, we will be launching a new alumni magazine. Turn to the back cover for a sneak preview.

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:52 Page 3

03

Vice-Chancellor’s Questions Q: Why do alumni matter?

A: As Durham graduates, we are all members of the Durham alumni community: a lifelong network of friends, colleagues and contacts around the world who help and support each other in their careers and their lives. This remarkable University and its staff, students and alumni have helped shape all our lives. We also all have the chance to gain by engaging and giving back, ensuring our University’s reputation keeps growing and helping give the next generation of alumni, our current students, the same opportunities we have had.

Take for example, Steve Gregory, former senior man of Grey College who won this year’s Dunelmensis award (see page 22).

His commitment of time and energy in establishing the ‘Business Angels’

From the Guest Editor Welcome to the final issue of Durham First.

It is both a privilege and a slight sadness to oversee the last edition of Durham First.

As you will see on the facing page, the magazine is almost 20 years old now and

mentoring programme at Grey and then many other colleges has had so much impact on our current students’ future employability. But Steve will be the first to admit that he has benefitted himself from immersing himself so fully in being an alumnus and in helping to ensure individual and collective success in our growing community of Durham graduates around the world. We all gain from everyone’s success.

Q: In the world of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), in which vast numbers of students study remotely, how will a small university that concentrates on its unique collegiate environment compete?

A: There is no competition. Residential universities like Durham, especially when collegiate, offer something very different from MOOCs. Of course, MOOCs have

has been through various changes in that time. I have spent several happy hours over the last few weeks going through all the previous editions and marvelling at how much (and how little) has changed. I wonder how many of you have done the same – looked through your own collection of Durham alumni magazines. Because, however good the University is at keeping its archives, it is you who remembers the University best. The students come and go; the staff move on or retire; but the alumni community is the body that holds and cherishes the memory of the University.

So I hope you enjoy our mini-retrospective, and that the magazine reminds you of your time here. Do write in and let me know.

their place in mass learning – but they cannot provide the sort of rounded education and opportunities for gaining transferable skills that Durham provides – an education which is so much more than simple learning and the reason why Durham alumni are so successful in careers and life. It is the diverse community of students and staff from different backgrounds and disciplines, living and studying together, and learning more from each other than they ever could by themselves which makes a residential university experience, away from home, the best form of education that any young person could have.

This will always be valued.

Professor Chris Higgins Vice-Chancellor and Warden

But your alumni office is not only here to let you know about what is happening at the University. We are also here to create opportunities for you to come back and visit, to meet old friends and make new ones. So we are excited to be able to include a pull-out calendar of some of the events and reunions that will be happening in 2014, including for the first time a special week of coordinated events taking place in June. Tear it out and put it on your fridge, and we hope to see you at one of our events this year.

Josephine Francis Managing Editor

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:52 Page 4

Shaped by the past, creating the future

Research Fellowship at Harvard made possible by a Legacy Gift “This has been an amazing opportunity and I am so pleased that I did it.”

As a Durham PhD student at the end of her first year of doctoral studies, Nussaibah Younis was given an opportunity that only the best in her field can attain. Harvard Kennedy School’s prestigious Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs offered her an International Security Program Research Fellowship to continue her work studying the relationship between state weakness and foreign-policy-making in Iraq. However, this once-in-a-lifetime offer came with a high price-tag and Nussaibah had just a few months to find funding for her studies in Massachusetts, where the cost of living far exceeds that of Durham.

Thanks to a generous legacy gift received in the spring of 2012, which enabled the creation of the Norman Richardson Research Fund, Ustinov College was able to offer the support she needed.

The Fund assists postgraduate students with the costs of visiting libraries, research centres and established fieldwork sites as part of their studies. This thoughtful provision made it possible for Nussaibah to take up the opportunity and, along with other sources of funding, has enabled her to give her undivided attention to her studies rather than taking part-time work.

She described this support and the opportunity to take up the fellowship as “really liberating”.

“I feel lucky to have been able to get this fellowship. I am really grateful for the support that the Norman Richardson Fund has given me.”

Nussaibah still benefits from the guidance of her Durham PhD supervisor, Professor John Williams, whom she describes as a “fantastic supervisor”. He has been wholly supportive of the move and regularly provides remote supervision.

Not only has the legacy gift given Nussaibah the opportunity for wider academic collaboration but it has also provided media training which is already helping her to establish her name and her career. She has been interviewed on BBC Newsnight and Al Jazeera about Iraqi politics and she has published two articles in The New York Times.

Nussaibah’s time at Harvard is just one example of Durham University’s integration into the global academic community.

The University works in partnership with the public sector, industry and communities around the world and its inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural research influences local, national and international agendas.

Would you consider putting a gift to Durham in your will to help students like Nussaibah to excel?

Gifts of all sizes are much appreciated. There are many areas of the University which will benefit, with increased gifts to these areas creating a richer student experience and more opportunities for students to take their studies further.

Examples include your college or department, postgraduate scholarships and the University Library. Legacies really are essential to Durham’s advancement and they place alumni at the forefront of the University’s future development.

When the time is right to make your decision, please contact Louise McLaren, Legacies Officer, on 0191 334 6313 or email louise.mclaren@durham.ac.uk

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:52 Page 5

05

06

08

16

20

FEATURES 02 This First shall be Last Two decades of Durham First

06 The Origins of Thinking and Feeling What prenatal movement can tell us about development in the womb

08 How the Buddha’s Birthplace was Found The implications of discovering the oldest Buddhist shrine

12

26

REGULARS 11 What Lies Beneath Us New campus sculpture unveiled

12 Working Together to Tackle Financial Exclusion Community-university research partnership

16 Durham vs Oxbridge – The Architectural Battle The effect of landscape on cityscape

20 Unique – Humans and Language How and why language is unique to humans

03 VCQs Questions to the Vice-Chancellor

03 From the Guest Editor Josephine Francis

14 Pull-out-and-Keep Alumni Calendar 23 Experience Durham Student achievement in sport, music, the arts and volunteering

26 News in Brief Alumni and University news

EDITOR David Williams Alumni Relations Manager

IMAGES The Origins of Thinking and Feeling (pages 6-7): Dr Nadja Reissland

GUEST EDITOR Josephine Francis

How the Buddha’s Birthplace was Found (pages 8-10): Ira Block/National Geographic

DEPUTY EDITOR Tim Guinan Alumni Relations Officer

What Lies Beneath Us (page 11): Paul Sidney Working Together to Tackle Financial Exclusion (pages 12-13): Susan Hyatt Durham vs Oxbridge – The Architectural Battle (pages 16-18): Kingsgate Bridge image © Architectural Press Why is Trevs Hexagonal (pages 19): Aerial image © 2013 Google and Getmapping Plc

DESIGN Crombie www.crombiecreative.com PRINT Elanders www.elanders.com CONTACT US Alumni enquiries/Letters to the Editor Development and Alumni Relations Durham University, The Palatine Centre, Stockton Road, Durham DH1 3LE T: +44 (0) 191 334 6305 F: +44 (0) 191 334 6073 E: alumni.office@durham.ac.uk durham.editor@durham.ac.uk W: www.dunelm.org.uk © Durham University 2014

Opinions expressed are those of individual writers. Requests for reproducing material should be made to the Alumni Relations Office, where permission will usually be given.

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:52 Page 6

06

THE ORIGINS OF THINKING AND FEELING Dr Nadja Reissland explains her research into what prenatal movement patterns can tell us about fetal development.

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:52 Page 7

07

touch the perioral region. In contrast, at 36 weeks they move their mouth before they touch that sensitive area of their face.

It is widely accepted that the health of a fetus is bound up with maternal well being. This makes sense, given that the fetus shares the mother’s environment both socially and physiologically for nine months. During this time, the fetus will hear the voices the mother hears, share in her joys and stresses and even the taste of food the mother eats.

More controversially, this also means that maternal addictions to tobacco or alcohol will also impact on the fetus. If a mother is stressed, not well nourished or addicted to tobacco or alcohol, her fetus will be adversely affected. Research has found that fetuses of smokers are often born prematurely, and have a delayed response to the mother’s voice. This in turn can affect the vital bonding process between mother and baby that occurs early on and is essential for the healthy development of the child. A delayed response to the voice for example, has an effect on how well a child learns language and is able to read. It is not just environmental factors that influence the development of the fetus, maternal prenatal stress not only results in higher rates of preterm delivery, but also influences fetal brain growth.

I recently led a number of studies that explored new ways of analysing fetal movement patterns. This analysis is vital as it will help us to discover more about how healthy fetuses develop and how prepared the fetus is for postnatal life in the family.

In collaboration with the James Cook University Hospital and with statistical help from Professor Brian Francis of Lancaster University, I analysed patterns of fetal movements as the fetuses develop from 24 weeks to 36 weeks gestation. This period is especially vital because such movement patterns reflect the maturation of the fetal brain.

The observation of motor development is particularly interesting because in order to grow up healthily fetuses need to be active.

For example, fetal limb movements observed in the womb facilitate the development of the motor skills necessary for walking.

Breathing movements observed in the womb are necessary for lungs to develop normally.

The development of complex facial movements in the womb is essential for postnatal functions involving facial muscles, such as the infant sucking movement required for feeding from breast or bottle, jaw and tongue movements necessary for speech and co-ordinated movements of facial muscles needed for facial expressions.

Fig. 1

‘...it is vital that the neonate produces facial expressions such as the smile-or crygestalt which the parent can recognise and relate to...’

In sum, progressive, simple to complex, differentiated patterns of general movement represent a developmental trajectory of neuro-behavioural maturation, essential for postnatal function and serving as markers for fetal well-being.

In this context we have documented a number of such movements. For example, in order to show expressions of distress or pain fetuses must be able to combine a number of facial movements as illustrated in the picture of a 32-week-old fetus showing a pain/distress expression (see Fig. 1). It must be emphasised that fetuses were not in pain in this study, but were making various expressions such as ‘smiling’, sticking out their tongue or ‘yawning’.

However, fetuses not only grimace, they also yawn, which is distinct from just opening their mouth widely because they control the dynamics of the movement by opening their mouth for a long time before quickly closing it as adults would do when yawning.

Another ability which develops from 24 to 36 weeks gestation is that fetuses learn to anticipate actions. They do not only react to touch but expect when a touch might occur as indicated by the fact that they open their mouth before a finger touches the mouth area. This does not happen randomly; rather fetuses at 24 weeks are more often reacting with a mouth movement when they

In preparation for life outside the womb, fetuses appear innately programmed through evolutionary adaptation to react to faces at birth. The initial face representation of newborn babies may be formed in utero through the experience of the fetus feeling his or her own facial movements. In fact we found that, when observing touch, fetuses at 24 weeks would significantly more often touch the upper part or side of their face; however as they mature we observed a significant increase in the proportion of touching the mouth or perioral region of the face.

This feedback in utero may contribute to the predisposition to be attracted to faces and hence to the phenomenon that newborn babies will imitate facial movements from birth, as I found when analysing facial movements of newborn babies just minutes old. Attraction to faces leads to the neonates’ preference of their mothers’ face – crucial in establishing early bonding with the mother.

Bonding is a two-way process, in which both mother and child form an attachment, thus it is vital that the neonate produces facial expressions such as the smile- or cry-gestalt which the parent can recognise and relate to. Fetal development ensures a social pre-adaptation that enhances the newborn infant’s survival in the out-of-uterus environment.

Research on fetal movements therefore has the potential to benefit prenatal healthcare.

Understanding the relationship between the normal development of fetal facial movements, facial expression and oral-motor function will open vital new opportunities to promote infant health. Such studies are foundational to developing interventions to manage delayed progression in fetal facial movement by changing maternal life style (eg smoking cessation, reduction in stress) and supporting bonding through parents visualising the face of their unborn child.

Dr Nadja Reissland is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology and Fellow of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing.

For more information about Durham University research, visit www.breakthrough.durham.ac.uk

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:52 Page 8

08

Thai monks inside the Maya Devi Temple meditate over the remains of the oldest Buddhist shrine in the world at Lumbini, Nepal.

HOW THE BUDDHA’S BIRTHPLACE WAS FOUND How Professor Robin Coningham helped to find the oldest Buddhist shrine in the world, leading to a new understanding of when the Buddha lived. Durham First investigates.

Tradition says the Buddha was born in the garden of Lumbini.

It describes how the pregnant Queen of Sakyas, Maya Devi, travelled from her husband’s capital at Kapilavastu to visit her parents who ruled the neighbouring kingdom of Devadaha. Halting midway at the garden of Lumbini, Maya Devi grasped the branch of an overhanging tree and gave birth to Gautama Siddhartha, the one who would later become known as the Buddha or enlightened one.

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:52 Page 9

09

Pilgrims worship in the shrine at Lumbini, Nepal.

Years later, when the Buddha was approaching his Mahaparinirvana or ‘great passing away’ at the age of 80, he advised his followers that there were four great places of pilgrimage associated with his life. These were Lumbini, where he was born; Bodh Gaya, where he achieved enlightenment; Sarnath, where he first taught the Dharma; and Kushinagara, where he achieved his Mahaparinirvana.

From that time onwards, Lumbini became an important site for early Buddhists, but it was transformed into a place of imperial pilgrimage by Asoka in 249 BC. Asoka was ruler of a South Asian empire which stretched from Afghanistan and Pakistan in the west to Bangladesh in the east; and later pilgrims recorded that Asoka erected a stone pillar at the site and built a shrine.

It is also clear that soon the Lumbini’s appeal stretched beyond South Asia, as evidenced by the pilgrimage of numerous Chinese monks, the two most famous being Faxian in the fifth century AD and Xuanzang in the seventh century AD. Asoka’s pillar remained a key monument for over fifteen hundred years as attested by the fourteenth century AD graffiti of Prince Ripu Malla. However, during the medieval period the location of the shrine was lost and the site, reduced to a mound of ruins, was covered by jungle.

In 1896, archaeologists from British India and the Government of Nepal discovered a stone pillar protruding from a tree-covered mound in the dense jungles. On clearing the lower covered portion of the pillar of rubble and vegetation, they identified an inscription written in the Early Brahmi

script of the third century BC. Recording the personal visit of Asoka to Lumbini, the inscription identified the site as the birthplace of Gautama Buddha. Indeed, it recorded that Asoka constructed a monument at the site as well as reducing the taxes for the neighbouring village of Lumbini gama. The mound was cleared and archaeologists noticed that the exposed topographical features bore a very close resemblance to the descriptions of ancient Lumbini as recorded by the visiting Chinese pilgrims.

The site of the Buddha’s birth thus rediscovered, over a century of archaeological research has gradually exposed Lumbini’s architectural and cultural history and development – including the excavation of Asoka’s own brick temple.

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:52 Page 10

10

However, the Government of Nepal and UNESCO noted that increasing numbers of pilgrims, now almost one million a year, had led to significant challenges associated with the protection and management of the site.

These ranged from the deterioration of key monuments to the need to identify the sub-surface archaeological deposits so that appropriate placing of pilgrim facilities could be made. As a result, the ‘Strengthening the Conservation and Management of Lumbini, the Birthplace of Lord Buddha’ Project was established in 2010 by UNESCO and the Government of Nepal with the generous financial support of UNESCO’s JapaneseFunds-in-Trust and a grant from National Geographic’s Global Exploration Fund.

‘With radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence dates of the sixth century BC, the team has successfully identified and recorded the oldest Buddhist shrine in the world.’

The project’s archaeological component is directed by Kosh Prasad Acharya, Executive Director of the Pashupati Area Development Trust and former Director-General of the Department of Archaeology, Nepal and by Robin Coningham, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Archaeology at Durham University.

Involving undergraduate and postgraduate students and staff from Durham, Tribhuvan and Stirling Universities, the Lumbini Development Trust and the Department of Archaeology, Government of Nepal, the team was given unique permission to excavate trenches within the Temple of the Buddha’s Birth, a living Buddhist shrine. Working alongside the presence of thousands of monks, nuns and pilgrims from across the Buddhist world, they have helped the Government of Nepal and UNESCO to map and date the many archaeological features in and around the shrine. In addition, they have provided the managers and planners with a detailed risk map, identifying which areas can be further used to improve the pilgrim experience and which areas should be protected from development.

In addition to providing these guidelines for future improvements at the site, the team was able to shed more light on the nature of Asoka’s temple within the modern Temple as well as exposing a unique sequence of brick and timber shrines beneath it. Reported in the journal Antiquity in December 2013 and the subject of a National Geographic documentary screened in January 2014, they recovered roof tiles from within Asoka’s shrine and, by analysing their distribution, concluded that the centre of the shrine must have been open. This hypothesis was corroborated by geo-archaeological analysis which indicated that the central part of the shrine had been open to the elements as well as the presence of substantial tree root channels. The team then successfully recorded the presence of two earlier shrines below Asoka’s – one in brick and the earliest in timber – that also shared the same open centre in their plan.

With radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence dates of the sixth century BC, the team has successfully identified and recorded the oldest Buddhist shrine in the world. By dating the shrine to the sixth century BC, the project has also contributed to a better understanding of the dates of the lifetime of Buddha himself. Before this research, dates for his birth ranged between the fourth to the seventh centuries BC due to differing monastic and academic traditions.

However, the new evidence suggests that as the shrine was already established in the middle of the sixth century BC, it is most likely that Buddha was born in the seventh century BC.

A second phase of funding has been awarded by the Japanese Government and the interdisciplinary team of planners, archaeologists and conservators led by Professor Yukio Nishimura of Tokyo University with Dr Constantino Meucci of the University of Rome and Professor Robin Coningham of Durham will now focus on the Greater Lumbini Area, which incorporates a number of ancient Buddhist sites, including Lumbini.

Their new work will ensure that the management, conservation and protection of these key sites will have been completed before the peak of the predicted rise in pilgrim numbers to the Buddhist sites of South Asia from South-East and East Asia.

With annual estimates of 22 million by 2020, the enhanced infrastructure will offer the opportunity for local financial benefit without the destruction of Nepal’s Buddhist heritage.

For more information about Durham University research, visit www.breakthrough.durham.ac.uk

2

3

1

4

1: Archaeologist Robin Coningham of Durham University emerges from the dig at the Lumbini Village Mound in Nepal, where a secular settlement contemporary with the earliest temple was discovered. 2: Thai monks meditate over the oldest Buddhist shrine. 3: Excavation in the Sacred Garden of Lumbini. 4: The Mayadevi Temple and surrounding archaeological remains in Lumbini.

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:52 Page 11

11

What Lies Beneath Us – New Campus Sculpture Unveiled “This is an amazing piece of work that makes the incredible diversity of the land in which we live clear and accessible to all.”

Mark Dowdall, Environment and Community Director at The Banks Group

Professor Iain Stewart unveils the sculpture.

A sculpture of the British Isles representing three billion years of the geological age of the Earth has been officially unveiled outside the Bill Bryson Library.

Artist John de Pauley.

In addition to adding beauty and interest to the campus, the sculpture is integral to the importance Durham University places on art, community, culture, education and science.

The study of Earth Sciences has had a major impact on the scientific, social and economic development of the UK. Geology was first recognised as a science here; coal and iron ore drove the Industrial Revolution: and the quest for oil and gas in the North Sea sparked the creation of the worldwide offshore exploration industry. Professor Arthur Holmes, one of the most eminent British earth scientists of the twentieth century, established the Durham University Earth Sciences Department that is now recognised as one of the best in the UK.

This new sculpture reflects the importance of Earth Sciences to the University, Durham and beyond. It has transformed the entrance to what was originally the science site, enhanced the environment for local residents and created another tourism attraction for the City. It is intended that the map will act as a valuable teaching resource for students, school children and local residents, and will become another feature on Durham’s tourist trail, especially for visitors walking to the University’s Oriental Museum and Botanic Gardens on nearby Elvet Hill. People are also invited to take part in a social media campaign to put themselves on the map – visitors can take their photographs standing on Durham City or on their home towns or cities. Photographs can then be tweeted to @durham_uni with hashtag #GeoSculpture.

Called What Lies Beneath Us, the sculpture is the first of its kind in the UK and has been created using over 100 pieces of rock from each region, which contain a wide variety of fossils and minerals such as pre-historic coral or the fossilised remains of 300million-year-old worms found in the rocks of southern Ireland. Dorset-based artist, John de Pauley created the sculpture after Dr Darren Gröcke from the Department of Earth Sciences won a University-wide competition to find new ideas for public artwork. The ‘map’ measures 10m x 6m, roughly the length and width of two large “The geosculpture is a fantastic initiative for raising public awareness about geology and what family cars, and is installed on the corner lies beneath our feet. Anything that encourages people to think about looking down is brilliant of Stockton Road and South Road. It was and it’s great to see Durham, which is so big in geosciences, looking at wider public outreach unveiled by Professor Iain Stewart, President and engagement in geology.” of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, Professor Iain Stewart, Fellow of the Geological Society of London who is best known as a presenter of popular and Professor of Geoscience Communication at the University of Plymouth BBC science programmes including Earth: The Power of the Planet, Rough Science and Horizon.

The project was generously funded by the Banks Community Fund, the charitable fund set up by Banks Group, and Salamander Energy.

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:52 Page 12

12

Working together to tackle financial exclusion: a community-university research partnership How can universities work with local communities to generate research that makes a difference locally as well as nationally and internationally? This is one of the challenges that Durham University’s Centre for Social Justice and Community action seeks to tackle. Professor Sarah Banks explains how.

Sarah Banks is Professor in the School of Applied Social Sciences and Co-director of the Centre for Social Justice and Community Action.

The Centre, formed in 2009, undertakes participatory action research that contributes to social justice. Participatory action research involves people affected by the issues to be studied taking an active role in designing, planning and carrying out research.

One of the first community partners to work with the Centre was an organisation called Thrive Teesside. Greg Brown, a community organiser with Thrive, asked if the University might help with research Thrive was doing with financially excluded households. People who are financially excluded lack key financial products such as bank accounts, insurance, pensions and have little or no savings. Therefore they are unable to access mainstream credit. People on low incomes are most likely to be financially excluded. Yet they often need credit to get by and therefore turn to alternative lenders, generally high-cost credit sources, as well as borrowing from family.

Students and staff from Applied Social Sciences, Anthropology and Medicine worked with Thrive on several small projects in Stockton and Thornaby. One of the issues emerging was high levels of household debt to loan companies (doorstep lenders, rent-to-own companies, catalogues, payday

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:52 Page 13

13

lenders) that charged very high interest rates (sometimes with Annual Percentage Rates of over 4000%). Building on this work, the Centre, Thrive and Church Action on Poverty made a successful bid to the Northern Rock Foundation for a two-year action research project called ‘Debt on Teesside: Pathways to Financial Inclusion’.

The project ran from May 2011 to July 2013. It was an action research project in that we not only gathered information about household indebtedness through interviews and workshops with 24 households, but also used this information to take action to work for positive change at household and policy level. We developed a mentoring scheme to support households in managing their money and move away from high cost credit. We also planned several campaigns to raise awareness of some of the bad practices of loan companies and push for better regulation.

Since we started the project, the subject of high cost credit – especially the practices of payday loan companies such as Wonga – has become a hot topic.

Now we have published the findings and recommendations we are working to publicise our results and encourage their use by debt advice practitioners and policy-makers.

One of our recommendations is for much greater government regulation of high cost credit. Our research found that high cost credit is readily available and frequently offered with no checks on what other loans a borrower might have or whether they can afford repayments. For example, one of our participants, Claire (not her real name) was a single mother with four children, living on benefits. She had over 30 different loans amounting to £15,000. She was paying £270 a week to a number of doorstep loan companies.

If Claire’s recent lenders had conducted proper affordability checks, and were only allowed to lend if she could afford repayments, then they would not have given her loans. Some might argue that this would cause problems for Claire, who might need short-term credit to buy essentials and tide her family over lean periods.

But Claire herself said, after working with her mentor, that she would never borrow money again from high cost lenders.

Other sources of loans and support are needed for people like Claire, who may have a poor credit record and no savings.

Another recommendation from the research is to develop the services offered by credit unions and community development finance institutions, so they can offer loans to people like Claire at much lower rates than high cost credit companies, but at

higher rates than usually charged by credit unions to allow for greater levels of default and higher costs of collection of repayments.

We also recommend that more communitybased financial capability and mentoring programmes are developed to enable people to take control over their finances.

Our partners, Thrive and Church Action on Poverty, have been involved with others in developing a Charter calling on the Financial Conduct Authority to introduce and enforce effective regulation of payday lenders and other high cost credit. Some of the participants in the Debt on Teesside project starred in a short film showing the irresponsible lending practices of high cost credit companies. This film is being used as part of a campaign to regulate high cost credit (www.church-poverty.org.uk /drowningindebt). Roy (not his real name) starred in the film. His story is told below.

Action research with community partners is complex and time-consuming, but it is a very effective way for the University to contribute towards tackling some of social and economic problems on our doorstep.

If you want to join the Centre’s mailing list or contribute to the appeal for funding to support its work, see www.durham.ac.uk/beacon/socialjustice

ROY’S STORY At the time of the initial research interview Roy was isolated, going out only to sign on, look for work and get his benefits. He had a high level of historic debt and was struggling to get by: “I get money one day and it is usually gone the next day”.

Roy valued the practical support offered by the mentoring scheme. It provided information on benefit entitlements, how to reduce debt repayments and access local food banks. This helped Roy get through some difficult times. In a later interview he commented: “It was good that the mentor came to sit in my house to talk to me. I got to know him and he actually listened to me. Before coming on the project, I was in so much debt and I just spent my money on something else.

Now I think about paying my bills. It’s him [the mentor] that has seemed to put a block in my mind – I don’t just jump in now when I’m spending money”. information about Durham Roy has become a volunteer with Thrive and For hasmore spoken at several meetings.

University Research, He says his confidence is growing: “I got in to Thrive and it wasvisit: like: ‘hang on, breakthrough.durham.ac.uk I am doing something now’.”

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:52 Page 14

14

Your Pull-out-and-Keep 2014 Durham Relive your college days at one of our reunion evenings or residential weekends College Reunions are coloured black on the calendar

Keep up-to-date with the latest thinking from Durham University Business School D8s are coloured blue on the calendar

Informal post-work networking events in major cities around the world After Hours are coloured red on the calendar

January

April

July

Friday 17th Hatfield Association Dinner, Durham

Wednesday 2nd D8 Singapore ‘Psychology, Limited Arbitrage and Financial Markets’

Friday 4th – Sunday 6th Hatfield Association AGM & Reunion Weekend, Hatfield College, Durham

Friday 4th – Sunday 6th The Grey Association Reunion, Durham

Thursday 31st London After Hours, Corney & Barrow, New Street Square

Wednesday 22nd – Saturday 25th DULOG present: Guys and Dolls, Durham Thursday 30th London After Hours (Venue TBC)

February Saturday 1st Hatfield Geography Reunion Dinner, Durham Wednesday 12th – Saturday 15th Durham Drama Festival, Durham Friday 14th – Sunday 16th Josephine Butler Reunion Weekend, Durham Thursday 20th Chancellor’s Reception, Toronto Friday 21st Stephenson in London Thursday 27th London After Hours, The Parcel Yard, Kings Cross Station

March Thursday 13th The London Chorus (with Sir Tom Allen, alumni soloists and Durham University Music Society), St John’s Smith Square, London Tuesday 25th D8 Geneva ‘Supply Chain and Operations’ Thursday 27th London After Hours, The Counting House, Moorgate, Monday 31st D8 Kuala Lumpur ‘Psychology, Limited Arbitrage and Financial Markets’

This is only a selection of the events we are holding this year.

To see more, go to www.dunelm.org.uk

Thursday 10th D8 Beijing ‘Toxic Management’ Saturday 12th D8 Shanghai ‘Toxic Management’ Thursday 24th London After Hours, The Argyle, Farringdon

August Thursday 28th London After Hours, The Fire Station, Waterloo

September May Wednesday 21st Castle in London Thursday 29th London After Hours (Venue TBC) Saturday 31st May – Sunday 8th June Dunelm Days

June Saturday 31st May – Sunday 8th June Dunelm Days Sunday 8th Butler Day Reunion, Josephine Butler, Durham Thursday 12th D8 London ‘Crisis Management: Northern Rock case study’

Friday 12th – Sunday 14th Castle Society Annual Reunion, Durham Castle, Durham Friday 19th – Saturday 21st Van Mildert Association Reunion Weekend, Van Mildert College, Durham Thursday 25th London After Hours, The Fellow, Kings Cross

October Thursday 30th London After Hours, The Folly Bar, Monument

November Thursday 27th London After Hours, (Venue TBC)

Saturday 14th Recent Graduates’ Castle Day Reunion, Durham

December

Thursday 26th Dunelm Society Reception, House of Lords, London

Thursday 18th London After Hours, The Counting House, Moorgate

London After Hours, Camino, Kings Cross Saturday 28th – Sunday 29th Trevelyan College JCR Reunion Weekend for Recent Graduates, Durham

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:53 Page 15

15

University Alumni Events Calendar‌ High-prestige gatherings and dinners, often featuring the University’s Chancellor or ViceChancellor Durham Hallmarks are coloured purple on the calendar

A special week of coordinated alumni events around the world Dunelm Days are coloured olive on the calendar

January M

T

6 13 20 27

7 14 21 28

W 1 8 15 22 29

T 2 9 16 23 30

F 3 10 17 24 31

7 14 21 28

T 1 8 15 22 29

W 2 9 16 23 30

T 3 10 17 24

S 4 11 18 25

S 5 12 19 26

M

T

W

T

F

3 10 17 24

4 11 18 25

5 12 19 26

6 13 20 27

7 14 21 28

7 14 21 28

T 1 8 15 22 29

W 2 9 16 23 30

T 3 10 17 24 31

F 4 11 18 25

S 5 12 19 26

S 6 13 20 27

M

T

W

5 12 19 26

6 13 20 27

7 14 21 28

T

6 13 20 27

7 14 21 28

W 1 8 15 22 29

T 2 9 16 23 30

S 1 8 15 22

S 2 9 16 23

M

T

W

T

F

3 10 17 24 31

4 11 18 25

5 12 19 26

6 13 20 27

T 1 8 15 22 29

F 4 11 18 25

S 5 12 19 26

S 6 13 20 27

M

T

W

T

4 11 18 25

5 12 19 26

6 13 20 27

7 14 21 28

F 3 10 17 24 31

F 2 9 16 23 30

S 3 10 17 24 31

S 4 11 18 25

S 5 12 19 26

S 2 9 16 23 30

S

21 28

S 1 8 15 22 29

S 6 13 20 27

S 7 14 21 28

S 6 13 20 27

S 7 14 21 28

M

T

W

T

F

2 9 16 23 30

3 10 17 24

4 11 18 25

5 12 19 26

6 13 20 27

F 1 8 15 22 29

M

T

W

T

F

3 10 17 24

4 11 18 25

5 12 19 26

6 13 20 27

7 14 21 28

7 14

September S 2 9 16 23 30

S 3 10 17 24 31

M 1 8 15 22 29

T 2 9 16 23 30

November S 4 11 18 25

7 14 21 28

S 1 8 15 22 29

June

August

October M

March

May

July M

On Campus events are coloured grey on the calendar

February

April M

A selection of lectures, music and theatre events happening at the University

W 3 10 17 24

T 4 11 18 25

F 5 12 19 26

December S 1 8 15 22 29

S 2 9 16 23 30

M 1 8 15 22 29

T 2 9 16 23 30

W 3 10 17 24 31

T 4 11 18 25

F 5 12 19 26

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:53 Page 16

16

Durham vs Oxbridge – The Architectural Battle In an extract from his new book, Martin Roberts argues that the Durham City colleges evolved differently to those in Oxford and Cambridge because they sought to include their environment in their architecture, not to exclude it.

First take a broad valley surrounded by a ring of hills. Into that bowl, comes a river, from the south, wayward at first, meandering through its flood plain, but then more incisive where it swings round to cut a deep gorge through a rocky outcrop, before turning sharply back on itself, returning north to the valley, and leaving the rock it circled almost an island.

That rocky peninsula, girded by the Wear, was a natural defensible site. It was probably occupied by Iron Age people, who would have easily cut a ditch across the northern neck to complete their protection. More certainly we know a Saxon community settled in 995 AD and around St Cuthbert’s shrine, its church and monastery, a small town would have developed. Still later, the Normans built their new castle and cathedral, two of the greatest buildings in Europe, and in their shadow a medieval town grew up – a city in fact – but always a small one.

The scale of those two great buildings, rising into the sky, must have astonished the native Saxon population. The cathedral especially became the focus of all eyes, the hub around which the surrounding hills circled.

That view of the castle and cathedral, set above the river gorge, became Durham’s signature, unique but also paradoxical. For though both buildings dominate the skyline when seen from the river below, they disappear almost without trace beyond the bowl. To those approaching Durham, only the upper stage of the cathedral’s central tower rises above the horizon. Significantly that upper stage was an afterthought, added at the end of the fifteenth century, creating one of the tallest English cathedral towers, a tower created as a direct response to Durham’s setting within its landscape bowl.

Once built, that tower and, for a while, its western spires too, became a beacon for medieval pilgrims. When it first came into view they crossed themselves at Silent (‘Signing’) Bank, then dropped to lower ground and lost their beacon until just outside the City when, to great celebration, they climbed again up to Mountjoy, their journey finally at an end.

Centuries later, estate owners around Durham laid out their gardens and parks, each contriving to bring the cathedral tower, as an eyecatcher, into views from their gazebos, terraces and walks. That tradition was maintained in the twentieth century when new university colleges strove to capture and frame views of the peninsula from their buildings and courts.

This then is Durham viewed from fixed points in its wider landscape. But how is the City viewed at closer quarters, from within?

Specifically, how does moving through Durham reveal its buildings and landscape?

Let us take the natural landscape first.

Durham’s topography would excite the eye even without great buildings on it. The view of the peninsula rock and its encircling river would have impressed from any number of vantage points. But imagine the greater excitement of moving through that landscape, on foot or by boat. First the openness of the flood plain, then the confinement of the gorge, new views constantly revealed as the river swung around the rock, then out into the open valley again.

Over this complex natural landscape another complexity was laid – a medieval city. A pattern of different boroughs, interlinking streets and bridges, public and private spaces, large and small, all grew up around the great peninsular citadel of the castle and cathedral.

In all these new spaces, artificially defined by buildings, the same lessons that can be drawn from the natural environment hold good. What excites the senses in our great medieval cities is not just the intrinsic quality of the buildings, their massing, façades, decoration and sculpture, but the kinetic experience of moving between them all.

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:53 Page 17

17 Kingsgate Bridge and Dunelm House: the inseparable pair, whose designs were inspired by their dramatic siting on the edge of the river gorge.

© Architectural Press

Of course, this experience is not exclusively a medieval one. Renaissance cities evoke the same aesthetic responses by the articulation of spaces – expansive, constricted, anticipatory, revelatory. Those same ingredients are also central to the eighteenth-century English Landscape movement. Designers were concerned with how the observer, in motion, appreciates the landscape, how distant parkland buildings may be glimpsed, then lost, teasing the viewer until the building reappears fully framed in the parkland.

It is one thing to enjoy the landscape, quite another to know why we are enjoying it.

We like a piece of music, but unless we have a professional understanding of music, do we know why we like it? What combination of chords, what change of key, what change of tempo, is playing with our senses to evoke the right response? We need to ask why we enjoy walking through Durham – as complex a sensory experience as listening to any symphony.

An attempt to codify the urban experience was made in the 1960s and 1970s by Gordon Cullen, who invented a drawing notation for recording spatial change, and devised the term ‘serial vision’, for movement through a variety of different spaces. His work was celebrated in a book called Townscape, a word that has been taken up as defining the quality

of the urban environment. By implication, Cullen’s work attempted to define the moods induced by different spaces – tension in confinement, engagement with the anticipatory, joy at revelation, and serenity at expansive, composed spaces.

Those varying emotions can be appreciated in most English cities. But in those places where the natural topography is essentially flat, the pleasure in moving through them must rely wholly on the buildings to make the drama.

In York, Oxford and Cambridge, what thrills is not simply the richness of great architecture, but the way those buildings frame spaces, and how those enclosures are then perforated with gates and gaps to draw the observer onward from one space to another, from market place to alley to street to collegiate quad.

Durham, on the other hand, is different. It has those same spatial complexities but laid out on a natural landscape of astonishing variety.

The City is twice blessed.

To illustrate this, let us take two journeys on the peninsula, one north to south, one east to west, ignoring, if you can, the architectural merits of the buildings. Forget their rich façades full of history and detail, just think of them as solids that enclose voids. Focus on the spaces through which you move.

For the first walk, start in the Market Place, an irregular, enclosed public space, then move south, tightening into Fleshergate and on to Saddler Street, still narrow, winding and rising to the foot of Owengate, all the time hemmed in by buildings and, the gradient aside, you will be quite unaware of the city’s wider topography. From Owengate you rise up, still constricted, to the revelatory view of the castle and cathedral. Palace Green is yet another great space, also irregular and organic in its enclosing walls, but the space is more generous – more sky – in contrast to the Market Place where we began.

From Palace Green take an irreverent short cut across the nave of the cathedral, past another explosive view of the great church, then onwards into the cloisters – a world of private, ordered formality, four square, a place of quiet and contemplation. Finally tunnel south again under the medieval refectory, until you emerge in The College, a semi-private space, sequestered, irregular in plan – once busier, the outer court of the monastery where monks could meet the town.

This walk is as visually rewarding as any through a great historic city. But it is an almost totally urban experience, defined by buildings – walls and roofs. The natural landscape of Durham hardly plays any part.

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:53 Page 18

18

From Owengate, you rise up, still constricted, to the revelatory view of the castle and cathedral.

Now let us take another journey, beginning away from the peninsula, on New Elvet,

by Dunelm House. The river cannot easily be seen here, the path is deliberately angled, and it is only when you are squeezed between buildings, then thrown out onto Kingsgate Bridge, that the Wear gorge is revealed, with the full panorama of the cathedral’s Chapel of Nine Altars rising behind.

The space expands, north and south, along the river gorge, but as you reach land on the peninsula, you walk under a dark vault of trees, up onto the narrow cobbled Bow Lane, drawn on by the cathedral beckoning you ahead.

Across the Bailey and up Dun Cow Lane, walking along an unbalanced street with tidy vernacular to the right and the vast cathedral cliffs to the left. Once at the top, Palace Green bursts open, the castle and the full flank of the cathedral can be seen. But don’t stop, head on, across Palace Green to cut down the narrow vennel called Windy Gap, through the bedrock.

At the bottom the riverbank landscape spreads out in front of you. Turn right, down Broken Walls, under the tree canopy, to the water’s edge, then up the narrow steps cutting into Silver Street and out onto Framwellgate Bridge.

From here the classic view of the castle, cathedral and river gorge, perfectly closed by Prebends Bridge, can be fully appreciated.

This second route delivers the same spatial variety as our first walk did, but adds a new dimension – the topography – capturing the essence of Durham as a unique melding of the built and natural landscape.

‘It might seem logical to a young nineteenth-century university, keen to aspire to the establish standards of Oxford and Cambridge, to build its colleges in imitation of those universities, quad on quad, fully enclosed on all sides and almost monastic in their inward, exclusive, way. But look closely at Durham colleges and you will find they almost always fail to enclose…’

The University in Durham came late to the city, in 1832. Besides its considerable social and economic value to the town, its physical impact has been dramatic. It is the purpose of this book not only to show how it has conserved the buildings it inherited, but also how in its own buildings it has responded to the city’s unique topography.

Take, for example, its colleges. It might seem logical to a young nineteenth-century university, keen to aspire to the establish standards of Oxford and Cambridge, to build its colleges in imitation of those universities, quad on quad, fully enclosed on all sides and almost monastic in their inward, exclusive, way. But look closely at Durham colleges and you will find they almost always fail to enclose, or to put it more positively, they look out, inclusively to take in the natural landscape of woods and trees, or borrow views of the great peninsular monuments to complete their missing fourth sides. Durham colleges have evolved in a manner sensitive to the signature that defines the city.

That sensitivity is not exclusively collegiate.

The east-west walk described above began on Kingsgate Bridge, beside one of the university’s most dramatic and groundbreaking buildings, Dunelm House. The juxtaposition of Dunelm House and Kingsgate Bridge and the journey it invites – quintessentially ‘Durham’ as we have seen – has been described as ‘the greatest contribution modern architecture has made to the enjoyment of an English medieval city’.

This is an edited extract from The Buildings and Landscapes of Durham University by Martin Roberts. It is available from Durham University online shop – www.durham.ac.uk/shop

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:53 Page 19

19

Why is Trevs Hexagonal?

It is one of the great unsolved mysteries of Durham University architecture.

Why was College ‘Z’ given its distinctive honeycomb ground plan?

Author Martin Roberts lays out what is known.

Not remotely helpful. The minutes of the Durham University’s Building Committee in March 1964 are commendably succinct, but fail to convey any sense of an opinion. Asked to consider the new design for College ‘Z’ (later Trevelyan) they simply read “the study bedrooms were of irregular shapes”. Sadly, that is all we have of the early papers surrounding the evolution of the college design. When architect John Eastwick-Field of Stillman and Eastwick-Field, a London architectural practice, walked into Durham University with his first conceptual plans, he evidently walked out with them too. Or at least the best efforts of Susan Martin, author of the excellent and definitive college history, and my own modest efforts, failed to find them. So we are free to speculate.

Trevs was designed as a women’s college and there were concerns in the University about ensuring a safe environment for students.

A set of interlocking regular hexagons set in a continuous arc presents an impenetrable secure barrier in a very well-modelled and humane form. But the same could be said of square or rectangular rooms.

Hexagonal spaces have an advantage of enabling greater accessibility to adjacent hexagonal spaces than would be possible with a conventional orthogonal plan, six options instead of four. This configuration also avoids the creation of long straight corridors, so often the symbol of an institutionalised building. Constantly turning, short corridors – very much part of what Trevs is all about – adds visual interest, changing perspectives and human contact – those corridors are so narrow you have to acknowledge passersby.

But Eastwick-Field’s obsession with hexagons was put to an even more creative use, employing the shape to achieve quite different results – in most of the College, regular, small and intimate, but in the Dining Hall, irregular, large and monumental. The design concept may still defy explanation but add to it the use of a limited palette of building materials and details and what you get is one of the most powerful and architecturally-unified of Durham’s colleges.

Do you know why Trevs is hexagonal?

If you can help solve the mystery, please email us at durham.editor@durham.ac.uk

A set of interlocking regular hexagons set in a continuous arc presents an impenetrable secure barrier. barrier

© 2013 Google and Getmapping Plc

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:53 Page 20

20

Unique – Humans and Language Language is one of humanity’s most distinctive characteristics. No other species has it, and it is central to human life. Dr. Thom Scott-Phillips discusses how his multidisciplinary approach, which combines mathematics, evolutionary biology, cognitive psychology, and the philosophy of language, can explain where it comes from.

Humans are the only species with language: a set of meaningful units that we can combine together in various ways to express more-or-less any proposition we wish to. A few other species combine signals together in simple ways: honeybees, for example, signal the location of nectar with an elaborate dance, different parts of which communicate different aspects of the location: one part signifies direction, the other distance.

However, even this is rare, and no other communication system makes anything like as much use of combining signals together as human language does. Even the most simple of expressions, such as ‘the boy wanted the cake’, involves the combination of several meaningless sounds into meaningful units (not only the words ‘the’, ‘boy’, ‘want’ and ‘cake’, but also the ‘-ed’ which indicates the past tense), and the combination of these different units into a sentence. Humans are not the only species to use combinatorial communication, but we are the only species, as far as we know, that makes widespread use of it.

For many years, the reason why only humans make such widespread use of combinatorial communication has been something of a mystery. After all, combining signals together is efficient – it maximises the information in a signal, for the minimum amount of effort – and as many popularisers of science have explained, natural selection tends to filter out wasteful

behaviour. This suggests that combinatorial communication should be common in the natural world. But it isn’t. Why not?

One answer might be that it is cognitively demanding – that only species with a high degree of intelligence can process combinatorial signals. But this doesn’t seem right. For one thing, there is no reason to think the combining signals together should be cognitively demanding – computers can do it in just a couple of lines of code, after all. And I have data, which I’m just in the process of publishing, which shows that bacteria use combinatorial communication – so big brains certainly cannot explain why it is rare in nature.

In the last couple of years, I have developed a different explanation. The seeds of this research go back to my PhD, when I spent time thinking about what communication actually is. I did my undergraduate degree in Mathematics, and one thing I took away from that was the importance of getting your basic definitions clear, and working up from there. What I realised during my PhD was that, when stripped to its most basic parts, communication is ultimately about the co-dependence of two distinct behaviours, a signal and a response. Each explains why the other exists. One without the other is worthless, and this co-dependence is the heart of what communication is.

I have since developed some mathematical models of the origins of communication that make use of this insight. What these models show is that this co-dependence leads to a chicken-and-egg problem – which comes first: the signal or the response – and this problem places significant constraints on how new signals can emerge. My most recent model shows that this problem is particularly serious for combinatorial signals, to the extent that although such signals can emerge, they are not likely to be common. This explains both why combinatorial systems are rare in nature, and why where we do see them, they tend to be rather limited in scope, like in the bacteria system.

Of course, the elephant in the room is human language, which is so embarrassingly combinatorial that it cannot be treated simply as a freakish outlier to my findings. Why is it so different to other communication systems in this respect? What makes it such an exception to the predictions of my models? The answer lies in the cognitive mechanisms that make different types of communication possible.

Linguistic communication is about far more than the literal meaning of what is said.

Sarcasm, irony, metaphor and other figurative uses of language all require that we do not simply decode what others say, but instead that we recognise the speaker’s underlying intentions: what does she intend for me to understand?

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:53 Page 21

21

‘I tilt my coffee cup in an ostensive way. It is ostension that tells the waitress that I am trying to communicate with her, and which hence invites her to search for a common-sense meaning of my tilt.’

Several philosophers of language have pointed out that figurative uses of language are not special in this respect, and that in fact all linguistic communication involves the expression and recognition of intentions.

The literal meaning of what we say is always only ever one part of what we actually mean (albeit often a major part).

As such, linguistic communication depends not only on learning a language, but also on rich psychological abilities. In particular, it requires that we are able to reason about each other’s beliefs and intentions. And it is not just language where we do this: other forms of communication like pointing, and tilting a coffee cup in a particular, stylised way, so that the waitress refills it, also rely on the same sort of intentions, and the ability to express them and to recognise them in others. Humans are very good at this, but other species far less so. In fact, it is quite likely that no other species has the psychological abilities to engage in

this type of communication. The technical term is ostensive communication: I tilt my coffee cup in an ostensive way. It is ostension that tells the waitress that I am trying to communicate with her, and which hence invites her to search for a common-sense meaning of my tilt.

One thing that ostensive communication allows us to do is to create new signals at will.

Indeed, that is what I did when I tilted my coffee cup, and it is also what I do when I combine two words together in an original way (say, ‘book’ and ‘bike’). In doing so, I effectively announce to my audience that I intend for them to infer some meaning in this combination (perhaps, say, that the bike is made out of books), and in doing so I bypass the historical constraints that my mathematical models show apply to other types of communication system. The old chicken-and-egg problem no longer applies, because signals can be created from nothing, and understood immediately.

This, then, is why only humans make such rich use of combinatorial communication.

Most communication systems rely on machine-like encoding and decoding.

We communicate like this sometimes too, such as with body language and some other unconscious behaviours. But language and other forms of ostensive communication are based on much richer psychological abilities, which involve the expression and recognition of beliefs, intentions, and other mental states.

Only humans seem to have these abilities, and this can explain why only we have language.

Thom Scott-Phillips is an Addison Wheeler Fellow in the Department of Anthropology. www.thomscottphillips.wordpress.com Twitter: @tscottphillips

For more information about Durham University research, visit www.breakthrough.durham.ac.uk

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:53 Page 22

22

DUNELMENSIS AWARD 2013 – Steve Gregory The Dunelmensis award is the University’s most prestigious alumni award. It is given to acknowledge the personal, exemplary and sustained contributions of an alumnus or alumna in facilitating the progress of the University.

This year’s winner is Stephen Gregory (Theology, Grey, 1965-69). He wins the award for the work he has done creating and supporting the Business Angels programme.

Business Angels is a volunteer-run, career mentoring programme for students and alumni. Established first at Grey in 2005 with 30 mentors, the programme is now also run at other colleges, including Hatfield, Trevelyan, Josephine Butler and, most recently, John Snow and St Aidan’s, with 450 mentors involved at Grey alone.

Following a successful career in retail, Steve recognised the need to provide career advice for students and graduates of Grey and so developed the Business Angels forum to help alumni connect and offer career advice and direction. In doing so, he has dedicated countless hours to providing support and encouragement to many final-year students and recent graduates as they worked through one of the most challenging periods in life – moving out of university and establishing themselves on a path to their chosen career.

Steve did not however restrict the programme only to Grey. He was proactive in helping and supporting other colleges to establish their own versions of the programme, and indeed instigated the sharing of Grey mentors with Josephine Butler College until it got to the point where it had developed its own mentor base.

At the same time, Steve played and continues to play an active part in supporting Grey and the University in other ways. As well as being a regular donor, he is Secretary of Grey College Association and his tireless enthusiasm, measured advice and administrative efforts help to support Durham’s network of over 14,000 alumni on the professional development website LinkedIn. Steve received his award at the Dunelm Society Annual Dinner, held in London on 29 October 2013 (pictured left).

If you would like to nominate someone for the 2014 award or would like to volunteer to be a mentor, please email durham.editor@durham.ac.uk

Steve Gregory (left) with Professor Chris Higgins, Vice-Chancellor and Warden.

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:53 Page 23

23

Experience Durham Bringing Sport, Music, the Arts and Volunteering together Vicky Ridley, Experience Durham Project Manager

Summer may be a fading distant memory, but for Experience Durham it was a season for celebrations and show-stopping performances.

With ever greater ambition and many early successes, 2013-14 is already shaping up to be another spectacular year.

TEAM DURHAM – THE POWERHOUSE OF BRITISH UNIVERSITY SPORT Team Durham finished 2012-13 in recordbreaking style, holding on to our second place position in the British Universities and Colleges Sports (BUCS) league table with 3413 points. After winning five National BUCS Titles, we were ranked first amongst women’s team sports and second within men’s competition. Alongside this we ended the year ranked as the second best British University in league sport, second in cup competitions and fourth in individual sports.

Following the gold success of the women’s lightweight pair at Henley and the tenth consecutive win for Durham University Boat Club (DUBC) at the British Rowing Championships, members of DUBC went on to compete in the European University regatta.

Their phenomenal achievements included gold for the women’s coxless four with the men’s pair picking up bronze medals.

The men’s double finished fourth and the lightweights fifth. Huge congratulations go to former student, Will Fletcher (BA Sport, Health & Exercise, John Snow, 2010-13) on winning bronze in his first ever World Championship and in a pinnacle to their rowing achievements, Angus Groom (Natural Sciences, Hatfield, 2010-13), Barnie Stentiford (Chemistry, Hild & Bede, 2009-13), Francis Highton (Geography, Cuth’s, 2009-12) and Callum McBrierty (Engineering, John’s, 2010-13) were selected for the GB Under-23 team.

Left to right: Men’s Rugby; Women’s Futsal; Men’s Rowing; Women’s Rugby.

Durham University Rugby Club went undefeated throughout their tour of Australia, even training with the British Lions during one of their sessions. In cricket, Chris Jones (BA Economics, Grey, 2010-13) opened the batting for Somerset against the Australians and Cecily Scutt (Ancient History, Chad’s, 2010-13) was selected for the England Academy side. In a first for Durham, Sophie Lee (BSc Anthropology, St Mary’s, 2012-) and Megan Ellery (Sport, Collingwood, 2010-13) have been selected for the full England women’s rugby union squad.

The Palatinates have had a challenging but phenomenal start to the year, with one afternoon seeing eight out of the nine matches played against Loughborough being won by Durham. The Palatinates sat in first place in the BUCS league table having obtained almost half the points they achieved last year, but due to the dominance of Loughborough in athletics and swimming, it is unlikely we will hold onto the top spot.

We have our sights set on retaining our silver position for a third consecutive year and also expect to see a great deal of success for Durham outside of university competition.

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:53 Page 24

24

DURHAM STUDENT THEATRE TAKES TO THE GLOBAL STAGE Last summer saw Durham Student Theatre (DST) perform across three different continents. Closest to home, the streets of Edinburgh saw more than their fair share of Durham talent, as an unprecedented nine DST productions were taken up to the world-famous Edinburgh Festival, involving over 65 Durham students. We believe this to be the largest number of student groups from any university in the country, a testament to the growing strength of student theatre at Durham.

All DST shows received at least a four-star rating with three achieving the coveted fivestar review, including DULOG’s, The Pirates of Penzance, which was said to “gallop with a joy and energy that would have made Gilbert and Sullivan proud”. “Simply staged, beautifully written and outstandingly delivered,” were the elements that won FULLfuse Theatre’s Speak No Evil by a fivestar review, as did Island State, written by Durham alumnus Dom Everett-Riley (English Literature, Van Mildert, 2009-12). Our students are nor just talented performers and directors, Idgie Beau (BSc Anthropology, Van Mildert, 2011-) received a National Student Drama Festival commendation for writing for A Hundred Minus One Day, her first play.

Away from Edinburgh, Castle Theatre Company took to the road once again, performing the Shakespearean comedy, As you Like It. As usual, the UK tour provided an opportunity for students to perform in many of England’s most beautiful stately homes and gardens.

A USA leg of the tour had only been accomplished once before, but students participating in this year’s trip successfully organised performances across Connecticut and New York State, as well as teaching Shakespeare in schools to local children.

Castle Theatre Company hopes that this marks the start of continued tours to the USA. Building on the success of last year’s inaugural visit to Zambia, members of DST spent seven weeks in the southern African nation conducting drama workshops and facilitating performances with local children.

The first stop was Livingstone, where students worked closely with Sun International, an African hotel chain which supports local communities and schools. Mornings were spent running workshops in local schools, whilst other projects included visits to an elderly persons’ home and an orphanage.

Each evening Durham students performed in the Zambezi Sun hotel, gaining great acclaim for their professional performances. Simon Lynch (Geography, Hatfield, 2010-13) said, “The memories and experiences we’ve taken from Livingstone are simply unforgettable.”

Left to right: Speak No Evil; Orphans, and The Furies.

From Livingstone the group moved to Lusaka and worked with Barefeet Theatre during their annual festival. Durham students conducted workshops, working with children’s centres to support young people in producing a piece of drama that outlined local community issues.

Reflecting in the project Simon says, “We may not have been building schools or saving lives whilst in Zambia, but I do believe we made an overwhelmingly positive contribution. We have begun to formulate a blueprint for the trip’s future successes.”

Back in Durham, Michaelmas term has been as busy as ever with productions including The Glass Menagerie, Orphans, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Furies, Jerusalem and Durham’s very own promenade Murder Mystery.

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:53 Page 25

25

DURHAM UNIVERSITY MUSIC SOCIETY UNVEILS NEW AMBITIONS The summer term ended on a musical high, as 170 students performed alongside University Chancellor and renowned opera star Sir Thomas Allen in the magnificent surrounds of Durham Cathedral. During an evening that celebrated the best of British, Durham University Symphony Orchestra, Durham University Chamber Choir and numerous College Chapel Choirs filled the Cathedral with the sounds of Britten and Walton’s most famous pieces, before concluding with a rousing finale which saw Sir Thomas Allen, the Chamber Choir and Symphony Orchestra perform Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs.

‘We have an enormous programme planned for the year and we’re particularly excited to be building on our alumni links with conductors like Ralph Allwood and Paul Spicer.’

Under the leadership of Jessica Lawrence (BA Music, Collingwood, 2011-) and in partnership with this year’s sabbatical Music Development Officer, Jonathan Clinch (PhD Music, Castle, 2009-), Durham University Music Society (DUMS) has a renewed vigour and an ambitious programme of activities for the year. Following the Freshers’ Concert, which gave the newest members of the University an opportunity to perform in a relaxed environment, DUMS hosted its first masterclass with distinguished conductor and alumnus Ralph Allwood (Music, Van Mildert, 1969-72), followed by the inaugural DUMS Dinner, at which Ralph addressed an audience of over 180 students and staff.

Jessica Lawrence says, “We have an enormous programme planned for the year and we’re particularly excited to be building on our alumni links with conductors like Ralph Allwood and Paul Spicer. We’re also forging new links for the future with the Music department.”

Durham musicians will be on the road later in the year, when the DUMS Chorus will perform in London at St John’s Smith Square on 13 March 2014.

Alumni and friends are always welcome at any of our events and activities.

For more information, visit www.durham.ac.uk/experiencedurham

STUDENT VOLUNTEERS OFFER A HELPING HAND ACROSS THE NORTH EAST Last year over 880 Durham students participated in volunteer projects, contributing over 12,134 hours of support to local communities. From school-based activities supporting in-classroom activities and after-school clubs, to mentoring, sports coaching and running activity days and residential weeks for ‘at risk’ children and young carers, Durham students are committed to enhancing the opportunities for local young people. Volunteers too have visited the elderly, walked dogs, participated in conservation tasks, supported vital activities within the prison service and worked with organisations to support people suffering from mental health issues.

Team Durham Community has established a programme of highly successful school holiday camps, with over 400 children engaging in a wide variety of sports, and in arts and crafts activities over the summer, supported by Durham University students and staff. We hosted a group of student volunteers from Duke University (Durham, North Carolina) who worked alongside our students on the summer camps and with other organisations across the North East. Since the start of term, hundreds of students have registered and undertaken training to volunteer on over 40 different projects across the Durham and Queen’s Campus areas. New projects include students volunteering as a buddy for young adults with learning difficulties and an e-mentoring scheme for young people across the North East who are part of the Pre-16 Supported Progression Programme, which offers support to local young people to help them explore higher education opportunities.

Left to right: Sir Thomas Allen; Sir Thomas Allen with the Chamber Choir and Symphony Orchestra; Easter Holiday Camp and litter picking.

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:53 Page 26

26

News in Brief Human cells used to grow new hair could transform treatment for hair loss Researchers at Durham University and Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) have devised a new hair-restoration method that can generate human hair growth. The method is the first to use cloned human cells to induce hair growth, rather than redistributing hair from one part of the scalp to another. The researchers said their findings could significantly expand the use of hair transplantation to women with hair loss, who tend to have insufficient donor hair, as well as to men in the early stages of baldness.

The research could also be an important step in creating replacement skin with hair follicles to aid the recovery of burn patients, the scientists said.

First Dictionary of Hymnology for more than a Century is launched Academics at Durham and Bristol Universities have compiled the first Dictionary of Hymnology published in over 100 years. The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology has taken 12 years to write and features over 4,000 popular hymns, slave songs and traditional favourites.

The dictionary follows two previous editions published in 1892 and 1907. All previous attempts to update this edition have ended badly: between 1936 and 1971 three editors attempted the task, all dying before completion.

Professor Dick Watson, Emeritus Professor in the Department of English Studies, said: “This is the Everest of hymnology and one of the most sensational aspects of this is that we have done it and survived!”

Cascade of events caused explosion of animal life on Earth New research by Durham and Oxford Universities suggests a more holistic approach is required to discover the reasons behind the explosion of animal life on Earth that happened around 520 million years ago.

The new study has revealed that the so-called Cambrian Explosion was caused by a combination of factors – geological, geochemical and biological – and created the conditions for a wealth of weird and wonderful creatures such as the Pambdelurion (pictured).

Report co-author Professor David Harper, who is Professor of Palaeontology in the Department of Earth Sciences, said: “The Cambrian Explosion is one of the most important events in the history of life on our planet, establishing animals as the most visible part of the planet’s marine ecosystems.”

Top: Source of new hair. For the first time, researchers have been able to take human dermal papilla cells (those inside the base of human hair follicles) and use them to create new hairs. Image credit: Claire Higgins/Christiano Lab at Columbia University Medical Center. Middle: Church choir. Bottom: Model of a Pambdelurion.

Image credit: David Harper-Esben Horn-10 Tons.

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:53 Page 27

27

The Great Pacific Race 2014

The Queen’s Birthday Honours 2013

As this issue of Durham First goes to print, Elsa Hammond (MA English Literary Studies, Hatfield, 2009-10) is preparing to participate in the Great Pacific Race 2014, a boat race across the Pacific Ocean from California to Hawaii in which she is the only solo female competitor from the UK. With this venture, Elsa is also aiming to raise awareness of plastic pollution in the oceans, in support of The Plastic Ocean Project.

Our sincere congratulations go out to all Durham alumni who received a Queen’s Birthday Honour in June 2013: Professor Neil M Alford, MBE (MBA, Business School, 1992-95); Lady Philippa M Dannatt, MBE (BA Arts Combined, St Mary’s, 1973-76); Simon Greenish, MBE (BSc Engineering Science, 1968-71); Dr Mary C Groves, MBE (Medicine, King’s, 1949-54); Gareth B Jones, MBE (Engineering, Castle, 1977-80); Sir Edward J Leigh, MP (BA History, Castle, 1969-72); His Excellency Paul D Madden, CMG (MBA, Business School, 1999-2002); Simon D Marsh, MBE (BA Geography, St Aidan’s, 1983-86); Major Nicholas I Morton, MBE (Military Division) (BSc Natural Sciences, Castle, 1993-96); Dr Helen M Mounsey, OBE (PhD Geography, Graduate Society, 1977-82); Professor David Newman, OBE (PhD Geography, Graduate Society, 1978-81); Group Captain Nigel J Phillips, CBE (Military Division) (MBA, Business School, 1992-96); Michael Pizzarello, BEM (MA Enterprise Management, Business School, 2005-07); Brigadier Richard R Smith, CBE (Military Division) (BA History, Hatfield, 1980-83); Carol A Storer, OBE (BA Law & Politics, Trevelyan, 1977-80); John E Taylor, CBE (BA Arts Combined, Van Mildert, 1968-71); Frederick A Wharton, BEM (MA Education, 1979-81).

Elsa in preparation to race from California to Hawaii.

Errata: We would like to humbly apologise for the following errors that appeared in Durham First Issue 34: Dr Robert McManners, OBE gained an MA in Medical Education and not a PG Dip GP Training as stated; Emeritus Professor David Howe, OBE (BSc Pure Science, Castle, 1965-68) should have been included in the list, as he was awarded an OBE.

www.durham.ac.uk/shop wear it with pride

DUG2817_Durham First 35 AW3 08/01/2014 09:53 Page 28

Look out for your new-look alumni magazine Published to coincide with a special week of coordinated events taking place in the first week of June For more information visit www.dunelm.org.uk