Optima 24

optima FITZWILLIAM COLLEGE NEWSLETTER

Issue 24 | 2018

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CONTENTS

03 | College news

FEATURES 04–05 | Pani, Pahar

The waters of the Himalayas

06–07 | Glaciers and trees Fieldwork notes from the Alps

08–09 | Future cities

Incorporating ‘spectrum security’ into the fabric of modern urban design

10–11 | Age of Disruption

Professor Michael Kenny introduces the Bennett Institute for Public Policy

12–13 | Boys to men

Studying the stories Britain told itself in the aftermath of the Second World War

MEMORIES 14–17 | 40 years: Women at Fitz The story of how co-education came to be at Fitzwilliam, and its women today

EXTRACURRICULAR 18–19 | The year in pictures 20–21 | Billy life 22–23 | Music & art 24–25 | Reading

A selection of books by College Members published over the past year

INTERVIEW 26–27 | Dr Cora Uhlemann The cosmologist studying the dark ages of our Universe

JET Photographic

NEWS

MASTER’S MESSAGE Graduation this year felt to me particularly wonderful.

A joyful celebration at the end of quite a challenging year.

The picture on the front cover reflects a variation in the route of the procession to the Senate House. The procession is led

by Dr James Aitken (Praelector, Tutor and Director of Studies) and Stuart Douglas (Head Porter). We celebrated the fact that 19 of the 121 students who graduated this year had achieved Firsts in each part of the Tripos - a remarkable achievement.

Others shone in a wide variety of ways - it was again a year of academic success, ambitious concerts and sporting excitements, as well as political debate. I am sure that this edition of Optima will stir in you all sorts of memories and images.

Thanks to our new editor, Dr Pia SpryMarqués, for her imagination in choosing and presenting some unusual glimpses into the life of Fitzwilliam College, past, present and future.

The first two articles both remind me in different ways of the visit of Stanzin Kunzang, the Head Teacher of the Druk Padme Karpo School in Shey, Ladakh to Fitzwilliam for a few days in February.

We are very fortunate to be able to welcome here so many inspirational people - including this year Professor Catherine Barnard, a really motivating Foundation Lecturer; Josep Carreras, our latest Honorary Fellow to visit the College; and Dr Lee Suan Yew, who continues to spearhead great opportunities for us and our Singaporean partners. Next year we will be celebrating 150 years since the foundation of Fitzwilliam House, (only!)

40 years of women in the College, and the arrival of a new Master - so much to celebrate, but so much still to be achieved.

Why was 2017–18 quite a challenging year, from my vantage point? The strike over USS pensions was difficult and somewhat

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divisive - and has not yet been resolved.

Inevitably students found themselves caught in the firing line, and Fellows and students felt themselves pulled in many directions. It felt as though it was about more than ‘just’ pensions: there is a widespread nervousness about the future of higher education, the move towards students as ‘consumers’, growing Government regulation, and … Brexit.

Then there were the uncertainties surrounding the role of the new Office for Students, concern about investment (divestment) policies, and, as ever, financial concerns (how to balance the books in an ambitious and growing College).

Thank goodness for the enthusiasm, engagement and commitment of our student body. I would like to pay particular tribute to the MCR and JCR Presidents who helped to steer the student body carefully through these difficult times. And Winter Wonderland (see page 20) was a triumphant success, an event conceived and organised by students for all the College (staff, Fellows and students) to enjoy. Thanks too to Dr Susan Larsen who stepped into Dr Paul Chirico’s shoes for the year, allowing him a year’s sabbatical leave from the burdens of the office of Senior Tutor. She has done a tireless job, leading the Tutorial Office through the usual range of academic and pastoral challenges.

A heartfelt thank you also to our financial supporters. Where would we be without you all? The telephone campaign raised a fantastic £269,000 for the College (taken over the next three years). And there’s always much more that we are longing to do, if only we could afford it … Thank you all.

Nicky Padfield

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COLLEGE NEWS

4 June 2018 - Fellow Professor Bhaskar Vira awarded the Royal Geographical Society’s Busk Medal, in recognition of his interdisciplinary research on economy, environment and development.

1 October 2018 - Honorary Fellow and alumnus The Rt Hon Sir David Kitchin QC, Lord Justice of Appeal, (NatSci, Law 1973; MA Law 1981) appointed to the Supreme Court of Justice. Whilst at Fitz, Kitchin coxed the University’s Blue Boat to success in the 1975 Boat Race.

21 December 2017 - The Ministry of Justice announced the appointment of 119 new Queen’s Counsel and 7 Honorary Queen’s Counsel, which included the Master Professor Nicola Padfield among

John Cleaver

the latter, and alumnus Andrew Singer QC (Law 1986) among the former. They are pictured here with Nicola’s husband Christopher (Engineering 1968) and Andrew’s father Harold (Law 1953) following the appointment ceremony in London in January 2018.

Kevin Leighton

Nick Saffell

7 October 2017 - Honorary Fellow and alumna The Rt Hon Dame Sarah Asplin DBE QC (Law 1979) appointed to the Court of Appeal. The appointments of Lord and Lady Justices of the Court of Appeal are made by Her Majesty The Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Lord Chancellor following the recommendation of an independent selection panel.

29 December 2017 Alumnus and 1869 Fellow Benefactor Sir Kenneth Olisa OBE (Natural Sciences, SPS and Management 1971) honoured with a Knighthood for services to Business and Philanthropy in the 2018 New Year’s Honours.

Ken Olisa

1 September 2018 - Dr Susan Larsen, Acting Senior Tutor (2017–2018) and MML Director of Studies, will be appointed Senior Tutor at Wolfson College. We wish Dr Larsen all the best at Wolfson – she will be sorely missed by all!

TrumpingtonStreet

Michael Cameron

1 September 2018 - On 29 June 2018 the College bid farewell to The Revd Helen Arnold, College Chaplain since 2014, who has moved to Oxford to take up the post of Lead Chaplain in Thames Valley Police. Fitzwilliam’s new Chaplain, The Revd Graham Stevenson, who currently lives in Hackney, will join us in September. For a full biography visit: www.fitz.cam.ac.uk/chaplain

1 August 2018 - Fellow Professor David Cardwell appointed Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Strategy and Planning. The role is to support and strengthen the academic mission of the University through overseeing the distribution of resources, including the capital programme.

For the latest College news, visit our website: www.fitz.cam.ac.uk/news P03 FITZWILLIAM COLLEGE NEWSLETTER

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Pani, Pahar Waters of the Himalayas

Photo: Toby Smith (www.tobysmith.com)

A collaborative project led by Fellow Professor Bhaskar Vira, and Dr Eszter Kovács of the Department of Geography, explores the changing landscapes and escalating water crises of the Himalayas Produced in collaboration with The Centre for Ecology Development and Research in India and the Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies in Nepal, Pani, Pahar combines academic research with contemporary imagery by photojournalist Toby Smith. It shows how environmental and social changes are impacting the ways in which small towns throughout the region source and distribute water.

Four different themes have emerged from the study: change and transformation around water sources; the growing visibility and rapid pace of urbanisation; the ebbs, flows and characteristics of seasonality that affect both social and ecological systems; and the ways in which physical, social and political infrastructures are being built, transformed and consolidated at this time of rapid change. ​

The research has tried to understand the connections between changes in land-use and management that impact on the water-bearing capacity of landscapes in these mountainous regions, and the availability of water.

The interdependence of people and ecological processes across these incredible landscapes creates a complex and fascinating story in which sustainable development must be realised.

These themes were all artfully captured by photojournalist Toby Smith, whose photos were recently on display in the Jor Bagh Metro Station in New Delhi (16 March - 29 June 2018) alongside curated archival prints from the University Library and the Centre for South Asian Studies as part of Pani, Pahar’s itinerant photographic exhibition.

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www.panipahar.com

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Glaciers and trees Fieldwork notes from the Alps

By Edgar Thornton and Emma Middleton (Geography 2016)

Emma Edgar

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optima Geography undergraduates Edgar and Emma tell us all about their cool study trip to the heart of Switzerland

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round 120km east of Geneva, in the Bernese Alps, stands Lötschental, also known as Switzerland’s ‘magic valley’. The southern and eastern parts of the valley, together with the Jungfrau-Aletsch area – Eurasia’s largest uninterrupted glacier massif –, were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001. Their outstanding universal value is due not only to their beauty, but also for the wealth of information they contain about the formation of mountains and glaciers, as well as ongoing climate change.

The valley’s remoteness made it a difficult place to access before the construction in the early twentieth century of the Lötschbergbahn, a railway connecting Spiez in the canton of Bern with Brig in the canton of Valais, so it’s not surprising that the valley’s total population is on the small side of things – around 1,500 people, mostly found in the valley’s two main villages: Wiler and Kippel.

Nine kilometres north east of these two villages stands Hotel Fafleralp, where we arrived on 17 September 2017 to take part in the required residential fieldwork which formed the basis of an assessed project as part of the Geography Tripos.

The main aims of the fieldtrip were to collect glaciological, dendrochronological and ecological data to be processed in the laboratory on return to the UK. The hotel was located at the head of Lötschental and had commanding views over the entire valley; being woken up by cow bells each morning was rather novel!

The first day was assigned for field orientation, which involved hiking around the valley to assess the topographic conditions and to get our first glimpse of the Langgletscher glacier, which lies at the head of the valley. The rest of the week we spent either collecting glacial

and fluvial data from Langgletscher glacier or hiking up the sides of the valley to take a range of additional ecological measurements.

Our fieldwork on the glacier involved measuring parameters such as albedo (see box) and examining supraglacial hydrology. The direct measurements we took on the glacier were then used to plot Digital Elevation Models of its current extent, which has allowed us to compare them to previous datasets and assess the rate at which glacial retreat is taking place in this region. We also took tree core and sapling samples from a variety of sites and elevations on the steep valley slopes, which, once again, involved a fair bit of tiring Alpine hiking!

These samples can then be analysed to reveal the typical growth patterns of each tree species and their response to climatic stress. During our stay we also had the option to pursue either a glaciological or dendrochronological project based on the data we had collected on the first few days in Lötschental.

Edgar: Glaciology I found the glaciology particularly fascinating, and therefore decided to investigate this as part of my own field work report. Building on the skills I gained in the first four days in the valley I set up an experiment to measure the effect of aspect on melt rate in the context of both albedo and debris thickness. I spent another enjoyable afternoon on the glacier in the bright autumn sunshine collecting a range of additional glaciological data, which enabled me to complete my coursework upon my return to Cambridge.

Emma: Dendrochronology Dendrochronology (tree ring dating) was an entirely new discipline to me, yet I was captivated by how accurately tree-ring width patterns correlate with temperature

What is albedo?

Albedo (sometimes referred to as ‘reflection coefficient’) is a measure of how reflective a surface is. It is a measure of the proportion of the incoming solar radiation that is reflected by the surface back into the atmosphere and space. The term is derived from the Latin albus meaning ‘white’ and is either determined by a value between 0 and 1 or a percentage value. The more reflective a surface is the higher the albedo value. Very white surfaces, such as fresh snow, reflect a very high fraction of incoming radiation back to space.

Source: Met Office

anomalies, providing an invaluable temperature proxy extending back hundreds of years. My project investigated ‘biological thermometers’, which involved comparing how the tree ring widths of both pine and larch species have responded to extreme warm and cold events in the past.

Using the cores taken from Lötschental, I spent many hours in the tree-ring laboratory in Cambridge measuring treering widths and contributing to a ‘master chronology’, the reference against which new ring series may be compared and dated.

Beyond data collection and enhancing our understanding of various geographical processes, the fieldtrip allowed us to properly get to know geographers from other colleges, which has made centrally-organised supervisions much easier to coordinate!

We must express our sincere gratitude for the funding we received to take part in this fieldwork. It was a great privilege to experience such a unique and remote alpine glacial environment first hand, especially considering that we might not have many opportunities left to do so!

Edgar’s and Emma’s trip to Switzerland was kindly sponsored by the Student Opportunities Fund, and the John and Jenny Duncan Fund, respectively.

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Future cities

Incorporating ‘spectrum security’ into the fabric of modern urban design

The AT&T Long Lines Building in New York City. Designed by the studio John Carl Warnecke & Associates and completed in 1974. Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center.

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or many people, including scientists, telecommunications providers and intelligence agencies alike, today’s urban air is alive with electromagnetic activity. Signals emitted by devices such as mobile phones, WiFi routers, satnav systems and contactless cards use the waves, fields and frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum to transmit data. Surrounded by these signal emanations, human beings today are often imagined to be living in an electromagnetic ‘soup’. While these mobile, contactless, wireless and sensing technologies are central to our experience of smart urbanism, their electromagnetic emanations are becoming key targets of policy activism and public debate, and are prompting creative and at times disruptive reconfigurations of electromagnetic space by diverse groups of people.

As part of the Future Cities Programme, run by the Department of Land Economy and funded by the London-based property company CAPCO, I recently developed a research project exploring some of the ways that people are engaging with and

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By Alexander Taylor (PhD Social Anthropology 2014)

rearranging the relationship between electromagnetic signals and the built environment. The goal of my project was to introduce some of the challenges that electromagnetic signals are perceived to pose to privacy, security, health and wellbeing, and to begin exploring how smart city planners, urban designers and architects might respond to these.

from reinforced conductive ferrocement and copper cladding, buildings like the former AT&T Long Lines Building in New York (pictured top left) were transformed into fortified Faraday Cages (enclosures made from conductive materials that block electromagnetic energy, named after the nineteenthcentury scientist Michael Faraday who invented them in 1836).

All electronic devices – whether they are wireless or not – emit electromagnetic fields that contain, to varying degrees, the information that the device is displaying, creating, storing, or transmitting. With the correct equipment, these invisible emanations can be tapped into by outside sources. This has long been a concern of militaries and intelligence agencies, who line their buildings with signal-blocking materials to stop compromising emanations from electronic equipment leaking beyond their walls. During the Cold War, electromagnetic shielding became a construction standard for military and government facilities. By fitting specialised filters to cabling, ports, vents and piping, and by constructing walls

With the proliferation of wireless communications technologies over the last two decades, data is now regularly being transmitted through the air, generating new public fears of the electromagnetic spectrum as a potential surveillance medium. Amidst mounting concerns surrounding data privacy in the post-Snowden securityscape, artists, activists and retailers alike have begun to develop tools and spaces that block electromagnetic emanations to stop unsolicited data extraction in the smart city. A minor industry has emerged providing a variety of electromagnetic field-blocking products aimed at shielding everyday essentials such as contactless cards and e-passports from wireless identity theft and digital pickpocketing.

optima ‘404: Space Not Found’ Project by Mathieu Bujnowskyj / hutte.xyz

In 2016, the Swiss-based architecture collective Hutte.xyz deployed a pop-up pavilion in the city of Basel that blocked electromagnetic signals, creating a signal-free ‘dead zone’ in the urban electromagnetic landscape. The project, entitled ‘404: Space Not Found’, aimed to provide city inhabitants with a ‘stealth mode’ against digital surveillance, in opposition to the hegemony of constant connectivity in the smart city. More recently, they have begun to build ‘fullspectrum furniture’ that shields devices and people from electromagnetic signals.

The emergence of the ‘smart home’ is also prompting a rethinking of relations between the electromagnetic spectrum and domestic privacy. In 2015, the Genoa-based design studio Space Caviar launched The Radio Absorbent Material (RAM) House project, a domestic prototype for a future home in which the resident could manage the interior and exterior electromagnetic environment.

Houses are increasingly populated by ‘smart’ devices that are capable of monitoring, listening and responding to their inhabitants. In the same way curtains and blinds in the traditional home can be drawn to conceal the domestic interior in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum, in the RAM House, movable panels of radar-absorbent material slide open and closed, providing residents with privacy from objects that police the nonoptical region of the spectrum.

Electromagnetic signals have emerged not only as a threat to privacy but also to human health, wellbeing and sociality.

Growing numbers of cafés, restaurants and public houses are establishing smartphone-free and ‘No-Fi’ zones with the hope of rekindling a romanticised form of vanishing pre-digital communication.

Cultural anxieties about the potential psychological and biological effects of long-term exposure to electromagnetic pollution have led growing numbers of schools to remove WiFi. Regions where phone reception and wireless coverage is weak or non-existent, are being repurposed as ‘refuge zones’ where sufferers of electromagnetic hypersensitivity can escape from the ubiquitous ‘electrosmog’.

The various practices and concerns presented here invite us to reflect more deeply about how we may develop ethical relationships between space and data. By choosing architectural materials based on their signal permeability, city planners and architects could design buildings and urban spaces that provide people with greater control over their electromagnetic environment. This would also enable urban designers to develop more WiFi-efficient buildings and public spaces. With uninterruptible wireless connectivity and high-speed data on-demand an increasingly expected and necessary element of city life, growing numbers of architects are now speculating that

the spatial management of wireless signals could become as important a design parameter as natural light, good acoustics, temperature or fresh air.

By making the management of the electromagnetic spectrum a primary design element and a structural component of future cities, architectural materials and building properties could be used to better secure electromagnetic signals, while increasing the privacy of residents and the efficiency of WiFi coverage and phone reception. Thinking beyond the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum could have significant implications for future city policymaking and design, and would enable us to reorganise our relationship with wireless technologies for a managed cohabitation with electromagnetic signals, rather than their constant ambient presence.

Alexander Taylor is an anthropologist working at the intersection of science and technology studies, digital preservation, security studies and media archaeology.

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Professor Michael Kenny is the inaugural Director of the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. He is the course director for the MPhil in Public Policy. He will be leading research in place and public policy, and re-making government in the 21st century. Before he arrived in Cambridge, Michael held positions at Queen’s University, Belfast; the University of Sheffield, where he was appointed Head of Department; and Queen Mary University of London.

t p i u Age of Dis r on SEEKING ORDER IN THE

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he collision between new technologies and the dynamics of contemporary politics are producing some of the most unpredictable political waves and major economic challenges today. These in turn are creating new patterns of inequality and anger across the globe. We live in an age of unprecedented disruption. And this shapes the major challenges that 21st-century governments, policy makers and researchers need to face.

The Bennett Institute for Public Policy, made possible by a major gift from Cambridge alumnus and philanthropist Peter Bennett, aspires to be both a stimulus and conduit for the various educational and world-leading research activities housed at Cambridge which have public policy as their focus. It will meld the world-class research emerging in the fields of technology, engineering

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Professor Michael Kenny (Fellow) introduces the new Bennett Institute for Public Policy

and the medical sciences with a deep understanding of the social and political forces that are remaking democracy and governance across the world. Both of these bodies of knowledge and understanding are richly represented in the wider University from which this initiative grows.

Academic staff involved in the Institute will engage and translate the most relevant parts of the research programmes housed within Cambridge, and they will bring these into concert with the considerable expertise stored here in the political and economic dimensions of policy-making, as well as deep analysis of the changing contours of democratic politics.

Our early research will focus upon: the promise of digital government; the growing imperative to bring a

place-based perspective into the understanding and practice of policy-making; the imbalanced and unpredictable character of the emerging digital economy; and – in collaboration with our colleagues at the Centre for Science and Policy and Churchill College – the pressing need to interrogate and reconfigure the relationship between science and democracy. In each of these areas we will offer fundamental research and rigorous analysis, while also searching for new solutions and prompting various kinds of practical initiative.

All of our work will be global, as well as local, in focus and reach. We are interested in how the challenges of the digital divide, more equitable economic growth, and the ‘left behind’, play out in California and Calcutta, as well as in Cambridge.

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Our outputs will differ quite fundamentally from the overly technocratic debates prevalent in parts of the policy and academic worlds: we think it is time to set aside the ingrained assumption that there are technical fixes or ready-made solutions to intractable challenges arising from resource scarcity and the growing demand for a more equitable distribution of the world’s natural and social assets. This bedrock axiom is increasingly exposed as inadequate in the age of popular disenchantment, technological disruption and economic stagnation.

We live in an age of unprecedented disruption We will go further still and explore the limitations of the state’s understanding of its peoples – despite the stocks of knowledge it holds about them – and explore how policy-making might better engage and harness local, situated forms of knowledge and identity. One of the greatest challenges of our age is the belief of a growing

number that the economic and political rules of the game are tilted in favour of the wealthy and the powerful. Policymakers and academic analysts can no longer afford to set this uncomfortable truth to one side, clinging to the prevailing assumptions of an era now passed.

In our teaching we will continue to educate the policy-makers of tomorrow to the very highest standard. We will equip the policy professionals taking our world-leading MPhil in Public Policy with the practical skills and forms of technical knowledge which their roles require, and bring them to a deeper understanding of the technological and political challenges of the age. We will also be developing new forms of part-time provision for those about to embark on a career in this area.

Both our research and training will be infused with a strong commitment to policy influence and wider public engagement. Our aim is to work towards a more porous boundary between academe and public policy, without sacrificing the value and

integrity of the fundamental research and analytical insight which we aim to develop. We will work with far-sighted and forward-looking policy professionals, NGOs and civic organisations, ready to help policymakers examine if they are asking the right questions or are sufficiently mindful of the most pertinent forms of evidence and thinking in particular areas of policy.

As the inaugural Director of this major new venture, I am proud to be leading an initiative that combines high intellectual ambition and the ethos of practical engagement. I am delighted too that the Institute will also be led by Professor Diane Coyle, who brings an unrivalled range of policy experience and insight, as well as a deep specialist knowledge of the economic dimensions of public policy-making.

The intention here is not just to create a new policy institute but also a new kind of institute - with the ambition and capacity to rethink some of the underpinning axioms and overriding aims of the public policy enterprise. www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk P11 FITZWILLIAM COLLEGE NEWSLETTER

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Visiting Fellow and Fitzwilliam alumna Gill Plain is Professor of English Literature and Popular Culture at the University of St Andrews. Her research has ranged across the twentieth century, from First World War women poets to the fictional serial killer boom of the 1990s, but she keeps coming back to the mid-century, in particular, to the literature, film and culture of the Second World War and its aftermath.

Boys

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n North Face, Mary Renault’s painfully acute 1949 comedy of manners, a character responds to a series of catastrophes with the phlegmatic observation, ‘it’s all right … there’s a peace on’. This inversion of expected norms – things fall apart not during, but after, a war – is what brought me to Fitzwilliam in January.

That, and the University Library, with its mile upon mile of open book stacks ideally designed to enable a literary historian to enjoy serendipitous discoveries. There’s no better place to get a project under way and, with the luxury of a full semester of leave and a Visiting Fellowship, there was no excuse not to get started on a book I’d been wanting to write for years: a study of the stories Britain told itself in the aftermath of the Second World War. In particular, I came to explore fictions of man-making

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TO MEN

Studying the stories Britain told itself in the aftermath of the Second World War

By Gill Plain (History and English 1984) – the narratives through which boys turn into men, and men prove themselves worthy of social recognition and reward.

Why, though, should such commonplace stories be interesting in the late 1940s and early 1950s? The answer lies in the context. By 1945 the British public was sick not just of war, but of war stories.

Homefront readers and filmgoers were war weary: exhausted by shortages, rationing, separations, displacement, loss, a surfeit of public exhortation and an excess of hard boring work for little evident reward. Unsurprisingly, they sought distraction, flocking to the cinema to indulge in costume melodramas such as The Man in Grey (1943) and The Wicked Lady (1945). And it wasn’t just the cinema that answered this need. Among the bestsellers of 1945 was Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh’s elegy for a golden interwar age. Waugh was horrified by the mass enthusiasm

generated by his work of art, but he shouldn’t have been surprised – his was just one of many literary returns to a prelapsarian past that appeared in the 1940s.

With varying degrees of selfconsciousness, writers evoked Edwardian childhoods and interwar idylls, warming themselves in the glow of a nostalgically remembered past. But the past has its limits – it’s hard to live there – and the 1930s weren’t actually much fun for a large percentage of the population. The late 1940s, then, also produced a rich vein of optimism. Britain could be rebuilt and it could be built better: hence, the welfare state and the NHS. And it was this future thinking, a concern with democracy, citizenship and the re-establishment of the family as the building block of a healthy society, that shaped the hopes and fears of Britain’s postwar fictions.

By 1945 the British public was sick not just of war, but of war stories

Which brings me back to war stories.

Why does it matter if they go away?

The answer lies in their social function: they are exemplary man-making narratives, part of a long tradition of fiction that imagines appropriate gender roles. Combat, adventure, risk and reward for men; love, marriage, children, domesticity for women.

Fiction doesn’t just reflect society, it suggests appropriate behaviour and polices the limits of possibility; popular narratives are permeated with assumptions about how men and women should behave. So, if the appetite for war stories disappears, new stories appropriate to a supposedly peaceful age need to be found to fill the void. Fictions of man-making that retain their vital element of risk, while also becoming safe, responsible, quotidian and domestic.

This is not so much a formula as a set of contradictions, but something was needed to mediate a growing anxiety about men. What would be the social and psychological state of demobilised soldiers? After six years of institutional life – not to mention learning how to kill – would they represent a threat to democratic society and domestic life? How would wounded men be

Boys are measured by the school nurse during a medical inspection at Baldock County Council School, 1944. © Imperial War Museum (D 20562)

rehabilitated, enabled once more to assume their appropriate gendered role in peacetime society? What would become of men who missed the excitement of war and found peace frankly boring? How would men cope with women who had changed out of all recognition? What would become of the fatherless children of wartime: would the damage to one generation of men fatally wound the boys of another?

Impossible questions, but a surprising set of answers can be found in popular culture and the fantasies, anxieties and fears it encodes.

So, while I’ve been at Fitz I’ve been reading thrillers, adventure stories, autobiographies and police procedurals.

I’ve watched films: crime stories, comedies, bio-pics, techno-dramas, melodramas, ‘social problem’ stories and commonwealth adventures in which

the only solution to postwar malaise seems to be abandoning Britain for new frontiers. I’ve spent hours with maladjusted veterans fighting criminal conspiracies, with optimistic engineers looking to make Britain better by design, with pipe-smoking policemen fighting a ‘war on crime’, and with survivors attempting, through autobiography, to reinsert themselves into the normative narratives of social belonging and ‘useful’ masculinity.

I’ve also spent happy hours in the unexpected treasure trove that is the UL’s Hammond Innes archive. Innes kept all his press cuttings, creating a repository of attitudes and assumptions alongside a fascinating snapshot of how literary celebrity functioned in the 1950s. Inevitably, along the way, I’ve stumbled upon far more material than can be read in a mere matter of months.

Looks like I’ll have to come back.

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women at fitz

40 years: Women at Fitzwilliam Next year we will be celebrating 40 years since the first women were admitted to Fitzwilliam - we take a look at how this decision was made, and what some of our women are doing today

Portrait of Dr Elisabeth Marseglia, Fitzwilliam’s first female Fellow (1979), by Richard Maury (1979). The painting currently hangs outside Upper Hall. Dr Marseglia’s story was featured in issue 22 of Optima, available online at: www.fitz.cam.ac.uk/optima

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A student in her room

A protracted matter of statute

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hen the first Fellows constructed the first Statutes, the second clause was that the College was to be exclusively for men. This was not handed down from the mists of antiquity – in antiquity no-one envisaged mixed colleges. It was an innovation following the Royal Commission report of 1922, which contained the notorious and illogical statement that ‘we desire strongly that Cambridge should remain mainly and predominantly a men’s University, though of a mixed type, as it already is.’

As the 1970s progressed it became apparent that the gender-mixed college was a concept whose time had come.

The new colleges for graduate students admitted both women and men.

Established colleges moved slowly, until King’s, Clare and Churchill matriculated their first women undergraduates in 1972.

Four years later a group of major colleges followed: considerable impetus was building up.

In 1973, Fitzwilliam’s newly-constituted General Purposes Committee discussed coresidence; it was suggested that admitting women might have a civilizing effect, but practical difficulties were recognized. Later

in the year the Governing Body started to consider changes to the Statutes, a process requiring special meetings of the entire Fellowship, including Life Fellows. The Minutes of the first Special College Meeting record ‘a long discussion about the extent to which the principle of co-residence could be separated from the detailed practicalities of admitting women’. A straw vote decided that practical issues should be considered in detail.

As the 1970s progressed it became apparent that the gender-mixed college was a concept whose time had come It was not surprising that detailed analysis was sought: weak financially and desperately short of accommodation, the College was not well placed to meet the practical challenges. The greatest was how to support women students: would women Fellows be needed before co-residence (with posts funded by the College, as women University Officers were rare), or would non-Fellows, such as external College Lecturers suffice? In

retrospect, that notion seems astonishingly unrealistic. Other substantial issues were also identified, such as the effects on the quality of the admissions candidates, and the reaction of potential benefactors with fond recollections of the all-male, sports-oriented House.

The next Special College Meeting, in March 1974, addressed academic issues in more detail. It explored alternatives: to remove the statute which excluded women, or add an enabling clause similar to that rejected in 1963. It was known that the women’s colleges were concerned about losing applicants; admissions procedures would have to be developed; and the subject balance could be affected.

It would be wrong to imagine that discussion was conducted entirely at the rational level of cost–academic-benefit analysis. There was an emotional level, too, especially for those accustomed to the traditional environment of Fitzwilliam House. Former Fellow David Kerridge recalled that W.W. Williams, by then a Life Fellow, was so opposed to admitting women that he came down from the Scottish Highlands to vote against the change.

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women at fitz A garden party in 1979

In March 1977 the decision was made to repeal Statute I.2 Even he was to be somewhat reconciled to the inevitable: ‘I was able to convince him of the error of his ways when a few years later I admitted his grand-daughter. He was delighted.’

Two years passed, with just one unproductive Special College Meeting.

College statistics showed that there were fewer Firsts than the University average, and the proportion of graduate students was below average. The College was stagnating in a changing world.

In May 1976, financial implications were considered, together with a new topic: landladies would be reluctant to take women, as they would cause trouble in their kitchens. It was minuted that ‘the hope was expressed that a gradual movement over what would probably be the best part of ten years might lessen the impact’ of co-residence – a recipe for the most pain and the least gain!

A further meeting rejected a proposal for an enabling statute. However, the topic was opening up, and in January 1977 the fundamentals were addressed: Fitzwilliam was very short of first-choice applicants (even shorter of high-quality ones) and was using the intercollegiate Pool for about a quarter of its admissions, about five times the University average. Mixed colleges were receiving more applications per place than single-sex colleges, and Fitzwilliam was amongst the worst of the single-sex colleges. The academic arguments were overwhelming, and in March 1977 the decision was made to repeal Statute I.2.

The revised Statutes were approved by Her Majesty in Council, on 7 February 1978. In spring 1979, the first women Fellows were elected: Dr Elisabeth Marseglia (PostDoctoral Research Associate in Physics) and Dr Sathiamalar Thirunavukkarasu (University Lecturer in Pathology).

In October 1979, 39 women students (two of whom were graduates) were admitted.

Liz Makin (Economics 1979) recalled: ‘the majority were very strong willed and able to stand up for themselves, so I think that must have been one of the main selection criteria. This was a good thing as we received lots of attention from the men, whether this was being watched, being heckled or being chatted up. We were never short of party invites, or men to fix our punctures either! Students now probably think it must have been very strange being part of the first year of women at Fitzwilliam, but we didn’t know any different. I had a brilliant three years, and being part of the first intake of women just made it more special.’

This text is an extract from the book Fitzwilliam: The 150 Years of a Cambridge College by Dr John Cleaver (ed.) available to purchase from the Development Office (development@fitz.cam. ac.uk or ++44 (0)1223 332015) £40 plus p&p

Share your stories Help us mark this special anniversary by sharing your fondest memories of co-education at Fitzwilliam, to be published on the College website in 2019. Send us your stories and/or photos via our online form (www.fitz.cam.ac.uk/memories) or by post (Communications Office, Fitzwilliam College, Storey’s Way, Cambridge CB3 0DG). We look forward to hearing from you!

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Meet Jordana & Ellie

A Good Time to be a Girl

We’re Jordana Price and Ellie Brain and we are both first years studying Geography. Together, we are this year’s JCR Women’s and Non-Binary People’s Officers!

We are committed to helping Fitzwilliam students in any way we can, both around College and in Cambridge. As part of our role as Women’s and Non-Binary People’s Officers we are aiming, among other things, to set up termly self-defense classes, and continue running the popular Feminist Society (FemSoc) meetings, originally set up by Annabel Cleak (Geography 2014), Women’s Campaign Officer (2016–2017). At the meetings we hold discussions on various feminist issues, such as the role of women in development, the position of sex workers, or abortion rights.

Over the past two terms we have also been working hard to provide free sanitary products through the College’s

welfare system. We are very proud to say that from Lent Term sanitary products are freely available from all public toilets in College.

To celebrate International Women’s Day on 8 March, we organised a special Formal to raise funds for FemSoc’s 2018 charity of choice, Cambridge Rape Crisis Centre. The Centre offers support to women and girls who have experienced rape, childhood sexual abuse or any other form of sexual violence. They also provide support to family, friends and professionals supporting a survivor. To find out more about this charity, please visit their website: cambridgerapecrisis.org.uk jcr.womens@fitz.cam.ac.uk

Women’s Crisis Centre in Russia According to the Russian Interior Ministry, in Russia 40 women a day die at the hands of their partners. The Russian law has recently been changed to effectively decriminalise domestic abuse, meaning that, given the small number of shelters available, women who cannot afford to flee must decide between staying with their abuser or making themselves voluntarily homeless.

In March, third-year MML student Rensa Gaunt fundraised for ‘Hope’, a women’s shelter in the city of Kazan, where she was spending Lent Term.

The £800+ raised has allowed the crisis centre to purchase furniture and pay running costs so the house can welcome more families in severe need. The mothers are overwhelmed with the generosity from people a continent away, and Rensa (pictured on the left, with two of the mothers from ‘Hope’) specifically wants to thank the people of Fitz for supporting the appeal so enthusiastically!

To find out more about Rensa, her travels and her language studies, visit her blog, A Linguist Abroad, at: http://a-linguist-abroad.blogspot.com

In A Good Time to be a Girl, Fitzwilliam alumna and Honorary Fellow Dame Helena Morrissey, DBE (Philosophy 1984) sets out how we might achieve the next big breakthrough towards a truly inclusive modern society.

Drawing on her experience as a City CEO, mother of nine, and founder of the influential 30% Club which campaigns for gender-balanced UK company boards, her manifesto for new ways of working, living, loving and raising families is for everyone, not just women. Making a powerful case for diversity and difference in any workplace, she shows how, together, we can develop smarter thinking and broader definitions of success. Gender balance, in her view, is an essential driver of economic prosperity and part of the solution to the many problems we face today.

Her approach is not aimed merely at training a few more women in working practices that have outlived their usefulness. Instead, this book sets out a way to reinvent the game – not at the expense of men but in ways that are right and relevant for a digital age. It is a powerful guide to success for us all.

A Good Time to be a Girl

by Helena Morrissey, published

by William Collins, out now.

Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg Finance

Charitable Foundation “Dobro Darom of the Republic of Tatarstan”

8 March 2018: International Women’s Day Formal, Fitzwilliam College

Five years have passed since women were exhorted to ‘Lean In’. Over that time, the world has transformed beyond all expectations. But why should anyone ‘lean in’ to a patriarchal system that is out of date? Why not change it entirely for the good of us all?

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photo album

Michael Cameron

Pia Spry-Marqués

A

The year in pictures

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D

John Cleaver

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John Cleaver

A: 1 October 2017 - Students from the Fitz Natural Sciences Society at their stand in the College’s Societies Fair | B: 3 October 2017 - Matriculation photo on The Grove Lawn | C: 17 March 2018 - Graduate Seminar: Devika Argawal (LLM 2017) presenting on the recent and highly publicised ‘Delhi University Copyright Case’. The many twists and turns in this case resulted in the Indian High Court ruling that Delhi University was not breaching the publisher’s copyright by photocopying sections of books for student course packs, as it was for educational purposes | D: 22 May 2018 - Josep Carreras, the world-famous tenor, recently elected to an Honorary Fellowship at Fitzwilliam, visits the College for a special ‘In Conversation’ event with the Master, Professor Nicola Padfield | E: 1 February 2018 - The Rainbow flag flies for the first time at Fitzwilliam College to mark the start of LGBT+ History Month | F: 11 September 2017 - Julian Eddy, Fitzwilliam’s Maintenance Manager, on the roof of Central Building following the completion of the works that took place over the summer.

Pia Spry-Marqués

Gillian Skerritt

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John Cleaver

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I

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Alison Carter

John Cleaver

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BBC

John Cleaver

G: 16 November 2017 - Professor Catherine Barnard (Law 1986) during the Q&A following her delivery of the 2017 Foundation Lecture, entitled ‘Me, (E)U and Brexit’ | H: 23 July 2017 - Katherine Parton, Director of Music (2014–2017) teaching during the second Young Women’s Conductor Workshop organised by herself and the Admissions Office in collaboration with the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Women Conductors Programme | I: 11 May 2018 - Alumnus and Honorary Fellow Professor M S Swaminathan (PhD Botany 1950) answering questions in the Auditorium with the assistance of his daughter following his talk on ‘Cambridge and Beyond: From Green to Evergreen Revolution’ | J: 29 January 2018 - Students participating in this year’s Brewster Debate competition. This year’s motion was ‘This house believes the NHS needs privatisation’ | K: 2 April 2018 - Fitzwilliam reach University Challenge’s quarter finals, but are beaten by Newcastle University (205–65) for a place in the semi finals | L: 3 May 2018 - Alumnus Ashley John-Baptiste (History 2008), speaking at this year’s Fitzwilliam Society’s London Dinner at the Cavalry & Guards Club.

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BILLY LIFE

A day in the life of a Fitz student

Events in College

In Conversation with the Master 2 Nov 2017 - Affording housing in Cambridge, London and Manchester Jonathan Rose and Matthew Gardiner (Geography 1975)

Admissions/Youtube

The 2017–2018 academic year has been a particularly busy one eventwise. Below a selection of the lectures, debates and film screenings enjoyed by our Members and guests. Thanks to all the speakers and organisers for making all of these events possible.

In March the Admissions team shot a short film on what a day in the life of a Fitz student looks like with the help of current students Misbah Malik (Geography 2016), Ellie Brain (Geography 2017), Emily Young (Classics 2015) and Emily Insanally (Economics 2017). The video was shared on our social media channels in the run up to the April Open Day and has had more than 400 views since then! You can watch the one-minute video here: youtu.be/DVhdf8WtE5U

9 Nov 2017 - Working with urban refugees Özgecan Atasoy (MPhil Modern Society & Global Transformations 2014)

13 Mar 2018 - What are the police for?

Professor Ben Bowling (Visiting Fellow) Arrol Adam Lecture Series 26 Oct 2017 - Economic theory meets cyber society | Professor Paul Ormerod 22 Feb 2018 - The country house library Mark Purcell 10 May 2018 - The United Nations: A collective journey to transform our world Corli Pretorius Debating Society 9 Oct 2017 - This house believes Catalonia should be independent Literary Society 7 Nov 2017 - Postdramatic tragedy? The dramaturgy of Sarah Kane Leah Sidl (English 2009)

Documentary screening and Q&A 7 Mar 2018 - Samalas 1257: The eruption that shook the Middle Ages Dr Céline Vidal (Bye-Fellow) www.fitz.cam.ac.uk/all-events

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Cinema under the stars On 28 July 2018 the College hosted ‘Cinema on the Hill’, an evening of open-air cinema. Over 120 Fitzwilliam students, staff, and guests from neighbouring colleges gathered on The Grove Lawn to watch the 1984 classic Ghostbusters.

The event was organised by the MCR Committee, and while offering an enjoyable summer’s evening for the adventurous, it was also part of the MCR’s efforts to raise awareness of energy efficiency. The cinema was entirely human-powered, with power being supplied via seven bike generators, which the audience took turns pedalling on throughout the night to keep the film going until the end!

André Neto-Bradley

Medical & Veterinary Society 28 Feb 2018 - Prion diseases and scrapie Dr Raymond Bujdoso

On 1 December 2017 all the College was invited to ‘Winter Wonderland’, an event organised by the JCR with the help of the MCR with the aim of drawing all parts of the Fitz community together and creating a shared experience for students, Fellows and staff. There were excellent live performances from Barbershop, the Sirens, Fitz String Trio and Fitz Swing, as well as by the College Choir, who led everyone in a rousing rendition of We Wish You a Merry Christmas. The event was also held in aid of Jimmy’s Cambridge, a night shelter for the homeless, with over £200 raised for the charity.

Pia Spry-Marqués

28 Feb 2018 - Imprisonment in 1970s Argentina | Dr Gladys Ambort

Winter Wonderland

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Millie Papworth

New MCR BBQ

Winter Ball 2018 Summers for the graduate community have long been punctuated by sunny (and sometimes drizzly) BBQ parties, so it was with sadness that last year the MCR waved off their rusty old model. Happily, the Fitzwilliam Society were generous with a grant to replace it with a shiny new drum BBQ, perfect for catering for large groups of hungry students.

The end of term was marked with a small inaugural grilling, before the graduate students fired up for the main event of the summer: the Graduate Tutors’ Garden Party.

150 students, partners, Fellows and children were welcomed onto The Grove Lawn in bright sunshine, as the master grillers Pete, Tom, Alan and Nik cooked

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29 November 2018 | 9pm

over 300 sausages, burgers and kebabs! It was a real pleasure in particular to welcome the part-time Masters students in Criminology, resident in the College for a couple of weeks a year, who are serving members of the police force in their day job.

Exhibition: Come create, play and explore in our multi-sensory playground, where we will celebrate the power of creativity.

Make your way through our individually curated spaces, each unique and brimming with inspiration.

Tickets on sale now: www.fitzball.com

Large-scale events like this are vital for the MCR’s sense of community – which reaches beyond students to partners and families – and all members are very thankful to the alumni for allowing it to happen. The MCR looks forward to more events both this scorching summer and many years to come, particularly when they can be hosted from the exciting new extension.

In numbers

The score from this year’s Men’s Cuppers final between Fitzwilliam and Girton. This is the 11th time the College has won the Men’s inter-college football competition. The Men’s Cricket team also won this year’s Cuppers final against Queens’, making this their third consecutive win!

Congratulations!

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In numbers

The number of large boxes filled with books donated by College members for the new library at HMP Grendon in Buckinghamshire. HMP Grendon is a Democratic Therapeutic Communities prison – the only one of its kind in the UK – with groupbased therapy within a social climate, which promotes positive relationships, personal responsibility and social participation. The book collection was organised by members of the University Library.

Student-produced documentary

“

In conversation with students, societies, lecturers and University staff, Bea Goddard and her team take us from the worst May Ball offenders, to the highly positive steps that have already been taken towards minimising our carbon footprint at other events. As Goddard says, the film strives to “give credit where credit’s due, and criticise where criticism needs to be delivered.”

”

Extract from the Varsity review of The Cambridge Climate, a documentary film directed and produced by Fitzwilliam student Bea Goddard (English 2017). The documentary is available to watch online: youtu.be/MCN-GBkv4EM

For the latest student news, visit: www.fitz.cam.ac.uk/about/student-news Sports news can be found at: www.fitz.cam.ac.uk/about/sports-news

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music & art

FOCUS: Music Cat Groom, our new Director of Music, reports

Anne Denholm, Harpist to HRH The Prince of Wales, made Fitz her first port of call after playing at the Royal Wedding in May 2018. Anne regaled us with music ranging from Grace Williams’ glorious Hiraeth to John Metcalf’s splendidly bananas Dance from Kafka’s Chimp.

Pop-Up Opera, founded by alumna Clementine Lovell (Arch & Anth 2000), returned to Fitz in November 2017 with Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel.

The Fitzwilliam String Quartet have continued to be regular performers at Fitz, most recently of Shostakovich’s mesmeric E flat minor Quartet no. 15.

An evening entitled ‘Encounters with Persian verse, art and music’ featured soprano Abi Crook (Law 2016) with the renowned Ligeti String Quartet and harpist Keziah Thomas performing music

by Seb Blount (Music 2015). An academic lecture on early Persian poetry as well as good food and contemporary art also contributed to a miniature festival brought to a breathtaking close by the amazing duo Nasim-e Tarab.

Monday evening informal FCMS recitals have been successful and well-supported by both performers and audiences.

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Repertoire has ranged from solo Bach to the comedy songs of Flanders & Swann, via Chopin and Shrek!

More formal student concerts in the Auditorium and Chapel have included several themed concerts of solo vocal music; a lecture recital on Schubert’s keyboard writing by Pierre Riley; and a solo piano recital by Simon King. A largescale concert of original orchestral music by student composers was held in Lent Term, co-ordinated by Seb Blount and featuring his spectacularly sonorous work The Funeral Rites of King Skjöldr along with Abigail Birch’s evocative The Labyrinth of Sallertaine.

With two countertenors active in College musical life this year, programming Purcell’s double-countertenor showcase Come, Come Ye Sons of Art Away was irresistible. The College’s community of legators was the lucky audience, and Isaac Jarratt-Barnham (Philosophy 2014) and Adam Fyfe (Classics 2016) were aided and abetted by an all-Fitz cast of singers and players.

A termly Graduate Salon has been reintroduced, and contributions have ranged from poetic recitations in Italian to duo improvisation for Celtic harp and Indian tabla, the latter played by the extraordinarily gifted Bye-Fellow Dr Deepak Venkateshvaran, breaking from his day job as an internationally-respected research physicist.

In-house activity by the College’s resident student ensembles has included performances at Winter Wonderland and at the FCMS Summer Garden Party by the Barbershop, the Sirens and Fitz Swing, and the Cheese and Wine evening held by the Sirens with support from a Fitz mixed a cappella quartet and from Simon King at the Steinway giving us themes from the movies. Fitz Swing also performed an exceedingly well-attended

John Cleaver

On 22 May 2018 Fitz’s student musicians welcomed Senyor Josep Carreras to his Honorary Fellowship with a concert of Catalan music performed in the Chapel.

A collective of singers accompanied by medieval harp and a battery of percussion instruments presented a catchy set of pilgrimage songs from medieval Montserrat. Pierre Riley (PhD Music 2016) and Simon King (Chemical Engineering 2017) performed some exquisitely poetic Mompou piano miniatures, and Rob Nicholas (NatSci 2016), Hannah Sherry (MML 2017) and Richard Bateman (PhD English 2013) gave Soler’s Fandango a spirited rendering.

evening Auditorium gig of their own in Michaelmas Term. The Orchestra on the Hill (with several Fitz members including Pierre Riley as directing soloist) and the newly-formed Hill Chorus both performed at Fitzwilliam this year.

Outreach has continued to be an important element of music at Fitz, and we’ve once again hosted workshops for young string players from Martin Outram and Akiko Ono along with the Young Women’s Conducting Workshop, and a visit from Cambridge Youth Opera.

For all things music at Fitzwilliam and to find out more about Cat Groom, visit: www.fitz.cam.ac.uk/music

Oliver Vanderpoorten

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Pictured a selection of the pottery produced by current student Milia K.K. Hau (MPhil World History 2017) displayed at the Fitz Fine Arts Exhibition on 22–25 June 2018 in the Old SCR. The exhibition, which also included paintings, photography, drawings, and collage by current students, was organised by Oliver Vanderpoorten (MRes Sensor Technologies and Applications 2015), President of the Fitzwilliam Fine Arts Society.

COLLAGE: more than just cutting-and-pasting Established in 2016 by a group of third-year undergraduates, the College’s Collage Society continues to grow

“The best thing about it is the serendipity; you never really know what you’re going to come across that will inspire you”

More than a century has passed since Cubism founders Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque began experimenting with mixed media, giving rise to the ‘collage’ artistic concept we are all familiar with today.

magazines, all of which are provided by the Society at their meetings, and a little bit of imagination!

Collage does, however, throw up some unique challenges that one might not encounter in other creative pursuits. “It Derived from the French verb ‘coller’ can be frustrating when you’re looking for meaning ‘to paste’, collage is much more a specific image to finish off a piece and can’t find it in the material available, or you than just cutting-and-pasting. “I find it to be a very therapeutic pastime,” says struggle to find the perfect background Melissa Dicks (Anglo-Saxon, Norse and for your collage,” shares Melissa, whose favourite magazine to use when collaging Celtic 2015), Secretary of the Fitzwilliam College Collage Society (FCCS), which was is New Scientist. She and other Society members also find great inspiration in old set up over two years ago. “Collage Society copies of National Geographic, Time and art meetings are always really relaxed: we put on some music and chat a bit, but mostly catalogues, as they have both good images everyone’s ‘in the zone’ and focused on their and interesting fonts. “The best thing about it for me is the serendipity; you never really art,” she adds. Last year during exam term the FCCS organised a joint event with the know what you’re going to come across University’s Mindfulness Society to give that will inspire you until you flick through students a calming and creative break from some old magazines and have a go”. revision, which proved to be very popular.

Scissors and glue, anyone?

Studies have indeed shown that collage as part of art therapy may, for example, aid in You can find out more about the Collage the process of reminiscence in individuals Society on their Facebook page: with dementia1 or reduce the rate of school @fitzcollegecollagesoc absenteeism in children with mental health 1 Woolhiser Stallings, J.S. 2010. Collage as a problems2.

In addition to its potential therapeutic benefits, collage is a very accessible medium that everyone can enjoy. It doesn’t require any specialist equipment nor technical ability or training; all that is required is a pair of scissors, glue,

therapeutic modality for reminiscence in patients with dementia. Art Therapy 27(3): 136–140.

DOI: 10.1080/07421656.2010.10129667 Takata, Y. 2008. Support by a nurse teacher in a school infirmary using collage therapy. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences 56(4): 371–379.

DOI: 10.1046/j.1440-1819.2002.01025.x

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reading

BOOKS BY MEMBERS

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UNION JACK: JOHN F. KENNEDY’S SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GREAT BRITAIN

ZEEBRUGGE 1918: THE GREATEST RAID OF ALL

FAITH IN CONFLICT: THE IMPACT OF THE GREAT WAR ON THE FAITH OF THE PEOPLE OF BRITAIN

Christopher Sandford (History 1974) Christopher Sandford (History 1974) March 2018 | Casemate Publishers Stuart Bell (Theology 1984) February 2018 | The History Press July 2017 | Helion and Company From his speaking style to his tastes in art, Kennedy’s personality reflected his deep affinity for a certain kind of idealised Englishness. Setting his work against a backdrop of some of the 20th century’s most profound events, Sandford tracks Kennedy’s exploits in Great Britain between 1935 and 1963, and looks in depth at the unique way Britain shaped JFK.

THE DIGITAL CRITIC: LITERARY CULTURE ONLINE David Winters (Fellow) et al. (eds) February 2018 | OR Books

The combined forces invasion of the Belgian port of Zeebrugge on 23 April 1918 remains one of Britain’s most glorious military undertakings. The essential story of the Zeebrugge mission has been told before, but never through the direct, first-hand accounts of its survivors – including that of Lieutenant Richard Sandford, VC, the author’s great uncle.

WORKING WITH CODERS: A GUIDE TO SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT FOR THE PERPLEXED NON-TECHIE Patrick Gleeson (Classics 2004) July 2017 | Apress

NEWSPRINT METROPOLIS: CITY PAPERS AND THE MAKING OF MODERN AMERICANS Julia Guarneri (Fellow) Nov 2017 | University of Chicago Press

It may seem obvious that the Great War, with its immense cost in terms of lives lost and injuries of body and mind incurred, must have had a significant impact on the religious faith of the British people. There is much anecdotal evidence to support that perception, but how typical of the wider population of combatants and civilians were those stories?

At the close of the 19th century, new printing and paper technologies fuelled an expansion of the newspaper business. Newspapers quickly saturated the US, especially its cities, which were often home to more than a dozen daily papers apiece. Newsprint Metropolis offers a vivid tour of these papers, from the front to the back pages.

RE:CYCLISTS - 200 YEARS ON TWO WHEELS Michael Hutchinson (LLM/PhD Law 1993) February 2018 | Bloomsbury Sport

LITERATURE, BELIEF AND KNOWLEDGE IN EARLY MODERN ENGLAND: KNOWING FAITH Subha Mukherji (Fellow) and Tim Stuart-Buttle (eds) July 2018 | Palgrave Macmillan

What do we think of when we think of literary critics?

Enlightenment snobs in powdered wigs? Professional experts? Cloistered academics?

Through the end of the 20th century, book review columns and literary magazines held onto an evolving but stable critical paradigm, premised on expertise, objectivity, and carefully measured response.

And then the Internet happened.

Get introduced to the fascinating world inhabited by the professional software developer.

Aimed at a non-technical audience, this book aims to de-obfuscate the jargon, explain the various activities that coders undertake, and analyze the specific pressures, priorities, and preoccupations that developers are prone to.

Re:Cyclists tells the story of cycling’s glories and despairs, of how it only just avoided extinction in the 1960s motoring boom. And finally, at the dawn of the 21st century, it celebrates how cycling rose again - a little different, a lot more fashionable, but still about the same simple pleasures that it always has been: the wind in your face and the thrill of two-wheeled freedom.

The primary aim of Knowing Faith is to uncover the intervention of literary texts and approaches in a wider conversation about religious knowledge: why we need it, how to get there, where to stop, and how to recognise it once it has been attained. The book should appeal to, among others, scholars of early modern literature and culture, and theologians.

ISLANDER: A JOURNEY AROUND OUR ARCHIPELAGO

ANIMAL KINGDOM: A NATURAL HISTORY IN 100 OBJECTS

PIG/PORK: ARCHAEOLOGY, ZOOLOGY AND EDIBILITY

Patrick Barkham (SPS 1994) October 2017 | Granta Books

Jack Ashby (Zoology 2000) October 2017 | The History Press

STUDYING ARCTIC FIELDS: CULTURAL PRACTICES, AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

In this evocative and vividly observed book, Barkham explores some of the most beautiful landscapes in the British Isles as he travels to eversmaller islands in search of their special magic. They are places where the past is unusually present, but they can also offer a vision of an alternative future.

Meeting all kinds of islanders, he seeks to discover what it is like to live on a small island, and what it means to be an islander.

Through a selection of 100 museum objects, telling 100 stories, this beautifully illustrated book explores the diversity of animal life over the past 600 million years, and delves into some of the most exciting mechanisms in evolution. By understanding some of the key stories of how nature operates, we can gain amazing insight into the systems underlying life itself.

Richard C. Powell (Fellow) December 2017 | McGill-Queen’s University Press In recent years the circumpolar region has emerged as the key to understanding global climate change yet little is reported about the social world of environmental scientists in the Arctic. What happens at the isolated sites where experts seek to answer the most pressing questions facing the future of humanity?

Pia Spry-Marqués (Communications) July 2017 | Bloomsbury Sigma Pig/Pork explores the love-hate relationship between humans and pigs through the lenses of archaeology, biology, history and gastronomy, providing a close and affectionate look at the myriad causes underlying this multi-millennial bond. What is it that people in all four corners of the world find so fascinating about the pig?

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interview with a Fellow

Dr Cora Uhlemann The cosmologist studying the dark ages of our Universe

I

grew up in central Germany, in Gera, a city in the federal state of Thuringia. In 2007 I moved to Munich to study Physics at the city’s Technical University. Both of my parents had also studied Physics at university although my mother wasn’t too keen I follow in their footsteps! She would have preferred for me to read Engineering which, funnily enough, my sister ended up studying.

Whilst studying Physics, I realised that I really enjoyed its maths component so I ended up also studying Mathematics at the nearby Ludwig Maximilian University. LMU was then my academic home until 2015, when I finished my PhD in Cosmology.

My cosmological research tries to describe the skeleton of all the matter in the Universe and how it formed. A sort of baby picture of the Universe. The earliest snapshot we have is from around 13 billion years ago and there isn’t much there.

In the beginning, the Universe was very hot and light was ‘trapped’ by scattering in plasma. This early Universe is opaque and can’t be

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observed directly. After a long time (about 380,000 years), the Universe cooled down leading to the formation of neutral atoms. Their presence meant that light was no longer scattered, but instead was able to travel through them.

Some part of the white noise/static on our TVs today comes from this afterglow of the early universe, called the ‘cosmic microwave background’! Until about 1 billion years, this was almost all the light in the universe; we call this period the Dark Ages. During this time, dark matter gradually gathered and finally traced out a large-scale skeleton-like structure. In particularly dense regions, this led to the gradual emergence of stars and galaxies, and the Dark Ages were no more.

My latest paper, ‘Cylinders out of a top hat’*, looks at how many galaxies we can find within circular patches on the sky. I always try to come up with funny titles for my articles although some colleagues have told me it’s a silly thing to do, even if it helps them remember the title and paper more easily!

Scientists have yet to agree on the timing of the earliest galaxy formation although we know it’s less than one billion years after the Big Bang.

The most common misconception about my field is that ‘it’s just a theory’.

It is a theory, but one that can fit several independent observations from different epochs with one set of parameters!

2016 Nobel Laureate Meeting for Physics: I presented my PhD research as part of the event’s ‘Bavarian evening’, which is why I was wearing a traditional ‘dirndl’ dress

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Sky plots of the (left) initial distribution of matter of the Universe as seen in the cosmic microwave background (measurements from PLANCK survey, enhanced by a factor of 100,000); (middle) the dark matter distribution showing the large-scale skeleton of our Universe (results from KIGEN cosmological simulation); and (right) the galaxy distribution in the local Universe with the Milky Way in front in the centre and colour indicating distance (measurements from 2MASS survey)

A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes by Professor Stephen Hawking is a popular science must-read for anybody wanting to learn more about cosmology.

I was in Korea recently attending a conference and visiting colleagues who are running simulations that allow testing of my theories. One of the greatest things about being an academic is being able to attend conferences all around the world, especially as I really like to travel.

I once attended a conference on a cruise ship on the Mediterranean; the organisers called it the ‘Cosmo Cruise’! Of the 2500 people on board, only 50–100 were cosmologists attending the event. After dinner we would discuss cosmology in the ship’s whirlpool - the non-cosmologist guests looked puzzled by our conversations.

I love English Bulldogs. I used to have one, and now I collect all manner of things depicting this breed: from postcards to posters, advertisements, figures, soft toys, etc., very much to the amusement of my partner.

Dr Cora Uhlemann is a Research Fellow at Fitzwilliam College and a Research Associate at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP), University of Cambridge. www.fitz.cam.ac.uk/cora-uhlemann http://corauhlemann.webs.com * Uhlemann, C., Pichon, C., Codis, S., L’Huillier, B., Kim, J., Bernardeau, F., Park, C., and Prunet, S. 2018. Cylinders out of a top hat: Counts-in-cells for projected densities. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 477 (2): 2772–2785.

DOI: 10.1093/mnras/sty664

P27 FITZWILLIAM COLLEGE NEWSLETTER

optima

Forthcoming events Issue 24 | 2018

FITZWILLIAM COLLEGE NEWSLETTER

2018 21–23 September - 84th Reunion Weekend

Editor: Dr Pia Spry-Marqués (Communications Officer) Editorial advisors: Dr John Cleaver (Life Fellow) Dr Nicola Jones (Development Director) Donna Thomas (Deputy Development Director) Hannah Ellis-Jones (Development Officer) Carol Lamb (Development Officer) E: optima@fitz.cam.ac.uk W: www.fitz.cam.ac.uk/optima Cover: Fellow Dr James Aitken and Head Porter Stuart Douglas lead the procession to Senate House on Graduation Day (30 June 2018).

Photo credit: Professor Bhaskar Vira.

25 October - Foundation Lecture (see details below) 10 November - Careers Fair 6 December - Varsity Gathering and Varsity Matches (Women’s and Men’s)

2019 5 March - London Drinks (venue TBC) 9 May - London Dinner (venue TBC) 15 June - 150th Anniversary Donors Garden Party 15 June - Past v Present Cricket Match and Dinner 6 July - 1969–2019 Golden Matriculation Reunion 27–29 September - 85th Reunion Weekend

The magazine’s wrapping film uses natural biopolymers, consisting mainly of potato and maize starch, which are fully sustainable. There is no polythene in this product so when it degrades there are no microplastics left in the soil/watercourse.

It conforms to EN13432 so its fully compostable in your household compost heap.

See the website for more details: www.fitz.cam.ac.uk/alumni or contact Carol Lamb at events@fitz.cam.ac.uk

Foundation Lecture 2018 25 October | 6pm | Auditorium ‘A Feast and a Famine: James Joyce’s “The Dead”’

PROFESSOR PAUL MULDOON

Registered Charity No. 1137496 @fitzwilliamcoll #FitzwilliamCollege

Beowulf Sheehan

Fitzwilliam College Storey’s Way, Cambridge CB3 0DG

Howard G.B. Clark’21 University Professor in the Humanities, Princeton Atelier, and Fitzwilliam College Honorary Fellow The lecture is free and open to all.

BOOK YOUR PLACE AT: WWW.FITZ.CAM.AC.UK/FOUNDATION