Linacre News 2024 by LinacreCollege

LINACRE NEWS

FPrincipal Thoughts

I have always known, instinctively, that friendships are not only fundamental to happiness, but also have a strong influence on our ability to achieve. Belonging to a college which offers the opportunity to form life-long connections is undoubtedly an important factor in helping our students thrive. Good friendships can lead to positive development and better mental health. It also helps us to understand why, when those social networks were ripped apart during the Covid pandemic, so many of our members struggled, both emotionally and academically.

Recent research on a large cohort of engineering students at ETH Zurich showed that those who formed close friendships did better than students without. Interestingly, strategic networks were not formed based on who was best at the subject matter; instead, students

were much more likely to give and receive academic support from close friends, regardless of their subject knowledge.

I have been reminded of the powerful role of friendships at Linacre on several occasions this term. Just last week, I chanced upon three students huddled over a laptop in the small common room in deep technical discussion. One I know is a Material Scientist, the other two, I believe, were a Geographer and an Economist. What they had in common was a close friendship forged as housemates at College. They shared a sense of community which fostered an inspiring space for discussion and debate. I am sure that most of us can relate to this and are still in touch with an old friend from the Boat Club or the room next door.

A further reminder of Linacre’s ability to bring people together was receiving, from Professor Franco Gianturco, a delightful photograph of his Oxford wedding to fellow Linacre student, Carolyn, in 1967. This was possibly the first Linacre wedding but it was definitely not the last.

Gaining an education is not the only benefit of going to a collegiate university. For many, the relationships shaped at College are among the most profound aspects of their University experience. I hope that you too have enjoyed long and happy Linacre friendships that have brought you contentment and success.

Nick Leimu-Brown The Principal

Alumni Office Developments

The 2023-24 academic year was filled with interesting projects, travelling to meet alumni, and fundraising successes. Both within College and amongst the alumni community we have been busy furthering our aims of providing for an improved student experience.

As many of you probably know, our student numbers have increased significantly over the last 10-15 years, with Linacre now having about 750 students each academic year. This tends to be a mixture of roughly 50% DPhil and 50% master’s students from a wide variety of backgrounds and nationalities. Linacre also remains highly international, but postBrexit we have seen a decrease in students from the EU.

Much of what I do in my role at Linacre is to work towards us being able to properly support every single one of our students. Being a relatively young college with a smaller endowment income than most other Oxford colleges, we are still playing catch-up and this means we are often unable to offer the same level of student support as the wealthier colleges. This is especially noticeable when it comes to helping students in unexpected hardship, or when offering travel and conference grants. Over the last few years, we have made great strides in filling that gap, thanks to some wonderfully supportive alumni donors, but we still have a long way to go before this will cease to be a priority for us.

In good news, we have established several new scholarships over the

last year, including a scholarship for Canadian students, and a new fund to support students and researchers from Vietnam and surrounding countries. I am also pleased that since last autumn, we can award a Linacre Scholarship in Humanities to a master’s student from Africa through our Linacre Scholarship Fund. This year’s student is from Nigeria and will be studying for a degree in Music.

Though there is plenty still to get on with, I am confident that

the work we are doing will keep improving the lives of our students both now and into the future. I am looking forward to a new academic year and to meeting many of you around the world.

Lisa Smårs Head of Alumni Relations and Development

Flagship Bamborough Refurbishment

The decarbonised and fully renovated Bamborough Building opened to summer school students in June and welcomes its first Linacre cohort during Michaelmas term. The £2.4 million flagship refurbishment project offers 24 ensuite study bedrooms, fully accessible student facilities, improved student living conditions and a major step in reducing the environmental impact of the College estate.

Designed to maintain the character of the building while making the most of its fantastic views, the Bamborough offers modern student living along with the latest technology for enhancing thermal performance. Better utilisation of the roof space has allowed for 5 extra bedrooms and all 24 bedrooms are now ensuite. The bottom floor of the Bamborough also features a fully accessible bedroom, kitchen and dedicated

accessible entrance for students with additional needs.

The refurbishment scheme is part of a wider project to remove reliance on gas across the Linacre estate and significantly reduce the carbon footprint of the College. Along with the Bamborough Building, the project also oversaw the decarbonisation of the OC Tanner and Abraham Buildings.

Each of these properties have now been fitted with air source heat pump technology and significantly improved insulation.

The second phase of the project will soon be underway and will aim to decarbonise seven offsite student properties, representing 50% of the entire Linacre estate. The ultimate goal is to fully remove the reliance on gas in all of the College buildings.

Principal, Nick Leimu-Brown, cut the ribbon to officially re-open the Bamborough Building under blue skies in June. He says of the occasion;

“I was thrilled to inaugurate the newly refurbished Bamborough Building, transformed to exemplary energy-efficiency standards, setting a benchmark for sustainable living and providing our students with

a comfortable, eco-friendly home away from home.”

Further images of the refurbished Bamborough Building can be viewed on the College website and a video showcasing the flagship project is currently underway.

Board of Trustees

This year, Linacre became the first Oxford college to amend its governance structure to include a Board of Trustees. Chair of the Board, Femi Macaulay, shares below an update of their work on the College’s strategic priorities.

Since its inception at the beginning of this year, the Linacre College Trustee Board has met four times and made tremendous progress in advancing the College’s strategic priorities and governance. The Board's efforts have been instrumental in shaping the College’s direction and ensuring that its operations are aligned with our mission and values.

One of the Board’s first priorities has been the comprehensive review and ratification of College regulations and policies. This thorough examination ensures that our governing documents are up-to-date and reflective of best practices. This step is crucial in maintaining transparency, accountability, and consistency in the College’s operations. In addition to policy review, the Board has appointed trustees to eight college committees. These committees are vital in overseeing various aspects of College life, from academic affairs to student welfare, and ensuring that each area receives the dedicated attention and expertise it requires. The inclusion of trustees in these committees strengthens the governance framework and provides a direct link between the Board and the committees, facilitating better communication and decisionmaking. The Board has also been proactive in addressing matters of concern raised either in committees or brought directly before the

Trustee Board. This responsiveness underscores the Board's commitment to addressing issues promptly and effectively, fostering a culture of continuous improvement within the College.

Looking ahead, a major focus for the Board will be the development of the College’s strategic plan. In collaboration with the Principal and the senior management team, we will embark on a process to establish a clearly defined strategic direction for Linacre College. This will involve a thorough review of the current strategic plan to assess its effectiveness and relevance. The Board will work to validate or revise the plan as needed, ensuring that it

continues to advance the College’s mission and adapts to changing circumstances and opportunities.

We are committed to engaging with the entire Linacre community throughout this process. Input from students, staff, alumni, and other stakeholders will be invaluable in shaping a strategic plan that is both ambitious and achievable. The aim is to create a roadmap that not only reflects our shared aspirations but also provides clear, actionable steps towards achieving them.

Femi

Macaulay (1983) Chair of the Board of Trustees

Meet the Trustees

Tarick El-Baba is an EPA Junior Research Fellow and a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Chemistry within the collaborative environment of the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery. He says;

"I am excited to have the opportunity to shape our aims and visions, especially from the perspective of the JRF community, during a key phase of Linacre’s growth."

Elizabeth Ewart is a Linacre Fellow and Associate Professor in the Anthropology of Lowland South America, Elizabeth served as Head of the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography until 2021. She says;

"I feel it is important for the Fellowship of the College to play an active role in its governance and my hope is that the new Board of Trustees will listen and remain open to the concerns and aspirations of the Fellowship, staff and students."

Rob Iliffe is currently Professor of History of Science in the History Faculty, and has just completed a three-year term as the History Faculty Board Chair.

"I am strongly committed to the social and academic ethos that Linacre embodies, and hope to use my experience in academic administration to contribute effectively to the governance of the College’."

Man Yee Kan is a Professor of Sociology at Oxford, with research interests centred on the formation, reproduction, and transformation of social inequalities, particularly gender inequalities. Her association with Oxford spans over two decades, beginning as a graduate student in 1999.

"I am eager to contribute to the enhancement of Linacre's governance and to elevate its academic and public profiles."

Jack Flower is a forth year DPhil Cancer Science student working within the Department of Oncology, affiliated with the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, and is also the Linacre Common Room President. He says;

"My aspirations for the new Board of Trustees include maintaining strong communication and relationships between Linacre CR members and those that run the College itself. Through providing a student perspective, I foresee an opportunity to truly promote change warranted primarily by the CR community."

Asma Mustafa is a Sociologist who has devoted her career to exploring the broad intersections of identity, religion, and common values within the context of British society. She has been a Linacre Fellow for over a decade, during which she served as Senior Tutor from 2014-2016. Asma says;

"As Trustees, we will try to ensure that the College’s trust assets are protected and used for the benefit of its students and fellows."

Meet the Trustees

David Hagan completed a DPhil in Physical Chemistry at Linacre in 1991, he then spent two years in post-doctoral research in Paris, before moving to the financial services sector in London. He says;

"Having had the privilege of a university education, and a really positive post-graduate experience at Linacre, it is important to me to give something back to College life - for staff, fellows and students. My key areas of interest, that are relevant to being a Trustee, are with Governance, Investments and Risk Management.”

Sarah Scott completed an MSc in Evidence Based Social Interventions at Linacre in 2012 and has subsequently worked in regulation, investigation and oversight, primarily in the Civil Service. Sarah says;

"I am excited to see the new Board of Trustees bring out the best in each other and the College and embody the best parts of the Linacre spirit as we (hopefully) provide a valuable sounding board for the College leadership team.

Pete Mandeville is Head of the University’s Proctors’ Office, an independent body within Oxford that enables the work of the Proctors in their governance and scrutiny role. Pete says;

"My interest and experience in good governance and oversight is what appeals to me, particularly as the Trustee Board establishes itself. The importance of having good checks and balances can easily be overlooked but is fundamental to avoiding major problems and having confidence in a system."

Simon Travis is the Professor of Clinical Gastroenterology in Oxford, working on inflammation across tissues at the Kennedy Institute with some of the world’s top scientists. Simon says of being a Trustee;

"Linacre is the first college in Oxford to adopt Charity Commission criteria for governance and transparency, so it is natural to want to be part of that."

Ian Mills is a translational research scientist working on prostate cancer and currently the John Black Professor of Prostate Cancer within the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences. He is also the Deputy Head of that Department and a Linacre Fellow. Ian says;

"I believe that having external trustees increases the diversity of views and the depth of discussion on the key matters affecting the College. I hope that the Board will provide the forum to refine and stress test College strategy and governance without changing the ethos and spirit of Linacre."

Expanding Frontiers

Dr Alex Cameron is an astrophysicist and the Carolyn and Franco Gianturco JRF at Linacre. He is a member of JADES, a joint NIRCam + NIRSpec GTO program which is using the James Webb Space Telescope to provde unprecedented new insights in to the early Universe. Here he shares a fascinating insight in to how the project is expanding frontiers.

Where do we come from? It is a question we have all asked at some point. In terms of the atoms in your body, all the elements essential for planets and life were forged in stars. Our solar system is over four billion years old, meaning the oxygen you are breathing and the iron in your bloodstream formed in stars that were long dead before this time. Understanding our cosmic history therefore requires us to go back to the earliest generations of stars that formed into the first galaxies in the early Universe.

Staring back in time

Astronomers are fortunate in being able to study the past directly simply by looking out into the

distant Universe, since light can only travel at a finite speed. As a kid growing up under the clear skies of rural Australia, I used to wonder how far I could see and ask whether the stars I was looking at were still alive today. In truth, the furthest we can see with the naked eye is “only” about two million light years (the Andromeda galaxy). Two million years is a long time compared to the existence of the human race, but it is quite short in the lives of most stars, and only 0.01 % of the 13.8-billion-year age of the Universe.

What is the farthest we can look back in time? This question has driven generations of astronomers

to construct bigger, more sensitive telescopes to peer back into the cosmos. When it comes to telescopes, bigger really is better. The other challenge astronomers must contend with is that, as light travels to us across our expanding Universe, it gets stretched to longer wavelengths. This means that what left distant galaxies as visible light will arrive to us as infrared light. Unfortunately, the Earth’s atmosphere is very good at absorbing infrared light, meaning there is no point building a dedicated infrared telescope on the ground. If we want a telescope to study the distant Universe, we need to launch it into space.

Expanding the frontiers of the Universe

Overcoming these challenges was the design brief for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). With a primary mirror almost seven metres across, it is the largest telescope ever launched into space, specifically designed to hunt for the earliest stars. It is an extremely complicated machine that has had its fair share of setbacks over more than thirty years in the making.

A seven-metre mirror does not fit in a rocket without being folded up, so JWST sports 18 hexagonal mirrors which can be controlled independently with sub-nanometre precision to function as one. The European-built onboard spectrograph “NIRSpec” relies on a quarter of a million magnetically controlled microscopic shutters. These massively boost efficiency and sensitivity but came with no guarantee that they would survive the stresses of a rocket launch. All of this is shielded from the sun by five tennis-court-sized layers of “Kapton” material which had to be deployed and tensioned remotely in zero gravity. And, with JWST’s destination 1.5 million kilometres

away, there was never any chance of a rescue mission if any one of these components failed.

Frankly, it is a recipe for disaster! But after a successful launch on Christmas Day 2021, one by one astronomers ticked off successful deployments of mission critical components, until July 2022 when we were treated to the incredible first images. As a member of the JWST/NIRSpec Instrument Science Team, along with colleagues in Oxford and across Europe, I had the privilege of playing a small part in this initial calibration. We can all now confidently say: it was worth the wait! In fact, the construction was performed so diligently that JWST ended up being twice as sensitive as planned.

The mysteries of the early Universe

In the two years since those first images, our team at Oxford has been heavily involved in the cutting-edge work of pushing this new facility to the limits and riding the surprises along the way. We have found galaxies more distant than any we knew of before, already forming stars less than

400 million years after the Big Bang. These galaxies were already surprisingly rich with elements like carbon, nitrogen and oxygen, suggesting the first stars formed very early and lived very short lives. We are finding more bright galaxies at these early times than theoretical models predicted, suggesting these early stars were different to present day stars –seemingly much hotter and more massive.

Despite all we have learned from these early observations, most of the work is still ahead of us. Large, systematic studies are ongoing to continue to piece together the picture of how early galaxies grow. For all our exciting discoveries, the holy grail of our search – finding the very first generation of chemically pristine stars – still eludes us. It remains to be seen whether we find these with JWST, or if we will have to wait for the next generation of telescopes. It all depends on what the Universe has in store for us. The thrill of working at the frontier of the Universe is not knowing what we will find just beyond the cosmic horizon.

Life Under the Golden Dome: Accelerating the Clean Energy Transition in the Colorado Senate

Senator Chris Hansen (2003) represents Central and East Denver in the Colorado State Senate. He completed a DPhil in Economic Geography at Linacre and shares here how he is helping Colorado trailblaze to become a leader in climate policy.

Scientists recently reported that 2023 was the world’s hottest year in recorded history. We know that climate driven impacts continue to escalate, and urgent action is needed to try to avoid the most serious long-term consequences. Between severe wildfires and more extreme and destructive storms, the impact on our landscapes and communities is unmistakable. In the US there has been a shortage of action at the federal level (with the notable exception of the Inflation Reduction Act) so it has been left to

state capitals to lead the charge on climate policy.

In 2015, I decided to leave my job in the private sector to run for the state legislature and do my part to help solve some of the the complex problems in our society. As a lawmaker and parent, it is evident we have to do better. In Colorado, we have taken this challenge seriously and heard from our communities a clear demand for action on the climate crisis.

We have a real opportunity to set the standard across the United States for preventing the worst consequences of climate change and ensuring an equitable clean energy transition. Over the course of my time at the State Capitol, I have therefore worked on a number of energy and environmental bills which form part of a comprehensive climate strategy to invest in clean energy, enact better consumer protection, and embrace new technologies.

In 2019, we modernised the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) by giving the Commission the tools to address climate change, boost renewable energy development, and close coal-fired power plants. I followed this up in 2020 with the Renewable Natural Gas Standard bill which required the PUC to adopt renewable natural gas programs for large and small natural gas utilities . This laid out reporting requirements and a process for natural gas utilities to recover prudently incurred costs associated with renewable natural gas.

During the 2021 session, I introduced a bill requiring each gas distribution utility to file a clean heat plan that could demonstrate how they will meet clean heat targets. We also passed a bill which created the Colorado Energy Transmission Authority (CETA) and expanded electric transmission facilities to enable the state to meet its clean energy goals.

In 2022, I tried to introduce a bill to reduce overall Greenhouse Gas

Emissions but sadly this died on the final day of the session. I was however able to bring it back and pass it, better and stronger, in 2023. The Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Package established a multi-faceted approach recognising that we need every part of the economy (individuals, businesses and state regulators) to act together in order to mitigate the climate crisis. The legislation requires our state to reach 100% net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050, an ambitious, yet achievable, goal that aligns with the global scientific consensus. The bill also establishes a first-of-its-kind system which incentivises the purchase of electric lawn equipment to reduce the use of small, but highly polluting, fossil-fuel powered engines, and penalises utilities who are too slow to incorporate clean energy projects.

The 2024 Legislative Session concluded in May and a suite of new legislation was signed that will allow Colorado to make proactive investments in the local grid and keep up with population and economic growth, while prioritising

action to address climate shortfalls. Opening the door for more people to access renewable energy technology, such as solar, is an important step in meeting our climate goals. We are working to connect more Coloradans to community solar, and to echo the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) historic investments in scaling clean energy technologies which was signed into law by President Biden. Expanding access to clean energy requires access to a robust grid and means Colorado needs to urgently improve its distribution systems. Excitiingly, Bill SB24-218 includes a series of policy changes to build the local electric grid of the future and enable virtual power plants. This upgrade will help communities and utility consumers electrify heating and cooling in buildings, accelerate the deployment of electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure and solar energy, and reduce air pollution.

These policies are coming at a critical moment as we aim to make Colorado a global leader in the clean energy transition. Time is short, and many climate denying special interests are lined up against us. As a father, this work is deeply personal for me. My goal in the legislature is to use every tool at our disposal to make a difference and I am always looking for new innovative ways to move our state forward. We can not let this opportunity slip through our hands. It is essential to make these urgently-needed investments now to bring our state closer to addressing the climate crisis and to leave a better planet for my children and yours.

The Power of Sport

Lucy Slavin (2014) is a Research and Insight Specialist at the Youth Sport Trust. She studied for an MSc in Education and Child development at Linacre whilst also throwing herself into as many sporting opportunities as possible. She shares in this article how her time at Oxford has shaped her career aspirations today.

I was a member of Linacre College Boat Club, winning a blade, and I played netball for the University. I have fond memories of Oxford and still have a weekly call with a group of international Linacre friends. I originally trained as a primary school teacher at Durham University, and as for many, my time at Oxford guided me to understand what I wanted to do with my career. For me that was research that made a difference to the lives of as many children and young people as possible.

After roles at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) and The British Red Cross, I had the dream opportunity to combine my two passions of sport and research

within the charity sector at the Youth Sport Trust.

The Youth Sport Trust is a children’s charity that empowers young people with the vision of creating a future where every child can enjoy the life changing benefits of play and sport. As a research team, we combine academic excellence with immediate access to beneficiaries and programme development. Evidence and insight are the driving forces behind everything we do and research is embedded into every aspect of the charity’s activities. We recently conducted a piece of analysis to identify the areas of greatest need across the UK. This work enabled the organisation to identify target areas to ensure that we are working with those young

people who need it the most.

In 2023 it was found that over 20% of children aged 8 to 16 in England have a probable mental health disorder, 23.4% of year six children in England are obese and 78% of parents believe that children are spending too much time online. The findings are stark for a sector which is operating against a harsh backdrop where the impact of covid lockdowns still manifest itself in young people’s lives, the digital age is causing increasingly sedentary lifestyles and conflict across the world is leading to anxiety.

Working with young people from diverse backgrounds, we have to continually innovate and reimagine our research

The majority of families surveyed (88%) reported that the equipment bag helped to give them ideas of how to be active and move more at home. I conducted interviews with families to hear about how they had methodologies. We are committed in ensuring that every child’s voice is heard through our research and regularly run campaigns to lobby the Government for change. Research and statistics must form the bedrock of any campaign to ensure credibility and maximise impact. Our research informed the #AtWhatCost campaign which helped the trust successfully lobby for the extension of £600M of funding to schools.

A continual challenge is balancing academic rigor with the trials of being a small team. We regularly partner with academic institutions on projects and run a cross-sector, biannual research and insight conference aimed at mobilising research to build a stronger collective evidence and narratives. This brings together academics, policy makers and others from across the charity sector. Alongside this we produce an annual state of the nation report – The PE and School Sport Report – which we see as being the one-stop-shop for all of the latest research and evidence on the issues facing young people in the UK today and how sport and physical activity can support them.

Our latest report, released in June 2024, shows that currently only 47% of children are meeting the minimum physical activity levels and 1 in 5 children in England are obese or overweight by the time they are five years old. Children who are physically active on a regular basis have better mental, physical and social wellbeing. However, only 30% of teachers and 31% of parents are aware that children should be active for 60 minutes or more a day. The report calls for us to deliver societal change to elevate the role physical activity plays in children’s day to day life.

As a charity we are always

considering innovative ways to expose children and young people to the power of sport and play. Last summer we partnered with the Reading Agency’s Summer Reading Challenge. The annual challenge was themed ‘Ready Set Read’ and engaged nearly 700,000 children across over 3,000 libraries. As part of the initiative, targeted libraries piloted an equipment bag loan scheme where local families could hire a backpack of fun equipment to help them to be active as a family. This was something completely new for libraries and instigated new partnership links in their community, for example with local leisure providers and sports clubs.

found the scheme and it was one of the most heart-warming projects I have worked on – families were so thankful for the equipment packs as for many they had not had access to that type of equipment before. One parent said;

"As a low-income family it was massive for us. Things from our wish list were available in the kit or the loan pack."

I love my job and I am so lucky to have found a place where I feel as though I am making a difference every day. Sport gives young people a platform to have their voice heard and a space to feel they belong. Rowing and netball gave me the opportunity to build a community during my time in Oxford, and I believe my work has the power to change young lives today and help build a brighter future for them tomorrow.

Interview

What are your memories of Linacre as a student in 1964?

I had been an undergraduate at Somerville, but at that time it provided very few facilities for graduate students. I was taught as an undergraduate by Sir David Smith, a notable botanist who happened to be one of the founding senior members of Linacre, and he inspired me to apply to Linacre for my postgraduate study.

I was struck by how grown up the College community felt, and the fact that it was so wonderfully diverse and welcoming. While far fewer students lived in College back then, Linacre still managed to have a great social life.

I will be forever thankful for its supportive community and the pastoral care that I received. Bam and Rupert Cecil were between them a great double act!

After completing her undergraduate studies in agriculture at Somerville College, Priscilla Baines came to Linacre in 1964 to research agricultural economics. In 1968, she joined the House of Commons Library where she worked for almost forty years.

As (almost) a member of our founders’ cohort, we were delighted to catch up with Priscilla about her fascinating career at the House of Commons, her memories of Linacre and her plans for the future.

Tell us about your career in the House of Commons?

I first worked in administration in part of London University and in 1968 applied for a research job in the House of Commons Library where I joined the team that provided a research service for MPs. Think tanks and similar organisations were not then widely established and the library research team was (and remains) an important source of information to support MPs with all aspects of their parliamentary and constituency work.

Our work was often intellectually challenging and taught us never to assume anything. It was always a bit strange to see the answer you had given to an inquiry repeated pretty much word-for-word in the Chamber, but that quite often happened. By 2000, I was the Librarian of the House of Commons and Head of Department. I retired in 2004 but have since written a book and continue to help with the occasional parliamentary project.

What were the greatest challenges while working at the House of Commons?

Time management and the very wide range of topics on which we had to provide information. The Library was open whenever the House was sitting, which could mean very long hours, and we had to be prepared to answer almost anything no matter when. MPs can be very demanding as they are always busy and we had to juggle urgent requests for information, mostly with short deadlines.

I started when we were entirely paper based, relying heavily on official government sources as well as newspapers, academic sources and other published material. It was essential to work out what information MPs really needed from us (sometimes that required some interpretation) and compile the research into an accessible format. Our mantra was ‘if we don’t know something, we can find it out’ but that was not always easy to achieve.

When the internet came in from the late 1980s, we moved slowly and sometimes painfully to online sources, including creating our own specialist online search tools for parliamentary material. That enabled near-instant access to an infinitely wider range of information but we always needed to evaluate our sources and ensure that our research maintained a high level of accuracy and impartiality.

What has been one of your greatest professional triumphs?

Keeping a big and complex ‘show on the road’ at the House of Commons Library through a period of transition to online sources while maintaining high standards of integrity, accuracy and impartiality in our work. We frequently worked with some very powerful personalities but it was not dull - politicians seldom are. We may have had to do some dull things in the course of our work, but as an environment it was intrinsically interesting and there was never time to be bored. I was very lucky in that respect.

You have generously left a legacy gift to Linacre in your Will. What led you to that decision?

I shall forever be grateful to the College for what it provided and the support I received during my studies. I have fond memories of the congenial atmosphere that continues to flourish at Linacre and would like others to have the opportunity to enjoy this wonderful education and community.

More than ever, we need universities to fulfil their role in

“I would like to see the brightest students coming to Linacre, irrespective of their financial background, to create the world’s future leaders."

society – to help solve some of the world’s most pressing problems as well as to educate students and provide them with the supportive and encouraging environment they need if they are to succeed. My parents felt strongly that their children should have a good education and sacrificed much to enable us to pursue that path. It feels right to leave the gift of education to the next generation if we can and help future generations to enjoy similar opportunities without the burden of huge debt weighing heavily upon them.

What do you hope that your legacy gift will achieve?

I was very struck by the many difficulties that students, particularly those from overseas, had to face during the COVID-19 pandemic and, of course, students are not immune to the cost-of-living crisis.

My generation was lucky not to be burdened with student debt and that, sadly, is not the case now. Organisations like Linacre need to have a financial cushion available for those facing sudden hardship through no fault of their own and my legacy should contribute in a small way to providing that. I would like to see the brightest students coming to Linacre, irrespective of their financial background, to create the world’s future leaders.

Leaving a Legacy

Leaving a legacy, bequest or planned gift to Linacre, whatever the size, will have a lasting impact here.

We are committed to providing opportunities for talented students from across the globe, regardless of their background or financial circumstances, so leaving a gift to College in your Will is an excellent way to make a difference to the next generation of students.

If you would like to inform us of your legacy intentions or if you are interested in finding out more about leaving a gift in your Will to Linacre, our Legacy and Planned Giving Manager, Verity Armstrong, would be happy to hear from you.

Please contact contact: legacies@linacre.ox.ac.uk

Further information can be found on the website: linacre.ox.ac.uk/alumni/ support-linacre

BLACK-ARTS

Briana

Applewhite

is a DPhil student at the Linacre Centre for

supervised by GB Fellow, Professor Morten Kringelbach.

When I was 7, my mother, my only parent, was deployed to Iraq 12 months after 9/11. When she left, I immersed myself in the one thing that brought me peace of mind, the piano. This new form of expression helped me process the powerful emotions I could not make sense of. I knew that this was my only way to cope with her absence and after 13 months, Mom was home safe and sound. Physically she was there, but emotionally, she was absent. Mom suffered from severe PTSD. At the time, I did not know what it was, but I did know that the only thing that seemed to soothe her troubled mind was my neophytic tinkering of the piano keys. Looking back, I realised that Mom needed me more than ever, and my new hobby seemed to be one of the only things to provide her with tranquillity.

While my passion for piano persists unyieldingly, my interest expanded into the field of psychiatry, specifically in the mental health of minoritised groups and their acquisition of adequate psychological care. As a Black woman, my mother faced considerable stigma in our community surrounding her mental disorder and seeking out psychological care whilst fearful of being judged made it more difficult. Now at Oxford pursuing my DPhil in Psychiatry, I am impassioned to create change and address these stigmas in mental health within the Black community while providing novel solutions to assist these individuals.

Despite an increasingly diverse

global population, minoritised groups, specifically Black people, continue to suffer from poorer mental health outcomes in comparison to their White counterparts. There is a large gap in the literature concerning the treatment of psychiatric disorders in young people from Black British backgrounds. In recent years, scholars have argued the need for culturally competent interventions for minority patients to address the unique needs of these populations. However, research in the UK regarding culturally competent mental health treatments has been largely inconclusive and rarely accounts for the intergroup differences of minority groups.

My DPhil work, entitled BLACKARTS, explores the usage of creative arts therapies, which include music, dance, visual arts, and drama, as viable and potentially culturally competent treatment options. Creative arts therapies are unique as they account for the shortcomings of psychotherapy, particularly overcoming language and cultural barriers because these treatments utilise predominately nonverbal modalities of selfexpression.

Given the necessity of culturally competent care in Black populations, can creative arts interventions be effective treatment solutions for Black people suffering from common mental disorders? To answer this question, the first study that I am conducting is a series of focus groups with Black young people aged 16-24 currently within

Eudaimonia

NHS psychological care. This study aims to investigate the attitudes of Black young people, on the use of creative arts for the improvement of their mental well-being and if they view these options as culturally relevant treatments.

The next phase will be putting the insights gathered from the focus groups into practice in a developed pilot study. I have partnered with the South London music charity, Grounded Sounds, whose mission is to create opportunities for disadvantaged young people to gain access and insights into music creation. For the pilot with Grounded Sounds, Black young people will take part in a programme called “Spotlight,” a 12-week music programme focused on the creation of original music and the development of songwriting and musicianship skills. Throughout the 12 weeks, I will be measuring the young people’s psychological symptoms for changes in emotional wellbeing.

The overarching goal of BLACKARTS is to expand new therapeutic solutions to NHS mental health services and provide novel solutions of healing for people who desperately need it. As a Black woman working in the field of psychiatry, I feel it is important to challenge the stigmas of mental health and provide culturally relevant solutions, so I am hopeful that the learnings from BLACK ARTS will provide a much-needed blueprint for making this happen.

Recipes for Making Ancient Glass

Dr Ashley Coutu is Research Curator (African Archaeology) and Deputy Head of Research at the Pitt Rivers Museum, she is also an Adjunct Fellow at Linacre. Ashley is particularly interested in the use of scientific techniques to trace trade networks and reveal the history of object lives.

It is a cold, grey day at the Pitt Rivers Museum. But the glass beads I am carrying within a carefully tied box in my gloved hands are bright sparks of vibrant colour. Carrying the beads also brings back memories of days I spent at the archaeological sites where they were excavated: Great Zimbabwe and Khami. My mind floats back to memories of time with colleagues on warm days spent surveying and mapping the

stone-walled structures at Great Zimbabwe, looking out across the vibrant colours of the plateau below. The whizz of a bicycle and a biting wind bring me quickly back to a grey Oxford day as I reach South Parks Road.

The box I am holding was custommade by my conservation colleague Andrew, made to shield the beads from anything that might

thwart their safe progress from the museum store room to the laser ablation laboratory in Earth Sciences. This is, of course, only one of the many journeys these beads have taken in the history of their object lives, which I will tell you a bit more about in this article.

The beads I am analysing with archaeologists Professor Shadreck Chirikure and Dr Victoria

Sainsbury were excavated from the impressive stone-walled cities of Great Zimbabwe and Khami, occupied between the 9th and the 19th century C. E. We know from archaeological research and oral histories that the people who were living at Great Zimbabwe and Khami traded with people throughout central, southern, and eastern Africa, and globally through the Indian Ocean world. The people living at these sites were trading materials such as ivory, salt, gold and copper.

These African materials moved along Indian Ocean trade routes in exchange for plants, animals, and glass beads. For example, we know from excavated faunal remains that the domestic chicken comes from Southeast Asia into southern Africa in the 8th century CE. Glass beads were one part of this exchange because people living in southern Africa wanted certain colours, shapes, and sizes that they could only get through trade, and that were unlike locally made beads of marine shell, ostrich eggshell, ivory and gold.

Many beads today are made with plastic or other synthetic materials, but in the past, glass was an incredibly durable material and was created and sought after to make beads of different shapes and sizes. Glass is made by heating silica sand, plant ash, limestone, or a combination of these, to the melting point. There are many ways to make glass, including the use of minerals or certain plants to create different colours and consistencies. All of this to say that there are many different recipes for making glass. We are interested in finding out the recipe that was used to make the ancient glass from sites in Zimbabwe. This is because the recipe is basically a fingerprint that tells us where the glass was made, so that we can start reconstructing trade routes across

To determine the recipe of the glass, it is necessary to take a very tiny sample of the glass to measure in a mass spectrometer to understand what chemicals and minerals were used to make that glass. And so that is where our colleague Professor Bernard Wood in the Department of Earth Sciences at Oxford comes in, and why we need to fire a laser at these ancient beads.

These beads are tiny. They are about 2-5 mm in diameter, which is about the size of a lentil. Even in the dim light of the Pitt Rivers Museum, they radiate their vivid colours of sea green, cobalt blue, canary yellow, and flaming red. They really sparkle and you can imagine why, tiny as they are, they were so desirable as objects of adornment. I like to think

of how they would have looked strung together, perhaps sewn onto clothing or worn against the skin, on someone standing on the top of the hill at Great Zimbabwe 1,000 years ago.

It is also perhaps surprising and amazing given their size that they were even found. They were excavated in the early years of the 1900s by Randall-MacIver, and at that time, archaeologists were not using sieves to find small artefacts such as beads.

We know from MacIver’s excavation records that most of the beads were found in the thousands in house floor deposits. The first curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Henry Balfour, went to Zimbabwe in 1905 and selected these beads from a range of archaeological materials when he visited the curator at the museum

the Indian Ocean into southern Africa in the 10th and 11th centuries.

in Bulawayo. This is where Oxford and empire are so intertwined: MacIver studied at Queen’s College and Balfour used his connections to colonial officers and anthropologists to bring objects back to Oxford for teaching and display in the museum.

The original interpretation and use of the beads was to understand social evolution of societies, comparing the ceramics and glass beads from Zimbabwe to archaeological sites in Europe. In these early museum displays and teachings, there was never any mention of the technology, ingenuity, or extensive global trade networks of the people who lived at Great Zimbabwe and Khami.

Together with colleagues from Zimbabwe and South Africa, our team has created alternative narratives in a new display for

these objects to give the visitor a history of the cities and global trade connections, but also to shed light on the colonial collecting history. We explain why and how the objects ended up in Oxford, so far from their place of origin, and so far from the Shona communities in Zimbabwe with whom they are connected, culturally and spiritually.

Reconnecting is all part of this story. These tiny pieces of glass, handcrafted with so much care and attention, were in contact with so many people over their thousand or so years in existence. For me, the new museum display, analysis, and reinterpretation of these beads are all part of their continuing journeys.

Looking at it from this perspective, the research that Shadreck, Victoria and I are consumed by right now is really just a blip in the timeline in

their life histories. We simply hope that what we are doing now will create a spark in a visitor to think,

"Wow, beautiful tiny glass beads!";

"How many journeys has it taken?";

"How many lives has it shaped?"

Or, maybe more realistically, in the average 30 seconds we know that visitors engage with display cases, they might think,

"Beads travelled across the Indian Ocean 1,000 years ago? Ahh, interesting."

As a research team, that ‘Ahh’ moment is what we hope for.

We would like to thank our funders of this research, the John Fell Fund.

My journey to Becoming a Published Author

Shani Akilah (2015) completed a Masters degree in African Studies at Linacre. She is a book influencer, co-founded the Nyah Network, a book club for Black women, and was a literary judge for the Nota Bene Prize during 2023. Here she shares her recent journey to becoming a published author.

I have always loved writing, it was an encounter with Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo in 2019, which put me on a path to becoming a published author. Five years ago, I was feeling unfulfilled in my 9-5 as a project manager in the Civil Service and was trying to reconnect with the things that brought me joy. In the summer, I attended an author Q&A hosted by my sister Rasheeda at our local library, where Bernardine discussed her book 'Girl, Woman, Other' and the craft of storytelling. Her words resonated with me. My focus had been on academic writing during my MSc in African Studies at Linacre and my undergraduate studies in International Development and Politics at Leeds University, leaving little time for creative writing since being at school.

After the talk, I asked Bernardine how to get back into writing. She emphasised reading fiction and honing the craft through courses, mentioning her Monologues Masterclass for under 25s at the Tramshed in Woolwich. I quickly signed up and attended the first session. There I felt very strongly that writing was the one thing that made sense for me and set my eyes

on one day becoming a full-time published writer.

After the four-week workshop, I wanted more, so I enrolled in a short story course at City Lit, sparking my love for short stories. During lockdown, no longer commuting into Westminster, I had more time to read and write and adjusted my work hours to start at 10am instead of 8am. I cultivated a morning practice of reading for an hour (30 minutes non-fiction and 30 minutes fiction), followed by two hours of writing. It was also during the first few weeks of the pandemic that I got inspiration for the first story in what would be a future collection of interconnected short stories about how Black millennials were navigating love and relationships during lockdown, inspired by me and my friends being on dating apps.

I completed a number of online creative writing courses, attended forums on getting published and also became an unintentional book influencer, as a result of sharing book reviews on socials as a way of keeping myself accountable. All of this culminated in me building an online community of like-

minded bookish people including connections with many individuals who became friends and mentors. I also applied to endless short story competitions and writing development programmes, and was met with endless rejections, but in the midst of the disappointment I still continued to write.

In 2021, a picture of my colourcoordinated bookshelf went viral on Twitter. My bedroom bookshelf, organised by the colours of the rainbow, featured a display shelf of a number of authors that inspired me including Bolu Babalola. Many users tagged Bolu, noticing her book "Love in Colour" on the shelf, so I used the opportunity to ‘slide into her DMs’. Bolu, one of my favourite writers, had successfully published a debut short story collection despite the common view that such collections are hard to get published as they do not sell well compared to novels. Following my mantra, "What is the worst that can happen?" I sent Bolu a message asking for advice on navigating the next stage in my journey - reaching out to agents.

Months later, Bolu and I had a Zoom

call, leading to an introduction to her agent, Juliet, who then introduced me to my now agent, Sian. I did not expect to sign with an agent before finishing my collection, but Juliet and Sian loved my stories and ideas for future novels. After signing with Blake Friedman at the beginning of 2022, I worked with Sian to complete the collection and to ensure that it was in the best position for submission nine months later. Despite many rejections, with editors loving my voice but hesitant about not just a short story collection but also stories set during the pandemic, I was reminded by mentor A. M. Dassu that all I needed was "one yes."

At the same time, I was really struggling at work, questioning what was the point of it all and after months of thinking about leaving, but also building a successful admin side hustle, I finally took the plunge and handed in my resignation letter. Exactly a month later I received a book deal. I received a pre-empt deal from independent publisher, Oneworld, publishers of three Booker Prize winners with the offer to be their superlead title for 2024.

Two years later, my debut short story collection ‘For Such a Time as This’ is out in the world. Described as an essential summer read by Amazon, Marie Claire and The Observer, the collection explores themes of Black love, community and friendship with stories set in South London, Jamaica and Ghana. The book also delves into topics such as being Black in the workplace, male mental health, sickle cell and endometriosis and one of the stories draws on my MSc dissertation research on home and belonging amongst secondgeneration Ghanaians.

In June, I had an amazing book launch in Woolwich, and in a full circle moment was interviewed by Bernardine Evaristo, who has called me "a new glittering voice in the literary firmament." The book has received an incredible reception, with readers crediting it as rekindling their love for fiction. My book tour has included events in London, Leeds and

Birmingham, and I had the honour of interviewing Booker Prize winner Marlon James.

So many amazing things have happened as a result of me leaning into my passion and my purpose and I am very excited to be at the start of my journey as a writer. It is a dream come true.

MistleGO! – A Citizen Science Project

Ollie Spacey is a DPhil student researching host-parasite dynamics using European mistletoe (Viscum album) as a study species, in close collaboration with the Tree Council.

When people think of mistletoe, connotations of Christmas and kissing often come to mind, but this native plant is much more than that. Mistletoe is often mistaken for a bird’s nest, and looks like green clumps in the tree canopy – many can be seen around Oxford during the winter when trees lose their leaves. Contrary to its romantic perception, mistletoe is a parasitic plant, tapping into host trees such as apples and limes and stealing water and nutrients from within. As a result, mistletoe can put trees under a lot of stress, particularly when the parasites are abundant and during drought. At the same time, mistletoe is considered an ecosystem engineer. The festive plant promotes biodiversity by providing berries for birds which spread its seeds in the winter and by enhancing nutrient cycling.

Despite the importance of mistletoe to our natural surroundings, for good and bad, we do not yet understand what the future holds for European mistletoe in the UK. Anecdotally, mistletoe is thought to be spreading northwards, beyond its traditional heartlands of the West Midlands and the WalesEngland border. The most recent nationwide survey of mistletoe

was conducted in the 1990s, so we are not certain how mistletoe distribution has changed. Also, mistletoe is thought to be far more abundant in some areas than others, yet data on local mistletoe abundance has not been collected at a national scale before. As the climate warms and key mistletoe dispersers such as blackcaps are likely to change their migration patterns, we expect mistletoe to be on the move too.

To understand where mistletoe can be found today, and how this may shift under climate change, I have launched a citizen science project called “MistleGO!”. In partnership with the Tree Council, a charity that works across the UK for the love of trees, we are mapping Britain’s mistletoe using photo records that participants submit via a mobile app. Upon downloading the Survey123 app and installing the MistleGO! survey, citizen scientists take a photo of one or more trees containing mistletoe. They record the approximate number of mistletoe clumps they see, as well as other data including location (by automatic GPS), the habitat (road verge, park, garden, etc.) and the tree species (if known). This data then gets sent to our database and I use it to build

models of mistletoe distribution under different climate scenarios.

The first season of data collection was last winter (2023-2024), and we received over 1250 records from across the UK, smashing our target of 500 records. We received many records from the south of England, where mistletoe is expected to be abundant. However, we also found mistletoe as far north as Inverness and as far West as Limerick in Ireland, and these records may be from people planting their own mistletoe as they are not expected locations. We need more data to build a clear picture of mistletoe distribution in the UK and how it is changing, and will expand our dataset next year.

If you would like to contribute to our research, you can go to the Tree Council’s MistleGO! webpage which explains how to take part and has a link to the app: https:// treecouncil.org.uk/science-andresearch/mistletoe-research/

Next time you see mistletoe on a Christmas advert or mentioned in a song, remember that it is an important part of our ecological community, and we are still learning more about how its role and impact may change.

Oxford Under Wraps

Jim Robinson (1979) completed an DPhil in Oriental Studies at Linacre. He is a self-taught artist and photographer working in a variety of mediums to commissions and exhibiting regularly in Oxfordshire as a member of the Oxford Art Society.

Photography is something I developed an interest in when I was doing my thesis at Linacre. It was firmly established thanks to an expert tutor at the Old Fire Station who explained how to set up my own dark room from where I developed and printed the photographs I took as part of my fieldwork in West Bengal, some of which are now in the British Museum Department of Asia collections.

Since then I have been photographer in residence for various events and organisations such as the Oxford Anagama

Project which is based at Wytham Woods, the Cowley Road Carnival and Oxford Festival of the Arts, as well as completing many private commissions. I have exhibited with Oxford Art Society as a member and as part of Oxfordshire Artweeks and at various events such as the Broadway Arts Festival, the RWA Open exhibition in Bristol and in art spaces in London.

The experience of being an artist and photographer is much the same as researching for a thesis: curiosity, keen observation and above all persistence and stamina. The main difference, however, is

that you are using a more intuitive approach to factual accuracy and developing a personal style that you feel happy with.

I set myself themes and topics to explore. In 2014, that was drawing and painting Oxford as it emerged from deep cleaning, with various University colleges and buildings under plastic sheeting and scaffolding. I called this series ‘Oxford Under Wraps’ and saw a beauty in the way sunlight caught the sheeting and altered the structure of buildings that I had known for years and walked past many times. I also discovered in the process that I saw buildings and roads with a fresh eye; in the same level of detail as that needed for research in fact.

Any creative process is a matter of persistence and a good amount of self-belief, alongside an area of focus. Unless you have a mentor, no one is supervising or guiding you in developing a discerning eye or choosing that focus. That is something you need to develop with constant practice and an open mind. With photography, I find the best way to develop this discerning eye is by voting for photographs on Photocrowd which runs regular community contests based around a theme. You soon know what to look for on an intuitive level.

I believe strongly in community arts and run regular monthly creative drawing workshops with South Oxford Arts, a newly formed community arts organisation based in the city which I helped set up. I have also taken part in charity art events such as those run by Sobell House hospice and Greenfingers charity which sets up gardens in children’s hospices as well as for ‘A Letter in Mind’ and the National Brain Appeal which supports research into neuroscience.

My inspiration comes from seeing the work of fellow artists at all levels from Royal Academicians to local emerging artists. My favourite artist is Kurt Jackson, who studied Zoology at Exeter College while at the same time learning his craft at Ruskin School of Art where I have taken part in life drawing classes thanks to my alumni status.

The advantage of being a member of the University is this kind of access to all sorts of creative opportunities which will be there for a lifetime.

Linacre Lecture Series

This

year, the Linacre Lectures were revived by Junior Research Fellows

Lena Vosding and Kristine Dyrmann and former Junior Research Fellow Trine Arlund Hass. The series of lectures was titled

'Uncovering

Women's History' and Linacre welcomed four prestigious speakers who shared their thoughts and findings.

Across four lectures in Trinity Term, students, staff, and members of the wider University were invited to hear about and reflect upon topics such as masculinity and war; gender balances in today’s academia; the working conditions of an early female economic historian; and the efforts of an African American woman to break glass ceilings at Oxford and in academia. The lecture series reflects a public interest in women’s empowerment, most notably articulated in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal no. 5 on gender equality.

The first speaker, Lyndal Roper, Regius Professor of History at the University of Oxford, addressed gender discourse and performance in the German Peasants’ War 15246. The revolting peasants cultivated a masculine culture of brotherhood consolidated through male rituals which excluded women. Source material directly treating women is scarce, yet Roper was able to show that women were indeed taking part in the action. Her research further documents the historical longevity of masculine symbols and gestures that we still see today, for instance the male ‘power stand’. Drawing long lines across history, Roper demonstrated how thinking about the masculine ideals of the

brotherhoods of peasants fighting in a war five hundred years ago might help us question masculine ideals of today. Gendered ideals can be historicised and they changed with the tides of history.

It was not only in pre-modern times that men were the predominant writers of history. Lectures on two female trailblazers in the academic field of history demonstrated exactly this. Maxine Berg, Professor of History at the University of Warwick, took us to the time when the suffragette movement was working for women’s rights and women entered the work market in the shadows of the world wars. The life and career of Eileen Power (1889-1940), British medievalist, economic historian, and second female chair in Economic History at LSE is an impressive example of what it took to pursue an academic career at a time when women were not yet welcome at all universities. Active in the suffrage, Power not only produced standard works on medieval and economic history which are still in print, she became one of the first writers of women’s history. Despite her fame and recognition, her groundbreaking work was in danger of being separated from

her name after her death.

It seems Merze Tate (1905-1996) felt this was a risk for her as well. The third talk by Barbara Savage, Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, was a riveting account of this remarkable diplomatic historian, whose career was a long row of firsts: Tate was the first African American woman to study at the University of Oxford and the first African American to receive a B.Litt. degree here in 1935. She moved on to become the first African American woman to earn a PhD in government and international relations from Harvard University, and was one of the first two female members in the Department of History at Howard University. Savage demonstrated how Tate overcame the prejudices that she faced as a woman and a person of colour with seemingly tireless determination. Deeply aware of racial and gender representation, she made sure to secure documentation of her path.

Imbalances in power in contemporary academia stood at the centre of the talk by Amrei Bahr, Junior Professor at the University of Stuttgart. Focusing on Germany, Bahr presented

the negative effects of shortterm contracts, the multifaceted pressures on early career researchers, and skewed genderbalance, as well as the impact of such working conditions on early career researchers: women and people pertaining to marginalised groups leave academia or never advance in the university system as a consequence. Bahr’s talk was a call for action, demonstrating how the collective effort of early career researchers uniting on social media has had a real impact on the legislative process in Germany. This sparked engaged debate with the audience on similarities and differences in working conditions and possibilities for women and early career researchers in the UK, India and Scandinavia.

The lectures demonstrated how women’s and gender history has developed since the 1960s and through the 1980s until today. All four speakers explored how gender relates to hierarchies of power – be that in the career of a 1930s woman economist, a Black, female diplomatic historian, or, say, a queer student of today. Research in this field has sparked debate and impacted how we think about society, the ethics of research, and academia. By thematising the impact of gender in the field of history and in the career of scholars and scientists, past and present, the Linacre Lectures strove to increase awareness of invisible hierarchies of power – social class, race, religion, sexuality, as well as gender – in the world of academia and beyond.

Pictured above - Trine Arlund Hass, Lena Vosding, Lyndal Roper and Kristine Dyrmann.

Public Presentations of Plants – Communicating Collection

Histories at the Huntington Botanical Gardens

Vibe Nielsen is a Research Fellow at Linacre. She is a social anthropologist with a background in museum studies, modern culture and European ethnology, working on issues related to the decolonisation of museums, botanic gardens and public places. This year she completed the Leeds Hoban Huntington Exchange Fellowship at the Huntington Botanical Gardens in California.

'Some visitors see the Huntington estate as one of the world’s most beautiful gardens. Some see the place as a living museum of the rare and wonderful in the world of plants, a laboratory for the pursuit of botanical and horticultural knowledge' (Houk 1996: 11). As a museum anthropologist with a keen interest in botanical gardens and their history – I see the Huntington on the outskirts of Los Angeles as a bit of both. Beautiful, indeed, in all its lush splendour and diversity, but also a living, curated collection of plants gathered here, in what is today known as Southern California. As any collection open to the public, the collection of plants at the Huntington Botanical Gardens are framed by curating hands, continuously sculpting and framing the narrative of what the visitors get to see and experience. Part of this narrative is shaped by the signs in the garden: often subtly and without much explanation, half-hidden behind gigantic leaves, or unseemingly dangling from a nail in the trunk of a tree, but nevertheless telling a story

much bigger than the few words engraved on them might indicate at first glance.

In light of recent demands to diversify and decolonise museums, which has influenced curatorial practices the world over and been the topic of my most recent postdoctoral research project at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford and le Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, I decided to explore how the Huntington Botanical Gardens communicate colonial legacies of plants to the visiting public. How are the stories of the plants that pre-date their so-called ‘discovery’ presented and how are Indigenous uses and names of plants included in their dissemination?

Building on previous fieldworkbased research on curatorial practices in ethnographic museums (Nielsen 2022) and art galleries (Nielsen 2019; 2021; 2024), as well as botanical gardens in the United Kingdom (Nielsen 2023), the aim of my

month-long research stay in the Huntington Botanical Gardens, as a Leeds Hoban Linacre / Huntington Exchange Fellow, was to shed light on an area of museum studies that has so far not been researched as thoroughly as other parts of the museum world. The participant observations and qualitative interviews, forming the basis of my research, was conducted in continuation of my recently conducted larger-scale research project on decolonial curatorial practices in the United Kingdom and France (2021-24) in which I demonstrated that although initiatives towards greater inclusion of Indigenous perspectives are being made, the colonial legacies of museum collections remain a difficult and continuous presence (Nielsen 2022; 2023).

At the Huntington, a recent addition to the plant signs in the gardens, which follow international standards of botanical signs and thus mostly feature scientific Latin and common English names of the plants, was made in relation

to the newly opened permanent exhibition Borderlands (2021-36) held at the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art. In front of the gallery, in three large pots, presenting plants native to the area, signs listing the names of the plants in up to five different languages have been put up: onethree Indigenous names (Tongva, Barbareño Chumash, Ventureño Chumash or Cahuilla), as well as Spanish, English and Latin.

The example, which has been initiated by the curators of the Borderlands exhibition, led me to ask the curators of the botanical section of the Huntington whether they could imagine doing something similar with other plant signs in the gardens. During one of my interviews with Dylan Hannon, who is the Curator of the Conservatory and Tropical Collections, he explained to me that it is important to bear in mind that many Indigenous plant names are less specific than scientific names in Latin and often refer to more than one kind of plant. Nevertheless, he adds, ‘all common names are correct! There is no such thing as an incorrect common name.’ Dylan looks forward to hearing how Indigenous people from the Tongva, Barbareño Chumash, Ventureño Chumash or Cahuilla language groups will react to seeing their common names of plants on the signs in the gardens, alongside the common English and Spanish names of the plants, as well as their scientific names in Latin. ‘There is a time and a place for everything’ he adds, and ‘these things change.’ Perhaps in time more signs including common names of other languages than English – alongside the plant names in botanical Latin – will be added to the Huntington Botanical Gardens. Like curators in museums and art galleries elsewhere, the curatorial

staff in the botanical section of the Huntington are becoming increasingly focused on including Indigenous knowledge and names in their descriptions of the objects and plants in their collections.

The awareness of this importance within the world of plants was perhaps made most evident in 2010 with the adoption of the Nagoya Protocol, which creates more legally binding provisions to regulate access to genetic resources and benefit sharing. The Protocol stresses that ‘access to traditional knowledge held by indigenous and local communities when it

is associated with genetic resources will strengthen the ability of these communities to benefit from the use of their knowledge, innovations and practices’.

While legacies of Eurocentric descriptions still exist within botanical gardens the world over, exhibitions like Borderlands that bridges the different collections of the Huntington, is one example of how curatorial efforts can assist in creating new and more inclusive narratives of the plants and artworks they present.