Issuu

2017/18

Mansfield Mansfield 2017/18

Contents Message from the Principal

3–4

News in brief

5–7

Farewell Helena

8–9

What you’ve been reading

The Bonavero Institute of Human Rights

11 – 12

Senior Tutor’s Report

Bursar’s Report

JCR Report

MCR Report

A year in Development and Alumni Relations

18 – 19

Access Report 2018

20 – 21

Sports Report

22 – 23

Music at Mansfield

The 1887 Society

Student news

26 – 27

Visiting Student Programme

28 – 29

You’re Mansfield

30 – 31

In conversation with Sam Meekings

32 – 33

Errollyn Wallen interview

34 – 35

Three score years and ten: Mansfield lives and the search for unity

36 – 37

‘Think big’ for the environment 38 – 39 Restoring a diversity of voices: Mansfield organ appeal

Alumni Association Report

Reverend Frederick Arthur Stowell: a life revealed Adam von Trott Memorial Appeal Alumni news Photo credits: Photovibe: Cover, p.2 (top, bottom), p.3, p.10 (top, bottom), p.16 (left), p.17 (right), p.18 (top, bottom), p.19 (top left & right), p.25, p.31 (centre left) John Cairns: p.2 (centre), p.7, p.12 (centre, bottom), p.18 (top right), p.19 (lower left)

Academic prizes 2018

42 – 43 44 45 – 46 47

Examination results 2018

48 – 49

Obituaries

50 – 53

Fellows’ news and publications

54 – 55

Events calendar 2019

Mansfield College: p.5, p.6, p.15, p.31, p.37 Paul Flather: p.6 (bottom) Jeaphotography: p.8, p.9, p.10 (lower centre), p.12 (top), p.19, p.31 (top left) Bonavero Institute of Human Rights p.10, p.11 Institute of Physics/Liz Hingley: p.10 Courtesy of the authors: p.10 (centre & left), p.14, p.15, p.16, p.17, p.20, p.21, p.22, p.23, p.24, p.25, p.26, p.28, p.29, p.32, p.38, p.41, p.45, p.46, p.50, p.52, p.53, p.54, p.55 Mike Bather: p.25 (bottom) Consuelo Morales: p.26 (middle) Kate Haselden: p.27 Alex Smith & Esin Akdogon: p.27 (bottom left) Prashanth Kanduri: p.27 (bottom right) John Alexander Photography: p.31 (top left) Keiko: p.35, p.54 (top left) Joanna Lindén-Montes: p.37 Sue Gwilliam: p.39 Curtis Rogers: p.40 David Slattery-Christy: p.44 Steve Cross: p.45 (top left) Emma Gornall: p.45 (centre left) Dimi Reider: p. 45 (lower centre left) Feng Liu p.46 (bottom right)

Mansfield 2017/18

Produced by the Development and Alumni Relations Office at Mansfield College Mansfield College Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TF Registered Charity Number 1143860 Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at: E development@mansfield.ox.ac.uk W www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk Contents/Credits Editors: Mansfield Development and Alumni Relations Team Copy editor: Phil Harriss Design and printing: Windrush Group We would like to thank all of those – students, staff, alumni and friends – who have contributed to this year’s magazine. Follow us on www.facebook.com/mansfieldoxford twitter.com/mansfieldoxford https://www.linkedin.com/groups/1093187 https://www.flickr.com/gp/mansfieldcollege/F47r6g

Message from the Principal Helen Mountfield QC

Reflections on my first term at Mansfield It is a sunny weekend afternoon in Mansfield, and I am looking out of my study window at our new statue. This is Penny Jencks’ remarkable bronze of Eleanor Roosevelt, installed in October to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Eleanor now sits peacefully under the large umbrella pine tree in our beautiful newly planted garden, and thoughtfully surveys the visitors coming and going in the Quad as they pass. I don’t know what Eleanor makes of her first term in Mansfield – she looks fairly inscrutable to me – but, pre-dating her by just a few weeks, I can say that my own first term has been exhilarating, exciting, and exhausting. For a start, the Principal’s Lodgings are now fairly full, and most of the boxes are unpacked. I spent much of September moving in, with one husband, three daughters and assorted bags, bikes, trampolines and pot-plants. Apologies to those who were inconvenienced by skips over the summer – but we are now well-settled, and living in the heart of College is a pleasure and privilege. Tony Berezny, who has been Mansfield’s Maintenance Manager for well over 30 years, worked incredibly hard rallying a team to prepare the Lodgings for us; we are the first family to live here since the 1970s. Tony and his team managed the extraordinary feat of achieving this at the same time

as replacing all the windows in Ablethorpe, to keep the students who live there snug in winter. I think he might be my new best friend! He has stiff competition for this role. I have met wonderful people from every section of Mansfield’s community. The freshers, whose bewildering array of talents had me humbled. (Do you know any talented material scientists who are also incredible street-dancers? Or boxers who can act and learn Arabic? Nor did I… but I do now.) The third years who brought over their spare 21st birthday cake from their table at Wagamama to feed me and my daughters –

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COLLEGE NEWS

MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL

thanks Sara! The Fellows, whose fascinating and varied research – from efficient wind-turbines, to Oscar Wilde, to Grand Muftis in the Middle East – means I never have a boring lunchtime. Our hard-working and unfailingly friendly administrative, development, catering and cleaning staff. The avuncular porters. And alumni who have passed through, from every corner of the globe – for gaudies, to show their children where they studied, or just popping in for a cup of tea. I love to hear about Mansfield’s past times, and old members invariably comment on how wonderful the College is now looking after its recent extensive works. Mansfield has also attracted a wide and varied range of speakers. These started with former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who came to unveil our statue of Eleanor Roosevelt, to give the keynote address at a conference in the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights on ‘Confronting Illiberalism’, and to become Mansfield’s latest in a long line of illustrious Honorary Fellows. We have also hosted Professor Allida Black, Eleanor Roosevelt’s biographer, on her ‘Battle to Define Human Rights’; Corey Stoughton, acting director of Liberty, on ‘Free Speech and Censorship on Campus’; Naomi Climer CBE, a distinguished engineer, on ‘Considering Emerging Technology Impacts on Life and Work’; Agnes Fletcher reflecting on ‘Meanings of “Disability”’; Thomas Oppermann, Vice-President of the German Bundestag, who gave the Adam von Trott Memorial Lecture on ‘Germany, Britain and Europe’; Caleb Femi, the former Young Poet Laureate speaking on ‘British Writing in Resistance’; and Kamal Ahmed, the BBC Editorial Director speaking on his new book, The Life and Times of a Very British Man. I am proud of these Mansfield Lectures. They take place on most Fridays in term-time at 5pm, are free and open to anyone who wants to come along. (That includes you: do check the College’s website, Facebook page, Twitter, or email jane.buswell@mansfield. ox.ac.uk if you would like to be put on the Mansfield Lectures mailing list for future events.) This lecture series seems to me to reflect the generous and diverse nature of our College. It is not just the spirit of Mansfield which is thriving. The new Hands Building means not only that 73 more students can now live on the main College site

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in beautiful new rooms, but also that the College finances are in much better shape, thanks to the rental income we can now attract and summer conferences we can now host. We are hugely grateful to everyone whose generous donations, large and small, made this possible. There is still more to do: an important part of my job will be continuing to strive to put Mansfield on the secure financial footing that older colleges enjoy. But we are proud that an ever-increasing proportion of our alumni give regularly to enable the current generation of students – now burdened by very extensive loans – to enjoy a Mansfield education. Your support makes a very real difference to our students’ lives, now and in the future, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your generosity. Unlike some Oxford colleges, we don’t have extensive lands, or a huge historic endowment to fall back on. But at Mansfield, we have something beyond riches. We have committed, exciting teachers and scholars; curious, enquiring, rigorous students; and a spirit of openness and inclusion which, for me, is the essence of what education is about. Thank you to all those who have made my first term at Mansfield so special. To those of you I have met, it has been a pleasure. I look forward to meeting many more members of the Mansfield community, and to serving the College in the future.

News in brief Mansfield welcomes Helen Mountfield QC as new Principal In September 2018, Helen Mountfield joined the College to become its third female Head of House in a row. Helen is an experienced and award-winning barrister, with over 26 years of expertise in constitutional law, human rights and equality law, including particular experience of the higher education sector. She has appeared in many cases in the Supreme Court, European Court of Justice and European Court of Human Rights, and recently featured on the ‘First Hundred Years’ website, which celebrates the history of women in law. Helen is a founder member of Matrix Chambers, an accredited mediator, a Master of the Bench of Gray’s Inn, a Recorder and a deputy High Court Judge. Helen also plays an active role in public policy. She was co-chair, with Tom Watson MP, of the Independent Commission on the Future of Work in the Digital Economy; a member of the Royal Society of Arts’ Commission on Drugs Policy; and part of the Disability Rights Commission’s review of barriers to access to the professions. She is a trustee of the Institute for the Future of Work, the Equal Rights Trust and the National Campaign for the Arts, and has been a school governor. Helen went to Crown Woods School in south-east London (which, by coincidence, is one of Mansfield’s partner schools). From there she read Modern History at Magdalen College Oxford, where she obtained a first-class degree, directed plays and was one of the first ‘Target Schools’ officers. She is married to Dr Damian Tambini, a political scientist at the London School of Economics, and they have three school-age daughters. Mansfield is delighted to welcome Helen, whom it sees as an excellent fit with the College’s welcoming and inclusive ethos and its determination to build on existing successes and outreach programmes.

Professor Helen Margetts receives Friedrich Schiedel Prize for Politics and Technology

The first Friedrich Schiedel Prize for Politics and Technology at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has been awarded to Mansfield’s Helen Margetts, Professorial Fellow in Society and the Internet, and Programme Director for Public Policy at The Alan Turing Institute in London. The award honours Helen’s groundbreaking research in the field of digital-era government and politics.

Lord Heseltine delivers the annual Hands Lecture On Friday March 2nd, 2018, Mansfield hosted British Conservative politician and businessman The Rt Hon Lord Heseltine CH PC, who gave a lecture entitled ‘The role of government in creating prosperity in a globalised world’. The lecture took place soon after Theresa May’s speech outlining the UK Government’s latest position on Brexit.

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COLLEGE NEWS

Mansfield donors’ generosity recognised on the Clarendon Arch

News in brief Mansfield leads the way for state school admissions Mansfield has regularly admitted the University’s highest percentage of state school students over recent years, but its latest figures have broken all records. The proportion of state school-educated, UK-domiciled students across Oxford is currently about 60%, but at Mansfield the figure has jumped to more than 90%. In the three-year averages, the College has admitted the highest proportion of students from the state sector at 88.2%. However, data from our most recent admissions round show

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the trend is continuing upwards, with Mansfield making 95.9% of UK offers to students from the state sector, an increase from last year’s figure of 91.4%. A total of 95.3% of our UK intake in 2018 came from the state sector. We have good reason to be very proud of the success of Mansfield’s outreach work, and of the care our tutors put into the selection of candidates. College representatives make almost 200 visits every year to schools across the UK, dispelling myths and offering advice to students who might never have thought Oxford was a realistic goal.

We were delighted that on October 11th, 2018, Yves and Anne Bonavero, founders of the AB Charitable Trust, and Guy Hands and Julia Hands CBE had their names engraved in stone on the Clarendon Arch in recognition of their wonderful support of College.

Vice-Chancellor and other senior leaders, within the collegiate University. These meetings also allow benefactors to meet other members of the Court and to gain a greater understanding of the life and work of the University and the colleges.

Guy Hands and Julia Hands were celebrated for their tremendous loyalty and support of Mansfield College on a range of projects over a number of years. The AB Charitable Trust inscription was also to mark the Bonavero family’s transformational gift to the eponymous Institute of Human Rights at Mansfield.

The 28th Annual Meeting of the CCB also featured tours of the new Beecroft Building for Physics and the Conservation Studios in the Weston Library. The insights of CCB members were welcomed in wide-ranging discussions about the University’s future, as well as areas of global concern. These included such topics as childhood poverty; efforts in immunology to stem the spread of disease; and how the changing ways in which we look at history have an impact on the 21st century. The celebrations culminated in a gala dinner at Rhodes House.

As a College we are delighted that these donors have had their support recognised in such a way. The Bonaveros and the Hands were joined by Principal Helen Mountfield QC and former Principal Baroness Helena Kennedy QC at the annual meeting of the Chancellor’s Court of Benefactors (CCB). The Court meets each autumn in Oxford and offers benefactors the chance to engage with the Chancellor,

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COLLEGE NEWS

COLLEGE NEWS Helena gifted us her character for seven years – expanding our horizons, opening us up to new people, new experiences. Another sentiment from another Bette Davis classic – Now, Voyager (1942) – concludes with Davis’ delivery of the unsatisfying line: ‘Don’t let’s ask for the moon. We have the stars’. Helena insisted that we should ask for the moon.

she oversaw (including some wildly strange toasts to the bard, to the lassies, to the laddies, and some fantastic odes to the haggis); and finally – in case her dining table seemed especially crowded and the conversation especially riotous one evening – a miniature, engraved version of the College gavel to bring her company to order.

On her stepping down from her post, the Senior Common Room chose Helena some gifts that we thought spoke to her personality and to happy memories of her time with us: a suffrage bracelet from the Scottish Women’s Suffrage and Political Union; an early edition of the works of Robbie Burns to remind her of the Burns Night suppers

These were small tokens of our esteem for a big, big presence: we shall miss her, but her legacy remains with us in a transformed College site and a community excited to look forward to our future. We hope she will continue to be as proud of us as we are of her.

Stephen Blundell Professorial Fellow in Physics

Farewell, Helena Our two most senior Fellows, one a Professor of English, one a Professor of Physics, pay tribute to our outgoing Principal. On Saturday June 22nd 2018 the Senior Common Room held a dinner to say goodbye to Baroness Helena Kennedy QC and thank her for her seven years of service at Mansfield. Professor Stephen Blundell and Professor Ros Ballaster led the applause.

Ros Ballaster Professorial Fellow in English My favourite film is All About Eve (1950). Bette Davis plays Margo Channing, gifted stage actress – charming, loyal, sometimes a little volatile. At a party Margo realises the disloyalty of her ‘Girl Friday’ and greatest fan, Eve. Bette Davis holds our breaths and our sympathy as she warns: ‘Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night’. In our seven years at Mansfield with Baroness Helena Kennedy as Principal, from 2011 to 2018, there have been some bumpy nights – but we have also been on an extraordinary trip which has taken this College to an entirely new destination. We have all recognised Helena’s singlemindedness, her passion for justice, her quickness of wit. And her extraordinary warmth and charisma: she is always

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interested, always listening. She remembers names and stories and makes people feel part of something significant. One of my favourite stories about our Principal is a response she made to a question asked at her interview for the post: ‘What advice would you give students as they start their academic careers at Mansfield?’ Helena surprised us all by saying: ‘Make time for love’. It is and it proved to be wise advice. In the course of her tenure, the Principal was keen to make Mansfield College a place where students and colleagues could share their passions not only for their studies but also for good, important causes and for the people who give them love and support.

How do you describe Helena Kennedy? As a physicist, I can try to find an analogy with one of the exotic particles we physicists study. Is she like a neutrino, the particle studied by my colleague Steve Biller, passing through the Earth without interacting? Certainly not! Is she a ‘weakly interacting massive particle’, or WIMP, the long-sought candidate of dark matter searches? Absolutely not! Baroness Kennedy is no wimp. We need a new metaphor, a new particle so far undiscovered in our laboratories: a strongly interacting, highenergy, high-velocity particle that makes frequent collisions with other particles, but somehow creates lots of good. You can look around Mansfield and see a College transformed during Helena’s Principalship, with new buildings and existing spaces metamorphosed, in a way that is nothing short of miraculous. She has made some great appointments too, including Allan Dodd our Bursar, Helen Jones our outgoing Development Director, and Kate O’Regan to head the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights – all of whom have played key roles in realising her vision. When Helena arrived in Mansfield she announced ‘I’m going to bring in artists, writers, actors and politicians and it’s going to be fabulous!’ – and it has been. Friday night at Mansfield has become the must-see event in Oxford. But, when she first faced the Governing Body, it was clear that she started to rate us as the most backward-looking, unadventurous group of naysayers she had ever seen. (This was of course before she had started to engage with the Law faculty!) But, as Helena’s brilliant idea for the Institute of Human Rights began to shape, it also became clear this was something that was to be a great fit for Helena and a great fit for Mansfield.

the case, she had the right words for the occasion: wise, sensitive and thoughtful. Yet not only words, but actions, as she threw open the Lodgings and hosted the parents of the injured student, who stayed for weeks as their daughter slowly recovered. That same spirit of generosity has led to regular Saturday morning brunches with groups of undergraduates. No student leaves Mansfield without having had several breakfasts with their Principal. Helena has also been not only our Principal, but our ambassador. Not only with our donors, our alumni, and in the wider University, but in the House of Lords, on the BBC, in our national life. She has been standing up for the values we all believe in, and that make us very proud she is one of us. Helena, we have a lot to thank you for. Our newly refurbished and revitalised College, certainly. But most of all for your friendship. We have joked that the Friday evening talks have been the ‘Friends of Helena Kennedy Lectures’; we all envy your address book, and really, is there anyone of importance in our national life that you don’t know? But we are all very proud that we have been admitted into that privileged and special club: friends of Helena Kennedy.

Thomas Paine said of the American Revolution that ‘these are the times that try men’s souls’. It can be the time of human tragedy that try the souls of Colleges. When a Visiting Student suffered a catastrophic accident, Helena brought the College together and, as is so often

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COLLEGE NEWS

What you’ve been reading Our top five most popular news stories of 2017/18 – as read by you on our website

A new beacon to ‘help realise the ultimate promise of human rights’ Professor Kate O’Regan, Director of the Faculty of Law’s Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at Mansfield, reflects on some of the highlights of its first full year.

1. Helen Mountfield QC elected as new Principal The Fellowship of Mansfield College was delighted to announce that it had elected Helen Mountfield QC to succeed Baroness Helena Kennedy QC as Principal from September 1st 2018. www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk/news/helenmountfield-qc-elected-new-principal 2. Jocelyn Bell Burnell wins £2.3m Breakthrough Prize We were excited to share the news that Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell had been chosen to receive the $3m (£2.3m) Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. Jocelyn generously chose to donate the prize money to the Institute of Physics, to fund PhD studentships for people under-represented in Physics. www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk/news/jocelyn-bellburnell-wins-ps23m-breakthrough-prize 3. Kofi Annan opens the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights On Friday June 15th, 2018, Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations (1997-2006) and Nobel Peace Prize winner (2001), visited Mansfield College to open formally the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights (BIHR). The BIHR is a research institute in the Faculty of Law, situated within the Hands Building at Mansfield. During his visit, Mr Annan met students, staff and invited guests. www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk/news/kofi-annanopens-bonavero-institute-human-rights 4. Jocelyn Bell Burnell receives IOP President’s Medal Mansfield Fellow, Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, has been awarded the President’s Medal of the Institute of Physics. www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk/news/jocelyn-bellburnell-receives-iop-presidents-medal 5. Summer Garden Party 2018 On Saturday June 23rd, we were delighted to host Mansfield alumni, students and Fellows for our annual Commemoration Service, Summer Garden Party and Mansfield Alumni Association AGM and Dinner. www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk/news/summer-gardenparty-2018 10 Mansfield 2017/18

In June 2018 the Bonavero Institute was opened formally by the late Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations (1997-2006) and Nobel Peace Prize winner (2001). During the course of his remarks, Mr Annan observed: ‘I have no doubt that the scholarship and imagination that the Bonavero Institute will stimulate, and the outreach to civil society that it has put at the heart of its mission, will help realise the ultimate promise of human rights – creating a better world for all humankind.’ We were honoured that Mr Annan agreed formally to open the Institute, at the end of what had been a busy inaugural year for us. His speech was an inspiration to all who heard it. It was with deep sadness that we heard of his death

during the summer, but we know that his words will never be forgotten. We started the new academic year 2018/19 with two important events to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the first, we held an evening celebration of three remarkable women: Eleanor Roosevelt, Hillary Clinton and Helena Kennedy. During the evening, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton joined former Mansfield Principal, Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, in an engaging conversation in the Sir Joseph Hotung Auditorium. Secretary Clinton then received an Honorary Fellowship of Mansfield from our new Principal, Helen Mountfield QC. Secretary Clinton also unveiled a statue of Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of US President Franklin D Roosevelt and

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COLLEGE NEWS The second event was a conference ‘Confronting Illiberalism: the Role of the Media, Civil Society and Universities’. Secretary Clinton delivered the keynote address calling on scholars, practitioners and activists to continue the work begun by Eleanor Roosevelt and the other architects of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

PORTRAIT OF AN OXFORD COLLEGE

Mansfield College Contents: 1. Origins and Reinvention 2. The College Buildings 3. Governance and Access 4. Three Principals Look Back 5. Three Thematic Perspectives 6. College Life: Then and Now

During the speech, Secretary Clinton urged the audience to continue to promote and protect human rights: ‘Let us continue the long trek they began… towards a future

a champion of human rights. Mrs Roosevelt played a key role in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 10th, 1948. The bronze statue is a second casting of the work by artist Penelope Jencks, which stands in Manhattan’s Riverside Park. We are deeply grateful to the Roosevelt family and to the benefactors of Mansfield College and of the Bonavero Institute who made it possible to bring the statue of Eleanor Roosevelt to Mansfield College and to the Institute.

General Editors: Stephen Blundell and Michael Freeden Photography: Keiko Ikeuchi

where democracy flourishes, autocracy fails, and every man, woman and child has the freedom to pursue their own God-given potential.’ The BIHR provided a fitting setting for such an important conference, committed as it is to carrying out world-class research and promoting public engagement with human rights. The Institute runs a range of academic programmes, conferences and discussion groups.

Find out more at: BonaveroIHR@law.ox.ac.uk, www. law.ox.ac.uk/bonaveroihr or Twitter and Facebook: @BonaveroIHR

An exclusive venue for conferences, corporate meetings and fine dining Are you looking for a unique alternative to hotel From various perspectives, this book tells accommodation? the interwoven stories of Mansfield’s Have considered an exclusive past and you present, its extraordinary growth and development, fine dining experienceand foritsyou and ambitions for the future. It features your guests in the magnificent stunning photographs by the College’s College Chapel or Hall? photographer in residence, Keiko Ikeuchi, asInterested? well as never-before published pictures For further information and booking, please contact from Mansfield’ s archive. Lynne Quiggin, Domestic Bursar Mansfield College 01865 282888 lynne.quiggin@mansfield.ox.ac.uk www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk

Set in the heart of Oxford, with its beautiful Victorian buildings, Mansfield College provides the perfect location for any event. The College offers a fabulous venue where visitors can enjoy their conference or event in friendly and welcoming surroundings. Sir Joseph Hotung Auditorium The College now offers a tiered, theatre-seated auditorium with 140 fixed seats, 10 additional seats and bench seating for a further 10-12 guests. The fully accessible auditorium is located over two floors and has a fixed projector, lectern, tie and roving mics, dimmable lights and replay capture service (for filming and editing of talks with potential live streaming capacity). This Specifications: Hardback, 176 pages, wonderful new facility is available for private hire. 270 x 230mm over 150 illustrations, ISBN: 9781906507497 Publication: July 2012 New price: £10

Copies of the book are available: Online at tmiltd.com By phone on +44 (0) 20 7336 0144

Mansfield College

Please contact the Development Office on + 44 (0) 1865 270998 for more information.

OXFORD Mansfield 2013/14

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Senior Tutor’s Report

Bursar’s Report Allan Dodd

meetings, takes minutes (condensing far-reaching and sometimes impenetrable discussion into a cogent summary) and undertakes a thousand other things that generally go unnoticed. And, although she reveals it only seldomly, she has a dry, wicked sense of humour which is deployed with surgical accuracy – not infrequently at my expense.

Lucinda Rumsey Our Norrington Table position is 20th this year, down from 15th in 2016/17, but still the second highest performance Mansfield has achieved in its history. A total of 21 students were awarded Firsts out of 64 Finalists, with Firsts in nearly every subject: four in Geography, four in History, three in Maths, two each in PPE and Engineering, and two (out of three) of our Human Scientists. There was also one First in each of Law, Materials, Theology and Physics. The Norrington Table is very crowded in the middle, with six colleges clustered on a single percentage point. The University has renewed the debate about whether to scrap the table. I have felt less negative about it in recent years (now we are doing better in it), but I should like the original table to be published alongside the recently devised Norrington Table of Access, which shows student value-added success in relation to student school background. In that one Mansfield is top. Our first year results were strong, with 20 distinctions in Prelims. Overall nearly 70 of our current undergraduates are scholars and exhibitioners. Our students were awarded a wide range of University prizes this year. Oliver Farquharson won the Gibbs Prize for the best Prelims performance in Engineering Science, Edward Ray was awarded the Proxime Accessit Gibbs Prize for best written paper in PPE, and Yi Hern Chang was one of the team awarded the Gibbs Prize for the best Design Project in Engineering Part B. In Materials Science Yixuan Song was joint winner of the Armourers & Brasiers’ Company / Rolls-Royce Prize for Outstanding

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Overall Performance in Prelims, and Angus Braithwaite was awarded the Armourers & Brasiers’ Company Medal and Prize for Best Part II Project, as well as being nominated for the IOM3 AT Green Prize for Best Ceramics Graduate. Abigail Preston (Law) won three awards: the D’Sousa Prize for the Overall best 2nd BA in Law; the Norton Rose Fulbright Prize in Constitutional Law; and the Faculty Prize for Criminal Law. Isabella Green won the JCA Meldrum Essay Prize for Best Extended Essays in Geography, and Ella Grodzinski was awarded the Wilma Crowther Prize for Best Dissertation in Human Sciences. In Physics, Charles Yin was runner-up in the Head of Department’s Prize for Presentation in a Speaking Competition, and Alberto Hernandez Melian received a Departmental Commendation for practical work. The Freshers are settling into their first term, our largest ever first year of 78 students. We have several new tutors to look after our growing numbers: Amber Murrey, Associate Professor in Geography; Sinan Acikgoz, Associate Professor in Engineering; Carmen Constantin, Supernumerary Fellow in Maths; and Tingting Zhu, Lecturer in Engineering. We also welcome our new Principal, Helen Mountfield. We all look forward to seeing our students thrive over the coming academic year. In recent years I have seen us repeatedly outspend our planned budget for academic prizes: collections, first-class performance in public examinations, scholarships, exhibitions, etc. We expect a lot from our students, and it is good to see that they surpass our expectations year after year.

Readers of this article over the last six years will know that I have had two main preoccupations: the College’s long-term financial issues, and the major transformation we have undertaken in our physical infrastructure. This year I would like to focus on people. One of the great strengths of Mansfield is the quality and commitment of its administrative and operational staff, some of whom have worked in the College for many years, and who therefore provide stability, continuity and institutional memory – whereas people like me come and go. Let me focus briefly on some of them. Tony Berezny (Maintenance Manager) has worked at Mansfield since he was 16: 37 years and counting. I have come to realise from detailed experience that he knows every stone, tile, pipe and cable in the College, and that he has an extraordinary range of technical skills, all of which have been deployed over the years to keep the place running when there was little or no money to spend. More than that, he cares deeply about the fabric of the College, and responds positively and enthusiastically to every challenge that is put before him, of which there are many. Lee Browning (Kitchen Manager) has been with the College for 24 years. To say that Lee is a big character understates his presence, but behind the large, ebullient, wise-cracking exterior is a gifted, applied chef and manager who delivers fantastic food to our staff, students and visitors on a daily basis. If you haven’t attended formal hall for a long time, try to find a way of coming back to College to experience the quality of food that the kitchen turns out, very often to 150 people or more, each Friday evening. Jane Buswell (PA) has now worked for four Principals over 22 years. All, I am sure, would testify to Jane’s unassuming efficiency as she juggles diaries, fixes

Dawn Oliver (College Accountant) retired on September 30th, 2018, after 16 years at Mansfield. She tells me that the first budget she set showed a deficit of £500,000, and that the only strategy suggested to deal with the problem was the power of prayer. Prayer or not, throughout those 16 years, however bad the financial situation, no member of staff or supplier was ever paid late, and the College kept its head above water when sinking may have seemed easier. That may not sound like much of an achievement in financial terms, but I can assure you that it was. Lynne Quiggin (Domestic Bursar) joined the College as the Bursarial Assistant in 2003 and through quiet application, extremely hard work and a gift for finding and retaining conference opportunities, has risen steadily to her current role. Much of what takes place operationally on a day-to-day basis is down to Lynne’s understated efficiency, but in addition she has grown the College’s conference business to the point where it is making a huge financial contribution, and in so doing helps to make possible all of the other transformational work that has taken place over the last few years. Amanda Ward (Accommodation Manager) has been with us since 2004, originally in the Accounts Office but since 2009 in her current role. Amanda now manages over 350 rooms spread across Oxford – the College main site, Ablethorpe/Rhodes Wolfson, Cowley Road, Botley Road, Wellington Square and Castle Mill – involving not just our own accommodation, but property owned by the University and multiple privatesector landlords. Our accommodation portfolio has grown by over 50% in the last five years and Amanda has taken this within her stride. Doing so requires a great deal of hard work and endless patience, invariably with students, often with landlords, and, I admit, sometimes also with the Bursar. These brief pen-pictures give only the tiniest insight into the hard work, dedication and loyalty of these special people, without whom the College would be a poorer place, financially and in every other sense.

Mansfield 2017/18

JCR President’s Report Daria Lysyakova Jurisprudence, 2016 Mansfield JCR is a diverse community of undergraduate students, which is inclusive, supportive and welcoming. It is precisely this community spirit that allows our small College to feel like a home away from home. I have had the great privilege of being Mansfield’s JCR President for 2018. As so many of my predecessors have emphasised, this is an unpredictable role. It has been a year of many unanticipated challenges, which have taken me, and the rest of the JCR committee, outside our comfort zone. With the opening of the new Hands Building at the beginning of the academic year and the JCR refurbishment over the winter break, the Mansfield JCR community has grown closer as more students now live on the main site and are present around College. The updating of the JCR has made our space more welcoming and social. It has become an important asset to student welfare. Together, these changes represent a much appreciated addition to facilities, and we are very grateful for the benefits the improvements have brought the JCR. This year’s committee has had an increased focus on student welfare. Studying at Oxford is an experience full of personal and academic challenges for every student, so the priority given to welfare is one of the most important developments for the JCR. Some noteworthy initiatives have included a ‘Tea fairy day’ organised by the Disabilities and Mental Health Representative, which consisted of a free delivery of tea and waffles to students’ rooms – along with the opportunity to speak to a peer supporter. Members of Mansfield JCR have also participated in the ‘Oxford Women Speak Out’ campaign, which organised a photo-shoot in our JCR with the help of our Women’s Representative. This campaign enabled young women to express an encouraging and empowering message to others. Following the release of the first Oxford University annual admissions statistics report, Mansfield JCR has been involved in a multitude of projects aimed at improving access to the University. Access has always been central to Mansfield’s ethos. In the midst of the disappointment that ensued from the

16 Mansfield 2017/18

MCR President’s Report Denis Lebedev DPhil Engineering Science, 2017

annual statistics, Mansfield quickly became the small college with a big voice. From the start, we were active participants in the #ThereIsAPlaceForYouHere movement. I was one of the original signatories to the open letter published by the President’s Committee (Prescom), which encouraged and expressed a commitment to the development of Universitywide accessibility programmes similar to those found in certain other colleges. Mansfield JCR’s Access Representative has initiated a ‘Humans of Mansfield’ photo-blog on various social media platforms, which was later combined with a similar ‘Humans of Oxford University’ blog created by the President’s Committee. Beyond these new initiatives, many members of Mansfield JCR give up their time on a weekly basis to show school students around our College and answer any of their questions. We continue to think of ways we can get involved in improving access to Oxford. My predecessor, Joe Inwood, has been elected as President of Oxford SU for 2018/19: the first time a Mansfield student has occupied this role. I would like to congratulate him on this achievement and wish him the best of luck for his year in office. Joe was an outstanding President for Mansfield JCR and I am convinced that he will be an equally exceptional President of Oxford SU. This year we said goodbye to our Principal, Baroness Helena Kennedy QC (commonly known to students as ‘BHK’). Helena has helped shape Mansfield College as it is today. She has also been a great mentor to many JCR Presidents. We are very thankful for her dedication to our College and wish her the best in all her future endeavours. We should also like to warmly welcome our new Principal, Helen Mountfield QC, and look forward to working with her in further improving our College environment. Above all, I am very thankful to the dedication and hard work of the JCR Committee. I was honoured to work with such a passionate team of students who, in my opinion, have surpassed all expectations and exceeded their respective roles.

The Mansfield College MCR has undergone a truly remarkable development in the past year. In October 2017 we experienced a significant growth spurt and welcomed more than 200 MCR members to the College. Yet it only took a few weeks until the diversity, friendliness and curiosity of our members breathed new life into our fully refurbished Common Room. It’s always a joy to walk into the MCR and see members socialising with their friends, enjoying tea and coffee breaks, watching the biggest sports and music events on TV together, or exchanging thoughts on their fascinating research topics. With the increased number of graduate students, the MCR Bench has grown to 12 members. Their voluntary engagement made it possible to organise several events per week, helping the MCR to become a closeknit community. The three Social Secretaries and four members on the Welfare & Equalities team arranged a broad spectrum of activities including dinner exchanges with other colleges, wine and cheese evenings, welfare breakfasts, a mixology night, a Mooncup event, and participation in the Oxford Pride Parade – to name just a few. In addition to the efforts of Bench members, many students volunteered to create MCR events on their own initiative. Where necessary, these were partfinanced by the MCR Small Projects Fund. This helped our calendar to be enriched by the likes of a visit to the theatre, a trip to Bath, a walk to Wytham and the new ‘DPhil//late’ (read: deflate) events encouraging research students to meet, socialise and discuss their projects. Being at the heart of the College community, the MCR continued to foster its relationship with the other parts of Mansfield. The termly Michael Mahony Graduate Seminars and Dinners – jointly organised by the MCR and SCR – continue to be highlights of the busy life at Mansfield, and encourage the MCR and SCR to interact on both academic and personal levels. Graduate Seminars in the past year covered a range of topics from ‘Skulls and scripture’ to ‘Sleep like an Egyptian: the meaning of beds in Ancient Egypt’ to ‘Time’s up: forging gender equality in the 21st century’. The MCR also continued to organise events with the JCR. These included a Christmas party and a bop, a champagne & chocolates event and a St Valentine’s film screening. A highlight of the latter was the consumption of ample quantities of ice cream – won

by the joint efforts of MCR and JCR in the annual environmental awareness competition of the Student Switch Off campaign (organised by the National Union of Students). The MCR also contributed to several other good causes in 2017/18. With the creation of the new Environment, Ethics & Charities role on the MCR Bench, we reduced waste in College by installing additional recycling bins and – again together with the JCR – raised money for the Oxford Sexual Abuse & Rape Crisis Centre and bought Christmas presents for Mansfield’s friendly and helpful staff. Finally, I am proud to say that – as in previous years – the MCR members have voluntarily donated money to the Reach Scholarship for Oxford University students from lowincome countries, and to the Oxford Student Refugee Campaign Scholarship for students with asylum-seeker status. Based on the success of the charitable and social activities shared between the MCR and JCR in the past year, I firmly believe the student bodies will interact even more in the future making a positive impact on the lives of people both inside and outside of Mansfield. Another new role created by the MCR Bench in 2017/18 was the Sports & Societies Officer, who has been promoting the engagement of MCR students in a variety of extracurricular activities – from rowing to competitive dancing, to piano and choir recitals. Moreover, the new officer also organised funding, which helped MCR members pursue their nonacademic aspirations irrespective of personal financial constraints. Looking ahead, the future seems set to be just as exciting as last year. With the most recent plans of the College to improve the location and quality of accommodation offered to graduate students, I am sure that the Mansfield MCR community will further strengthen its presence and participation in day-to-day College life. After such an eventful 2017/18, and promising years to come, there is only one thing left to say: thank you to everyone who has been involved in the story of the Mansfield MCR. Thank you to the Bench members, to everyone who engaged in our events, to the JCR and SCR, to the College staff and to everybody else who contributed to our thriving community.

Mansfield 2017/18

A year in Development and Alumni Relations

contemporary threats to democracy, human trafficking, and violence against women and children. Its work is intended to promote that conversation, not just among Oxford’s students, but also between students, scholars and human rights practitioners, and across generations and geographic borders.

From the Team So much has happened in the past year and we would like to thank everyone who has been on the journey with us. Highlights included the late Kofi Annan opening the Hands Building and Bonavero Institute of Human Rights in June, a wonderful celebration of a new space that has transformed Mansfield. Another memorable occasion was the September 2018 Gaudy (1977-87), one of our most popular events ever, with tickets selling out quickly; a very enjoyable evening was had by all.

‘It is always a pleasure to see as many of our alumni as possible at such occasions throughout the year.’ These events were in addition to our regular programme of London and US receptions, the Annual Hands Lecture, the 1887 Geography Dinner, the MCBC Summer VIIIs Dinner, reunions and the Summer Garden Party. It is always a pleasure to see as many of our alumni as possible at such occasions throughout the year. We also sent out a new mailing, ‘You’re Mansfield’, in February 2018, which celebrates all things Mansfield and shows how to become an active member in the College’s alumni community. You can read more about it in this edition of the Mansfield Magazine. In summer 2018 we said a sad farewell to our longstanding and much respected Development Director, Helen Jones, who left to take up the position of Director of Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Well-known to many of Mansfield’s friends and alumni, Helen, alongside Mansfield’s former Principal Helena Kennedy QC, led the fundraising

18 Mansfield 2017/18

campaign for the new Hands Building and Bonavero Institute of Human Rights. Our Alumni Relations officer, Kathryn Worthington, first point of call for many alumni, has also moved on from Mansfield to a position at St Peter’s College. We are hugely grateful to both of them for everything they’ve done at Mansfield and wish them all the best for their future endeavours. Throughout the year, we have welcomed back former Mansfielders who have dropped in to College to take a trip down memory lane. We are always excited to meet alumni, take them on a tour and hear their favourite Mansfield stories. If you are ever in Oxford and would like to see the College, please do get in touch – we would be very happy to welcome you. Mansfield has had a very positive transformation in the last few years, but we are delighted to hear that returning alumni feel that our friendly atmosphere and close-knit community is as strong as ever.

KOFI ANNAN AT MANSFIELD We were very saddened to hear of the death of Kofi Annan in August 2018. Only six weeks earlier we’d had the great honour of welcoming him to College for the official opening of the new Hands Building and Bonavero Institute of Human Rights. There was great excitement around Mansfield that day, as the current community of students, fellows and staff, as well as founding benefactors and the University Chancellor, Lord Chris Patten, gathered in the Quad to see Mr Annan unveil the plaque for the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights. Earlier he had spoken in the Sir Joseph Hotung Auditorium, situated in the new building – a very special occasion. The Hands Building has been a fantastic addition to Mansfield, housing the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, a state-of-the-art lecture auditorium and 73 en suite student bedrooms. The key aim of the Institute is to engage in research on some of the most pressing issues facing our world, which include conflict and wars, environmental degradation and climate change, persistent gender and racial inequality,

The Hands Building has also transformed College for Mansfield students, enabling all undergraduates to be housed in College-owned accommodation for the first time. The Sir Joseph Hotung Auditorium provides a wonderful space enabling us to run our Friday night lecture series, the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) lectures, music events, moot courts, etc, in a purpose-built space with excellent acoustics and AV equipment.

‘The Hands Building has been a fantastic addition to Mansfield.’ The new auditorium is a bigger space than any we have had previously, enabling more students, alumni and members of the public to attend events at Mansfield. The Hands Building itself is visually stunning, the contemporary architecture and landscaping have been designed to connect the building to the rest of the College both physically and aesthetically. It has already been nominated for an Oxford Preservation Trust award.

Mansfield 2017/18

Access Report 2018 Helen Brooks Access & Admissions Administrator

undergraduate population has long since reflected, or even magnified, inequalities that exist in society as a whole. Yet progress is being made, and here Mansfield continues to lead the way. This year’s intake of students represents one of the most educationally and socio-economically diverse cohorts in the College’s recent history: 95% of our new UK students came from the state sector, including 72% from non-selective schools and colleges; 32% were eligible for a bursary based on their household income; 23% identified as Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic; and 20% were the first in their family to attend university. This was also one of our highest achieving cohorts upon entry, with more than 80% of the intake exceeding their offer. Does all of this mean that we should be complacent? Of course not. However, if we are trying to spread the message to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds that Oxford is for people like them, these statistics certainly help. This year we worked with more than 6000 young people from over 500 schools and colleges across the UK, from Paisley to Penzance. We also engaged with more than 1000 parents and carers, and provided support and guidance to more than 300 teachers and advisers at schools around the country. Much of this work, particularly in maintaining and developing relationships with schools and colleges, was with our link regions of Doncaster, East Riding, Hull, York, Bexley, Bromley, Croydon and Greenwich. Young people from these regions face a variety of barriers on their path to higher education, and it is our challenge – and privilege – to help them realise what they are capable of. Where we can, we do this in collaboration with other parts of the University, with other universities across the country (including our counterparts in Cambridge), and with other external educational and charitable organisations.

One of my favourite activities each year is training our new student ambassadors to help with outreach events. Many of our ambassadors volunteer because they took part in an outreach programme while still at school (over 70% of our UK intake this year attended an Oxford outreach event before applying). Many volunteer because they didn’t have that opportunity, and so are keen to ensure that others do. Some, I suspect, are in it for the free lunch. Yet regardless of their motivations, all of our ambassadors approach the task of inspiring young people with boundless

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energy and enthusiasm. At the start of training this year we asked our ambassadors to think about what advice they would have given their 17-year-old self: ‘do your research’ was a common suggestion, as was ‘pick a course you’ll really enjoy’. However, the piece of advice that came up most often was ‘this is a place for people like you’. The perception that Oxford is only for certain kinds of people is one that we work very hard to address through our outreach work. It is not an easy task: Oxford’s UK

In January of last year, Doncaster was added to the Government’s list of 12 ‘Opportunity Areas’, an initiative aimed at driving social mobility through educational improvement. Doncaster ranked 301 out of 324 districts in the 2016 Social Mobility Index, with only 10% of young people going on to a top university (compared to 17% nationally). As part of our efforts to understand the particular challenges that young people from the area face, and what we can do to help overcome these, we ran a focus group jointly with Brasenose College for current students from our link regions in Yorkshire and the Humber. Many of the concerns they mentioned were those we had expected: financial fears, unsupportive schools, worries about snobbishness and anti-northern feeling.

Some of what they told us was much more positive: many attributed their decision to apply to Oxford to an outreach event they had attended and student ambassadors they had spoken to, and many credited their parents with giving them the encouragement and support they needed to succeed, even if their parents had not been to university themselves. This reaffirmed the importance of what we do, whether it is providing young people with the opportunity to find out for themselves what Oxford can offer them; working with schools and colleges to help identify and support able young people; or offering reassurance and guidance to parents and carers. Our final question to our focus group was how they thought we should be helping young people from their areas. ‘Keep doing what you’re doing’ was one of the responses. We shall – and more. This year we welcomed a new member to our Access Team. Catherine Canning, who studied Law at St Edmund Hall and originally came from Glasgow, started as our new Access Officer in July 2018. Catherine has already hit the ground running (having been up to South Yorkshire four times in the past month and a half!) and we hope that her input will mean we can be even more ambitious in what we aim to achieve. She joins our Tutor for Admissions, Lucinda Rumsey, and me, along with our team of student ambassadors and our JCR Access Officer, Zeynab Alwi. Zeynab has also been hard at work this year expanding our digital outreach provision: ‘Humans of Mansfield’. This is a fantastic new initiative aimed at helping prospective students to find out more about the College and to feel comfortable that it is a place for people like them. As part of our student ambassador training we asked the students to think about what qualities make a good ambassador, and what sort of person they would have liked to have met if they were attending an outreach event as a young person. ‘Friendly’, ‘approachable’, ‘honest’, ‘empathetic’, ‘dedicated’, ‘helpful’, ‘engaging’, ‘passionate’, and ‘inspirational’ were the traits they came up with. I’m pleased to say that our ambassadors are all this, and more. Though we are up against a significant challenge in terms of the inequalities that persist in the UK, I feel much more confident that we can meet this test with such people on our side.

Mansfield 2017/18

COLLEGE LIFE

Sports Report

COLLEGE LIFE

MCBC Report

Alice Bruce History and Politics, 2017

This has been another successful year for sport at Mansfield, with many members of the JCR involved in College and University teams. Sport remains a key aspect of College life for many students, helping bolster Mansfield’s close-knit community.

Netball

Cross Country and Athletics

Netball at Mansfield had an impressive showing in 2017/18, with the club growing in membership and the team rising in the league. The addition of Merton students for the first time has also strengthened the line-up.

Mansfield came ninth out of 27 teams in men’s crosscountry Cuppers despite having only two runners compete. Noah Hurton went on to have a brilliant season, placing highly in the Varsity match and BUCS cross country. Mansfield also had five students compete in the Oxford and Cambridge Varsity Athletics match, which ended in a brilliant Oxford 4-0 win and personal successes for many of the Mansfield athletes.

Football The Merton-Mansfield football teams have made much progress this year. The men’s first team achieved a solid mid-table position in Division Two while the seconds also had a strong season at the top of their league. The highlight of the seconds’ year was reaching the reserves Cuppers final at Iffley, though unfortunately they lost the game 2-1 against Worcester after a last-minute deflected goal. The women’s team continue to impress, doing well in both Cuppers and their league matches. Mansfielder Ella Vickers-Strutt also represented the University throughout the year as part of the Furies team and played in the second Varsity match. At the end of Hilary term, an entertaining addition to the season took place when we held our first Mansfield friendly five-a-side football match, an event greatly enjoyed by all involved.

Rugby The men’s Mansfield-Merton rugby team excelled themselves this year. They won the ‘old boys’ game 29 to 12 and performed strongly in Cuppers, getting through to the semi-finals. Violet Smart was among the individual stars of the women’s game, winning a place in the Varsity rugby match at Twickenham. The club also fielded a mixed touch-rugby team for the first time, which participated in the Cupper’s tournament during Trinity term. After several competitive and enjoyable games, they reached the semifinals.

Kate Gerrand Human Sciences, 2015 We are proud to announce that Mansfield College Boat Club has grown and expanded this year, achieving successes on and off the water as one of the strongest sports clubs in College. The stunning triumphs of previous years have been a tough act to follow, but the club has attracted many committed rowers and nurtured new friendships to lay strong foundations for a healthy future. Christchurch Regatta was definitely a highlight, with four crews entered into the yearly chaos of novice rowing. Sadly, they were unlucky with the draw, so few crews had the opportunity to show the Isis what they could really do. Nevertheless, Mansfield still punched above its weight and gave larger colleges a run for their money. Having successfully navigated novice rowing, both the women and men then entered two crews each for Torpids. Unfortunately, the 2018 event coincided exactly with the ‘Beast from the East’ (snowy scenes of the Women’s First VIII

Hockey Report

pictured above), and racing was only allowed to run on two days due to the dangerous conditions. Dedicated rowers were seen trudging through ankledeep snow to reach the boathouse. The Women’s First VIII went down two but maintained their position in Division II, while the Women’s Second VIII rowed over successfully. The Men’s First VIII went down three, and the men sadly didn’t qualify a Second VIII. Poor conditions and the prolonged ‘red flag’ state of the Isis led to the cancellation of training camp for the beginning of Trinity term, yet this did not put a dampener on the dedication for training. Mansfield went on to enter four crews for Summer Eights. The most exciting event of summer term was the welcome addition to our small collection of shells – a new Falcon eight, the Mel Hedges – arriving just in time for the Women’s First VIII. We are extremely grateful to Rhys and Jillian Hedges for their continued support.

Success in the league and promotion to Division One last year came in contrast to a series of defeats in Michaelmas 2017 against Worcester, Teddy Hall and St Hilda’s, which unfortunately saw the M&Ms condemned to relegation. The men’s cuppers tournament began in Hilary term, but the M&Ms’ involvement 22 Mansfield 2017/18

Overall, it has been an emotional year for MCBC, with many ups and downs that come with being a small but everexpanding club. We are especially thankful to the alumni and friends of MCBC, who supported us both down at the river and by following online. The Facebook page has certainly been more popular and active than ever (follow us @MansfieldRowing for more updates). Regardless of whether you left Mansfield last year or 30 years ago, let’s keep in touch – we’d love to share our updates and hear your memories.

Daniel Scotson, MEng Materials Science, 2016 Merton-Mansfield Hockey Captain 2017/18 was short lived, brought to a cruel end by Lincoln. In a tight affair the game was eventually lost 2-1 after a Jadon Buckeridge (PPE, 2016) equaliser had taken the match to a ‘golden goal’ extra time.

Merton-Mansfield Hockey Club had a highly enjoyable 2017/18. The year started with changes in personnel as some long-serving players left Oxford and an influx of first years joined from both Mansfield and Merton.

Following on the heels of several years of blades was never going to be an easy task, but the Mansfield crews certainly gave it their all. Both the Women’s and Men’s First VIIIs went down three, as did the Women’s Second VIII. The Men’s Second VIII went down four, but we were very glad to see an alumni presence on the boat in the seven seat. Not satisfied to end the racing season there, MCBC also fielded two Mixed Eights in Oriel Regatta, finally getting to see a sunny day.

by alumni and current players, with the alumni coming away with a 4-2 victory thanks to a hat-trick from Matthew Dodd (Geography, 2010). An entertaining afternoon was followed by a meal in Oxford; it is hoped this fixture will be repeated next year.

The mixed cuppers tournament due to be played in Trinity failed to materialise, Overall, we’ve had a great year of hockey, as men’s cuppers fixtures overran. To and it was especially pleasing to attract compensate, a friendly summer league large attendances both for training was set up and it was a testament to the sessions and matches – a reflection of the team that they continued playing hockey commitment and team spirit shown by all on Sunday afternoons in some sweltering involved. Oxford weather while many had exams and various other commitments. Looking to next year, the majority of our players will remain in Oxford, so an The highlight of the season came with established M&Ms team will be hoping to an inaugural alumni hockey match at St mount a promotion challenge and return to Edward’s School in fifth week of Hilary the heights of Division One college hockey. term. The game was well-attended both Mansfield 2017/18

COLLEGE LIFE

Music at Mansfield

COLLEGE LIFE

John Oxlade Director of Music

The 1887 Society

Rebecca Sinnott Geography, 2016

Saëns; Abigail Peake (oboe) in Richard Strauss; and George Manning (trumpet) in Purcell. Alex Dobson’s playing of the Last Post in the Remembrance Service, and the wonderful oboe playing of Jeremy Beard in both concerts and services, also made an indelible impression. Grace Walker (violin) has led the Mansfield Baroque Ensemble in concerts featuring music by Bach (with Agneska Bloch and Travis Godfrey superb soloists in arias from Bach cantatas) and excerpts from Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas, with Grace Green a marvellous Dido and with sterling support from Joschua Spiedel-Johnson (cello). The College Choir has led the singing in the weekly Chapel services, covering a wide range of repertoire from Tudor composers to 21st-century works. Three choral evensongs were especially notable, as was a memorable carol service, which included Mansfield traditional favourites by CS Lang (Eastern Monarchs), Harold Darke’s In the Bleak Midwinter, incorporating the additional verse set by Holst (with soloists Grace Green and Benedict Turvill), and Adolphe Adam’s evocative Cantique de Noël.

One of many highlights in the College’s music programme this academic year was the premiere of two piano pieces, Home Thoughts and The Snow Adventure, composed by Aondoyima Ioratim-Uba. The pieces were featured in the recital on May 13th, which was attended by the largest audience for a recital and greeted by a huge ovation. Another memorable occasion was the concert conducted by George Klaeren. George had previously appeared as soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto K414 and his direction of Vivaldi’s Gloria was greatly enjoyed by the instrumentalists and singers alike. We have been treated to star performances throughout the year: a dazzling piano recital of Ravel and Debussy by Nabil Fadai, who also played the viola beautifully on other occasions; Ruth Simms (clarinet) in Mozart; Sam Sutherland (trombone) in Saint-

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Sadly, we said goodbye to Hanan Natour, Michael Lau, Nabil Fadai and Agneska Bloch – our thanks and best wishes to them – also to Laura Worman, our Senior Choral Scholar and a brilliant flautist, whose contribution to the success and well-being of the Choir and to College music has been immense. We are fortunate indeed to enjoy the benefit of so many musicians in the College, and for their talents and commitment. A final thank-you to the College’s Governing Body for their generosity in awarding five new Choral Scholarships.

On May 5th, 2018, we were delighted to hold our annual 1887 Society Dinner here at Mansfield. Named after the year when Geography was first introduced as an academic subject at Oxford, the Society aims to bring together Mansfield’s Geography students for engaging discussions and entertaining activities. This year, it has been a pleasure to see the relationships between the students flourish, encouraged by events such as our traditional Formal Dinner in Michaelmas term and culminating with the 1887 Dinner, which provided a wonderful opportunity for socialising together before the third- and first-year students undertook their exams.

to exploring the world through travel. Following a champagne reception, we were treated to a delicious meal by Mansfield’s phenomenal catering team, which gave us a rare chance to enjoy the beautiful surroundings of the College’s Old Hall. This year, we were lucky enough to have Mansfield Emeritus Fellow Dr Tony Lemon as our speaker. Dr Lemon’s expertise lies in the areas of electoral geography, urban desegregation and post-apartheid reconstruction in southern Africa. He was an illustrious and obvious choice for such an auspicious occasion. Following his speech, which got everyone talking, we enjoyed a discussion between alumni and current students of our experiences at Mansfield and where Geography might take us in the future.

At the 1887 Dinner, we welcomed back several familiar faces, both former tutors and students. It is always fascinating to hear where degrees in Geography have taken Mansfield alumni, from jobs in government

We would like to thank everyone for coming and for making the evening so enjoyable and illuminating, and we look forward to organising more 1887 Society events in the near future.

Mansfield 2017/18

COLLEGE LIFE

COLLEGE LIFE drinks and entertainment. Those dining at the ball will be seated in the Chapel for an extravagant woodland-themed three-course meal, while non-diners can choose from an excellent array of light food and drinks. Entertainment will include a main stage (featuring four bands ranging from modern funk to an upcoming indie band), a fairy-tale tavern and a silent disco among other delights.

Student news Zile Huma Master of Public Policy, 2018 Before joining the Master’s course in Public Policy at Oxford, Zile worked with the Ministry of Climate Change in Pakistan. During her time there, she floated and implemented the idea of a door-to-door plantation campaign, called ‘Ghar Ghar Aik Shajar’ (‘one home, one plant’), under the Green Pakistan Programme. She volunteered to run this pioneering campaign besides her routine job responsibilities. A total of 100 Environmental Sciences students from three universities volunteered to take part in the campaign, during which they provided one plant to each of 10,000 homes in Islamabad. The purpose was to create public awareness on climate change among the capital’s citizens, as Pakistan is one of the world’s top ten countries most affected by the issue. Under the second part of the campaign, 5000 plants were given to state-school children to grow and look after. The final stage included a social media campaign, with the university students creating a hashtag of ‘GharGharAikShajar’ which included 5000 tweets – where Zile was tagged – on various environmental related messages. To recognise the efforts of the volunteer students, a ceremony attended by Pakistan’s Minister for Climate Change was organised. Zile also writes articles on climate change and environmental issues in one of Pakistan’s leading newspapers, the Daily Times.

Luis Iturra DPhil Geography and the Environment, 2016 Luis has recently received an Albert Reckitt Award (part of the Postgraduate Research Awards 2018) from the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). The prize, combined with the support

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of a Graduate Travel Grant from Mansfield College, allowed Luis to undertake research and fieldwork for six months in Chile. His research, entitled ‘Atmospheres of inequality: An investigation of the affective dimensions of urban inequality in Santiago, Chile’, supervised by Professor Derek McCormack and Dr Tim Schwanen, aims to contribute towards developing a more nuanced understanding of urban inequalities related to income distribution by examining its affective dimension. In particular, the research seeks to increase understanding of urban inequalities in the Chilean and Latin American context. More information at: www.rgs.org/in-the-field/inthe-field-grants/students/phd/rgs-ibg-postgraduateresearch-award/

The following week, Andrew McMillan, a fascinating poet whose work often explores modern masculinity, led a discussion group that covered everything from school changing rooms to why mirrors are disturbing. Poetry is certainly having an exciting time at Mansfield – three JCR members were shortlisted for the OUPS annual prize last year (at a point when there were no Mansfielders on the committee!), the sporadic but wonderful Mansfield Writing Society keeps the creative juices flowing, and more OUPS events are set to take place in the College throughout the coming year.

MANSFIELD COLLEGE BALL 2019: ‘INTO THE WOODS’ Anna Valentine Geography, 2016

Committee members: Chloe Lettington (President), Lucy Porter (Treasurer), Juliet Garcia (Secretary), Thomas Surridge (Vice President) and Lara Garrett (Safety & Logistics Officers), Carys Greenaway and Joe McKenzie (Music & Entertainment Officers), Henry Williams, Jeanne Lerasle and Henry Straughan (Food & Drink Officers), Alex Smith and Esin Akdogan (Creative Design Officers), Grace Bowland and Tariq Ali (Marketing Officers), Anna Valentine and Shamika Tamhane (Ticketing Officers).

STUDENT PUBLICATIONS Suchandrima Das DPhil Engineering Science, 2016 ‘Novel application of in vivo micro-optical coherence tomography to assess cornea scarring in an animal model’, M Ang, K Devarajan, S Das, GHF Yam, HM Htoon, S Chen, X Liu, L Liu, et al (2018), Scientific reports, 8 (1): 11483. ‘Comparison of anterior segment optical coherence tomography angiography systems for corneal vascularisation’, M Ang, K Devarajan, S Das, T Stanzel, A Tan, M Girard, L Schmetterer, et al (2018), British Journal of Ophthalmology, 102 (7): 873-877.

WELL VERSED Maya Little English Language and Literature, 2017 Three members of Mansfield’s JCR have taken active roles in the Oxford University Poetry Society (OUPS) committee during the past year: Maya Little (President), Jack Sagar (Secretary, until Michaelmas term 2018) and Kate Haselden (Photographer). The society publishes a termly magazine, runs workshops, and hosts various poets. In Michaelmas, Shivanee Ramlochan, a poet recently shortlisted for Forward’s Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection, did a reading in the College JCR and fielded audience questions with attentive, truthful responses.

Over the past few months the Ball Committee – consisting of second- and third-year Mansfield students – has worked incredibly hard to ensure that this spectacular night will be a success. Its members cannot wait to share with you an event that promises to be the highlight of Mansfield’s social calendar. The committee is also proud to be working with the ‘What’s a Pound?’ initiative and will be donating a proportion of the ball’s ticket sales to a local charity supporting the homeless, Oxford Crisis Skylight.

The highly anticipated Mansfield College Ball will take place in our beautiful College grounds on Saturday February 2nd, 2019. For one magical evening, Mansfield will be transformed into a fairy-tale forest in which guests will be taken on an enchanted journey, ‘Into the Woods…’ Guests can expect a champagne reception in the gardens upon arrival, before enjoying a spectacular night of music,

‘Consistent determination of geometrically necessary dislocation density from simulations and experiments’, S Das, F Hofmann, E Tarleton, International Journal of Plasticity, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijplas.2018.05.001 ‘The effect of helium implantation on the deformation behaviour of tungsten: X-ray micro-diffraction and nanoindentation’, S Das, DEJ Armstrong, Y Zayachuk, W Liu, R Xu, F Hofmann, Scripta Materialia, 146: 335-339.

Mansfield 2017/18

VISITING STUDENT PROGRAMME

Mansfield’s Visiting Student Programme, 2017/18

We have already welcomed the arrival of the class of 2018/19, with students from universities including: Barnard, Boston, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Cornell, DePauw, Dickinson, Georgetown, Gothenburg, Haverford, Holy Cross, Iowa, Kenyon, McGill, Northwestern, Oslo, Santa Clara, Swarthmore, Tongji, Washington and Lee, Wellesley, Wheaton, and William Jewell.

Helen Lacey, Director of the Visiting Student Programme at Mansfield, celebrates another fruitful year including the arrival of our first students from University College Maastricht and the University of Bayreuth.

It is great to hear from our past Visiting Students with news of their activities. Megan Izzo (class of 2015/16) won a place at the prestigious Stanford University Law School and will be attending in 2019, after spending one more year teaching English in Madrid. Hildie Hoeschen (class of 2015/16) has just completed a Fulbright teaching year in Spain.

The class of 2017/18 have achieved outstanding academic success, as well as taking part in the social and sporting life of the College. Prizes for academic excellence were awarded to Holly Salois, Cassidy Shubatt and Andrew Musto. The overall prize went to Thais Quiroga Mendoza. Outside of the classroom, our Visiting Students were an integral part of the College community. Alex Brunstad, Mohini Tangri and Becky Reilly participated in research for the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights for the UN Human Rights Committee, and Peper Langhout was the co-chair of operations and advocacy of ‘It Happens Here’, the Oxford SU campaign to end sexual assault. In this role, Peper advised internal policy, trained College officers, as well as ran research showcases and support groups.

Yanqing Zhao and Ning Rong Yan were programme managers for the Oxford Chinese New Year Gala, held in Oxford Town Hall, and were responsible for inviting performers and negotiating contract details. They also monitored the rehearsals and the Gala itself to ensure a smooth run in front of hundreds of audiences through the live stream.

Dr Helen Lacey was appointed Director of the Visiting Student Programme in 2014. She is Supernumerary Fellow in Late Medieval History at Mansfield, with publications including The Royal Pardon: Access to Mercy in FourteenthCentury England published by Boydell & Brewer in 2009.

Holly Salois VSP Representative

Other notable contributions came from Mohini Tangri, who brought the intersection of governance and artificial intelligence to Oxford Artificial Intelligence Society as a member of their Executive Committee; Becky Reilly, who was an incredibly active member of the Oxford Hub throughout the year and often volunteered to help teach English to English-language learners; and MJ Diao, who was the stage manager of an OUDS play, A Doll’s House, as well as being the Creative Designer of St Hilda’s ball.

I would have shared with past-me the names of all the friends I had made over the course of the year, both among the friendly Mansfield students and the other excitedly anxious VSPs. I would have shown her some of the amazing sights and opportunities that Oxford has to offer, from gorgeous well-stocked libraries and the classic ‘dreaming spires’ to the thought-provoking debates at the Oxford Union and the hilarious nights out at the Park End club. I would have allowed her a glimpse of the conversations she would have with other students that would open her eyes and make her think about the world a bit differently. I would have given her a stack of all the essays she would inevitably write by the end of her third term, encompassing more words than she thought possible. Most importantly, I would have impressed upon her the immeasurable gratitude that I now feel towards everyone at Mansfield who made this extraordinary year the unforgettable experience it was.

They say that hindsight is 20/20, like a pair of bifocals that allows you to see more clearly both the past and the present. I’ve never felt the influence of hindsight as acutely as when I look back at my year abroad at Mansfield College. I’m sure I’m not alone among my fellow Visiting Students when I say that I was incredibly nervous upon arriving in Oxford. What if the workload was too difficult? What if I didn’t make any friends? What if I got lost in the city? What if I never stopped feeling homesick? These and countless other questions whirled in my head, making it difficult to fall asleep on that first night. If only I could have shared the hindsight I now possess with myself as I stared at the ceiling of my then-unfamiliar Dale accommodation. 28 Mansfield 2017/18

We would love to hear from our Visiting Student alumni about what they are doing now. Do drop us an email with any news: vsp@mansfield.ox.ac.uk

While hindsight can make the past clearer, it can also offer a new perspective of the present. Simply because we have returned to our homes across the globe does not mean that we VSPs must put our time at Mansfield behind us. Rather, we can continue to embody the energy, curiosity and excitement that buzzed through us as we explored a new city that quickly became our beloved home. Although our year at Mansfield can never be properly repeated or replicated, we can still carry forth the knowledge we gained, memories we made, and friendships we formed as we take our next steps, wherever they may lead.

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Our community is drawn from across the globe and is perhaps Oxford’s most diverse. As well as the wealth of social, economic, and ethnic backgrounds represented in the College, our alumni hail from 75 different countries and include Oxford’s highest concentration of Visiting Students as well as the highest percentage of Americans for any Oxford college. We hope that the knowledge gained at Mansfield, the friendships formed and the memories built will stay with our students as each generation joins our alumni. The lifelong relationship between College and its alumni is something to cherish and celebrate. Now, with more ways to stay connected, get involved and benefit from being a member of our community, there has never been a more exciting time to be part of Mansfield.

Last year, we sent Mansfield alumni a special mailing ‘You’re Mansfield’ – a celebratory piece that shared some of the latest Mansfield stories, as well as marking the expansion of opportunities for alumni in the College. In addition, we launched a new alumni section of our website (www. mansfield.college), which we encourage you all to visit. In recent times, Mansfield has gone from strength to strength in its teaching, its financial support of students and its transformational physical improvements. Yet, as those who have visited recently will have experienced, the core of what makes Mansfield so special to so many remains stronger than ever. Throughout these changes, the College has retained its ethos and its renowned close-knit community atmosphere – our undergraduates, graduate students, Visiting Students and alumni are all part of the Mansfield family. In the past, the College could not always provide a full outreach programme to alumni. Today however, Mansfield is more than able to achieve this goal, and a growing, vibrant alumni connection is central to our values of life-long learning and community. We see our alumni as being integral to the Mansfield family; our aim is to reach out to the entire alumni body and enhance what it means to be part of Mansfield across an entire lifetime. It has been wonderful to welcome an increasing number of you back to College over the years, as well as to meet many alumni at our events in the UK and across the world. Nevertheless, many former students have not been in touch for years and we are keen to strengthen or re-establish the bond we have with all our alumni. There are several ways to

participate in this continuing community, such as through College events in Oxford and around the world, through online lectures, publications, and through other social and intellectual aspects of ‘lifelong learning’. Everyone connected with Mansfield has a great deal to be proud of. In the last ten years we have:

• Attained the highest percentage of students from state

schools in Oxford (90%), which led to the BBC publishing a glowing profile of the College (www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk/ news/bbc-story-mansfields-outreach-success). In 2018 95% of our new UK students came from the state sector.

• Enhanced the ‘East Range’, including the construction

of a new kitchen, restoring the Chapel and Tower Rooms, creating the very popular Crypt café-bar, and a beautiful outside terrace.

• Built the new Hands Building, which includes student

study-bedrooms, the College’s first purpose-designed auditorium and performance space, and the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights.

• Expanded accommodation so that every undergraduate

has the option to live-in during all their time here, which in today’s Oxford is equivalent to a £2000 bursary alleviating student costs.

Become an active member... Visit: Come to the Summer Garden Party See: View our Friday Night Lecture podcasts Share: ‘Friend’ our Facebook page, ‘Mansfield Oxford’ Offer: Mentor a Mansfield student Keep in touch: Read our publications Please let us know how we can make your continuing relationship with Mansfield more valuable and interesting to you. Write to us at alumni@mansfield.college and help us shape the next stage for alumni at the College. www.mansfield.college

‘Every time I return to Mansfield, my heart flickers with a little thrill of joy when I experience the warm welcome, the colours, the sounds. I also feel both excitement and pride at the new developments and the continued enhancements to the College. I urge every alum to continue (or to reestablish!) their connections with Mansfield College.’ Dr Lucy Mahoney DPhil Geography and the Environment, 2009

• Enhanced conference facilities, bringing in new revenue streams and securing our financial status.

• Created the Friday Night Lectures to bring members of

the College and the wider Oxford community together to share in a wide range of intellectual explorations.

• Strengthened and diversified the Fellowship and student body, resulting in continued excellence.

‘It’s wonderful to be part of a college that keeps getting better and better.’ Sarah Harkness, PPE, 1980

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Mansfield 2017/18

In conversation with Sam Meekings Mansfield alumnus and writer, Sam Meekings (English & Modern History, 2000), caught up with the Development Team to chat about his latest novel, The Afterlives of Dr Gachet. He also explained how his travels around China inspired his first novel, Under Fishbone Clouds.

Having studied English & Modern History at Mansfield, where did your degree take you next? At the end of my time at Mansfield I had a panic – everyone was talking about what to do next and I realised I had no plan. Then I saw an advertisement which said ‘Come to China and teach for a year’. I thought that sounded interesting, so I flew to Beijing, got on a minibus and was dropped in the middle of nowhere. It was a huge culture shock at first. I was bewildered by everything and I couldn’t speak any Chinese. However, the longer I stayed and the more research I did, the more I wanted to write about China. There were so many stories I came across and a lot of interesting history I learnt, which I wanted to tell everyone back home. There was too much to put into an email, so it grew into a book and I ended up writing my first novel Under Fishbone Clouds. I stayed in China for a while, working as an editor with Oxford University Press in Shanghai. I then saw an interesting opportunity in Qatar and decided to try somewhere new. I have been in Qatar for five years, currently working as an Assistant Professor at Northwestern University’s campus in Doha.

How did you find the cultural differences between China and Qatar? China felt like stepping into a different world. I was in a small town on a new railway station stop between Beijing and Shanghai. When I walked down the street, local people stopped and stared – it was such an unusual thing to see non-Chinese people there. Very few of them I met spoke English, so buying anything or getting local transport all required learning Chinese. It took a lot of adjusting and getting used to, but it helped me fall in love with the place and pushed me to learn more about it. The transition in Qatar was a little easier. Of course the local people speak Arabic, but English is a commonly used language here. The country has over 2 million people, but only roughly a quarter of them are actually Qatari. It is a very diverse place and I hadn’t realised that before I came. It is also a very welcoming country and rapidly changing. You can’t drive around without seeing a new building in the landscape. The place is ever-changing and growing and it’s always intriguing to see what will happen next.

Your latest novel The Afterlives of Dr Gachet was inspired by Van Gogh’s famous painting of the doctor. Why did you decide to write about him and how did you develop Dr Gachet from the historical records you read into a fully fledged character for your book?

knows its whereabouts, so it’s a mystery. Dr Gachet treated Van Gogh on his death bed and was probably the last person to see him alive. I felt that he must have a backstory, so I researched his early life and came up with his tale. Historical records were fairly scant. We have the key details of his early life, his later medical training and his time served in the army, but all the details in between are missing. Filling in the blanks was the work of imagination. I had to make the jump based on the facts we know and the recorded details that we have from other people of his time, such as Pissarro and Manet. I built on this person they described and tried to reconstruct scenes based on the historical information available about the Franco-Prussian War.

What other challenges did you face when writing this novel? There were two main challenges. One was trying to make sure that it had some kind of fidelity to the past, so remembering that Gachet is within this completely different social and cultural setting of mid-19th century France. People are shaped by the times in which they live, so I had to keep reminding myself what the key differences would have been. The second challenge was how to write about someone suffering from depression without creating a really depressing book. Van Gogh chose to paint Dr Gachet because he related to Gachet’s ‘heartbroken expression of our times’ and his work depicts this anxious character, who was full of melancholy. However, this man’s depression did not define him, it was just one aspect. This isn’t a book that’s only about depression, so the challenge was to find the right balance.

Which book would you say had the greatest impact on you? The Rings of Saturn by WG Sebald. I remember reading it and thinking how could a book go in all these different directions? It is about the author’s walking tour around Suffolk, but it also goes deep into the past and explores different cultures. You feel like you’ve been taken on so many incredible and fascinating journeys.

What do you hope your readers will get from The Afterlives of Dr Gachet? I hope they find it an interesting and engaging read, because this is a guy who has so many weird and fascinating twists and turns in his life. I hope readers will be interested by the fictionalised element of how this man ended up in one of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings.

I read about this painting a long time ago and it stayed with me. It has not been seen in public for over 20 years. No one

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Mansfield 2017/18

‘A portrait isn’t just about the likeness of you, it’s about the painter’s sense of you’ British composer, Errollyn Wallen, was the first black woman to have her work performed at the Proms. In 2007 she was made an MBE for her services to music. Errollyn is an Honorary Fellow of Mansfield and in March 2018, a portrait of her painted by Sonia Latchford was unveiled in the College.

Errollyn Wallen gained a feel for the piano at an early age and is sure that no other instrument would have taken her to where she is today: ‘I once believed that anyone could learn any instrument to a really high standard, but I feel bad to say I don’t believe that any more. You have to have a real affinity to music and your instrument.’ Errollyn wasn’t pushed into playing, but found the piano was the most natural way for her to explore sound. Being left to her own devices, she was able to make her own journey. ‘When I was just starting out, I asked people how to get into music and no one was able to help. I was actually told that I might want to consider being a secretary, as I was so good with people.’ However, after training in composition, Errollyn’s musical career flourished. Similar to Errollyn, Sonia Latchford also discovered her love and natural talent for art at a young age. Yet she did not at first set out for a career in the arts – this was more ‘accidental’. She continued to love the subject, however, and so pursued it at university as a mature student when her children were older. Studying as an adult, she felt, had its advantages. She was more focused and was certain about what she wanted to do – she wanted to paint. Her work explores race and sexuality within art and pop culture and she aims to raise the visibility of black people through her painting. The two women first met on a cold, rainy day in London. Errollyn was standing in the doorway of a bookshop, her hood pulled tight and her glasses steamed up. Sonia was soaked, having run through the heavy rain. Until being reunited at Mansfield for the unveiling of the painting, this was the only time that the two met during the process. Their meeting was barely an hour long, but it was all that was required for Sonia to gain what she needed. As they sat talking, Sonia studied Errollyn’s character and movement – how she had similar hair to herself, how she fidgeted with the fabric of her dress, her giggle, the detail

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of her Mary Jane shoes, how her feet tucked under the chair as she was sitting, how her gestures were almost ‘child-like’. ‘I don’t like a painting to look like a photograph, although I have to work from a photograph at first’ explained Sonia. Once a life-sized drawing is sketched, Sonia puts away any photos and everything else is done from memory. ‘That’s the hardest bit’, she admits, ‘The temptation is always there to get the photos out and start comparing.’ There can also be unexpected challenges for artists. Sonia’s portrait of Errollyn Wallen was her second attempt, as someone broke into her studio and vandalised the first version. But despite the additional work, Sonia believes this actually did her a favour as she was much happier with the second painting. ‘I am driven by the continuous process of learning something every time I paint – without fail and with every painting I do.’ Errollyn sees a larger challenge for the music world: ‘People don’t feel so scared to go to galleries, such as Tate Modern, whereas classical music is more often played in a university setting or to people already in that world. I wish I could change that.’ Errollyn recognises how important it is for artists and musicians to create pieces that connect with people and tell stories from their time and place. For herself, it is about creating good, honest music that has both intellectual and emotional elements. She recalls how one of her compositions had such an impact on an audience member that he told her he wanted it played at his funeral. ‘That’s incredible to me. There’s something in that piece that connected with him. You couldn’t really ask for more.’ Asked how she felt about the new painting, Errollyn commented: ‘A portrait isn’t just about the likeness of you, it’s about the painter’s sense of you… It’s a very exciting thing this portrait and a massive honour to be an Honorary Fellow here at Mansfield as well.’ The painting of Errollyn Wallen can be seen on display in the Main Lobby of Mansfield College.

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Three score years and ten: Mansfield lives and the search for unity Commemorating the 70th anniversary of the World Council of Churches, Rev Dr Susan Durber (Theology, 1979) examines Mansfield’s important role in the development of ecumenism in the intervening years. There have been many 70th anniversaries of major institutions recently and Mansfield has good cause to remember one of them in particular. In the immediate postwar period there was determination to bring people and nations together to work for good. This led to the founding of the World Council of Churches in 1948 in Amsterdam, though the Council had its roots in movements and initiatives that went further back. The WCC defines itself as ‘a fellowship of churches which confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour according to the scriptures, and therefore seek to fulfil together their common calling…’ There are many Mansfield names among those who were founders and leaders in this movement for Christian unity, and Mansfield names too among those who are still active in the ecumenical movement – and also sometimes reflectively critical of it. The church that had the strongest connection to Mansfield College’s beginnings, the Congregational Church (and one of its successors, the United Reformed Church), had a particularly strong commitment to ecumenism. Donald Norwood, in a chapter of Mansfield’s Ministry, dares the reader to prove him wrong that Mansfield has been ‘more closely involved in the worldwide ecumenical movement than any other College in the world!’. It is certainly true that, studying documents and records from the movement, the reader repeatedly stumbles upon Mansfield names: Fairbairn, Selbie, Micklem, Dodd, Marsh and Caird in the early days, and more recently Best, Gill, Stranz and even Durber. There was a strong sense, 70 years ago, that the separated churches might come closer together – even find a very visible unity. The direction of travel seemed set. After 70 years it is timely to reflect on what has happened to Christian unity, both on the global scale and more locally. Another Mansfield alumnus, Martin Camroux, has written a book, Ecumenism in Retreat: How the United Reformed Failed to Break the Mould, in which he radically questions whether that early energy for Christian unity was really well spent. It is certainly true that ecumenism has not worked

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out in the ways that its early enthusiasts may have wished or imagined. The United Reformed Church has not become part of a wider Christian unity scheme after all, and on most high streets and villages in the UK the disunity of the church remains visible in terms of chapels, spires and denominational names. On the global scale, the number of churches has not got smaller, but has mushroomed. The growth of independent and Pentecostal churches has been considerable. On the African continent many ‘new’ churches have emerged (often sprung out of a longing for an indigenous and certainly postcolonial expression of Christianity), and in China the church is growing fast but not in ways that match the patterns of Europe or North America. Alongside the rapid flourishing and increasing diversity of Christianity in the majority world, goes the decline of the churches in the global North so that they become, in some cases, more defensive of their identities rather than willing to ‘lose’ themselves in a more united church.

be the church, and find a renewed sense that Christ is with those in the margins of the world. In a world that seems to be fragmenting, a witness to the possibility of unity for the sake of all humankind and even the wounded and broken planet (what Pope Francis called our ‘common home’), remains alive. In June this year, Pope Francis visited Geneva and made visible a growing unity between Christian families worldwide. In countless local places within the UK, that kind

of visible fellowship is made evident: as local churches work together to serve their communities, as they meet regularly for prayer together, and as they speak together of faith to an increasingly secular context. The search for unity looks different now from how it looked 70 years ago and that’s hardly surprising. But it would be hard to argue that it is any less urgent. Mansfield College can be proud that its teachers and students have been part of this long, changing, but vital story.

Christian unity has not been achieved in the ways once imagined and worked for by countless Mansfield alumni. However, the story can be interpreted differently. In many places, the churches, though not institutionally united, are more truly one in other ways. Many have now reached a measure of agreement on core matters of faith – like the meaning of baptism and the Lord’s supper. Christians now sing music from other churches than their own, are much more open to the traditions of others and much more interested in the wider church. Church leaders work more closely together, mutual condemnations have been lifted, and mission seems more pressing than the challenging of each other over differences (though the one issue where differences still threaten to divide Christians most acutely is that of personal morality and sexuality). Seventy years of the World Council of Churches has seen the global church, or a large part of it, speak out against the heresy of racism, wrestle together with what it means to

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‘Think big’ for the environment Mansfield alumni Sidney Blankenship and Martin Stott outline their different approaches to environmentalism, showing the connection between public policy, campaigning, the natural world and ethics. For both, their time at College was invaluable in developing their world view.

its succession of highly motivated Principals and Fellows. I am grateful to former Mansfield International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) Fellow, Andrew Linzey, for my appointment in 2016 as an Associate Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. My presentation to the Summer School in 2014 on ‘Native American Religion: Restoring Species to the Circle of Life’ was recently published in the Routledge Handbook of Religion and Animal Ethics (2018). I’ve also presented on ‘Corpse-

Contamination as a Religious Approach to Fur’ (2017) and ‘The Royal Law in Animal Ethics’ (2018). In October 2018, I gave a presentation on ‘Wolves in the Bible’ at the International Wolf Symposium in Minneapolis. My book on ‘The Animals of Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14’ is also being prepared for publication; and I continue my research in animal ethics from the Bible, Native America, and present environmental circumstance.

Martin Stott Geography, 1973 Enjoying the innovation to be found in the voluntary sector drew me back to it when I left public service, and for the past five years I have been Vice Chair and Chair of the environmental charity Garden Organic, promoting vegetable growing and biodiversity in back gardens, allotments and community-growing settings. Sustainable solutions to environmental challenges start at the local level even if they have national or global implications. Whether it is growing the food we eat, initiating community-owned renewable energy projects, or improving air quality, people interact with their environment locally.

Sidney Blankenship Theology, 1967 Theology, according to Herodotus, stems from the Pelasgians (predecessors of the Greeks) who employed the term theoi for those who placed or arranged the world’s created existence. They made an offering (thusia) to these ‘disposers’ of various natural manifestations even before the classical names were applied. My former professor, John McIntyre at the University of Edinburgh, rightly spoke of Theology as ‘the fieldencompassing field’. As such, the study is necessarily interdisciplinary. I view animal ethics and the environment as implicit in understanding both Christian theology and the spiritual beliefs of indigenous peoples. The environment is not only where humans abide, but all other living creatures. It demands our attention; and respect for every naturally occurring species is a theological imperative. The original texts of all religions provide a timeless foundation for reflection on animal ethics, as do indigenous stories and traditions. Environmental concerns often focus on protection of resources for human well-being, but the failure to consider our ‘relationship’ to other creatures is a glaring omission. Humanity needs a profound reassessment of its historic ethical assumptions regarding animals, from our earliest domestication to the current massive abuse in commercial exploitation.

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Theology is not only a discipline of the arts, but of the sciences as well. The natural world – its origin and processes, its living creatures – is the subject of both. Mansfield College made a transition from the all-male (permanent) private hall of my student days in the late 1960s to a full college of the University in the 1990s. An Oxford Centre for the Environment, Ethics and Society, and later the first Fellowship in Animal Welfare, were both College initiatives that brought these concerns into the broader framework of the University. The study of animals and the environment in religious contexts has a fundamental role in research. Programme units in the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature facilitate ongoing academic activity. Yet humane education with reference to animals of other species needs to be addressed in every discipline; and interactive sensitivity to the presence of other living creatures in their own environment is not acquired without experience. My life here in Texas combines environmental and animal research with the stewardship of a herd of American bison and other animals. My student days at Mansfield provided a wealth of stimulating intellectual activity and deeply satisfying friendships. I won’t rehearse my reminiscence from the Winter 2009 issue of the Mansfield Magazine, but this continuity has been invaluable over time. The character of the College as an agent of change is well illustrated by

My career has always had a sustainable development theme. It has included a number of aspects, but two areas dominate: grass-roots campaigning and organising; and engagement in public policy through public service, particularly through local government. I started out by founding the Political Ecology Research Group when I graduated with a Master’s in Urban & Regional Planning from LSE in 1977. The Group was very innovative at the time, providing the scientific, sociological, and planning underpinning for campaigning groups ranging from those challenging the nuclear industry, to quarrying and road building. But most of my career has been in public service, specifically local government – both as a Labour councillor, and then from 1990 as a manager in local government. I spent the next 22 years in this role, finally as Director for Environment & Resources at Warwickshire County Council. The brief was broad: from developing sustainable transport to managing the council’s 46 farms and smallholdings. Waste management was the big-ticket item. Reducing waste and maximising re-use and recycling were crucial to both saving the council tax payer money and saving the planet, and I took a collaborative approach working with the voluntary sector to very good effect.

Mansfield gave me the tools to engage with this: challenge, critical thinking, the ability to conduct research, the importance of reading widely, understanding the benefits of collaboration. I was lucky in a way to be at the College during the mid-1970s; Blueprint for Survival had just been published, The Limits to Growth was very current, Social Justice and the City was a key text for geographers. Being a geographer allowed me to ‘think big’ but also to understand the particularity of the local, as well as the class, race and gender dimensions of what I studied. As a small and unpretentious college, Mansfield had an informality, friendliness and a Nonconformist tradition that appealed to me at a time when I was looking to find myself and to understand what I might contribute to the process of change in society. Does Mansfield encourage its students to become ‘change makers’? For me, yes it did and I’ve no reason to believe it won’t continue to do so for many generations of students to come.

Mansfield 2017/18

Restoring a diversity of voices: Mansfield organ appeal

Professor Stephen Blundell, Professorial Fellow in Physics

Organs have been adorning churches and chapels for centuries. Mansfield’s organ is, like the College itself, entirely unique. It suits the grand acoustic of the wonderful space of our Chapel-Hall and its handsome outward appearance fits perfectly with the surroundings. The organ dates from 1890 and, since many Oxford institutions have repaired or replaced their ancient instruments, is one of only a few English Romantic examples to survive intact in Oxford. Organs seem to embody the principle that something beautiful is produced by a diversity of voices. Just as the College itself comprises distinct and various personalities – individuals from different backgrounds and nationalities, studying humanities and sciences, with all manner of differing perspectives but nevertheless tightly bound into a cohesive community – so an organ contains pipes of all different lengths, shapes, designs, producing notes of different musical pitch and timbre. Some pipes sound reedy, some imitate flutes or clarinets, some bark like a foghorn, some thunder and shake the floor, others trill like a piccolo. But like a diverse community, bring them together and the combined effect is sublime. Mansfield’s organ has been silent for several years. Little renovation has been done since the 1890s and more than a century’s wear and tear has taken its toll. Some leather parts have perished, a few stops no longer work, the pressurised air supply is no more and a deep internal clean of all the tubes is long overdue. The good news is that, thanks to the generous support from Mansfield alumni, fellows and friends to the Mansfield Organ Appeal, we can start a major restoration project and bring this magnificent instrument back into the heart of the musical life of the College. You can sponsor a pipe and thereby use your voice to give the organ its voice back! More details can be found at: www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk/mansfield-college-organ-appeal

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Building a wider alumni community Joe Morris (History, 2011), President of the Mansfield College Alumni Association, reports on his year in office and reaffirms the Association’s commitment to engage with alumni of all ages who share an allegiance to the College and a desire to help its current student population. It has been a busy year as President of the Mansfield Alumni Association, but before addressing the present, it would be impossible for anyone involved with the Association not to miss Donald Norwood as Secretary. He has been a stalwart member of the Committee and has served as Secretary since before I was a member. My predecessor Daniel Seiderer and I are grateful for his contributions throughout his time as Secretary and for his expertise. When I was first elected to the position of President, I promised to work hard on expanding our access offer and pledged to work with the College to help alumni get involved. This is a major project and something that requires patience and work to get right. Ultimately, as an alumni association, we can augment and enhance the picture that the JCR and College access team can paint of life at Mansfield by sharing our experience of life beyond the College. Whether that is as professionals or as members of our community, our commitment to the values of Mansfield need not end when we graduate. This is an area where I will continue to work with College authorities and student government to identify where alumni who are able and willing to help are best placed to offer their expertise. I know that my degree opened my mind to insights I’d not previously considered, and opened doors that may not have been open to me otherwise, and that Mansfield has had a similar effect on every student. If this is something you would like to be personally involved with, please do not hesitate to contact me. We’re still working on reforming the Association to make it more responsive to the membership and to encourage alumni of all ages to get in contact and get involved. Daniel and I are especially hoping to attract a new generation of Committee members and to be able to host networking events in London – both as a Mansfield whole and on an industry-by-industry basis. By doing this, we believe we can offer the JCR members advice on breaking into various industries by talking to those of us who have recently started out,

as our experience will be directly relevant to those soon to graduate. In particular, I would like to welcome one new member to the Committee, Joe Inwood, previously a JCR President. I worked with Joe in my first year as President of the Alumni Association and know how dedicated he is to Mansfield and our shared values. Recent alumni of the College who are keen to remain in touch with Mansfield would be a welcome addition to the Committee, as would those who left less recently and are considering a way back in. We want the Committee to reflect the diversity of the experiences of the alumni at Mansfield, and the many different lives we go on to lead after graduating. Having another former JCR President join the Committee is a real gain, and is why we are dedicated to involving the elected representatives of the JCR at every opportunity. Throughout the coming year, we shall continue to engage with the JCR so that more undergraduates are aware of our role in the College community and can more easily become involved with the Association after graduation. Earlier in 2018, members of the Mansfield Association gathered for our annual dinner, where we presented the Student of the Year award to Aondoyima G Ioratim-Uba, the former JCR Access Officer who had made an outstanding contribution to College life and flourished academically. We also heard from John Glenn, a former JCR President and now a Government minister. I also want to pay tribute to Helena Kennedy now that her term as Principal of the College has ended. Helena was a fantastic Principal and joined Mansfield at the same time as I did. Her words and guidance were always invaluable to me, whether during my time on the JCR bench, the Alumni Committee or simply advice on leaving Mansfield. Her commitment to a strong, diverse and representative College was a refreshing alternative to the Oxford frequently painted in the national press as being hopelessly out of touch and introspective. To anyone reading this article who has an interest in building a wider alumni community, please contact the Association and help us build an exciting future.

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Reverend Frederick Arthur Stowell: a life revealed

Mansfield College Magazine featured obituaries for Arthur in the June 1927 edition. His brother, Reverend Stanley Stowell, wrote: ‘Arthur Stowell was one of a great multitude of men who, possessing no very outstanding gifts, strive earnestly to put such gifts as are theirs to the service of their fellow men. And he has been called away, as it seems, just when he had learnt how best to use his gifts…’

Arthur Stowell studied at Mansfield in the early years of the 20th century before embarking on service as an overseas missionary. His grandson, Julian D Stowell, has uncovered the details of his subsequent work and untimely death.

More praise came from one GE Phillips, who wrote: ‘… achievements did not come to him easily, but he persevered

Frederick Arthur Stowell, known as Arthur, was a missionary of the London Missionary Society in India. He died there in 1927. He was my grandfather but I knew little about his life until recently. With the help of family, retired and serving missionaries, visits to India and information from the archives of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), Bishop’s Stortford College in Hertfordshire and Mansfield College, I have built up a picture of a grandfather I am proud of. I wish I had known him. Arthur was born in Ealing in December 1882, the fifth of eight children of Frederick Stanley Stowell, a wine merchant, and Mary Jane Stowell, née Palmer. The Stowell family were dissenters over many generations. Arthur studied at the Nonconformist Grammar School (subsequently renamed Bishop’s Stortford College) from 1892 to 1897. He then trained as an architect before entering Oxford in 1904 to study the arts. His early influences also included Dr Horton at Lyndhurst Road Congregational Church, Hampstead. Arthur then studied Divinity at Mansfield College and was ordained at Lyndhurst Road in 1909. Soon after, he travelled to India. My grandma, Constance Pooley, followed in 1910 and they were married at St Andrew’s church, Bangalore on November 29th, 1910. They moved to Chikkaballapura, which is about 35 miles north of Bangalore, and Arthur helped to supervise the construction of the mission hospital there. He wrote a report of activities at the time indicating that the plague had broken out in Chikkaballapura at the end of 1912. Unfortunately, money for construction of the hospital ran out during the year. It must have been tough, but they did finally succeed as the hospital was formally opened on February 26th, 1913. When I visited for the hospital’s 80th anniversary celebrations in 1993, it was flourishing. In 1991, 996 major and 1,419 minor operations were carried out there, 1,271 babies were delivered and there were 41,756 outpatient visits and 9,062 inpatient.

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with all, with a constantly growing measure of success… The gap he has left in the LMS ranks in South India is such as no one would have anticipated who knew him from casual conversations, in which he habitually depreciated himself. Sterling, sound men like him are hard to do without…’

‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.’ Matthew 5.5.

Arthur learnt to speak Kanarese and by all accounts became a proficient preacher in the vernacular. I was delighted to have met an elderly lady who had been converted to Christianity by him back in 1913. She announced ‘thank God for sparing me long enough to meet the Reverend Stowell’s grandson’. In 1914 Arthur and Constance relocated to Bellary, now in Karnataka and previously part of the Madras Presidency. Arthur subsequently became the headmaster of the Wardlaw High School, now known as the Wardlaw (Composite) PreUniversity College. The school was thriving when I visited in 2003. Arthur is also credited with establishing the boy scouts’ movement in the region. In January 1927 Arthur travelled to Jammalamadugu, a remote community in Andhra Pradesh for a missionary meeting where he was taken ill with appendicitis and typhoid and died. After much searching, his grave was discovered in an abandoned cemetery outside the town. The inscription read: ‘Sacred to the memory of Frederick Arthur Stowell MA of the London Missionary Society, who laboured in India for 17 years and was called to higher service at the age of 44 on January 18th 1927. Erected by his comrades in the field. His servants shall see him and they shall see his face.’ Here is an excerpt from archived correspondence sent to the London Missionary Society at the time, from EH Lewis, head of the Bellary mission: ‘Stowell’s death has been a nasty shock to us all. It is a serious matter for the Bellary mission… All this work I was reckoning on pushing on to Stowell and he would have done it efficiently and easily; and no one would have realised that there was much being done; but it is a different story now… It is strange how the bottom of things seems to have dropped out in Bellary with the passing of Stowell… It is perfectly awful for Mrs Stowell and the poor children!’

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ALUMNI NEWS Anna Ploszajski Materials Science, 2009

College committee sparks new German collaborations Academic collaboration with German universities is set to be extended through the work of the Adam von Trott Memorial Committee, founded more than a decade ago at Mansfield College, where Adam von Trott studied in 1929. The aims of the Mansfield-based committee are to promote reconciliation and understanding between Britain and Germany through academic collaboration, and to raise awareness of German resistance to the Nazis. Such resistance was personified by Adam von Trott, who became a German diplomat after leaving Oxford – his time at Mansfield greatly influencing his thinking. He was executed in Berlin in 1944 in the aftermath of the plot to kill Hitler. Mansfield has just welcomed its latest (sixth) Adam von Trott scholar, Franziska Brandmann, here to study for an MPhil in Politics and International Relations. The scholarship is funded jointly through support from the German Federal Government, from the College’s Adam von Trott Appeal Fund, together with a fee-waiver from the Department of Politics and International Affairs, plus support from Mansfield College. Alongside the scholarship scheme, the annual von Trott Lecture series continues with gusto. Following the talk in 2016 from the German Ambassador, His Excellency Dr Peter Ammon, on ‘Britain and Europe: a German perspective’, in 2017 Professor Diarmaid MacCullough delivered a sparkling talk on ‘Luther’s half-millennium: then and now’ – 500 years after Luther famously attached his 95 theses to the door of the main chapel in Wittenberg, thereby helping to ignite the Reformation in Europe. The 2018 lecture was given by Mr Thomas Oppermann, distinguished politician, and Vice-President of the German Bundestag since 2017, member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) parliamentary group and a member of the Lower Saxony State Parliament, where he served as State minister for science and culture. Mr Oppermann, who also helped bring about German Government support for

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the Adam von Trott Scholarships, spoke in November on the topical theme of ‘Germany, Britain and Europe: What Prospects?’. Now, with the recent creation of a new Adam von Trott project in Germany, set up with energetic and enthusiastic support and guidance from Oxford committee members, plans are being put in place to launch a new graduate study bursary as well as an annual graduate conference. The first will be held in spring 2019 at Imshausen, the restored family home of the von Trott zu Solz family and now a fully fledged conference centre, near Göttingen, where Adam also studied. The conference will then take place in alternate years in Oxford and at Imshausen. The idea from both sides is to develop a deep academic collaboration between the UK and Germany, linking particularly Oxford and Göttingen universities. Finally, it is good to report that in July 2018, a group from Oxford including members of Mansfield’s Adam von Trott Committee, once again attended a moving annual ceremony in honour of Adam von Trott. The commemoration took place at the Trottenkreuz memorial cross on a hilltop above the manor house of the von Trott zu Solz family, set in the rolling hills of northern Hessia. Kenneth Stiller, our current Adam von Trott scholar who is completing his MPhil in International Relations at Oxford, gave warm greetings on behalf of the Oxford committee and College. Others attending from the Oxford committee were Keith Jenkins and Graham Avery, who has just stood down as an active chair of the committee. Paul Flather (Chair, Oxford Adam von Trott Memorial Committee)

From July 14th to 15th 2018, Anna swam the English Channel in an impressive 15 hours 37 minutes, making her the 1,857th person to cross solo. As some people have made multiple crossings Anna’s is the 2,401st successful crossing. Anna captured the weeks leading up to her challenge, as well as the swim itself, in a fascinating blog. Read about her ‘emotional rollercoaster’ and jellyfish encounters at https://goggleblogs.co.uk/.

Christina Collins VSP, 2007 On September 4th 2018, Christina saw her debut children’s novel, After Zero, published by the US firm Sourcebooks. She tells us: ‘I read creative writing while at Mansfield (tutored by Dr John Ballam), so I am excited that all these years later, my dream of publishing a book has come true. In July 2018 I also passed my viva voce exam for a PhD in Creative Writing at Queen’s University Belfast.’ Details about the book can be found at christinacollinsbooks.com.

Dr Dana Mills DPhil Politics, 2008 Dana has been contracted to write a new biography and critical introduction to the work of Rosa Luxemburg for Reaktion Books. Rosa Luxemburg was a Polish Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist, anti-war activist and revolutionary socialist; 2019 marks the centenary of her murder.

Emily Glickman VSP, 1988 Emily lives in Pelham, New York, with her husband and two daughters (aged 16 and 13). As a private school consultant, she helps families with admission to New York City and Westchester, NY private schools. Emily tells us: ‘I remember Mansfield fondly and feel gratitude especially for the friendships I made and what I learned about literature, music history

and gardens. At Oxford, I spent a lot of time strolling in college gardens. This initiated what has turned into a lifelong interest for a one-time city girl. Today I have perennial beds in my backyard, which I appreciate every day of the spring, summer and fall.’ Emily would love to hear from her College friends: ‘Please contact me at eglickman@abacusguide.com or friend me on Facebook.’

Imran Mubeen Physics, 2001 From August 24th to 26th 2018, Imran cycled 200 miles from London to Paris in three days with Tariq MC Events (www.mcevents.org.uk/) to raise money for the UK-based charity Medical Aid for Palestinians. Mansfield’s former Principal, Helena Kennedy, is an honorary patron of the charity. Imran successfully raised over £18,000 for the cause. Should you wish to support this charity, please visit: www.map.org.uk/donate/donate.

Isabel Thomas Human Sciences, 1998 Isabel is celebrating the publication of her new picture book Moth: An Evolution Story, which was reviewed as part of the Financial Times’ ‘Book of Summer 2018’. She writes, ‘As a Human Scientist, I relished the interdisciplinary challenge of translating the science behind an evolutionary icon into a picture book narrative. Since the 1950s, industrial melanism in the peppered moth has been one of the most famous examples of Darwinian natural selection in action. While the methodology used for early research was a source of controversy, a host of studies since 2000 have revisited and confirmed the original findings – including a landmark paper in 2018, from the University of Exeter. ‘Peppered moths are usually encountered at secondary school and beyond, but children don’t wait until secondary school to start asking big questions about the world – quite the opposite! I decided to tell this story and explain natural selection in a way that even very young children could understand and engage with. ‘I love it when I’m reading the book aloud, and a five-yearold begins to think scientifically and predict what will happen next. Natural selection is such an important concept – there is no reason to wait until children are older to get them thinking about it.’ Isabel also writes for children’s science magazines Whizz Pop Bang and The Week Junior Science + Nature, and for science outreach projects including ‘Just Add Imagination’ for the University of Oxford. She is based at the University of

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College and University prizes 2018

ALUMNI NEWS Cambridge, carrying out research into science identity formation, and would love to hear from Mansfield alumni with similar interests.

Moth by Isabel Thomas (www. isabelthomas.co.uk), with illustrations by Daniel Egnéus (www.danielegneus. com), is published by Bloomsbury.

Joseph Inwood History, 2015 In February 2018, Joseph was elected President of the Oxford Student Union, with 52% of the vote. He started his full-time role in July. Oxford SU (formerly known by the acronym OUSU) is the student union representing all 23,000 students at the University of Oxford. Joe tells us: ‘It has been a hugely exciting and energising few months since I started as President. The coming year offers us the chance to shape the University’s agenda on access, and I have been working with students to get our voices heard in the debate. My other area of focus has been student mental health, particularly in reducing stigma and lobbying for a comprehensive strategy across colleges and departments. I’m looking forward to working with the new JCR and MCR Presidents at Mansfield, Saba Shakil and Marianna Lovato, and the new Principal. I still call Mansfield my home in Oxford and I’m grateful for the ongoing support of students here – I would not have been elected without it!’

Dr R Fleming Puckett VSP, 2012 Recent publications ‘Research and Activism among the Kalahari San Today: Ideals, Challenges, and Debates’, R Fleming Puckett and Kazunobu Ikeya (eds), Senri Ethnological Studies 99 (Osaka, Japan: National Museum of Ethnology, 2018).

Sarah Harkness PPE, 1980 Sarah Harkness has published her first book Nelly Erichsen – A Hidden Life. The book is the result of 10 years’ research following a chance purchase of a portfolio of artwork for a lavish illustrated work on the villas of Tuscany, which had been published more than 100 years ago. The publication coincided with an exhibition from July 27th to October 28th 2018 at Court Barn, Museum of Craft and Design, Chipping Camden, in which Nelly was one of three women artists whose work was featured in celebration of the 1918 Act that first gave some women the right to vote. All three had links with Gloucestershire but very different skills. The others were May Morris, a designer, needlewoman and political activist, and Louise Powell, a calligrapher, embroiderer and painter. Copies of the book are available online from the publisher at www.encantapublishing.com

The Revd Dr Martin Camroux Theology, 1969 Martin’s latest book, Ecumenism in Retreat (2016) is the first history of the United Reformed Church’s ecumenical commitment. The story features a number of key figures from Mansfield’s history, including our first Principal, Dr Andrew Fairbairn, and subsequent Principals William Boothby Selbie, Nathaniel Micklem, John Marsh and George Bradford Caird. This the first serious study both of the United Reformed Church and of the failure of the hopes for organic unity. It includes ground-breaking analysis of the mixed fortunes of Local Ecumenical Projects and of how the national ecumenical organisations withered. The book ends with a commitment to a renewed ecumenical hope.

Professor Mason Lowance English Language and Literature, 1961 Mason retired in December 2018 from the University of Massachusetts, where he had been teaching Early American Literature, American Romanticism and American Realism since 1967. He also directed three National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Seminars for College Teachers, two entitled: ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Antebellum American Culture’ in 1992 and 1995, and ‘Puritanism in Old England and New England’ in 1976.

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Dr Uther Charlton-Stevens Modern History, 2002 In late 2017, Uther published his first book Anglo-Indians and Minority Politics in South Asia (Routledge, 2017). The book explores the history and context of one of the oldest ‘mixed race’ populations to arise out of European mercantile and colonial expansion.

Yang Liu Computer Science, 2014 Yang joined Mansfield in October 2014 as a DPhil Student in Computer Science. He completed his study and obtained his degree in May 2018, and only three days later, he welcomed his first child, Charlotte. Also in May, he was offered the position of Assistant Professor at Harbin Institute of Technology (a top 10 university in China). He tells us: ‘I must say many many thanks to Mansfield, the past years in our College were absolutely amazing!’

SCHOLARSHIPS

COLLEGE PRIZES

Madeleine Awan (Theology & Religion) Gabriel Barrueco (Mathematics) Jeremy Beard (Mathematics) Benjamin Campbell (Engineering) Khazna Chami (Human Sciences) Noel Cheong (Theology & Religion) Lukas Dijkstra (Mathematics) Nigel D’Souza (Mathematics) Oliver Farquharson (Engineering) Lara Garrett (History) Grace Green (Theology & Religion) James Harris (Mathematics) Alberto Hernandez Melian (Physics) Timothy Hobson (Mathematics) Philip Holdridge (Mathematics) Zhongyi Hu (Mathematics & Statistics) Aondoyima Ioratim-Uba (Mathematics & Theoretical Physics) Jordan Jones (Oriental Studies) Kathryn Jones (Physics) Pia-Marie Kaden (Human Sciences) Aamir Kaderbhai (Theology & Religion) Tabitha Kirkwood (Oriental Studies) Nikola Langov (Mathematics) Joshua Lanham (Geography) Charlotte Martin (Engineering) Shezad Mohamed (Mathematics) Carlo Mussolini (Physics) Harry O’Neill (History) Kieran Rivers (Materials) Emily Roper (Oriental Studies) Jack Sagar (Philosophy & Theology) Henry Sasse (History & Politics) Daniel Scotson (Materials) Troy Sharples (Mathematics & Theoretical Physics) Adhiti Shenava (PPE) Benjamin Shi (Materials) Yixuan Song (Materials) Henry Straughan (PPE) Thomas Surridge (History) Samuel Sutherland (Physics) Anna Sweetman (Human Sciences) Jasper Threadingham (Engineering) John Wadsworth (PPE) James Ward (Geography) Robyn Ware (History & Politics) Laurent Wu (Mathematics) Yuxin Yin (Materials)

Worsley Prize for Law

EXHIBITIONS Isabel Chalmers (PPE) Juliet Garcia (English) Stephen Graca-Jones (Materials) Mihai Hrecinuc (Engineering) Maya Little (English) Jorge Lopez Llorente (English) Heather McDade (Human Sciences) Lucy McGauran Porter (History) Robert Scales (Materials) Rebecca Sinnott (Geography) Annabel van der Kooy (Materials) Anna Wald (Physics) Edwin Watson-Miller (Mathematics) Timothy Woods (Mathematics & Statistics) Kaize Ying (Materials)

Caleb-Daniel Oyekanmi

Horton Davies Prize for best 2nd-year work in Theology

Angus Braithwaite (Materials)

Armourers & Brasiers’ Company Medal and Prize for Best Part II Project Nominated for IoM3 AT Green Prize for Best Ceramics Graduate

Noel Cheong

Lynda Patterson Scholarship for best Prelims Distinction performance in Theology or Philosophy & Theology Aamir Kaderbhai

Mason Lowance Prize in honour of John Creaser for best performance in English Language and/or Literature 2nd-year work Juliet Garcia

Mahony Prize for best 2nd-year performance in History

Yi Hern Chang (Engineering)

Gibbs Prize (Best Design Project in 2018 for Part B) – shared between team of four Gibbs Prize (Best performance in the Preliminary Examination in Eng Science – meritorious work) Isabelle Green (Geography)

JCA Meldrum Essay Prize for Best Extended Essays in the Final Honour School

Adam Austin (Law)

2nd place for the Gender and Feminist Geographies Research Group Dissertation Prize, Royal Geographical Society – Institute of British Geographers

College Essay Prize

Ella Grodzinski (Human Sciences)

Lucy McGauran Porter

Sarah & Peter Harkness Bursary

Maya Little (English)

Principal’s Prize for outstanding academic performance Oliver Farquharson (Engineering)

Henty Prize for outstanding 2nd-year work in Geography Rebecca Sinnott

Visiting Student Prize for 2017/18

Wilma Crowther Prize for Best Dissertation Alberto Hernandez Melian (Physics)

Departmental Commendation for Practical Work Abigail Preston (Law)

D’Sousa Prize (Senior Status) (Overall best 2nd BA)

Thais Quiroga Mendoza (William Jewell College)

Norton Rose Fulbright Prize in Constitutional Law

John Sykes Prize for best Part I Materials results

Law Faculty Prize for Criminal Law

Yuxin Yin

Edward Ray (PPE)

Adam Monk Scholarship (Mathematics) Philip Holdridge

Bob Coates Prize for Mathematics Nigel D’Souza Kwabena Osei-Boateng Engineering Science Prize Oliver Farquharson

UNIVERSITY PRIZES Jessica Allen (BCL)

Law Faculty Prize in Comparative and Global Environmental Law First Prize in the UK Centre for Animal Law’s Annual Student Essay Competition

Proxime Accessit Gibbs Prize (written paper) Aleksandar Ristic-Smith (Engineering)

Motz Prize for Best Project in Electrical Engineering Yixuan Song (Materials)

Joint winner of the Armourers & Brasiers’ Company / Rolls-Royce Prize for outstanding overall performance in Prelims James Ward (Geography)

John House Prize Charles Yin (Physics)

Head of Department’s Runner-Up Prize for Presentation in Speaking Competition

Mansfield 2017/18

EXAMINATION RESULTS 2018 DOCTORATE (DPhil) Computer Science Pass Lei Yu Yang Liu Education Pass George Osei Engineering Science Pass Helen Dunne Wahbi El-Bouri Geography and the Environment Pass Mark Fransham Industrial Focused Mathematical Modelling (EPSRC CDT) Pass Ferran Brosa Planella Nabil Fadai Materials Pass Nanlin Zhang Mathematics Pass Armin Krupp Carolina Matté Gregory Oriental Studies Pass Bo Sorensen Philosophy Pass Gulzaar Barn Alexander Heape

MASTER OF SCIENCE BY RESEARCH Economics Pass Ashwin Nair International Relations Distinction Benedetta Zocchi Modern Middle Eastern Pass Bailey Carraway Hanan Natour Enrike Van Wingerden Politics Pass Eunhyea Oh

MASTER OF SCIENCE (MSc) Biodiversity, Conservation and Management Pass Julio Acosta Matos Economic and Social History Pass Johanna Rustler Mathematical and Computational Finance Pass Xiaoyu Jiang Mathematical and Theoretical Physics Pass Boris Barron Mathematics and Foundations of Computer Science Distinction Pedro Cazorla García Mathematical Modelling and Scientific Computing Pass Zhe Wang

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Medical Anthropology Pass Ahmed Kerwan Nature, Society and Environmental Governance Distinction Selena Lin Pass Nurul Jannah Binti Mohd Jailani Social Science of the Internet Distinction Kelley Kugler Julia Slupska Pass Publio Adrianza Cerqueira Statistical Science Distinction Loïc Lannelongue Majied Ammar Mahran Pass Daiyun Huang Jingru Wang Water Science, Policy and Management Distinction Christian Fischer

MASTER OF STUDIES (MSt) English Distinction Emma-Jane Hampsheir-Gill George Manning Pass Sarah Lawrence Ruby Silk Jewish Studies Pass Michael Jackson Global and Imperial History Pass Edwin Black Jewish Studies Pass Joshua Margulies Macey Shay Legal Research Pass Thomas Romailler Medieval History Pass Jack Edwards Oriental Studies Pass Sakda Hemthep Theology Distinction Nikki Bailey George Klaeren Pass Margaryta Teslina US History Distinction Adam Wicks Pass Rebecca McCarron Women’s Studies Distinction Isabella MacPherson MBA Distinction Hanny Kusumawardhani Pass Li Ang Svetlana Bochaver Lyn Johnson Fei Liu Nikita Srinivasan Igor Tischenko

EXAMINATION RESULTS 2018 MASTER OF PUBLIC POLICY Distinction Pass

Hay Hen Russel Garay Bautista Robert Mwanamanga

BCL Distinction Pass

Jessica Allen Jeff Ward Shane Chandra

MJur Pass

Martin Gassler Lise Marie Nissen

MASTER OF ENGINEERING (MEng) Engineering Science Class I George Caddy Aleksandar Ristic-Smith Class II.i Jiajin Gong Sam McCumiskey Materials, Economics and Management Class II.i Natalie Tan Materials Science Class I Angus Braithwaite Class II.i Imogen Brown

MASTER OF MATHEMATICS (MMath) Mathematics Class I Dennis Christensen Arthur Pander Maat David Peters Class II.i William An Fergus Houghton-Connell Class II.ii Zichao Wang

MASTER OF PHYSICS (MPhys) Physics Class I Class II.i

Yang Lu Timothy Conn Zhiyuan Li

BACHELOR OF ARTS (BA) Engineering Science Class II.ii Yi Hern Chang English Language and Literature Class II.i Katrina Collison Lucy Coupe Susanna Cripps Neelam Dovedi Eloise Lee Miriam Nemmaoui

Matthew Palmer Amaris Proctor Riya Rana Geography Class I Seth Garley Isabelle Green Seren Robinson Laura Worman Class II.i Lara Sevillano Driscoll Andrew Stevens History Class I Elizabeth Deane Joseph Inwood Alexander Oscroft Christopher Smart Class II.i Safa Dar Alex Dobson History and Politics Class II.i Lucy Huckle Human Sciences Class I Kate Gerrand Ella Grodzinski Jurisprudence Class I Abigail Preston Class II.i Danielle Buckett Heather Burke Daisy Deller Alexandra Pitchford Mathematics Class I Louis Jamart Jurisprudence Class I Nicholas Bushnell-Wye Class II.i Polymnia Efstratiadi Mathematics Class I Dennis Christensen David Peters Marius Todea Class II.i Arthur Pander Maat Joshua Vaughan Zichao Wang Mathematics and Statistics Class I Nigel D’Souza James Harris Troy Sharples Class II.i Edwin Watson-Miller Class II.ii Fei Ge Mathematics and Statistics Class I Zhongyi Hu PPE Class I Edward Ray Joseph Seddon Class II.i Catherine Bean Kirstie Bosman Hannah Smith Matilda Tempest Physics Class II.ii Daisy Walker Theology and Religion Class I Moritz Adam Class II.i Callum Greaves

UNCLASSIFIED HONOURS Engineering Science Part B Class I Charlotte Martin Class II.i Mihai Hrecinuc Materials Science/ MEM Part I Hon Pass Jack Aspinall Alexandra Austin Matthew Sylva Yuxin Yin Physics Part B (4 years) Class I Aondoyima Ioratim-Uba Kathryn Jones Carlo Mussolini Samuel Sutherland Class II.i Anna Wald Mathematics Part A Hon Pass Gabriel Barrueco Jeremy Beard Lukas Dijkstra Matthew Harrington Timothy Hobson Shezad Mohamed Laurent Wu Mathematics and Statistics Part A Hon Pass Timothy Woods Physics Part A Pass Alberto Hernandez Melian Rohan Nuckchady Andrew Sundin Charles Yin

MODERATIONS English Pass Jessica Duffy Kate Haselden Maya Little Isabella Mann Erin Minogue Diren Ozcelik Grace Tomlinson Jurisprudence Pass Harry Bambury Caleb-Daniel Oyekanmi Saba Shakil Jurisprudence (Law Studies in Europe) Pass Rachel Cheung

PRELIMINARY EXAMINATIONS Engineering Distinction Benjamin Campbell Oliver Farquharson Jasper Threadingham Pass Ho Kyeong Lee Joschua Spiedel-Johnson Geography Distinction Joshua Lanham James Ward

Pass Ella Foster Holly Fothersgill History Distinction Lara Garrett Thomas Surridge Pass Leon Hughes Charlotte Sellers Shamika Tamhane History and Politics Distinction Robyn Ware Pass Alice Bruce Human Sciences Distinction Pia-Marie Kaden Anna Sweetman Pass Nicola Ezekude Olivia Turpin Materials Science Distinction Kieran Rivers Yixuan Song Pass Stephen Graca-Jones Aleksandra Skalska Kaize Ying Amin Zouine Mathematics Distinction Daniel Guest Philip Holdridge Nikol Langov Pass Danlong Gao Callum Schafer Tianrun Yang Mathematics and Statistics Pass Timothy Woods Oriental Studies Distinction Tabitha Kirkwood Pass Julia Sojka PPE Distinction Adhiti Shenava Pass Agatha Bather Kalyna El Kettas Daniel Hall Oliver Oakley James Odor Miles Pressland Benjamin Shepherd Philosophy and Theology Distinction Jack Sagar Pass Helena Penfold Physics Pass Matthew Feaster Aimie Foster Emma Godden Jialu Liu Qihao Wang Theology and Religion Distinction Madeleine Awan Aamir Kaderbhai Pass Anna Jeffrey Sarah Khan Jeanne Lerasle Some names have not been published (data protection)

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OBITUARIES

PROFESSOR WILSON CHANG VISITING PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY AT MANSFIELD, 1987 JULY 22ND 1937 – MAY 7TH, 2018

PROFESSOR NORMAN BOOTH MANSFIELD’S FIRST TUTOR IN PHYSICS, 19871997 7TH MARCH 1930 - 9TH AUGUST 2018

Born in Seoul, Korea, Wilson was the oldest of four brothers and two sisters. He served in the infantry, Republic of Korea Army, from 1958 to 1960. He graduated from Yonsei University with a BA in English Literature in 1961 before receiving his Bachelor of Divinity in 1965 from the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. Wilson went on to study in the USA, obtaining a Master of Theology in 1969 from Princeton Theological Seminary and a PhD in Biblical Studies in 1973 from Hartford Seminary Foundation in Connecticut.

Born in Toronto, Canada in 1930, Norman Booth studied at the University of Toronto, majoring in Physics and Chemistry. During his time at university, Norman paid his way by playing drums in a variety of jazz bands, continuing a musical interest that he had begun at high school, where he played sousaphone in a marching band. Drumming had become a consuming interest for him, and Norman felt torn between the choices of either following the life of a professional jazz musician or that of a scientist. His university tutor encouraged him to choose science, but Norman never let his passion for music and percussion die. Many years later, John Oxlade (Mansfield’s Director of Music) first encountered Norman, not through the College, but as a tympanist for both the Isis Orchestra and Wantage Orchestra; John recalls conducting a performance of the Bach Christmas Oratorio at which Norman’s brilliant timing and sense of rhythm shaped and underpinned the whole concert.

He was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1972 at First Presbyterian Church in Hartford, and stayed in Connecticut to found and serve as a pastor at the New Haven Korean Church from 1973 to 1978. Wilson subsequently taught as a Theology professor at Hanshin University in Seoul from 1978 to 2002. During that time he published 40 books and numerous articles in various academic journals. He also presented papers at the International Congress for the Study of the Old Testament in Salamanca, Spain (1983) and Jerusalem, Israel (1986). In 1987 Wilson came to Mansfield College where he was a Visiting Professor in Theology. During his career he was also a guest lecturer at the Southern Branch of San Francisco Theological Seminary at Claremont College in California (1990), and a guest lecturer at San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, California (1997). Upon his retirement from Hanshin University in 2002, he was named professor emeritus. Wilson Chang passed away on May 7th 2018 at his home in Gainesville, Virginia. He is survived by his wife Kyung, his son Daniel, and his grandchildren Jason and Sophia. Wilson was a gentle man who was meticulous in his habits, but soft-spoken and never angry with others. He was devoted to his wife and family, and enjoyed spending time with his grandchildren. He loved to read, as well as listening to music and attending the theatre. He was passionate about the outdoors, and delighted in golf after he retired. He will always be remembered for his patience, his kindness, and his gentle soul. We shall miss him. - Daniel Chang, son of Wilson Chang

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Following a master’s degree at Queen’s University in Kingston Ontario, Norman won a scholarship to the University of Birmingham where, in between research work using its recently constructed 1 GeV proton synchrotron, Norman met the love of his life, Sylvia Hooper. This meeting resulted in 60 happy years of love and marriage, four children, nine grandchildren and a great-grandchild. Following Birmingham, Norman moved to Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in California and three years later to the University of Chicago and a post at Fermilab where he pursued research on proton scattering. Norman came to Oxford in 1972 and while continuing his collaboration at Chicago he joined a CERN-Orsay-Oxford project carrying out polarisation studies of backward pion-proton scattering on the CERN proton synchrotron. In the late 1970s, moving to higher energies at Fermilab, he formed a Chicago and Oxford collaboration to study muon-proton scattering. Ian Kirkbride, one of Norman’s graduate students from the early 1970s, recalls working with Norman on an early primitive computer that had no keyboard and could only be operated by flipping switches for each line of code. ‘It was almost impossible to conclude an entire program successfully but we managed in the end, with much swearing and laughter. Most memories of Norman come from Fermilab in Chicago where we would spend many days and nights on shift together. My memories of Norman are that he was warm, amusing, helpful and encouraging. He was always fun to be with and had that sparkle in his eyes.’

In the 1980s Norman became interested in neutrino interactions and proposed indium as a detector for solar neutrinos, thereby kick-starting a major Oxford programme investigating the use of superconducting tunnel junctions in cryogenic particle detectors; these turned out to be much more sensitive than conventional detectors. In 1987 he proposed the phenomenon of quasiparticle trapping in cryogenic detectors, an important advance, and his superconducting detector work continued in Oxford throughout the 1990s feeding into the search for dark matter. He also contributed to a major neutrino experiment (called KARMEN) that was being constructed at the Rutherford Laboratory by a KarlsruheRutherford collaboration. In 1987, Norman joined Mansfield as its first Tutor in Physics and began the growth of Physics as an important subject for the College. Following his retirement in 1997, Norman continued his work on cryogenic detectors and also branched out into biomedical science, collaborating in an important study of the relationship between chronic fatigue syndrome and mitochondrial dysfunction. A few weeks before he died, Norman attended a College event, warm and friendly as ever, eyes twinkling, brimming with enthusiasm about his latest discoveries in this area. - Professor Stephen Blundell, with contributions from Charlotte O’Hanlon (daughter of Norman Booth), John Oxlade and Dr Graeme Salmon

PROFESSOR NEVILLE BROWN ASSOCIATE FELLOW AT MANSFIELD, 1994-2012 APRIL 8TH, 1932 – MAY 28TH, 2018 The following article is taken from an address given at Professor Brown’s Memorial Service, held in Mansfield College on September 1st, 2018. All lives are lived in a cosmic context. Every life is engaged with the whole, and may have consequences way beyond its immediate situation, as the flapping of the butterfly’s wings reminds us. But every life is also small, local and intimate, with its own idiosyncrasies and habits – some of which are apparent to all, others of which only come to wider notice in circumstances such as these. We are here today to recall with gratitude both aspects of Neville, the public and the personal, and perhaps also to reflect on how they informed one another. When looking back over Neville’s long and event-filled life it may not be immediately obvious why Mansfield

College should be the place for this memorial service. But in the words of his widow Yu-Ying, ‘he always wanted to have another farewell at Mansfield where he said he had the happiest dozen years as Professorial Fellow.’ Superficially, this seems implausible. Neville’s CV, when he joined the College in 1994, was by no means an obvious fit with Mansfield’s, given the latter’s theological and Nonconformist history. On paper, Neville was very much an Establishment figure. His distinguished career is a matter of public record: and Neville was fond of telling the story of how it began, with a Short Service Commission in the Royal Naval Weather Service, for which he had neither of the stipulated qualifications, namely a degree in Physics or Mathematics. No doubt his time as a forecaster stimulated his enduring interest in the often-overlooked influence of the climate and weather on human affairs, something of which we are being forcibly reminded now in so many ways. Given its military note, therefore, Neville’s was a background that might have seemed the antithesis of Mansfield’s ethos. Look a bit deeper, though, and it becomes apparent why he felt so much at home here. In the first place, perhaps with an unconscious reference to Jude the Obscure, Neville once described himself to me as a simple peasant, in his early years, growing up in the rural hinterland of Oxfordshire and viewing the University as remote and inaccessible. Very conscious as he was of the gap between town and gown, one might speculate whether this awareness promoted an inclination to inhabit different worlds, which was one of the distinctive marks of his career. Mansfield College, also, was an outsider, rooted in 17th-century opposition to established church and monarchy. Its own long sense of not being quite like other colleges, and thus of being able to take a detached view of Oxford’s traditions and culture, may well have appealed to Neville. I well remember the many conversations that I had with him. Any administrative matters that he wanted to raise with me were soon out of the way, and we would get down to serious discussions that ranged very widely over history, literature, science and politics. His personal warmth and breadth of vision at these times was very striking, and I would always be left with a surprising new perspective or insight. Neville took a lively interest in the research of graduate students, while to some of them he was an exotic and enigmatic figure. The places where politics, ethics, science and defence strategy engage with one another are hidden from most of us. Neville was familiar with that strange world, and its opacity perhaps contributed to the slight air of mystery that seemed to surround him, or which perhaps was an intrinsic part of him. Some of the graduates used to speculate, only partly in fun, that Neville was the

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OBITUARIES epicentre of British Intelligence, from whom even MI6 used to take its orders. Aware of this aspect of himself, perhaps, Neville told me that he shared his birthday with that of the Buddha. Neville’s formal ties to Mansfield originated when he joined the Oxford Centre for the Environment, Ethics and Society, which the College had set up to research and map the social, cultural and ethical frameworks influencing human approaches to the environment. He was deeply aware (and in this was rooted his whole outlook) of interrelatedness and interdependence. His breadth of vision encompassed the smallest particles and the whole universe, individual human relationships and geopolitical structures. He felt with John Donne that everyone was a part of the main, and that our individual vocations were inseparably part of, and implicated in, the whole. Which brings us to yet another resonance between Neville and the history of Mansfield, and that is an interest in ultimate questions – those that have caused humankind to ponder and speculate from its earliest days. For the ancient world, and for much of the medieval period in the West, cosmology and theology were one and the same. To probe the nature of the universe, of everything that there is, is at the same time to consider questions of value – what is life worth, what makes for a good life in the Aristotelian sense. Neville gave a glimpse of his own understanding, when he referred to himself as being among the company of ‘those many of us who subscribe to no established faith, but who would lay claim to a broad ethical concern and spiritual aspiration’. These words come, fittingly enough, from his book Engaging the Cosmos, and of Neville we can say truthfully that there he was, and is, at home. - Duncan Forbes, Bursar, Mansfield College, 1986-2002

ANDRES TAUL THEOLOGY, 1957; THEOLOGY MA, 1964 11 AUGUST 1936 – 24 APRIL 2018 Archbishop Emeritus of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church. Andres Taul was born in 1936 in Tartu in independent Estonia. His father, Jaak Taul, was a Lutheran pastor at St Peter’s Church and an academic theologian at the University of Tartu. World War II turned Estonia into a battleground between German and Russian forces. When, in the autumn of 1944 the Soviet forces invaded for the final time, the Taul family was forced to flee. Clergy and academics were no longer safe; many were deported and killed.

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OBITUARIES The refugee journey led first to a Displaced Persons’ camp in Germany and then to England. Jaak Taul was invited to come and serve the small but expanding refugee congregation in London established in 1946 by the then Estonian Ambassador, August Torma, with the blessing of Lambeth Palace.

clergy and musicians, which produced a much-needed new Estonian Hymnal in 1991. He was loved by his various congregations: the elderly because he could relate to their experiences, and the young because he was one of the rare adults who remain young at heart throughout their lives.

Thus Andres Taul arrived in London speaking Estonian and German. He soon picked up English and was sent to Portora Royal School in Enniskillen. He is remembered there as a conscientious and studious boy with a mischievous character full of fun. It is at this stage that he decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and his education continued at the Augustana Divinity School in Neuendettelsau Germany and then the faculty of Theology at the University of Erlangen followed by Mansfield College Oxford.

He is survived by his wife, son and two daughters.

In 1961 Andres was ordained in Sweden by Archbishop Kõpp, Archbishop of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church in exile. He then dedicated his life to serving various congregations of dispersed and expatriate Estonians, first in Bradford, then in the USA. There he met his wife, Eneri, an architect born in Estonia and also exiled as a child. They settled in Toronto, Canada, where he served several congregations. Andres was very active in Estonian social life in Canada – from academic and financial institutions to scouting and summer schools. He was much loved for his caring attitude, sense of fun and keen humour. He remained a true yet ‘International Estonian’, establishing bilingual congregations that ensured their survival. In August 1991, together with other Baltic states, Estonia regained its Independence. Within a few weeks, on September 1st, Andres Taul held the first lecture at the reopened faculty of Theology at the University of Tartu, which had been closed during the Soviet occupation. He was a guest lecturer in Systematic Theology at Tartu University from 1995 until 1997. Soon he was invited to become the University Chaplain and was instrumental in re-establishing the University congregation at the restored St John’s Church, severely damaged in World War II. In recognition of his work, Tartu University awarded him an Honorary DD in 2009. The Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church (EELC) had been split in two by the Iron Curtain: the ‘home’ church in Estonia, and that of the diaspora. Andres Taul was elected Archbishop of the EELC in the Diaspora in 2007. His dearest wish was to heal the rift and reunite the church under the Archbishopric in Tallinn. This was duly achieved in 2010 and Andres voluntarily resigned as Archbishop in the Diaspora, thus eliminating the post. He remained active as pastor and bishop and his achievements were acknowledged by the award of the title of Emeritus Archbishop. Andres’ outstanding contributions were his deep and inspiring faith and his forward-looking attitude, working closely with other churches in Canada and Europe and the ‘home’ Estonian church. He also chaired a commission of

- VJ (Sister of Andres Taul)

REV DR ALLEN DOUGLAS CHURCHILL DPHIL THEOLOGY, 1964 AUGUST 30TH, 1935 – DECEMBER 15TH, 2017 Allen was born in Smiths Falls, Ontario, the only child of Ira and Mary Churchill. He grew up not far away, on the Fourth Line of Bathurst Township. Allen loved spending his summers and free time working on the farm of Mary and George Bourne. Music and sports were a big part of his life. He played guitar and other instruments, sang solos, duets, and enjoyed being part of many choirs. During his adolescence, he was a member of the Perth Citizen’s Band. While attending Perth & District Collegiate Institute, he played basketball and football. After high-school graduation, Allen entered the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and served the force in various stations in the province of Manitoba. It was in Beausejour, Manitoba, that Allen met his first wife, Helen, and determined that he was called to enter the ministry. He then attended Emmanuel College at the University of Toronto, and completed a DPhil in Theology at Mansfield College. While studying in Oxford, he greatly enjoyed rowing. Allen began his work within the United Church of Canada in 1970, serving in Cartwright (Manitoba), and Chatham, Hamilton and Ottawa (Ontario). In a ministry that spanned more than 55 years, Allen wrote three books, participated in two missions to Kazakhstan, founded the Ottawa Summer School of Biblical and Theological Studies, chaired the committee for the Ottawa Billy Graham Crusade, and, in 1998, began the weekly radio broadcast called ‘Good News in the Morning’, which continues to be spread worldwide. After retiring from full-time ministry to Rideau Ferry, Ontario, he and his second wife, Alma, pastored the church of his childhood, Calvin United Church, along with Althorpe United Church, for eight years. In 2016 he was honoured for 24 years of service as Chaplain for the RCMP in Ottawa. Allen was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in 2011. During the following six years, although the disease increasingly impacted on his physical stability and intellectual capacities, it could not diminish his faith or integrity, his good humour and warm smile, or his love for his family and community.

He is survived by his second wife, Alma Carter, and his children, Christine, Thomas and Matthew, his daughtersin-law, Sashya and Rachel, his step-children, Jennifer, Janice and Dez and his grandchildren Meagan, Torin, Bartok, Isaac, Asher, Israel, Joshua, Grace and Adrienne – as well as an extended family of sisters- and brothers-inlaw, nieces, nephews and cousins. Allen Churchill passed away peacefully on Friday, December 15th, 2017 at the Perth Community Care Centre, Perth, Ontario, at the age of 82 years. A celebration of his life was held in January 2018 in Smiths Falls. Allen will be deeply missed by all who knew him, but his spirit, love and example will sustain us all. - Dr Christine Churchill (daughter) and Mrs Alma Carter (wife)

IAN TURNER MATHEMATICS, 1982 MAY 10TH, 1964 – AUGUST 19TH, 2018 Ian Turner passed away peacefully, but completely unexpectedly, in his sleep on August 19th, 2018, aged just 54 years. Ian matriculated as a Maths undergraduate at Mansfield College in 1982, with Dr Janet Dyson as his tutor. He quickly established himself at College, winning a blade for his coxing skills, and becoming a stalwart of the University Cycling Club. After graduating in 1985, Ian took up a career in IT, firstly in the UK and then for many years in Germany. There he developed a taste for Alpine hiking, but Ian’s life-long passion was for cycling, and his infectious enthusiasm resulted in adventures such as an epic and unforgettable cycling tour through France with his College friends. On returning to the UK, Ian settled in Clifton, Bristol, where he met his partner, Margery Lever. Ian was committed and loving in supporting Margery’s children and grandchildren, becoming the family man he might not otherwise have been. He was also a lynchpin of his own family, where he was the oldest of four siblings and a devoted son who regularly visited his elderly parents in Kent. Ian was a passionate man who, quietly and without fuss, supported all those around him. Throwing himself wholeheartedly into the things he valued in life, Ian was an outstandingly loyal and steadfast son, partner, brother and friend. A man of complete integrity who had a quick and irreverent sense of humour, he will be sorely missed by all who had the pleasure of knowing him. Coincidentally, at almost the exact time of his funeral, the Tour of Britain cycling race passed Christ Church, Clifton, where his funeral service was being held. So it happened that, in a fitting final tribute, his cortege was unexpectedly flanked by hundreds of cyclists. - Rolf Howarth (Mathematics, 1982) and Richard Young (Mathematics, 1982)

Allen was predeceased by his first wife, Helen Hildebrand.

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FELLOWS’ NEWS AND PUBLICATIONS Professor Ros Ballaster Professorial Fellow in English From March 26th to 30th 2018, Ros was the Drake Lecturer at Vanderbilt University, Faculty of English, Nashville, Tennessee. She delivered a series of workshops and lectures related to her current research project about the ways in which the novel and the theatre interacted in 18th-century England. She also acted as host to two doctoral students from Vanderbilt visiting Oxford in summer and autumn 2018. In the spring of 2018, Ros was elected to the Executive of the British Subject Association for English, ‘University English’. She is currently in the second year of her post as Chair of the English Faculty Board at Oxford.

Dr Pam Berry Supernumerary Fellow in Geography Pam was a Lead Author for the chapter on nature’s benefits to people and quality of life in the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services European and Central Asia Assessment. Recent publications ‘Valuing nature’s contributions to people: the IPBES approach’, U Pascual et al (2017), Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 26: 7-16. ‘Positive tipping points in a rapidly warming world’, JD Tabara et al (2018), Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 31: 120-129. ‘Integrating methods for ecosystem service assessment: Experiences from

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real world situations’, R Dunford et al (2018), Ecosystem Services, 29: 499-514. ‘A framework for assessing and implementing the co-benefits of nature-based solutions in urban areas’, CM Raymond et al (2017), Environmental Science and Policy, 77: 15-24.

Professor David Clifton Stipendiary Lecturer in Engineering Science David has joined Professor Rob Hope and won the inaugural ViceChancellor’s Innovation Prize 2018 for their Smart Handpumps Project. This project aims to preserve access to clean drinking water in the developing world.

Professor Pavlos Eleftheriadis Professor of Public Law As well as being Tutorial Fellow in Law at Mansfield, Pavlos is a practising barrister at Francis Taylor Building in London and was involved in a high-profile case regarding the process of Brexit. In July 2016, Pavlos had argued in a blog post that any withdrawal agreement with the EU would have to be ratified by an Act of Parliament and perhaps a referendum, as a treaty ‘amending’ the EU treaties, under the terms of the European Union Act 2011. Nevertheless, in 2017 the Government announced that no such Act of Parliament would be necessary. In February 2018 the campaign group Best for Britain instructed Pavlos – alongside Jessica Simor QC – to bring

FELLOWS’ NEWS AND PUBLICATIONS a case to the High Court. After a great deal of correspondence between the parties, in June 2018 the Government finally reversed course and accepted that the withdrawal agreement would have to be approved by an Act of Parliament before it was ratified by the UK. A few weeks later this was also formalised in the EU Withdrawal Act 2018. The case did not therefore have to proceed to a hearing. Pavlos said of the case: ‘It is important that concerned groups and citizens can hold the Government to account, through the process of judicial review. The referendum result did not change our constitution. As a result of this case, and of course of parallel political pressure, Parliament will have now the opportunity to fully debate and then decide if a referendum on a Brexit deal should be held or not.’

Revd Professor Andrew Gosler Supernumerary Fellow in Human Sciences; Tutor for Welfare Andy Gosler is Director of Studies and Fellow for Human Sciences at Mansfield, and currently also Tutor for Welfare. With an academic background firmly in biological sciences, he worked for many years on the long-term population study of the Great Tit (parus major), in Wytham Woods, run by the Edward Grey Institute for Field Ornithology in the Zoology Department at Oxford. Teaching Ecology and Evolution for the Human Sciences degree refocused his research interests from the ecological consequences of human activities to think more about the human causes, in social and cultural terms as well as ecological and evolutionary. Since 2015 he has convened a series of lectures in Ethnobiology for the Human Sciences degree, which are a key element of a redesigned finals paper in Human Ecology. The award of the title Associate Professor in Applied Ethnobiology

and Conservation in 2018 was a recognition of the substantial evolution of Andy’s career. In the same year, he was ordained Deacon in Christ Church Cathedral, having trained part time at Ripon College, Cuddesdon (20152018) for a Diploma in Theology, Ministry and Mission. Professor David Leopold Tutorial Fellow in Politics Recent publications ‘Max Stirner und Perfektionismus’, in Douglas Moggach, Nadine Mooren, and Michael Quante (eds), Perfektionismus und Autonomie (Paderborn: Fink Verlag, 2018). ‘Marx’s “Hegelian” Critique of Utopia’, in Victoria Fareld and Hannes Kuch (eds), From Marx to Hegel and Back (London: Bloomsbury, 2018). ‘Beyond the “Grand Designs”: Owenism, Architecture, and Utopia’, in Stefan Ardvissan, Jakub Benes, and Anja Kirsch (eds), Socialist Imaginations: Utopias, Myths, and the Masses (London: Routledge, 2018).

Dr Dong Liu Junior Research Fellow On Saturday July 28th 2018, Dong Liu, together with Carlyn Samuel, (Department of Zoology) and Dr Ravinder Kanda (Oxford Brookes University), organised a successful Soapbox Science event at Bonn Square, Oxford. It was the third year that such an event had been held in the city. Soapbox Science is a grass-roots science outreach organisation that brings cutting-edge research on to urban streets while also promoting

the visibility of women in science. It places inspirational speakers on soapboxes and encourages them to engage in and start conversations with the public about their work. The event transforms public areas into an arena for public learning and scientific debate; it also welcomes remarkable women in science who amaze the onlookers with their latest discoveries. People are given the opportunity to ask the science questions they’ve been burning to have answered. Nine speakers were invited to speak during the public event, as well as 20 volunteers who contributed to this fun and engaging day. During the three hours, thousands of people aged 9-90 made up the audience, enjoying the talks and sometimes challenging the speakers. Watch out for the next Soapbox Science event when it comes to Oxford again. Dong Liu came to the end of her Fellowships in Oxford in October 2018 and started a permanent Lectureship position with the School of Physics at Bristol University. She told us: ‘I’ll miss the delicious, formal Mansfield College dinners, which are out of this world and great for networking – you never know who you are going to meet at the table.’

‘A fascinating account of how young Wilde’s flair for self-promotion aligned with the birth of celebrity culture during the “age of Barnum”’ – BBC Culture

Eileen Tipoe Career Development Fellow in Economics Recent publications ‘Characterising green employment: the impacts of “greening” on workforce composition’, Eileen Tipoe, Alex Bowen, Karly Kuralbayeva (2018), Energy Economics, 72: 263-275. ISSN 0140-9883.

Professor Michèle Mendelssohn Tutorial Fellow in English

Recent publications Making Oscar Wilde (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), ISBN 9780198802365. Below are some reviews of this book: ‘Must read’ – Sunday Times ‘2018 Best Summer Books’ – Guardian

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Events calendar 2019 Events held at College unless otherwise specified

FEBRUARY Saturday 2nd Mansfield College Ball – ‘Into the Woods’ www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk/event/mansfield-college-ball-2019 Please note, Ball tickets have now sold out.

Saturday 16th Law Moot and Dinner Mansfield College Law Moot, with guest judges, followed by dinner. Please visit www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk/event/law-moot-and-dinner for booking.

Saturday 23rd Old Boys’ Rugby Match and Dinner Further information will be sent in due course.

MARCH Friday 22nd to Sunday 24th Alumni Weekend: Tokyo Please visit www.alumni.ox.ac.uk/MeetingMindsinAsia for more information.

APRIL Wednesday 10th Oxford in North America: Drinks Reception in Boston Please visit www.oxfordna.org/events/oxford-in-northamerica-2019 for more information. Thursday 11th Drinks Reception in Toronto Please visit www.oxfordna.org/events/oxford-in-northamerica-2019 for more information. Saturday 13th Academic programme & luncheon in Washington DC Please visit www.oxfordna.org/events/oxford-in-northamerica-2019 for more information. The Principal also plans to be in New York duing this trip. Further details about Mansfield-specific events TBC. New York Drinks Reception TBC Old Boys’ Cricket Match and Dinner TBC

MAY Saturday 11th 1887 Society Annual Dinner The annual dinner of the Society for current and former Mansfield Geographers. Speaker TBC. JUNE Saturday 1st MCBC Summer Eights Dinner Cheer the Mansfield crews on by the Isis on the Saturday of Eights Week! Join us afterwards for dinner and speeches from the MCBC captains.

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Saturday 29th Summer Garden Party and Commemoration Service Our annual event to celebrate the end of the academic year. Open to all alumni, students, College staff, SCR members, and all family and friends of the College. SEPTEMBER Saturday 14th Gaudy: 1998-2008 Join us in College for a dinner to mark your time at Mansfield. Partners and guests very welcome! Friday 20th to Sunday 22nd Alumni Weekend: Oxford Events held at venues throughout Oxford. Please visit www. alumni.ox.ac.uk/alumni_home for more information. NOVEMBER The Adam von Trott Memorial Lecture & Drinks Reception Speaker TBC. DECEMBER TBC 10-Year Anniversary Dinner (2009 matric)

MANSFIELD LECTURE SERIES As well as all these exciting events, please don’t forget our regular lecture series every Friday at 5pm during term time. Entry is free and all are welcome to attend. More information on our speakers will be announced on our website. Our events calendar will always be subject to additions, which we shall keep you informed about via our e-newsletter and on our website. For more information about Mansfield events, please contact the Development and Alumni Relations team. Email: development@mansfield.ox.ac.uk Telephone: 0044 (0) 1865 270 998 We look forward to seeing you!

Mansfield College OXFORD