Mansfield Magazine 2019/20

Mansfield 2019/20

Message from the Principal

Contents

Helen Mountfield QC

Message from the Principal.................... 3

Student news.............................................. 30

Bursar’s Report........................................... 4

The Food Journey...................................... 32

News in brief............................................... 5

Mansfield’s Visiting Student Programme.................................................. 34

Mansfield’s new Honorary Fellows....... 8 The Principal’s Friday Talks and annual lectures........................................... 10 Oxford and colonialism............................. 11 Alumni Relations & Engagement........... 12 Welcoming the first Kofi Annan Scholars to Mansfield............................... 14

Alumni news................................................ 37 Celebrating women at Mansfield.......... 40 The impact of your support: Thank you.............................................. 41 Bancroft Fellows................................. 44

A pioneering Settlement.......................... 16

Community Week and Giving Day............................................. 46

Access Report 2020................................. 19

Recognising your kind legacy support: ‘now and forever’............... 48

Medieval lockdowns.................................. 21

Our supporters.................................... 49

How can mathematical modelling help in the coronavirus pandemic?....... 22 Music at Mansfield.................................... 23 Encore!.......................................................... 24 Growing our own poems @Mansfield.................................................. 25 JCR President’s Report............................. 27 MCR President’s Report........................... 28 MCBC Report.............................................. 29

the financial resilience of Mansfield. This summer’s conference and events income, so vital to our business model, vanished.

The value of our (modest) endowment is diminished. Student rooms lay empty and unrented for the whole of Trinity term. Our Bursar, Richard Scanlon, has done a truly heroic job of making careful and sensible decisions to keep College afloat, as the world shifted around us, in ways no risk analyst could have predicted. And still we must scan the horizon.

Alumni Association Report...................... 36

Sanctuary at Mansfield............................ 15

Senior Tutor’s Report................................ 18

When I accepted the role of Principal of Mansfield College, I knew I had not taken the easy option, but I could never have imagined I would be leading a college through a global pandemic.

Bonavero Institute of Human Rights.... 51 Parallel lives: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Adam von Trott.................................. 52 Obituaries..................................................... 54 Staff & Fellows’ news............................... 57 College and University prizes 2019/20 ..................................................... 63 Examination results 2020....................... 65

Produced by the Alumni Relations and Engagement Office Editor: Catherine Conisbee, Alumni Relations and Communications Officer Copy Editor: Philip Harriss Design and print: BCQ Group The theme of this year’s issue of Mansfield magazine is ‘community’.

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Mansfield College Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TF T: +44 (0) 1865 270 998 E: development@mansfield.ox.ac.uk W: www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk

There is so much that has been difficult and challenging about the past year, it barely needs stating. I want to focus instead on the theme of this year’s Mansfield magazine, and what has proved to be so important, so evident, and so sustaining in recent months, and something we have come to value like never before: community.

In times of crisis and hardship, community is what sees us through. And at Mansfield this year, I have seen community spirit displayed in myriad ways: supporting one another, going over and above for the good of the College, forbearance, and kindness.

Our current community of Mansfield students have carried on through tough times with incredible good humour. Those who were already here when the pandemic struck lost a precious Oxford summer; but they invented all sorts of activities to keep spirits up as they studied – even took finals, some of them! – at home, often with limited personal space or Wi-Fi. And in spite of it all, they have achieved wonderful academic results: our highest ever number of firsts this year. Our new class of 2020 have arrived to a pared-down world of Perspex screens and physical-distancing rules, but are still studying and rowing and writing and avidly debating ideas; and have still forged strong social bonds within and across their public-health imposed ‘household’ groups.

My wonderful academic colleagues chose Mansfield over bigger, wealthier colleges because they believe in our mission: to give talented and sometimes unexpected people the chance to soar at Oxford. When the first Covid lockdown caused Trinity term to ‘go online’, our Fellows put in many hours of extra work to support students suddenly spread all over the globe. They generously

‘… when 2020 is history – Mansfield will still be here ’

and imaginatively supported this new way of learning, while still bringing lustre to Mansfield by the distinction of their research (of which more later in this magazine).

Our staff – librarians, IT technicians, administrators, chefs and cleaners – have gone the extra mile to keep our reading lists accessible, our students cared for, and to respond to complicated and repeatedly changing Covid guidelines. Some have worked remotely, juggling family and caring responsibilities; others have worked on the front line to make sure our students stay safe and fed.

And of course, our wonderful global community of alumni, who have rallied to support College in its time of necessity in numerous ways: from generous gifts; to participating in online careers and mentoring events; to kindly giving us expert pro bono technical advice, just when we need it.

Thank you, all.

But there is no getting away from the fact that the Covid crisis has gravely dented

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Back in January, in what now seems like entirely different times, the Governing Body of Mansfield came together to build an exciting new strategy for College for the coming 20 years. We are developing a business plan to realise that strategy. Planning our future is not easy, amid the uncertainty of the Covid crisis, but made even more imperative by it.

At the heart of our strategy is a statement of our purpose, our distinctive ethos and our values. You can read this on our website. We value diversity and difference as necessary elements of a vibrant intellectual culture.

We want to foster an inclusive and engaged community of people and ideas.

I am proud that Mansfield’s name is becoming well-known for our track record on access; our modern take on nonconformity; and our respect for the dignity and worth of everyone. This is our community spirit. It is what students tell me attracted them to apply here. It is what encourages alumni and others to support us. It is what makes my job a joy and an honour.

It is what has seen us through this year.

These times will pass. And I am sure that, with your support, we can put our College on a secure and sustainable footing, so that – when 2020 is history – Mansfield will still be here; to continue to support the fantastic young people who study here: young people who go on to make the world a better place.

News in brief

Bursar’s Report Richard Scanlon When joining Mansfield in September 2019, I didn’t expect the football cliché ‘a game of two halves’ to describe my first year at the College, but it’s a perfect fit.

In the first six months, we made good progress. Our wonderful catering team again won the title for best college vegetarian and vegan food; we completed important renovation work on the College’s glorious Library; we finalised arrangements to bring Mansfield’s organ back into use (using previously raised funds for which we are most grateful); we won an adjudication brought by the contractor on a long-standing building dispute; we strengthened College governance arrangements, particularly related to Mansfield’s finances; we focused on our hard-working teams, introducing personal development reviews for all non-academic staff; and up to the end of February our income was on track to cover our expenditure, a significant achievement for Mansfield which has a much lower endowment than other colleges.

Without stretching the football analogy too far, in the second half it has been like playing into the wind and uphill on a muddy pitch.

We managed to get through most of Hilary term relatively unaffected by Covid-19, but Government regulations meant that students were unable to return to College for Trinity term, and during the Easter and summer vacations we had to cancel conference and B&B guests – including a six-week trip by 165 US students. Our income inevitably took a substantial hit.

It has been really pleasing to see how my colleagues have stepped up to face these challenges. Our priority has been to provide a Covid-secure environment for students and staff in Michaelmas term.

This meant making substantial changes to our domestic arrangements. To minimise risk of transmission, we are not cleaning student rooms (while cleaning common areas more frequently) and we have

introduced a comprehensive meal plan for onsite students and moved to a takeaway offer for those living off-site.

Fundamentally changing how we operate has been especially difficult for our small, dedicated team. My profound thanks go to them, and of course to our wonderful colleagues in the College Office, for all their efforts to design, plan and implement these major adjustments. Frequent changes in Government regulations and guidelines have proved particularly demanding. Sincere thanks must also go to our catering and accommodation teams who have agreed to work on reduced rotas, to the porters who have encountered many new challenges on the front line, and to our IT team who have had to cope with the inevitable increase in online activities.

To date, I’m pleased to say that the new measures have generally been effective.

This is testament to the efforts of my team, but also to the behaviour of our students who have unfortunately had to endure substantial restrictions to their activities. We had hoped to relax some measures further into Michaelmas, but at time of writing the new national lockdown has made this impossible. I would like to thank the students for their forbearance.

Another key priority for me in the last six months has been to minimise the impact of the virus on the College’s finances. We have successfully employed the Government’s job-retention scheme; we have negotiated to retain client deposits where appropriate; we have restructured roles and amended work rotas to reduce cost and allow key new roles to be created; and we continue to work hard to encourage conference clients to come back when it is possible. We may have taken a major impact despite these measures, but I’m told Mansfield has faced financial challenges many times over the years and come out the other side stronger and more resilient. I am confident we shall do so again.

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Looking forward, it seems clear that mitigating the effects of the virus and keeping students and staff safe will dominate our activities until at least spring 2021, but rest assured we are keeping one eye on Mansfield’s longer-term development, with business and finance programmes to support the College’s recently agreed strategic plan on our minds.

I hope my report next year will be able to focus on these more positive topics and we can treat the virus as a historical footnote.

‘ It has been really pleasing to see how my colleagues have stepped up to face these challenges. ’

London Mozart Players When the UK went into its first ‘lockdown’ in March 2020, Mansfield fell eerily quiet for a time. The absence of the familiar hum of student life was felt sorely throughout the College, and perhaps no more so than in Mansfield’s Library – which lost some of its magic without our students drawing inspiration from the remarkable surroundings.

We were excited therefore, to welcome the London Mozart Players to College on Tuesday 14 July to give their exceptional live-streamed performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons from this magnificent setting.

After carefully manoeuvring a harpsichord up the stairs and creeping on to the Library gallery to set the cameras rolling, the performers took up their instruments to play. It was an unusual concert: the musicians spaced along the Library’s

alcoves, the red flare of their masks hiding their faces, and their immediate audience limited to the camera crew and a couple of overseers. Nevertheless, violin soloist Jennifer Pike played with entrancing vigour from the middle of the central aisle.

The London Mozart Players, a chamber orchestra set up in 1949, performed as a seamless whole, this concert the third they had played since the spring lockdown began. Following performances in the Westgate Shopping Centre and St Giles Cripplegate in London, the group were well-practised at weaving around each other, and at maintaining the quality of their music in venues with unusual acoustics (and the occasional interference of nearby building works). The Players seemed delighted to be together again, to exercise their artistic muscles and regain a sense of unity – which can be

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difficult to achieve when giving an online performance.

Following the concert, Jennifer Pike read aloud the four poems that accompany the movements of Four Seasons, and as she read from Spring, ‘The sky is covered with a black mantle,/ And thunder, and lightning, announce a storm./ When they are silent, the birds/ Return to sing their lovely song,’ these lines seemed a very apt reflection of the day itself.

Mansfield prides itself on fostering communities, and it was a pleasure to give space for the London Mozart Players to flock together in difficult times, even if only for a day.

The concert was streamed on Classic FM’s Facebook page and YouTube on 22 July and is now available to view on the Classic FM YouTube channel.

News in brief

News in brief

Happy anniversary!

In 2020 we marked the 25th anniversary of Mansfield being awarded a Royal Charter, attaining full University of Oxford College status after its previous incarnation as a Permanent Private Hall.

The Royal Charter was presented to the College on 24 June 1995 by The Lord Bancroft of Coatham (1922-1996), during a special day of festivities to mark the occasion. Those attending the College’s Royal Charter Day celebrations were treated to a musical performance by the ‘Royal Charter Wind Ensemble’, an exhibition entitled ‘From Theological Hall to Oxford College’, and a glut of strawberries and cream.

Access to Excellence: the first 20 years

Mansfield was the first undergraduate college at Oxford to gain a Royal Charter for over 30 years, and as a consequence of its new status, the University Council increased the number of undergraduates permitted to study at the College from 132 to 162 students.

In 2020, we celebrated 20 years since the inception of our highly successful Access to Excellence Campaign.

Since gaining its Royal Charter 25 years ago, College has changed in a myriad ways, yet Mansfield remains fully committed to the principles upon which it was founded. In 2020 we strive to reflect these progressive values: an ethos of openness; of inclusion for those traditionally excluded or marginalised; and a belief that academic excellence can be achieved at any time of life, under a variety of circumstances, and regardless of background.

New Equality and Diversity Library

As an educational institution with a long history and a great deal of cultural power, Oxford University – like many other organisations – has been part of the social power structures that have upheld race inequality. We still live with racism and inequality, but in our own times, with our own mores, we have the power to promote

equality of opportunity and good relations between different groups in society.

Mansfield’s Fellows, College staff, MCR and JCR are working together to do just that. In particular, we are keen to ensure that diverse voices and perspectives are recognised, valued and responded to.

We are particularly proud that we were the first college in Oxford to start an ‘equality library’ of books and (during lockdown) online materials about race and equality.

The project was supported by alumnus Jan Fischer (PPE, 1989), as part of his gift to College for varied initiatives this year. We

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This will be an evolving and intersectional equality project with student well-being, collaboration and education at its heart.

A Mansfield education is about considering and valuing all perspectives and voices, not just those traditionally at the fore.

Thanks to our wonderful Librarians, Clare Kavanagh and Sally Jones, books are now distributed to the relevant sections throughout the Library, and there is also an accompanying guide and rotating display selection. We hope that in the course of students’ time with us, this initiative will help them encounter a more diverse curriculum, and become more aware, more critical, and more fruitful thinkers because of it.

Mansfield’s Royal Charter was officially granted by The Queen on 11 April 1995, but by that time the College had already established its reputation as an Oxford institution that did things a little differently. It was, for instance, the only Permanent Private Hall to be included within the University’s admissions process.

At Mansfield, we strive to cultivate an atmosphere of self-reflection, questioning, and a culture of ideas. That spirit was called upon in response to the death of George Floyd and subsequent Black Lives Matter protests.

a list of more than 50 books crossing a wide range of disciplines, including Reni Eddo-Lodge’s Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race and Miranda Kaufmann’s Black Tudors.

Launched by Professor David Marquand, Principal 1996-2002, and supported by Guy Hands, the Sutton Trust and the Higher Education Funding Council England among others, the initiative grew out of Mansfield’s mission as a College: to make an Oxford University education available to all those with the academic potential to benefit from it, regardless of educational background.

As a result of innovative outreach efforts over two decades, particularly targeting Further Education and sixth-form colleges, Mansfield welcomed over 90% of its UK undergraduates from nonselective state schools in the academic year 2019/20; and more than 40% of its offer-holders were from the most disadvantaged educational and socioeconomic backgrounds. In the same year, on the Norrington Table, Mansfield was rated fifth of the 39 Oxford colleges for academic excellence.

have shared the idea with other colleges, with a view to diversifying and enriching thinking and areas of the curriculum considered worthy of exploration.

After being contacted by Mustaqim Iqbal (Jurisprudence, 2018), the JCR’s BAME Representative, with a modest list of suggestions for books that the Library could purchase to aid education on racism and racial issues, we set about reviewing our current collection and expanding the Library’s existing range of resources.

After reaching out to students, staff, the Governing Body and others, we collated

Mansfield Access Ambassadors

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Our next step is to focus on helping students access equal chances after they leave the University, by supporting them to build social as well as educational capital. We believe it is essential now more than ever, that voices in leadership positions – whether in politics, industry, education or other sectors – better represent the diverse society that makes up the UK today.

Introducing Mansfield’s new Honorary Fellows Dr Maggie AderinPocock MBE

In 2020 we were delighted to announce our seven new Honorary Fellows from the fields of science, culture, law, defence and finance.

General Sir Chris Deverell KCB MBE (PPE, 1979)

Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock is a space scientist and BAFTA-nominated broadcaster, presenting the BBC’s The Sky at Night among other programmes. She was a lead scientist at Astrium, a subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, where she led the optical instrumentation group. She is currently working on and managing the observation instruments for the Aeolus satellite, which will measure wind speeds to help the investigation of climate change.

After Oxford, General Sir Chris Deverell joined the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, stationed on the inner German border during the Cold War. He spent the first half of his army service on regimental duty in Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Belize, and Germany, interspersed with staff appointments at the head office of the Ministry of Defence and education at staff college and the Royal Military College of Science. This period included service as a Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Defence, and as the Commanding Officer of the Joint Nuclear Biological and Chemical Regiment.

Maggie is a pioneering figure in communicating science to the public, specifically school children. She founded and is the Managing Director of Science Innovation Ltd, a company that engages children and adults all over the world with the wonders of space science. She was awarded an MBE in 2009 for services to science and science education.

Promoted to General in 2016, Chris became one of the UK Chiefs of Staff, as Commander Joint Forces Command, with responsibility for Special Forces, Intelligence, Cyber, UK Defence use of Space, Information Systems and Services, Operational Command and Control, Education, Medical Services, and the UK’s military operating bases overseas. He was awarded an MBE in 1990 and appointed Knight Commander of the Order of Bath in 2015. He also has a Diploma from the International Olympic Committee for services to winter sports (bobsleigh and skeleton).

In 2019 Maggie won Vodafone’s Woman of the Year Innovation Award, and she also sits on the advisory committee for the Young Audience Content Fund at the British Film Institute.

Sir Ian Blatchford (Jurisprudence, 1983)

Since retiring from the Army in 2019, Chris has founded Deverell Innovation Ventures to help complex organisations to innovate. He is a Venture Partner in a San Francisco Cybersecurity Platform; a mentor in a seed-stage programme for science-based start-ups at the Saïd Business School; and an External Member of the Council of Oxford University.

Sir Ian Blatchford has been Deputy Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, Deputy Finance Director at the Arts Council, and Director of Finance at the Royal Academy of Arts. He was later Director and Chief Executive at the Science Museum Group and combined this with the role of Director of the Science Museum.

The Rt Hon Lord Justice Dingemans (Jurisprudence, 1983)

Sarah Harkness (PPE, 1980) Sarah Harkness is an experienced finance professional who has worked at the highest level in a range of roles and organisations. She began her executive career in banking and in 1992 was appointed Corporate Finance Director of NatWest Markets. Six years later she moved to Arthur Andersen, where she remained until 2002. Sarah then launched the corporate division of Directorbank Executive Search Ltd, which specialised in non-executive recruitment.

The Rt Hon Lord Justice Dingemans is a serving judge. He was appointed a High Court judge in 2013 and assigned to the Queen’s Bench Division, receiving a knighthood in the 2014 Special Honours. In October 2019, he was appointed to the Court of Appeal as a Lord Justice of Appeal.

James has a longstanding interest in encouraging a strong and diverse entry to the legal profession and was in charge of pupillage in Chambers at 3 Hare Court from 1993 to 2002. He was Chairman of the Outreach and Recruitment Committee for Inner Temple from 2009 to 2014.

While there, Sarah took on several non-executive roles in the private sector: as Director on the board of Homestyle Group PLC, a retailer with an annual turnover of £400m; as Trustee of Sheffield Theatres Trust; and as Chair of McInnes Corporate Finance.

James has also been Chairman of the International Committee of the Bar Council of England and Wales (2008-10) and Chairman of the Commonwealth in England Bar Association (CEBA) (2009-11). He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Commonwealth Lawyers’ Association and is now a member of Council of the Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association. He was made a Bencher of the Inner Temple in 2006.

She has been Non-Executive Director and Chair of Audit at JRI Orthopaedics Ltd and was appointed Pro-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield. She served as a lay member of the Audit Committee of the University of Birmingham and is now a Non-Executive Director of Card Geotechnics Ltd, and a Trustee of Orthopaedic Research UK and of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.

Rt Hon the Baroness Hale of Richmond DBE PC LLD FBA

Sarah has also served as a non-executive director on various boards within the NHS, including NHS North of England Strategic Health Authority, the Trust Development Authority and NHS Improvement.

She now chairs the Audit Committee of Oriel College, Oxford.

Baroness Hale has just retired as the United Kingdom’s most senior judge.

She became the first, and the only, woman ‘Lord of Appeal in Ordinary’ in 2004, after a varied career as an academic lawyer, law reformer and judge. She was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn in 1969. She taught Law at Manchester University for 18 years, specialising in family and social welfare law, and also practised at the Manchester Bar.

Admiral Sir Philip Jones GCB DL (Geography, 1978) Admiral Sir Philip Jones saw active service in the South Atlantic in 1982 in the Amphibious Assault Ship HMS Fearless, and also served in HM Yacht Brittania. He has commanded the frigates HMS Beaver (as a Commander) and HMS Coventry (as a Captain), the Amphibious Task Group (as a Commodore), UK Maritime Forces (as a Rear Admiral) and the Fleet (as a Vice Admiral). He was Assistant Chief of Naval Staff, in the Ministry of Defence, for the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review.

In 1984 Brenda became the first woman to serve on the Law Commission. There she led the work of the family law team, resulting (among others) in the Children Act 1989 and the Mental Capacity Act 2005. She was also a founder member of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and chair of its Code of Practice Committee from 1990 to 1994, when she was appointed a Judge of the Family Division of the High Court. She was promoted to the Court of Appeal of England and Wales in 1999 and in 2004 to the House of Lords. She became Deputy President of the Court in 2013 and its President in 2017.

On promotion to Vice Admiral in 2011, Philip served as Deputy Fleet Commander and Chief of Staff Navy Command Headquarters, and then in 2012 he became the Fleet Commander and Deputy Chief of Naval Staff.

Brenda was a Trustee of the Nuffield Foundation from 1987 to 2002 and Chancellor of the University of Bristol from 2004 to 2016. She also helped to establish the United Kingdom Association of Women Judges in 2004 and from 2010 to 2012 served as President of the International Association of Women Judges, a worldwide body of both men and women judges committed to equality and human rights for all.

Ian was awarded the Pushkin Medal by the Russian Government in 2015, and received a Knighthood in the 2019 New Year’s Honours for services to Cultural Education. He is currently Chairman of the National Museum Directors’ Council and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

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Philip was made a Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath in 2012, promoted to Knight Commander in 2014 and Knight Grand Cross in 2020. In 2016 he became First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, the professional head of the Royal Navy. He retired from the navy in 2019.

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The Principal’s Friday Talks and annual lectures: opening up Mansfield to the world

Oxford and colonialism: reflections on Mansfield The following is an excerpt from Mansfield College’s submission to the University’s ‘Oxford and Colonialism’ project. This project seeks to highlight and showcase the efforts ongoing across the collegiate University to redress the legacy of coloniality.

Dr Amber Murrey, Human Geography Fellow, has written widely on race, neo-imperialism and extraction in African societies, including on Pan-African politics, and has collaborated in a variety of ‘decolonising the university’ projects.

Mansfield’s founders, George and Elizabeth Mansfield and Sarah Glover, were ideologically opposed to slavery. In 1841, while still in its Spring Hill incarnation at Birmingham, the College signed a letter to its American counterparts, calling for the abolition of slavery. The letter describes slavery as ‘a system in which heartless cruelty unceasingly panders to the most contemptible avarice’.

Mansfield is also the home of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, which puts our College at the heart of research and engagement with global, regional and local human rights issues across the University. Professor Kate O’Regan, Director of the Institute and a member of Mansfield’s Governing Body, was a member of the first post-apartheid Constitutional Court of South Africa and gave a series of important judgments on equality law.

Dr Annelen Micus is an expert in transitional justice.

Although Congregationalists, as missionaries, had a complex relationship to black histories and imperialism, many of Mansfield’s alumni took from its theological training a profound belief in human equality and dignity. Adam von Trott, who studied at Mansfield in the 1930s, was executed for his participation in the plot to assassinate Hitler, and the late Alex Boraine (Theology, 1960), head of the Methodist church in South Africa at the height of apartheid, took a firm stand that the Church should be multiracial. He was later an architect of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Mansfield’s Public Talks series also gives a platform to diverse voices and equality issues. In Michaelmas term 2020 a popular lecture was by Wendy Williams, author of the Windrush Report, Lessons Learned.

Our scholarship and ethos today

Promoting academic pathways and amplifying the voices of people of colour

Many members of Governing Body today engage in scholarship and practice on issues of race, colonialism and diversity, and are active in working to broaden the curriculum and raise awareness of issues of colonial legacy and racism in their teaching.

Mansfield’s lively programme of public Friday Talks continued throughout 2020, moving online for Michaelmas term and as a result attracting record numbers of attendees. This enabled us to share these fantastic talks with more people than we could ever hope to fit into the Sir Joseph Hotung Auditorium.

Our Friday Talks and annual lectures are an important way of the College reaching outside our community and encouraging people in. Free and welcoming to the public, they are emblematic of how Mansfield wants to open up its academic community to the world, encouraging the sharing of ideas and debate about important issues.

Two recent highlights were our Principal in conversation with Baroness Hale, as part of the Friday Talks series, and our annual Hands Lecture which took place online for the first time, both in late November 2020.

Baroness Hale, former President of the Supreme Court and new Honorary Fellow of Mansfield, discussed her remarkable life and legal career with Helen Mountfield QC. This fascinating conversation encompassed breaking glass ceilings in the Law; media and political criticism of judges; and current challenges for the judicial system.

Founded by Bancroft Fellows, Guy and Julia Hands, the Hands Lecture is a major annual event for Mansfield, when we invite a leading figure from the world of politics or

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current affairs to speak at the College. We are enormously grateful to Lord (William) Hague of Richmond who gave this year’s Hands Lecture on the state of Western democracies – the threats we face, what we might expect from the next 20 years, and what can be done to protect democracy in the face of multiple global crises.

Please join in with our Friday Talks programme at: www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk/ mansfield-college-public-talks.

Catch up with the Friday talks you missed on Mansfield’s YouTube Channel: https://bit.ly/371L1PW

People of colour are underrepresented in academic life at Oxford University, including at Mansfield. We are taking active steps to address this. A recent initiative has been the establishment of a Race and Equality Working Group to make recommendations on further steps we can take to enhance our racial diversity through recruitment and employment processes.

History Fellows, Professor Kathryn Gleadle and Dr Helen Lacey, have ensured that study of historical and theoretical approaches to ‘race’ is a compulsory component of the undergraduate syllabus within College. Kathryn has been active in the History faculty in revising the curriculum to include texts authored by formerly enslaved people, and by women of South Asian and Caribbean descent.

Mansfield is a partner college for Oxford University’s new Black Academic Futures Scholarships in the 2021/22 academic year, through which it will contribute to funding UK black and mixed-black students’ graduate study at Oxford. We have seven postgraduate scholars annually from the Global South named after Kofi Annan, in conjunction with the Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust; a Reach Scholarship funded by students; and a new Lutheran Council Refugee Scholarship as part of our efforts to work with the founders of the Cities (and Universities) of Sanctuary Scheme to extend our intellectual and human links with refugees and asylum seekers.

Professor Michèle Mendelssohn, Tutorial Fellow in English, curated ‘Making History’, an exhibition and event series celebrating Oxford University’s first black African undergraduate, Christian Cole; the first African-American Rhodes scholar and midwife to the Harlem Renaissance, Alain Locke; and Oscar Wilde.

Principal Helen Mountfield QC has spent a 30-year career specialising in equality law, and – as a barrister and judge – has been involved in developing its principles, including on equal access to education and on modern slavery.

Mansfield’s inclusive ethos remains a strong element of the College’s identity.

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Alumni Relations & Engagement

Wanting to do our utmost to keep our global alumni community connected, we started by creating an Alumni online hub: a dedicated portal on the College website, for alumni by alumni. From sharing Zoom backgrounds of the Mansfield Quad, to recipes, to memories and photos of your time at College, to ‘tracks that take you back’, the hub quickly became a fascinating repository of all things Mansfield, past and present. Find it at: www.mansfield.college

Tess McCormick Development Director

Then we launched a series of virtual events over June and July, encouraging alumni to gather online to hear from Fellows, tutors and special guests. We created films to bring you back to College virtually: for our annual Commemoration Service, and for our Summer Garden Party with a special video-recorded welcome by Admiral Sir Philip Jones GCB DL (Geography, 1978), who was made a Mansfield Honorary Fellow this year (see page 9).

Alumni Drinks in London on 6 February 2020

Covid has affected everyone, and our 2020 Alumni Programme has been very different to the one I had anticipated and planned for when I took up my post in 2019.

After a wonderful start to academic year 2019/20 – a fun Gaudy with matric years 1998-2008 in my very first week, followed by our ‘on the road’ events with the Principal to meet alumni in Bristol and Manchester, and a lively and well-attended

everyone across the globe, we balanced home and work responsibilities, sometimes precariously, certainly like never before.

‘ Wanting to do our utmost to keep our global alumni community connected, we started by creating an Alumni online hub’

drinks party in London in February – lockdown hit and the Development team leapt into action, going digital and taking all of our events and communications online.

Responsible for alumni relations and engagement, raising funds, and the College’s communications, the Development team have this year also become filmmakers, Zoom experts, photographers, interviewers, and consummate jugglers, as like virtually

New online Careers Weeks took place for students in June and were both popular and well-received. Panel discussions led by alumni, these centred around the sectors the students wanted to hear about: creative and media; law; and financial services. Thank you so much to all of you who took part.

And in general we increased our presence on social media. For regular news, pics

and notices from Mansfield, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

That’s a lot of digital content, and not everyone is online. So we also posted a specially produced card to all alumni who would have had their Gaudy in September.

And we sent an Alumni Survey to over 3,000 people in our community, in order that we can better shape our programme.

An engaged alumni network is vital to Mansfield’s future. It is the sharing of your skills and experience, and your willingness to engage your personal and professional networks, that will most benefit our

students, the College and one another.

Community is a truly apt theme for this year’s Magazine. As we continue through lockdown, here in Development we shall continue to work hard to create enjoyable opportunities to connect that make being part of the Mansfield community so valuable and rewarding.

Stay tuned for our 2021 programme – details will be circulated in January.

You can contact the Development Office any time at development@mansfield.ox.ac.uk.

We are always very pleased to hear from you.

‘ It is the sharing of your skills and experience, and your willingness to engage your personal and professional networks, that will most benefit our students, the College and one another.’

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Sanctuary at Mansfield Announcing the Council of Lutheran Churches Scholarship

Welcoming the first Kofi Annan Scholars to Mansfield A new partnership with the University of Oxford’s Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Scholarships and Leadership Programme.

‘At Mansfield we aim to educate, equip, and empower our students to realise their ambitions, ask questions, and make a positive impact on the world around them. We wanted these new scholarships at Mansfield to be associated with a figure whose name provides inspiration and honour to those in receipt of them, and to reflect the intended purpose of the scholarships in educating people to make the world a better place. With Kofi Annan’s deep commitment to education for the benefit of international peace, collaboration and development, and our proud link with him, we could think of no better name to achieve that intention.’

In October 2020, we welcomed the first ever cohort of Kofi Annan Scholars to our College. In partnership with the University of Oxford’s prestigious Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Scholarships and Leadership Programme, Mansfield plans to offer seven new fully funded graduate scholarships for exceptional students from low-income countries, for the next five years.

The Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Scholarships and Leadership Programme aims to provide outstanding university graduates and professionals from developing and emerging economies with the opportunity to pursue study at Oxford. In addition to their studies, the graduates participate in a tailor-made leadership programme to give them additional practical skills and opportunities.

Helen Mountfield QC, Principal, Mansfield College

graduate studies at Oxford. All the scholars talked about the warm welcome they had received at Mansfield and how this College’s ethos and values reflected their own.

The new scholarships are named after the former SecretaryGeneral of the United Nations and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Kofi Annan (1938-2018), who officially opened the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at Mansfield in June 2018, just weeks before he died. We are delighted that the Kofi Annan Foundation has granted us permission to name this endeavour in honour of Kofi Annan, and to be working closely with the Foundation on this initiative.

In what was an inspiring moment for everyone, Kofi Annan’s widow, Mrs Nane Annan, our special guest at the event, talked to us about how much she felt Kofi would have approved of the scholarships: ‘Young people should be at the forefront of global change and innovation’.

The Kofi Annan Scholarships have been made possible thanks to the generosity of Mansfield alumnus, Jan Fischer (PPE, 1989), of Germany.

At a time when, globally, inequalities in society are deepening, we at Mansfield believe that universities can help, by enabling people from a broad range of backgrounds to develop their talents and to make a positive contribution to the world.

At an online event in late October, Mansfield’s Principal joined representatives from the Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust, the Kofi Annan Foundation, and our sponsor, Jan Fischer, to hear from each of the scholars about their aims and aspirations in pursuing

Mansfield was founded to welcome students who had up until the mid-19th century been excluded from an Oxford education because of their religious beliefs. Today we remain true to this inclusive tradition and, in conjunction with the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, we are proud to stand up for equal dignity, respect and rights for all.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), half the refugees worldwide are under the age of 18, and only about three per cent of them enter higher education. Funding is a major barrier.

From October 2021, thanks to new support from the Council of Lutheran Churches, Mansfield College will offer a fully funded graduate scholarship to an outstanding student who has been forced to migrate from their home and has sought sanctuary in the UK. We are delighted that through our shared commitment to supporting refugees, and also through our new Chaplain, Sarah Farrow, we have re-established Mansfield’s historic partnership with the Lutheran Church. From the mid-1950s to the 1990s, Mansfield was the only educational foundation in the UK to offer

training for Lutheran pastors, through a tutorship established by the Lutheran World Foundation (LWF) in co-operation with the Council of Lutheran Churches.

Interestingly, one of the LWF tutors, Dr Jan Womer, acted as Principal of the College from 1986 to 1988.

The Council of Lutheran Churches Scholarship is intended to meet the needs of a highly able student whose education has been disrupted by forced migration, and reflects Mansfield’s continued commitment to the College’s founding principles. This scholarship will cover living costs and, in partnership with the University of Oxford, all fees.

The new scholarship is part of an initiative by Mansfield – working with Somerville College, which is also launching a Sanctuary Scholarship – to engage more closely with people seeking asylum in the United Kingdom. We commit to learning what it means to be seeking sanctuary, and celebrating sanctuary seekers’ contributions to society, through a varied programme of activities. These will include: student-led and Collegesupported initiatives; collaborations with the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights; and an annual event organised jointly with Somerville College. The first of the joint

‘I am delighted that our community was universally so supportive of offering a refugee scholar the opportunity to study at Mansfield, and that Mansfield and Somerville Colleges are working together to apply for College of Sanctuary status.’

Helen Mountfield QC, Principal, Mansfield College

If you would like to know more about this year’s scholars, and their areas of research, please consult the Kofi Annan Scholars page on the Mansfield College website.

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‘ W e commit to learning what it means to be seeking sanctuary, and celebrating sanctuary seekers’ contributions to society’

events took place in July 2020 with the principals of both colleges welcoming Lord Alf Dubs to speak, interviewed by broadcaster Natasha Kaplinsky.

Mansfield and Somerville Colleges are together applying for College of Sanctuary status. This scheme, which grew from the City of Sanctuary movement, involves pledging to provide the most welcoming and accessible environment possible for refugees and asylum seekers.

The scholarships reflect the University of Oxford’s broadening efforts to support refugees. The Oxford Students Refugee Campaign, a student-led initiative, has provided financial support for seven refugee students at Oxford in recent years and work is taking place to create new provision across the collegiate University.

A pioneering Settlement

Mansfield’s proud tradition of helping disadvantaged groups goes back to its Victorian inception. Here Timothy MM Baker (Corpus Christi, 1979) reveals the roots, the growth and the legacy of Mansfield House University Settlement in east London.

lectures covered scientific, literary, historical, and social subjects.

A ‘Local Parliament’ club offered debating practice. A ‘Brotherhood Society’ dealt with public authorities on local problems.

Among the abundance of initiatives and amenities provided, there was a loan society; a penny-savings bank; a sickness benefit society (one of the forerunners of National Insurance); a ‘Hospital Letter Society’ (an early form of medical insurance); free children’s meals; old-age pensions; and orchestral, choral, dramatic, gymnastic, boxing, cricket, football, and cycling clubs. Annual outings to Oxford were also arranged, including a cricket match against Mansfield College.

The Women’s Settlement organised an employment agency; day nursery; medical and hospital services; workrooms; disabled care; and second-hand clothes markets. Mental health pioneer, Dr Helen Boyle, worked nearby at Canning Town Mission Hospital, the experience prompting her later ground-breaking work on preventive treatment of mental illness.

Almost as soon as Mansfield College was established in the late 19th century, it became active in the University Settlement movement, bringing practical help to London’s poor. Mansfield’s focus was Canning Town, then one of London’s newest and poorest slums. The pastor of the local Congregational Church, Frederick Newland, invited Mansfield students to spend fortnights working there during vacations.

This practice was supported by Principal Andrew Fairbairn and Mansfield student Will Reason, and formalised in 1890 with the foundation of Mansfield House: the third University Settlement, and the first to be Nonconformist. Canning Town Women’s Settlement followed in 1892.

Frank Tillyard, a barrister, gave free legal assistance in a weekly evening ‘clinic’: the ‘Poor Man’s Lawyer’. People from Canning Town and across London sought advice on tenancy, employment, wages, compensation for accidents, and marital law. Other university settlements took up the scheme, which eventually became Citizens Advice.

Percy Alden went on to participate in local government. As Councillor and Deputy Mayor of West Ham he promoted public baths, libraries, parks, recreation grounds, tree planting, and better sanitary inspection. He was a pioneer advocate of state support for the unemployed, and became an MP first for the Liberal and then the Labour party. Knighted in 1933, Sir Percy was killed by a flying bomb on Tottenham Court Road in 1944. His name is inscribed on the World War II memorial in Mansfield’s Chapel.

The Settlers’ energy, and their impact on the life of Canning Town and the wider world, was prodigious. Their achievement still influences British administrative and social structures today.

Canning Town was a new port and industrial suburb of West Ham, which had a long history of Nonconformity. After 1844 West Ham became ‘London over the border’, the closest district to the booming metropolis without controls over polluting industry and housing quality. Its Thames-side marshes, beside London’s main commercial artery, were ripe for exploitation. The Royal Docks became London’s main port, and a magnet for factories producing chemicals and foodstuffs, along with electrical telegraphs, gasworks, ironworks, and shipyards.

Just inland, Canning Town sprang up to house dockers and labourers, who flocked from all over London and Essex seeking new opportunities. Housing was cheap, shoddy, densely packed; drainage inadequate; and amenities sparse. Casual and sweated labour, insecurity, exploitation, and poverty prevailed. A workingclass boom town, heavily dependent on pubs for recreation, it was London’s ‘Wild East’. When the College Bursar viewed premises for Mansfield House’s first ‘residence’, he encountered a drunken bar brawl fought with ginger beer bottles.

Canning Town attracted missions from all denominations.

My great-great-grandfather Thomas Perfect founded its Congregational Church in 1859, offering practical charity, education, and social activity, as well as pastoral support: ‘one of the few people who lived what he preached’, his daughter recalled.

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‘ The Settlers had a delicate task: to support the people of a deprived industrial suburb and, without patronising them, organise and train them to help themselves.’

Though the state gradually took over many of the services first provided by the Settlements, the latter continued to thrive until World War II, when the Blitz devastated Canning Town. Post-war movement of population to New Towns, and the decline of docks and industry, further disrupted the district’s social fabric. The Settlements never properly recovered.

They were eventually absorbed by the Aston Trust, and to this day Aston-Mansfield continues to support disadvantaged people across east London. But the main legacy of Mansfield House, the Women’s Settlement, and the Canning Town Congregational Church that spawned them, is how they helped shape the fabric of today’s social services.

From 1884 Perfect’s successor Frederick Newland, and then Mansfield House and the Women’s Settlement, hugely expanded this tradition. Percy Alden, a Mansfield student, became Mansfield House’s first Warden, assisted by Will Reason. The Settlers had a delicate task: to support the people of a deprived industrial suburb and, without patronising them, organise and train them to help themselves. Eschewing sectarianism, their purpose was practical Christianity, as a preliminary to pursuing a pastoral career.

Mansfield graduate Silvester Horne described Mansfield House as ‘an extension of Mansfield College’.

This article is abridged from the unpublished history of Canning Town Congregationalism by amateur historian Timothy MM Baker, which can be found in the College Archives.

Elementary, adult, and university extension education was provided on a range of academic and practical subjects. Evening

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Access Report 2020

Senior Tutor’s Report Lucinda Rumsey Where do I start? A year ago we were feeling a bit smug about doing so well in the Norrington Table (Remember?

Fifth!). In March 2020 we were enjoying the Guardian article that asked ‘How did they do it?’ about our success as the Oxford college with the highest state-sector intake.

And then the pandemic stopped us in our tracks.

A socially distanced tutorial

Mansfield Access goes digital Sara Harb, Mansfield’s Kathleen Russ Access Officer, reflects on the challenges faced by our Access and Outreach team this year, and the ways in which they have adapted and moved the College’s groundbreaking access work online.

Within a few days of Boris Johnson’s announcement of restrictions we had to arrange for students to be looked after in College during lockdown, or get them back to family homes. Oxford has a reputation for being slow to process change, but under lockdown, exams were swiftly cancelled or postponed, assessments were transformed or moved online.

And we began Trinity term with ‘remote’ teaching. Our tutors worked extraordinarily hard, balancing family commitments at home, and supporting students through the adjustment to tutorials and exams online. Funding earmarked for awards to students travelling abroad for academic research and internships, was used instead to help finalists who had no desk at home, or needed books because they couldn’t get to the library, or sound-cancelling headphones to cut out the noise of family while they were sitting exams.

This year started like most others, with our team making lots of trips to schools and colleges across the country, and hosting visits to Mansfield.

‘ Our tutors worked extraordinarily hard, balancing family commitments at home, and supporting students through the adjustment to tutorials and exams online. ’

But when the exam results were published, 29 of our undergraduates got firsts – one more than last year! Many of our subjects had two or more firsts. We set internal College assessments for first years to replace most of the Prelims examinations, and awarded over 30 scholarships and exhibitions.

The Norrington Table will not be published until the new year, but in our current situation, frankly, we have more important concerns.

In this annual report I usually focus on celebrating success. I seldom mention those students who struggle with exams, and who, through ill health or other circumstances, take their finals knowing they are not going to do themselves justice. There were many of those students in 2019/20, and some, sadly, who suffered family illness and bereavement during the pandemic. I was really impressed by the resilience of our students, who completed their exams under these uniquely tough conditions.

Where do I stop? As I write, we are making it through Michaelmas term 2020. If you were a student, you can imagine how you’d feel if told you couldn’t drop in and see a friend in another household or another college, or sit where you like at lunch, or use the kitchens – but we are looking after each other, and doing our best. And I feel very lucky; if there has to be a crisis, I am glad to be in a crisis at Mansfield, working with such brilliant and humane colleagues.

And then it was the middle of August. The Government changed its mind about A-level grading three times within a week, and Mansfield ended up with 15% more candidates meeting their offers than expected, including students who met their grades after we had filled all our spaces. Unlucky candidates, and others, were frustrated that we couldn’t fit everyone in this year. We also had to work out how to teach first-year groups, which in some subjects were nearly double their usual size, and to manage College spaces safely so that students could all be accommodated.

To end on a positive note: I have greatly enjoyed the opportunity that ‘remote’ meeting has given us to hold careers events and social events, bringing together alumni and current students and tutors, who usually seldom get the chance to meet up. The pandemic has closed a lot of doors, but the virtual ones it has opened are a treat.

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Early intervention is important for raising aspirations, and with continued engagement throughout a young person’s school and college career, can greatly enhance confidence and attainment. A highlight of 2019/20 was the work we did with primary school groups. In January 2020, we visited one of our link primary schools in Doncaster to talk to year 5s and 6s about university. We were extremely impressed with their knowledge and their enthusiasm for asking questions.

Towards the end of February, year 5-8s from the Croydon Children’s University came to visit Mansfield. The group met some of our amazing student helpers, and spent the afternoon thinking about big questions such as ‘is a robot a person?’

– which led to a very passionate debate.

Our final visit before lockdown was from a group of year 4 and 5 pupils who were part of The Brilliant Club. They were fascinated by the architecture and by all the exciting things university has to offer, including the free lunch of chicken nuggets and chips – made especially for them by our very kind kitchen staff.

Helpers at the Virtual Open Day

‘ …we adapted well and continued to support our link schools and colleges through these difficult circumstances.’

Ordinarily over the Easter vacation and Trinity term, we would have been visiting schools and colleges in our link regions, to talk about applying to and studying at Oxford. Naturally, we had to cancel all of our events in March.

Although this initially posed a challenge, as our outreach work relies heavily on face-to-face interaction, we adapted well and continued to support our link schools and colleges through these difficult circumstances.

In April, we started a series of articles, linked by the theme of isolation, entitled the Mansfield Isolation Conversation (www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk/ isolationconversation). The aim of the series was to give students an introduction

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to the subjects we teach at Mansfield, and our wonderful tutors. We began with our Senior Tutor’s article on medieval anchoresses, and were soon adding new voices to the conversation multiple times a week. In total we now have 17 fantastic articles ranging from Isolation and Revelation (Oriental Studies), socialising qubits in quantum computing (Materials Science), magnetic properties of isolated atoms (Physics) and Medieval Responses to Contagion (History), an extract from which can be found on page 21. The series has become a great online resource that we can point students to, encouraging them to explore their subject beyond the curriculum in a free and accessible way.

Access Report 2020

Medieval lockdowns Helping to place 2020 in context, Dr Helen Lacey, Supernumerary Fellow in History, reflects on medieval responses to ‘contagion’.

Having had to cancel all our school events during lockdown, we instead organised and hosted virtual school visits via Microsoft Teams and Zoom. We delivered over 30 sessions during the initial lockdown period on the application process and personal statements for year 12, as well as more general sessions about university and Oxford for some of the younger pupils.

Our fabulous student ambassadors have continued to support these events by joining the meetings to take part in a Q&A section.

Although it is not the same as being able to show off all the wonderful things about Mansfield in person (especially our lunches!), we have found that this new way of working has allowed us better to connect with schools and colleges that may have been reluctant to travel all the way down to Oxford, such as those in our link areas of Hull and East Riding. It has also been very important for us to continue offering as much support as we can to our schools and colleges during these uncertain times.

The College Open Days are usually a major event in the outreach calendar, giving prospective students a chance to get a

feel for Mansfield by meeting our current students, taking a tour of the College and asking questions about the application process and life at Mansfield. In May it was announced that the University would

‘ While

it has been a difficult year overall for outreach, the restrictions encouraged us to find new and interesting ways to engage with young people across the country and around the world.’

be holding Virtual Open Days for the first time at the beginning of July, and from that point it was a race to try and put together material that could capture the spirit, energy and ethos of Mansfield for a prospective applicant.

We recorded and edited 21 videos, including ‘Ten things you should know about Mansfield’ (did you realise that the Eleanor Roosevelt statue is one of only two statues of women in Oxford?), a 360° tour of the College, and three demonstration interviews. On the day, we had hundreds of visitors to the page and 11 helpers (nine of them pictured on page 19) on hand to answer questions via the chat function. Although we could not provide doughnuts and ice creams for the student helpers as usual, we did have a Teams call running in the background to keep each other entertained. Our JCR Access Officer, Fran Rigby, even created some Mansfield-themed ‘TikToks’ – though we are not sure how many prospective applicants these convinced!

While it has been a difficult year overall for outreach, the restrictions encouraged us to find new and interesting ways to engage with young people across the country and around the world. The coming year will doubtless bring more challenges, but we shall continue to provide as much support as possible, in as many different ways as we can think of, to anyone who is considering studying at university.

In the years 1348-50, the Black Death decimated the medieval population: almost half the inhabitants of England are estimated to have died. Nor was this the end of the threat; successive outbreaks of plague in the following decades kept the population level low.

People responded to the challenge of protecting themselves from the ‘miasmas’ of disease in a variety of different ways. Some measures seem alien to us – flagellation to atone for God’s punishment, for instance, or vomiting daily from an empty stomach – but others sound strikingly familiar.

In Italy (one of the areas hardest hit by plague) cities like Milan set up ‘exclusion zones’ and built plague hospitals for victims outside the city walls, although the constructions were sometimes beset by delays. Limitations on travel were also put in place. In Pistoia, civic authorities issued ordinances to regulate people’s behaviour and prevent the spread of infection, as A Chiappelli charts in his 1887 edition of Archivio Storico Italiano. Interestingly, these ordinances were amended over time, in response to changing conditions: [2 May, 1348] So that the sickness which is now threatening the region around Pistoia shall be prevented from taking hold … no citizen or resident of Pistoia, wherever they are from or of what condition, status or standing they may be, shall dare or presume to go to Pisa or Lucca; and no one shall come to Pistoia from those places; penalty 500 pence…

Lucinda Rumsey speaking to the Croydon Children’s University group

No crier, summoner or drummer of Pistoia shall dare or presume to invite or summon any citizen of Pistoia, whether publicly or privately, to come to a funeral…

York Application Conference

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So that the living are not made ill by rotten and corrupt food, no butcher or retailer

or the statements of four men testifying to the common belief.

[Revisions of 23 May] Chapter 1 to be entirely revoked…

[Revisions of 4 June] At the burial of anyone no bell is to be rung at all, but people are to be summoned and their prayers invited only by word of mouth. © Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford

South London Application Conference

‘ In Durham, residents were threatened with steep fines by the borough courts if they received visitors from infected areas.’ of meat shall dare or presume to hang up meat, or keep and sell meat hung up in their storehouse or over their counter; penalty 10d…

For the better preservation of health, there should be a ban on all kinds of poultry, calves, foodstuffs and on all kinds of fat being taken out of Pistoia by anybody… … anyone can denounce an offender before the podestà or capitano, and receive a quarter of the fine if the accusation is upheld; the word of one man worthy of belief is to be sufficient evidence of guilt,

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In England too, we see measures designed to limit the spread of disease. In Durham, residents were threatened with steep fines by the borough courts if they received visitors from infected areas. In Hereford the decision was taken to hold markets outside the city walls. Newcomers were suspected of transmitting infection and some civic authorities ordered patrols to ‘search within their several boroughs for all new comers and such as may prove infectious persons whereby the city may be in danger of infection by the plague or any other noisome disease’ (Rochester, 1467). The names of any suspects were to be reported immediately to the mayor and aldermen so that the necessary steps could be taken for their expulsion.

By 1518, Cardinal Wolsey had introduced quarantine measures in response to an outbreak of plague in London. Medieval medical understanding may have differed from our own, but the authorities of the period certainly recognised the need for restrictions on movement.

This article has been adapted from a piece written for Mansfield’s online ‘Isolation Conversations’ series, which saw Mansfield Fellows write articles on the theme of isolation from the perspective of their own disciplines.

How can mathematical modelling help in the coronavirus pandemic?

Covid-19 has directed an intense spotlight on to scientific research, instigating a call to arms for scientists from a wide range of disciplines.

Mansfield’s Ian Griffiths, a Professor of Industrial Mathematics at Oxford’s Mathematical Institute, reveals one distinctive avenue of research.

When we think of the kind of scientists that are working on the pandemic challenge, the people who usually spring to mind are bioscientists toiling away in a lab to develop a vaccine, or statisticians analysing data to understand how to mitigate the spread of the disease. However, in addition to these vital research endeavours there’s a host of other scientific disciplines all working in very different ways in an effort to gain understanding into how we can overcome the virus together.

In another project, we have been looking at the behaviour of the non-woven material used for face masks. When someone breathes in while wearing a face mask, the filter material becomes compressed, which hinders the air passing through and so makes breathing more difficult. This poses an interesting design question: how should we manufacture the face mask filter such that, when the material becomes compressed, we are still able to breathe comfortably? Here we have an example of an inverse problem: we know the required output – a filter that has enough air space for us to breathe through – and we wish to know how to manufacture the mask in a factory to achieve this requirement. Again, our mathematical models provide the answers by allowing us to perform ‘mathematical experiments’, which enable us to ‘reverse’ the manufacturing process, going from the final product back to its construction.

A significant proportion of the research that I conduct in my Industrial Mathematics group is centred on the development of mathematical models that describe filtration processes. This could be anything from the cleaning of air by a household air-purifier, to an industrial-scale filter that removes sulphur dioxide from cooling towers in a power plant by converting it into sulphuric acid via a catalytic reaction. The mathematical models we derive have the effect of reducing, or in some cases even eliminating entirely, the need for costly and time-consuming experiments.

Music at Mansfield John Oxlade Director of Music (October 2006-July 2020) In July 2020, after many years of loyal service, John Oxlade stepped down as Director of Music at Mansfield. In this article, John reflects on his final year at College.

In Michaelmas term 2019, we welcomed some very talented new instrumentalists to Mansfield – Samuel Spencer (clarinet and piano), Flora Walker (clarinet), Leila Hua (flute) and Nathan Walemba (piano). Our choir was also replenished by gifted new members – Emily Broughton, Vincent Elvin, Amélie Henle, Haley Howard, Joanna Korey, Anna Obernoster, Henry Olree, Victoria Roskams and Flora Walker.

The Michaelmas concert featured Yuan Wang in Shostakovich’s second piano concerto and choral items by Fauré, Karl Jenkins and Mozart, with solo contributions

by Samuel Spencer (piano), Joschua SpiedelJohnson (cello), Nick Watt (viola), Joshua Gei (violin), Jeremy Beard (oboe) and Leila Hua (flute). Our Sunday recitals included an extensive repertoire, from Elizabethan madrigals to a first performance of music composed by Professor Stephen Blundell played by Nathan Bentley (saxophone) and accompanied by the composer, and repeated in the delightful lecture-recital

by Errollyn Wallen on the last Friday of Michaelmas term.

Throughout the year, the choir embraced its customary wide range of music and styles in concerts and during the Wednesday evening service, as well as singing at the University Sermon on 3 November 2019. The carol service was a particular highlight and the singing of the congregation in a packed Chapel resounded wonderfully with the more exuberant hymns and more gently with ‘Silent Night’. There were also memorable solos from Jeremy Beard and George Klaeren, and beautiful readings from Daniel Scotson, Dr Tony Lemon, Greg Jennings (IT Manager) and Tess McCormick (Development Director).

Our Hilary term concert – the last public musical event held at Mansfield before the national lockdown – included Welsh music (for St David’s Day) by Welsh female composer Morfydd Owen, and orchestral works by Vaughan Williams (‘Rhosymedre’), along with a symphony by Johann Christian Bach; George Klaeren was soloist in the aria ‘Es ist vollbracht’ from J S Bach’s Cantata 159, and the choir sang the choral finale of Elgar’s oratorio The Light of Life. A rare cantata by Johann Christian Bach Domine ad adiuvandum, sung by the choir and accompanied by the College’s instrumental

In our group we are always looking to help industries overcome challenges by using our mathematical modelling toolkit. If you would like to learn more about our work, please visit our website: https://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/griffit4/.

One project that we have been working on recently is in collaboration with start-up company Smart Separations. Its newest product, Gino, is a portable home air purifier capable of removing coronavirus from the air by neutralising it, using a biocide-coated surface (https://smartseparations.com/gino/).

When designing these air purifiers, one of the first questions that Smart Separations faces is how to position the filters within the air purifier. This involves a delicate balance between the need to maximise purification efficiency, by packing in as much filter material as possible, and minimising the energy required to run the air purifier, which necessitates enough space in the device for the air to pass through easily. The problem can be distilled into an optimisation question, to which our mathematical models have provided the answer.

Professor Ian Griffiths joined Mansfield as Tutorial Fellow in Industrial Mathematics in 2019. His interests lie in a broad range of fluid dynamical challenges, from water purification strategies to the manufacture of glass for computer tablet screens. His approach is to use a blend of modelling, asymptotic, and numerical techniques to enable predictions to be made for the behaviour of such physical systems, and in particular, to give insight into their optimal operating strategies.

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ensemble, made a most accomplished and affirmative conclusion to the programme.

Our final service included music by Orlando Gibbons, Edward Bairstow and J S Bach – all immaculately performed by our superb choir. We say goodbye to leavers Jessica Williams, Liyang Han, George Klaeren, Jordan Jones, and Jeremy Beard: all long-standing, committed leaders of a wonderful team. We shall also miss the perfection of Jeremy’s oboe playing and his incredible musicianship. Special thanks also to George Manning and Patryk Imielski for their assistance with the Choir Library – part of a now very large and comprehensive College Music Library.

Our success over the years has been possible due to the exceptional talents and commitment of our students, and it has been the greatest privilege to work with them. However, none of our achievements would have been possible without the support of our faithful audiences including the Fellows, other students and friends of the College, and all those who helped behind the scenes – including the administrative staff, the catering department and the Porters’ Lodge – to all of whom I give my most grateful and enduring thanks.

Growing our own poems @Mansfield

Encore!

Ros Ballaster Professorial Fellow in English Literature

In July 2020 we said a very fond farewell to Mansfield Director of Music, John Oxlade. Here, Professorial Fellow in Physics and music enthusiast, Professor Stephen Blundell, reflects on the myriad ways in which John has enriched the musical life of the College over many years.

John Oxlade, who is stepping down as Mansfield’s Director of Music after 14 years of devoted service, has transformed the College’s musical life, leading the Chapel choir and organising numerous recitals.

John’s musical training started young, as a boy chorister at Southwark Cathedral, and though he read History as an Exhibitioner at Corpus Christi, Cambridge, he returned to the musical path with postgraduate diplomas at the Royal College of Music. A highly accomplished pianist, harpsichordist and organist, he has performed from a wide repertoire during his time at Mansfield, but perhaps his most important contribution has been in coaxing some dazzling performances out of the highly gifted student body.

Mansfield does not have any students reading Music, but many Mansfield students are extremely musical. John has been able to persuade soloists to come out of the woodwork and perform, or emerge as singers to join the choir. He has had an uncanny knack of extracting and nurturing latent talent. As students inevitably graduate, John has had to endure the annual loss of strong singers from

the choir. Nevertheless, each October he has welcomed new, less experienced voices to join and has slowly brought them up to standard; watching this growth of talent and confidence has been deeply encouraging and in John’s patient guidance we have seen a true teacher at work.

us and augment performances. However, for me, some of the most memorable recitals have been duets between a Mansfield student, perhaps playing oboe, clarinet, violin, viola or saxophone, and John, delivering a beautifully sensitive accompaniment on the piano.

Was it his historical training that made John’s programme notes such a treasure trove of interesting nuggets, and indeed influenced his programming? A 2010 performance of Rossini’s La Cambiale di Matrimonio was on the 200th anniversary, to the day, of the premiere of Rossini’s first opera, and there are countless examples of John’s brilliant sensitivity to anniversaries.

But equally impressive is the wide historical scope of his musical choices, with the choir’s repertoire ranging from Tudor music to works specially written for them, including premieres by students Josie Bearden and Dennis Christensen. Largescale works performed include Bach’s St John Passion, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Fauré’s Requiem, Bellini’s Gloria, Vivaldi’s Gloria, and Elgar’s Spirit of England.

With the creation of Choral Scholarships and the instituting of Instrumental Awards, the profile of music in Mansfield has remained on an upward trajectory. John has been there at the centre, quietly encouraging and guiding, contributing in a very special way to the spiritual life of the College, and adding something unique to a whole generation of Mansfield students. During services he has made the singing of the choir, the voluntaries and hymns all an integral part of the Chapel life, and they have always added to, and been sympathetic to, the spiritual purpose of the services.

John has also used his many contacts to bring in professional musicians to play for

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It is a measure of the affection in which he is held at Mansfield that John was made an Honorary Fellow in 2011, meaning of course that he is not really leaving us.

We wish him well in his future musical endeavours and hope to see John and Susie back in College – often!

Mansfield College is full of poetry: we talk about it in our tutorials, we read it in study bedrooms, we compose it on scraps of paper and beautiful lined notebooks. Never more so than this Michaelmas term 2020 when tutors and students (undergrads and postgrads) have had the opportunity to attend workshops led by poet Kate Clanchy.

Kate won the Forward Prize for her first collection, Slattern (1996), was shortlisted for the 2013 Costa Book Award for her first novel Meeting the English and won the 2020 Orwell Prize for Political Writing for Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me. She is much in demand as a tutor of creative writing and especially admired for the work she has done over decades nurturing young poets from disadvantaged and migrant backgrounds in state schools (and in particular Oxford Spires Academy).

Most recently she edited an anthology Unmute: Young Voices from Lockdown (2020) and a handbook How to Grow Your Own Poem (2020) for aspirant bards.

So how lucky we are to have Kate work with us for an hour each Saturday afternoon: first under socially-distanced arrangements in person in College and then online.

Not so different from yoga it turns out. We start with a ‘warm-up’: each submitting a line speaking to a prompt from Kate and putting together a ‘group poem’. And then we have to work (with increasing concentration and attention) on our own poems taking our cues from an example

provided by Kate. We’ve worked on ‘praise’ poems (for individuals), poems about ‘what we miss’, poems about the lasting memories of stories from our childhood, ‘list’ poems.

As we sit wrestling with words whether on screen or on paper, Kate’s voice talks us through the process, encourages us to focus on specific images and memories and make them concrete in language, guiding us to move on to the next phrase or phase, warning us to back away from the general and the specious. We are/I am amazed that I can indeed produce a poem – I can even experiment with rhyme schemes and meter – in 20 minutes.

We read our poems – or not if we aren’t happy with them or we are just unhappy.

Some prefer to keep themselves hidden, some read their poems from the screen in close up and we can trace the lines in their eye-movements, there are pairs and groups of three sharing one screen and their creative processes at once. It’s a mix of staff and students. I’ve learned that

‘ So how lucky we are to have Kate work with us for an hour each Saturday afternoon: first under socially-distanced arrangements in person in College and then online. ’

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our Principal Helen Mountfield needs to have a pen between her teeth when she composes. I’ve got to know every feature of the faces and tone of voice of students I have never and will never teach.

We’re learning too to deliver our poems as readers, to make them part of our speaking voices. First poem first reading and you are shaky and nervous, the poem very raw and close to your immediate feelings. A few meetings on and it has somehow become part of a shared past, part of our writing identity, something that belongs more to the group and to the world of poetry we are all so curious to be part of as morethan-readers.

Kate tweets some of the poems she helps to grow with the authors’ permission. @KateClanchy1 tweets a poem by Brennig Davies, a third-year student. It’s called ‘What I Miss When I’m Away’ and it made us all cry. It goes viral, being viewed 400,000 times. There is so much love for, and in, this hymn to home.

We will meet again next term and carry on growing our poems and growing ways of relating to each other in the Mansfield community through poetry. In the meantime, and with her permission, a poem by Chantale, one of our number(s) has written the poem on the next page.

For me, it captures the unusualness of the experience of a term of social distance at University and the absolute usualness of learning to be a student at Oxford.

JCR President’s Report Beth Gilmour (Jurisprudence, 2018)

How to cope at Uni You could watch the sunset reflected on the post-it notes pinned to the walls, and go to sleep at a reasonable hour. Or not; stay up instead, join conversations with the lights off, confessionals with fairy-lights draped over your shoulders. Then go out, and hear your heels clatter on old uneven pavements, keeping balance then losing it on stable ground, be caught when you fall and hold on when you’re fine again and notice the moonlight on a clock tower, learn that night is not dark, it’s blue, it’s silver, it’s a rosy gold leaking from streetlamps. And sense the mist rising around you, ghostly boats floating in the fog on a canal, and let it remind you of home, the damp, grey country air.

You might elude the sunrise, or catch its last remnants. You could count up everything you missed, or learn to be content all the same.

Chantale Davies (English, 2020)

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I have been very fortunate to have my second year at Mansfield shaped by my role as JCR President. This has been an exceptional privilege, despite the extraordinary circumstances which have tested my mettle, and that of the entire College.

It is clear that the past academic year has been split into two remarkably different experiences: pre- and post-lockdown.

The early half of 2019/20 saw Mansfield establish itself yet again as a small but mighty force. There were several outstanding achievements by our JCR members, which when listed here sound like nothing short of bragging. We are home to novice rowers, trained at MCBC, who won places in the Blues Boat; both our male and female football teams made it to Cuppers semi-finals; and we can also boast the founding committee of Oxford’s first and only Feminist Society, the presidents of University-level societies such as Oxford Women in Law, and the winners of esteemed prizes such as Eisteddfod Crown and the Green IS Environmental Film Award.

But alongside the rest of the UK, in March 2020 we all had to adapt to a new lifestyle under lockdown. The JCR Bench was quick to react and moved much of life at Mansfield on to virtual formats; it was overwhelming to see how well our community thrived despite these circumstances.

One of the greatest challenges was to ensure people stayed connected. Our dedicated Bench members posted daily Facebook threads and competitions, where JCR students could describe their experiences of lockdown. This alternative version of Cuppers was a real pick-me-up and let everyone know that Mansfield was there for all its students – even after we had left the building. When term resumed, weekly events were held to provide some normality. In true Oxford style, Sunday evening quizzes became highly competitive.

Every Wednesday afternoon, an hour was set aside for a virtual welfare tea when College members could log on to Zoom and speak with one another. Online peersupport sessions were also held each week, run by students on the Welfare Bench.

We pride ourselves on our diverse community. With students from across the world among our number, timing and format of events had to be considered to ensure they were inclusive. I hope the way we banded together as a family throughout this time will remain a source of comfort and pride for students, academics, and staff.

As well as changing our social life, we also had to modify how we learned. Everyone played a part to make the transition to remote learning and virtual exams as smooth as possible. Communication between the Bench and our Principal, Senior Tutor and Librarians, was the key to assuring students that they could continue their studies. We especially empathise with our finalists, whose time with us was cut short.

The JCR Bench is making it a priority to enable our recent graduates to return and be celebrated once restrictions are lifted.

While we worked through the University’s first ever virtual term, the shortcomings of Britain, and Oxford, regarding historical and systemic racism were played out in the media. Mansfield JCR accepts this reality and is seeking to tackle our internal inadequacies. A public statement was drafted and released by Mustaqim Mohammad Iqbal (our BME Officer), Sean Sinanan (future President of Oxford’s Afro-Caribbean Society) and myself to dedicate efforts to be actively anti-racist and inclusive at Mansfield. We have passed motions to fundraise and donate to two worthy charities, the Amos Bursary and Stopwatch; the Bench is assisting our Principal in establishing an Equality Library; and we are allocating resources to allow JCR members to attend the

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‘ Everyone played a part to make the transition to remote learning and virtual exams as smooth as possible.’

‘Uncomfortable Oxford’ tour and learn about our University’s colonial past.

Every time I write a speech or address in my capacity as JCR President, the first draft is, understandably, a love letter to this wonderful College. However, admitting our flaws and lifting rose-tinted glasses is something we all must do. With the support of our Principal and Governing Body, our JCR will strive to turn these words into concrete actions.

MCR President’s Report John Wilkinson (DPhil Condensed Matter Physics, 2018)

I can’t quite believe it as I write this, but a whole year has passed since I became MCR President. And what a year it has been! Mansfield’s graduate community is now over 200 strong, and continues to welcome students from across the world, from a multitude of backgrounds, studying a plethora of different subjects.

In Michaelmas term 2019, we were joined by 80 new MCR members, and the Bench organised a range of introductory events, including welcome drinks, a bar exchange with Worcester College, and a dinner with ‘College parents’ (current MCR members who kindly volunteered their time to help the new intake settle in). Although the typical Oxford weather prevented us going on a punting excursion, freshers’ week was a roaring success and really helped our new members settle into life at Mansfield.

Our social activities continued throughout the year and proved to be popular, organised by Philip Sivyer (Philosophical Theology), Clay Graubard (International Relations) and Liam Parker (Engineering Science). We arranged exchange dinners with many colleges (including Merton, Keble, St Peter’s and St John’s), wine and cheese exchanges with Queen’s and Linacre, movie nights, pancake nights and much more. These events enabled us to take a much-needed break from studying (and reminded us just how good the food is at Mansfield).

‘ I have very much enjoyed the opportunity to be MCR President this year, and I am proud of all that we have achieved together. ’

MCBC Report

We were keen to involve the SCR in our events too, which we achieved through the Michael Mahony seminars. Lottie Moore (Theology) started off this series in Michaelmas by helping us to find the meaning of the world according to Albert Camus. Lucinda Rumsey, Senior Tutor, and Professor Ian Griffiths, gave a joint seminar in Hilary term, introducing the graduates to Mansfield’s successful outreach programme by informing us about fluid dynamics and initiating us into the world of Anglo-Saxon riddles.

Finally, in Trinity term we took the seminar series online, where we organised an internet-themed session: Colin Williams (History) gave a talk about the origins of the internet, and Professor Helen Margetts FBA OBE, Mansfield Fellow in Society and the Internet, spoke about keeping humans in the loop as the internet gets increasingly involved in our lives. These talks were a highlight of the MCR’s term and were very well received by both MCR and SCR members.

One of the primary objectives of the MCR is to represent Mansfield’s graduate students to the College and the wider University.

In order to do this successfully, we have BME, LGBTQ+ Bench positions, Disabilities and Women’s representatives, headed by an Equalities Officer. We were delighted to have all of these positions filled by MCR members, who were very active in ensuring that the MCR continues to be a safe space, where everybody feels welcome.

In particular, our Women’s Officer Dorina Heller (Women’s Studies) organised many activities throughout the year, including ‘W(h)ining Women’, and a brunch for International Women’s Day. Both occasions were hosted in conjunction with the JCR, and the MCR provided generous assistance with the funding. These events were very well attended by the graduate community, who accounted for around one quarter of all participants.

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Daniel Guest (Mathematics, 2017) Triumphing over tribulations, Mansfield College Boat Club (MCBC) not only survived widespread flooding and a worldwide pandemic in 2019/20, but also bolstered its success and camaraderie both on and off the water. It remains one of Mansfield’s strongest sports societies.

As university can often be very tough on the mental health of graduates, our Welfare Officer, Daria Jensen (Psychiatry), also hosted many activities throughout the year. In particular, the bi-termly welfare brunches have been a major attraction, with several members dropping by for a chat and to enjoy a moment of relief from the demands of academic life. A mindfulness event was also put on through Ripple (a start-up providing student-run guided meditation sessions), in conjunction with College. This proved to be very successful among MCR members, with the MCR and College providing full funding for participants. Yoga and Pilates, organised by the College, were also popular within the graduate community.

I have very much enjoyed the opportunity to be MCR President this year, and I am proud of all that we have achieved together. The MCR has brilliantly embodied the Mansfield culture of being open, inclusive and welcoming, and I am sure it will continue to do so in the future.

As Michaelmas term 2019 commenced, a group of enthusiastic returners placed MCBC in one of its best starting positions of recent years. Successful recruitment from the JCR and MCR reinforced this position, with five crews of keen novices ready to take to the water in preparation for Christchurch Regatta. The new recruits displayed impressive fitness during ergometer (‘erg’) tests, further increasing our confidence. Unfortunately, however, the regatta was not to be, as the heavens opened and torrential rain brought about the worst conditions of any Michaelmas since records began.

With the river closed for much of the term, the decision was made to cancel the novice regatta, and instead several indoor ‘ergattas’ took place. Four of our

‘ Only in late summer 2020 did we begin to see crews return to the water, albeit with the strict distancing rules that have become the new norm for us all.’

novice men decided to test their abilities.

Despite an incredible effort, clocking the second farthest distance of the day in the 4x90-second relay, our athletes faced the eventual victors early in the draw and were narrowly beaten, so could not progress to the later stages. Our newest members nevertheless gave an exceptional performance, doing the club proud and demonstrating strong potential for the coming bumps season.

The relentless rain of Michaelmas temporarily subsided over the Christmas vacation, allowing the river levels to drop sufficiently for a winter training camp to take place. We seized this opportunity to make up for a term of missed outings, with over 30 members of the team returning to Oxford prior to the start of Hilary.

Special thanks must go to MCBC alumnus Antonio Bonchristiano (PPE, 1984) for his hugely generous contributions to Mansfield sports this year, including rowing. His encouragement allowed several of us sports reps and College Fellows to create a new strategic ‘Sports Plan’, which aims to improve access and boost performance. The scheme enabled the club to cover all accommodation costs for our winter training camp. We made significant progress on the water during the camp, but just when crews were starting to come together the rain returned and we were once again confined to land training for the majority of Hilary term.

Despite the disheartening weather, Hilary was not without success – Mansfield students Martha Birtles (English, 2018), Caspar Jopling (MBA, 2019), and Dan Holod (MBA, 2018) were all selected to

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represent Oxford in the 2020 Boat Races.

Martha’s achievements are particularly impressive, as she only learnt to row with MCBC last year. Although our women’s side faced further difficulties including a change of captaincy, they were able to persevere through weekly tank sessions, circuit training and ergs. This places them in a strong position for the coming year.

We also welcomed back several alumni for our first Torpids Dinner which, despite the lack of Torpids, was a fantastic evening featuring a relaxed atmosphere and some rousing speeches from the captains. This occasion, attracting old friends and new teammates, also proved to be a fitting close to the year as, unbeknownst to us, we would not be returning to Mansfield for some time. As Hilary came to an end the Covid-19 pandemic reached the UK, stopping all sports and dashing our hopes of racing for the remainder of the year.

Only in late summer 2020 did we begin to see crews return to the water, albeit with the strict distancing rules that have become the new norm for us all.

Despite the threat of future restrictions we are optimistic about the coming year. Our numbers remain strong, with many new second years keen to return to Longbridges Boat House. Sadly, we have had to say goodbye to some MCBC veterans, but our new committee is already busy planning a return to the water. This speaks to the fact that, as much as we are a rowing club, it is the friendly and diverse community of athletes, coaches and alumni at the core of MCBC that attracts new students every year and brings back old members long after they graduate.

Student news 1

Alejandro Biondi Rodriguez MSc Evidence Based Social Intervention & Policy Evaluation, 2020

As Social Protection project coordinator at CIPPEC (Centre for the Implementation of Public Policies Promoting Equity and Growth), a major non-partisan think-tank in Argentina, Alejandro has co-authored El Género del Trabajo (The Gender of Work). This is the first book dedicated to gender economic equality in Argentina, from a human rights approach. The book came out in late 2019 in Spanish and an English Executive Summary was published in 2020. Both are freely available for download online.

In Alejandro’s role as researcher in Southern Voice’s flagship State of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) initiative he has co-authored a Global Report on the state of 2030 Agenda implementation around the world. Southern Voice is an international platform for think-tanks, disseminating policy analysis by researchers from Global South countries. The Report is closely aligned with research carried out at Mansfield, especially because of its focus on the international human rights and development agendas. The digital edition is freely available for download online, in English, Spanish and French.

Alejandro is one of Mansfield’s first cohort of Kofi Annan Scholars – find out more about the Kofi Annan graduate scholarships on page 14.

exhibition, curated by Giulia Morale and Sterre Barentsen, and shown alongside the work of nine other international artists.

This exhibition aimed to activate memories that live within lost archives and the personal stories of voices that have been historically marginalised.

Granny’s Bones, the ‘Pheasant’ and ‘Reindeer’ (currently residing in the foyer of the main building at Mansfield), and accompanying virtual reality film, was the winner of the inaugural (graduate) Mansfield-Ruddock Prize for Art in 2019.

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In 2020 Eve was appointed President of the Oxford First-Gen Society.

‘As President, I’m helping to grow a small yet supportive community that has real impact on the experiences of our students.

First-Gen aims to support those who are the first in their family to go to university, through academic, social, and career-based events. We also work with the University and other organisations on widening participation projects. Twenty-five per cent of students admitted to our College this year are the first in their family to access higher education. I couldn’t be more proud of Mansfield and all the hard work that has helped make this happen.’

Anya Gleizer DPhil Geography & the Environment, 2020

In November 2020 Anya’s artwork, Granny’s Bones, was recreated for the Moscow Biennale. It was displayed within the Personal Places//Archival Spaces

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Mohini Gupta DPhil Oriental Studies, 2020

Mohini was recently featured in India’s leading newspaper, The Indian Express, for her initiative in languages and translation.

She started a multilingual digital collective ‘Mother Tongue Twisters’ during the UK’s first lockdown in March. It attracted thousands of followers from around the world, and was featured in publications such as The Economic Times, Business Standard, Firstpost, The Telegraph (India) and the Columbia Journal.

Mohini’s digital talk series under this initiative, ‘Translation Thursdays’, has hosted writers and translators such as Jerry Pinto, Rita Kothari, Arshia Sattar, Roz Schwartz, Maureen Freely and Arunava Sinha, covering over 20 languages from India and around the world. She has always been passionate about languages, literature, and translation. Her DPhil research is centred on language politics in India and tropes of nationalism in the country.

Early in 2020, Sarah won first prize at the Girls Impact the World Film Festival for her documentary Passoon: Girls Championing Sustainability.

In Pashto, ‘Passoon’ (‫ )نوساپ‬means ‘to rise up for a cause’. Sarah’s short film profiles a young climate activist, Manal Shad, in Dir, Pakistan. The film also celebrates the leadership of young, Pakistani women, as well as documenting indigenous and innovative sustainability methods from Pakistan.

The Girls Impact the World Film Festival welcomes original short films focused on critical women’s issues such as girls’ education, ending violence against women, poverty and economic independence and more. It aims to amplify youth voices to highlight critical issues that women and girls face around the world.

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The judging panel included Nobel Laureate, Muhammad Yunus, the philanthropist and supermodel Christy Turlington Burns, as well as screenwriter, Richard Curtis.

Sarah won The Green IS Environmental Film Award, which recognises a short film that shines a light on an environmental issue that impacts women and girls globally – and considers solutions.

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Sean Sinanan PPE, 2019

This year Sean was elected President of the Oxford African and Caribbean Society (ACS).

The Society’s mission is to empower its members, enhance their Oxford experience and ensure younger students from African and Caribbean communities feel inspired and motivated to aim high and one day study at Oxford.

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‘If it wasn’t for the Oxford ACS, I wouldn’t have got into Oxford. Having been a recipient of the Oxford ACS Access and Outreach schemes since Year 12, I was in awe of how students from similar cultural backgrounds to myself not only prosper at Oxford but also devote their time to inspiring students from our communities to aim high and apply for Oxford. The reason why the Oxford ACS is so special is because even in an exclusive place like Oxford, you can always be yourself and celebrate your cultural identity. Being President means I now have the amazing opportunity to give back to prospective and current students of African and Caribbean descent, forever ensuring that the Oxford ACS is a safe, inclusive environment – a home away from home – in [what sometimes is] a daunting university. The Oxford ACS is more than a society, it’s a community which makes Oxford more vibrant, lively, and welcoming – and as President I hope to further grow the society whilst always keeping to these fundamental aims.’

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You can read the article here: https://indianexpress.com/article/books-and-literature/ mohini-gupta-conversations-6838662/ 7

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Eve McCarten Jurisprudence, 2019

work to researchers and academics within the Department of Engineering Science, as well as to alumni of the University, and representatives from industry.

Sarah Khan Theology, 2017

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Henry Williams Engineering Science, 2016

This year, Henry was awarded ‘Highly Commendable’ in the Chemical category of the 2020 Oxford Engineering Science FourthYear Project Exhibition & Competition.

The competition offers fourth-year students at Oxford the opportunity to showcase their

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Mustaqim Iqbal & Yan Shen Tan Jurisprudence, 2018

In February, two of Mansfield’s secondyear lawyers were part of the fourmember University of Oxford team that won the first Northern European rounds of the Price Media Law Moot Court competition in Paris. The Oxford team also scooped the prize for Best Memorials.

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University of Oxford team.

Photo courtesy of Mustaqim Iqbal.

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The Food Journey Central to our culture, our history and our well-being, food can provide a multidisciplinary, as well as a multisensory approach to understanding the world. Georgina Morris (Geography, 2018) and Rachael Chan (Geography, 2018) embarked on a unique alimentary voyage.

On 28 February 2020, Mansfield’s undergraduate geographers filed, with much anticipation, into a small seminar room at the Geography department which was draped in African wax prints and multicoloured chiffon. We were handed a blindfold and received a squeeze of lemon with which we were instructed to cleanse our hands and palates. ‘For the sweetness of the journey…’, we were told while we sucked the lemon. An appetising, spiced fragrance welcomed us as we were seated on chairs arranged back-to-back, in a semi-circle. The room was hushed. With little further explanation, the ‘Food Journey’ began.

The Food Journey is an immersive, multisensory experience created by Mama D Ujuaje, founder of Community Centred Knowledge, and seeks to question

what food is and how it is experienced, disrupting its cultural history. Throughout the Journey, a powerful spoken-word performance accompanied by a prerecorded soundscape provided a shifting auditory dimension to a voyage through the history of food. With our hands open in our laps, food was placed regularly into our palms and, occasionally, offered into our mouths directly.

‘ Large metallic chains brushed against our legs and an angry man bellowed above sounds of ocean waves.’

Large metallic chains brushed against our legs and an angry man bellowed above sounds of ocean waves. We were travelling out of Africa towards the plantations of the Americas, where we mourned plantain that had been replaced by banana. We found ourselves part of this story, as Mama reflected on the trauma that humans inflicted on the land. In the last two minutes, the bland tastes of popcorn from a bag and juice from a carton were jarring and almost obscene when compared to the delicious jollof rice we savoured at the journey’s beginning. The sweetness was gone.

That afternoon, we were offered a rare chance to slow down and reflect on the ways we perceived food ontologically and epistemologically. The act of eating is universal, yet there is arguably an infinite diversity in what and how we eat that can be understood through historical material forces.

The geographical discipline lends itself well to understanding this. Geographers endeavour to anchor everyday experiences within a wider spatial geometry of historical, political, economic and environmental processes, and food is a common strand of academic discourse. The breadth and depth of the discipline is what makes it so enjoyable, engaging and relatable.

However, geography can also be challenging when we realise that we are not detached knowers and observers, but individuals entangled in these invisible networks. In Oxford, we see both overconsumption and undernutrition along the same street; one of the readings to prepare us for the Food Journey was by Julie Guthman and Melanie DuPuis, whose claim ‘the central contradictions of global capitalism are literally embodied’ is relevant.

The Food Journey allowed us to contemplate our position within this system, and it also created an opportunity

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for us to discuss how traditional ways of learning and academic research can be limited. Geographers can spend hours immersing themselves in texts that seek to represent the world we inhabit. The experiential nature of the Food Journey allowed us to be affected by the narrative, the tastes, the smells and the sounds.

aware of the liveliness and agency of food, and their interconnection with our own histories. This sensory rhapsody and Mama’s teaching-as-performance could hardly be replicated on a page. Through our participation, we recognised the importance of the decolonial project in thinking about how we acquire knowledge.

For me (Gina), as I reflect on this experience amid the current Black Lives Matter movement, I am reminded of the important, embodied feeling of discomfort.

The uncomfortable history of colonialism in which my city, ancestors, and the very whiteness of my own body have played a role, was paralleled by the discomfort felt as potatoes were shoved into our mouths, chains rattling around us on the slave ship. And for me (Rachael), I remembered stories my grandmother told of her great-great grandfather’s massive wealth as a spice plantation owner (later squandered on gambling and opium).

Through these encounters, we became

The experience of being blindfolded and fed food hand-to-hand, and in some cases hand-to-mouth, is unforgettable, powerful – and, with Covid restrictions, unlikely to be repeated for quite some time.

Today, we are all becoming accustomed to masks covering our mouths rather than our eyes, although both can feel disorientating. We are very grateful for being given this opportunity, which allowed us to feel challenged, immersed, surprised and at times uncomfortable (but with very satisfied stomachs). We look forward to the next time we can share a meal as a community in the College Chapel.

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Mansfield’s Visiting Student Programme, 2019/20 Helen Lacey, Director of the Visiting Student Programme (VSP) at Mansfield, outlines the progress made in the past year, including new ways of working and distance learning.

This year everyone was forced to confront a ‘new normal’ as the pandemic situation unfolded in Hilary term 2020.

Our visiting students had the added challenge of being overseas from their families and support networks. They all responded superbly, making arrangements to travel home and adapting to remote tutorials and online working.

Our visiting students did not let the upheaval stop them achieving academic excellence. Prizes were awarded to Kelli Powers (Boston College), Xinxian Wang (Washington and Lee University) and the overall prize went to Katherine Franco (Kenyon College).

Arrangements for the class of 2020/21 look a bit different, with new social-distancing protocols in place, but we are confident that the incoming students will adapt quickly and enjoy the new experience of life in Mansfield and Oxford. This year we have students joining us from: Barnard College, Boston College, Brown University, Case Western Reserve, College of the Holy Cross, Cornell University, DePauw University, Dickinson College, East China University of Science and Technology, Fudan University, Georgetown University, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Haverford College, Kenyon College, Nanjing University, Santa Clara University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Toronto, Washington and Lee University, Washington University in St Louis, Xiamen University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, and Yale-NUS College.

Despite our students needing to juggle time zones and work with online resources, Trinity term was a real success. Our sincere thanks go out to Jacob Kaufhold (Dickinson College), the VSP student representative, and to all the visiting students, for their dedication and resilience in the face of such uncertainty.

Jacob Kaufhold VSP Representative now had a global pandemic – and a quick departure – to handle. One by one the calls came to return home, and as Hilary term ended so too did our time in Oxford.

When I consider the uncertainty we find ourselves in today, I am comforted thinking about what this past year’s Visiting Student cohort has confronted and the challenges we rose to meet. We took a huge step, searching for a fulfilling and challenging experience as students abroad, leaving behind our friends and families at home. As we arrived one by one before Michaelmas term began – exchanging our stories and asking if anyone had perhaps known ‘a friend of ours at your school… Yes, we went to high school together!’ – we slowly began to form a community, shaped by our shared experience of undertaking this risk.

The bonds created by such an experience are unique. We journeyed not only to a new country and a new academic system, but across time, to the ancient and recent past, learning about the early Church fathers and current conflicts in the Middle East. We flew – and sometimes trudged – through the pages of the Brontë sisters, Foucault, and Sartre, cutting-edge research and ancient classics. New friends were found in the UK and from elsewhere as we mixed into the community, through sports,

societies, and the ever-popular formal dinners. Late nights were enjoyed in town or at College events, and many more were spent working, with coffee and tea breaks together to share a brief moment of rest.

Then it all came to a crashing halt, as what had first seemed like a small problem on the other side of the world grew progressively closer and closer: first across China, then Korea and Japan, before eventually reaching Europe and the United States. On top of everything else we were dealing with, we

The new admissions round for the 2021/22 academic year is soon to open and we look forward to another successful year.

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.

Dr Helen Lacey became Director of the Visiting Student Programme in Trinity term 2014. She is Supernumerary Fellow in Late Medieval History at Mansfield, and is CoInvestigator on a major project entitled The People of 1381 (www.1381.online).

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But Oxford came home with us as well, and Mansfield – there to support us in our physical and mental journey from the very beginning – did not turn us out. We were able to continue our work remotely with the full support of College and with the accommodation of wonderful tutors. I am particularly thankful for Mansfield’s reassuring presence and assistance at a time when many of our home institutions and governments were scrambling to deal with the pandemic.

This abrupt transition has sharpened my recollections of the wonderful times we had before the crisis began: of Christmas carols in the Sheldonian, the Mansfield Thanksgiving dinner, our ill-fated rowing season, and even in-person JCR meetings. These memories – of the strength and enjoyment we found with one another, in a challenging situation – give me hope for the future, and I am immeasurably grateful to Mansfield for helping us create them together.

Alumni Association Report

Alumni news

What a year!

Daniel Tarry (Geography, 2011), President of the Mansfield College Alumni Association, reflects on the Association’s activities during 2019/20.

We are always delighted to hear from members of our alumni community – whether it be career news, personal milestones or professional achievements. Here are just a few highlights from 2019/20.

We welcome news from our alumni. If you would like to share it with us, please contact alumni.officer@mansfield.ox.ac.uk

1 It goes without saying that 2020 is not a period in time we shall soon be forgetting. After a fantastic start to the Association’s year, with drinks receptions at the Counting House, London, and at the Banyan Bar & Kitchen, Manchester, the country moved into lockdown. All of a sudden, we found ourselves working from home, refining bakery skills, and taking up new hobbies.

Throughout this period, the Alumni Association continued to work to ensure that alumni were well supported by Mansfield, while College was also doing a superb job of helping students remotely.

The Committee and I express our thanks to all College staff who have supported the student body through this extraordinary time. The Development Office has provided us with a fantastic programme of virtual events, and I have particularly enjoyed being able to attend the Mansfield Public Talks series, and meeting many of you I would not normally encounter at in-person events.

In past years, the Association has made decisions on financial grants for students.

This is money that has come from College funds rather than from the Association or alumni. The Committee was asked to consider foregoing this privilege in order to allow College to distribute funds directly to students most in need. With data protection legislation, and College staff’s greater knowledge of the student body, this seemed a sensible request, and was supported by the Committee. We have continued to receive regular updates at our meetings on activities being undertaken

by students, and it was great to hear – through the annual Student of the Year nominations – of the help students have been giving each other throughout what has been the strangest of times.

I was delighted to be able to play my part in the Giving Day and Community Week activities by cycling 134 miles from my home to College and back to celebrate the 134th anniversary of the founding of Mansfield in 1886.

This year the Committee spent considerable time working with College to define the Association’s purpose, and to this end we updated our Constitution, with changes ratified at an EGM just before our AGM on 30 September. Particular thanks go to our Secretary Mike Walton (English, 1956) for preparing the drafts of the revised Constitution ahead of our various meetings throughout the year. Prior to 2020 the Committee met three times a year. This year, and in years to come, the Committee will meet more frequently to ensure it is able to provide relevant input to the Development Office team and become more active and productive. I hope in the coming months you will start to see the benefit of the changes made to the way the Committee operates.

As I said last year, the Mansfield College Alumni Association is your association, so if you would like to be involved in the Committee or its activities, helping to maintain and widen the alumni community and the Mansfield family, please get in touch via our new email address: MansfieldCollegeAlumniAssociation@ outlook.com.

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Mansfield College Alumni Association Committee President Daniel Tarry (Geography, 2011)

Revd Andrew McLuskey Theology, 1989

Andrew has been accepted by the University of Roehampton to study for a PhD. He will be drawing on the work he did at Mansfield for the certificate in Theology way back in 1990.

Andrew’s PhD will explore the so-called Anthropic Principle (a new version of the traditional design argument for the existence of God). In particular he will be looking at how far the Principle supports Panentheism.

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Dhruti has published her debut work, Bear Markets and Beyond: A bestiary of business terms (Portico, 2020).

In this new book Dhruti, and her fellow BBC journalist and co-author Dominic Bailey, guide readers through the confusing world of business jargon – from loan sharks to alligator spreads.

4 Secretary Mike Walton (English, 1956) College representative Lucinda Rumsey (Senior Tutor and Tutor for Admissions) Committee members Serena Arthur (English, 2016), Peter Bergamin (Oriental Studies, 2012), Shahenda Darwich (PPE, 2011), Adrian David (Mathematics, 2010), Lydia Felty (VSP, 2015), Adam Kelly (English, 2016), Miriam Kennet (MSc Environmental Change & Management, 1997), Rebecca Loxton (English, 2011), Lucy Mahoney (DPhil Geography & the Environment, 2009), Gerald Moule (MTh Applied Theology, 2004), Donald Norwood (Theology, 1959), Daniel Seiderer (MBA, 2007), Damola Shobowale (Jurisprudence, 2013), Bob Skelly (English, 1965)

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Colton Valentine MSt English, 2018

Colton won this year’s Leon Edel Prize with his dissertation: ‘Not noticing, infallibly: the critical liaisons of Henry James, French decadence, and Honoré de Balzac’. His essay was subsequently published in the spring 2020 issue of the Henry James Review.

‘The essay reads diachronically across Henry James’s critical writings to link his gradual sidelining of French decadence with his concurrent volteface on Honoré de Balzac. It argues that James’s later criticism creatively misreads Balzac as a pseudodecadent writer – a process I call “gilding”. I am so grateful for Professor Mendelssohn’s supervision, the support of the Ertegun Scholarship, and the Mansfield community for making the research possible, and so pleasurable, last year on the MSt.’

Dhruti Shah English, 2000

Hank Kopel PPE, 1980

Hank has signed a publication contract for a new book, War on Hate: How to Stop Genocide, Fight Terrorism, and Defend Freedom.

The book argues that monitoring, targeting, and disrupting outbreaks of mass, ideological hate incitement are a critical component of confronting and preventing both genocides and global terrorism.

Hank works as a criminal prosecutor with the US Justice Department in Connecticut, where he and his family live.

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Isabel Thomas Human Sciences, 1998

Isabel’s picture book, Moth: An Evolution Story (Bloomsbury, 2018), which explores natural selection, recently won the biggest prize for science writing for young people in the US, the AAAS Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books 2020.

Her follow-up, Fox: A Circle of Life Story (Bloomsbury, 2020), was published in

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October and answers another huge question children ask about life: What happens when we die? It aims to show that a scientific answer to this question is no less beautiful and awe-inspiring than traditional stories.

Isabel has spoken about Fox on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. This programme is still available to listen to, here: www.bbc.co.uk/ programmes/p08t3hbd

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Joshua Glick JYA, 2005

Josh attended Mansfield as a JYA in 2005.

He was studying abroad from Cornell and focusing on English/Modern History as well as writing lots of movie reviews for various Oxford publications.

‘Mansfield had a big impact on my life. I went on to get a PhD at Yale and for the past couple of years have served as an Assistant Professor of English, Film, and Media at Hendrix College. This past year I was a Fellow in MIT’s Open Documentary Lab, working on some new projects related to documentary, the media industries, and the dangers of misinformation.’

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Lizzie Nunnery English, 2000

Lizzie’s latest play, Heavy Weather, has been published by Nick Hern Books.

It’s a play for young performers, exploring themes of climate change and disorientation in the digital age. This is her eighth published play text.

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Dr Lucy Mahoney DPhil Geography & the Environment, 2009

Lucy has taken part in an international panel as part of media and entertainment company Mashable’s ‘Social Good Series’ entitled ‘Sustainable travel during and after the pandemic’.

This panel was streamed live on Facebook and YouTube; Lucy’s introduction is available here: https://mashable.com/ video/transportation-emissions-climatechange/?europe=true

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Revd Dr Martin Camroux Theology, 1969

Martin has published a new book, Keeping Alive the Rumor of God: When Most People Are Looking the Other Way (Wipf and Stock, 2020).

‘Across the western world the traditional picture of God is dying and much institutional religion collapsing, but the mystery of our human life is of an inner depth which is not simply physical or material. Marvel, mystery, wonder, beauty, love, the numinous, the mysterium tremendum, remain and the God experience hasn’t gone away. What I am trying to do is describe this experience in such a way that those who have not had it can get a glimpse of it from inside and understand how it can give life meaning and purpose.’

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Paul Fleming PPE, 2006

Paul has been elected as General Secretary of Equity, the trade union representing more than 48,000 professionals in the entertainment industry – including actors, singers, dancers, comedians, variety artists, stage management, creative team members and supporting artists.

Paul is thought to be the first openly LGBTQ+ General Secretary of any major UK trade union.

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Peter Armstrong Theology, 1962

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Susie Day MSt English, 2001

Peter has published a new book, Not for Nothing: Searching for a Meaningful Life (John Hunt, 2020).

Susie has recently published her 13th novel for children, Max Kowalski Didn’t Mean It (Puffin, 2019).

This short memoir includes a few insights gained during his College days. A brief video introducing the book is available here: https://vimeo.com/456122002

The work was shortlisted for two prestigious Welsh book awards: the Tir na Nog, and the inaugural Children’s & Young People category of the Wales Book of the Year. The novel sees 11-year-old Max and his sisters run away to Snowdonia to hunt a treasure-hoarding dragon.

It explores masculinity, loss and what happens if you keep an earthworm in your pocket as a pet. Susie studied for both her BA and MSt at Mansfield. After deciding to write books instead of her DPhil, she worked for 12 years at St Clare’s, Oxford, supporting the welfare of international teenagers. She now lives in Coventry with her partner and two cats, and works as a copywriter in Birmingham.

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Revd Dr Peter Jupp Theology, 1966

Peter has been awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Association for the Study of Death in Society (ASDS), for ‘Outstanding Career Contributions to the Social Sciences in the Field of Death Studies’.

Peter is a United Reform Church Minister, theologian, sociologist of religion and a historian of death, and his work is recognised globally. He is the co-founding editor of Mortality, the official international journal of the ASDS.

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Sue Unerman Modern History, 1979

Sue has released a new book: Belonging: The Key to Transforming and Maintaining Diversity, Inclusion and Equality at Work (Bloomsbury, 2020).

‘There’s never been more discussion around diversity and inclusion in the workplace. From gender pay gaps and the #MeToo movement to Black Lives Matter, it seems that every organisation has finally recognised that lasting change needs to happen. Various studies show that the most successful and productive senior management teams are those which are truly diverse and eclectic. Yet there remains only eight female CEOs of FTSE 100 boards, and only ten BAME people working in leadership roles across companies in the FTSE 100. The lessons in this book will help us work together to build a better workplace where everyone feels they belong.’ Esquire magazine has called Sue’s latest work: ‘The most important business book of the year’.

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Suzy Cripps English, 2015

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Photo by James Wafer

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Suzy has edited a new anthology called The Joy of Walking (Pan Macmillan, 2020).

‘When I started this project I had no idea that walking would become such an important part of our daily lives as it has been in lockdown! The book collects my favourite bits of fiction, poems and prose on the subject of finding meaning in our movement. You can find some of my thoughts on walking in the intro as well.’

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Yi Hern Chang Engineering, 2015

Yi Hern has recently been featured in Forbes ‘30 under 30 Asia’ list. He launched his start-up, JomRun, in 2017. The firm, which was inspired by Pokémon Go, has quickly grown to become the largest ticketing portal for sporting events in Malaysia.

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Zile Huma MA Public Policy, 2018

Zile was shortlisted for FindAUniversity’s, ‘Masters Student of the Year 2020’. The judges were especially impressed with Zile’s dedication, human rights activism and leadership.

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The impact of your support

Thank you

Celebrating women at Mansfield

This report covers the period August 2019 to July 2020.

Alumni and friends of Mansfield have made numerous and important donations to our College this year.

Your support has proved more vital than ever as we faced the challenges of the Covid-19 crisis.

Our College has a proud record of equality and inclusiveness, and this year we commemorated an important milestone in its development. Suzy Cripps (English, 2015) contemplates our women’s history.

The year 2020 marked the centenary of women gaining the right to matriculate and graduate from the University of Oxford. At Mansfield too, we celebrated our own anniversary, with 2019/20 marking 40 years of mixed undergraduate cohorts.

Women had, in fact, been attending the College long before 1979. Revd Constance Coltman arrived to study for Christian ministry in 1913, and women ordinands made up a small minority of the Mansfield community for several decades before and after World War II – although there was a decline in numbers during the war years, due to the social upheaval of that time. A breakthrough moment came when the first female member of the SCR, Pamela Busby (now de Witt), arrived in 1971. She was followed by Janet Dyson in 1977, and of course, the 1979 undergraduate cohort.

In the midst of lockdown, we marked the occasion digitally, helped by our current students and alumni community. We created two resources which are available to view on our website. The first is a Brief History of Mansfield’s Women (www.mansfield. ox.ac.uk/women-mansfield-brief-history),

a timeline commemorating some key moments in our women’s history, from 1913 to 2020; and the second is an informal Photographic History (www.mansfield. ox.ac.uk/photographic-history-mansfieldswomen-1979-2020): a scrapbook of memories from different generations of Mansfield’s women from 1979 onwards, which aims to recreate digitally the kind of conversations that happen at reunions, swapping anecdotes and memories.

We were delighted by the enthusiastic response to these online resources, so as soon as lockdown permitted, we were keen to unveil our on-site commemorations.

On 7 October 2020 – exactly 100 years to the day since women were permitted to study at Oxford – we opened a bright and beautifully designed new exhibition celebrating Women of Mansfield.

The exhibition, which is on display at College for the entire academic year 2020/21 (situated along the corridor between the main entrance foyer and the Library), is a visual exploration of the history of women at Mansfield.

It commences with the arrival of the

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pioneering first women for ministerial training, starting in 1913, and goes on to include the Bletchley Park women who worked at Mansfield as code-breakers during World War II. As well as acknowledging our first mixed cohort of undergraduates, the exhibition incorporates a large display profiling all of our women Fellows, boldly leading the way in varied academic fields. The culmination of the exhibition is a lively celebration of all of the women of Mansfield today, including Honorary Fellows such as Dame Maggie Smith, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton and Baroness Shami Chakrabarti.

This is an engaging and honest display which marks the real commitment at Mansfield to foster an inclusive community based on equality and respect. We’re proud that today Mansfield seeks to be a college that champions opportunity and access to academic excellence for all.

We would like to thank Jan Fischer (PPE, 1989), whose support enabled our on-site exhibition. We are also indebted to everyone whose contributions and research brought these projects to fruition.

From the generous philanthropists in our community making transformational major gifts and joining us as Bancroft Fellows; to alumni supporting their subject or passion at College; to those making a regular donation, so valuable in helping us plan ahead; to the wonderful alumni who choose to remember College in their will – we thank you all deeply for your kindness and generosity.

With your support, we can ensure that Mansfield continues to provide an exceptional academic experience at Oxford within a diverse, inclusive and welcoming scholarly community.

On behalf of the students here, and all at Mansfield, thank you again for your generosity in 2020. I hope you know how much it is valued, and that every donation is put to good use at your College.

Tess McCormick Development Director

Mansfield Matters Fund: where the need is greatest

£117,783 Unrestricted gifts to the Mansfield Matters Fund offer College the ability to address unexpected challenges, and in 2020 we have faced challenges like never before. This year we have drawn on the Mansfield Matters Fund to invest in outside spaces so students could continue to socialise through a British winter, technology to support online teaching, and other vital projects that have helped ensure students’ Oxford experience has not been unduly marred by Covid. In 2019/20 we received the highest figure to this fund for five years.

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The impact of your support

Access & outreach

£92,640 Mansfield’s founding principle of inclusion and openness is central to College, and we lead the way in widening access to Oxford University.

As a result, every year Mansfield is providing life-changing opportunities in elite education. The global pandemic will only exacerbate inequities in society. We are very grateful for all the donations received this year in support of Mansfield’s effective access and outreach work – even while it was forced to go online. Leading support from alumna Kathleen Russ (Modern History, 1986) has funded the role of Access Officer at Mansfield this year. We are so pleased that with Kathleen’s support we have been able to sustain this vital role. We are extremely proud of Martha, who was one of the athletes selected for the Women’s Boat Race this year, having never rowed before she came to Oxford.

‘ I went to a [sixth form] college where Mansfield does access work.

I definitely would not have applied to Oxford if I hadn’t gone to an open day at Mansfield.

It made me think Oxford was a place for me.’

Martha Birtles (English, 2018)

Life-changing opportunities for students and our Student Support Fund

£173,334 This fund has been a lifeline for many of our students in 2020, making a fundamental difference to ensuring they can continue to thrive at Oxford. Thanks to a major gift for Student Experience & Well-being, we have been able to invest in increased welfare, well-being, academic support and cultural provision. Needing to respond quickly to the Covid crisis, in the summer we launched a new hardship fund for Mansfield students affected. We were delighted that £15,000 was contributed to the new hardship fund to the end of July 2020. This – plus additional funds raised since – is being distributed directly to students in most need of financial support.

Teaching & research; scholarships & bursaries

£138,501 Mansfield has a long history of raising funds to enable talented students to study and thrive at Oxford. One of the most powerful ways in which alumni choose to support College is to contribute towards the teaching of their subject. Our tutors and the intensive academic experience of the Oxford tutorial is what alumni tell us made such a fundamental difference to their academic progression and future lives and careers.

Contributions from across the Mansfield community, with support from Sarah Harkness (PPE, 1980) and her husband Peter, are funding another Reach Scholarship at Mansfield. And we were delighted to receive support for bursaries this year for Maths students from alumnus Anthony Dewell (Maths, 2002). We welcome all support focused on the furtherance of academic subjects, an increasingly important priority for the College.

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The impact of your support

Buildings & environment

£209,914 Over decades, donations to support our College’s historic built environment have made an important difference, and in the summer long-awaited work to restore the Chapel organ began. We look forward to celebrating its completion soon, and to hearing the organ singing out at Mansfield once more. Support for the fund this year has also enabled improvements to the gardens and landscape around the Quad and made a contribution to vital roof works.

‘ I am deeply aware of the positive impact sport has on academic and professional performance. Hence I was very excited to be able to support sport at Mansfield in the hope that a wellrounded experience will help Mansfield students with their studies and general well-being.’

Graduate scholarships Importantly, there is a growing number of funded graduate scholarships at Mansfield. For the past two years, Mansfield students have benefited from the Helena Kennedy Scholarships, established by an alumnus in honour of our former Principal, for which we continue to raise funds. Elsewhere in this magazine we announce the launch of two new graduate scholarship programmes: seven new Kofi Annan Scholars of the Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Programme, and a new Lutheran Council Scholarship for a student seeking sanctuary in the UK – both made possible through philanthropy. These are in addition to our two Adam von Trott Scholars.

Antonio Bonchristiano (PPE, 1984)

‘ It’s an honour and a pleasure to be a Kofi Annan Scholar at Mansfield. An honour because Mansfield and the WeidenfeldHoffmann Trust are such progressive and public-spirited institutions; a pleasure because my co-scholars are kind and inspiring people.’

Other initiatives / Sports & societies

£22,239

This year Antonio Bonchristiano (PPE, 1984) made a new donation to sport at Mansfield. Antonio’s gift had already made a significant difference to varied sports, particularly rowing, prior to lockdown. It then enabled teams to keep going in spite of Covid, for example with a new four-person boat that saw both the women’s and men’s teams able to get on the river through lockdown. We also celebrate other vital support received for MCBC and the Library Fund this year.

Sarani Jayawardena Kofi Annan Scholar 2019

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The impact of your support

Bancroft Fellows: Mansfield’s greatest honour for philanthropy Mansfield’s Principal and Governing Body were delighted to admit five new Bancroft Fellows to the Fellowship in Michaelmas term 2020, and we want to take this opportunity to celebrate all of our Bancroft Fellows, both new and long-standing.

The Bancroft Fellowship is named after the late Lord Bancroft, who was Chairman of Trustees of Mansfield before we were awarded our Royal Charter as a full College of the University of Oxford. It is the highest philanthropic honour the College can bestow. We would like to express our deep and sincere gratitude to all of our Bancroft Fellows for their exceptional support.

Mr Antonio Bonchristiano (PPE, 1984)

to the Love Lane campaign to establish the Hands Building and Bonavero Institute of Human Rights; and helped with the upkeep of the Chapel and the restoration of the organ at Mansfield, as well as other College projects and initiatives.

Antonio Bonchristiano is CEO and Managing Director of GP Investments, a private equity firm based in São Paulo. He joined GP Investments in 1993 and has been a Managing Director since 1995. Antonio gave generous support to Mansfield’s Love Lane campaign, enabling the creation of new student accommodation. He has also made gifts to encourage increased student performance in, and engagement with, sport at our College. A donor to the Weston Library within the University of Oxford, Antonio has funded the Patricia and Antonio Bonchristiano Room and supported other projects for the Bodleian Library. He sits on both Mansfield College’s and the Bodleian Library’s Development Boards, and is a member of the University’s Vice Chancellor’s Circle.

‘Charles Brock [was] a colourful and liberal Chaplain [at Mansfield] who epitomised the atmosphere of change in his spiritual generosity and mischievous sense of humour. The ease of passage of the College into a new relationship with its religious origins was due in no small part to his vision.’ Professor Michael Freeden, in Mansfield: Portrait of an Oxford College.

Mr Jan Fischer (PPE, 1989) Jan Fischer is Managing Director of Fischer Beteiligungsconsult, a venture capital firm in Munich. The firm typically invests in companies in the digital media, mobility and transport, and renewable-energy sectors and is a third-generation family business. Jan has given generous and flexible support to Mansfield through a multi-year gift that has enabled varied projects which champion and celebrate our academic community and benefit our students. He has also supported the new Kofi Annan Scholarships over five years, our new Refugee Scholarship, and the Adam von Trott Scholarships.

Jan’s philanthropy is wide-ranging. He has established a new art foundation in Berlin, Light Art Space, which brings cuttingedge light-based art to Germany, and he also set up the Stiftung Grundeinkommen gGmbH (Basic Income Foundation) in Munich.

He is on the Board of the Kuratorium Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; the Advisory Board of the art funding institution Outset Deutschland / Schweiz gGmbH in Berlin; and the Board of Directors of ZADA eV the Center against Anti-Semitism, Discrimination and Exclusion in Hamburg. Jan is a member of the University’s Vice Chancellor’s Circle in recognition of his support of Mansfield College. He is based in Munich and has three daughters.

Reverend Charles Brock Charles Brock is an Emeritus Fellow and former Chaplain (1965-98) and Director of Ministerial Education at Mansfield, having taught at our College for 35 years. His late wife Carolyn was Director of Music at Mansfield, served as our organist for many years, and also conducted other Oxford choirs, especially the City of Oxford Choir.

Charles is currently the Director of the Institute on the American Dream at Penn State Behrend in Pennsylvania, where he teaches for the Politics and Religion departments. He is acting minister of The First Unitarian Universalist Church of Girard, PA and a Founding Member of the Jefferson Educational Society of Erie (JES), a non-profit think tank. He also serves as the Director of the Brock Institute for Mega Issues Education at the JES. Charles’ exceptional philanthropic support to Mansfield has endowed the John Milton Fellow in Politics, held by Professor David Leopold; contributed

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The impact of your support Mr Guy Hands (PPE, 1978) and Mrs Julia Hands MBE

Majesty the Queen in 2017. In Hong Kong Joseph served as a member of the Judicial Services Commission and on the Inland Revenue Board of Review. He funded the Sir Joseph Hotung Programme for Law, Human Rights and Peace Building in the Middle East at SOAS, University of London. At Mansfield, Joseph’s superlative support has founded the College’s new lecture theatre, opened in 2018 and named in his honour.

Julia Hands is an entrepreneur, hotelier and philanthropist. After studying Classics and Law at Cambridge, she joined Linklaters & Paines and qualified as a solicitor in 1986, remaining with the firm until 1996. Julia is Chair and CEO of Hand Picked Hotels, 19 unique country house hotels across the UK and Channel Islands. She won the Tourism & Leisure business sector in the First Women Awards in 2005, organised by the CBI and Real Business magazine. In 2008 Julia was awarded an MBE for services to the hospitality industry. Guy Hands is Chairman and Founder of Terra Firma, one of Europe’s leading private equity firms. He started his career with Goldman Sachs International where he went on to become Head of Eurobond Trading and then Head of Global Asset Structuring Group. Guy left Goldman Sachs in 1994 for Nomura International plc, where he established the Principal Finance Group (PFG). PFG went on to undertake groundbreaking deals involving trains, housing and pubs. In 2002, he led the spin-out of PFG to form Terra Firma. Guy was elected a Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in 2000 in recognition of his achievements. In 2012, he was named the 20th most influential figure in Private Equity International’s ‘100 Most Influential of the Decade’.

Mr Harry Leventis Harry Leventis has been involved, throughout his career, in the management of a number of companies in the AG Leventis group based in Nigeria and in the United Kingdom. He is a Trustee of the AG Leventis Foundation.

Harry personally supported Mansfield College’s Love Lane capital campaign, establishing the Gilly Leventis Room within the new Hands Building. The AG Leventis Foundation’s generous grants to the University of Oxford include support for the Ashmolean Museum, where they have funded the AG Leventis Gallery for Cyprus, a curatorial post for the Cypriot collections, an exhibition on Heracles, and the Department of Antiquities. The Foundation has also supported the Theology Faculty, the Faculty of History, Merton College, Balliol College, St Peter’s College, St Antony’s College, and Oxford Philomusica (now the Oxford Philharmonic). As well as being a Bancroft Fellow of Mansfield College, Harry represents the AG Leventis Foundation on the University of Oxford’s Chancellor’s Court of Benefactors and he is a Fellow of the Ashmolean Museum.

Guy and Julia have been important supporters of our College for many years. Guy was the President and lead benefactor of ‘Access to Excellence’, Mansfield’s initiative to promote the broadest possible access to higher education in the UK. More recently, Guy and Julia’s lead gift founded the Hands Building, our beautiful new student accommodation building and home to the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, opened in 2018. The couple also initiated Mansfield’s prestigious annual Hands Lecture. Guy and Julia are members of the University of Oxford Chancellor’s Court of Benefactors as well as Fellows of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme. They have four children.

Sir Paul Ruddock FSA (Jurisprudence, 1977) Paul Ruddock is Chair of Oxford University Endowment Management and Chair of the Oxford University Investment Committee. A leading philanthropist to the arts and education in the UK and internationally, he is closely involved with numerous major museums and galleries, as well as education and charitable institutions.

He was knighted in 2012 for Services to the Arts and Philanthropy. Paul is co-founder of Lansdowne Partners from which he retired as CEO in 2013. He is now Director of the international arm of the company and a limited partner of Lansdowne Partners LLP. Paul was Chairman of the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) for two terms. He is a Trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and Co-Chair of its International Council, as well as holding numerous other trusteeships for UK arts and heritage organisations and ambassadorships for charities.

His philanthropy includes major support for the V&A; the British Museum; the Courtauld Institute; the Metropolitan Museum, New York; and King Edward’s School, Birmingham. He has also supported the Ashmolean Museum; Bowdoin College, Maine (with his wife, Lady Ruddock); the Ethiopian Heritage Fund; the Donmar Warehouse and the Almeida Theatre. Paul’s generous donations to Mansfield College have helped create the Garden Building, supported our 125th Anniversary campaign, and include gifts of works of art. In 2019, he established the Mansfield Ruddock Prize for the Arts, for a student at Oxford’s Ruskin School of Art. One of our earliest recipients of the honour, Paul was made a Bancroft Fellow at Mansfield in 2008.

Sir Joseph Hotung Joseph Hotung is a successful businessman, philanthropist, and knowledgeable collector of Chinese art. Born in China, schooled in Shanghai and Tianjin, he completed his education in the USA and UK. He subsequently received an LLB from the University of London. Having initially taken up employment in Marine Midland Bank, Joseph started his own business in Hong Kong and later became a Director of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd and HSBC Holdings. Throughout his career, Joseph has actively participated in public and community affairs in Hong Kong and in London. Among his many and varied positions, he has acted as Council Member at the University of Hong Kong and served as Chairman of the Arts Development Council, Hong Kong and as a member of the SOAS Governing Body. Joseph has served on boards or committees of several major international museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York where he is now Trustee Emeritus and a Life Fellow; and the British Museum where he made possible the construction of a number of new galleries, including the Sir Joseph Hotung Gallery of China and South Asia opened by Her

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The impact of your support

Community Week and Giving Day

‘ Mansfield took a naïve 18 year-old under its wing and nurtured me through my three student years. I have extremely happy memories of those years, which have been profoundly influential on my life. I feel very strongly that its Nonconformist tradition, combined with its deep regard for the strength of social cooperation and action, is its defining characteristic.

It is the abiding imprint of this ethos which has led to my active and lasting involvement in community politics and community education, and has underpinned my 50+ years working in education – not least as Headteacher of an East End community/comprehensive school, and subsequently as Deputy Director of a national education charity.’

I am writing this the day after the completion of Mansfield’s first ever Giving Day, still on an absolute high after the wellspring of donations large and small. Uplifting messages of support came from all over the world, inspired by the sporting and creative challenges completed by staff and students. In total more than £70,000 was raised for our priorities: Mansfield Matters; Student Support; and Access and Outreach.

Tess McCormick Development Director

Community Week began on Monday 26 October, with varied fun activities and treats for students and staff: branded brownies, origami sessions and some specially organised Online Alumni Reunions hosted by current and Emeritus Fellows and tutors.

Then at 9am on Wednesday 28 October, the 36-hour ‘Giving Day’ online crowd-funder for Mansfield began. The Principal launched the day with a klaxon; we had Professors and students running 1886 laps of the Quad all day (to match the year in which Mansfield was founded) and smashing that ambitious target by actually completing 2020 laps; our

highly creative community also produced a wealth of cakes, poetry and music; and a herculean 12-hour rowing challenge with ergometers (‘ergs’) added to the excitement on the Quad, thanks to MCBC. So many students, Fellows, alumni, and staff took part, and it was fantastic to see all the encouraging messages coming in on social media throughout the day.

We were all addicted to the online Giving Day platform, watching donations as they came in, cheering when it was someone we knew, willing those challenges to be met – 200 Giving Day donors; 50 first-time

The impact of your support

Mike Walton (English, 1956)

donors; ten people giving £500 or more; and so on. One by one we reached them all.

Nearly 36 hours later, it’s 8.55pm, there are five minutes to go before the Giving Day deadline. The Quad is dark, George King, President of the Mansfield College Boat Club is rowing the final half-hour of the 12-hour erg challenge. The Principal and a (socially distanced) gathering of staff and students – most of us sweaty in running gear after running, jogging or enthusiastically walking laps of the Quad – stare at a screen showing the live total of funds raised, stubbornly stuck at £59,915. Minutes to go. Seconds. Just as the clock ticks across 9pm, the numbers move

Prof Chris Martin, Professorial Research Fellow in Civil Engineering, and his daughter Olivia

and click past £60,000. The exhausted rowers and runners punch the air as the Principal sounds the klaxon to end what has been a marathon effort. Exhausted, elated, we toast the Mansfield community.

I am beyond delighted with our total raised (over £70,000), particularly in this year when our students need our support more than ever.

But what was achieved in coming together and celebrating Mansfield as a community was just as valuable and demonstrates a generosity of spirit that not even the strictest physical distancing or Covid restrictions can repress.

‘ Mansfield is such a cool college. I definitely applied [here] because I knew that it has lots of diversity relative to other colleges in Oxford, and I knew that it has one of, if not the, highest state school intakes out of Oxford and Cambridge.

Coming here was honestly one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I’ve met so many people that I wouldn’t normally meet, from different places.

Coming from London I hadn’t had any Northern friends before so it’s been really great to meet those people and find out about their lives and interact and share things about myself as well. It’s been a really great experience.’

Yolanda Ameny (MEng Engineering, 2019)

Dan Tarry (Geography, 2011) , Mansfield College Alumni Association President

Muzzammil Khan (Geography 2020)

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Head Porter Tom holding a Community Week Brownie

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The impact of your support

Recognising your kind legacy support: now and forever

The impact of your support

Our supporters We give our sincere thanks to the 827 people who made donations to Mansfield in the last financial year (1 August 2019 to 31 July 2020), including those who have chosen to remain anonymous. We are so grateful to you for your generous support. Individuals are grouped by their year of matriculation. We would like to give particular thanks and recognition to the members of our Sarah Glover Society, the 54 alumni and friends who have chosen to pledge a legacy gift to Mansfield.

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Revd Anthony Tucker

1956

Revd David Allen Revd Dr Robert McKelvey

1957

Revd Robert Scribbins

1958

Mr Nicholas Mason

1959

Prof Robert Adams Revd John Muir Mr Victor O’Connell Revd Dr Harold Tonks

1960

Revd Peter Moth

1961 Legacy Garden

‘To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow’, so said Audrey Hepburn.

Mansfield’s new Legacy Garden is a celebration of the generosity of the legacies left by generations before us, and will become a flourishing, permanent reminder of how legacy gifts can help our future.

The Legacy Garden, designed and planted by the College’s gardener, Thomas Edgar, is situated in the Fellows’ Garden at Mansfield.

Planting began in earnest in October 2020 and the aim is to create a garden that will look beautiful now, but also evolve and develop over time. It will be a place of reflection and memory, for quiet contemplation: somewhere to gather, remember and pay tribute to the generosity of those who have made Mansfield what it is today.

Members of our Sarah Glover Society, the group established to recognise those who have pledged to support Mansfield through a legacy gift, have been offered the opportunity to have their name, or that of someone they wish to honour, listed on a wall plaque in the Legacy Garden. It will become a beautiful place at College where we publicly acknowledge and thank our legators for this very special pledge of support.

A gift in your will is one of the most powerful and vital ways you can support your College. Legacy gifts will help ensure that future generations of students can also have access to the best that higher education can offer, so that they – like you – can use the opportunities Mansfield has given them to contribute to the lives of those who come after them.

If you would like to discuss leaving a gift to College in your will, please contact Gemma McPhail in the Development Team at gemma.mcphail@mansfield.ox.ac.uk and she would be delighted to give you a call.

If you have already included Mansfield in your will but haven’t yet told us, please let us know so we can include you in Sarah Glover Society activities and recognise your pledged support in the Legacy Garden if you wish.

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Revd Robert Blows Mr George Carcagno Revd Anthony Coates Prof John Creaser Mr Richard Hill Prof Mason Lowance

1968

Mr Geoffrey Bott Mr Michael Harris Prof Johannes Maree Dr Dabney Townsend, Jr

1969

Mr Gregory Shaffer

1970

Dr Philip Aylett Mr John Bell Revd David Ivorson Mr Roger Jackson Revd Dr Arnold Klukas Revd John Landon Mr Scott Milligan Mr Christopher Rivington OBE Mr Jonathan Rooper Mr Stephen Sheedy Mr Peter Wastnedge Dr Jonathan Wild

1971

Dr Douglas Connor Mr Stewart Rutter Dr Douglas Stange

1972

Mr Antony Payn Revd Donald Rudalevige

Prof Eric Lund Mr Craig Nelson Dr Homer Rogers

1963

1973

1962

Mr Colin Sedgewick Revd Richard Wolff

1979

Mr Bashir Ahmed Dr Don Aycock Mr Mark Beardwood Mr Andrew Cannons Mr Martin Christensen Mr Martin Clemmey Mrs Patricia Dean Dr Jonathan Goss Mr Michael Ingledow Mr Gavin Prosser

1980

Mr Richard Baker Mr Henry Kopel Mr Paul Midwinter Mr Paul Palmarozza

1981

Mr Nigel Clarke Mrs Melanie Clemmey Miss Jane Coughlin Mrs Melinda Cripps Rabbi Michael Marmur Ms Teresa Moriarty Mr Geraint Rees Mr Paul Vine

1982

Ms Sharon Flaxbeard Mr Adrian Flook Mr Rolf Howarth Mr Richard Klein Mr Sean Moriarty Mr David Testa Mr John Weston

Revd George Agar Mr Andrew Daykin Dr Kenneth Parker Mr Robert Porrer Mr David Reston Revd Dr William Rusch Mr Robert Smith Mr John Thorndyke

Mr Jonathan Arkush

1964

Dr David Bailey Mr Chris Frewer Mr Simon Gregory Mr Charles Linaker Mr Simon Morrow Mr Martyn Scrivens Mr Gordon Woods

Mrs Lisa De Silva Sir James Dingemans QC Ms Gill Duddy Mr Mark Jones Mr Saul Jones Mr Daniel Pollick Mr Peter Rogers Mr Steven Ruth Mr Matthew Tipper

1976

1984

Mr Roy Foster Revd Stephen Haine Dr Walter Houston Mr Anthony Lunch

1965

Revd Dr Thomas Best Revd William Boyd Revd Dr Noel Davies Dr Fisher Humphreys Mr Keith Lock Revd Julian Macro Mr Robert Skelly

1966

1974

Mr William Annandale Mr Ian Howard Mr Stephen Maguire Mr Steven Paull

1975

Mr Crispin Barker Mr Sean Crane Mr James Dean Mr Stephen Gaskell Mr Hugh Purkiss Mr Robert Wakely Mr Chad Whitton

Mr John Cooper Dr John Dorrell Mr Peter Froebel Mr Ralph Holmes Revd Richard McLaren Judge Paul Worsley QC

1977

1967

Mr Timothy Booth Revd Richard Church Mr Antony Cook Mr Philip Jemielita Ambassador George Krol Mr Noel Reilly

Mr Sidney Blankenship Mr Gregory Bowden Mr Paul Jay Mr Peter Johnson

Mr Chris Jenkins Mr Clive Prestt Mr Jonathan Wells

1978

1983

Mr Brian Ashe Mr David Bailey QC Mr Antonio Bonchristiano Mr Andrew Davies Revd Peter Elliott Mr Timothy Harris Mr Robert Mison Ms Susan Pemberton

1985

Revd Dr David Hilborn Mr Michael Holyoake Mr Douglas Jeffery Revd Daphne Preece Mrs Jane Roberts Ms Jaee Samant CBE Mrs Veronica Williams Mr Alastair Wright

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1986

Mr Giles Atkinson Dr Charles Carter Mr Bruce Caswell Ms Alexandra Clark Mr Jon Fish Ms Diana Glassman Ms Sally Mason Mr Daniel Nestel Mrs Kathleen Russ Dr Matthew Scott Mr Timothy Storrie QC Mr Rik Tozzi

1987

Ms Katherine Brick Mrs Deborah Chism Mr Nick Chism Mr Richard Darby Mr Alexander Manisty Mr Brian Millar Mr Andrew Suzman

1988

Mr Benjamin Auslander Ms Lisa Baglin Mr Timothy Burroughs Ms Emma Heald Ms Catherine McClen Mr Jonathan Steinberg Dr Richard Underhill Mr Stewart Wilkinson

1989

Mr Neil Elton Mr Jan Fischer Mr Toby Gosnall Mr Matthew Keats Mr Andrew Moulton Dr Toby Purser Miss Frances Reynolds

1990

Mr Angelo Basu Mrs Nicola Cathery Ms Joanna Jameson Mr Steven Keane Mr Joseph Nuttall Mr Duncan Ruckledge Mr Kelvin To

1991

Mrs Kathryn Flanders Mrs Shevaun Haviland Ms Gill Kirk Mr Daneree Lambeth Ms Shawn Zovod

1992

Mr Brian Arnold Mr Simon Carmichael Mr Andrew Croxson Mr Paul Jackson Mr Richard Kelly Ms Stephanie Reents Mr Benjamin Shaw Dr Matthew Simpson

1993

Mr Richard Apps Miss Elizabeth Badger

Mr John Douglas-Field Mr Stuart Ferguson Mr John Glen Mr Stephen Gough Mrs Alexandra Harle Mr James Pearson Dr Teena Shetty Mr John Zolidis

1994

Mr Tom Bray Mrs Kumiko Brocklebank Mr Finbar Clenaghan Mr Richard Davies Revd Tiffany-Alice Ewins Mr Zachary Finley Revd Derek Hopkins Mr Simon Kennedy Mr Andrew MacDonald Revd Iain McDonald Mr Jonathan Parry Miss Brigitte Worth Mr Andrew Young

1995

Mrs Catrin Bennett Mr Simon Calhaem Ms Olwen Greany Mr Michael Margolis Mrs Gina Pattisson Brusik Mr Luke Purser Dr Deya Sanchez Mr Stephen Tall Mr Marcus Williamson

1996

Ms Laura Baggaley Mr Timothy Berry Mr Charles Classen Miss Dawn Craig Mr Rishi Dastidar Prof Jane Hamlett Mr Marcus Haywood Miss Anna Jenkins Mr Cillian Ó Donnabháin Mr James Selby Mr Rhys Watkin

1997

Mr Philip Avery Mr David Clyde Revd June Colley Revd Patricia Davis Mr John Doy Mrs Deborah Edwards Mr David Falkner Mr Christopher Foster Mrs Emily King Revd John-Daniel Laurence Mr Assad Maqbool Ms Hayley McRae-White Dr Jayne Nicholson Dr Daniel Palazuelos Mr Matthew Reed Mrs Sarah Thomas Mr James Uffindell Mr Marc Zao-Sanders

1998

Ms Helen Bray Mr Richard Colebourn Ms Sara Cross

The impact of your support Dr Kate Flynn Mr Martin Hall Ms Chantal Hughes Mr Damian King Dr Rebecca Lodwick Mr Sean Mackenzie Mrs Emma Pell Mrs Mary Pert Dr Peter Sidgwick

1999

Mrs Marie-Anne Barnes Ms Cheryl Law Dr Christine McCulloch Mr Simon Wicks Mr Alexander Wright Mrs Catherine Wright

2000

Mr Adrian Barlow Ms Katherine Bilsborrow Mr Robert Cumberland Mr Marcus Edwards Mr Niall McCarthy Ms Lindsey Mepham Mr David Robson Mrs Rebecca Sumner Smith

2001

Mr Sean Beck Mr William Bonner Mr Tom Buttle Dr Richard Day Mr Simon Hale Mr Timothy Hirst Mr Robert McGhee Mr Onyemachi Njamma Mr Nigel Simkin Ms Catherine Thomas Ms Marilyn Thompson Ms Alina Turetskaya Mr Jonas Twitchen Mr Andrew Walker Mr Kevin Whibley

2002

Mr Muhamet Alijaj Mr Ryan Amesbury Mr Richard Bazzaz Mr Leighton Cardwell Mr Anthony Dewell Ms Alexis Faulkner Dr Arthur Fraas Mr Aled George Ms Clare Knight Mr Jonathan Lord Mr Gregory Smye-Rumsby

2003

Mr Alastair Brown Mr Matthew Castle Revd Dr Chigor Chike

Dr Carlos Jaramillo IV Mr Edward Mayne Mr Andrew Mitchell Dr Katie Moore Mr Peter Ringlee Mr Henry Rushton Ms Catriona Rutherford Mr Jack Sheldon Mr Jonathan Wakely Mr David Wall

2004

Mr William Brewster Mr Johnny Elliot Dr Valentina Iotchkova Miss Alexandra Jezeph Mr Benjamin Jones Miss Rebecca Linnett Ms Helen McKenzie Mr Thomas Oliphant Mr Matthew Putorti Mr Richard Saynor Revd Timothy Searle Miss Carina Watney Mr Joseph Zhou

2005

Mr Horatio Boedihardjo Mr Roy Cooper Dr James Dray Mr Richard Dyble Mr Thomas Foster Ms Emma Gerrard-Jones Mr Alex Guerra Noriega Dr Daniel Harvey Miss Amy Icke Miss Melissa Julian-Jones Mr Thomas Leveson Gower Revd Iain McLaren Dr Caroline Roberts

Mr Giles Rabbitts Dr Banu Turnaoglu Miss Marianne Turner Mr Luke Webster Mrs Joanna Wood

Mr Daniel Orford Mr Alex Starr Mr Samuel Tarran Mr Daniel Tarry

2008

Dr Peter Bergamin Mr Alexander Botham Miss Katherine Danks Mr Adam Deane Miss Nastassia Dhanraj Miss Amy Francis Miss Victoria Hawley Miss Rebecca Hird Ms Alexandra Jennings Ms Rebecca Lee Mr Eric Lewis Ms Ariane Moshiri Miss Alice Willcox Mr Thomas Windsor Miss Margaret Woods

Mr Andrew Campbell Mr Christopher Du Boulay Mr Benjamin Featherstone Mr Stanley Hale Mr Runze Liu Mr Ewan Miller Dr Alasdair Morrison Mr James Nettleton Miss Eilise Norris Miss Adina Wass Mr Matthew Williams Mr Simon Williamson Mr Chun Yuen Wong

2009

Dr Isaiah Adekanmbi Mr Benjamin Ball Dr Cheng Cheng Mr Alexander Ford Miss Rachel Freeman Mr Matt Jones Mr Christopher Major Mr Andrew McCormack Mr Frederick Overton Mr Daniel Rey Mrs Amy Rutter Mr Alec Selwyn Mr Nathan Webster Mr Hao Wu

2013

2014

Ms Ruth Cook Ms Meredith Crowley Mr Vikram Dhindsa Mr Clayton D’Souza Mrs Lucy Harvey Ms Felicity Hawksley Mr Reuben Holt Miss Lauren O’Donnell Mr Michael Shaw

2007

2011

2015

Ms Devon Andersen Ms Sara Bainbridge Mr David Bruce Mr Luke Bullock Mr Daniel Cowley Miss Helen Dugdale Mr Nicholas Gomes Mr Chirag Goyate Mr John Kerr

Miss Jennifer Atwood Mr Matthew Bradbury Mr James Burnett Ms Priyanaz Chatterji Miss Bethany Collett Mr James Fisher Dr Franziska Kirschner Mr Karl Laird Mr Joseph Morris

Mr Pedro-José Cazorla García Ms Lyn Johnson Miss Sarah Lawrence Mr Grégoire Lemarchand-Ghica Mr Igor Tischenko

2018

Mr Alexander Feldhaus

2019

Ms Anca Gabriela Bunda Ms Zoe Hodge Ms Emily Massey Mr Alexander Oscroft Ms Amaris Proctor Mr Michael Railton

2016

Ms Emily Cameron-Blake

Donald MacDonald (English, 1984) Neil MacGregor OM Prof Helen Margetts OBE Prof Simon Marginson Dr Martin Moore Prof Karen O’Brien Ben Okri OBE Prof Kate O’Regan Prof Richard Pettigrew Prashant Popat QC (Jurisprudence, 1987) Justice Brian Preston Hannah Preston (English, 2003) Lucinda Rumsey MBE Kathleen Russ (History, 1986) Angela Saini Prof Jean Seaton

Emma Foubister (Jurisprudence, 2010) Sagarika Ghose Anya Gleizer (Geography & the Environment, 2020) Clare Flynn AC Grayling CBE Prof Ian Griffiths Lord Hague of Richmond Baroness Hale of Richmond Prof Philip Howard Chris Jenkins (PPE, 1977) Matthew Keats (Geography, 1989) Saira Khan (PPE, 2012) Daneree Lambeth (Jurisprudence, 1991) Rebecca Lee (English, 2012) Andy MacDonald (PPE, 1994)

The Bonavero Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) has been based at Mansfield since opening in 2017.

From the start of the pandemic, the BIHR has been working with a wide range of experts to monitor the implications of the crisis for human rights in the UK and around the world.

College members

Prof Ros Ballaster Prof Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell DBE Prof George Caird Ms Peggy Morgan Ms Helen Mountfield QC Revd Prof John Muddiman

Friends

Mrs Wendy Allen Mrs Joan Armstrong Mr Roger Ballaster Mrs Jill Barnett Ms Theresa Bentley Mr Michael Corbett Mr Kenneth Davies Mr Michael Edwards Mrs Jacquie Featherstone Dr Heinz Fuchs Mr William Gemmell Mrs Carol Mahony Greatorex Mr Adam Gwilt Mrs Diane Gwilt Mr Geoffrey Higham Dr Gueorgui Kantor Mr Alistair Kennedy Mr Haralambos Leventis Mrs Marion Minchinton Mr Paul Minchinton Mr David Perry Dr Colin Podmore MBE Mr Robert Sandell Mr Jonathan Scheele Mr Michael J Schelzi Dr Robert Scott Ms Colette Stein Mr Alexander Thomas Dr Richard Thomas Mr Richard Thomas Dr Tom Whyntie Mrs Margaret Wilmot

Organisations Barclays Plc

In memorium Kûrt Werner

With special thanks to: Dr Nick Anstead John Archer Serena Arthur (English, 2016) Jack Aspinall (Materials Science, 2015) Dr Shreya Atrey David Bailey QC (Jurisprudence, 1984) Prof Ros Ballaster Prof Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell DBE Dr Peter Bergamin (Jewish Studies, 2012) Dr Rachel Clarke Rishi Dastidar (History, 1996) Christian Dubé (Engineering, Economics & Management, 2006) Radhika Ravi-Dubé (Human Sciences, 2006) Oluchi Ezeh (English, 2016) Prof Kate Flint

Human rights in the time of Covid

Ms Lynn Engelberts

Mr Wojciech Dziwulski Miss Tabitha Jones Mr Jordan Juritz Miss Rachael Kershaw Miss Sara Semic Miss Emmeline Skinner Cassidy Mr Brandon Tensley Miss Julia Torres Miss Fay Watson Ms Helena Wilson

Mr Jacob Anderson Mr Oliver Cohen Dr Sarah Connolly Mr Christopher Crompton Mr Matthew Dodd Miss Ashley Fry Miss Rosemary Hart Mr Christopher Lee Evans Mr David Lukic Mr Daniel Peng Mr Amir Sokolowski Ms Rachel Wears Mr Oliver Wood

2006

2017

2012

Miss Eloise Abbott Miss Josephine Bearden Mr Ferran Brosa Planella Mr Toby Chapman Mr Owen Clarridge Mr Sebastian Fox Mr Maximilian Grodecki Mr Louis Jamart Miss Alexandra Marcus Mr Nissim Massarano Miss Stephanie McGuire Rabbi Steven Philp Mr Joel Semakula Miss Charlotte Stephens Miss Natalie Tan Mr Frank Vitale IV

2010

Mr Vladimir Lovric Ms Adrienne Mortimer

Prof Sir Nigel Shadbolt Greta Sharp Lord Justice Rabinder Singh Clare Skidmore (English, 1994) Prof Jason Smith Timothy Storrie QC (English, 1986) Dr Damian Tambini Prof Irene Tracey Charlotte Turner (English, 2010) Errollyn Wallen CBE Wendy Williams Members of the Mansfield College Development Board The Committee Members of the Mansfield College Alumni Association Giving Day 2020 Ambassadors

UK disability rights In the UK, the BIHR worked with the Oxford University Disability Law & Policy Project to show how disabled people have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Papers presented at a round-table discussion in June formed the basis of a submission to Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights, published as Bonavero Report 4/2020.

Dr Marie Tidball’s analysis of Office for National Statistics (ONS) data from June reveals that 60% of reported coronavirus deaths in the UK were of people with disabilities. Drs Sara Ryan and Brian Sloan demonstrated that the pandemic has weakened existing social care infrastructure. For example, local authorities are no longer required to comply with the legal duty to assess whether an adult or their carer needs support. These so-called ‘easements’ could last until August 2022. This research points to the crucial importance of including disabled people in policy-making that affects their lives, and of closely monitoring pandemic responses to ensure that they do not put individuals in need at greater risk.

Implications for discrimination law Award-winning research by Bonavero Fellow Dr Shreya Atrey shows that courts in the UK and elsewhere are ill-equipped to respond to intersectional discrimination – for instance, the particular challenges faced by disabled women as compared to able-bodied women or disabled men.

The report also found pockets of good practice. Australia has put in place packages to support those experiencing domestic, family and sexual violence. Taiwan has introduced compensation for those in isolation and quarantine. South Africa has refrained from declaring a constitutional State of Emergency, preferring the more moderate and rights-respecting State of Disaster.

Blunt legal tests demand a single ground of discrimination and clarity about whether discrimination is direct or indirect, where the situation is often much more complex. Shreya proposes an alternative legal test assessing the criteria, grounds and differentiated impact of discrimination, and allowing for structural remedies as well as individual damages.

In many countries the ordinary functioning of legislatures and courts has been interrupted during the pandemic, limiting opportunities for scrutiny. But there are notable exceptions. In Spain, every 15-day extension of the State of Alarm requires the approval of the majority of Congress. Courts in Colombia, Brazil, Russia and France are reviewing the legality of executive and legislative orders. In New Zealand, an Epidemic Response committee was established to scrutinise the Government’s action.

Key concerns and good practice globally The Bonavero Institute also assessed the human rights compliance of pandemic responses in 27 countries across the world. Bonavero Report 7/2020 (<https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxlaw/bonavero_ report_7_2020.pdf>) suggests that the pandemic response is eroding human rights protections and democratic oversight in many countries.

From residents of Brazilian favelas, to inmates in Italy’s overfull prisons, to asylum seekers in Australia’s crowded detention centres – marginalised populations are at increased risk of infection and from disproportionate enforcement of containment measures.

In July, Professor Martin Scheinin joined the Bonavero Institute as British Academy Global Fellow. In a recent Bonavero Discussion Group public webinar, he proposed a human-rights checklist for both emergency and long-term responses to the virus. There is no doubt that the pandemic will remain a focus of research at the BIHR in the year ahead.

We take great care to ensure these details are correct. However, please let us know if you are aware of any inaccuracies.

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Adam von Trott are icons of the anti-Nazi opposition which existed in Germany during the ‘Hitler’ years (1933-45).

These two personalities stand out – not least because of their relevance to our own day. They were however far from identical. Bonhoeffer came from a middle-class background whereas von Trott’s roots were distinctly aristocratic. The former was a professional theologian and the latter a diplomat.

Yet despite these differences, they had much in common. Both were well-travelled and highly educated (von Trott studied Theology & Politics at Mansfield in 1929, before reading PPE at Balliol). Both were deeply attached to their native land while steering clear of the ultra-nationalism that characterised so many of their fellow countrymen. Above all they both heartily detested Hitler and his gang.

Parallel lives: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Adam von Trott In the aftermath of 2020’s VE Day celebrations, Revd Andrew McLuskey (Theology, 1988) felt moved to revisit the important subject of the opposition to Hitler within Germany during World War II – including the activities and thought of Mansfield alumnus Adam von Trott.

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Bonhoeffer combined his church and theological activities with being an undercover agent for the Abwehr (German Intelligence). This gave him scope for considerable travel abroad, when he was able to meet with folk such as Willem Visser ’t Hooft, General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, and George Bell, Bishop of Chichester, who was prominent in the search for a negotiated end to the hostilities.

Von Trott was virtually a full-time plotter, taking advantage of a fairly independent desk job in the German Foreign Office where he could and did devise ingenious schemes to undermine Hitler, while superficially seeming to support the regime.

Inevitably this pro-Nazi facade wrongly led some at the time and since to think he was not totally on the side of the angels.

Ultimately, Adam von Trott and Dietrich Bonhoeffer got caught up in the unsuccessful July 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler. Both paid the price and were executed.

Particularly striking for church people is the way in which during their last days, the thinking of both Bonhoeffer and von Trott (for much of his life an agnostic) became

strangely congruent – though by this time, imprisoned in different places, they were certainly not in touch. Eberhard Bethge, Bonhoeffer’s biographer, records that just before his execution, von Trott talked about the spiritual and religious situation in his country (a sort of ‘Sundays-only affair’ as he saw it), asking ‘Can our childlike Xian faith grow and adapt to the whole weight and intensity of our problems today?’

Bethge observes that what von Trott termed ‘childlike Christian faith’ mirrored the phenomenon that Bonhoeffer disparagingly referred to as ‘religion’. Its ‘growth’ relates to Bonhoeffer’s search for the totality of belief linked to mature responsibility in our contemporary engagement with the world. ‘Adapt’ is similar to what Bonhoeffer described as ‘interpretation.’

So, as they approached their deaths, it seems that both these fine, thoughtful men were spiritually ‘on the same page’, reflecting on how and whether an authentic, all-embracing faith could be evolved in a time of crisis. Some of us are probably still doing something similar, with Brexit, climate change and Covid-19 all upon us.

Here I think we come to the nub of why it is important to remember both of these men. There were other good and brave Germans who opposed Hitler, and we should remember them too – the White Rose group of students in Munich, von Stauffenberg (the key plotter in July 1944).

But our two personalities have bequeathed us more than just an indication that not all Germans supported the Nazis. Their thinking about the future of Europe and indeed of the Church still has much to teach us.

The reputations of both men have grown steadily in the post-war period – Bonhoeffer’s in relation to the ‘Honest to God’ and ‘New Theology’ debates; Adam von Trott’s through featuring in Robert Harris’s novel Munich and via foundations in Germany and at Mansfield. They bequeathed us all an enduring legacy of religious and political thought, which we ignore at our peril.

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News from the Oxford Adam von Trott Memorial Committee Mansfield has warmly welcomed its eighth Adam von Trott Scholar, Cécile Pick, for 2020-22. She is reading for an MPhil in European Politics & Society, researching nationalism in post-communist European countries.

On 20 July 2020, we sent a deeply felt message, read out at the annual gathering at Imshausen, Germany, remembering the life and contributions of our alumnus, Adam von Trott zu Solz. It was 76 years ago when he took part in the bomb plot to kill Hitler – and paid the ultimate price.

Our message also contained the promise ‘to work harder’ after Brexit – and indeed after the spread of Covid-19 – to maintain our academic links, continuing: ‘It is something that Adam von Trott would have understood very well, dear friends, we owe it to his memory.’

Unfortunately, after the huge success of our annual lecture last year with Neil MacGregor, former Director of the British Museum, we had to defer 2020’s lecture until 2021. We are also deferring our jointly planned three-day international graduate workshop with the University of Göttingen and the Imshausen Stiftung [trust], on the theme of ‘Civil Resistance’; the bursary scheme run with the University; and an exclusive showing of the film, Resistance in a time of War. Dr Paul Flather is Chair of the Oxford Adam von Trott Memorial Committee.

Obituaries Pearl Aldridge

modern life and modernist literature.’

19 September 2020

After Cambridge, an editorial internship at Verso Books led to her appointment in 2017 as Assistant Editor of New Left Review.

In addition to commissioning, editing, translating and typesetting work by others, she herself wrote for NLR, our favourite piece being 2018’s ‘Intaglio as Philosophy’, an elegant reflection on Hans-Jörg Rheinberger’s, Le graveur et le philosophe: Albert Flocon rencontre Gaston Bachelard.

Mansfield College Porters’ Lodge was a whole new world to me when I started work there in 1989, and, though everybody was friendly and helpful, none was more so than Pearl Aldridge. Pearl, through her practical experience and knowledge of the workings of the College, had many roles and titles during her long career, but early on it was as the Bursar’s secretary that she came to my aid as a rookie Porter.

I had so much to learn, both in dealing with the students and conference delegates - not to mention the other members of staff, in remembering names, where the millions of keys were, sorting and franking the mail, etc. Pearl was always available when I was despairing over a broken down photocopier, by my side as I panicked during my first fire drill, or patiently helping me sort a mix up with guest rooms.

Alice’s time in Oxford remained hugely important to her. It gave her, among many other things, some of her closest friendships – friendships that lasted for the remainder of her all too short life.

Dr Alice MacKenzie Bamford MSt English & American Studies, 2010

To say that Pearl was my guiding light during those first few months of my life as College Porter would be an understatement.

She also became my friend. She could sometimes become stressed - as we all did, especially during freshers’ week, or a particularly busy conference - but she always found time to smile and hang in the Lodge with me for a few minutes’ gossip.

9 September 1988 – 7 May 2020

I have so many fond memories of my time at Mansfield and that lovely lady, Pearl, is high up there among them. I thank you Pearl, and, with love, bid you farewell.

As she put it in her own words, her Cambridge thesis, ‘Chalk and the Architrave: Mathematics and Modern Literature’, ‘analysed literature’s engagement with mathematics and the cultural history of quantification. I traced the story of our world becoming numerical: uncovering the cultural histories of the graphs, statistics, models and algorithms that are woven into

Hugh Flint, Retired Mansfield Porter

Our daughter Alice, who died suddenly but peacefully in the spring, spent 2010/11 at Mansfield, studying for an MSt in English & American Studies. She had graduated in English Literature in 2010 from the University of Edinburgh, and went on to a PhD at Cambridge.

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Caroline Bamford and Donald MacKenzie

Professor Stephen Gourley Mathematics, 1985 7 November 1966 – 15 September 2020 Stephen was an undergraduate at Mansfield in the mid-1980s. From the very start it was clear that he was exceptional.

He was one of the first Mansfield mathematicians to get a first-class degree and I think the first to get a doctorate.

He obtained his PhD from Bath University in 1993 and started as a lecturer at the University of Surrey that same year. He was promoted to Professor in 2012.

A prolific researcher, Stephen had almost 100 papers to his name. He was a

mathematical biologist and his main area of expertise was in the theory and applications of delay differential equations. Much of his recent work was on the mathematical modelling of diseases that are carried by insects, such as malaria and bluetongue disease. However, he also worked in other areas; his most recent publication was on a problem arising in machine-tool vibration.

Some of his research was in an area close to mine, so we would meet now and then at conferences. I very much looked forward to seeing him and to his presentations, which were models of clarity. Stephen travelled widely and had many friends, as well as more than 50 collaborators all over the world. Following conversations at a conference about ten years ago, we published a couple of papers together. As a friend and colleague he was kind, and generous with both his time and his ideas, with a lovely sense of humour. Professor Glenn Webb from Nashville, another collaborator, writes: ‘I knew him to be a very fine person, friend, and collaborator. He was very valued at his university and in the general science community.’

By coincidence my nephew, David Peeling, was an undergraduate at Surrey and was taught by Stephen. He writes: ‘I have very positive memories of Professor Gourley’s lectures. He was absolutely fantastic and by far the best lecturer I had at Surrey.

Not only was he extremely knowledgeable and able to explain things in a way others couldn’t, he could also do so with great humour and could always put a smile on our faces. He would occasionally have the lecture theatre in stitches as he told one of his stories. I know others at Surrey feel the same way; he was very popular and we always looked forward to his lectures. I would go so far as to say he had legendary status amongst the students. I knew of others at Surrey who would select modules purely based on the fact that Professor Gourley taught the module, which shows the regard in which he was held by the students (even though he taught some of the hardest modules).’

Stephen was lovely man who contributed much and will be sorely missed.

Dr Janet Dyson

ill-fated London Daily News before making his final move to the Guardian as Deputy Sports Editor.

In retirement Nick used his encyclopaedic knowledge of sport, Shakespeare, art and music by setting up groups on art appreciation, architecture, classic cinema and etymology, as well as lecturing on place names. He was described by all who knew him as great fun, an all-rounder with an equable nature that made him many real lifelong friends.

Oh, did I mention he also wrote a history of football, penned excellent parodies and was a lifelong member of Surrey County Cricket Club? I could go on…

Nicholas Mason English, 1958

Jane Mason and Victor O’Connell (Geography, 1959)

20 December 1938 – December 2019 Nick arrived at Mansfield to read English in 1958 as one of the first non-theologian undergraduates. He contributed to many areas of College life such as cricket and hockey, but also to the cultural side by helping to set up a discussion group with his English tutors Steven Wall and Malcolm Parkes. Outside of College he pursued his love of film and journalism by writing for Cherwell and on the Oxford Times in the long vac.

After graduating he started both married life and his career as a journalist on the Evening Chronicle with Thompson newspapers in Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1965 he used a press scholarship to spend three months in Malaysia on the Straits Times. Moving to London he worked as a sub-editor on the Sunday Times Magazine, a period he regarded as the happiest days of his professional life. Next came a spell on the Sunday Times Sports desk where he helped set up the hugely successful Sunday Times Fun Run held in Hyde Park each autumn. He got the running bug and in 1981, ran in the first London Marathon where he clocked a creditable 3 hours 30 minutes.

In the late eighties he left the ST to become Sports Editor on Robert Maxwell’s

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Revd Dr Stanley Herbert Russell DPhil Theology, 1955 13 April 1929 – December 2019 All his life, Stanley faced the challenges of reconciling faith and intellect without prejudicing the integrity of either. Born in the Black Country with an evangelical

background, he gained a BA at Birmingham University in English Literature followed by an MA on Coleridge, with a view to a teaching career. But Leslie Tizard, influential minister of Carrs Lane Congregational Church, Birmingham, encouraged a religious vocation and Stanley changed course. He trained for the ministry at New College, London and was awarded the London BD. His primary calling was as a teacher of Theology and he saw a need to strengthen the teaching of apologetics in the church.

So, as a Dr Williams’ scholar, he embarked on studies for the DPhil at Mansfield College and delighted to relate how, having read all the books on the subject in Oxford, he had to spend a final year at Edinburgh University. His thesis, ‘A Study in Augustine and Calvin of the Church Regarded as the Number of the Elect and the Body of the Baptized’ reflected on baptism and predestination to show how the tension between faith and doctrine might be reconciled. Lasting friendships were made during this time.

On obtaining the DPhil, Stanley left Mansfield in 1959. Ordination followed, and his first pastorate at Oundle and Weldon, but after three years he was encouraged by a fellow Mansfield man, Jack McKelvey, to join him as Tutor in Adams United College, South Africa.

Jack introduced him to Pam, the college secretary, and later presided at their wedding. But under apartheid, the college was suspect because of its liberal ethos, and in 1967 Stanley decided to return to the UK with his growing family. For the next eight years he ministered at Zion, Wakefield, and briefly at Streethouse and Flanshaw, steering the congregations with determination through the often difficult debates that culminated in their joining the United Reformed Church. In 1976 Stanley was appointed to the newly created post of Tutor in Systematic Theology at Northern College Manchester, where he remained until he retired.

A member of the Society for the Study of Theology, Stanley was respected by the theological guild for his strong grasp of the Reformed tradition. He published a variety of articles on theological and ethical topics,

chiefly in the Scottish Journal of Theology.

He had a high view of preaching and continued to serve the local and national church faithfully.

Stanley didn’t waste words, and his style as a lecturer could be hard to follow. But students also recall with appreciation and affection his clarity of insight, the simplicity of his sermons at services of ordination, his dry sense of humour and his dislike of pomposity. Friends were left in no doubt that after theology, cricket was his passion.

In latter years, as Pam’s health deteriorated, Stanley devoted himself single-mindedly to her care, supported by their daughters, Jean and Catharine.

Revd Fleur Houston

in a photo of the tennis team of that time displayed in the College Crypt café/bar.

He occupied a room at the top of the Champneys Tower with a commanding view of the College grounds and played a role in an impressive, memorable stunt when a bicycle was strung high on a rope suspended between the Tower and the Chapel.

After graduation Ian worked for IBM until 1975 when he became President of a small software house in America. After his return to the UK the following year he was invited to rejoin IBM – something unheard of at the time as that firm had a reputation for never rehiring. He finally left IBM at the end of 1991 to join my parents in buying out my father’s partner, thus affording Ian the opportunity to fulfil a long-held wish and run a family business, joined by myself and in later years by our daughters, from which he took much pride and delight.

Sadly the latter years were very difficult as the unseen and unrecognised frontal temporal dementia wended its silent way through our lives, rendering him unable to function and robbing him of his speech.

Oh the irony, that someone for whom words were so important and who was so eloquently articulate, should spend his last years virtually mute. It seems unspeakably cruel. Despite inevitable behaviour changes that caused him to be sectioned, the nurse’s words three years before his death held true: ‘Your husband is a gentleman, and however bad things get he always will be.’ A good, decent man much missed.

Lyn Hopwood

Ian Hopwood English, 1964 27 November 1944 – 27 February 2020 During his time at Mansfield, Ian served on the JCR Committee and, being good at hitting small balls hard, played for the College at tennis and table tennis. Ever the individualist, Ian is the young man in the black sweater amid a sea of white, featured

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Thanks go to Ian’s best man, Roy Foster (Geography, 1964), who set this obituary in motion and who wrote most of the first paragraph. Roy adds: ‘I have much personal gratitude to Ian and Lyn because at their engagement party very soon after graduation, I met a friend of theirs, Lesley, who became my wife!’

Staff & Fellows’ news Dr Mark Atherton Stipendiary Lecturer in English Language & Linguistics

and the Edgeworth family, currently divided between the Bodleian Libraries and the National Library of Ireland.

The project runs from 1 August 2020 to 30 November 2021 and also supports a Research Assistantship. Dr Anna Senkiw, graduate of Mansfield, took up the post in August.

Mark’s new book, The Battle of Maldon: War and Peace in Tenth-Century England, is shortly to be published by Bloomsbury. The subject is one of the set texts for the BA in English at Oxford and at other universities that cover the history of English literature: a poem on loyalty, treachery and solidarity in a time of crisis.

For more information about research into the Edgeworth papers at the Bodleian led by Ros, consult the Twitter feed https://twitter. com/EdgeworthPapers, blog posts http://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ archivesandmanuscripts/2019/03/29/opening-the-edgeworthpapers/ and materials on the English Faculty Open Educational Resource https://writersinspire.org/writers/maria-edgeworth.

Mark has also recently published a new, third edition of his textbook, Complete Old English, which he recommends for students studying English at Mansfield and Regent’s Park to use as a ‘teach yourself at home’ supplement to the module on early medieval literature (part of the Oxford English BA course in the first year).

Recent publications: Fictions of Presence: Theatre and Novel in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Boydell & Brewer, 2020). ISBN 9781783275588. A 35% discount is available through Proofed (publisher’s blog): https:// boydellandbrewer.com/blog/.

In February, he spoke at the Polyglot Conference in Edinburgh on ‘What is Old English and how did it sound?’. The talk ended with Mark performing a musical interlude (without his band)!

You can watch the video at: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=06QNoa-rXfE&feature=youtu.be

‘Eovaai and the Fiction of Fantasy in Eighteenth-Century England’, in Approaches to Teaching the Works of Eliza Haywood, ed T Potter (Modern Language Association, 2020), 155-161. ISBN 9781603294621 (hbk), ISBN 9781603294249 (pbk).

Recent publications: Complete Old English, Teach Yourself Series (Hodder, 2019). ISBN 978-1-473-62792-5. New edition.

Dr Pam Berry Supernumerary Fellow in Geography

Professor Ros Ballaster Professorial Fellow in English

This year, Pam’s work in the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute (ECI) has continued to be focused on naturebased solutions. In conjunction with colleagues at the Naturebased Solutions Initiative in Oxford she has co-authored two papers and helped organise the international online conference, ‘Nature-based Solutions Digital Dialogues’.

Ros has completed her third year in post as Faculty Board Chair in English. She ends her term in autumn 2021 when she will return to her Professorial Fellow duties at Mansfield.

This year, she has also published a monograph, Fictions of Presence: Theatre and Novel in Eighteenth-Century Britain.

In spring 2020 Ros received news that she had secured a grant as Principal Investigator with total funding of £34,000 as one of 12 projects for a UK-Ireland Collaboration in Digital Humanities Networking programme. The ‘Digital Edgeworth Network’ (DEN) is a collaboration between the Faculty of English, the School of English and Digital Humanities at University College Cork, the Bodleian Libraries (Oxford), and the National Library of Ireland (Dublin). The project is jointly sponsored and funded by the Irish Research Council, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK), and the Fell Fund of Oxford University. Its aim is to explore and analyse the manuscript archives of the celebrated author Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849)

Recent publications: ‘Understanding the value and limits of nature-based solutions to climate change and other global challenges’, N Seddon, A Chausson, P Berry, C Girardin, AC Smith, and B Turner in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 375 (1794), (2020).

‘Grounding nature-based climate solutions in sound biodiversity science’, N Seddon, B Turner, P Berry, A Chausson, and CAJ Girardin in Nature Climate Change, 82-87 (2019).

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Professor Stephen Blundell Professorial Fellow and Tutor in Physics Stephen has published a number of research papers this year, including ‘Information and Decoherence in a Muon-Fluorine Coupled System’, which was selected as an editors’ highlight. He is currently working on an edited book, ‘Introduction to muon spectroscopy’, which will be published by OUP in 2021. Stephen was awarded the 2020 Yamazaki Prize by the International Society of Muon Spectroscopy. This prize is awarded once every three years to a scientist whose work has a long-term impact on muon spectroscopy’s scientific and technical applications.

The Revd Sarah Farrow Chaplain

Dr Joe Goodwin Junior Research Fellow in Physics

This year we welcomed Mansfield’s new Chaplain, the Revd Sarah Farrow, to College.

Joe and his colleagues in the Ion Trap Quantum Computing group recently demonstrated a means of producing a faster and more reliable quantum link between separate ion trap quantum computers.

Sarah is originally from New York and New Jersey but has lived in London with her family for over 15 years. In 2016 she was ordained into the Lutheran Church in Great Britain and is an Assistant Minister at St Anne’s Lutheran Church in London. Sarah is also Lutheran Chaplain at King’s College, London, and the Chaplain at the International Lutheran Student Centre.

She holds an MA in Theology (St Augustine’s) and an MSc in Theory & History of International Relations (LSE). Prior to ordination, Sarah worked for over 12 years with Boston University’s London Programs, managing its academic programmes and providing academic advice to students.

Recent publications: ‘Information and Decoherence in a Muon-Fluorine Coupled System’, JM Wilkinson and SJ Blundell, in Phys Rev Lett 125, 087201 (2020).

Dr Paul Flather Supernumerary Fellow

Dr Andrei Constantin Stipendiary Lecturer in Physics

Paul is President of The Forum for Philosophy, based at the LSE, which promotes public discussion led by philosophers. He has just completed 20 years as Chair of the Noon Educational Foundation, which has supported more than 200 leading Pakistani scholars at Oxbridge.

He has also joined the board of an ecological film festival, and continues his work as Chair of the Oxford Adam von Trott Memorial Committee, based at our College.

Andrei is one of the first nine Stephen Hawking Fellows in Theoretical Physics announced in March 2020. The Fellowship will support Andrei’s work in String Theory, including a new mathematical approach to the quest of connecting String Theory to the physics of elementary particles.

Kate Clanchy MBE Writer in Residence

Paul has spoken at a number of international events including Difficult Dialogues in Goa, plus talks on supporting dissidents in the former central Europe, for which he recently won a Czech Government medal. He has written for The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs and is currently co-editing a book on the law in India.

We hope you will join us in warmly welcoming Mansfield’s new ‘Writer in Residence’, Kate Clanchy MBE. Throughout Michaelmas term Kate has been holding weekly nonconformist writing workshops with Mansfield staff and students.

Henry (Nick) Green Front of House Manager

Recent publications: Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me (Picador, 2019).

ISBN 978-1-5098-4029-8.

Nick has written a new novel, The Nightwatchman. When John’s wife Peggy and dog Arthur are kidnapped by a mysterious Greek, John is forced to reveal his secret past-life as a spy. John just wants to watch the cricket, but now he must come out of retirement and race against time to free his family.

How to Grow Your Own Poem (Pan Macmillan, 2020). ISBN 9781529024708.

Professor Pavlos Eleftheriadis Tutorial Fellow in Law

The Nightwatchman is an action-packed thriller taking us from Gloucestershire to Greece, full of intrigue, murder, deception and even romance. Bashed out in six weeks during lockdown it is in honour of three big birthdays that weren’t celebrated this year due to the global pandemic.

Pavlos’s latest book, A Union of Peoples, was published in April 2020, presenting an original argument about the legal and political nature of the European Union.

Recent publications: The Nightwatchman (2020). ISBN 9798664034677. Ebook: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08C1MLX7B

Recent publications: A Union of Peoples (Oxford University Press, 2020). ISBN 9780198854173.

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During his three years at Mansfield he divided his time between teaching in College – on Islam and ways of thinking about religion in society – and research trips to Jordan where he investigated the new religious institutions that are redefining the place of Islam in the Middle East. In Hilary term he hosted a popular series of visiting speakers at Mansfield to discuss cutting-edge critical and decolonial approaches to ‘religion’, out of which conversations he is putting together an exciting new volume, Seeing Through ‘Religion’: A Practical Handbook of Critical Approaches. Alex can be reached at ahenley@iis.ac.uk.

By interfering single photons emitted by ion qubits at each node of the network, the qubits can be entangled with one another without ever coming into contact, allowing a large quantum computer to be built from networks of smaller devices.

Recent publications: ‘Islam as a Challenge to the Ideology of Religious Studies: The Failure of Religious Studies in the Middle East’, in Implicit Religion.

Issue 3, Vol 22 (2020), 372-389.

Recent publications: ‘High-Rate, High-Fidelity Entanglement of Qubits Across an Elementary Quantum Network’, LJ Stephenson, DP Nadlinger, BC Nichol, S An, P Drmota, TG Ballance, K Thirumalai, JF Goodwin, DM Lucas, CJ Ballance, in Physical Review Letters, 124, 110501.

‘Islamic Authorities and Mosques in Jordan during the Corona Crisis’, in the Bulletin of the Council for British Research in the Levant, forthcoming.

The Revd Professor Andrew Gosler Fellow in Human Sciences

‘Religion and the Study of Religious Leadership’; and ‘Who Defines Religion in the Colony?’, in The Critical Religion Reader, ed M Barbato, C Montgomery and R Nadadur Kannan (Studio Dreamshare Press, 2020).

Andy’s Ethno-ornithology World Atlas (EWA) project has hosted four international meetings (two at Mansfield, two in the University of Pittsburgh). It then published in the groundbreaking volume that is the major output of Creative Multilingualism (an AHRC-funded venture exploring the links between creativity and language; see https://www.creativeml.ox.ac.uk/). The conferences brought linguists, ethnobiologists and conservationists together with indigenous scholars to focus on common concerns.

‘Mashyakhat al-‘Aql: The making of a modern Lebanese Druze institution’, in The Druze Millennium, ed A Abu-Husayn and M Rabah (American University of Beirut Press, forthcoming).

Lukas Hensel Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Development Economics Recent publications: ‘Coronavirus Perceptions and Economic Anxiety’, T Fetzer, L Hensel, J Hermle, and C Roth, in The Review of Economics and Statistics (forthcoming).

After ordination in 2019, Andy was invited to lecture in Aotearoa New Zealand, where he spoke in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin on faith, conservation and human rights. In 2020, using funds otherwise unspent due to the pandemic, EWA supported Amazonian indigenous communities to document their knowledge.

The EWA Research Group based across Zoology, Anthropology and Geography now has seven graduate students (see also https:// ewatlas.net/who-we-are and https://ewatlas.net/news).

‘Does Party Competition Affect Political Activism?’, A Hager, J Hermle, L Hensel and C Roth, in Journal of Politics (forthcoming).

Professor Peter Keevash Professorial Fellow in Mathematics

In October 2020, Andy was made a Professor, and is, we think, the world’s first Professor of Ethno-ornithology. We proudly congratulate him on this academic distinction. He also holds a joint position between the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology (Zoology Department) and the Institute of Human Sciences (School of Anthropology & Museum Ethnography).

This year Peter was awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant.

His project entitled ‘Combinatorial Applications of Random Processes and Expansion’ tackles a variety of challenging open problems in Pure Mathematics, many of which concern networks and are inspired by real life phenomena. This includes understanding mathematical models of phase transitions, the flow of fluid, or the spread of information or disease throughout a network.

Dr Alex Henley Stipendiary Lecturer in Theology and Marie Curie Research Fellow Alex left Oxford in summer 2020 for a position at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London, heading its MA in Islamic Studies.

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Dr Nishant Kumar College Associate

Elizabeth Li Outgoing Junior Dean

Nishant received a £15,000 grant from India-Oxford initiative’s Global Challenge research funds, for the organisation of collaborative workshops in India from August 2020 to July 2021. He has also completed Phase V of the Black Kite Project, on which he has been working with Professor Andrew Gosler. He is in the process of seeking a five-year extension from the Raptor Research & Conservation Foundation, Mumbai.

Elizabeth Li celebrated her small, socially distanced wedding at Mansfield Chapel on 22 August 2020.

Professor Paul Lodge Professorial Fellow in Philosophy During 2019/20 Paul held a Theatres Seed Fund Grant from TORCH (The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities) to develop ‘Cantat Ergo Sumus’ with local band Flights of Helios – a project that consists of setting poems written by philosophers to music. Sadly, this is on hold due to the Covid-19 outbreak. However, during the first lockdown, he wrote and recorded a number of other songs. These include ‘Preludes to Wordsworth’, nine settings of poems for the project ‘Wordsworth 250 – For the Love of Nature’ (http://www.wordsworth250. com/), which celebrates Wordsworth’s 250th anniversary; Paul is currently working with Ryan Michaels, a Nashville-based producer, to turn this into an album. For demo recordings of both these projects see: https://www.paullodge.com/music.

Nishant is a researcher jointly based at the Department of Zoology (University of Oxford) and the Wildlife Institute of India. In Delhi, he tries to understand opportunistic animal responses to resources provided by humans, and how centuries of coexistence have tied urban ecology of commensals with religiously founded patronage and ritual animal feeding by people. He is currently interested in understanding the socio-economic and public health impacts of scavenging ecosystem services provided by opportunistic commensals, and how their biocultural links are vital for a sustainable urban future in South Asia.

Recent publications: ‘Dynamic characterisation of space in South-Asian megacities shapes the commensalism of a facultative avian scavenger’, in Indigenous Urbanism, ed S Sharma, G Edwards (Routledge).

Paul was on sabbatical during 2019/20 and began developing a new research project concerned with what it is like to live a life that has involved manic experience. This is derived in part from his own experiences as someone with a bipolar-disorder diagnosis.

‘Human Dimensions Modulate Commensalism in Tropical Megacities: the case of an urban raptor in Delhi (India)’, in Ecology of Tropical Cities: Natural and Social Sciences Applied to the Conservation of Urban Biodiversity, ed F Angeoletto, P Tryjanowski and M Fellowes (Springer Nature).

Recent publications: Leibniz’s Key Philosophical Writings: A Guide, co-edited with L Strickland (Oxford University Press, 2020). ISBN 9780198844983.

‘GPS telemetry unveils the regular high elevation crossing of the Himalayas by a migratory raptor: implications for a definition of a Central Asian Flyway’, N Kumar, U Gupta, YV Jhala, Q Qureshi, AG Gosler, and F Sergio, in Scientific Reports 10 15988 (2020).

‘The Theodicy’ in Leibniz’s Key Philosophical Writings: A Guide, co-edited with L Strickland (Oxford University Press, 2020), 173205.

‘Cities, why do certain birds thrive there?’, N Kumar, U Gupta, YV Jhala, Q Qureshi, AG Gosler, and F Sergio, in Frontiers for Young Minds (8:46. doi:10.3389/frym.2020.00046).

‘Leibniz’s Philosophy as a Way of Life?’ in Metaphilosophy. Vol 51 (2020), 259-79.

‘What Is It Like to Be Manic?’ in The Oxonian Review (Feb 2020).

Online at http://www.oxonianreview.org/wp/what-is-it-like-tobe-manic/.

Professor David Leopold John Milton Fellow in Politics Recent publications: ‘Karl Marx and the Capabilities Approach’, in Cambridge Handbook of the Capability Approach, ed E Chiappero-Martinetti, S Osmani, and M Qizilbash (CUP, 2020).

Paul also published an online interview in the series ‘Dialogues on Disability’ at Biopolitical Philosophy.com in July https:// biopoliticalphilosophy.com/2020/07/15/dialogues-on-disabilityshelley-tremain-interviews-paul-lodge/

‘Alienation’, in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed EN Zalta (Research Laboratory at the Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University). Online at http:// plato.stanford.edu).

Professor Michèle Mendelssohn Tutorial Fellow in English

Dr Amber Murrey Tutorial Fellow in Geography Amber’s research on community responses to natural resource extraction in Cameroon was recognised by an Oxford Inspiration Award. She is the recipient of a 2020 British Academy Writing Workshop Grant which will fund two collaborative projects in support of Early Career Researchers working on critical political economy in Cameroon and Ethiopia.

In April 2020, ‘Making History: Christian Cole, Alain Locke and Oscar Wilde at Oxford’, an exhibition and series of events co-curated by Michèle, was shortlisted for a Vice Chancellor’s Diversity Award. These awards aim to highlight and celebrate projects and individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to equality and diversity across the University.

Amber was also awarded an Oxford Teaching Development and Enhancement Project Award for the development of a collaborative digital postgraduate course, Decolonising Research Methods in the Social Sciences, which brings together students and staff at the University of Oxford and three universities in Africa. The interdisciplinary digital course will be co-taught with Dr Steve Puttick (Education, Oxford) and Dr Nokuthula Hlabangane (Anthropology, University of South Africa). The course builds from a webinar hosted by Amber and Steve in Trinity term 2020, Digitising Critical Pedagogies in Higher Education Amidst Covid-19, which facilitated debate among pedagogists in Bhutan, China, India, the US and the UK.

While the ‘Making History’ exhibition at Magdalen College closed on 21 October 2019, Michèle and her ‘Making History’ colleagues have now created and launched a brand new digital resource to help people to continue to explore the lives of trailblazers Christian Cole, Alain Locke, and Oscar Wilde online: https://makinghistory. magd.ox.ac.uk.

Helen Mountfield QC Principal

Recent publications: ‘Confronting the deafening silence on race in geography education in England: learning from anti-racist, decolonial and Black geographies’, A Murrey and S Puttick in Geography. Issue 105, Vol 3, 162-164.

In 2019/20, Helen chaired a series of meetings of an Equality Task Force for the Institute for the Future of Work (of which she is a Trustee). In November, the ETF’s report, ‘Mind the Gap: Accountability for Algorithms’, was published. Its main proposal for an Accountability for Algorithms Act, is described in this article in Prospect magazine: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ author/helen-mountfield-and-josh-simons.

‘A decolonial critique of the racialized “localwashing” of extraction in Central Africa’, A Murrey and N Jackson in Annals of the American Association of Geographers. Issue 3, Vol 110, 917-940.

Helen also participated in this year’s Oxford Putney Debates on the Sovereignty of Parliament (https://www.oxfordputneydebates. com/); her contribution will become a chapter in a collection of essays on this subject, edited by Professor Denis Galligan.

‘Colonialism’ in The International Encyclopedia of Human Geography: People, the Earth, Environment and Technology, ed A Kobayashi (Elsevier, 2020), 315-326. 2nd ed. ISBN 9780081022955.

In April, Helen was sworn in (online) as a Judge of the Jersey Court of Appeal. She has been profiled in a number of articles in national media this year, including the Guardian (https://www.theguardian. com/education/2020/mar/24/one-oxford-college-has-96-ofstudents-from-state-schools-how-did-they-do-it ) and The Times (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/state-pupils-flockto-oxford-college-and-degree-results-soar-q96p7bxj0), about Mansfield’s groundbreaking work to broaden access to Oxford.

‘“When spider webs unite they can tie up a lion”: Anti-racism, decolonial options and theories from the South’ in Routledge Handbook of South-South Relations, ed E Fiddian-Qasmiyeh and P Daley (Routledge, 2020), 59-75. ISBN 9781138652002.

‘Thomas Sankara and a political economy of happiness’ in The Palgrave Handbook of African Political Economy, ed T Falola and S Oloruntoba (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), 193-208.

During the summer Helen was featured by Counsel magazine discussing her role at Mansfield, and her work as a barrister at Matrix Chambers: https://www.counselmagazine.co.uk/articles/ legal-heads. In Michaelmas term, she took over as Chair of the University’s Equality and Diversity Forum and has chaired the Conference of Colleges’ Disability Sub-Group.

‘Between assassination and appropriation: Pedagogical disobedience in an era of unfinished decolonisation’ in International Journal of Social Economics. Issue 46, Vol 11, 1319-1334.

‘Race, decolonial ethics, and women researching in Africa’ in Women Researching Africa, ed R Jackson and M Kelly (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), 171-192. ISBN 9783319945019.

In 2020, Helen also presented an intervention for the Equality & Human Rights Commission in the Supreme Court in a case concerning the implications of international law for the interpretation of the Human Rights Act regarding the ‘two child rule’, a discriminatory cap on Child Tax Credit.

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Dr Ruth Scobie Stipendiary Lecturer in English

The Revd Canon John Ovenden Chaplain (2014-2019)

Recent publications: ‘“A World of Bad Spirits”: The Terrors of Eighteenth-Century Empire’ in The Cambridge History of the Gothic Volume 1, Gothic in the Long Eighteenth Century, ed A Wright and D Townshend (Cambridge University Press, 2020), 180-197. ISBN 9781108472708.

After many dedicated years of service, John retired from his role as Chaplain at Mansfield at the end of 2019.

John’s warmth, kindness and patience have left a lasting impression on those who have worked with him. We hope you will join us in wishing him all the very best on his retirement.

College and University prizes 2019/20

Professor Jenn Strawbridge Tutorial Fellow in Theology & Religion

Lucinda Rumsey Senior Tutor and Tutor for Admissions

In January, Jenn was installed as the first Canon Theologian for the Diocese of Blackburn. Within this role, she assists the Diocesan Bishop and Cathedral Chapter in their theological reflections, studies, and teaching. Following the installation, she gave an inaugural lecture for the Diocese – ‘“Sight to the Inly Blind”: Encountering Blindness in Hymns and Scripture’ – drawing from her wider research on sightlessness in the New Testament.

Jenn also continues to serve as a Wiccamical Prebend (Honorary Theological Canon) for the Diocese of Chichester.

In March 2021, Lucinda will be admitted as the University of Oxford’s Senior Proctor, and so will be temporarily leaving Mansfield. We hope you will join us in wishing Lucinda warm congratulations on her new role.

Professor Alison Salvesen Supernumerary Fellow in Oriental Studies

Recent publications: The First Letter of Peter: A Global Commentary, editor and coauthor (SCM Press, 2020). ISBN 9780334058878.

In October 2020, Alison’s co-edited volume, Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period was published, having resulted from a project at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies in 2016, funded by the Polonsky Foundation and the Dorset Foundation.

‘Taking up Armour: The Challenges of Early Christian Exegesis of Ephesians’, in Studia Patristica, Vol 100, 19-38.

‘Farrer on St Paul’, in Austin Farrer for Today, ed R Harries and S Platten (SCM Press, 2020), 37-52. ISBN 9780334059448.

Joseph Mélèze Modrzejewski famously stated in The Jews of Egypt that ‘From time immemorial, Egypt has exercised a singular power of attraction over the Jews’. Israel’s larger and more powerful neighbour represented both religious danger and a place of safety and prosperity. Through essays from scholars in fields ranging from biblical studies and classics to papyrology and archaeology, Israel in Egypt explores what can be known of the attitudes and lived experiences of Jewish communities in Egypt, using both documentary and literary evidence.

Dr Eileen Tipoe Career Development Fellow in Economics Eileen was awarded the ‘Social Sciences 2020 Divisional Teaching Excellence Award (Early Career)’ during the summer, in recognition of her outstanding contribution to teaching and learning, and the academic development of students within the Department of Economics and the Division.

Recent publications: Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period, ed A Salvesen, S Pearce and M Frenkel (Brill, 2020). ISBN 9789004435391.

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Scholarships Andrey Afonin (Geography) Madeleine Awan (Theology & Religion) Jeremy Beard (Mathematics) Tobia Beccari (Mathematics) Benjamin Campbell (Engineering) Tommaso Crestani (Oriental Studies) Lukas Dijkstra (Mathematics) Oliver Farquharson (Engineering) Matthew Feaster (Physics) Lara Garrett (History) Joshua Ming An Gei (Engineering) Robin Gerlach (Mathematics) Daniel Guest (Mathematics) Alberto Hernandez Melian (Physics) Timothy Hobson (Mathematical & Theoretical Physics) Philip Holdridge (Mathematics) Jordan Jones (Oriental Studies) Pia-Marie Kaden (Human Sciences) Aamir Kaderbhai (Theology & Religion) Tabitha Kirkwood (Oriental Studies) Dina Kujundzic (Engineering) Nicholas Lai (Mathematics) Nikola Langov (Mathematics) Joshua Lanham (Geography) Peter Lewin-Jones (Mathematical & Theoretical Physics) Cameron Matchett (Physics) Shezad Mohamed (Mathematics) Thomas Morris (Mathematics) Yasmin Nguyen (Human Sciences) Rohan Nuckchady (Mathematical & Theoretical Physics) Kieran Rivers (Materials Science) Emily Roper (Oriental Studies) Jack Sagar (Philosophy & Theology)

Robert Scales (Materials Science) Jenny Scoones (English) Daniel Scotson (Materials Science) Adhiti Shenava (PPE) Benjamin Shi (Materials Science) Yixuan Song (Materials Science) Thomas Surridge (History) Anna Sweetman (Human Sciences) Francis Taylor (History) Jia Yi Tham (Geography) Jasper Threadingham (Engineering) Andrew Torr (Engineering) Ellen Walkingshaw (Theology & Religion) James Ward (Geography) Robyn Ware (History & Politics) Freya Webb (Law with Law Studies in Europe) Joel While (Geography) Yilong Yang (Engineering) Mingyang Ye (Physics)

Exhibitions Gabriel Barrueco (Mathematics) Martha Birtles (English) Brennig Davies (English) Katie Egerton (Theology & Religion) Oluwafemi Fakokunde (Materials Science) Travis Godfrey (Oriental Studies) Katherine Humphrey (English) Amira Izhar (English) Jim Laney (Engineering Science) Jeanne Lerasle (Theology & Religion) Maya Little (English) Mustaqim Mohammad Iqbal (Law) Richa Nahata (Engineering)

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Caleb-Daniel Oyekanmi (Law) Rajun Phagura (Materials Science) Alison Porter (English) Jamie Priestley (Physics) Jasmine Simms (Physics) Annabel van der Kooy (Materials Science) Charlotte Withyman (Materials Science) Laurent Wu (Mathematics)

Music scholarships and exhibitions Norman Booth Memorial Instrumental Exhibition Nathan Bentley Choral scholarships Vincent Elvin Travis Godfrey Patryk Imielski Victoria Roskams Joschua Spiedel-Johnson Flora Walker

College prizes Andrew Olive Prize for Economics Caitlin Deacock Kwabena Osei-Boateng Engineering Science Prize Mateusz Szewc Mason Lowance Prize in memory of Malcolm Parkes for best performance in English Language & Literature Mods Sophie Gwilt

Mason Lowance Prize in honour of John Creaser for best performance in English Language & Literature secondyear work Brennig Davies Alison Porter Mason Lowance Prize in memory of Stephen Wall for best performance in English Language & Literature Finals Maya Little Henty Prize for outstanding secondyear work in Geography Rachael Chan Ikra Hussain George King Georgina Morris Robert Power Fran Rigby Jia Yi Tham Joel While Mahony Prize for best second-year performance in History Callum Brignall

Bob Coates Prize for Mathematics tbc Horton Davies Prize for best secondyear work in Theology Ellen Walkingshaw Lynda Patterson Scholarship for best prelims distinction performance in Theology or Philosophy & Theology Mary Whittingale Sarah & Peter Harkness Bursary Adam Austin Ionut-Gabriel Lazar Alex Williamson Sarah & Peter Harkness Prize Mitch Marshall Grenader Family Visiting Student Prizes Kelli Powers Michaelmas term 2019 Xinxian Wang Hilary term 2020 Xinxian Wang Trinity term 2020

Worsley Prize for Law Mustaqim Mohammad Iqbal

Visiting Student Prize for 2019/20 Katherine Franco

Simon Calhaem Scholarship for Law John Yao Wen Yap

University prizes

John Sykes Prize for best Part I Materials results Yixuan Song Adam Monk Scholarship for Mathematics Jiahe Zhu

Arnold Prize for best thesis in Modern British History Lara Garrett FHS Gibbs Book Prize for History Lara Garrett

Institute of Materials, Mining and Minerals (IoM3) Prize for Best Overall Performance, Department of Materials Benjamin Shi Armourers & Brasiers’ Company Medal and Prize for Best Part II Project, Department of Materials Benjamin Shi Nomination for the IoM3 Royal Charter Prize for Best Materials Graduate, Department of Materials Benjamin Shi

Examination results 2020

Armourers & Brasiers’ Company/ TATA Steel Prize for Best Team Design Project, Department of Materials Yixuan Song

DOCTORATE (DPhil)

MASTER OF ENGINEERING (MEng)

Condensed Matter Physics

Nominee for the Society of Glass Technology’s Oldfield Award, Department of Materials Tara Milne

Cyber Security

Class I Class I Class I Class IIi Class IIi Class IIi

Armourers & Brasiers’ Company/ TATA Steel Prize for Best Overall Performance in Prelims Coursework, Department of Materials Rosanna Roskilly Prelims commendation for practical work, Department of Physics Alexander Fisher FHS Gibbs Prize for Theology & Religion Aamir Kaderbhai FHS Gibbs Essay Prize for Theology & Religion Kevin Cho

Pass

Pass

David Macdougal

Mariam Nouh

Robert Scales Daniel Scotson Benjamin Shi Joshua King Tara Milne Henry Williams

Economics Pass

Huan Qi Tarlan Suleymanov

English Pass

Steven Burton

Geography & the Environment Pass

Xuanyi Sheng

Industrially Focused Mathematical Modelling Pass Pass Pass Pass

Jung Eun Lee Michael McPhail Victoria Pereira Jessica Williams

Information, Communication & Social Sciences Pass

Merit

Zein Nasser

Philosophical Theology Merit

Philip Sivyer

Politics Merit

Katerina Kapodistria

Xiyu Jiao

Engineering Science Pass

Modern Middle Eastern Studies

Joseph Shaw

MASTER OF MATHEMATICS (MMath)

MASTER OF PHYSICS (MPhys)

Mathematics

Physics

Class I Class I Class I Class IIi Class IIi

Jeremy Beard Lukas Dijkstra Shezad Mohamed Gabriel Barrueco Laurent Wu

Mathematics & Statistics Class IIi

Matthew Harrington

MASTER OF MATHEMATICAL & THEORETICAL PHYSICS (MMathPhys) Distinction Distinction

Timothy Hobson Rohan Nuckchady

Class I

Alberto Hernandez Melian

MASTER OF PUBLIC POLICY Merit Pass

Leila Swan Lavanya Choudhary

MASTER OF SCIENCE (MSc BY RESEARCH) Engineering Science Pass

Daniel Kaiser

International Relations Pass

MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY (MPhil)

Materials Pass

Koen Evers

Systems Biology Pass

MASTER OF SCIENCE (MSc)

Shiu Cheung Alan Kwan

Leo Speidel

Economics Distinction Merit History Merit

64

Daniel Mead Shreshtha Mishra

Filippo Soramel

65

Biodiversity, Conservation & Management Merit Merit Pass

Elliot Fisher Hannah Nicholas Yuanzhao Ding

Economic & Social History Distinction

Hannah Copeland

Environmental Change & Management Distinction

Jasper Leonard Magerl

Theology Distinction

Oriental Studies Charlotte Moore

Class I Class I

Jordan Jones Emily Roper

Mathematical & Computational Finance Distinction Distinction Pass Pass

Ho Kwan Chan Hannah Maidment Xiaoshan Lin Shaoze Xu

Mathematics & Foundations of Comp Science Distinction

Sang Won Lee

Social Science of the Internet Distinction Distinction Distinction Merit Merit Pass

Hannah Bailey Katarina Rebello Huw Roberts Amélie Henle Darius Meadon Ziyi Shui

Statistical Science Distinction

George Batchkala

Water Science, Policy & Management Distinction

Abigail McGuckin

Pass

Lukas Larsson

Class IIi

Merit Cheuk Kwan Chung Declared to have deserved Master’s Mikayla Brier-Mills

Philosophy, Politics & Economics

DIPLOMA

English Merit Merit Merit

Lucy Downer Brandon Johnson Beatrice Scudeler

Global & Imperial History Merit Merit

Pass

Gilmar Baboolal

BACHELOR OF ARTS (BA) English Language & Literature Class I Class IIi Class IIi Class IIi Class IIi Class IIi Class IIi

Maya Little Jessica Duffy Kate Haselden Erin Minogue Nazan Osman Diren Ozcelik Grace Tomlinson

Merit

Sarah Blenko

Philosophical Theology Merit

Daniel Woolnough

Study of Religions Distinction

Class I Class I Class IIi Class IIi

Lara Garrett Leon Hughes Thomas Surridge Shamika Tamhane

Human Sciences

Adam Kelly

Simon Haas

Daniel Hall James Odor Miles Pressland Agatha Bather Kalyna El Kettas Oliver Oakley Adhiti Shenava

Theology & Religion Class I Class I Class I Class I Class IIi Class IIi

Madeleine Awan Seung Jae Cho Aamir Kaderbhai Jeanne Lerasle Anna Jeffrey Sarah Khan

MODERATIONS Jurisprudence Distinction Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass

John Yao Wen Yap Sara Cepele Eve McCarten Rebecca Nomafo Emily Thornton Boston Wyatt

History

Courtney Olsen

Medieval Studies Distinction

Joshua Lanham James Ward Holly Fothersgill

History & Politics

Linguistics, Philology & Phonetics Merit

Class I Class I Class IIi

Joanna Tabitha Korey Victoria Lawman

History

Class I Class I Class I Class IIi Class IIi Class IIi Class IIi

Diploma in Legal Studies

Geography

MASTER OF STUDIES (MSt)

Helena Penfold

BACHELOR OF CIVIL LAW (BCL)

Lynn Engelberts

Medical Anthropology Merit

Philosophy & Theology

Class IIi Class IIi

Class I Class IIi

Alice Bruce Robyn Ware

Pia-Marie Kaden Olivia Turpin

Jurisprudence Class IIi Class IIi Class IIi Class IIi

Harry Bambury Caleb-Daniel Oyekanmi Zara Ryan Saba Shakil

Mathematics Class IIi Class IIii

Callum Schafer Tianrun Yang

UNCLASSIFIED HONOURS Engineering Science (Part B) Class I Class I Class IIi Class IIi Class IIi

Oliver Farquharson Richa Nahata Benjamin Campbell Joschua Spiedel-Johnson Jasper Threadingham

Mathematics (Part B) Class I Class I

Daniel Guest Philip Holdridge

Mathematics & Statistics (Part B) Class I Nikola Langov Class IIi Danlong Gao