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Cuthbert’s Chronicle St Cuthbert’s Society Alumni Magazine June | July 2019

Issue No. 10

Cuthbert’s Chronicle

July 2019

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Welcome I

t is a bumper year for musical and acting talent in Cuth’s (as well as tapdancing in DULOG’s outstanding Singin’ in the Rain). In February I went to eight shows in two weeks in which our students appeared, all excellent, and another eight this month: Die Fledermaus and Iolanthe, the musicals Jesus Christ Superstar, Into the Woods, and many plays including an updated Oresteia and Jez Butterworth’s Mojo. Grease was put on as a 24 hour musical in Cuth’s Week, and the Choir have been in excellent voice this year, singing at Evensong in the Cathedral as well as their regular involvement in services at St Margaret’s. A highlight of Epiphany Term for me was the visit of my old friend Joel Motley, investment banker and past Co-Chair of Human Rights Watch, to show a documentary film about his mother, civil rights activist, lawyer and politician Constance Baker Motley, the first African-American woman to be a federal judge. Representatives of FemSoc and the People of Colour Association hosted a lively question and answer session after the film, and discussion continued over dinner in the SCR – which is looking lovely now that an elegant pale green paint has replaced the very tired wallpaper. We also hosted a dinner there to mark the retirement of SCR member Mike Barton, the remarkable Chief Constable who has made Durham one of the top police forces in the country. Amy Kuner finishes her year as JCR President this summer; she has worked tirelessly and achieved a great deal, with her energetic Exec. Recent JCR initiatives have included creating a Music Rep and a Working Class Students Rep. I look forward to working with the President-Elect, Elena Martin, and with Rishi Jindal, the Financial and Commercial Officer (a newly created sabbatical position to support the President).

durham.ac.uk/ st-cuthberts.society/alumni

Tell your story Please send your contributions and feedback to cuthberts.alumnirelations@ durham.ac.uk

In the next academic year we shall be celebrating the admission of women to the Society in 1969, with events in both Durham and London. We hope to see many alumnae and alumni during this year, and to hear your stories – and if you have photographs you would like to send us, please do. More details can be found on the back page. Harry Lewendon-Evans, our excellent Development Officer, is working on plans for the celebrations, but he is coming to the end of his term, and will leave us later in the summer. He has done magnificent work with and for the alumni, and also for current students, over the three years in which he has held this role, not least expanding the Chronicle and producing it such a high standard. Harry came to Durham, and to Cuth’s, as a postgraduate student, and has recently completed his PhD in Philosophy. He has contributed greatly to the JCR (including the postgraduate community and the Big Band) as well as to the alumni community. And in the best Durham tradition, he met his wife at Cuth’s! We are very grateful to Harry, and wish him well in his future career.

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Contents issue

Cuthbert’s Chronicle

June - July 2019

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College News

JCR News

Cuth’s on stage

Principal: Professor Elizabeth Archibald Email: e.f.archibald@durham.ac.uk

10 Scotland’s Roman Past and Britain’s Cathedrals

Alumni and Development Officer: Harry Lewendon-Evans Email: cuthberts.alumnirelations@ durham.ac.uk

14 Research Spotlight: Cementaries and Identity

12 Ella Parry-Davies: New Generation Thinker

16 Alumni Association 18 SCR

Cuthbert’s Chronicle

July 2019

Cuth’s News

The past few months have been an exciting time for Cuth’s with a new building approved, JCR elections, and support from the alumni community.

New building at Parson’s Field approved

fter many years of negotiation, we finally have permission and funding to put up a new multi-purpose building in the inner courtyard of Brooks House. This should be transformative for Cuth’s, providing space for a range of activities including talks, performances, and meetings, as well as much needed study space. We are working on the design at present, with input from the JCR and college staff and hope that work will begin in June 2020.

Artist’s impression of new building in the courtyard of Brooks House.

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Cuth’s is proud!

here was a fantastic turn out from Cuth’s students at this year’s Durham Pride in May, with not one but two banners!

New JCR President and Fellows

e are pleased to announce that Elena Martin has been elected as the next President of the JCR. Elena was Vice President in 2018-19 and before that was the Outreach Rep. Well done Elena! Our writer-in-residence, US journalist Ted Gup, has been elected as a Fellow of the Society. His informal writing group was so popular that he had to divide it into two; he is hugely enthusiastic about the talents of the students who attend. Finally, SCR President Dr Mark Miller has also been elected as a Fellow of the Society. Congratulations to all!

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Cuthbert’s Chronicle

the use.

Thank you for your support! I

t is with great pleasure that we are able to report that we have completed the first stage of fundraising for our St Cuthbert’s Society Bursaries Fund, which has successfully reached our initial target of £5000 to establish hardship bursaries for incoming students. The generous support of our alumni has helped establish three bursaries which will be made available to new students in the next academic year,

which will allow them to participate fully in the life of the Society. The Bursaries Fund was established to ensure that incoming students from all financial backgrounds can enjoy the same opportunities and experiences as previous generations of Cuth’s students.

Find out more Visit: durham.ac.uk/st-cuthberts.society/ alumni/fundraising/bursaries Email: cuthberts.alumnirelations@ durham.ac.uk Tel: 0191 334 3380

Kate McIntosh elected SU President

ate McIntosh, a Combined Social Sciences finalist from Cuth’s, has been elected as the next Students’ Union President. Her policy priorities include combatting sexual violence and harassment on campus and in Durham City, developing support for international students through increased representation and support in

the SU, and fighting for a fairer community. Kate has a long career in campaigning and advocacy during her studies at Durham, having been President of Women in Politics, an NUS delegate, and the Political & Causes Rep on the Societies Committee in the SU. w

Cuthbert’s Chronicle

July 2019

JCR News It has been a busy and exciting year for the JCR, from successes across sports and societies to a brilliant run of awareness-raising welfare campaigns!

ver the last two terms, Cuth’s JCR has been busy with a number of changes and successes within the JCR and our sports and socs teams. At the beginning of 2019 we voted to introduce a new sabbatical position, the Finance and Compliance Officer who will replace our treasurer. Social Comm have built upon the successes from the Michaelmas Ball, and organised a 1920s-themed Feast of St Cuthbert’s where the Bailey was taken back to the roaring 20s featuring jazz dancing and casino tables. For this year’s Summer Ball, Social Comm organised a Venetian Summer featuring circus acts, authentic stone-baked pizzas, and fireworks. The Welfare Committee have also continued to put on successful campaigns this term including: Loneliness and Isolation, Minority Rep week, SHAG week and Stress Less during the Exam Period. Furthermore, our LGBT+ Rep led a group over 40 Cuth’s Students who came to support the LGBT+ community at Durham Pride. Our Sports and Societies have also had a successful year. Women’s Football won their league and Cuth’s Most Improved Society at the Cuth’s JCR Awards. Feminist Society has put on a number of talks including ‘Women and the Arts’ and International Women’s Day and won Best Society in Cuth’s. Netball have had a successful

Postcards from Cuth’s

season for their teams, and also won the Mismatch Game where Cuth’s Women’s Netball played Men’s Rugby at Netball with a final score of 25:23. Cuth’s Pool B Team also won their division. Our Sports and Socs Chair also organised our first Varsity Day against Hild Bede where Tennis, Squash and Mixed Touch Rugby won their games, despite an overall loss. Art Society put on a successful art exhibition with 40 entries, a significant increase from last year, which opened on the day of the Principal’s Garden Party. They have also been selling postcards of the entries to give to an art charity in the North East. The Principal’s Prize went to first-year Loli Jefferson for ‘A Fresh Canvas’, her elaborate collage of a year’s activities in Cuth’s arranged to frame the front door of House 12. Cuth’s Boat Club rowed 500km in one day, the distance from Durham to Amsterdam, to raise money to purchase a new boat. Running Club also participated in Run to the Sun where there was someone from the club running at some point over a twenty-four hour period. Next year’s Exec, under the new JCR President Elena Martin, have recently been elected and we are looking forward to another year of success and improvement. Sarah McAllister JCR Communications Officer

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Cuthbert’s Chronicle

Cuth’s Outreach T

he JCR has fundraised close to £3000 across the year, which has been donated to a range of charities all based in the North East. We have created new events, such as the hugely successful ’12 Days of Outreach’ in the lead up to the Christmas break, which involved Christmas Karaoke, cake sales, a festive silent disco and groups of students singing personalised serenades gifted by other students. Our latest fundraising event was a 24-hour musical, where a group of Cuth’s students learned and rehearsed a musical that they performed 24 hours later; a sleep-deprived and slightly chaotic performance, but it was carried through with the Cuth’s spirit! We have

also continued on with FRAMDA, the volunteering project in a local school to teach the pupils drama, and this has once again been very successful and already confirmed to run next year. We have also managed to set up another volunteering project working with JET North, a charity based in Newcastle that aims to help people from different ethnic backgrounds to the UK to find their feet in British society. Cuth’s will be working as part of a Women’s Integration Project which will see groups of female Cuth’s students travelling to Newcastle to hold sessions with women from different ethnic backgrounds. These women many have been in the UK for years and years, or they may have just arrived in

the UK, and the aim of this project is to help them feel more part of the society in which they now live. The sessions range from cultural issues, such as a why Bonfire Night exists, to more practical matters, such as help with studying for a driving theory test. We have high hopes for this project to grow into a fantastic partnership with JET in the coming years.

verall, outreach work within Cuth’s is going from strength to strength every year, and this year has been no exception. Ell Page JCR Outreach Officer

Cuth’s &

CATSS

ATSS is a Durham-wide Student Community Action project that takes children from disadvantaged backgrounds across County Durham on residentials and a week away over Easter break in order to give these kids some respite. Cuth’s has been extremely well represented in the project this year, with around half of the 25 volunteers coming from the college. CATSS is a challenging, emotional, and astoundingly rewarding project, where students are able to make a notable difference in the local community; however, in order to do this we rely on the support of those around us to help to make sure it goes ahead. The Cuth’s community, in particular Jon Warren and Mark Miller, have been extremely helpful this year by advertising our fundraising

events and donating themselves. For this we are very grateful. Our biggest fundraiser this year was a sponsored walk on the 17th March where 7 of the CATSS Secondary volunteers (5 of whom were Cuth’s) walked from Hartlepool to Sunderland dressed as our favourite children’s book characters (above). It was a great day, with variable weather, stunning coastal scenery and a number of odd looks from passers-by.

The walk took around 8 hours, meaning we arrived in Sunderland at exactly the right time for some pub grub in a Wetherspoons. Overall, the event was a massive success, raising around £800 for the project, and for this we’d like to say a huge thank you (once again) to everyone in the community who supported us! Elena Martin & Rishi Jindal

Cuthbert’s Chronicle

July 2019

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Cuth’s on stage It’s been a fantastic year for music and theatre at Cuth’s with our students performing on stage across the University and beyond.

uth’s students have always had a certain penchant for the theatrical and this year has been no exception. Performing, playing, and acting in a vast range of different productions this year, our students have been heavily involved with music and theatre across the college and the University, demonstrating their talent and versatility. The latest production from Durham Operatic Ensemble, Iolanthe, boasted a strong Cuth’s component with Hugo Milliard (Director), Josh Gordon (Technical Director), Sarah Panek

(Assistant Technical Director), and Emma Stephens (Stage Manager), and Rory McNeilage as the Lord Chancellor and Alex Akhurst as Earl Tolloller. Other operatic triumphs include Die Fledermaus starring Cameron Gergett (above, left). Cuth’s students have also been hard at work writing for the stage: Dan Takyi’s Black Training was brought to life with Durham University’s People of Colour Association and Durham Student Theatre, integrating his poetry with narratives of race in everyday life.

Dan Takyi

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Spotlight: Libby Dillon The Chronicle caught up with Cuth’s finalist, Libby Dillon (Music) about her involvement with music during her time in Durham.

play the violin, piano and organ, but focus primarily on violin in Durham. I have been a member of DUCE in first, second and third year, DUPO in second year, and DUOS in second and third year, as well as Co-President of Durham University Chamber Music Society in third year. This is a new society created to form small groups with a range of abilities, to cater for the wide variety of genres and abilities of musicians in Durham. I have also been Social Secretary for Music Durham in my third year and on the DUCE exec for second and third year.

great to have rehearsals as a break between work and deadlines! Going on tour with orchestras has been one of the highlights of my time at Durham, as it’s a chance to explore and play in some beautiful venues with your close friends, which you may have never had the chance to perform in otherwise. Another a favourite is the last concert of each academic year for each orchestra. It’s always a bit emotional because for many it is the last time they will perform in Durham, but that’s what makes it even more special.

Music is so important to me, not just because it’s my degree, but because I think music is essential in everybody’s lives. I cannot imagine what it would have been like had I not been involved with music in Durham, as I have been so lucky to meet such lovely friends and have some of the best musical experiences of my life so far. It is also

After Durham, I’m planning to get a job working with disadvantaged or disabled people. I then hope to study for a Masters in Music Therapy so that I can work as a Music Therapist in the future to help people with disabilities, illnesses, or disadvantaged backgrounds.

Music at Cuth’s

t was a great pleasure to see the progression in all the artistic and cultural exploits of students and staff at Cuth’s! Having been a student at college between from 2008 to 2011, it was fantastic to see the new levels of dedication and pride shown in the processes for the creation of artistic works, and the quality of the delivery of performances and exhibitions, in all artistic disciplines. My experience with musicians in college, particularly with the Choir and Big Band, was truly inspiring. It has been fantastic to develop new opportunities for college

in outreach and performance so that we have co-curricular products that we can all share in, enjoy and be proud of. In particular, the choir have given excellent performances at college events and in the local community and provided regular services for the congregation of St. Margaret’s Church, Crossgate. I look forward to building upon the strong artistic foundations we have already laid. Matthew Morgan (Music, 2011) Musician-in-residence 2018

Cuthbert’s Chronicle

Cuth’s student selected for Guildhall School of Music and Drama

fter having spent the majority of his final year auditioning, Cuth’s finalist Kishore Thiagarajan (English Studies) won a place to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, on the highly competitive 3-year MA Acting degree. This year, over 3000 people applied for just 26 places. Kishore attributes part of his success to his time at Cuth’s and the opportunities it gave him: “I simply could not have achieved this place if not for Cuth’s support and generous financial assistance in helping me attend and represent the college at festivals such as the National Student Drama Festival and Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Without these experiences, I doubt I would have had the confidence and skills to compete for a place at a top drama school. I also never expected, in my wildest dreams, to win a place on my first time applying to Drama schools, but put this down, as well, to these past opportunities”.

Cuthbert’s Cuthbert’sChronicle Chronicle

July 2019

Uncovering Scotland’s Roman Past

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Beyond the Empire: A Guide to the Roman Remains in Scotland by Andrew Tibbs, member of Cuth’s SCR and former Acting Vice-Principal, brings together in on volume for the first time all of Scotland’s Roman sites, which were occupied by the Roman Army, the greatest military machine the world has ever seen.

cotland was the only country never conquered by the Roman Empire, always remaining tantalisingly out of Rome’s reach, and so the world’s biggest and most powerful military machine failed to take the barren and desolate lands of the north and turn them into a Mediterranean utopia. Despite failure to subjugate the Caledonian tribes, the Roman influence was still felt throughout what is now Scotland,

with archaeologists constantly finding tantalising glimpses of the remains of the Empire. Scotland is home to 300 known or suspected Roman sites, many of which are still to reveal their secrets. There are battlefields and forts, camps and longforgotten temples, not to mention the Antonine Wall which cuts across central Scotland, separating the Romans from

the barbarians. Beyond the Empire, written by Cuth’s former Acting Vice-Principal Andrew Tibbs, is designed as a guide for anyone with little or no knowledge of Scotland’s past, and contains 150 full colour images, over 100 location maps, information about the history of each site, details of the Roman archaeology and what can be seen on the ground, along with notable

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Cuthbert’s Chronicle

finds from the sites. Beyond the Empire is a complete guide to the hidden remains of the Roman Empire in Scotland, and how to visit them. Andrew says, “The Romans were in Britain for almost 400 years, and in that time kept trying to invade Scotland; sometimes they made it as far as the Highlands, and other times they didn’t get further than the Borders. As a result, we’ve got the remains of so many Roman monuments such as the Antonine Wall, a worthy successor to Hadrian’s Wall, or there’s Mons Graupius, a lost battlefield in the northeast where a handful of Romans defeated thousands

of Caledonians. “Scotland may have been depicted as a bleak and desolate land full of wildlings living beyond the Wall in Game of Thrones, but the reality is that Scotland was a land which successive Roman Emperors wanted to tame and control, but none of them succeeded. Beyond the Empire is the perfect guide for those wanting to explore Scotland’s Roman past.”

“Scotland was a land which successive Roman Emperors wanted to tame and control, but none of them succeeded”

Beyond the Empire: A Guide to the Roman Remains in Scotland is out now, published by Robert Hale, an imprint of The Crowood Press.

Ships of Heaven Cuth’s alumnus and Fellow Christopher Somerville (French, 1971) continues his travels through the British Isles in his new book Ships of Heaven: The Private Life of Britain’s Cathedrals.

n his most recent book, Ships of Heaven, Christopher Somerville takes his reader on a journey among his favourite cathedrals across Britain. Challenging a view of cathedrals that sees them as great unmoving bastions of tradition, he explores how the lives, buildings and communities that the cathedrals have fostered for over a thousand years have been in a constant state of upheaval. Here we find stories of the monarchs and bishops who ordered the building of these massive

but unstable structures, the masons whose genius brought them into being, the peasant labourers who erected (and died on) the scaffolding. We learn of rogue saints exploited by holy sinners, the pomp and prosperity that followed these ships of stone, the towns that grew up in their shadows, the impact of the Black Death, the Reformation and icon-smashing Puritanism, the revival brought about by the Industrial Revolution, and the hope and disillusion of two world wars.

Meeting believers and non-believers, architects and archaeologists, the cleaner who dusts the monuments and the mason who judges stone by its taste, Christopher invites you to delve deep into the private lives and the uncertain future of these ever-voyaging Ships of Heaven. Ships of Heaven: The Private Life of Britain’s Cathedrals is out now, published by Penguin Books.

BBC New Generation Thinker 12

Cuthbert’s Chronicle

July 2019

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Dr Ella Parry-Davies, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama at the University of London and alumna of Cuth’s, has been named as a 2019 New Generation Thinker. Dr Parry-Davies is one of ten New Generation Thinkers to be selected by BBC Arts, BBC Radio 3, and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The Chronicle caught up with Dr Parry-Davies to discuss her research and how she plans to bring it to a wider public audience.

our research centres around the concept of ‘performance’. What do you take ‘performance’ to be and why does it figure so centrally in your work? I don’t limit my definition of performance to an art form that happens in a theatre building. I understand performance as an everyday practice that (like dramatic theatre) is collective, embodied and creative. The creative ways in which migrant workers form relationships to new cities can also be considered performative in those terms. Though this might sound like a long way from ‘traditional’ theatre-making, political dramatists like Bertolt Brecht have also historically been interested in ‘the theatre whose stage is the street’: that is, performance as a survival tactic of popular life. Rather than a boundaried artistic genre, performance operates in my work as a critical lens; a way of paying attention to the ‘live’ nature of social and urban experience. What inspired your current postdoctoral project, ‘Home-Makers: Urban Expertise in the Phillipine

Cuthbert’s Cuthbert’sChronicle Chronicle

Diaspora’? My PhD focussed on how cultural memory was performed in two postcolonial and highly migratory cities at opposite extremes of the Asian continent: Beirut and Singapore. Yet although histories of transnational migration were very present as the context of the performances I was writing about, I wasn’t explicitly looking at them from migrants’ perspectives. ‘Home-Makers’, the postdoctoral project I’m currently working on, takes up the unanswered questions from my previous research. How do cities become ‘home’ for their migrant populations? Do we need to rethink how we understand what ‘home’ means if we start from a migratory experience? In this project, I’m working with women domestic and care workers from the Philippines based in Lebanon and the UK: people who labour in other people’s homes, often have very limited domestic space of their own, and yet (I argue) are experts at creatively forming a sense of home ‘on the move’. Your wider interests concern the relationships between memory, transnational migration and performance. Could you say a bit more about you envisage those relationships? Since both performance and migration are processes that involve change, one way of looking at these relationships might be through loss: that is, to emphasise the forgetting and erasures brought about by reinvention. We might think that a sense of home is ‘lost’ in the process of migration, for example. However, I’ve learned through my research that live performance isn’t simply ephemeral or about constant change: it is also a practice that maintains, repairs and remembers. Migrant care workers have told me, for example, that through forming communities, and everyday activities like cooking and eating together, the UK can feel like a ‘home away from home’, despite their often adverse circumstances. So in contexts of

migration especially, I’m interested in how performance creates anew, but also how it is restorative and enacts care. What are your plans for bringing your work to a wider audience? One result of my postdoctoral project will be a series of “soundwalks” developed from conversations with migrant domestic and care workers in places that are particularly meaningful to them. Members of the public will be able to download the soundwalk (like a podcast) and retrace our steps in that place, while listening to the voice of somebody who may have a completely different relationship to that same environment. So working with BBC Radio 3 via the New Generation Thinkers scheme is an opportunity for me to develop the project for the very intimate medium of radio, and share the sounds and voices I’m working with. Importantly, it also offers a platform that isn’t confined behind the paywalls of academic publishing, and that I hope can be of some use to the people giving up their time to participate in the project, and the activists and campaigners working to support migrants in the UK’s current “hostile environment” (to use Theresa May’s terminology). Finally, how do you look back on your years in Durham and at Cuth’s? I’m pleased to see that in recent years attention has been paid to sexual harassment and violence at Durham, because when I look back at my time at Cuth’s, I’m shocked to realise how widespread misogyny and homophobia were in the college, and how complicit myself and my peers were in normalising it – in not calling it out. As a university, Durham reproduces some of the UK’s most embedded inequalities, and this can produce an alienating experience for students. But I hope increasing awareness of this fact, and of decolonisation strategies across the higher education sector, can bring about more equity for students and graduates.

Cuthbert’s Chronicle

July 2019

Life after Death: Cementaries and Identity

Research Spotlight

How we memorialise the dead is deeply imbued with our identities and values, connecting us to our lives and future generations. Dr Emily Williams from the Department of Archaeology and a new member of Cuth’s SCR explores how cementaries shape who we are after we die.

emeteries have often been described as ‘cities of the dead’ a term which implies finality and lack of relevance. But they are also places of connection between neighbors and generations. As such, they can be active in helping to form social relations and even shaping political views. My research has focused on cemeteries in 19th century cemeteries in Virginia and has looked at how African Americans used tombstones to advocate for their own worth and equality both in the antebellum period and after the Civil War and how white Virginians used the cemeteries to recast the memory of the Civil War and to express the Lost Cause ideology, which has powerfully shaped the States’ history since its first articulation. My interest in cemeteries began with

the excavation of two tombstones by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. They were both commissioned and erected by a free black, Alexander Dunlop, to commemorate enslaved members of his family (specifically his wife and father in law). The language employed on both was interesting. The wife’s tombstone (erected 1866) stated that she was “born a slave in the Travis family” while the father-inlaw’s tombstone (erected 1851) made no explicit mention of race. Both tombstones were also signed by their carvers. After marking the burials for over sixty years the tombstones were moved and buried by a white church in the 1920s and later reburied by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, a large living history museum, in the 1960s and the rediscovered in 2004. The initial aims of my research were to contextualise the tombstones in order to inform my work conserving them but the research soon grew and ultimately evolved into a large

Tombstone for Fleming Lewis

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survey of cemeteries in Williamsburg and its neighboring cities of Richmond, Norfolk and Petersburg. I surveyed both black and white cemeteries in order to compare the language forms used on the tombstones and the decoration employed. One thing that I discovered was that there were differences in the ways in which blacks and whites memorialised the black dead. Whites tended to memorialise servants and slaves in ways that isolated them socially and to focus the memorial on the service to the family. An example in Williamsburg, is the inscription ‘Mammy, good and faithful servant’. The lack of a name or birth and death dates suggests that all of Mammy’s

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Cuthbert’s Chronicle

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life was simply devoted to service. On the other hand tombstones commissioned by blacks for blacks tend to stress the familial and community connections of the deceased; to contextualise their lives and highlight the value of the individual to those they leave behind. While we may think that this is the role of a tombstone similar patterns were not always noted in tombstones in the white cemeteries. In part the differences in how white tombstones expressed the value of white individuals and black tombstones defined the worth of black individuals were products of the limitations of slavery and later Jim Crow. Whites often recorded the profession of deceased males as a means of showing his achievements, whereas for blacks limitations on what professions they could enter meant that church membership and service was more often highlighted as an indicator of achievement. My research on cemeteries and the Dunlop family is continuing. Both the

tombstones Dunlop commissioned were signed by their carvers and I have been building biographies of the prominent Virginian carvers during the period and looking at why and when carvers chose to sign tombstones. Although carver’s signatures are often dismissed as a marketing ploy, this explanation loses some credibility when one looks at the numbers and locations of signed and unsigned tombstones and it would seem that there are other motivating factors. Understanding this better is important as the statements of significance used for National Register of Historic Places designations of historic cemeteries often include information on the carvers. Dunlop’s brother in law, Robert Hill, became a missionary in Liberia as well as a member of the Liberian Congress. He was politically active and his views about black identity are dramatically different from those of Dunlop. Hill favoured emigration as the only way blacks could be free of white influence, whereas Dunlop

advocated coexistence both in testimony between the US Joint Congressional Committee on Reconstruction and in a meeting with Andrew Johnson, the US President. Exploring their arguments and experiences and family connections has the potential to highlight the diversity of opinions and the richness of black political thought during the period. When Hill died, on a recruitment tour to the United States, his body was embalmed and sent back to Liberia along with a tombstone…so there are potentially additional horizons yet to explore.

Cuthbert’s Chronicle

July 2019

St Cuthbert’s Alumni Association

The Alumni Association connects alumni to St Cuthbert’s Society and the University, offering social and professional opportunities to the alumni community.

irstly, congratulations to all those who have graduated this summer. I hope you have all enjoyed your time at Cuth’s and are now looking forward to whatever the future may hold. I’m sure many of you have already planned your next steps, whether continuing to a further degree, starting your career, or travelling the wider world.

Alistair Stewart (Geology, 2016) Chair, Alumni Association chair@cuths.org

Many of you may still trying to figure what to do next with your lives. Many people will be in a similar position; you won’t be the only one unsure what to do next. From personal experience, I know what it is like to graduate without fully knowing what is coming next, and it took me about a

year before I was in my first full-time role, despite many applications. For anyone still working out what to do next, my only advice is to not panic; you will figure it out eventually, even if it takes a few attempts! No matter what your future plans are, let me be the first to welcome you to St Cuthbert’s Alumni Association: the alumni body for all former students of St. Cuthbert’s Society. We offer a way for you to keep in touch with other alumni, with Cuth’s, and to support the JCR whenever possible. We regularly put on events, including the Founders’ Dinner in October and

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Cuthbert’s Chronicle

to help run the Association. If you are interested in volunteering or helping out the Association, do not hesitate to get in touch! We are always looking for more volunteers; no matter how small a commitment you are willing/able to give, it is all appreciated and can have a big impact. Looking to the future, next year promises to be a memorable time for the Cuth’s community as we celebrate the 50th Year Anniversary of Women in Cuth’s. A historical moment, for it was back in 1969 when the first female students joined Cuth’s, becoming the first college to go mixed. It seems fitting that on the eve of the celebratory year, the JCR elected Elena Martin as the new JCR president, making it the fourth year in a row that the JCR has elected a female president. There are many exciting things being planned, so do keep an eye out and help us make the anniversary a year to remember.

St Cuthbert’s Day Lunch in March. Recently we helped organise a Recent Grads event in London in May, which was enjoyed by all those who attended. Currently our events are primarily in London with a regular Alumni Weekend in Durham; however we are looking to try and start having more events around the rest of the UK over the next year or two and are always happy to help anyone thinking of organising their own event. Having only been Chair of the Association since September last year, one of my ambitions for the coming years is to improve the Association’s networking events and for us to provide advice around future careers, or even information for someone moving to a new city, both for current students and alumni – recent and not so recent. None of these things would be possible without the hard work of the Alumni Committee, a group of dedicated alumni who volunteer their spare time

On a final note, on behalf of the Alumni Association, I would like to give a big thank you to Harry Lewendon-Evans for all his hard work over the last three years as the Alumni Development Officer at Cuth’s. He has done a terrific job throughout his time, working tirelessly to organise the Alumni Weekends in Durham alongside other alumni events such as the Recent Grads events, producing the bi-annual Chronicle and many other things that often go unnoticed. All the best for your upcoming ventures, I’m sure you will have great success and although you will be leaving Durham, you will always remain a part of Cuth’s.

@st.cuthberts.association @Cuths contact@cuths.org cuths.org

Class Notes Alistair D W Fothergill OBE (Zoology, 1983) has been honoured in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for 2019. Peter Preston (Physics, 1968), who took an MA at UEA in creative writing then worked as managing editor of the literary publishers Weidenfeld and Nicolson, has three published novels, and is now working on a fourth. Gabriel Cantu (Law, 2008) accepted a position as in-house counsel for a Native American tribe located in Bellingham, USA, the Lummi Nation. Gabriel is the only Durham law grad to ever have taken such a position. Michelle Hockley (History, 1999) has published her novel Before Spring Came Summer, based on true events from her research and expertise in the seventeenth century and the royal court.

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Cuthbert’s Chronicle

July 2019

Senior Common Room In some colleges, the Senior Common Room is a secluded spot where academics and other senior members can retire to read the papers at almost any time, and it is rare to see students there. Cuth’s SCR, on the first floor of 12 South Bailey, isn’t really like that. The Room is pressed into service for receptions, board meetings, private mentor sessions, public talks, and many other types of event. Even when it is used in the traditional way as the gathering place for High Table after Formals, we very much enjoy inviting members of the JCR to join us for further conversation over a glass of port (the Choir, for example, are regular visitors whenever they provide music at college dinners).

from an overflowing external downpipe last year finally made redecoration unavoidable. We have gone for a simple approach that, we hope, better shows off the elegant features of the room. Over the Christmas vacation, the walls were stripped, completely replastered and painted, highlighting the distinctive moulded plasterwork on the ceiling beams. The photo shows the room set out for the annual SCR Gourmet Lunch in March. We await the arrival of new curtains to frame the windows, and look forward to reupholstering the chairs, which look even more tired now that the room itself has been rejuvenated. We hope you agree that the SCR is now a more fitting venue for its many functions.

Anyone who has visited the SCR in the last couple of years cannot have failed to notice that the decor in the SCR was showing its age, with peeling wallpaper and chipped paintwork. Water damage

The gardens of 12 South Bailey have also been undergoing something of a makeover, thanks to teamwork from both Common Rooms. Susan Warren (wife of Vice Principal Jon) has been

g o leading the termly gardening mornings in collaboration with Cuth’s Gardening Society and additional volunteers. Their most recent session in May has helped the gardens and the President’s Walk to be in the best possible shape for the summer. I’ll finish by highlighting the recent publication of two new books by members of the SCR, more about which you can read elsewhere in this issue of Chronicle (pages 10-11). Last month I attended the official launch of Beyond the Empire: A Guide to the Roman Remains in Scotland, by Andrew Tibbs (former Acting Vice Principal) and, at the time of writing, we are looking forward to welcoming Christopher Somerville (alumnus and Fellow) back to Cuth’s to tell us about Ships of Heaven: The Private Life of Britain’s Cathedrals, including, of course, Durham.

Dr Mark Miller SCR President scr.president@durham.ac.uk

uly 2019

Cuthbert’s Chronicle

We believe that the best and brightest should be able to study here, regardless of financial capacity

Supporting the next generation of Cuth’s students

You can help to ensue that students from all backgrounds can enjoy the same opportunities as generations of Cuth’s students.

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Support the St Cuthbert’s Society Bursaries Fund today. Visit durham.ac.uk/st-cuthberts. society/alumni/fundraising

What’s on at Cuth’s

cuthberts.alumnirelations @durham.ac.uk

@CuthbertsAlumni

@CuthsAlumni

durham.ac.uk/ st-cuthberts.society/alumni

October

November

Celebrating 50 Years of Women at Cuth’s Launch

IAS Lecture: Origins of Clay Minerals and their Perspectives

Annual Fellows’ Lecture: Elspeth Talbot Rice QC

Venue: London, TBC

Venue: 12 South Bailey

Venue: Elvet Riverside 201, Durham

Date: Saturday 26 October

Date: Tuesday 12 November

Date: TBC

Time: 2:30pm - 5:30pm

Time: 5:30pm

Time: TBC

The launch of our celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the arrival of women at Cuth’s. It will start with a drinks reception and feature guest speakers, an exhibition, and networking opportunities: don’t miss out!

Lecture given by our Institute of Advanced Study Fellow, Dr Elshan Abdullayev, discussing his research on clay minerals, their chemical composition and geochemistry. All welcome.

The Annual Fellows’ Lecture of the Society given by barrister and Cuth’s alumna, Elspeth Talbot Rice QC (Law, 1989) as part of the 50th anniversary year. All welcome.