The Aularian, Issue 24, 2017

ST EDMUND HALL UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

ISSUE 24. 2017

AULARIAN THE

p06

p12

p20

INTRODUCING GARETH SIMPSON

A CAREER IN CHOCOLATE

BY ROYAL APPOINTMENT: CHURCHYARD RENOVATION

WWW.SEH.OX.AC.UK

BELOW: Entrants to last year’s Hall Photography Competition: (from top) Samuel Mortimer (2011, Philosophy & Theology), Theo Silkstone Carter (2011, Materials Science), Marie Wong (2012, Chemistry).

If you have any comments or suggestions regarding The Aularian, please contact Sally Smith.  TELEPHONE

 EMAIL

+44 (0)1865 279041

sally.smith@seh.ox.ac.uk

CHIEF EDITORS

Kate Townsend, Alumni Relations Manager and Sally Smith, Head of Development & Alumni Relations Office CONTRIBUTORS

Chris Atkinson, Rachel Carver, Ruari Clark, Leslie DicksonTetteh, Steve Edwards, Mattéa Finelli, Amelia Gabaldoni, 02

Benjamin Grout, Keith Gull, Tabitha Hayward, Claire Hooper, Kristy Leissle, Luke Maw, Erica McAlpine, Scarlett Nash, Peter Rothwell, Gareth Simpson, Charlotte Stagg, Jayne Taylor, David Waring, Linde Wester, Robert Wilkins, Adam Wills DESIGN Victoria Mackintosh Design  victoria@jmackintosh.com

THE AULARIAN

CONTENTS 04

04-05 From the Principal:

Institutions and People 06

Update from the Development & Alumni Relations Office

07

The Matt Greenwood Travel Scholarships

08-09 Research Expo 2017 10-11 Steve Edwards: The Polar Challenge

07

13

12

Dr Kristy Leissle: A Career in Chocolate

13

Dr Mattéa Finelli: The Life and Death of a Neuron

14-15 Professor Peter Rothwell:

Unique Oxford Study of Vascular Disease

Reaches Several Milestones 16-17 Professor Erica McAlpine:

The Poet’s Mistake 18-19 The Centre for the Creative Brain 20-21 By Royal Re-appointment:

Churchyard Renovation

18

22

2016 Events Summary

23

St Edmund Hall Association: President’s Report

24

News from the JCR

25

News from the MCR

26-27 Writing at the Hall and The Gallery 28-29 Sporting News 30

Masterclass Awards

31

Introduction to the Admissions Office

25

25

31

28 03

WWW.SEH.OX.AC.UK

FROM THE PRINCIPAL:

INSTITUTIONS AND PEOPLE

It is often said that although Oxford does change, the rate is glacial! Perhaps in these times of climate change the rate is becoming more perceptible. Whatever the speed, the manner of change is sometimes rather Byzantine in complexity.

This year our Domestic Bursar, Jayne Taylor, has completed a project that we initiated over four years ago. The Churchyard project, as it became known, seemed a simple, although expensive, concept. The plan was to remove a messy conglomeration of dilapidated gardener’s huts, greenhouse and bike racks and replace them with architectdesigned garden offices and a storage space. We intend to reinstate the oak furniture in the Old Dining Hall and this new storage space will allow us to store items temporarily when the Hall is used as a gathering place.

Since we do not formally own the graveyard we had to request permission for the building work via a ‘Faculty’ from the diocese. This application was made in 2012 and the Faculty was refused because of Section Three of the Disused Burial Grounds Act (1884) disallowing 04

building in a disused burial ground. It took effort from many institutions – a convoluted and protracted process – to get this act repealed. First, an amendment before the Synod of the Church of England then, after that was approved, Parliamentary Approval and then Royal Assent.

So, after the involvement of a group of august institutions and the Queen, we finally received planning permission from the City Council in mid-2016 to proceed. Jayne has delivered a superb development that will enhance this area of the Hall for generations to come.

Many thanks to the group of Aularians who supported this project. Completing this venture enables the next major projects that we want to raise funds for – the restoration and refurbishment of the Old Dining Hall and Chapel. These will be complex since we are working in historic buildings. Both projects will have great resonance for Aularians and I hope you will be interested in supporting our endeavours to bring these areas back to the quality of appearance and infrastructure that they deserve.

We have had further involvement with some august UK institutions over our Statutes. The Hall is now a registered charity. The trustees of the charity are the members of the Governing Body – over 40 tutors and statutory professors. To the eyes of most people (including me) such arrangements are decidedly odd – particularly as most of the trustees draw a salary from the charity! Hence, when we became (as all Oxford colleges did) a registered charity in 2010 we set up an independent Remuneration Committee and other arrangements to assist with governance. It had become clear, however, that we needed to rewrite our Statutes to make them leaner and fitter for the future and to clarify one particular aspect – the ability to enter into longterm financial arrangements of benefit to the Hall. Professor Adrian Briggs, Sir Richard Gozney Fellow and Tutor in Law, shouldered the burden of this drafting and after a year of work and committees we have now just received the approval of the Privy Council.

This issue of governance is important.

The Governing Body is transitioning to

THE AULARIAN

KEITH GULL PRESENTED WITH THE 2017 BIOCHEMICAL SOCIETY AWARD The 2017 Biochemical Society Award was awarded to Professor Keith Gull at the London Parasitology Club on 17 March.

The Old Dining Hall will be renovated to continue its use as a special place for events and dinners understanding its holistic responsibilities and being trustees of a charity with all the implications for planning and stewardship that involves. In addition, as we develop long-term plans for the Hall’s sustainability and development it is useful to know that these are informed by the expertise of Aularians, and that we communicate them clearly to all.

Widespread knowledge and advocacy of the Governing Body Trustees’ planning and ambitions will be hugely enabling for the Hall. We have made good progress on these plans over the past year, particularly linking our academic plans to infrastructure requirements. I hope Aularians will take an active interest. Your professional insight and expertise will be required more and more as we move into a changing and rather uncertain period of higher education in the world, let alone in the UK. However, whilst I spend much time worrying about the Hall as an institution and the many institutions it deals with, and those who deal with it, I know that it is people who are the essence of the College. These people are the mix of those at the Hall at present: Fellows, undergraduate and graduate students and staff, together with the diaspora of Aularians all over the world and of many generations. Hence, the Governing Body Trustees have a responsibility to the diverse interests of many individuals and groups.

This last year the central importance of the individual was illustrated most powerfully by Matt Greenwood and the response to his illness and death.

Matt was an inspirational and talented

student at the Hall. In mid-2016, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Matt read Engineering Science and secured a First Class Honours BA at the end of his third year, but was unable to return to the Hall to continue his studies in his fourth year after the summer. He spent 15 weeks in hospital, bedridden, undergoing chemotherapy and underwent surgery to amputate his right leg. Matt was a hugely positive and brave man, and indeed within weeks of the surgery visited the Hall and attended Boat Club events and the JCR Christmas Dinner. Huge support came from all at the Hall, as well as the wider Aularian and Oxford community. He started to plan a ‘bucket list’ of things he wanted to do over the months he had left and the whole Hall community supported him in this. Sadly, on his next visit to the College and Oxford with his parents, Matt’s condition deteriorated rapidly and he died on 11 December 2016.

I am immensely proud of the response of the Hall community over Matt’s predicament. The intensely positive response illustrated the very best in our community and defined precisely what it is that we term ‘Hall Spirit’. Through a dreadful experience one recognises how much this expression of Hall Spirit means and how much this place is about the individuals in it and of it.

Professor Keith Gull has a special interest in the biochemistry of the microtubule cytoskeleton, cell motility and division. He has made a major contribution to understanding the molecular components of the cellular framework termed the cytoskeleton and the pathogenicity of African trypanosomes. His work has led to the establishment of novel insights into the evolution of the cytoskeleton and its components.

Professor Gull has served on numerous government, learned society and medical charity committees as well as the governing bodies and science advisory committees of many institutes in the UK and Europe. He has had a longterm interest in graduate education and the careers of young scientists in the UK and Africa.

In response to the award, Professor Gull said, “I am both surprised and delighted to receive the 2017 Biochemical Society Award. Awards from one’s peers make the biggest personal impact and mean the most.

My thanks go to the many past and present members of my group whose talents have been central to our success over the years. It is an honour to join such a distinguished list of previous awardees.”

“This issue of governance is important.

The Governing Body is transitioning to understanding its holistic responsibilities and being trustees of a charity with all the implications for planning and stewardship that involves.”

05

WWW.SEH.OX.AC.UK

Update from the Development & Alumni Relations Office ‘Hall Spirit’ is hard to define but it is something that I have felt in abundance in my first few days at Teddy Hall. The warmth of the alumni, student body, Fellows and staff makes the Hall a truly special place.

Hall Spirit has - of course - been created by you, the Aularians. Your influence is felt both from your time at the Hall and in your support of present day college life. I hope the Development & Alumni Relations Office can capture and convey the Hall’s wonderful history, our energising present and its exciting future.

Beyond Teddy Hall the Aularians’ collective influence will be profound. In just my first few days here I have been privileged to meet alumni shaping society as leaders of industry, academia, arts and culture. No doubt the intellectual rigour developed with your tutors still plays out in the decisions you make today. I hope you share our belief that today’s students - and future scholars - deserve a dynamic and robust experience to ensure future Aularians continue to positively influence society.

The Hall’s continued excellence, of course, relies on continued investment.

Aularians’ generosity is the foundation for developing the College and we thank you for your support. A recent large legacy has enabled the Hall to purchase 24 Norham Gardens as additional student accommodation and gifts have funded the renovation of the Old Library and fully endowed the second of our two Tutorial Law Fellowships.

Naturally our ambition is to increase philanthropy to the Hall. We must not only look to meet our needs today but also for the next 20, 30, 50 years. Student accommodation, scholarships, bursaries and the endowment of Fellowships remain our priorities. We are also looking at new projects to continue to equip the College for 21st-century life.

Beyond philanthropy we aim to create opportunities for Aularians to meet and come together. My colleagues do a wonderful job of organising events at the Hall, across the UK and around the world.

Our aim is to provide all Aularians with the opportunity to rekindle fond memories, catch up with friends and hear news of the Hall. Your input gives support and challenges us to keep our work relevant and enables you to be an advocate of the Oxford education you enjoyed. Please do take a look on the back page to find events near you.

It’s a privilege to join the Teddy Hall community. Previously I have worked in international development enjoying long spells with both Oxfam and Opportunity International, one of the world’s leading microfinance banks. For nearly three years I was fortunate enough to live in the northern regions of Namibia as part of a UNDP-funded HIV education programme. My wife and I are now settled in Oxfordshire with our young family.

DIGITISATION OF THE HALL MAGAZINE Don’t forget that you can view all Hall Magazines since 1919 online at the following link. www.ebooks-online.co.uk/St_ Edmund_Hall This project was funded by an Aularian and a friend of the Hall and has been orchestrated by Sally Smith, Head of Development & Alumni Relations Office.

The process has been achieved such that all the Hall Magazines are available to view and when looking at a particular issue one can search for names etc. within that edition.

There is some fascinating material in these Magazines and we hope you will find them interesting.

As I write Oxford is bathed in glorious spring sunshine and the Front Quad is looking particularly lovely. On your next visit please do say hello, or drop me a line. Your memories, reflections and ideas are critical to help build our community effectively.

I look forward to working together to help shape Teddy Hall’s future and, once again, many thanks for your support of the Hall.

Gareth Simpson Director of Development  gareth.simpson@seh.ox.ac.uk

 www.seh.ox.ac.uk

 www.youtube.com/StEdmundHall

 www.facebook.com/StEdmundHall

 www.instagram.com/stedmundhall

 www.twitter.com/StEdmundHall 06

THE AULARIAN

THE MATT GREENWOOD TRAVEL SCHOLARSHIPS

Matt on Mount Huashan, near Xian, China

“One of the most favourite topics of conversation Matt had was that of his forthcoming visits to the Hall. It was lovely to see him back to his old self after being discharged from hospital, even though it only lasted for such a short time.”

Matt’s parents, Peter and Michaela Greenwood Matt Greenwood was an inspirational and talented student at St Edmund Hall. In 2016, Matt was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He read Engineering Science and secured a First Class Honours BA at the end of his third year, but was unable to return to continue his studies after the summer. He spent 15 weeks in hospital, bedridden, undergoing chemotherapy. In an effort to improve the quality of his life and spend time outside hospital, Matt underwent surgery to amputate his right leg.

Matt was a hugely positive and brave man, and indeed within weeks of the surgery visited the Hall and attended Boat Club events and the JCR Christmas Dinner. Matt received huge support from all at the Hall, as well as the wider Aularian, and Oxford, communities. He started to plan a ‘bucket list’ of things he wanted to do over the months he had left – many involving travel. Sadly, on his next visit to the Hall and Oxford with his parents, Matt’s condition deteriorated

rapidly and he died on 11 December 2016.

year in perpetuity. We aim to create a number of scholarships.

Matt loved travel, typified by the photograph of him above, and was constantly thinking of others and giving thanks for what others had done for him.

He was a great advocate for the Hall and the opportunities and experiences that an Oxford education had given him. The Matt Greenwood Travel Scholarships will recognise these virtues and interests and will be for travel in the UK or anywhere in the world for good purposes.

Matt Greenwood Travel Scholarships of £1,000 each will be awarded competitively each year, and decisions will be made by a committee comprising the Principal, Senior Tutor, an Engineering Fellow, and the Men’s and Women’s Captains of Boats.

COSTINGS Whilst Matt was cruelly robbed of his ability to reach his full potential (exemplified by the ‘missing man’ logo above), we aim that his memory and inspirational influence will live on at Teddy Hall, by building an endowment fund for multiple scholarships. £25,000 will endow one travel scholarship for a Hall student each

MAKE A DONATION ONLINE: www.campaign.ox.ac.uk/ st-edmund-hall or return the enclosed Gift Form.

For further information, please contact: Sally Smith Head of Development & Alumni Relations Office  sally.smith@seh.ox.ac.uk  +44 (0)1865 279041 07

WWW.SEH.OX.AC.UK

RESEARCH EXPO 2017

In February the second Teddy Hall Research Expo took place in College, following on from the successful inaugural event in 2015. This event celebrates the breadth of research across the three common rooms.

The Research Expo is now a biennial event in the Hall calendar. This year, alumni were also invited to attend.

The Research Expo once again saw various College spaces transformed into the Lab, the Salon and the Studio exhibition spaces, alongside a busy programme of ‘Teddy Talks’, a threeminute Pitch your Research competition and a debate on 2016 and its impact on higher education.

It was the second such event at St Edmund Hall and was coordinated by Fellow and Lecturer in English, Jenni 08

Nuttall. “Looking back at the photos makes me realise just how wonderfully the event came together and how well it did the job of sharing and communicating the research that we all do,” said Jenni.

“Thank you so much to everyone who contributed to creating all of this from scratch, giving their time and expertise so willingly.”

In the Lab (Jarvis Doctorow Hall) this year, there was a wide range of activities – some organised by academics, and then also a particular focus on facilitating discussion of MCR members’ research areas, using a lot of the fun interactive activities developed by Oxford Hands-On Science (OxHOS, an organisation started by students at St Edmund Hall) as a starting point. “Visitors to the Lab, ranging from the families of the Hall community, to academics in other fields and fellow Hall scientists, got involved in handson activities and conversations about a range of topics including how the immune system combats infection, cancer immunotherapy, genetics, and materials

science,” explained Beatrice Tyrrell (2014, DPhil in Infection, Immunology and Translational Medicine). “It was an enjoyable afternoon engaging with people outside our disciplines, bringing new perspective to our work.”

Across the College, in the Old Dining Hall, the Salon offered a lively mix of displays and demonstrations from the humanities and social sciences. This included a printing workshop, giving visitors the opportunity to use a table-top printing press to print the first of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses (published in Wittenberg in 1517). Timo Bülters (DPhil in Medieval German) helped to run the workshop and said, “I really enjoyed being involved in the Expo because it was not only fun to show how printing worked in the Middle Ages but also a good way to bring our research to a broader community and to see that even nowadays many people are interested and want to know more about the development of the history of the book, printing and the Middle Ages.”

THE AULARIAN

Second-year Fine Art undergraduates organised an art exhibition in the Senior Common Room, in which they produced works in response to pieces in the Hall’s art collection. There were also four sessions of Teddy Talks, in which academics and postgraduate students each spoke for ten minutes on an aspect of their research, all aimed at a non-specialist audience. Videos of the talks are online at www.youtube.com/ StEdmundHall.

Esther Rathbone (2013, French and German) volunteered on the day as an Expo steward, and explained that, “I wanted to get involved because the Expo is a great opportunity to showcase all the research going on at the Hall. And, since I don't do any research as an undergrad, helping out with the organisation was a way I could still feel involved. I enjoyed the Teddy Talks, particularly the ten-minute format, which also didn't presuppose any knowledge so was still understandable to non-specialists.”

“In the Old Dining Hall, the Salon offered a lively mix of displays and demonstrations from the humanities and social sciences” The day concluded in the Wolfson Hall, with students taking part in the Pitch your Research competition, our version of a three-minute thesis contest, followed by the debate. “I thought that the round table discussion on what 2016 means for higher education was an extremely valuable part of the day,” said JCR President, Amelia Gabaldoni (2015, English), “especially considering the equal involvement of members of all three common rooms. The day as a whole was particularly interesting for JCR members as it shows a side to the College that we don't often get to see or experience.”

Thanks to all the members of the 2017 Expo Committee: Martin Brandt (JCR Academic Affairs Officer), Pip Coore (MCR, Pontigny Scholar), Thomas Cosnahan (MCR), Ben Fernando (MCR Academic Affairs Officer), Mattéa Finelli (SCR), Amelia Gabaldoni (JCR President), Claire Hooper (Communications Officer), Corinna Kulicke (MCR), Luke Maw (Schools Liaison Officer), Jenni Nuttall (SCR), Beatrice Tyrrell (MCR), Sareh Vosooghi (SCR), John Waite (MCR, Pontigny Scholar) and Linde Wester (MCR President).

09

WWW.SEH.OX.AC.UK

THE POLAR CHALLENGE

I originally signed up to join the crew of the Polar Ocean Challenge to circumnavigate the North Pole in one season through the Northeast Passage and the Northwest Passage. But, being part of the crew of an expedition like this can rapidly expand and within a few weeks I was also responsible for the refit of an old, but strong, aluminium boat with only nine weeks before the expedition began. What followed was an epic effort, by a team which peaked at eight people, working late into the night installing endless modern electronic equipment and fixing old, damaged fittings and equipment from the boat's 15 years of Arctic sailing.

The plan was that Benjamin (my 14 year old son), would sail all the way with the boat and that Ros (my wife), and I would split the core of the trip. With a couple of weeks to go it was clear that we were not going to be finished configuring and bedding down the new kit so I sailed from Bristol on 19 June as an engineering passenger and spent the next three weeks with my head in cupboards, behind panels and in the bilges. Come Tromso in Northern Norway the boat was finally in good shape, with one major issue (generator cooling) outstanding but the parts on their way. At last I felt I could sleep at night with my family on board.

Ros and I swapped in Tromso and she then went to Murmansk and from there on to Barrow via a long and difficult 41 day passage (hurricanes are not normally 10

found outside the tropics but they managed to find one at the northern tip of Russia).

Barrow is a bleak place with low-lying grey sand nearly washed over by the Arctic Ocean for a few weeks and ice bound for the rest of the year. Without a jetty the boat had to anchor in a shallow bay. We had just 24 hours for Ros and I to change over and the whole crew to complete a partial refuel with 15 twenty five litre cans of diesel to be transferred from the petrol station to the boat by rented pickup and dinghy. It was cold the water is just under 0oC, the ice had left only three days before we got there, and would return about a week later. We set sail from Barrow to Tuktoyaktuk in Canada, straight into a gale. Trying to sail as much as we could, we headed further North to avoid the worst of the wind. In the rough sea, this costs time and was the cause of a broken linkage between the autohelm and the rudder. Of the five days we had at sea in rough weather we had three days hand helming in the wind and sea spray. We were very glad to see the shelter and better harbour facilities of 'Tuk'.

The general fixing man in the local ice truck and engineering shop kindly made us a new and rather stronger steel pin.

In conversation it became clear that his predecessor made the same component for the original owners of the boat in the same shed and on the same lathe after they had the same failure on their three

Honorary Fellow Steve Edwards OBE (1976, Physics) reports on his experience as part of a crew who successfully circumnavigated the North Pole in a single season last year.

year circumnavigation of the Pole. Either, this was an extraordinary coincidence or the Arctic Ocean from Barrow to Tuk is an evil piece of sea.

The Northwest Passage mostly runs between the large islands that make up Northern Canada, which means it is a little more sheltered. We made excellent time from Tuk along the rest of the route, past Cambridge Bay and using the Bellot Strait, a very narrow channel between two big islands which saved about two days. It was a surprise being able to use the Strait as it has a very fast flowing tidal current and any ice is extremely dangerous to anything smaller than a full weight ice-breaker, but unusually there was no ice at all. This was both excellent news for us and a very concrete and worrying reminder that there is much less ice in the Arctic than there was even 20 years ago.

We then headed north, with only Lancaster Sound between us and the end of the Passage. It was here that we encountered the only ice in the Northwest Passage, two strips that had been blown down from further north about 150 yards wide but many miles long. Each took about two hours of searching for a weak point and then nudging through using long poles to push the ice away where possible, and a slow but firm shove from the bows when the ice block was too heavy to oblige. Ice at last, but not much.

THE AULARIAN

“It is easy to collect injuries unless you are holding on all the time and cooking is hard so the quality of food goes down and you eat less. With eight hours on watch each day, mostly on deck, it was a grinding experience.”

Next was a dash for the east end of Lancaster Sound with three uncomfortable days of sailing into wind with the boat pitching and rolling. We were all past seasickness, but you couldn’t rest properly with so much movement as your body was thrown about every few seconds. It is easy to collect injuries unless you are holding on all the time and cooking is hard so the quality of food goes down and you eat less. With eight hours on watch each day, mostly on deck, it was a grinding experience.

Early on the morning of the fourth day we saw the western coast of Greenland and the settlement of Upper Narvik appearing through the slowly gathering light, complete with icebergs. We had made it - Northeast and Northwest Passages completed in one season! We had a happy reunion with Ros and the rest of the expedition crew were replaced with some experienced sailing friends. This left just our group and Nikolai, the Russian Skipper, for a very happy, but not quite trivial trip down the West of Greenland.

We were, as usual, sailing 24 hours a day,

but now whizzing between icebergs with a 30 knots tail wind in daylight and in the dead of night, where we had an extra person on watch with a very big torch.

With some sadness I said goodbye to the boat in Qaqortoq in Southern Greenland after a few beautiful days sailing far enough south to have no ice. With little wind it allowed us to get the drone out for some beautiful pictures. I left the very experienced crew, professional skipper, plus a now very experienced Benjamin to bring the boat back across the North Atlantic in early October, which I expected would be a long and potentially tedious ocean passage, but with them well up to the challenge. It turned out they were up to it, but they had three full days of 55-60 knots winds with eight to ten metre waves - three full-blown North Atlantic storms in quick succession. I felt very guilty leaving Benjamin for this last dreadful part of the journey. After ten days of tough sailing they made it to Blacksod in Ireland and received a hero's welcome from the people who built the boat a few miles away all those years ago. I re-joined the boat in Dingle two days later and we

had an uneventful three day crossing to Portishead to tidy and clean the boat and then on 20 October 2016 we travelled back to Bristol for the formal completion of the expedition.

For me it was a tough and difficult seven months but I am very pleased to have been part of it. To have the privilege of knowing David Hempleman-Adams, the expedition leader, to have made it through the legendary Northwest Passage and to feel that I contributed a bit to the overall success. More than anything else though, I am pleased for Benjamin. Four months of often rough sailing on a 13 metre boat with six other much older people is a testing experience for a 14 year old boy and at times he found it very difficult.

But he stuck with it and was with the boat every inch of the way from Bristol to Bristol, something not even David Hempleman-Adams did.

Oh, and one more thing. Would I do it again? Well, err, yes actually.

To find out more about the Polar Ocean Challenge please visit: www.polarocean.co.uk 11

WWW.SEH.OX.AC.UK

A CAREER IN CHOCOLATE Kristy Leissle (1996, MSt Women’s Studies) went on to earn MPA and PhD degrees from the University of Washington in Seattle, and then joined UW Bothell as faculty in Global Studies and African Studies in 2009. Dr Leissle also works as Cultural Specialist for National Geographic Lindblad Expeditions, and as Marketing Associate for the London-based developmentthrough-trade organisation, Twin and Twin Trading. Across these roles, her work concerns the global trade of cocoa and chocolate.

My job is to study chocolate. Because my advanced degrees were taken in interdisciplinary fields, and because my faculty position at UW Bothell is in Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, I have enjoyed scholarly latitude to analyse chocolate using multiple research lenses.

This suits my object of study very well: few, if any, edibles share chocolate’s range of values, and no one analytical tool could capture its complexity. Over several millennia and across far-flung supply chains, humans have given cocoa’s raw commodity form and the finished manufactured luxury of chocolate not just economic value, but also social, cultural, and political values. In return, chocolate has fixed itself in our lives as a food of emotional consequence.

From a political economic perspective, I have been interested in factors that contribute to the enduring material poverty of growers, and the increasing concentration of wealth as cocoa moves vertically through the value chain. I bring together much of this work in my forthcoming book, Cocoa (Cambridge: Polity Press), which examines industry geopolitics. About five million farmers grow about four million metric tonnes of cocoa each year. The vast majority are smallholders with just a few hectares of land, living a precarious agricultural existence whose challenges are exacerbated further by climate change.

Though the cocoa tree, Theobroma cacao, is indigenous to Central and South America, West Africa has 12

Top left: Kristy in the world’s most southerly chocolate shop, Ushuaia, Argentina Bottom left: Voting for favourite chocolate, Nialaforaa village, Gaura chiefdom, Sierra Leone Above: Cocoa bean cut test, Nialaforaa dominated global supply for more than a century. Between them, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, and Nigeria produce more than seventy percent of all traded cocoa. While the governments of those countries wield cocoa as a political tool over farmers, on the whole they capture relatively little of cocoa’s economic value.

The power that comes with large-scale, value-added processing is concentrated in Europe and North America. There, just three multinational companies command the global market for processing cocoa, and just five sell well over half the world’s branded chocolate by value. Those continents are also home to the mature chocolate markets, where consumers have long enjoyed refined bar chocolate as an everyday luxury. In contrast, most cocoa farmers outside Latin America have little experience with chocolate, and many have never tasted it at all.

I have also been very interested in chocolate as cultural object, particularly in advertising. My earlier work examined a series of advertisements for a Fairtrade brand in Britain, Divine Chocolate, that featured Ghanaian women cocoa farmers as fashionable consumers of chocolate (see ‘Cosmopolitan Cocoa Farmers: Refashioning Africa in Divine Chocolate Advertisements’, Journal of African Cultural Studies). That advertisement series was unusual in chocolate marketing. One of my longstanding priorities has been to understand how and why West Africa, though predominant in cocoa production,

is nearly invisible at the consumer end of the value chain (see ‘Invisible West Africa: The Politics of Single Origin Chocolate’, Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies). More recently, I have examined how small-batch, craft producers in the US use the term ‘artisan’ to market chocolate, suggesting a production ethos that is consciously opposed to that of the multinationals (see “‘Artisan’ as Brand: Adding Value in a Craft Chocolate Community,” Food, Culture, and Society).

Currently, I am working with cocoa producer organisations in Sierra Leone and Uganda to explore the marketing potential for their beans. Though Sierra Leone, for example, is not a well-known origin, this post-Ebola, post-conflict country is making cocoa a high priority.

Forest edge communities near Gola Rainforest National Park are joining cocoa cultivation with forest conservation activities, as they plan for access to specialty markets.

When I began my PhD program in 2001, I had not an idea that I would write a doctoral dissertation about chocolate.

I certainly never dreamed that I would end up making a career out of the work.

But I can say now that it is a privilege and a pleasure to study chocolate, and that I am grateful every day for the opportunities that cocoa, in all its iterations, brings to my life.

THE AULARIAN

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A NEURON

Culture of brain cells

Dr Mattéa Finelli is Johnson & Johnson Innovation Junior Research Fellow in Neuroscience related to Medicine. After her initial studies in Bioengineering in France, Mattéa moved to England to study Biomedical Research at Imperial College, followed by a DPhil in Neurosciences at Oxford. After a brief two-year stint in New York City, Mattéa is back in Oxford, where she currently investigates molecules that can protect brain cells, especially in the context of neurological disease.

I have long been fascinated by the complexity of the brain and the intricate structure of its building blocks: nerve cells, or neurons. There are around ninety billion nerve cells in the brain, and they are connected to each other following a precise and highly organised pattern.

Nerve cells exist in different flavours or types, with each type having a specialised function. For example, some nerve cells are involved in the formation and storage of memory, while others are specialised in coordinating our movements.

A range of conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which globally are termed neurodegenerative disorders, can affect nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. In these disorders, nerve cells progressively deteriorate and eventually die, and as the number of nerve cells declines, the symptoms in patients worsen. The risk of developing these disorders rises sharply with age, so it is unsurprising that the number of people affected by these diseases is ever

increasing in ageing populations – for example, it is estimated that by 2050, 116 million people will have Alzheimer’s disease. These disorders are incurable and debilitating conditions, and currently there are very few effective treatments available.

One observation that still puzzles neuroscientists studying neurodegenerative disorders is that only certain types of nerve cells are affected in these diseases. This very particular degeneration gives rise to disease-specific symptoms. For instance, nerve cells controlling movement are affected in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which, in the long-term, leads to paralysis, while nerve cells specialised in memory die in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, leading to a characteristic memory loss.

As a junior postdoctoral fellow in Professor Peter Oliver’s group in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, I am investigating what triggers the slow demise of nerve cells in

neurodegenerative disorders, and I am testing new ways to stop this process.

This interest stems from research I carried out during my DPhil. During that time, we discovered novel molecules, termed the TLDc proteins. We showed that these molecules are essential for brain development and function. Importantly, when these molecules are not functional due, for example, to a mutation, this can lead to an array of severe neurological conditions in humans. These molecules are found in many organisms – from flies to rodents or humans – and importantly, we were the first to show that these molecules can very efficiently protect mammalian nerve cells, even under disease conditions. These exciting findings led our group to dissect how these molecules function in the brain.

We hope that in the long-term we will be able to harness their powerful protective properties and use them in the context of neurodegenerative disorders to slow down the degeneration of nerve cells.

13

WWW.SEH.OX.AC.UK

UNIQUE OXFORD STUDY OF VASCULAR DISEASE REACHES SEVERAL MILESTONES The Oxford Vascular Study (OXVASC) was set up by Professor Peter Rothwell, Fellow of St Edmund Hall, in 2002 to study vascular disease in Oxfordshire. It is the only project of its kind anywhere that studies all acute vascular events, including transient ischaemic attacks (TIAs or ‘mini strokes’), major strokes, heart attacks, aneurysms and other circulatory problems, to develop better treatments for vascular disease as a whole. The study also provides vital data on the frequency, time-trends, causes and outcomes of these events, as well as subsequent complications, such as dementia. The study has reached three important milestones over the last year, with 15 years since recruitment started, 10,000 participants recruited, and agreement for a purpose-built new research centre to house the study.

Peter Rothwell is the Action Research Professor of Neurology at the University of Oxford.

He completed his medical training and PhD at the University of Edinburgh, and has held positions at Oxford since 1996.

Peter Rothwell's main research interests include the causes and prevention of stroke and vascular dementia, diagnosis and treatment of high blood pressure, and the risks and benefits of aspirin and other ‘blood thinning’ drugs.

He is now Director of the Centre for Prevention of Stroke and Dementia, which he recently established in order to extend the work of The Stroke Prevention Research Unit (SPRU), and which will house OXVASC. Rothwell founded SPRU in 2000 and it rapidly became one of the most productive stroke research groups in the world, with 40 staff, several hundred research papers, and over 50 clinical research fellows trained, and was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in 2014.

The new Centre will be housed in new purpose-built facilities on the John Radcliffe Hospital site, for which Rothwell obtained funding from the Wolfson Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the University of Oxford.

April 2017 marks the 15th anniversary of the start of OXVASC. The study is a collaboration between the University of Oxford, the John Radcliffe Hospital (JRH), and 100 GPs covering a population of nearly 100,000 residents of Oxfordshire.

Study staff collect detailed health data, blood samples and carry out scans and other investigations, as well as providing the NHS clinical care for many of the participants.

Patients are enrolled in the study whilst in hospital or following referral by

14

participating GPs to a daily emergency out-patient clinic at the JRH. Detailed clinical assessments are made and participants undergo state-of-the art investigations, including brain and vascular imaging at the University’s Acute Vascular Imaging Centre (AVIC) at the JRH and subsequent home blood pressure monitoring, with measurements transmitted in real-time to the study doctors.

Relatives and friends can also consent to participate so that comparisons can be made between people who have had a vascular event and those who have not.

One of the study’s key strengths is that participation is extremely high, with more than 99 per cent of patients who are asked to take part in the study giving their consent to at least some collection of data, thus avoiding ‘selection bias’, where the sample may not represent the whole population. This completeness of coverage allows researchers to draw conclusions from the data that are as reliable as possible on a host of different topics ranging from studies of genetic factors and other ‘biomarkers’ for risk of disease to studies of how best to deliver high-quality clinical care.

The study also recently reached another important milestone, recruiting its 10,000th participant. Mr Peter Casey, from Wantage, was referred to OXVASC after experiencing a ‘mini stroke’. He said: “The GP said ‘there is this really fantastic study going on at the JR, they will be the people to look after you’.”

THE AULARIAN

“Without a doubt, OXVASC puts patients first and my patients’ levels of satisfaction with the service are second to none.”

Another local GP, Dr Andrew Schuman, Beaumont Street, Oxford, began referring patients in 2002, and said: “OXVASC provides a gold-standard service that is truly world-class. Whenever I have a patient that I'm worried about, I'm able to get straight on the phone to one of the experienced research doctors at OXVASC. Without reams of unnecessary, time-wasting administration and tickboxes, the patient is whisked into the department, where they are extensively investigated, treated and followed-up.

Without a doubt, OXVASC puts patients first and my patients’ levels of satisfaction with the service are second to none.”

To date more than 200 scientific papers have been published from the data collected in OXVASC, some leading to major changes in clinical practice locally, nationally and internationally. These include the demonstration of the very high risk of major stroke after minor ‘warning’ symptoms which led to the development of emergency clinics; showing that urgent treatment of patients following these events reduces the risk of major stroke by 80% - one of the most effective interventions across all of medicine; identification of labile blood pressure as a powerful risk factor for vascular events; and the use of mobile phone telemetric home blood pressure monitoring to properly diagnose high blood pressure and to titrate treatment.

“We are delighted to have reached this milestone in recruitment, and we want to thank all of the patients and their relatives in Oxfordshire who have helped us so much, as well as the local general practices who make the study possible.

The study is a good example of how relatively simple clinical research can still provide insights that substantially improve patient care as well as allowing us to study the causes of disease.”

Public Health and Innovation Minister, Nicola Blackwood, said: “The Oxford Vascular Study is a fantastic example of world class researchers and NHS staff coming together with the help of the British public to improve the care people receive every day.

“It is great news that this project has recruited so many patients from across Oxfordshire. A better understanding of vascular disease is crucial if we are to develop effective treatment against heart disease and strokes.”

Above: The planned new centre which will be housed on the John Radcliffe Hospital site

“One of the study’s key strengths is that participation is extremely high, with more than 99 per cent of patients who are asked to take part in the study giving their consent to at least some collection of data, thus avoiding 'selection bias', where the sample may not represent the whole population.”

The study is planning to continue to recruit until at least 2032 and is funded by the Wellcome Trust and the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre.

Rothwell is keen to recognise the enormous amount of support that the study has had from the local community.

15

WWW.SEH.OX.AC.UK

THE POET’S MISTAKE Professor Erica McAlpine is A.C. Cooper Fellow and Tutor in English Language and Literature. Her research interests lie in Romantic and American poetry, particularly lyric poetry and the way poetry corresponds to aspects of the unconscious mind. Erica is originally from Atlanta, Georgia and was educated at Harvard, Cambridge and Yale. Her previous posts include a brief stint at the University of Exeter and a Career Development Fellowship at Keble, before she moved into her current role at the Hall this academic year.

I am delighted to be joining the Fellowship at the Hall, a place where literature, writing, and poetry in particular has long been practised and celebrated. My own work sits along the boundary between poetic practice and scholarship.

My first collection of poetry, The Country Gambler, appeared in 2016 and contains a mixture of original poems and loose translations of the ancient poet Horace.

My first real encounter with poems, when I was growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, came through studying Latin poetry, and although I have since moved on from there - to much more current kinds of verse! - Horace’s ability to combine humour, morality, and descriptive beauty into short formal lyrics has remained an aspiration. My hope is that the pairing of my voice with Horace’s in this first book is a productive mix that lends gravity to my work and lightness to his.

Many of the concerns in my poems - form, nature, the mind, how poets write, what is worth writing about, how beauty and morality coexist - also drive the questions behind my academic research. In particular, I am interested in the ways that unconscious forces in writers - including mistakes, repressions, and mechanisms of defence - shape and enrich the texts that they write. I focus mainly on poets of the nineteenth

16

and twentieth centuries, from British Romantics like Wordsworth, Keats and Clare to Americans including Dickinson, Frost and Bishop. I also occasionally write about contemporary poets; Paul Muldoon, A. E. Stallings and Frank Bidart are some of my favourites.

The book I am working on at the moment, called The Poet’s Mistake, pursues and catalogues poetry’s biggest bloopers - and critics’ often too-generous responses to them - in order to reveal a crucial tension between thinking about poetry’s errors as common failures in craft and honouring them as moments of unintended creativity. It makes the case for calling a mistake a mistake, arguing that when readers of poetry deny poets the possibility of error, they undermine the very process of creation that they aim to celebrate. The novel, as a genre, has always been given to mistakes, as John Sutherland and others have shown. But poetry, an art form that accepts accident and surprise as qualities somehow integral to its aesthetic practice, seems inherently immune to the possibility. Most

THE AULARIAN

“Many of the concerns in my poems - form, nature, the mind, how poets write, what is worth writing about, how beauty and morality coexist - also drive the questions behind my academic research.” of its flaws appear felicitous. Accordingly, critics of poetry have tended to allow mistakes in poems - grammatical errors, misused words, incorrect facts - to inform and sometimes even govern their readings. For instance, Keats’s mentioning ‘Cortez’ when surely he means ‘Balboa’ in “On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer” is a historical mistake that, despite having produced an array of justifications from critics, may have more to say about what we believe poetry to be capable of doing than about the poem to which it belongs. Keats’s readers probably feel a responsibility to make right what his poem got wrong. My book asks: why should it be so?

Uncovering different kinds of mistakes that poets have made, and, crucially, treating them primarily as mistakes, raises certain questions. For instance, is there a difference between an accident and a mistake? Does the word mistake imply authorial intention? Is it possible for a poet to err without meaning to, either consciously or unconsciously?

In answering these questions, I identify certain readings of mistakes as unnecessary justifications and use the impulse to justify as a way of highlighting the qualities of poetry that distinguish it from other modes of writing. It is no coincidence that some of the strongest critical readings surround moments of irreconcilability in poems. The implication is that poetry’s mistakes are somehow closer to the poem’s intention, if not the poet’s. But can a poem be right if its poet is wrong? Suggesting so prioritises a poet’s unconscious choices over his conscious ones and shifts the locus of meaning onto the reader of the poem rather than the writer (or a mixture of the two). My book offers a critique of such reading practices, which emphasise poetry’s accidental nature at the expense

of the poet’s careful attention to craft, and provides an account of poetry, and the poet, that recognises the capacity for mistake in both.

In addition to this book on mistakes, I am also thinking and writing about the poet James Merrill’s puns. In what way might puns allow poets to weave in and out of subject matter that is too difficult to tackle directly? Can puns ever cease to be funny; or, rather, does their humour naturally connect to the conflict inherent in their making (as described by Freud in the Psychopathology of Everyday Life)?

A further project on Robert Frost’s often unorthodox use of the word ‘love’ is on the docket. I hope my enthusiasm for poetry’s unconscious impulses and its many ways of connecting our being and thinking translates into my tutorials and classes here at the Hall. I look forward to engaging with Aularians of all generations in conversations and debates about literature for years to come.

The Country Gambler – Erica’s first collection of poetry

“The book I am working on at the moment, called The Poet’s Mistake, pursues and catalogues poetry’s biggest bloopers - and critics’ often too-generous responses to them.”

Peonies by Erica McAlpine On an impulse, you could eat these flowers up the way they’re floating, stemlessly, side by side like scoops of ice cream in a crystal cup. White and softly drizzled with syrup (almost creeping down from the top) and shyly turning inward still, each closed bud leaks red along the seams and gleams like a hot sundae. What puzzles is how quickly these petals fan out, brown, flip, and fray along the edges. If only they’d stay put — if you could just keep peonies shut.

Open, they frazzle. (first published in the Spectator, Feb. 2013)

17

WWW.SEH.OX.AC.UK

THE CENTRE FOR THE CREATIVE BRAIN The Centre for the Creative Brain was founded in 2014, with the aim of bringing together members of the Hall from all three common rooms to discuss how our understanding of neuroscience can impact on creativity, and vice versa. St Edmund Hall has a long history of excellence in many aspects of science, including neuroscience, and also in the humanities. However, with the ever-increasing business of term, there were fewer opportunities for members of College to come together to discuss areas of broader interest.

The Centre was therefore founded as a forum to encourage these conversations and hosts termly events on some aspect of the interface between neuroscience and creativity, a remit that has been kept deliberately broad. Topics arise from discussions at Centre events, suggestions from committee members, or timely inspirations from visiting collaborators, resulting in a fascinating and wide-ranging series of seminars.

The Centre has been delighted to join forces with a number of Oxford institutions, including a joint event with Maison Française in Michaelmas Term 2015, when we were honoured to host Professor Jean-Pierre Changeux, one of France’s pre-eminent neuroscientists and a previous Chair of the French Government’s art heritage committee.

Professor Changeux spoke on “Creativity in Art: A Neuronal Hypothesis”, and his seminar was followed by a round-table discussion with Jason Gaiger (Associate Professor, Contemporary Art History and Theory, and Fellow of St Edmund Hall), Morten Kringelbach (Professor of Neuroscience, Aarhus University & Senior Research Fellow, University of Oxford) and Andrew Parker (Professor of Physiology, University of Oxford).

Subsequent events have included an evening of Neuroscience and Comedy, which saw a fantastic, and as you might expect, very funny, line up of speakers including Professor Sophie Scott (UCL), who has made many appearances on Radio 4 and elsewhere, as well as comedy writers, stand-up comedians and a psychiatrist who uses comedy in his practice.

Dr Charlotte Stagg (right) talks to artist Camilla Emson, at Lamb Arts, Mayfair 18

For other events, we have been privileged to be able to draw again on the international experts in the Hall for our speakers. Our Michaelmas Term 2016 event was perhaps a particular highlight, with a symposium on Shakespeare and Neuroscience (entitled, of course, ‘the Bard and the Brain’) timetabled to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the poet’s death. We were fortunate to have talks

THE AULARIAN

Dr Tom McFaul (Lecturer in English)

Professor Sophie Scott (UCL) speaking to an enthusiastic audience at our Neuroscience of Comedy event.

from Dr Tom MacFaul (Lecturer in English) and Professor Paul Matthews (1974, Chemistry and Fellow by Special Election and neuroscientist) as well as Aularian and actor Roland Oliver (1962, English).

Our home-grown speakers were joined by the neuroscientist Professor Rodrigo Quian Quiroga, an expert on memory and its literary interpretations, and the actor Kelly Hunter, who uses Shakespearian texts to work with children with autism.

We had a large and engaged audience on the day, and the podcasts have created interest in the Centre as far afield as Singapore and Nigeria.

neuroscientists and local motion capture company AudioMotion to create an immersive installation, where the link between weather and emotions is created via virtual reality, controlled by mobile EEG technology. Relax and the clouds will part and the sun come out, leading perhaps to a greater feeling of relaxation; anger will cause the clouds to reform and a thunderstorm to blow in. The installation should be ready and unveiled to all in Michaelmas Term 2017 as part of the ongoing Oxford Brain Diaries series.

The Centre has also played host to satellite symposia – sessions from experts at the Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB) on analysis approaches, and the development of novel approaches for the diagnosis of brain tumours have been both scientifically rigorous and enlightening. The Centre has also left Oxford, albeit briefly, to discuss Neuroscience and Creativity with the artist Camilla Emson for her Imaginal Pathways: Installation at Lamb Arts, Mayfair.

We are hugely grateful for the continuing support of the Hall, including a recent endowment from a generous Aularian, which ensures that all Centre events will continue to be free and open to everyone.

Symposia are aimed at an interested, intelligent lay audience and all Aularians and their families are very warmly welcome. For all details, including how to sign up for our mailing list, please see our website (www.seh.ox.ac.uk/ccb).

“We are hugely grateful for the continuing support of the Hall, including a recent endowment from a generous Aularian, which ensures that all Centre events will continue to be free and open to everyone.”

We always welcome ideas for potential events or collaborations, so please do get in touch via the contacts given there.

We have a busy programme planned for the upcoming year. Of particular interest to many, in Michaelmas Term 2017 we hope to have Stephen Mottram, who through his ‘Animata’ uses puppets to explore how our brains perceive simple points of light as animate, even whilst we know that cannot be the case.

I If you want to catch up on previous events, recordings of our Shakespeare and the Brain symposium are available on the Teddy Hall YouTube channel, or on our website: www.seh.ox.ac.uk/ about-college/shakespeare-andbrain.

Our recent symposium around ‘Emotions and the Weather‘ was inspired by an ongoing collaboration with the artist Donna Han. Donna is working with

We very much hope to see you at our next event.

19

WWW.SEH.OX.AC.UK

BY ROYAL RE-APPOINTMENT: CHURCHYARD RENOVATION As mentioned by the Principal in his introduction, after much planning, which involved obtaining permission from the Queen, improvements to the College graveyard have now been completed.

Work was completed this February in the churchyard of St Peter-in-the-East to create much improved facilities for the gardener, including a greenhouse, office and garden equipment store; storage space for the bar and more general use; and a redesigned bicycle parking area.

The renovation project proved more complicated than initially anticipated when plans were first drawn up by architects Gray Baynes + Shew and permission granted by the local council in January 2013. Agreement also had to be sought from the diocese who still own the land on which the converted church (now the College library) sits. The diocese was unable to grant permission due to the Disused Burial Grounds Act

20

of 1884 which states that it is unlawful “to erect any buildings upon any disused burial ground, except for the purpose of enlarging a church, chapel, meeting house, or other place of worship.”

The Church of England recognised that this was an outdated law and initiated the process of changing it. This entailed bringing it before the Church of England Synod and then ultimately to the Queen, as head of the Church. Once royal permission had been granted, it was 2016, by which point our council permission had run out. At the start of 2016, we again applied to the council and diocese – this time with success on both counts.

Contractors Wooldridge & Simpson were finally able to start the work in October last year, and it was completed on 18 February 2017. They put up oak-clad buildings and installed bronze mesh screens set between the line of yew trees to provide screening from the main churchyard. Jayne Taylor, Domestic Bursar, said: “I’m extremely pleased with how well the building work went; it’s a fabulous addition to the churchyard. The new buildings and structures fit in well with the surroundings and really enhance the area.”

Photos by Can Sengunes, courtesy of Wooldridge & Simpson

THE AULARIAN

“The book I am working refurbishment onThis at the moment, called andPoet’s the Mistake, The pursues and catalogues surrounding poetry’s biggest gardens was bloopers—and critics’ generously often too-generous supported by ” responses to them

alumni through major donations and bequests – we would like to thank all donors to this project.

21

WWW.SEH.OX.AC.UK

EVENTS SUMMARY Over the past year Aularians have attended over 25 alumni and student events worldwide, in cities such as New York, Manchester, Singapore and San Francisco.

We have welcomed over 2000 alumni, friends, parents and students.

In 2017/2018 we plan to offer alumni and friends even more opportunities to network, get together and hear of developments at the Hall. Please do visit the website to see what events we have coming up in the next year.

To book an event or to share photos of an event you have hosted, please contact our Alumni Relations Manager, Kate Townsend at  kate.townsend@seh.ox.ac.uk or  +44 (0)1865 289180.

 Photos from our events can be found online at flickr.com/StEdmundHall

Inaugural Bath Lunch for alumni

Freshers’ Parents’ Dinner

1957 60th Anniversary Lunch

32nd Annual New York Dinner

1967 50th Anniversary Dinner

Hong Kong Dinner

22

THE AULARIAN

ST EDMUND HALL ASSOCIATION:

President's Report “First and foremost, we want to see Aularians reconnected with each other as well as developing new friendships and connections across generations.”

Dear Aularian, I write to you for the first time as President of the St Edmund Hall Association (SEHA), having succeeded Lawrence Cummings at the AGM held in London in January.

First, I would like to express huge gratitude on behalf of the College and the SEHA to Lawrence for all the hard work he has put in and contribution he has made in his three years as President.

Lawrence continues to provide support to the College and the SEHA and I am personally most grateful for his continued guidance to help me to transition into this role.

By way of introduction, I matriculated at the Hall in 1987, studied Geography and in that time met and subsequently married a fellow Aularian, Judith (née Lacey). We have lived and worked in London for the past 27 years and both stayed very close to the Hall throughout that time given its very significant influence on our lives.

The relevance of being asked to become the youngest President of the Aularians and the first married to a fellow Aularian is not lost on me and relates fundamentally to the mandate I have taken on: understand and maintain the best traditions and ethos of the Hall and the St Edmund Hall Association but also modernise the Association to reflect both the changing demographics of its membership (including having now surpassed the matriculation of the 3000th Hall woman) and the world we live in (multinational and with fast evolving and diverse means of communication and social networking).

The Association, working increasingly closely with the Principal and the Development & Alumni Relations Office, has already taken steps along this road with, as examples: evolving electronic communication (increased use of social media, electronic distribution of the annual Magazine); a growing network of Aularian gatherings worldwide outside of the main city hubs of London and New York (with events taking place in the past 12 months in places from Manchester and Bath to Hong Kong and Prague); and a broadening array of events for Aularians (from Teddy Talks to the Varsity Match).

We need to go much further though and we aim to continue to develop new initiatives and will communicate more on this in time.

Various traditional events also continue to thrive but renewed effort is allowing them to prosper with, for example, the Annual London Dinner in January seeing a record attendance of 180 Aularians. This included a very strong representation for the first time from the newer generations, especially in the post-2005 matriculation year groups. Next year's event will be held on Tuesday 30 January 2018 and we will again be offering subsidised tickets to younger Aularians to continue to grow and evolve the attendance at this event.

Details will follow from the Development & Alumni Relations Office.

I thought it also appropriate in this first correspondence for me to set out some facts about the basis and purpose of the SEHA: • Established as an association run on a voluntary basis to further the interaction between Aularians globally.

• Funded by contributions deducted from the battels of existing Hall students, the finances are carefully stewarded and need to be used to benefit the College over time, one way or another.

• To work closely with the Senior Common Room, Governing Body, officers of the College and the Development Office to provide assistance in whatever form it can to the assist the College (advice, financial, etc).

So what does this really mean in practice?

First and foremost, we want to see Aularians reconnected with each other as well as developing new friendships and connections across generations. We also see the ability for individuals who have fallen out of touch to reconnect with the College as an important objective. Social events and communication updating on Hall and Aularian news and initiatives alike will continue to be the core of this and will be diversified.

Second, increasing your understanding of how you can help SEHA further its assistance to the College is also a vital objective and we will be communicating further on this topic this year. Most people stop reading at this point thinking the request for money is coming - no doubt the College needs whatever financial assistance it can get as I know from my years studying the numbers and we are all grateful to those able to provide such assistance in the many guises in which this is now achieved - but I want Aularians to know that there are so many ways of helping the College and students that do not involve money.

We currently have a growing number of volunteers offering help across a broad spectrum including anything from career advice to undergraduates to the provision of legal, planning, marketing and financial advice to the College itself using their professional skillsets and contacts.

Those who have become involved in these initiatives have found it remarkably rewarding and they have reconnected to a thriving and dynamic college in a way they never thought possible. A rewarding and effective way to give back?

In the meantime, if you would like to express views on the Association or have ideas or want to help in any way, please do contact me via the College using the following email address: aularianconnect@seh.ox.ac.uk.

Floreat Aula!

David Waring (1987, Geography)

23

WWW.SEH.OX.AC.UK

NEWS FROM THE JCR INTRODUCING JCR PRESIDENT, AMELIA GABALDONI (2015, ENGLISH) What motivated you to run for President and what are you hoping to achieve?

The main reason I ran for JCR President is to try and change the way the College deals with welfare issues. While the JCR Committee’s Welfare Officers work very hard, there’s only so much that can be done on a purely undergraduate level and I am looking forward to working with the MCR and SCR to alter the current system and make the whole welfare process more transparent and easy for students to access.

Congratulations to Amelia Gabaldoni (2015, English) who was chosen by undergraduate students to represent them in the role of JCR President.

Amelia took over from Tom Dyer in January.

Furthermore, the Hall has an amazing creative subculture that deserves a place alongside our sporting achievements, and having spent two terms as the JCR’s Arts and Culture Officer, I hope I can continue to promote the Hall’s artistic successes.

Over the past term with the Arts and Culture rep from Queen’s, plans have been laid for the inaugural Queen’s Lane

OXFORD TEAM WINS GOLD MEDAL AT IGEM COMPETITION FOR THIRD YEAR RUNNING Harris Vince (2014, Engineering Science) and Sam Garforth (2014, Biochemistry) took part in last year’s iGEM (international Genetic Engineered Machine) competition. iGEM is an annual synthetic biology competition in which multi-disciplinary teams design their own projects to apply the techniques and principles of synthetic biology to solve real-world problems. Harris and Sam joined nine other Oxford students from a variety of subjects to work over the summer on designing, testing and modelling their DNA constructs and preparing a wiki. iGEM is the world's largest competition of its kind and it culminates in an international conference in Boston where teams from over 300 universities from around the world meet to present their work.

Oxford was one of around 250 undergraduate teams and they were awarded a Gold medal and received nominations for the Best Therapeutic Project, Best Wiki, Best Presentation and Best Education and Public Engagement.

Harris said: “Taking part in the iGEM competition was an incredible experience which we would recommend to anyone with any interest in genetic engineering.

I have learnt many valuable skills that will help enormously with my academic studies and with future team projects.

Having the opportunity to go to Boston to present our work on an international stage as undergraduate students was a unique opportunity, and I could not have done this without the generous support of the Joe Todd Fund and the Aularians who so kindly donated to allow me to do this.”

The Oxford team investigated a novel solution to Wilson's disease, an orphan disease associated with the inability to metabolise copper. If left untreated, this disease can lead to toxic amounts of copper building up in the body - having a devastating impact on overall health.

It can result in damage to the liver and nervous system, leading to liver failure and neurological symptoms such as tremors, memory-loss and depression.

Oxford's iGEM team in Boston 24

Culture Festival – an event that promises to be a long weekend of all things mildly cultural in Trinity 2017.

What sort of extra-curricular things have you been involved in so far whilst at Oxford?

In addition to being the JCR Arts and Culture Officer, I’m one of the current choral scholars and sang as part of a Bach and Telemann concert this term. I also try to get involved in as much jazz as possible, taking advantage of the open mic nights at the Mad Hatter in Cowley and the workshop at College earlier this term. After directing Teddy Hall’s drama Cuppers entry in Michaelmas of first year, I’ve since helped to write and direct the College musical in Trinity 2016 and adapted Dostoyevsky's short story The Double for the stage over the summer vac, putting it on at the BT Studio last week. I’m also the women’s football captain.

LINGNAN-OXFORD PARTNERSHIP:

Global Symposium starts with visit by Chinese students In January, nine students from Lingnan University College, Guangzhou, visited St Edmund Hall to take part in the first Global Symposium between the two institutions. The four-day programme comprised lectures, company visits, cultural visits, group discussions, and presentations. The focus was on developing an understanding of corporate social responsibility: how a business operates along the themes of their role in society, how they are governed, and the environmental impact they have. Welcoming our enthusiastic guests were a group of six St Edmund Hall students, spanning the JCR and MCR, studying a variety of courses.

Despite its short nature, the intensity of the programme and group-work focus definitely helped to form strong bonds between the Lingnan and Oxford students. The six students from Teddy Hall visited Guangzhou in March for five days, where they continued their education on corporate social responsibility through company visits and presentations. They also developed the work produced in Oxford, finishing in a presentation competition to business leaders in China.

THE AULARIAN

NEWS FROM THE MCR MCR PRESIDENT, LINDE WESTER (2014, DPHIL COMPUTER SCIENCE) What do you like most about Teddy Hall’s MCR? I have had a fantastic time as a steward.

I really enjoyed getting to know lots of people in and outside of the MCR, and working closely with college staff, and occasionally with the SCR. Teddy Hall really has a lot to offer to its students, in terms of facilities and the support for the MCR. This makes it very rewarding to be active in the organisation of things that make a difference for our students.

Linde is a third-year DPhil student from the Netherlands, studying quantum computing.

She has already been an active member on the Committee of the MCR, serving as Steward with Alex Blakes, organising MCR social events.

Are there things you’d like to change or improve?

There are a few things that I hope to achieve. At the moment, the MCR events and facilities mostly attract first- and second-year students. In the next year, I would like to create more facilities for students who are at a later stage of their studies, and who are writing their thesis, but also I would like to make events more appealing to minority groups and put more emphasis on Teddy Hall's diversity.

OXFORD MEDICAL STUDENTS TAKE AMBULANCE TO MONGOLIA Three Oxford medical students – Alex Blakes (2010, Medicine), Emily McFiggans and Jennifer Southern (both at Green Templeton College) had the adventure of a lifetime this year, organising the donation of an ambulance from Oxford to Mongolia for charity.

The 5000-mile journey was part of the Mongolia Charity Rally, an annual event organised by the charity Go Help.

Unfortunately, the team were refused entry at the Russian border and had to turn around. After a few stressful days, Go Help fortunately found another team to take over for the final part of the journey. At the finish line, the ambulance was donated to the Mongolian Health Services.

Emily, Jennifer and Alex have now made their way to Mongolia and will remain for two months, working in a local hospital and giving English lessons to Mongolian doctors in collaboration with a studentrun organisation, Medics2Mongolia.

The trio have raised £2000 in donations for Go Help, and a further £8000 for the costs of the trip through travel grants and adventure bursaries – all this while working towards their final exams, which they passed in January. Alex organised a very successful Charity Formal at St

Edmund Hall, which boosted their total by over £1400, and he has also received support from the College’s Graham Hamilton Travel Award and a St Edmund Hall Elective Bursary.

“We’ve been planning the project for more than a year” said Jennifer, who came up with the idea. “It’s a huge relief to have put the exams behind us, and to have qualified. Between revision and this project, we’ve had little time for anything else – but it’s been worth it.”

The ambulance was donated to the project by Oxfordshire’s local ambulance trust, South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS).

To make a charitable donation directly to Go Help, please visit www.justgiving. com/fundraising/medics-khan-drive.

I also hope to make the MCR more democratic, by making more use of online voting and surveys.

Finally, I have a dream of introducing a life-time MCR membership in some form and to improve the accessibility for students to events as, due to the large number of students, some events are oversubscribed.

What do you think will be most challenging about the role?

For me, I think it will be trying to balance the different interests within the MCR, and within College as a whole. We represent a variety of people at different stages in their life, with different backgrounds, and from different cultures. That impacts the expectations of the MCR, which may sometimes be quite different for individual students.

EX AULA– RESEARCH FROM THE HALL The MCR is proud to announce the launch of its online graduate research journal, Ex Aula.

The aim of the project is to showcase the research being done by members of the MCR across all subjects and disciplines. Articles are written in continuous prose with limited specialist terminology unless absolutely necessary and with clear definition and context.

Pieces are written for a general audience in a style similar to a newspaper.

A prize will be awarded to the student judged to have written the best article, by a panel of SCR judges.

To view the articles, please visit mcr.seh.ox.ac.uk/updates/ research-spotlight

Alex (centre) with the donated ambulance 25

WWW.SEH.OX.AC.UK

WRITING AT THE HALL Stewart speaking to students in the Old Dining Hall

STEWART LEE: CONTENT PROVIDER The Hall would like to thank Honorary Fellow Stewart Lee (1986, English) for meeting alumni and students whilst he was in Oxford at the beginning of his sell-out tour Content Provider.

Stewart is one of the UK’s most accomplished writers and performers.

When he was 22, he won the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year award.

He co-wrote the audacious Jerry Springer: The Opera, which won four Olivier Awards. He recently won the Best Male TV Comic and Best Comedy Entertainment Performance at the British Comedy Awards.

Stewart kindly hosted a private reception for alumni before two of his shows at the Oxford Playhouse, where he is a Patron. As well as generously offering complimentary tickets each night for

students, he also spoke to current English students and members of the Hall’s Creative Writing Group about the process of writing his show during a changing political climate.

“We had all seen his current show, and loved it. ‘Divided Britain’, the economic and creative difficulties of being a comedian, and the sadness of a ‘selfie’ mentality which turns us away from the world that we might take a picture of it – all of this was transformed into a show so alive, so tight and momentous, so funny, one can’t help considering it as a piece of work, a text, in the same way we are

asked to in our weekly tutorials,” said Meg Harrington (2015, English). “Lee had a lot to say to us about what his comedy does, and how it works. The challenge of constructing a two-hour show which can change each night enough to mould to an audience, and controlled enough to still be the same show, takes so much more planning than I ever realised.”

We would like to give special thanks to Stewart for taking the time to share his story with fellow Aularians in a funny and thought-provoking way and we wish him luck with the rest of this tour.

BEMUSED: THE TEDDY HALL MUSICAL Last year saw the launch of an original College musical. It was a light-hearted, entertaining and comic romp centred around the idea (influenced by Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series and various classical precedents) that everyone’s creativity or imagination is manifested in a personal muse, who can see you and interact with you, but you (their ‘bemused’) can’t see them.

Brought to life by five Teddy Hall writers Matthew Carter (2014, English), Amelia Gabaldoni (2015, English), Rebecca Ipe (2015, MSc Education), Corinna Kulicke (2014, DPhil Infection, Immunology and Translational Medicine) and Kalina Naidoo (2015, MSc Psychiatry) - the musical was performed for three nights to sell-out audiences.

Bemused: the Teddy Hall Musical performed in the Old Dining Hall

GEDDES LECTURE 2017: IAN HISLOP IN CONVERSATION WITH HELEN LEWIS

Ian Hislop (satirist and broadcaster) and Helen Lewis (Deputy Editor of the New Statesman) The 2017 Geddes Memorial Lecture, which took place in the Examination Schools on 3 March, adopted a slightly

different format from usual – featuring Ian Hislop, satirist and broadcaster, in conversation with Helen Lewis, Deputy Editor of the New Statesman.

The event attracted a large audience, and is available to watch online via the College’s YouTube channel.

Topics covered in the lively and humorous discussion included Ian's time at Oxford and his involvement in student journalism, how he became editor of Private Eye aged just 26,

what makes people cancel their subscriptions, and the opinions most likely to get him into trouble.

The annual journalism lecture is organised by St Edmund Hall and the Philip Geddes Trustees in memory of Philip Geddes, an alumnus of St Edmund Hall and promising young journalist who was killed by an IRA bomb blast in 1983, aged just 24.

 Bemused and the Geddes Memorial Lecture are both available to watch online via our YouTube channel: youtube.com/stedmundhall 26

THE AULARIAN

THE GALLERY The Gallery is an annual celebration of the creative talent of St Edmund Hall: a beautifully produced book, compiling and curating the finest literary and artistic endeavours of members of the College.

Established in 2015 by Jack Moran, its success continued last year under the leadership of Alice Jaffe, and this year a new team are putting together what we hope to be a collection as elegant, professional and inspiring as the previous editions.

Above: Bodies - Amelia Gabaldoni Far left: Metamorphosis of a Demagogue - Alex Matraxia Left: Untitled 3 - Tammy Newton

The Gallery is made possible by donations from alumni and friends to the Amalgamated Clubs Fund at Teddy Hall.

Every year, we provide a subject for the book, to help offer inspiration and to provide a sense of cohesion for the finished product (although students are also invited to send in off-theme submissions). After much discussion, this year we decided we wanted a concept which incorporated ideas of change, adapting, altering, metamorphosing and, whilst the word ‘mutation’ nowadays often has more negative connotations, we felt it offered scope for explorations of all kinds of changing. The title thus became ‘Mutations’ (plural) – we wanted to encourage as wide a range of responses and interpretations as possible and, as in last year’s theme of ‘Draft’, to create a space where all these responses would have validity, and which we hoped anyone would feel comfortable submitting to.

The process of creating The Gallery (which I have been lucky enough to have been a part of, in various roles, from its very beginning) is also, on a basic level, all about mutations. Pretty much every

submission goes through a process of editing in some degree; suggestions are made, conversations are had, and the work changes and develops, as the book itself takes shape. From an initial idea, a body of work grows, shifts and mutates.

Although sometimes the submissions are along lines which we expect, this year certainly there were interpretations of the theme which I at least definitely hadn’t anticipated. The finished product is always something excitingly new and different, thanks to the incredible ingenuity and imagination with which members of the Hall respond to the theme.

Each year, as The Gallery has become more of an established part of college life, the number of submissions we receive grows, and this year we were lucky enough to have more than ever, and of an exceptionally high quality. The team, Alex Bridge, Amelia Gabaldoni, Kat Dixon-Ward, Alex Matraxia, Jessica Heywood, Tammy Newton, Naomi Polonsky and Tabitha Hayward, have

been working hard, encouraging as many people as possible to submit, working on submissions with the artists and writers and now, in the final stages, putting the design of the book together. The launch event for the book will take place on Friday 9 June from 7pm in the Old Dining Hall. We would love you to join us for an evening celebrating the creativity of the Hall, with performances of poetry and writings from the collection, as well as musical performances, and with copies of the book available to peruse and purchase.

If you are unable to attend the event but would like to purchase a copy of the book, please contact aularianconnect@ seh.ox.ac.uk. We can’t wait to share the fantastic creative talent of the Hall with you!

Tabitha Hayward (2014, English)

27

WWW.SEH.OX.AC.UK

SPORTING NEWS VICTORY FOR MEN’S FOOTBALL TEAM IN CUPPERS With memories of last year’s loss against Brasenose in the final still giving St Edmund Hall’s players sleepless nights, this year’s final against Christ Church represented a chance for redemption and the opportunity to bring the Football Cuppers trophy to the Hall for the first time since 2006.

The 11 men who started the semifinal against Wadham also lined up on the vast pitch at Iffley Road, ready to prove wrong those who had claimed that we had only reached the final due to the home comforts of the pitches at University Parks. Christ Church started the game the stronger of the two sides and dominated possession in the first ten minutes. When Beck-Friis (ex-Blues striker) was given time to turn on the edge of the box, he fired just wide, but gave the St Edmund Hall defence a warning about what he was capable of.

But Christ Church were unable to create any clear-cut chances with their

possession, and Teddy Hall battled their way into the match, with tough tackles in the defence and midfield being loudly cheered by the sizeable Hall crowd (including Ella Penny in the bear costume!).

With the scores still 0-0 after 60 minutes, a tactical change was made and Christoph Held in his first appearance of the season replaced Tom Morgan on the left of midfield. The change was effective and Teddy Hall began to dictate the play, with centre backs Allamin Daggash and Julius Lehmann keeping Christ Church’s attackers quiet. Another quick counterattack saw Held released into a oneon-one with the opposition keeper and, just as Steve Pilley had done 10 minutes earlier, he rounded the keeper, but fired wide. It was at this point that the first thoughts that this might not be our night began to enter the heads of the St Edmund Hall players and fans.

With the 11 men of the Hall beginning to tire, Christ Church began to use their physicality to their advantage and had a couple of half-chances from putting crosses into the box. However, Dan Hart won the ball back in the middle of midfield and released Conor Lyster who beat the centre backs for pace, rounded the keeper and slotted home to put St Edmund Hall 1-0 up, with 10 minutes to go. The crowd went wild, whilst the players looked to remain calm and see out the match.

Christ Church, in their desperation to score, threw their centre back up-front, but it was to no avail. The final whistle blew and the Hall supporters raced onto the pitch to celebrate with the players.

Defeat in the final last year only made victory this time round taste so much sweeter.

Match report by victorious captain Adam Wills (2015, History)

AULARIAN GOLFING SOCIETY - REPORT ON 2016 SEASON One of this year’s highlights has not been on the golf course at all but ‘online’. No longer will it be necessary for Aularian golfers to wait for an annual report for news of the Society’s activities; or to discover who are involved; or to wonder how to participate.

Thanks to the technical skills of Arwyn Hughes and editorial expertise of Michael Archer, all you need to know about the Aularian Golfing Society (AGS) is now instantly accessible on the Society’s website – simply click on www.arwynhg.wixsite. com/aulariangolf or use the link on the Hall website. All curious golfers are invited to visit the site and encouraged to consider joining one of the Hall’s most active alumni associations.

From left to right: Gerald Barber, Peter Jones, Michael Archer, David Hopkins, Ken Hinkley-Smith, David Jackson, Guy Warner, Bruce Day, Chris Atkinson, Brian Griffiths, John Martin, John Bunney, John Collingwood, David McCammon, Mike Simmie, Andy Barker 28

THE AULARIAN

ON THE GOLF COURSE, OTHER HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE: MONTH

FIXTURE

VENUE

RESULT/COMMENT

March

Match v St John’s

Royal Mid-Surrey

Runners-up decided on the last green of the last match. Thanks to host Brian Amor.

OU Alumni Comp

Frilford Heath

Not our finest hour but in 2017, after winter training camp, it will be a different story!

April

Spring Meeting

The Berkshire

Host Gerald Barber set up another fine day.

The secretary won the Atkinson Trophy.

May

Match v Fitzwilliam

Berkhamsted

Another contest that went to the final match.

Hinkers and Collers held on for a fine draw.

June

Match v Corpus

Huntercombe

A welcome return to the winning ways.

August

A.G.M.

Studley Wood

Appalling weather! Of the few finishers Michael Rowan produced the best score. Aularian Jigger contest postponed to Finale.

September

Autumn Meeting

The Richmond

A glorious day arranged by David Ashworth – popular winner of the Richmond Trophy too.

October

Match v Catz, Pemb & Worc

Studley Wood

A below par Aularian performance allowed our Catz hosts to take the honours.

November

Finale Meeting

Studley Wood

Better weather for the jigger contest which the secretary tried to lose – but didn’t!

As ever, the Society is most grateful to Brian Amor, Gerald Barber, Michael Archer and David Ashworth who host fixtures at their respective home clubs.

AGS would be delighted to welcome new members.

Please contact: Chris Atkinson  01280 814523 or e-mail chrisatkinson565@ btinternet.com

FRIENDS OF ST EDMUND HALL BOAT CLUB Interest in and dedication to rowing at the Hall remains consistently strong at all levels across both the men and the women. The College was very well represented at Varsity level in 2017 with several Hall rowers racing against Cambridge and others making the most of the opportunity to improve their rowing in development squads. Solid and improving Torpids crews have been bolstered by returning Blues and both first eight squads are enjoying strong momentum initiated by fruitful training camps led by experienced coaches.

College rowing remains highly competitive at the upper levels and the Hall crews are well equipped and training hard to maximise their chances of success in Summer VIII’s.

Torpids brought an exciting and somewhat turbulent week of racing for the men. M1 kicked off the week at the top of Division II and ended up rowing twice each day except for Friday. The crew narrowly missed bumping Trinity on the second day and crossed the finish line with overlap. On Friday, the crew were disappointed to suffer a bump at the hands of a blades-winning Jesus crew but restored their position on Saturday by bumping New and once again, almost catching Trinity just before the finish line.

M2 enjoyed a great week’s racing by winning blades for the second year in a row. The crew achieved over-bumps on each of three days.

The Women’s First VIII started the week in the same position as the men at the top of Division II and gained over two lengths

in their first row over on Wednesday.

Another strong performance followed in the Division I race with the crew closing the gap on Balliol to a quarter of a length.

On the following days however, the crew suffered at the hands of a series of strong crews beneath them enjoying rapid upwards trajectories which resulted in the Hall being bumped each day.

One highlight which bodes well for the future was the strength of character and determination the eight showed in holding off a very strong Jesus crew on Thursday in a chase which resulted in a bump right on the line which was later ruled out in the Hall’s favour.

It has been very rewarding to see so many Teddy Hall rowers among the Blue Boats this year. Alice Roberts raced in the Blue Boat in the women’s boat race which unfortunately saw Cambridge win for the first time in four years and George Mckirdy enjoyed a 2 ½ length victory with Isis. Doug Chesterton narrowly lost out to Cambridge in the Lightweight Men’s Boat Race, Dhaval Desai, the SEHBC Captain of Coxes captained and coxed the Lightweight Men’s Reserves and Christina Turner rowed in the Lightweight Women’s Reserve pair.

The Friends of the Boat Club was formed with the primary purpose of helping to ensure that crews representing the Hall enjoy the very best in terms of equipment and coaching. Our mission in that respect remains steadfast, supported of course by the ongoing generosity of former Aularian rowers and a small group of commercial sponsors. The recent

delivery of a new Filippi eight for W1, of which there are currently only 10 equally advanced shells in the UK, is a great example of the type of equipment our college rowers could not benefit from without this support. The club has a medium-term plan in place for equipment and coaching to ensure continuity and this in conjunction with the unique Hall spirit helps to underpin very high levels of morale and membership in the club.

We warmly invite any alumni or supporters of the college who have an interest in rowing and are not already on our newsletter distribution list, to join the Friends of the Boat Club which will involve receiving regular updates on the Hall’s exploits on the river in return for committing to a modest annual donation to support the club. We would also be delighted to hear from former Hall rowers of all generations who might have an interest in joining the Friends’ Management Committee. We meet each term in College and are working on multiple initiatives new members could contribute to. Please feel free to reach out to us or come down to the boathouse on the Saturday of Summer VIII’s to catch up: fosehbc@seh.ox.ac.uk. For those who cannot join us by the river, we recommend downloading the OxBump app produced by Feather & Square which provides live updates on race days as well as bumps charts dating back to 1980!

Benjamin Grout (2000, PPE) Committee Member, FoSEHBC 29

WWW.SEH.OX.AC.UK

MASTERCLASS AWARDS The Masterclass Awards, funded through alumni giving as part of the Annual Fund, provide students who already excel at an extra-curricular activity with the opportunity to hone and refine their talent with specialised coaching. The awards continue to be very popular amongst our extremely talented JCR and MCR students, with 36 grants awarded in the past year alone. Rachel Carver, Leslie Dickson-Tetteh and Ruari Clark were amongst those recipients, and represent just some of the diverse activity supported by the awards.

Below they discuss what they put their grant towards, and how the continued generosity of our donors has helped them to push their abilities even further.

RACHEL CARVER (2015, History)

RUARI CLARK (2013, History)

LESLIE DICKSON-TETTEH (2013, Medicine)

I used the Masterclass funding to pay for lessons with internationally renowned harpist Susan Drake. Her musicality and experience has proved invaluable in helping me to master new repertoire throughout the year.

The money granted to me by the fund allowed me to attend a boxing camp based in Tenerife. I travelled there with the Oxford University Amateur Boxing Club (OUABC) as part of preparations for two big events in Hilary term, Town vs Gown and the Varsity Match. As a result of my training I was chosen to represent the University in both these events.

Over the past year the Masterclass fund has helped me work towards and at times exceed the original goals as outlined in my application.

My aim was to increase my proficiency on the guitar and begin to study composition in order to add a musical component to my current writing and create a performance aspect to my poetry. Whilst working with my guitar instructors I also began to develop my confidence and started vocal coaching. This proved invaluable to me and led me to hold a collaborative exhibition with a Fine Art student from the Hall and through that I was invited to read during a BME performance night at St Catz.

For my ABRSM higher diploma I have just started learning a sonata by Paul Hindemith which is proving both a technical and intellectual challenge as some of the movements are not very easily accessible. Last year I premiered Calzonetta by alumnus Geoffrey Allen (1945, Geography) and have since been preparing some of the other movements from the suite which I intend to record and send to him in Australia.

Previous projects have included learning Maurice Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro which was performed with a predominantly college ensemble at the end of Michaelmas term and playing a variety of works with different Oxford orchestras and choirs including as Principal Harpist of the Oxford University Orchestra.

30

In Tenerife we were able to train using fantastic facilities and – most importantly – go running up Mount Teide. A 13km mountain run that was as unpleasant as it sounds but definitely necessary if we were to beat Cambridge in the Varsity Match (which we did 5-4). The training camp ensured that when we came back for Hilary we would be able to hit the ground running (literally) and reach a level of physical and mental fitness which most of us would not have reached before.

The training I was able to take part in, thanks to the fund, was fantastic and no doubt contributed to my personal goal of getting a Blue.

Without the fund’s generosity I’m sure that I would not have stood as good a chance of being selected for the University squad.

Furthermore, the grant has allowed me to benefit from opportunities I would not otherwise have been able to take. Not least undertaking guitar lessons in New York on Bleecker Street during my summer break. My guitar teacher had owned a music store in the area during the 70s and as such was able to offer first-hand account of meetings with legends such as Ray Charles, the Beatles and Bob Dylan!

As such, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the Masterclass Fund for their past and ongoing support.

THE AULARIAN

INTRODUCTION TO THE ADMISSIONS OFFICE In March 2016 the Hall’s Admission Office saw two new starters: Scarlett Nash (Admissions Officer) and Luke Maw (Schools Liaison Officer). Their work is overseen by Professor Robert Wilkins (Senior Tutor and Tutor for Admissions).

PROFESSOR ROBERT WILKINS Senior Tutor and Tutor for Admissions

SCARLETT NASH Admissions Officer

LUKE MAW Schools Liaison Officer

Robert Wilkins is the American Fellow in Physiology, overseeing an intake of five Medicine and three Biomedical Sciences students each year.

Scarlett previously worked at the Oxford University Language Centre working on their course administration and Oxford University Press project co-ordinating on the Oxford English Dictionary. She now sees students through all aspects of the application process. For undergraduates, this starts with receiving UCAS forms in October, before coordinating written work, admissions test scores and receiving shortlisting decisions from the subject tutors. She then sends out the interview invitations and coordinates all aspects of the interview period in December, before finally sending out those all-important offer letters in January.

Later in the year she manages the graduate and visiting student admissions processes, before handing current students into the capable hands of the College Office once they arrive.

Luke joined St Edmund Hall in March 2016, having graduated in 2015 with a Masters in Physics at the University of Nottingham. He previously worked in Higher Education within the Widening Participation department there.

He has a longstanding interest in outreach and admissions and acted as the University’s coordinator for admissions in Medicine for six years before becoming Tutor for Admissions at the Hall in 2009.

During his time as Tutor for Admissions, Robert has developed the College’s outreach and recruitment activities establishing the post of Schools Liaison Officer to facilitate our regional outreach work, developing residential workshops for prospective applicants and starting ‘Family and Friends’ days to help offer holders prepare for their arrival in Oxford.  robert.wilkins@seh.ox.ac.uk  +44 (0)1865 279083

 admissions@seh.ox.ac.uk  +44 (0)1865 279009

Luke leads the College’s outreach and access programmes. Primarily, this involves working with schools and colleges in St Edmund Hall’s special link areas: Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Leicester, Leicestershire, Peterborough, Portsmouth, Rutland and Southampton.

Luke regularly travels to visit schools in these areas, and hosts visits to Oxford from schools, colleges and individual prospective applicants. He recently organised and hosted the Hall’s inaugural Outreach Roadshow, bringing Student Ambassadors to schools across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, engaging with over 400 students during a week. You can watch a video documenting their trip at seh.ac/roadshow2016.  schools.liaison@seh.ox.ac.uk  +44 (0)1865 279380 31

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

If you would like any further information, please contact Kate Townsend, Alumni Relations Manager.  kate.townsend@seh.ox.ac.uk  +44 (0) 1865 289180

2017 JUNE

SEPTEMBER

SATURDAY 24 BATH LUNCH

SATURDAY 16 10TH, 20TH & 30TH ANNIVERSARY DINNER THURSDAY 21 60TH ANNIVERSARY LUNCH

SATURDAY 23 50TH ANNIVERSARY DINNER SATURDAY 30 EDINBURGH LUNCH

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

FRIDAY 20 PARENTS’ DINNER

FRIDAY 17 NEW YORK DINNER

SATURDAY 28 MANCHESTER LUNCH

THURSDAY 30 CAROLS IN THE QUAD DECEMBER THURSDAY 7 VARSITY RUGBY MATCH

2018 JANUARY

FEBRUARY

MARCH

TUESDAY 30 SEHA LONDON DINNER

FRIDAY 16 FRESHERS’ PARENTS’ DINNER

SATURDAY 24 40TH ANNIVERSARY DINNER

Development & Alumni Relations Office St Edmund Hall Queen’s Lane Oxford OX1 4AR  www.seh.ox.ac.uk  +44 (0) 1865 279055

 aularianconnect@seh.ox.ac.uk