St Hilda’s Happenings January 2021
January 2021
Welcome to Hilary Term At the start of this virtual Hilary Term, we said goodbye to our temporary Porters’ Lodge and MCR. We look forward to welcoming everyone back to our transformed site! Until such time as we can all return, join us for a virtual stroll from Cowley Place to our new Lodge and around the grounds with some film taken during an essential visit to the new-look St Hilda’s College.
At present, staff presence on the College site is at the minimum level necessary to provide essential services for students in residence and keep core operations running. All teaching is online and all public spaces, including the JCR, MCR, gym and Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, are closed. For those who need to be in College, the Dining Hall Team is providing a pre-ordered collection service for lunch. Orders for lunch should be placed though UPay in the ‘Order Ahead’ section. The system will allow for orders to be placed up to three days ahead. Same-day orders cannot be placed. The system is also set for delivery, for students only. Staff members are asked to collect their orders. Please contact our Catering Manager, Garry Luke, if you have any problems with this. In-person library services are strictly limited, as outlined on our website. Our Library Team is providing a remote request service (for scans, deliveries or collection) for all staff and students who wish to use the College's physical collections. Do you have books out on loan? You don’t need to return them. Fines are waived and loans extended. If you want to return books, please leave them in the library pidge or send them back by post. Need to print? For those in College, the JCR computer room is still open. Do you need help with your essay, dissertation or other writing? If so, our Royal Literary Fellow, Julie Summers, is here to help. Julie has 50-minute slots available at 10am, 11am, 12am, 2pm, 3pm and 4pm on Mondays and Wednesdays. Sessions are confidential and are open to all students and graduate students of St Hilda’s. To book please email Julie. 1
COVID-19 Updates We have the good news that the first two vaccines, Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca, received MHRA Regulation 174 authorisation by the beginning of this year. Find out more about both in the independent report, ‘Optimising the COVID-19 vaccination programme for maximum short-term impact’, published on 6 January 2021 on www.gov.uk. The UK National Health Service began the rollout of the Oxford / AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, with patients at the Oxford University NHS Hospitals Trust becoming the first to receive it, on 4 January. A COVID-19 vaccine made by US company, Moderna, has recently become the third to be approved for use in the UK.
St Hilda’s is working with St John’s Ambulance to support the NHS COVID-19 vaccination programme Teams from St John’s Ambulance are being sent to venues around the country to train volunteers to help roll out the vaccine. Among these is St Hilda’s College. St John’s Ambulance will be using our Dining Hall, Marquee, and, for the first time, the new Pavilion to train their volunteers to roll out the vaccine. We are happy to be able to help support their efforts and to provide our buildings free of hire charge for this purpose. Many thanks to our Buildings and Events Coordinator, Sarah Luke, who has worked on this with members of the team from St John’s Ambulance. Find out more about the programme.
Research Professor Duncan Richards, Climax Professor of Clinical Therapeutics, has provided the following update: ‘The roll out of the vaccines, including the one developed by colleagues in Oxford is very welcome, but the current situation demonstrates there is still a pressing need for drug treatments. The focus of the Centre for Clinical Therapeutics is on establishing whether immunomodulatory therapies and anti-TNF drugs in particular, are helpful. We anticipate preliminary results from these studies in the next few months.’ Professor Richards continues to support the COVID-19 Therapeutics Advisory Panel (UKCTAP) which advises on the treatments to be proposed for testing through the National platform studies: RECOVERY+, REMAP-CAP, PRINCIPLE and AGILE Dr James Fullerton, Associate Professor of Clinical Therapeutics, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Science and Supernumerary Fellow in Clinical Therapeutics, supports front-line services at the John Radcliffe through participation in the Acute General Medicine rota. The latest COVID-19 news for staff and students can be found on the University’s website.
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Virtual Events We will continue to organise virtual events to connect members and friends with College. We are looking forward to the following events in Hilary Term: Pushing back the pandemic: Lessons for the future, 21 January 5.15-6.15pm At this live online event, our Principal, Professor Sir Gordon Duff, and Dr Ian Hudson OBE, Senior Adviser at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will share their expert insights into the evolving scientific understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rapidly advancing solutions to this health crisis. There will then be an audience Q&A. The event is free to attend but please register. We plan to continue with our series of virtual Thursday lunchtime concerts, starting with Barnaby Burleigh (PPL, 2016). As we cannot bring these to you from the JdP Music Building this term, the JdP Team and St Hilda’s musicians will bring the concerts to us from various locations. Tune in at 1.15pm on 28 January to hear ‘Legend of a sunken ecumenical Cathedral’ with Barnaby Burleigh (violin) and Lysander Burleigh (piano): Wieniawski – Légende Debussy – Cathédrale Engloutie Bruch – Kol Nidrei You can watch this lunchtime concert here. All of those from Michaelmas Term are still available to watch also. Our first virtual Brain and Mind event, with Drs Maike Glitsch, Anita Avramides and Ann Dowker, will take place on 11 February. More detail will be added to our website soon. 'How different from us?' Miss Beale’s Life, Legacy and Library, 12 March, 6.00-7.00pm Join us in the virtual College Library to learn about the rare and exciting books from our founder Dorothea Beale’s collections that found their way there after her death in 1907. College Librarian, Dr Jill Dye, in conversation with Library Fellow, Professor Daniel Wakelin, will lead a tour through some of these treasures, asking what they reveal about the person behind the portrait, the character behind the collection, and about her aims and ideals for her Oxford College and its Library? Oxford University History Faculty's public seminar series, Women, Gender and Culture, will be convened by our Tutorial Fellow in History and Professor in Modern British History, Professor Selina Todd, in Hilary Term. The seminars are open to all and will be held on Zoom at 1-2pm on Tuesdays in weeks 1, 3, 5, and 7 of Hilary Term. Find out more and register. Dressed for War: The Story of Vogue, took place on 8 January. This was a wonderful opportunity for anyone interested in writing for TV, fashion, journalism, popular biography and effective blogging to learn from two members of our community, Royal Literary Fellow, Julie Summers, and fashion and culture writer and our recent alumna, Rosalind Jana. If you missed it or would like to watch again, Dressed for War is available here.
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St Hilda’s Hurrahs Congratulations to: Professor Julia Yeomans, FRS, Professor of Physics and our Fellow and Tutor in Physics, upon whom the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Board has conferred the Headship of the Subdepartment of Theoretical Physics (and Head of the Rudolf Peierls Centre), from 1 November 2020 until 30 September 2023. Our Tutorial Fellow in Zoology and Professor of Evolution and Genomics, Department of Zoology, Professor Aris Katzourakis, who has been awarded a European Research Council Consolidator Grant in paleovirology, to understand the evolution of viral cross species transmissions, and host/virus gene exchange. Dr Gareth Evans, our Lecturer in English, who has received a grant from the John Fell Fund to run a workshop on ‘saga emotions’. The workshop will bring together internationally leading and emerging scholars to generate innovative research into the language and representation of emotion in Old Norse-Icelandic saga literature. The workshop will ultimately lead to a substantial edited collection, provisionally entitled Saga Emotions: A Handbook, which will be co-edited by Dr Evans and Professor Carolyne Larrington, St John's College. Dr Margaret Kean, our Tutorial Fellow in English, on being one of BBC Radio 4's guides to the underworld in its new series, 'Dante 2021'. In episode 1 of this major new series on Dante's Divine Comedy in the 21st century, Inferno, Dr Kean guides us and presenter, Katya Adler, to the first region of the afterlife. Michael Sheen is Dante. Find out more. Our senior members who were recognised in the New Year Honours List 2021. Wasfi Kani OBE (Music, 1975), Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Grange Park Opera, has been awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for services to Music. Alison Judith Bailey Castellina (English, 1974), Technical Standards Lead, Heat Networks, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, has been awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) for services to Consumer Protection and to Diversity and Inclusion. Find out more. Our alumna, Ruth Hunt (English, 1998), who featured on the University of Oxford's Timeline: 100 years of women's history at Oxford. From 2014-2019, Ruth was the Chief Executive of Stonewall, the largest LGBT+ equality body in Europe. In 2019, she was named Baroness Hunt of Bethnal Green. Our JCR and MCR committees, including the Welfare Officers and Peer Supporters, who are working hard to help our students to stay connected during this virtual Hilary Term. Many thanks to Beth Eames, our Charities Rep, who organised our St Hilda’s facemasks, which we hope are being worn around various parts of the country until they make their way back to Oxford with their owners.
A 'selfie', as the young people say.
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Promote your research at St Hilda’s St Hilda’s Research Committee is planning to highlight work done by researchers at all levels across our College. There will be an online photographic exhibition to showcase our research activity, which we will share via the College’s website and social media channels. We hope to be able to organise a physical exhibition in the future. Please submit photos of your work, with a caption that explains what is happening in the image and how it contributes to knowledge and progress in your area of work, to Dr Jakob Van den Eijnden, Lee Hysan Junior Research Fellow, and Claire Harvey, Communications Manager by 5 February. You can email us at communications@st-hildas.ox.ac.uk. We are searching for images that are not immediately obvious, but invite the audience to question what they are looking at. Please take a look at the images that featured in an early photographic Research Exhibition, ‘Through the Eye of the Researcher’ to see some examples. If you are interested and would like any more information, please drop us a line. We are happy to help.
Entries for University of Oxford’s All-Innovate Student Idea Competition 2021, led by the Oxford Foundry, are now OPEN! All-Innovate is the University of Oxford’s flagship intercollege idea competition for the whole University and we are delighted that St Hilda’s College is participating this year. Do you have an idea that you think could make a positive impact to the world? All-Innovate is a fantastic opportunity to take this forward and explore the entrepreneurial journey. No entry is too big or too small and you have the chance to win your share of £40,000 worth of grant funding to support turning your idea into reality. Get your creative juices flowing in the Foundry’s ‘Idea Exploration’ workshops and enter by Sunday, 14 February to represent St Hilda’s in the competition.
Coming soon: St Hilda’s Telethon 2021! Applications will soon be open for this year’s telethon, which will take place from 21 June to 7 July (9th to 11th Week of Trinity). This is a fantastic opportunity to: · · · · · ·
learn valuable skills improve your CV have some fascinating conversations with St Hilda’s alumnae working in all fields around the world get to know students in other years and subject areas raise vital funds to help current and future generations of students and earn an excellent hourly rate!
Save the dates if you’d like to take part, and keep an eye out for the application details coming to your inbox soon.
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Weekly Activities at The Sanctuary with our Chaplain, Meryem Kalayci A moment of stillness, prayer, poetry and music, Monday-Thursday, 6-6.15pm Here is a short order: A candle lit. Short welcome by Chaplain Silence is kept Short Intercessions of prayer, poetry or music Silence is kept Conclusion by Chaplain On Mondays and Thursdays, we will have a musical piece played by one of our College members during the silence, and Tuesdays a poem or prayer will be read. On Wednesdays, we will pray and hope for those who are in need and are affected most by the pandemic. If you know someone in need and wish to share their names, please send, Meryem a message and she will read their names during the communal silence. Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/4773975555?pwd=eUw5c3ZrMEREZFhMamdLbDJpWVFIUT09 Meeting ID: 477 397 5555 Passcode: 992uKp
Evening mindfulness session, Friday 6-6.30pm For this term, Zen master, Barbara Jikai Gabrys, has developed a special programme for us at St Hilda’s with a focus on ‘how to cope with work during a pandemic’. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84362680700?pwd=OXl2aS83dWVjVSt2SGlZbHVoYWhlZz09 Meeting ID: 843 6268 0700 Passcode: 547395
Nature Strolls and Spiritual Nurturing, Monday and Friday 12-1pm Our Chaplain is available for one-on-one strolls through nature. This term, these walks will be over the phone. Email Meryem if you want to arrange for a phone call in nature, or want a cheerful poem, prayer or spiritual passage in your inbox.
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The Michaelmas Term virtual lunchtime strolls around St Hilda’s grounds with Walter Sawyer, our Gardens Consultant, are still available to watch. You can find out more about the trees and plants that can be found there, including Cedar trees, Pine trees, and
Catalpa, or Indian Bean Tree, with Walter. You can keep up with the latest news on St Hilda’s website or by following the College on social media. Please send your news and events to Claire Harvey, Communications Manager.
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