Issuu

Mansfield

2020/21

Contents Message from the Principal

Bursar’s Report

News in brief

Adam von Trott Scholarship

Mansfield: a Covid year

Mansfield and the University Tests Acts

Kofi Annan Scholarships: a life-changing year

Student news

Alumni Association Report

Alumni news

The way we were

Memories of Mansfield and Geography: 12 Pam Berry

The impact of your support: Thank you

Alumni Relations & Engagement

A Campaign for Teaching

JCR President’s Report

Inspiring loyalty

Acting Senior Tutor’s Report

Access Report

Forever Mansfield: the gift of a lifetime

2020 Vision

Our supporters

Music at Mansfield

Bonavero news

Mansfield’s Visiting Student Programme

Obituaries

MCR President’s Report

Staff & Fellows’ news

MCBC Report

College and University prizes 2020/21

Sports round-up

Examination results 2020

Making waves: in conversation with Martha Birtles

Examination results 2021

Living better: an interview with Alastair Campbell and Fiona Millar

Produced by the Development Office Editors: Francesca Rigby, Events & Communications Assistant, and Catherine Conisbee, former Alumni Relations & Engagement Officer Copy Editor: Philip Harriss Design and print: Latcham Photography: The majority of images in the magazine are credited to Stuart Bebb, Greg Smolonski © Photovibe and Keiko Ikeuchi. With our grateful thanks. The theme of this year’s issue of Mansfield magazine is ‘resilience’.

facebook.com/mansfieldoxford Mansfield College Alumni, University of Oxford @mansfieldoxford instagram.com/mansfieldoxford

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

Message from the Principal Helen Mountfield QC has certainly been an ideal time for reflection on the interaction of past and present. We have marked three significant anniversaries. One which the University celebrated belatedly was the centenary of women being awarded degrees at Oxford; at College we also saluted the 40th anniversary of women’s admission to Mansfield.

I’ve been Principal of Mansfield for three years now. The last time I spent as long at Oxford – in the late 1980s – I got a degree out of it (and did a lot more dancing)! Knowing now the Herculean effort that goes into making College operate, I realise how blissfully unaware I was, as an undergraduate, of the inner workings of my college. Things may be different for the current generation. Since March 2020, the students have had to be very much included in the rationale for the strange (and sometimes cruel and unusual) reworking of our way of doing things. They have borne up with amazing resilience and fortitude. These have been hard times for all of us, but their generation has had to adapt to methods of learning and living that are starkly different from what they would have expected when arriving at Oxford. The endless updating and re-updating of Covid protocols, and household rules; changing edicts on whether and when they could return to College; and learning (as we all have) how exams would work online. I hope some students have kept diaries: they will be fascinating historic documents.

These events took place in 2020, but the University’s celebration had to be postponed until 2021. It was reflected at an Encaenia where all Honorands were women. I had a ringside seat, next to the Vice Chancellor and the Senior Proctor (our own Lucinda Rumsey). It was great to catch up with our Honorary Fellow Hillary Clinton, one of the Honorands – and to hear her advice to our JCR President Sara Cepele, on the myriad ways she could use her Law degree. In 2021, we also commemorated the 150th anniversary of the Tests Acts, which allowed Nonconformists to become full members of the University. This opened the way to Mansfield’s foundation – the Nonconformist College (as we still are) – on our current site in 1886. You can read about this later in the magazine. As a member of the University’s Race Equality Task Force, I have been part of a process of reflecting on our past and the inclusive, welcoming, plural present to which we aspire. We have looked with inquiring new eyes both at what we value in our history, and to debate, in an open way, what we need to change. The Task Force (which met entirely online) made its initial report to the University’s Council ‘awayday’ in late September 2021 and a consultation on its conclusions was launched in October.

So I was particularly moved to watch this year’s graduands troop off to their graduation ceremony at the Sheldonian in the autumn sunshine, all dressed up in gowns and hoods (the first in-person ceremonies since 2019).

There are many things to be proud of in Mansfield’s past – including the College’s call to its sister colleges in the USA to abolish slavery – but also food for historical reflection. You can read our entry on the Oxford and Colonialism website here: https://oxfordandcolonialism.web.ox.ac.uk/ mansfield-college.

It gave me cause to think about the passage of time. Although my pre-Mansfield career was as a barrister, I am forever grateful that my first degree was in history. And 2020/21

The links between our past and future have also been reflected in the arrival, in 2021, of our first Refugee Scholar. This scholarship has been generously funded for three years 3

by the Lutheran World Federation. It is part of the recent commitment we have made as a College of Sanctuary to have at least one funded refugee scholarship each year. Mansfield is also supporting Afghan academics in collaboration with the other colleges and the Committee for Academics at Risk. We recognise how much the intellectual life of this University owes to ‘outsiders’ – indeed, Mansfield was founded specifically to enable them to participate. And we recognise our luck in living in such relative peace and security. We want our students to be aware in intellectual and human terms, of the costs of global instability. But along with time for historical reflection, the Covid crisis has also thrown up immediate challenges. So I have been working hard with the wonderful Richard Scanlon, our outgoing Bursar, Development Director Tess McCormick and Governing Body to consider how to deliver our strategic vision, ensuring Mansfield’s long-term resilience. Like all historic upheavals, the pandemic has produced existential threats, but also revealed how quickly we can adapt – if we map clearly where we came from, where we want to go, and have a plan about how to get there. I hope to report more fully on our thinking on this next year. I hope, too, that despite all this year’s hardships, we have engendered in our students a sense of realistic optimism and purpose. They deserve it: their own energy and fortitude gives me strength and determination to secure Mansfield for future generations of scholars and students. I know from my reading of history that progress is not inevitable, and depends on the steps we take now. In the famous words of the Preface of HLA Fisher’s History of Europe, written as storm clouds gathered in 1935: ‘The fact of progress is written plain and large on the face of history. But progress is not a law of nature.’ Progress is, however, built on bravery, imagination, creativity, and effort: qualities that my Mansfield colleagues, and our wonderful Mansfield students, have shown in spades.

Bursar’s Report Richard Scanlon I wrote in last year’s Bursar’s Report that I hoped by the time of this year’s report we would be able to view Coronavirus as a historical footnote. Unfortunately, it won’t come as any surprise that the College continued to feel the impact of the pandemic throughout the academic year, and as we have been unable to welcome our international conference guests during the summer vacation it is still affecting us at the time of writing. College life has necessarily been rather restricted for most of the year. We welcomed students back at the start of Michaelmas with many Covid precautions in place. Catering arrangements for academics, students and staff had to be amended and unfortunately most student extracurricular activities had to be suspended. We initially thought we could relax some restrictions as term progressed, but our hopes were dashed when the Government announced the second national lockdown in November. Most UK-based students managed to get home at the end of term, and we were looking forward to welcoming them back at the start of Hilary when, with only minimal notice, the Government abruptly announced changes to the rules for students returning to universities. Most Mansfield students were not allowed to return until at least late January and this date was subsequently extended well into February. The University understandably waived the usual residency requirements for students, a waiver that remained for the rest of the academic year. The disruption caused and the impact on normal College life has been particularly hard on our students, especially if they had to self-isolate in their College accommodation at any time. I would like to thank them for their forbearance in living under the stringent restrictions, and for their understanding that the measures had to be implemented to keep them and other members of the College community safe. It has also been a difficult time for my team, who have stood up wonderfully well to the additional challenges. Our Covid response

team met at least weekly throughout the year to agree, communicate and implement suitable operational arrangements and contingency plans, often at very short notice. Accommodation issues, catering arrangements and use of College facilities, such as the Library, were frequent topics. Lynne Quiggin, Mansfield’s Domestic Bursar, chaired this weekly meeting throughout the pandemic and deserves special mention. Lynne and I reflected at the end of the academic year that most of her time over the past 18 months had been spent working on topics that didn’t even exist before the pandemic: preparing and reviewing Covid risk assessments, liaising with colleagues in other colleges on appropriate and consistent responses to Covid issues, and ensuring quarantining and self-isolating students were adequately provided for, to name a few. Unsurprisingly, the pandemic has had a significant financial effect on Mansfield, particularly on income from accommodation and conferences. In total, the impact has been more than £1.5 million during 2020/21 alone. This loss is a real problem for a College with an annual income of around £7 million, limited reserves and a relatively small endowment. I’m pleased to report we have successfully navigated our way through these choppy waters, for example by minimising administrative costs, changing staff rotas, utilising the Government’s furlough scheme, and successfully applying for grants from the Colleges Contributions Scheme. Additional funds made available by the University to support our students’ own finances, to supplement the College’s hardship funds, were also much appreciated. These initiatives were interspersed with selective investment programmes, for example improving the College’s Wi-Fi network, which was urgently needed to support the massive increase in demand

brought about by online learning. The donations we have received this year, both unrestricted and in support of our students through Covid, and for other priorities that are helping improve Mansfield’s future position, have been particularly important and are deeply appreciated. As we move into the next academic year, the teamwork and resilience shown by everyone at Mansfield over 2020/21 gives me confidence the College is in good shape and will continue to flourish in the coming years. I just hope that the challenge of Covid-19 really can be viewed as a historical footnote by this time next year.

‘I’m pleased to report we have successfully navigated our way through these choppy waters’

News in brief Reach for the stars On the UN International Day of Women and Girls in Science (11 February 2021), College announced the launch of a new annual lecture, named in honour of trailblazing astrophysicist and Mansfield Fellow, Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell. Jocelyn was just 24 when she discovered a new type of star known as a pulsar, while completing her PhD at Cambridge. The significance of this discovery was recognised by the award of the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics – but the award was given to her supervisors, Antony Hewish and Sir Martin Ryle, rather than Jocelyn. Since then, Jocelyn has received many honours, including, in 2018, a Breakthrough Prize for Physics by the Fundamental Physics Prize

Foundation. She pledged the £2.3 million prize money to help women, minority, and refugee students to follow in her footsteps and become Physics researchers. More recently, in January 2021, Jocelyn joined Albert Einstein, Edwin Hubble, and Stephen Hawking by becoming a recipient of the prestigious Royal Astronomical Society Gold Medal for Astronomy, and in August was awarded the world’s oldest scientific prize, the Royal Society’s Copley Medal. She once again donated her prize

money to support students from groups under-represented in Physics. The new Jocelyn Bell Burnell Lecture will be held each November to mark the anniversary of Jocelyn’s discovery of pulsars on 28 November 1967 and aims to inspire the study of science at the highest level in all with the curiosity and commitment to pursue it. The inaugural lecture will be given on Friday 26 November 2021, by space scientist Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, who last year was made an Honorary Fellow of Mansfield.

We cannot walk alone In Trinity term, as part of Mansfield’s observance of Refugee Week (14-20 June 2021) – an annual UK-wide festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary – Mansfield was proud to host the inaugural Oxford’s Colleges of Sanctuary event: ‘Voices for Sanctuary: We Cannot Walk Alone’. Refugee Week has been particularly important to us this year, as, following a joint application with Somerville College, Mansfield achieved ‘University College of Sanctuary’ status, under the City of Sanctuary UK scheme. This recognised our commitment to nurturing a culture of inclusivity and support for those seeking sanctuary, including refugees and asylum seekers. The Colleges of Sanctuary event was hosted in partnership with Somerville, and we were delighted to welcome the Reverend Inderjit Bhogal, founder and President of City of Sanctuary UK, and Afraa Hashem, of campaigning group Action for Sama, as the inaugural guest speakers. 5

News in brief

From little acorns Mansfield takes its environmental responsibilities seriously, and with this in mind, the College has recently agreed an ambitious set of targets: to become carbon neutral and achieve a net gain in biodiversity by 2030. For many years Mansfield has pursued eco-friendly initiatives – including the introduction of energy-saving heating and electrical appliances, water-saving toilets, biodegradable catering supplies, meat-free Mondays, and garden renovations – but now we seek to incorporate our environmental targets into College decision-making processes. The College Strategy approved by Governing Body urges us ‘to run our College in an environmentally and financially sustainable and ethical way, and for our operations and investments to be undertaken with due consideration of and respect for good environmental and human rights standards.’ At the request of Mansfield’s JCR and MCR, we have also established a dedicated Environmental Sustainability Working Group (ESWG), to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy for this area. The ESWG meets regularly to collaborate, drawing on the wealth of expertise and experience within the College and wider University, and has a balanced membership of students, academics, and support staff.

‘…et claves’ On 17 March 2021, Mansfield’s Senior Tutor, Lucinda Rumsey, was installed as the University’s Senior Proctor. This year’s ceremony was the first in the University’s history to have taken place online, rather than in its traditional home of the Sheldonian Theatre. It was also the first time that the book and keys (et claves), which are the symbols of the Proctor’s authority, have been accepted virtually. Oxford’s Proctors and Assessor are drawn annually from college academics and fulfil a key role by ensuring that the University operates in accordance with its statutes. These elected academics oversee student discipline, have formal responsibility for University exams, and act as ombudspeople for the institution. They also usually perform ceremonial duties, such as leading degree ceremonies, in a role that has existed for over 800 years. Lucinda has invited Dr Machilu Zimba and Professor Proochista Ariana to serve as Pro-Proctors. Dr Zimba is Policy Advisor for race equality, religion and belief, in the University’s Equality and Diversity Unit, and

Professor Ariana is Director of the MSc in International Health & Tropical Medicine at the Nuffield Department of Medicine. Of the Proctorial team of seven (Proctors, Pro-Proctors and Assessor), six are women, four are people of colour, and their disciplines include Social Sciences, Medical Sciences and Humanities – a diversity of representation of which the team is proud. During Lucinda’s absence, Dr Helen Lacey, Supernumerary Fellow in Late Medieval History and Tutor for Visiting Students, has stepped into the role of Senior Tutor at Mansfield. She will continue in this post until the end of the 2022 academic year.

‘When this magazine is published, I will have served nearly half my time as Senior Proctor. It has not been a typical year so far: lockdown and social distancing mean I attend online meetings from my sofa, and dinners and degree ceremonies have been suspended. As well as assessing student complaints and appeals we have oversight of more than 80 University committees, ranging from Council to being Curator of Oxford’s Museums and Gardens. I have just been told that a graveyard has been discovered under University Parks, so among many other intriguing insights into the workings of Oxford – I know where the bodies are buried!’ Lucinda Rumsey

Adam von Trott Scholarship In July 2021, Julia Gross, Chargée d’Affaires, and Dr Susanne Frane, Acting Head of Culture & Education, at the German Embassy in London, were welcomed to Mansfield by members of the College, the Adam von Trott Committee, and Adam von Trott Scholar Julian Goldmann (MPhil Politics: Political Theory, 2019). The College, jointly with Oxford’s Department of Politics & International Relations (DPIR), awards a scholarship in memory of Adam von Trott, who studied at Mansfield in 1929 and was put to death by the Nazi regime in Berlin on 26 August 1944, for his involvement in a plot to assassinate Hitler. The Adam von Trott Scholarship is supported with contributions from the German Foreign Office, the Adam von Trott Memorial Fund, the Politics Department and Mansfield College. ‘The Chargée d’Affaires’ visit represents a welcome confirmation of the continued cooperation between the College and the German Embassy. Today, Adam von Trott’s legacy is more important than ever, as relations between Great Britain and continental Europe are at a crucial juncture. With the Scholarship, Mansfield College, the DPIR, and the Embassy in London provide a unique opportunity for young Germans to come to the UK and work towards the countries’ future understanding without losing sight of Europe’s troubled past.’ Julian Goldmann (MPhil Politics: Political Theory, 2019), Adam von Trott Scholar

‘It was so gratifying, for the College and the Committee, to welcome the Chargée d’Affaires of the German Federal Republic, Julia Gross, to Mansfield. ‘We can be sure that her visit confirms the high regard in which our work – keeping alive the name of this brave, anti-Nazi, resistance fighter, who sacrificed his life – is currently held. This relates to both the high-profile Memorial Lecture series, which will resume in 2021/22, and the Scholarship scheme, which continues despite the UK exit from the European Union. ‘This is also part of the wider rapprochement encouraged between our two countries – Brexit notwithstanding – which the Chargée d’Affaires supports, and is being reflected in blossoming relations between students and academics from Göttingen, where Adam von Trott also studied, and Oxford, in the form of bursaries and graduate workshops. ‘We can all continue to work together to impart this example of resistance to tyranny to younger generations, in a spirit that unites us with our German counterparts and friends, and the German Federal authorities.’ Dr Paul Flather, Chair of the Adam von Trott Memorial Committee

Mansfield: a Covid year Mansfield hosts the G7 In March 2020 the College’s operational team moved from providing an amazing venue and services for conference guests and academic visitors, to supplying Lateral Flow tests, accommodation, arranging household groupings and providing catering for quarantining and self-isolating students. In true Mansfield style this fantastic team came together to address the challenges of the pandemic headon, supporting each other and Mansfield through this very difficult period.

Office. It was a wonderful opportunity and huge honour for Mansfield to have been selected. The G7 event hosted in-person Health Working Groups, Officials’ and Bilateral meetings, followed by the Main Ministerial meeting for Health Ministers from across the world in Mansfield’s Chapel on 3-4 June. The Ministerial meeting also preceded and informed health discussions at the Leaders’ Summit, hosted by the Prime Minister in Cornwall later that month.

In early 2021, we began to see a light shining at the end of the tunnel for the potential reopening of activity – and it was at that moment when we received a call from the University to ask whether we would be prepared to host the G7 Health Ministers’ meeting at Mansfield on 1-4 June.

Lynne Quiggin, our Domestic Bursar, comments: ‘We were delighted to support Oxford University, which has been at the heart of the global fight against Covid-19. The world-leading clinical trials and its work on the not-for-profit vaccination in partnership with AstraZeneca has resulted in many lives being saved across the globe. This was a wonderful way of reopening Mansfield for business and we hope that anyone looking for a conference venue in 2021/22 will consider the College and get in touch.’

The G7 event was organised by the G7 Presidency, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Live Group (logistics) and the University of Oxford Events

Welfare at Mansfield It has been a busy year in student welfare and well-being at Mansfield. The Welfare team distributed over 35 sports and crafting packs to individual households, to help them bond and keep happy and healthy – although College delivered somewhat less healthy food gift bags to students at celebration times

such as Valentine’s and Lunar New Year. Outdoors, students and staff participated in well-being picnics, wellbeing walks and an Easter Egg hunt to adapt to life under Covid restrictions. According to Tutor for Welfare and Academic Support, Gail Leckie, listening support has had its busiest year ever.

College has expanded the number of staff hours available for one-to-one support and increased the welfare role of Junior Deans in response to needs. Thanks to the Welfare team and our students’ resilience, we have formed and maintained a warm and loving College community, both in person and online.

Black Lives Playlist Lockdowns haven’t prevented Mansfield students from finding creative ways to engage in performing arts. Born out of the first lockdown, Oxford-based student production company, Strikes Back Production, launched its Black Lives Playlist project. Black Lives Playlist: Track 1 was written and directed by Mansfield student Sam Spencer (English, 2019) and uses a Zoom-style conversation to centre black narratives and experiences on-screen. Sam also wrote and starred in Track 2, released in July. Srutokirti Basak (History, 2019) was the producer for the creative project, overseeing logistics, and Pete Miller (English, 2019) designed the artwork.

Sam began writing Track 1 during the first lockdown and since then, the Black Lives Playlist has blossomed into a two-track series. Sam discusses what the Playlist is and why he wanted to create it: ‘The Black Lives Playlist is a filmtheatre anthology series that explores a different aspect of Black life and identity in modern Britain in each of its “tracks”. We created the Black Lives Playlist as a response to the lack of Black narratives currently found in the Oxford drama scene. Because of the anthology format we are able to look at the world from various perspectives in each “track”, tackling not only different subject matter but also different genres, styles, and forms across the series. Track 1 was a Zoomfilmed comedy-horror about the haunting of heritage and slavery. Track 2 was a monologue on sexuality and family in a religious context. We are over-the-moon with the response the Playlist received, including high-praise reviews and feedback from students expressing their joy at seeing their identities and experiences reflected in Oxford drama.’

Virtual Quad During the first lockdown in March 2020, Sarah Farrow, College Chaplain, started sending out a weekly e-newsletter called Virtual Quad. The initiative was born out of Principal Helen Mountfield’s earlier emails to the Mansfield community, which included news and photos of the actual Quad in bloom, to uplift students’ spirits in lockdown. The Virtual Quad, much like its physical counterpart, has blossomed, and turned into something far greater. The newsletter grew over the course of

2020/21 to include contributions from students, staff and faculties. The Virtual Quad features photos, poems, and descriptions of walks in the area, details of events happening in and around College, as well as tips on well-being, including a directory of welfare support. The Virtual Quad continues to be a way for the College community to feel connected – to help us remember that although at times we may be separated, we are part of something bigger.

Mansfield and the University Tests Acts Helen Mountfield QC, Principal of Mansfield and Stephen Blundell, Professorial Fellow in Physics

Through the centuries, Oxford colleges have been founded by aristocrats, bishops, cardinals, monarchs and wealthy philanthropists. But the foundation of Mansfield was quite different. It was based on a desire to fulfil a specific purpose: to bring the highest level of education to people who had been traditionally excluded from Oxford. Established firmly in the dissenting tradition, Mansfield has perhaps found it easier than some to question the status quo and to maintain a strong voice advocating educational change in Oxford. Mansfield was founded in 1838 as Spring Hill College in Birmingham, to train men for the Congregationalist ministry, but the passing of the University Tests Acts in 1852 and 1871 was the impetus for its move to Oxford.

After the 1852 Act, dissenters could matriculate and proceed to bachelor degrees and, what is more, the Vice Chancellor was empowered to open up private halls. As Roy Jenkins put it in his biography of William Gladstone, the original idea was ‘to let the core colleges continue to be mostly the preserve of the rich, but let there be a periphery around them through which those of more modest means could get an Oxford degree and participate (to some extent) in the life of the University’. It was only after the 1871 Act that Prime Minister Gladstone warmed to the idea of a Nonconformist college in Oxford. The passing of the 1871 Act and Gladstone’s suggestion that there should be a dissenting college in Oxford led the staff at Spring Hill to begin to discuss among themselves

Spring Hill College, Birmingham c1870

possible future opportunities for the College in one of the country’s major universities. In 1883, RW Dale, chairman of Spring Hill’s Board of Education, suggested that the College should relocate to Oxford or Cambridge, motivated by his belief that a Christian community needed in it a ‘fair number of men of great theological learning’.

‘ It was based on a desire to fulfil a specific purpose: to bring the highest level of education to people who had been traditionally excluded from Oxford.’

William Gladstone’s signature in Mansfield College visitors’ book, 6 February 1890

There were high-profile supporters of the idea of opening a Nonconformist college in Oxford too. These included the Balliol philosopher, TH Green; the Warden of Merton, GC Brodrick; and Benjamin Jowett, Master of Balliol and Vice Chancellor from 1882 to 1886, who campaigned for ‘a university and a college in which religion and rational enquiry did not conflict’. Spring Hill formally decided to move to Oxford at a special meeting on 22 May 1884, and on 17 May 1885, it changed its name to Mansfield College, in honour of ‘the large-hearted family in whose Christian loyalty and zeal it had its origin’. The following month, the trustees bought Mansfield’s Holywell Manor site from Merton, Brodrick’s college, for £3,000, and paid for the building of Mansfield Road. Mansfield started life in temporary accommodation at 90, the High Street (which, by delicious irony, had been Charles I’s headquarters during the Oxford siege in 1646). The first five Mansfield students started their studies in October 1886, each enrolled as a non-resident graduate. Meanwhile, after an architectural competition, Alfred Waterhouse’s ‘tired piece of French Renaissance’ lost out to Basil Champneys’ neo-15th-century Gothic

plan. Champneys also built Newnham College Cambridge, much of Lady Margaret Hall, the Indian Institute (now the Martin School), and the New College development in Holywell. The buildings were a striking and impressive three-sided quadrangle. On 6 February 1890, Gladstone dined in Mansfield College hall.

‘– more of a trickle than a flood, but an important precedent had been set for co-education at Oxford.’

Mansfield’s nonconformist spirit continued when it became the first college, other than the dedicated women’s colleges, to admit women. The first was Constance Todd (married name, Coltman), who came up to Oxford to read History at Somerville in 1908 and was then admitted to Mansfield for ordination training. In 1917, she became the first woman ordained to the ministry in a mainstream trinitarian Christian denomination in Britain. Four

more women were admitted to Mansfield during the principalship of William Boothby Selbie – more of a trickle than a flood, but an important precedent had been set for co-education at Oxford. Mansfield became a Permanent Private Hall of the University in 1955 and started to admit students to study non-theological subjects. It became a full college in 1995. As Emeritus Professor Michael Freeden – the first Mansfield Fellow to be a joint appointment with the University – put it in 2011, ‘… what has remained constant is [Mansfield’s] liberal, open and egalitarian spirit. Almost everything else is unrecognisable – not least its aura of professionalism and self-confidence – as it has moved dramatically out of the shadows of Oxford academic life.’ A new website was created in June 2021, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the passing of the 1871 University Tests Act, and enable members of the University community to find out more about this significant milestone in our history: https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/ opening-oxford-1871

Memories of Mansfield and Geography: Pam Berry This year we say farewell to Supernumerary Fellow in Geography, Dr Pam Berry. Here, recent graduate and Communications Assistant, Francesca Rigby (Geography, 2018), interviews Pam to find out more about her career. In addition, Pam’s long-time colleague and friend, Dr Tony Lemon (Emeritus Fellow, Geography), illustrates the many ways she has touched the lives of Mansfield’s students and staff through the years. Pam has many happy recollections of teaching at Mansfield, and in typical Geography style, some of her best memories were made beyond the tutorial room. She recalls, for instance, a trip to the New Forest, where tutors and students were crossing a bog to gather data on the ecology of local plants. Pam remembers balancing on grassy tussock, whilst watching an unfortunate student in front of her sinking in up to her knees. Aside from the fieldwork, she also remembers enjoying her conversations with students at the 1887 Society winetastings organised by Tony Lemon.

Stepping down from her position as Supernumerary Fellow, Pam is looking forward to having some spare time. Gardening gloves at the ready, she is keen to tend to her own biodiverse garden, which she explains needs some TLC. A true geographer at heart, she is eager to travel again, as well as taking long walks near her home. Pam is also a committed member of her local church community and is currently investigating the role of women in the church – once a researcher, always a researcher! We wish Pam all the best in her future projects, both professional and personal, as she begins her well-earned retirement.

In 2015, Pam’s term as a tutor for students at both Mansfield and Regent’s Park came to an end. Her climate change and biodiversity research had led to more European travelling, and she found it increasingly difficult to make time for teaching and marking tutorial essays. The discipline was changing too – she recalls the challenges of integrating some of the newer, more abstruse human geographical terms into her physical and environmental geography teaching. So she stepped aside to make room for others to pick up the challenge. Pam is grateful to Mansfield for enabling her to continue her membership of College, while she pursued her research. She speaks passionately about the contribution of nature-based solutions to worldwide challenges, highlighting measures as simple as establishing biodiverse gardens, which can address biodiversity loss, provide shade, slow water flow and much more. Nature alongside or instead of technology, Pam explains, is the way forward. The world today, she notes, is beginning to move away from a compartmentalised approach to environmental issues, towards thinking about how they can be addressed together as an integrated system.

Photography by John Cairns

Tony Lemon reflects on Pam Berry’s career Pam completed her undergraduate and research degrees at Liverpool University before joining the Oxford School of Geography in 1978. Soon after she arrived, I invited her to be Mansfield’s College Lecturer in Physical Geography and we became College colleagues. Later, Pam became a Supernumerary Fellow. Little did either of us expect to remain colleagues for 32 years, until my retirement in 2010. We worked closely together over this period, and I couldn’t have asked for a better colleague and friend: always helpful and cooperative, calm and a source of wise counsel. Pam is a biogeographer, interested in climate-change impacts on biodiversity and conservation and policy responses, but in College she took responsibility for all undergraduate teaching in Physical Geography. Outside tutorials, Pam always entered into the usually cohesive spirit of Mansfield’s geographers. She was very supportive of the geographers’ College society, the 1887 Society, and generations of returning geographers would enjoy meeting her at the annual dinners. She would entertain students to lunch at her home in Long Hanborough and we shared many happy occasions taking finalists out for Schools dinners in the Cotswolds.

When Mansfield became responsible for geographers in colleges without Geography tutors, especially Exeter and Regent’s Park, Pam generously made time to teach their students too, helping to make all our students a single community of geographers. When Mansfield increased its Geography intake and I no longer felt able to act as Director of Studies for Regent’s geographers, Pam was the obvious choice for this role, and I know Regent’s Park valued her contribution as much as Mansfield continued to do. In Pam’s early years at Mansfield, she was looking after her young sons, James and Simon, but as they grew up she focused more strongly on research. She joined the Environmental Change Unit (now Institute, ECI) in 1992, a year after its foundation and concentrated on climate-change impacts and adaptation, impacts of mitigation and adaptation measures on biodiversity, ecosystem services and environmental change, and the translation of science into policy through stakeholder engagement. She became a Deputy Programme Leader and had a distinguished career in the ECI, winning many research grants, publishing widely, contributing to project reports, participating in overseas conferences (highly organised again, ready to leave at short notice) and holding several editorial and advisory responsibilities.

In 2019 she was appointed by DEFRA to help shape policy decisions relating to rural land use.

‘ Pam is a biogeographer, interested in climate-change impacts on biodiversity and conservation and policy responses, but in College she took responsibility for all undergraduate teaching in Physical Geography. ’

It was a happy moment indeed when Pam joined Mansfield, and I shall look back fondly on our time as colleagues. I can’t quite believe she is retiring (and shall find out, as we live only three miles apart), but wish her, on behalf of all her past students, a long and happy retirement.

Alumni Relations & Engagement Catherine Conisbee Former Alumni Relations & Communications Officer

When I reflect on the last academic year, what comes to mind first and foremost is the resilience and community spirit that Mansfielders have demonstrated throughout 2020/21. Despite much of the College’s activities taking place under varying Covid restrictions, our community has managed to stay connected and forge new bonds. At the end of Michaelmas 2020, as part of Mansfield’s Community Week and Giving Day activities in October, we were delighted to give alumni the opportunity to catch-up with current and emeritus Mansfield Fellows during two ‘Online Alumni Reunion’ events. It was such a pleasure to hear those attending reminisce about Oxford tutorials and share in their memories of student life. In February we started 2021 in style, as we witnessed alumni going head-to-head in a battle of wits against Mansfield Fellows in an online ‘Mansfield does University Challenge’ quiz, presided over by Principal (and Quizmaster) Helen Mountfield. The teams came prepared with their homemade

buzzers, from pots and pans to squeaky toys and bicycle bells, and I was, as ever, struck by the resourcefulness and creativity of our community. In March and July, we welcomed alumni to meet with current students and recent leavers as part of a programme of online careers events, providing them with an invaluable insight into what it’s like to work in a wide variety of sectors, from business and law to the creative industries. These sessions have been hugely inspiring, and we cannot thank our guest speakers enough for being so generous with their time and for their willingness to share their experiences of life after graduation. Following the success of this year’s online careers events programme, we have worked with the Mansfield College Alumni Association (MCAA) to launch a new pilot mentoring programme. This has already seen a number of current students successfully partnered with alumni at all stages of their careers. I would like to take this opportunity to extend sincere thanks to the MCAA for all

their work ensuring the success of the pilot programme.

‘It has been a real honour to be one of the Mentors on the pilot scheme and help guide a current student as they work out what they want to do after they leave Oxford. It hasn’t been too long since I graduated which means that I remember very clearly how daunting it was, so it’s great to be able to make that transition easier for someone else, as well as get to know another English student a bit better. I’d really recommend sharing the skills that you’ve learnt since you graduated, with a current student through being a Mentor, and am proud to have been a part of something so special.’ Serena Arthur (English, 2016), Mentor

I’m delighted by the positive feedback that we have had from alumni and students who have taken part in both the careers events and mentoring programme. It is great to see that these have given the participants such rewarding experiences. We in the Development Office are always keen to hear from alumni interested in volunteering their time to talk to students about careers. If you are considering taking part in a future careers session or mentoring at Mansfield, do please get in touch: development@mansfield.ox.ac.uk. As we were unable to travel to visit Mansfield alumni based overseas this year, we were excited to meet many of you in April, as part of our online events sessions for alumni based in the USA and Asia. The Principal, Tess McCormick (Development Director) and I enjoyed talking with those who attended, and we are keen to do more online events for alumni based internationally in the coming academic year. Our final alumni event of the academic year was a ‘Bring Your Own Picnic’ – our first in-person alumni get-together since the pandemic began. It was lovely to see friends gathered in small groups on

the Quad, taking in the College’s familiar surroundings once again. Over the summer our team have been joined by Mansfield graduate Fran Rigby (Geography, 2018). Fran has been doing an incredible job working in the Development Office as Events & Communications Assistant – helping to spread the word about Mansfield and the activities of our community via social media and supporting the production of Mansfield magazine. I believe this year’s magazine theme, ‘resilience’, is very fitting, as our community has shown once again that Mansfield, and Mansfielders, not only survive but thrive in a crisis. In 2021/22 the Development team will again strive to create an annual alumni programme that enables our community to stay connected with College and to each other. Our aim is to ensure that being a Mansfielder continues to be an enriching experience. You can contact the Development Office any time at development@mansfield.ox.ac. uk. We are always very pleased to hear from you.

‘I’ve found the mentoring experience to be really encouraging. In particular, the past year has made almost everything feel very distant, so to connect with and gain insight into someone else’s experience has opened my eyes to all the different avenues that actually are available. Through the mentorship, I’ve learnt to challenge my perspective of what doesn’t feel possible, and instead explore what I actually want to purposefully pursue.’ Natasha Andrew (English, 2018), Mentee

With thanks to Catherine Conisbee, former Alumni Relations Officer, who left Mansfield in October 2021. Top left picture above, left to right: Lynsey Evans, former Data Officer (left College in October 2021); Eleanor Crawford, Regular Giving Manager; Gemma McPhail, Alumni Relations Manager; Tess McCormick, Development Director; Fran Rigby, Events & Communications Assistant.

JCR President’s Report Sara Cepele (Jurisprudence, 2019)

Every student has been affected by the pandemic in one way or another this year. Each JCR Bench member stood for election with that in mind. It became clear that our main challenges were to bridge the disconnect and strengthen bonds within the JCR. A shared commitment to increasing accessibility, diversity, and justice greatly helped us in our endeavours.

revived in Trinity term 2021 with a new list of affordable drinks – just in time for the Euros! The turnout was amazing, and we hope this continues. We were also able to run a few formals before the long vacation; these were reminiscent of pre-pandemic times – lots of good music, food, and people. The Mansfield Ball Committee is now working hard on the 2022 ball, which we are all looking forward to attending.

In 2021, Mansfield was awarded ‘College of Sanctuary’ status, with the JCR assisting in the application process: an incredible achievement. We set up a Refugee Week Committee which organised fundraisers and increased student political activism and awareness of the position of those with fragile immigration statuses. Links to articles and petitions were posted each week in Trinity term, and events were run during Refugee Week. We also adapted our constitution better to reflect our commitment to cultivating a welcoming environment at Mansfield. This included introducing an anti-discrimination policy and specifying that a core aim of the JCR is to promote diversity and inclusivity.

We continue to support our student body. Thanks to Mansfield alumni, we were able to help establish an ‘Alumni Mentorship Programme’ to connect current JCR students with alumni. We hope this allows Mansfielders to explore new areas of work and be supported in their pursuit of a career by alumni who remember what it was like to be in their shoes.

The pandemic has also highlighted the importance of immediately addressing the Climate Emergency. The Environment and Ethics Officer and I have worked with the College to set about achieving a goal of a net-zero carbon emission and biodiversity net gain by 2030. In our pursuit of sustainability, the ‘Mansfield Clothes Swap’ has resumed. Here, JCR members can donate unwanted clothes and buy any donated item of clothing for £1. We look forward to achieving our set goals and hope Mansfield can play its part in responding to the Climate Emergency.

‘The pandemic has also highlighted the importance of immediately addressing the Climate Emergency.’

St Edmund’s Hall so that Mansfielders can speak to an external peer supporter if they would prefer. In Trinity term, we were also finally able to host an in-person Welfare Tea.

The JCR Bench has also worked diligently to maintain inter-year communication and social links. We have continued the ‘College Family’ and ‘Adopt a Finalist’ traditions, organised virtual quiz nights, and also reopened social spaces in line with Government guidance. The College Bar was

With the waiver of the residency requirement, the International Officer ensured that those students living outside of Oxford had the opportunity to connect with the JCR through poetry and quiz nights. The JCR Bench was also quick to respond to concerns over safety, which

Welfare has always been a particular focus for the JCR, to ensure students can thrive at Mansfield. We have extended our Peer Support Programme to join with

Sara Cepele (left)

spread across the country. Following the tragic case of Sarah Everard, the JCR passed a motion to create a dedicated taxi fund for those who feel unsafe travelling back to their accommodation alone when in Oxford. Mansfield also joined in the ‘Safe Haven’ scheme, which spreads the message that students from any college are welcome to enter Mansfield’s Porter’s Lodge should they feel unsafe walking home. I could carry on at length about the achievements the JCR has made this past year alone. We have managed to remain connected despite being physically fragmented. I would like to thank the JCR Bench for working tirelessly to carry out their roles. Thanks, too, to the JCR for being consistently responsive and involved. I am also grateful to the SCR for being receptive and empathetic to student concerns. Everyone’s dedication to ensuring that Mansfield is a welcoming and inclusive place is what makes our College so great. It is a pleasure to be the JCR President here for 2021/22.

Acting Senior Tutor’s Report Dr Helen Lacey

In March 2021, I was lucky enough to step in as Acting Senior Tutor, when Lucinda Rumsey was sworn-in as Senior Proctor (see page 6 for her report). After 15 years at Mansfield I thought I had a fair idea about how the place runs, but the last five months have been a steep learning curve. Lucinda makes it look easy, but the role demands mental agility: switching from conversations with individual students, to policy matters at the University level, to emails (so many emails!) and back again. The first thing you learn is how good Helen Brooks, our Registrar, is at her job. Helen has all the facts at her fingertips and her efficiency is unrivalled. You are also reminded how special a place Mansfield is, with the academics, staff and students all truly invested in the ethos of the College as a place that welcomes people of all backgrounds and encourages them to realise their potential. This shared vision has seen us through another challenging year, still coping with the effects of the pandemic and the changes to our working and living routines. Students have again been studying online in bedrooms or family homes and mastering the unfamiliar online exam process. Those students who returned to College were restricted to household ‘bubbles’ and many have had to endure testing periods of isolation. The heroic efforts of the Librarians and other College staff meant that study spaces were made available when needed and book chapters were scanned and emailed at impressive speed. Tutors continued to hone their skills in remote working, and though this has not been ideal, they have been able to switch tutorials to an online format and deliver lectures through a combination of recordings and live streams. By the time Trinity term 2021 arrived, we were able to return, cautiously, to some measure of normality, holding a few tutorials outside in the Quad when the weather allowed. Having gone through all this, it was wonderful to see our finalists finishing their last exams, undoubtedly exhausted, but still giving it their all. Our students should be very proud of their academic achievements, overcoming the challenges they have faced during the last academic year. Looking ahead to Michaelmas 2021, we shall remain vigilant and hand-sanitising stations will stay in place (having been installed in 2011 by our far-sighted former Principal, Diana Walford, CBE, who warned of the risks of communicable diseases). We have also been working hard on arranging academic support for those students whose time has been severely disrupted by all the challenges of the pandemic. Our Head of Welfare, Dr Gail Leckie, has been doing a great job putting together a team of graduate mentors who can provide specialist advice to our undergraduates.

‘ Students have again been studying online in bedrooms or family homes and mastering the unfamiliar online exam process. Those students who returned to College were restricted to household “bubbles” and many have had to endure testing periods of isolation.’

Everyone will be glad to welcome Lucinda back from her secondment as Senior Proctor in 2022. In the meantime, I will continue to keep her seat warm. I am looking forward to welcoming a new cohort of freshers in the autumn.

Access Report 2021

Welcome back!

Mansfield is renowned as a pioneer in widening access to elite universities. Our Access team was forced to switch all outreach work online during the pandemic, but now a hybrid model is being developed – and once again the College is hosting visits by prospective

students. Sara Harb (Kathleen Russ Access Officer) reports on a momentous year. Throughout 2020/21, Mansfield’s outreach work has focused on sustaining relationships with schools and colleges within our link regions, supporting teachers and students, and working collaboratively across the University. We gained two local

‘Over the summer of 2021, we had a taste of normality, hosting College tours for offer-holders and prospective students (with their family and friends). I am pleased to report that the automatic door into the main building, and the painted ceiling in the Library, continue to wow visitors. It has been great to be reminded of how special Mansfield College is and to be able to show it off again. ’

authority areas – North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire – as part of our work within the regional consortia. After 18 months of virtual outreach (almost two-thirds of the time that I have been Access Officer at Mansfield), we are very much looking forward to the return of in-person events in our regions and to hosting school visits in College. Over the summer of 2021, we had a taste of normality, hosting College tours for offer-holders and prospective students (with their family and friends). I am pleased to report that the automatic door into the main building, and the painted ceiling in the Library, continue to wow visitors. It has been great to be reminded of how special Mansfield College is and to be able to show it off again. We ran more than 80 events for students throughout the UK during the year, and supported a further 30 functions by other colleges, departments and outreach staff from across the University. These included a particularly mammoth event run with the Social Mobility Foundation (SMF), attracting over 600 attendees.

Access Report 2021

We have continued to deliver some of our multi-school events, such as the York and South London Application Conferences, that bring students from different schools together to learn more about applying to Oxford and Cambridge. At these events, they are able to talk about their subject with other prospective applicants and our helpers. To keep the personal-statement workshops exciting, I have adopted the challenge set by Lucinda Rumsey (our Senior Tutor) and Helen Brooks (Mansfield’s Registrar) to try and link students’ random hobbies to their chosen subject. For example, if an applicant wants to study Medicine and they enjoy running and swimming, they might want to think about how the body moves differently in the different sports. This has become one of my favourite parts of these events, and although I have had some more difficult pairings – for instance foreign languages with Physics – I have always managed to find a (sometimes tenuous) link. Our wonderful team of Student Ambassadors (old and new) have once again been key to the success of our virtual events, offering a relatable and lively insight into life at Mansfield, and Oxford, that can be hard to capture online. The new videos we recorded for the July Virtual Open Day encapsulate this perfectly – do have a look on our YouTube channel, Mansfield College Oxford. One of my fondest memories of the past year is of our Maths student helpers attempting to work through a problem via Zoom with a group of rather camera- and microphone-shy year-12s. Special mention goes to Dan G, Robin and Flora for their valiant efforts.

We have also been heavily involved in developing one of the biggest collaborative projects to come out of the Oxford outreach community in recent times: the Remote Interview Workshops (RIWs) 2020. The RIWs were established in response to interviews being held online. They saw 2094 Oxford applicants participate in 118 workshops guided by 74 tutors or session leaders. The project was organised by a coalition of 33 colleges and department access and outreach officers. Interview workshops make up the bulk of our tasks in the autumn term and tend to work best when applicants can have subject-specific practice and an opportunity to talk about their subject with others. These type of events were difficult to replicate online on a college-by-college basis due to resources and safeguarding, which is why the RIWs were such a valuable addition to the support we provide to applicants. Not only did they give

information about the new online interview process for many of our teachers and students, but they also allowed students to take part in a session focused on typical interview questions for their course. The success of the RIWs means that they will become a permanent feature of the Oxford outreach calendar, and Mansfield can be proud of its part in developing this new initiative. Looking forward, we are hoping to continue and expand our work with partners across the University. We are particularly keen to increase our collaboration with departmental outreach colleagues, to deliver more sustained subject-specific support to students. We intend to move towards a hybrid model of in-person and virtual outreach to maximise our resources and ensure that the service we provide is varied and effective.

‘We ran more than 80 events for students throughout the UK during the year, and supported a further 30 functions by other colleges, departments and outreach staff from across the University. These included a particularly mammoth event run with the Social Mobility Foundation (SMF), attracting over 600 attendees.’

2020 Vision In Michaelmas term 2020, Mansfield was delighted to welcome one of the UK’s bestknown teachers of writing, the poet Kate Clanchy MBE, as the College’s new ‘Writer in Residence’. Throughout 2020/21, Kate ran nonconformist writing workshops for Mansfield students and staff. Among those attending the workshops was Brennig Davies, whose poem ‘2020 Vision’ touchingly reflects upon student life in the pandemic.

Last night I ran into last year’s me as he walked down Mansfield Road, red bag hanging from his shoulder, stressed about essays about centuries-dead men. I thought to stop him, and tell him: that in one turning of the earth round the sun the light in the world would change, and the road would be drained of its cars, and its people, and me. He doesn’t know about masks, which are still just things to be worn at parties, or bubbles, which are still things free to float, or that friends and funerals are abstract concepts, like time, like a time before. But last year’s me still lives there, and who am I to evict him? So we smiled, and passed, on Mansfield Road, and I stopped myself from following. Brennig Davies (English, 2018)

Music at Mansfield George Caird (Acting Director of Music) After many years of wonderful music making at Mansfield under the direction of John Oxlade, 2020/21 was bound to be a year of change and new beginnings – and the year of lockdown certainly highlighted this. My first priority, having been asked by the Principal to oversee music at the College, was to ensure that the Chapel Choir was able to continue. We were lucky to form a partnership with Somerville College through its Director of Chapel Music, Will Dawes, the senior organ scholar Joseph Lord and organ scholar Annabel Hannan. Throughout the year, Mansfield’s Chaplain, Sarah Farrow, and Joseph Lord worked together to plan and provide the music for the services and Annabel Hannan played the organ for rehearsals and services. Joseph must be thanked for his great efforts in maintaining and nurturing the Choir through this exceptional year. Despite the rigours of lockdown, the need to wear masks (boxes of ‘singing masks’ were specially delivered to College) and the difficulties of singing in a socially distanced way, Joseph was able to bring together former members and new recruits to create a Choir that sang each Wednesday throughout the autumn term with live-streamed services in the Chapel using well-positioned laptop computers. In addition, the Choir sang at the Matriculation event in the Quad on 17 October that also included a trumpet duet (Hatam Barma and Yan Shen Tan) and an ensemble featuring Leila Hua (flute), George Caird (oboe), Flora Walker (clarinet) and Joschua Spiedel-Johnson (cello).

During Michaelmas term, Mansfield’s instrumentalists met on Monday evenings devising ways of playing between the tables and chairs of the Chapel Hall. Maintaining two-metre social distancing, two ensembles were able to meet regularly: a wind ensemble with flutes, oboe, clarinet and saxophones (Rhiannon Hawkins, Leila Hua, Flora Walker, Liam Connolly, Nathan Bentley) with cello in place of a bassoon and led by George Caird; and a string quintet (Joshua Gei, Nick Watt, Sophie Lekas, Rachael Chan and Joschua Spiedel-Johnson) led by Jane Salmon. Sadly, the restrictions resulting from the pandemic did not allow us to perform live, but instrumental pieces were provided for services and for the online Mansfieldmas celebration on 4 December, which included readings and music presented by Ben Okri and Errollyn Wallen. In addition, solos were played for the Advent Carol Service on 9 December and an ensemble accompanied online carol-singing directed by Joseph Lord on 10 December. After all this activity (for which everyone involved must be thanked), it was a sad blow that the lockdown imposed by the Prime Minister on 4 January brought our live music-making endeavours to a close. Nevertheless, Sarah Farrow continued with her Wednesday services which included recorded music by Paul Lodge, Jane Salmon, George Caird, Nathan Bentley and others. In Trinity term, lockdown continued with no development until live music-making resurfaced at the Leavers’ Service on 23 June in the Quad. Joseph Lord brought the Choir back to life and a beautiful performance of Fauré by Leila Hua (flute) and Jane Salmon (cello) brought the year to a hopeful close.

Trinity term was the highlight from the Choir’s point of view, as they returned to inperson singing for Wednesday services. They tackled Britten’s ‘Jubilate Deo’ and Brahms’ ‘Geistliches Lied’ (both relatively difficult), started singing unaccompanied music (Tallis’s ‘If Ye Love Me’) and sang a relatively new composition, ‘In Paradisum’, by Tamsin Jones for their Pride event. Tamsin provided the Choir with the piece personally and it was a very moving addition to the programme, having been written in memory of transgender victims of murder and violence. The Choir began to blend musically over the course of the term despite very challenging circumstances persisting. During 2020/21, it has been exciting to see the Mansfield organ being renovated by Walker’s the organ builders. The work was finally completed in June and the organ played for the first time by John Oxlade. After many years of fundraising and planning, to have this beautiful instrument working again is a true sign of hope for Mansfield’s musical future. We plan to recommence practices in autumn 2021 with Choir and instruments and, fingers crossed, a return to live performances.

Mansfield’s Visiting Student Programme, 2020/21 Helen Lacey, Director of the Visiting Student Programme (VSP) at Mansfield, reports on this year’s developments, including the challenges of juggling time zones from the USA to China, via the UK. Helen Lacey took up the position of Director of the Visiting Student Programme in Trinity term 2014. She is Supernumerary Fellow in Late Medieval History at Mansfield, and is Co-Investigator on a major project called The People of 1381 (www.1381.online).

VSP Representative Nina Stular VSP Representative This year has been a unique one for us Visiting Students. We began Michaelmas term 2020 scattered around the globe and even those lucky enough to be able to come to Oxford in person soon realised that the Oxford we encountered was different.

The Visiting Student class of 2020/21 has been unlike any other, bringing together a group of students who were variously based in Oxford, the USA, China and Vietnam. Some were able to arrive in Oxford for the start of Michaelmas term; for others the first term involved remote study from home, before their flight to the UK in January; still others studied with us remotely for the whole academic year. We all became adept at scheduling meetings to accommodate different time zones. Thanks to our determined students and the help of our partner institutions overseas, we were able to keep the cohort together, despite the challenges of Covid testing, quarantining and last-minute changes to rules and regulations. It was a proud moment to see 38 Visiting Students complete their study with us at Mansfield in the summer of 2021. Our Visiting Student alumni continue to send us news of all their achievements. Meghna Kulshrestha (Kenyon College, VSP class of 2019) took up a position at a prestigious ‘global 200’ law firm. Peder Skjelbred (University of Oslo, VSP 2019) returned to Oxford to study for the BPhil in Philosophy. Helena Connell (College of the Holy Cross, VSP 2021) was interviewed on an American radio show about her research into the disproportionate care burden faced by women during the pandemic: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/820618879/ in-it-together.

Instead of immersing ourselves into the College community, attending formal halls, playing sports, and going to pub quizzes, we became awfully familiar with our bedrooms. We met our peers over Zoom and Teams or during often rainy and cold one-on-one socially distanced walks. Yet despite these drawbacks, many of us found tutorial work well-suited for the solitary world and preferable to the ways our home institutions conduct online teaching. And even though social events were scarce, strong friendships forged within household groups helped us weather the autumn and winter lockdowns. By Hilary term we had successfully adjusted to the new academic system, only to realise that many who went home for Christmas weren’t able to return to Oxford as soon as desired. On the bright side, several students managed to gain permission from their institutions to travel to the UK. Throughout the lockdown periods – which were characterised by more walks, virtual teas, and chilly outdoor meetings – our hopes were set on Trinity term when restrictions were to loosen.

Recruitment for the class of 2021/22 has been excellent, and students are still keen to join us to experience a year of study in Oxford, despite all the challenges posed by the pandemic. This year we have students joining us from: Barnard College; Bates College; Boston College; Brown University; College of the Holy Cross; Cornell University; Dickinson College; Iowa University; Kenyon College; Santa Clara University; Shandong University; The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen; Tsinghua University; University of Nebraska; University of Pennsylvania; Washington and Lee University; Wellesley College; Wheaton College; and William Jewell College.

‘It was a proud moment to see 38 Visiting Students complete their study with us at Mansfield in the summer of 2021.’

The admissions round for the 2022/23 academic year has already opened and we look forward to another successful year. We would love to hear from our Visiting Student alumni about what they are doing now. Do drop us an email with any news: vsp@mansfield.ox.ac.uk.

extraordinarily quickly but gave us a taste of Oxford in more normal times. We had to balance our academic responsibilities with sports training and society events, outdoor picnics, and even some formal occasions. We finally got to meet each other and our tutors in person and make new friends within the College community, which made the time for goodbyes come far too quickly. It has been hard to summarise 2020/21 because our experiences of it varied greatly. The only thing I dare assert with certainty is that the year bears witness to the resilience and courage of this cohort, and to that of Mansfield College staff who worked relentlessly to ensure we were able to experience Oxford despite the pandemic.

‘We finally got to meet each other and our tutors in person and make new friends within the College community’

Alongside warmer and sunnier weather, Trinity term indeed brought ample opportunities to socialise. It went by

MCR President’s Report Oliwier Melon (DPhil Engineering Science, 2018) Through the unique challenges posed by Covid-19, Mansfield’s diverse and ever-growing postgraduate student body has demonstrated incredible resilience. In addition to outstanding academic achievements, its members have embraced change and made the most of limited social opportunities to establish caring connections and friendships. I am extremely proud to have been part of this wonderful community during these unprecedented times.

Near Christmas, we hosted a cheerful outdoor mulled wine event on the Quad to enable students to interact with each other. Similarly, in Trinity term, we introduced weekly wine and cheese events held in the Crypt or on its terrace. Shortly before the end of the year, the College organised a Formal Hall, with social distancing guidelines safely in place: the first formal event that many of our number had attended. As a bonus, Magdalen College invited Mansfield students to partake in their online events and gave us access to their punts.

In the summer of 2020, Mansfield’s Covid-19 Working Group was busy monitoring cases of the disease in the UK and making plans for Michaelmas term. It became apparent that stringent measures were necessary to ensure the safety of students and staff. As a result, the term started with inductions being delivered digitally. To help people settle in, the MCR Committee prepared guides and, in collaboration with the Welfare team, hosted various online events. Socially distanced meetings with College parents allowed students to get to know others studying similar subjects. To encourage bonding between students living together, we ran a competition for the best ‘Household Fancy Dinner’ photo. Supported by College and the JCR, we organised a matriculation ceremony on our splendid Quad where we proudly celebrated the enrolment of 125 new MCR members.

Together with the SCR, we also kept the Michael Mahony seminars running which, despite not including dinner, attracted large audiences. Our inaugural speakers were Amirmohammad Farzaneh (DPhil Engineering Science, 2020) who explained the benefits of 5G, and Prof Michèle Mendelssohn (Tutorial Fellow, English & American Literature), who described how Victorian technology contributed to the rise and fall of Oscar Wilde. The second seminar was philosophical in nature. Juan Rafael Álvarez (DPhil Atomic & Laser Physics, 2018) interpreted quantum physics through the lens of ‘Schrödinger’s camel’, and Prof Joel Rasmussen (Tutorial Fellow, Theology & Religion) drew our attention to truth and uncertainty in Søren Kierkegaard’s Philosophical Fragments. Our final seminar saw Joseph Field (DPhil Industrially Focused Mathematical Modelling, 2016) give an entertaining presentation on ill-posed inverse problems, or, as he amusingly framed it, ‘Who’s That Pokémon?’. He was accompanied by Dr Nishant Kumar (Visiting Fellow, Zoology) who highlighted the application of similar mathematical techniques to human-animal systems in tropical megacities.

During the lockdowns, the MCR Committee also provided support for students’ emotional and physical well-being, including giving away mats and basic sports equipment and subsidising online yoga classes and a mindfulness course.

‘I have grown as a person and been grateful for the opportunity to be involved’

The MCR’s dedication to promoting Mansfield’s core values of equality, diversity and care was highlighted by several important actions. First, we welcomed our first Kofi Annan Scholars: a group of exceptional individuals from developing regions. We also unanimously passed a Sustainability Plan motion, which resulted

in College setting up an Environmental Sustainability Working Group (with JCR and MCR representation) that aspires to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030. In parallel, MCR Bench members have contributed to the Mansfield Equality Committee and the Race Equality Working Group. We also worked with College to make Mansfield more welcoming to students with children or caring responsibilities. Furthermore, as part of the University-wide movement to address its colonial past, we arranged an online ‘Uncomfortable Oxford’ talk. Leaving this engaged and informed, we booked another in-person ‘Follow the Money’ tour in Trinity term. Importantly, since Mansfield has been recognised as a University College of Sanctuary, our members helped organise a Refugee Week. Lastly, but by no means least, the MCR Bench established a Gender Expression Fund in support of gender nonconforming members of our College. Being MCR President has been a great privilege. I have grown as a person and been grateful for the opportunity to be involved in the College beyond my degree. Heartfelt thanks are due to the MCR Committee for their positivity, enthusiasm, and tireless work over this year.

MCBC Report George King (Geography, 2018) On paper, the past two years might seem the worst in memory for Mansfield College Boat Club (MCBC). Flooding in 2019/20 resulted in the cancellation of the Christchurch and Torpids regattas, and the Covid-19 pandemic spelt the end for the club’s Summer Eights hopes. With these apparently dire and unrelenting circumstances, there were mixed emotions going into 2020/21. Yet these gloomy beginnings made the club’s achievements in Summer Torpids 2021 all the sweeter – the perfect end to a difficult two years. Our 2020/21 began with an unusually active summer holiday. MCBC embarked on a running challenge, raising money for the outreach work of the Oxford African and Caribbean Society (ACS). This was important to us as a way of showing solidarity with fellow students while contributing to wider attempts to address the lack of representation of African and Caribbean students at the University. The club ran a combined total of 1887km (1173 miles) and showed fantastic team spirit. Notable individual performances came from Charlotte Withyman (Materials Sciences, 2018), Martha Birtles (English, 2018), Joe Field (Industrially Focused Mathematical Modelling, 2016) and Yolanda Ameny (Engineering, 2019). A big thank you to all those who donated; the £1300 raised has contributed to the costs of the ACS Annual Access Conference and Offer Holder Open Day.

enabling the purchase of a new four-boat. The Bonchristiano boat has served us well so far, providing flexibility and variety in training. It will allow rowers to make the most of the long holidays, perfecting technical aspects of their stroke outside of term. We are extremely grateful to Antonio for his continued support. Sadly, rising case numbers of Covid-19 in Hilary term saw a cancellation of water training and so the Bonchristiano remained in the boathouse. In the meantime, the captains, and newly appointed Head Coach Ben Evans, made the most of time off the water with training geared towards general fitness. Ben’s passion and knowledge of the sport have been invaluable for the club and have made a huge impact on the successes of the year. Zoom quizzes thanks to Social Secretary Anabel Riley (Human Sciences, 2019) ensured that the team bonded during lockdown.

into a large, well-organised, and highly competitive group characterised by its supportive team spirit. Men’s Captain Jamie Bingham (Engineering, 2019) and Men’s Vice-Captain Bailey Kavanagh (PPE, 2019) have been similarly influential, bolstering the substantial returner contingent with fresh talent and charismatic leadership. Summer Torpids was a resounding success for Mansfield. The W1 held their own against strong crews, rowing-over three times before conceding a bump on the final day of racing. This was an impressive performance and bodes well for the coming year. Despite facing misfortune with accomplished boats both in front and behind, the M1 could not have asked for a better regatta, bumping three times for a net upward movement of two places. This crew is one to watch. The second boats also enjoyed success, with two bumps for the W2 and one for the M2.

As Trinity term drew closer, it seemed increasingly likely that MCBC would have a chance to put the previous two years of hard work to the test in the Summer Torpids regatta. Fundamental to the growth and development of the crews are the rowing captains. Through hard work, ingenuity and resilience, the captains’ combined efforts have built a dedicated group of committed, enthusiastic and competitive rowers. Huge efforts from Women’s Captain Emily Thornton (Jurisprudence, 2019) and Women’s Vice-Captain Luci Mullen (Mathematics, 2019) have transformed a small team with limited rowing experience

Despite the past two years being highly unusual for college rowing, MCBC has thrived. We enter the coming academic year with a stronger boat club than in recent years, making this an exciting time for rowing at Mansfield with many successes to come.

The end of summer saw an exciting addition to the Mansfield fleet with a generous donation from supporter of the club, Antonio Bonchristiano (PPE, 1984), 25

I would like to thank Charlotte Withyman, Joel While (Geography, 2018), Efa Bowen (PPE, 2019), Sara Dalzell (History, 2018) and Thomas Surridge (History, 2017) for their effort and commitment. Special thanks, too, must go to Rhys and Jillian Hedges: generous supporters of MCBC.

Sports round-up Faced with extensive Covid restrictions, Mansfield’s sports teams showed tremendous perseverance through 2020/21. Thankfully, in Trinity term, the numerous risk assessments, revisions, and safety protocols paid off, as sport once again became a common feature of College life. JCR Sports and Societies Representative, Ben Paterson (Geography, 2019), reports on an extraordinary sporting year.

Football

Netball

Hockey

The men’s Mansfield-Merton football club entered two teams into an inter-college five-a-side tournament this year and held several friendlies. With some first-rate management and a fine range of players to choose from, one of the teams climbed to the top of the group. Unfortunately, they failed to qualify due to goal difference. The women’s football team was also reestablished in Trinity term and they held their first training sessions in preparation for inter-college competitive fixtures next year. Congratulations are also due to the several Mansfield players who have retained their place within, or joined, the University football teams. Up the Ms!

Under captains Anna-Tina Jashapara and Ruby Furniss, Mansfield netball saw a lot of engagement and support in Trinity term, having held weekly training sessions and friendlies. It has been encouraging to see students from so many different years and subjects get involved with the team. They were robbed of the cuppers title this year after winning all of their games but falling short to Magdalen College only on points difference. As a consequence, a highly anticipated fixture against Magdalen is set to take place in Michaelmas term 2021. One of the few Mansfield-only clubs, Mansfield netball certainly looks set to have a strong future ahead.

No team stood in the way of MansfieldMerton hockey this year as they became champions of the A-League – not bad considering they had no bibs, balls, cones, or kit at the start of the season. Mansfield captain Elysia Zdolyny has done an amazing job sourcing equipment for the club, keeping team spirit high, and producing consistent wins throughout the season. To keep up with the team’s progress, follow their very active Instagram page: @mertonmansfieldhockey.

Croquet

Horse riding

Isobel Lee and Oliver Harding were appointed as two new captains for Mansfield’s croquet club in Trinity term. Croquet offers a particularly recreational aspect to College sport, so the opportunity to play on the Quad is something that many students have been looking forward to, given that we missed out in Trinity term 2020.

Although not a traditional sport seen at Mansfield, horse riding has come on to the agenda with Izzy Pennington representing the University at Varsity, where she won the 2nd-team individual competition. Mansfield also produced a team to compete in the cuppers competition this year.

While I’ve highlighted a selection of Mansfield’s sports teams in this article, many more including rugby, cricket, and badminton have been underway. I look forward to seeing how Mansfield sport continues to grow next season.

Making waves: in conversation with Martha Birtles Before coming to Oxford, Martha Birtles (English, 2018) would not have described herself as sporty. She would occasionally do some yoga or go on a run, but she had never rowed. That all changed in Fresher’s Week, when for the first time Martha discovered the pull of rowing thanks to Mansfield College Boat Club (MCBC). Francesca Rigby, Communications Assistant, finds out more.

Martha quickly excelled at rowing through 2019 and by her second year she was training with the Oxford women’s development squad, with her sights firmly set on making the women’s first boat for the 2020 Boat Race. But the journey was far from plain sailing. Just two weeks before the race, the pandemic led to it being cancelled. Despite the disappointment, Martha wasn’t deterred by the challenges of that exceptionally difficult year. The will-power she needed to continue training brought her reward: on April 4 2021, she rowed in seat five of Oxford University women’s first boat against Cambridge. Mastering any sport requires dedication, and rowing is no exception. Adjusting to an intense training schedule packed with early-morning outings, all too often in adverse weather conditions, can be harsh. Most who have tried rowing would agree – those 6am starts are gruelling. Yet Martha has no plans on stopping just yet. As we chat over Zoom, she tells me that her biggest challenge was not only adapting to the intense physical stresses of a rower’s life, but also overcoming the mental barriers: making herself believe that she deserved a place in the boat. Several of the women’s squad possessed an array of rowing accolades, including international records, so Martha was worried her teammates believed she had skipped many hard years of training, and was merely an imposter who had struck lucky.

The team kept at it, though, participating in online training sessions, including live ‘erging’ (competing with each other using ergometers), in order to retain a sense of community. While it wasn’t the same as being on the water together, Martha is convinced that going through such an experience means that she can now face anything. Reuniting with the team later in the year was all the more exciting. In the run-up to the 2021 Boat Race, the squad lived together in Ely, the location for the race. Living in ‘enemy territory’ felt quite lonely, and it was hard to imagine an existence beyond rowing, sleeping and eating. Nerves ran high, but the team looked after each other. The symbiosis that they formed, the profound sense of trust and camaraderie that they nurtured, kept spirits high, making the team strong and building life-long friendships. Losing to Cambridge in the Boat Race was, Martha explains, a dizzying experience. First of all, she wept. She couldn’t bear to hear the word ‘proud’ from friends and family. The day got tougher when they watched the men’s boat lose. It was a time of deep reflection. Martha recalls asking herself what the last two years of training were all for. Two years of her life seemed to have gone in less than 20 minutes.

Joining the squad, then, was at first an intimidating experience. The standards were dauntingly high, and Martha’s teammates were such a diverse group of people – and were not necessarily women whom she would have expected to befriend. Yet the sheer amount of time the team spent together radically altered her perspective. Going through the highs and lows of training together meant that they developed a huge amount of trust in one another. Martha describes her relationship with the team as sibling-like: what mattered most was that all the women would gladly put themselves on the line for each other. Put frankly, there’s no room for selfishness on an eight-person boat. The team’s bond strengthened further when training shifted from water to dry land during lockdown. Training in isolation, Martha explains, was horrendous. Despite the hours being more flexible (she was glad to avoid some of those early mornings), staying motivated on a stationary rowing machine was particularly difficult.

‘... her biggest challenge was not only adapting to the intense physical stresses of a rower’s life, but also overcoming the mental barriers: making herself believe that she deserved a place in the boat.’

Time has helped heal the wound, but there is still a sense of grief: not for the loss of the race, but for the end of a formative, momentous era – both at Mansfield and with Oxford University Women’s Boat Club (OUWBC).

Photography by Row360 and the BR company.

‘Time has helped heal the wound, but there is still a sense of grief: not for the loss of the race, but for the end of a formative, momentous era’

Beyond the boat, Martha thinks of herself as an artist more than an athlete. The meticulous science and physiology that are now part of modern rowing often go straight over her head, she laughs. Nevertheless, being a humanities student with an eye for nuance has its benefits. An ability to read for details in such a technical sport means that Martha picks up rowing techniques quickly. That’s not to say her eye for the artistic doesn’t sometimes distract her. On one outing, she remembers glancing up at the birds flying overhead and interpreting them as a sign of foreboding. Much to her surprise, the boat didn’t crash. So, what’s next for Martha? While a major chapter of her life at both Mansfield and OUWBC has ended, many opportunities lie ahead. Next year, her love for popular cinema takes her off to study for a Master’s in Film Studies at Oxford Brookes, where she also plans on trialling for the under-23s national rowing team. We at Mansfield are immensely excited to see what her future holds.

Living better: an interview with Alastair Campbell and Fiona Millar In January 2021, Mansfield welcomed British journalists, authors, activists and life-partners, Alastair Campbell and Fiona Millar, to present the first Mansfield Public Talk of the year: ‘How I (and we) learned to live better with depression’. MCR Welfare Officer, Daria Jensen (DPhil Psychiatry, 2019), and JCR Men’s Officer, Mitchell Marshall (History, 2019) interviewed Alastair and Fiona before their talk, to discuss mental health in greater detail.

Fiona: I didn’t manage stress well at university. I got obsessed with work, which was unusual; I hadn’t worked hard at school. I actually performed less well because I was so stressed. I try and do something that takes me out of my job and for me that’s swimming. It’s always been my escape mechanism. Alastair: I quite like stress… well, not stress, but pressure. In the past I might have taken it too far, but I do like pressure that makes me perform better. Mitchell: And do you think pressure did make you perform better? Alastair: Well, sometimes I’m not very good with pressure. It’s not necessarily nice for people living with me. I’ve put myself under intense pressure because I’m doing something that I consider important, and want to do it well. Sometimes I think students need that sort of stress: those moments, almost, of panic, that you can turn into something positive.

Mitchell: You say that one of your most severe breakdowns happened on Hampstead Heath, but that you’re also a lover of trees. What role does nature play in your mental health? Alastair: I’ve always loved beautiful scenery, but it’s only in the last couple of years I’ve really got into trees. I’d say nature is very important. It’s on my list of things that make me feel better; it keeps me calmer. We go out to Hampstead Heath every morning.

Fiona: I was listening to an interview with some year-11 students. They were talking about the stress they’re feeling. They said they needed the stress of upcoming exams to motivate themselves. But we’ve seen the impact of letting too much stress get on top of you. Alastair’s first nervous breakdown is a good example. It’s important to recognise when it’s getting dangerous.

Mitchell: How do you think one should manage the stresses of work, whether at university or in the ‘real’ world? 30

Mitchell: That links nicely to a question I have. Are the methods you use to regulate your mental state learned from a therapist, or are they more personal?

‘In the past I might have taken it too far, but I do like pressure that makes me perform better.’

Alastair: It’s a combination. A lot of the stuff comes from my psychiatrist. And then, making the documentary and writing the book has also worked well. The Living Better book starts from this incident I had in Scotland a few years ago. It was like my lights went out suddenly. By then, I’d started to work through this concept of the jam jar, where I have my own tactics to manage my depression. After the initial moment where I said ‘right, well OK, I’m not going to kill myself and I know I’m going to get through this’, I wrote a tick-list of things that helped me. This included everything from doing something for Fiona, saying something nice to our kids, playing my bagpipes, talking about football to Sean Dyche the Burnley manager. It included going for a walk, exercising even though I didn’t feel like it and writing something because that always helps. I went through them all one by one. I felt better, I did feel better.

Alastair: I did a project recently with a health service trust. Afterwards, the project leader sent me a message saying he’s had all his staff do their own jam jars. I’ve also had primary school headteachers tell me their students are devising their own resilience jam jars. I think there’s a lot in the book that can help people avoid getting mental illness. Fiona’s started a group now for people who are partners of those with mental illness. Fiona: Yes, for people who are in the situation I was in. The group has been meeting once a month. They’re so grateful to have somewhere to speak with others who feel the same way that they do. The other thing is employers. I tell the story in the book about calling Alastair’s then-employers in the 1980s, to explain that I thought he was having a breakdown. They made me feel small, stupid and irrelevant. Now, I’d like to think employers would take it seriously, to try and support their staff. There’s progress, but it’s probably not true universally. It should be. If you can address these issues earlier, you stand a much better chance of getting good mental health rather than mental ill health.

Fiona: One thing that’s helped is for our family to understand

‘I hadn’t worked hard at school. I actually performed less well because I was so stressed.’

Alastair’s situation. When the children were told what was happening, they were both in their teens and early twenties. That was a real light-bubble moment because there were things that hadn’t been articulated before about his mental health, the way it was affecting all of our relationships. Being open about it, and having a professional explain the situation to families is really important. That’s not done enough.

Each Friday at 5.30pm during term time, Mansfield hosts a lively and engaging series of public talks, which are free and open to all. Mansfield Public Talks are convened by Principal Helen Mountfield QC, and feature leading figures from varied fields. Previous speakers include former President of the Supreme Court, Baroness (Brenda) Hale of Richmond, composer, Errollyn Wallen CBE, and poet, Ben Okri OBE.

Daria: Do you think that people without mental health issues can also benefit from your experience and your book?

Kofi Annan Scholarships: a life-changing year In 2020, Mansfield was delighted to welcome its first cohort of Kofi Annan Scholars on the WeidenfeldHoffmann graduate programme. Named after the former Secretary-General of the United Nations and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Kofi Annan (1938-2018), these scholarships seek to provide exceptional university graduates from developing and emerging economies with the opportunity to study at Oxford. At Mansfield, we are grateful to alumnus Jan Fischer (PPE, 1989) for his generous support of the Kofi Annan Scholarships, and to the Kofi Annan Foundation for enabling this inspiring association. Kofi Annan Scholar Sarani Jayawardena (MSc Evidence Based Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation, 2020) reflects upon her experience of living and working at Mansfield. Looking back at his life, the inventor Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) made a now well-known observation: ‘how subtle are the influences that shape our destinies’. Winning a scholarship to Oxford was never going to be a subtle influence on my life. This University is the pinnacle of so many academic aspirations, the gateway to so many dreams, the home of so much learning and creativity. A scholarship to study here was always going to be life changing. I knew that back in May 2020, when I was awarded a Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Scholarship to study Evidence Based Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation at Oxford’s Department of Social Policy and Intervention. Of course, I didn’t know then just how actively the Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust (WHT) sets out to transform lives. The WHT doesn’t only fund its cohort, it creates a community of scholars, leaders, and friends. Throughout the year, we were thrust into a series of challenges – discussing moral philosophy, building and pitching social enterprises, developing our skills in negotiation, debating, and public speaking. The year-long leadership programme is a how-to manual in building effective, ethical leaders. It is a fantastic experience – but again, far from a subtle impact on one’s life.

Why then, you may wonder, did I start this reflection with Tesla’s quote? The simple thing that I know completely changed my life at Oxford was being a part of the WHT cohort at Mansfield College, as a 2020/21 Kofi Annan Scholar. Every Oxford college has its own story: centuries of history here, a beautiful chapel there, a notable alumnus or two. Mansfield shares many of these attractions of course. But its particular charm is more intangible and perhaps infinitely more precious: its values. Oxford is undeniably an elitist place, and to be part of a college that is persistently and practically making the University more accessible for students of all backgrounds and walks of life is a point of warmth and pride for me. Yet, you may ask – what can culture do for you in the years of Covid? How can an institution you have only recently joined matter in a year beset by social distancing and seemingly never-ending, oft-repeating lockdowns? I had the good fortune to live in Oxford in a Mansfield household with some of my fellow Kofi Annan Scholars, and one other Mansfield student. In a year when households were your most important social unit, our home

became a family. We studied and lived together, supporting each other through the usual pressures of exams and dissertations, and newer trials of quarantines and winter lockdowns. We debated big ideas and told each other about the little things that made us who we are. We shared our thoughts, hopes, and fears. In a year when it was easy to feel alone, we created our ‘bubble’ of friendship and scholarship – the Oxford ideal. For me at least, the experience of being a Kofi Annan Scholar did more than just shape my year at Oxford – it changed the way I look at the world, and my place in it. These Mansfielders inspired me to be bolder and braver in what I want to do in the years to come; to work towards a world that is better than the one we came into. A subtle influence, but a destiny changed. My gratitude to them will last a lifetime – as I am sure our friendship will.

‘In a year when households were your most important social unit, our home became a family.’

Student news 1

na Stambolic A VSP, 2019

In April 2021, Ana was awarded a full fellowship to begin an interdisciplinary master’s degree in China Studies at Yenching Academy of Peking University in China. Ana is focusing on the extensive study of Chinese Foreign Policy. 2

aitlin Corrigan C Jurisprudence, 2018

This year, Caitlin was awarded an Astbury Scholarship, one of Middle Temple’s major awards. The Astbury Scholarship offers members of Oxford and Cambridge universities an opportunity to practise at the Bar of England or Wales. Successful candidates show both strong intellectual capability and a motivation to reach the Bar. The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple is one of four Inns of Court that give education and support to students and barristers throughout their careers.

Harry Twohig History, 2019

In August 2021, Harry was presented with a Vice-Chancellor’s Social Impact Award, in the Undergraduate & Integrated Master’s category. These annual awards are presented by the Vice-Chancellor to students who’ve demonstrated an exceptional commitment to positive social change while at Oxford. Harry is involved with a variety of youth projects both within the University and beyond. He amplifies youth voices as a member of the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Policy Steering Group of the British Youth Council. In addition to his election as President of Target Schools, the @OxfordStudents access scheme, Harry is an Ambassador for the Young Trustees Movement.

ary Whittingdale M Theology & Religion, 2019

Mary is President of Womxn in Theology (WIT), a society for both undergraduate and postgraduate female-identifying students studying Theology & Religion at Oxford. The society has three goals: to provide a space to support womxn’s perspectives in the Faculty; amplify womxn’s voices in Theology; and network with other female-identifying students to foster solidarity and mentorship. As President, Mary has tried to maintain both the social and academic vision of the society’s founders. Social highlights have included a Black Lives Matter discussion with guest speakers Ijeoma Ajibade and Evie Vernon, as well as a fantastic evening with the queer feminist theologian and poet, Rachel Mann. A number of Faculty members and alumni have also joined WIT for academic discussions – with speakers such as Francesca Stavrakopoulou, Kirsten Macfarlane, Bethany Sollereder, Jessica Frazier, and Jennifer Strawbridge, who illuminated how to navigate the discipline as womxn. In Trinity term 2021 WIT also launched its first blog, which can be found at http:// www.womxnintheology.com. WIT is always looking to highlight new voices and perspectives, so please do get in touch to contribute.

itchell Marshall M History, 2019

In Hilary 2021, Mitch worked at the Oxford Blue as its Current Affairs Editor, and subsequently became an Editor-inChief in Trinity term. The Oxford Blue is a digital news publication, founded with the aim of encouraging budding journalists by providing opportunities for students to develop their journalistic skills, regardless of their background. It strives to give new

writers every chance to flourish, and it was this ethos that first attracted Mitch to the Blue as a fresher in early 2020. Mitch has greatly enjoyed being part of an impressively skilled group of students from across Oxford this year, including several other amazing Mansfielders in various sections of the newspaper. 6

R achael Chan Geography, 2018

From June to July 2021, third-year geographer Rachael Chan participated in a tree census in Wytham Woods – a mixed deciduous piece of woodland located just outside Oxford’s city centre. The census, which consisted of measuring living and fallen trees within an 18-hectare plot, is an ongoing project by the Oxford Ecosystems Lab led by Prof Yadvinder Malhi. As most field projects were cancelled during the pandemic, this initiative offered a rare opportunity to carry out fieldwork locally without posing significant risk to our surrounding communities. The census required intense focus because the team had to locate and measure 20,000 trees that were recorded in the 2016 census. This year’s census was also significant as the area has been subject to the tangible effects of ash dieback. Ash dieback is a fungal infection that causes 80% mortality of ash trees. As ash grow at extremely fast rates compared to other species, their deaths are particularly poignant; each measurement is a form of remembrance. The data will be made publicly available on the Global Earth Observatory network. ‘The census requires teamwork and camaraderie. We hope that it will be helpful to ecologists and scientists for future research.’ Rachael Chan

Student news achel Cheung and Tami R Davidson Jurisprudence (with Law in Europe) 2017, Oriental Studies (Jewish Studies) 2020

Throughout the year, Rachel and Tami were student representatives for SolidariTee. As they explain: ‘SolidariTee is the largest student-led charity fighting for change in the refugee crisis. On 1-7 February, SolidariTee teams across UK universities led a Week of SolidariTee, full of initiatives and events to raise awareness of the refugee crisis. Within Mansfield we sold SolidariTees [T-shirts] – the proceeds of these support the work of several legal-aid NGOs who work to help asylum seekers make successful asylum applications. We also hosted an online talk about “Gendered Experiences of Exile”, and hoped that students learnt more about how gender can frame issues within the refugee crisis. Posters were hung up around Mansfield detailing the notoriously arduous and protracted process that asylum seekers have to go through in order to successfully claim asylum in the UK.’

icha Nahata R Engineering, 2017

Earlier this year, Richa published a paper on ‘Assessing and Explaining Collision Risk in Dynamic Environments for Autonomous Driving Safety’. Richa’s paper is a result of a year’s work on the safety of autonomous vehicles, under Prof Lars Kunze of the Oxford Robotics Institute. Richa has since presented the paper at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) International Conference on Intelligent Transportation, which took place in Indianapolis on 19-22 September 2021. 9

hiannon Hawkins R Geography, 2020

Rhiannon is actively engaged in investigating the impact that climate change has on young people’s mental health. This year she worked with the Royal College of Psychiatrists as a Youth Representative for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). In this role, Rhiannon represents young people across the UK, expressing their views surrounding mental health.

Rhiannon also spoke at the Royal College’s recent Winter Institute conference highlighting the links between climate change and mental health. As a result of this extraordinary work, she has been interviewed by the Guardian (www. theguardian.com/society/2020/nov/20/ half-of-child-psychiatrists-surveyedsay-patients-have-environmentanxiety), and featured in a Royal College of Psychiatrists podcast (https:// podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/ecodistress-in-children-and-young-people/ id1440489120?i=1000499448411).

Alumni Association Report

Making connections Daniel Tarry (Geography, 2011), President of the Mansfield College Alumni Association (MCAA), reports on significant developments and singular times in the Association’s life during 2020/21. The past year has been another strange period for the MCAA, with most activities being conducted online. The Association continued to work to ensure that alumni were well-supported by College, while Mansfield was also doing a superb job of helping students remotely. The Committee and I express our thanks to all College staff who have supported the student body through this extraordinary time. The Development Office has provided us with a fantastic programme of (largely) virtual events, and I have particularly enjoyed attending the Mansfield Public Talks series and seeing many of you I would rarely have the chance to meet at in-person functions.

Picnic on 26 June, I was able to have a tour of the new Legacy Garden, formerly the Fellows’ Garden: a superb transformation of a previously underused space and well worth a visit. Over the past year our Committee has worked on two key initiatives: mentoring and alumni ambassadors. The mentoring programme, in pilot form for this year, has been a great success connecting alumni with current students. Particular thanks go to Shahenda Darwich (PPE, 2011) for taking a lead on this. The alumni ambassador initiative aims to create a network of alums across the globe to support the work of the Committee, but through a role that is more flexible in terms of the time commitment required.

It was great to join the ‘Mansfield does University Challenge’ event in February (in lieu of the annual London Drinks get-together), the 2020 Hands Lecture in November, and one of the Online Reunions held in October with current and emeritus Mansfield Fellows. As a Mansfield Geography alumnus, I especially relished the opportunity to catch up with Professor Tony Lemon, Dr Pam Berry and Professor Derek McCormack during the Geography reunion. At the Alumni

The Mansfield College Alumni Association is your association; on leaving Mansfield you automatically became members. Please get in touch at MansfieldCollegeAlumniAssociation@outlook.com if you would like to be involved in the Committee or its activities, helping to widen and maintain the alumni community and the Mansfield family.

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

(VSP, 2015), Adam Kelly (English, 2016), Miriam Kennet (MSc Environmental Change & Management, 1997), Rebecca Loxton (English, 2011), Lucy Mahoney (DPhil Geography & the Environment, 2009), Gerald Moule (MTh Applied Theology, 2004), Donald Norwood (Theology, 1959), Daniel Seiderer (MBA, 2007), Damola Shobowale (Jurisprudence, 2013), Bob Skelly (English, 1965)

Secretary: Mike Walton (English, 1956) College representative: Lucinda Rumsey (Senior Tutor and Tutor for Admissions) Committee members: Serena Arthur (English, 2016), Peter Bergamin (Oriental Studies, 2012), Shahenda Darwich (PPE, 2011), Adrian David (Mathematics, 2010), Lydia Felty

Alumni news We are always delighted to hear from members of our alumni community – whether it be career news, personal milestones or professional achievements. Here are just a few highlights from 2020/21.

ob Porrer B Modern Languages, 1963

Following early retirement from his post as Director of Student Services at the University of Edinburgh, Bob was active as a consultant on university careers services (including 18 months in New Zealand with a brief to set up a world-class careers service at the University of Auckland). He was Chair of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) in Scotland, also serving as a Fellowship Councillor and subsequently Chair of the RSA’s Fellowship Council, which represents the RSA’s 30,000 Fellows worldwide. Following a move from Edinburgh to Cambridge he has been involved as a member of the local governing board of the North Cambridge Academy, a state secondary school with the highest proportion of disadvantaged pupils in Cambridgeshire. He also leads on a local RSA initiative on inequality in education and the transition to employment. More recently Bob has taken on chairing ‘My Cambridge’, the Local Cultural Education Partnership. This brings together museums, arts and cultural organisations and the City and County Councils to spread the benefit of cultural activities, especially to disadvantaged young people – in a city found to have the widest inequality gap in Britain. 2

Christian Fischer MSc Water Science, Policy & Management, 2017

provoking analyses to form their own opinions about the biggest challenges the world faces today. Christian adds: ‘Founded in May 2020 by a graduate cohort of the University of Oxford’s School of Geography and the Environment, WSP now comprises over 100 volunteers from more than 25 different countries. We are a powerful and thriving example of how passion, tenacity and technology can unite like-minded people across continents and time zones.’ Find out more at: https://watersciencepolicy.com/ 3

D aniel Tarry Geography, 2011 Matthew Bradbury MEng Materials, Economics & Management, 2011

In September 2021, Dan and Matthew completed the Deloitte Ride Across Britain (Land’s End to John O’Groats) challenge, in support of The Prince’s Trust. Collectively they raised over £4000 for this great cause. 4

D avid Parry Modern History, 1965

In 2021 David received a Civic Award from the London Borough of Barnet, north London, ‘in recognition of his outstanding service to the community’.

Christian is Chair of Water Science Policy (WSP), a global, multilingual platform for water journalism, thought leadership, engagement, and climate solutions.

The Award acknowledged David’s 12 years as founding Chairman of a local charity responsible for the purchase and £1.2m redevelopment of a derelict Victorian primary school in Barnet.

Its goal is to ensure that water-curious readers – regardless of their financial or technical resources – can access thought-

The Open Door Centre is now a thriving community hub offering a special welcome to older members of the neighbourhood. In

the three years from its formal opening in May 2017 to its Covid-enforced closure in March 2020, there were some 40,000 visits to the Centre. During the various Covid lockdowns of 2020, volunteers from the Centre prepared and delivered some 2500 two-course lunches to older, vulnerable members of the community. And during December 2020, the Centre hosted a socially distanced, free Christmas market providing tinned and fresh food, fresh meat, bread and cheese, cakes and chocolates, Christmas dinners and brand-new Christmas presents donated by members of the community to around 100 adults and children facing severe financial hardship. 5

D hruti Shah English, 2000

This year, Dhruti’s debut book, Bear Markets & Beyond: A Bestiary of Business Terms, was shortlisted in the 2021 Business Book Awards in the ‘Short Business Book’ category. In August, Dhruti appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Word of Mouth with children’s author and poet, Michael Rosen, to discuss why personal names are so often mispronounced or misspelled, in conversation and online. This programme was made available on BBC Sounds, here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/ programmes/b006qtnz 6

E mma Pell PPE, 1998

Emma, who is Director of Arts Heritage and Tourism in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, for services to Heritage and the Arts during Covid-19.

r Eric Bender D VSP, 1995

In December 2020, Eric was asked to audition to host GQ’s online show The Breakdown, on which real-life experts break down aspects of TV shows and movies in their area of expertise. Eric was offered the role to discuss mental health, and this came out in February 2021. After the filming, Eric was asked by GQ to audition for another episode and he will host a programme on psychopaths due out in the autumn of 2021. 8

rank Vitale IV F VSP, 2014

In September 2021, Frank, who came to Mansfield from Dickinson College, started a one-year Associate Fellowship with the National Library of Medicine, part of the United States National Institutes of Health. 9

uy Hands G PPE, 1978

In November 2021, Guy publishes his new book, The Dealmaker: Lessons from a Life in Private Equity, an inside account of the world of private equity and a masterclass in the art of dealmaking. Guy’s book provides a frank account of how a severely dyslexic child who struggled at school went on to graduate from Oxford and become a serial entrepreneur. As the publisher reveals: ‘It takes the reader inside the previously very secretive world of private equity, explaining how this multibillion-pound sector operates and what opportunities it offers. Both insightful and page-turning, it will prove inspirational and essential reading for all those concerned with or interested in the world of investment.’ Discover more about Guy’s new book, here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/ authors/1065303/guy-hands.html 10

J oe Seddon PPE, 2015

This year Joe was recognised with the highest accolade a young person in the UK can achieve for social action or humanitarian efforts – The Diana Award.

Established in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales, the Award is given out by the charity of the same name and has the support of both Diana’s sons, The Duke of Cambridge and The Duke of Sussex. Joe founded ‘Zero Gravity’, a tech start-up that digitally mentors low-income students into top universities. Joe created an app in his student bedroom with the last £200 of his student loan. Zero Gravity digitally connects university applicants from lowincome backgrounds with undergraduate mentors studying at leading UK universities. Mentees are then mentored through weekly one-to-one video sessions, all via the Zero Gravity app. Zero Gravity has already been recognised with a social impact award from the Prime Minister, and recently picked up three European Brand Awards in the Transform Awards Europe, including a Gold Award for the ‘best visual identity in the education sector’. Zero Gravity has now partnered with organisations across the public and private sectors to level the playing field for students from low-income backgrounds. It is forecast to help 3000 low-income students attain places in top universities by 2022. 11

D r Lucy Mahoney DPhil Geography & the Environment, 2009

At the end of 2020, Lucy took part in a panel hosted by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Lime (an urban transportation company) with the Mayor of Rome and the World Health Organisation’s Director of Public Health, discussing future mobility and climate. In 2021 Lucy was elected by the Dutch cycling organisation, BYCS, to become the BYCS Bicycle Mayor of London. She also had a piece published by the City of Bogota regarding its new climate-ready cycling infrastructure. 12

M artin Stott Geography, 1973

Martin has published two photo books in 2021. Wear a Mask! Oxford Pandemic Portraits (Signal Books) records the responses people made to the collective endeavour of tackling the Covid pandemic. The English Worker Cooperative Movement 1980s (Café Royal Books) is a documentary record of a social movement that prefigured our concerns with economic wellbeing, the fulfilment of local needs, and the sustainable use of resources.

P aul Palmarozza PGDip Educational Studies, 1980

This year Paul published his new book Cultural Cycles & Climate Change. ‘A unique historical cycle of 854 years was used in the assessment of the events in Western (European/American), Chinese, Indian and Arabic cycles over more than 2500 years. The lessons learned from the analysis prompted a recommended Nine Step Action Plan for the way forward. ‘Steps 1-3 The acknowledgement of the existing conditions including the mistakes being made and the resulting problems. SEE IT ‘Steps 4-6 More Quiet Time including meditation, mindfulness, reflection and silence, practices designed to quiet the mind and emotions so that more conscious, good decisions can be made. BE STILL ‘Steps 7-9 Living the natural human values in how we think, relate to others and act which will result in a willingness and resolve to serve the common good. One of the prime needs of humanity now is Climate Change and a recommended approach on how we can serve that need is offered. SORT IT.’ Paul notes that, after many years of research, the turning point in the writing of the book was a five-day writer’s retreat at Mansfield based in the Tower Room and living in the Guest Cottage. The book is now published in the UK and will soon be published in the US and India. More details about Paul’s book can be found here: https://culturalcycles.timelessvalues. co.uk/ 14

P aul Salez MJur, 2010

Paul took up a new position as Seconded Official at the Reserve Bank of India in April 2021, and moved to Mumbai with his wife and children. Paul would be happy to connect with any alumni from Mansfield or even from the wider Oxford alumni community, should they happen to also be in Mumbai.

Alumni news 15

ebecca Birrell R Women’s Studies, 2013

Rebecca’s debut publication This Dark Country: Women Artists, Still Life and Intimacy in the Early Twentieth Century was published this summer and was reviewed by the Guardian. For more details and to purchase Rebecca’s book, visit: https://www.bloomsbury.com/ uk/this-dark-country-9781526604019/ 16

In 2020, Sue published a new book: Belonging: The Key to Transforming and Maintaining Diversity, Inclusion and Equality at Work. The book was shortlisted in the ‘Diversity, Inclusion & Equality’ category of the 2021 Business Book Awards. 18

amantha Ede S Jurisprudence, 1998

Samantha, who is Deputy Director of the Home Office Legal Advisers, was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for Services to the Law.

S ue Unerman Modern History, 1979

V ictoria Owens Jurisprudence, 1979

In September 2020, Victoria published a new book, Lady Charlotte Guest: The Exceptional Life of a Female Industrialist.

Victoria has an interest in engineering history, and it was her investigation of the industrial heritage of South Wales that led her to encounter Lady Charlotte, who took on the role of Ironmaster of Dowlais. She became determined to write about her. More details: https://www.pen-andsword.co.uk/Lady-Charlotte-GuestHardback/p/18000 Victoria is the winner of the inaugural 2009 Jane Austen short story competition, and a writer of fiction and non-fiction. Her novel Drawn to Perfection was published by Hookline in 2013; Amberley Publishing brought out her study James Brindley and the Duke of Bridgewater – Canal Visionaries in 2015; and her book Aqueducts and Viaducts of Britain was published in March 2019.

We welcome news from our alumni. If you would like to share it with us, please contact alumni.officer@mansfield.ox.ac.uk 2

6 7

12 10

18 17 14

The way we were In the first of a series of memoirs on Mansfield past, Mike Walton (English, 1956) reminisces about his initial weeks at the College as one of its two first non-Theology students. He is now the Honorary Secretary of the Mansfield College Alumni Association (MCAA). I remember clearly my first visit to the College. While in Oxford for interview by another college, I decided to find out what Mansfield was like. I’d been offered an interview there but hadn’t found any helpful information (no internet back then!). From Broad Street, I followed about 50 yards behind a distinguished figure in full academic dress, walking at the same speed as my 17-year-old self. To my surprise, he turned into Mansfield Road, and then into the College, disappearing through the heavy front doors. I followed suit soon afterwards (no Porter’s Lodge then!). He was in the entrance hall and asked why I was interested in Mansfield. I told him. He asked my name. I told him. He replied, ‘Well, I’m John Marsh!’ – the Principal, who had been signing the letters I had received. I joined Mansfield the next October. As I mentioned, there was then no Porter’s Lodge. And no student accommodation where the A, B, C and D Blocks now stand. No rooms along Mansfield Road, either. Where the Lodge, the student accommodation and the Fellows’ Garden are today there were once tennis courts. The Garden Building was similarly erected on the sacred turf of the cricket nets.

Today, the croquet lawn remains, but someone has put a large sculpture in the middle of it. We students were mostly accommodated in the main building (my room was in the Tower, along with six or seven others including the JCR President, who gloried in the designated room on the first floor with the bay window). Space was at a premium, so there were two rooms built into the now-empty square area on the corner at the foot of the staircase. The top floor of the Principal’s Lodgings was divided into several student rooms (‘The Attic Community’), as was the basement. I spent my first year in College but had to find digs for my second and third years. The lack of accommodation is related, of course, to the number of students: there were then approximately 50 (look at the College photos for those years). All of them were older than me. All Theology students were already graduates – only my fellow arts degree pioneer was of a similar age. Some of them had done National Service as well (in areas of conflict like Cyprus and Aden), so the maturity gulf was significant. This – not the Theology, but the National Service – was an issue across the whole University. Many students had even taken commissions, and as officers had served not two but three years. They had lived in a very different

environment from that of my own suburban grammar school. We 18 year-olds had a lot to learn, and quickly. I felt very naive and raw. And I have always reckoned that, had I been at a larger, more ‘mainstream’ college, I might not have survived. Mansfield students were pretty decent people, and I felt protected within a somewhat private environment that allowed me to find my feet at my own rate. The College may be larger now, but I get the feeling that this characteristic has not changed. Not everything happened at this steady rate. I arrived in College on a Wednesday. On Thursday, a notice went up inviting students to a hockey practice. I discovered Mansfield did not have a football or rugby team. So I borrowed a stick and turned up on Friday. On Saturday, the team was put on the noticeboard. I was astonished to discover my name appearing as a reserve. On Sunday, someone dropped out. On Monday, I was playing in the Mansfield College team. And I continued to do so for the whole of my three years. After Oxford, I played club hockey for many years, and coached successive sixth form groups whom I introduced to the game. So thank you, Mansfield. This is just one of the many legacies I gratefully retain from my three years in your community.

The impact of your support

Thank you Tess McCormick, Development Director

This report covers the period August 2020 to July 2021 Thank you so much for your support of Mansfield College. Resilience is the theme of our magazine this year. As many of you know, Mansfield’s lack of financial resilience is an ongoing challenge, but in 2020/21 your philanthropic support became more important than ever. In a time of crisis, we asked and you responded. Across all areas, donations have shown a significant increase on last year and we are extremely grateful. We are particularly glad of your superlative support for our unrestricted fund – Mansfield Matters – which was the highest for many years. Clearly you understand the importance of giving without restrictions, and trust your College to apply your donations to wherever the need is greatest. This year Covid meant our needs were greater than ever, so your crucial support of this, our central fund and our top priority, was especially appreciated. We also saw an uptick in support for our students this year, as alumni rose to the challenge of helping Mansfield students through the hardest of times. And you also backed Mansfield’s core mission: our outreach and access work to reach the brightest and best, and to continue, despite everything, to be ambitious and sector-leading in these efforts. In whichever way you chose to help Mansfield this year, we deeply appreciate your support. We describe below how we have put every penny to good use.

Mansfield Matters Fund

£117,783 The flexibility of your unrestricted donations to Mansfield makes them the most powerful of gifts – as highlighted by the current crisis. The pandemic came at great cost to Mansfield and its students, but your donations to Mansfield Matters allowed College to react quickly and effectively to the rapidly changing and unpredictable situation.

enabled us to supply additional IT equipment and noise-cancelling headphones for students. And after the return to on-site living and studying, we could provide the spaces for students to learn and socialise safely – such as new sheltered areas outdoors. Library hours were also extended and staffed by Junior Deans to give students increased opportunities to study.

Mansfield is known for its openness and its close-knit community. The pandemic required everyone to study and work very differently – and creatively. Your support of the Mansfield Matters Fund

The whole Mansfield community is deeply grateful for the support you have given to safeguard College and all aspects of student life throughout the Covid crisis. Thank you so much.

The impact of your support

Access and Outreach

£92,640

Thank you to everyone who has kindly donated to support our Access and Outreach work this year. Your money is helping students overcome barriers, to pursue their ambitions and win a place at Oxford, sometimes against all odds. It helps train student Access Ambassadors and enables Mansfield to run access days for students in disadvantaged areas. Although access events and open days were unable to take place in person over the last year, your support allowed our Access Officer and student Ambassadors to continue their work online. Thank you. We are also delighted that Kathleen Russ (Modern History, 1986) has, for a second year, generously funded the Access Officer role at Mansfield. The post, currently held by Sara Harb (History, 2016), is crucial to College’s ability to undertake its varied outreach programme, so we are indebted to Kathleen for her continued support of this vital role.

lumni supporters play a huge role in A enabling the experience of students like myself to be the best that it can possibly be, as well as helping to fund Mansfield’s access and outreach work, which is something I’m personally passionate about. Harry Twohig (History, 2019), Ambassador of the Young Trustee Movement

Student Support Fund

£173,334

y student experience was greatly M enriched by the generous donations of alumni supporters – particularly through the Covid-19 relief grant that allowed me to study from home during lockdown.

We believe that students’ background or financial circumstances should not stand in the way of their higher education. The pandemic has seen a huge increase in the number of students in need of financial aid and welfare support. Thank you to everyone who has kindly donated to the Student Support Fund and our special new Covid-19 relief fund over the last year. Your donations have made a critical difference to students from low-income backgrounds being able to continue their studies, including enabling students to stay in Oxford over the vacation for uninterrupted access to the Library.

Rachel Thomas (Human Sciences, 2018)

Teaching and Research

Buildings and Environment

£138,501

£209,914

plus £475,000 pledged

Your donations help to maintain Mansfield’s historic buildings, as well as provide modern facilities for students. Thank you for your kind support. At the time of writing, work was underway to renovate the kitchens in ‘E’ block – to provide improved and modern facilities for returning students.

The tutorial system is an integral part of an Oxford education. Mansfield’s world-leading academics are critical to our mission as a College, so this year we launched a new Campaign for Teaching, to ensure Mansfield can continue to attract and retain academics of the highest calibre and build on our achievements in academic excellence.

This year, we were delighted to complete the long-standing project to restore the College Chapel organ. Finally, after many years, the organ was heard once more in Chapel Hall in May in a service broadcast to a small congregation in person, but many more online. We would like to thank everyone who kindly contributed to the project, as well as all those who served on the Organ Appeal committee. We look forward to welcoming you back to College for a full celebration.

Our Campaign has the ambitious target of endowing the ‘College side’ of an academic teaching Fellowship in Mansfield’s largest five subjects: English, Geography, Law, Maths, and PPE. College’s new Campaign for Teaching is outlined in more detail on p.42, but we would like to give particular thanks here to alumni Chris Foster (Maths, 1997), and Anthony Dewell (Maths, 2002), who have made campaign-leading gifts in support of endowing a teaching Fellowship in Maths at Mansfield in honour of distinguished Emeritus Fellow, Dr Janet Dyson.

The impact of your support

A Campaign for Teaching Tess McCormick, Development Director Academics at Mansfield are leaders in their fields, making significant contributions to their disciplines and to public life through ground-breaking research and teaching. One of the most distinctive elements of studying at Oxford is being taught by the person who ‘wrote the textbook’, through the College tutorial. For most students, it is their Tutor who plays the pivotal role in their academic life.

What sets Mansfield apart from other colleges is its pioneering role in widening access to elite higher education, working actively to find candidates with potential who might never have considered Oxford. This is a virtuous circle, as leading academics are also attracted to Mansfield by our contribution to positive change in the world.

Making a permanent difference: together There are several ways in which donations to the Campaign will be maximised, enabling your support to have a permanent impact on the teaching of your subject at Mansfield. University support: Most academic posts at Oxford are ‘split’ between colleges and faculties – academics often hold a professorial appointment with the faculty, and their Tutorial Fellowship with the college. We are looking to endow the ‘College side’ of Fellowship teaching posts at Mansfield, and if we can achieve this, the University covers all other costs.

A key strategic goal for the College is further establishing a high profile for our academic work, through attracting and retaining top talent. We are committed to finding and keeping academics who inspire independent critical thinking that remains with students throughout their lives.

Match funding: In some subjects, alumni are choosing to make a ‘match challenge’ gift to help us reach our goal for their subject (see the Maths example p.43).

‘ Our Tutors help prepare students to make meaningful contributions to society as engaged citizens and leaders in a challenging world.’

Collective giving: While making an endowment-level donation is beyond the means of most individual alumni, even a relatively small gift, plus Gift Aid, made annually for a five-year period, quickly builds to have a significant impact. I truly hope you will play an active role in the Campaign for Teaching at Mansfield, one of the most powerful ways you can support your College.

At other Oxford colleges it is common for Tutorial Fellowships to be fully or partially endowed, providing significant security for the college, but currently only one of Mansfield’s posts is fully secured in this way (the Caird Fellow in Theology). Aiming to address this, Mansfield is launching an ambitious new Campaign for Teaching over the coming five years, asking alumni to support the teaching of their subject, and aiming to endow at least one Fellowship in each of our largest subjects: English, Geography, Law, Maths, and PPE.

Currently, subjects prioritised for the Campaign are English, Geography, Law, Maths, and PPE. To find out more, please contact Tess McCormick on tess.mccormick@mansfield.ox.ac.uk.

The impact of your support

‘ My life story would be very different if it was not for Janet’ ‘ Her influence was quite genuinely life changing.’ ‘ I have Janet to thank for laying the foundations of the career I have now.’

Spotlight on Maths: the Janet Dyson Fellowship at Mansfield In Maths, we have launched an ambitious initiative to raise finance to name and fund in perpetuity the College side of one of our three permanent Maths Tutors, in honour of Emeritus Fellow, Dr Janet Dyson, in recognition of her outstanding contribution to Mansfield over decades.

‘ An opportunity to study Maths at Mansfield, but especially under Janet, is something I will always be grateful for. Janet is a visionary who went looking for talent in uncovered places, but importantly was able to nurture that talent to always get the very best out of people. What better way to honour her and support the College (and thus further opportunity for all) than to give to the Janet Dyson Maths Fellowship?’

A 1:1 match challenge Mansfield alumnus Chris Foster (Maths, 1997), himself a beneficiary of Janet’s teaching, has generously promised to match all donations and pledges towards endowing the Janet Dyson Fellowship, over a five-year period. If we can raise £375,000, this will be matched pound-for-pound, and the post can be endowed. Already £115,000 has been raised, so we would achieve our goal if, for example, 26 Maths alumni donated £2,000 a year (or £1,600 plus Gift Aid) for five years. If you are a Maths alum, we hope you will consider making a gift, recognising Janet’s outstanding contribution to the Mansfield community and helping secure a Fellowship post in perpetuity at your College. If you are interested in contributing to the Janet Dyson Maths Fellowship, please contact Tess McCormick on tess.mccormick@mansfield.ox.ac.uk.

Chris Foster (Maths, 1997)

The Constance Coltman Circle In May 2021 we launched a new donor recognition group, the Constance Coltman Circle (CCC) – named after Mansfield’s inspirational first woman student in 1913 – for people giving £50 a month or £600 or more per year, or the equivalent. Members of the Circle will be invited to donor events, receive regular tailored communications from College, and will have the opportunity to leave a message in a CCC bookplate in the College Library. At the time of writing, we had already welcomed 37 supporters to the group. We are passionate about acknowledging and recognising the invaluable contributions made by alumni and friends. The CCC is the newest of Mansfield’s six tiers of benefaction: Bancroft Fellows; The Mansfield Court; Guardians; The Fairbairn Society; and Patrons. To find out more about supporting Mansfield or joining the Constance Coltman Circle, contact Eleanor Crawford at regulargiving.manager@mansfield.ox.ac.uk.

The impact of your support

Inspiring loyalty Our thanks to those who make a monthly, quarterly or annual gift to Mansfield

‘ I can’t adequately express how proud I am to be part of the College’s community, and especially of the way the College has reached out to new constituencies of students from such a wide variety of circumstances. My financial contribution is because I wanted a way of showing my pride and my support of the many ways Mansfield is making the University, the nation, and the world a better place.’ Glenn Holland (Theology, 1979)

Your donations to Mansfield: having an impact now and for years to come The last academic year was very different. Events were online and our annual Telethon was postponed. Yet, this did not stop our community from doing something incredible for College: raising more funds than we have for the previous three years. In October 2020, we held our first Community Week and Giving Day – just days before another national lockdown was announced. It was a time to celebrate our College community, bring everyone together – no matter where in the world they were – and do something for Mansfield students. Students took part in varied community-building challenges and activities such as origami and carving pumpkins. Alumni made Mansfield-themed bakes at home and followed the week on Mansfield’s social media channels. Though participants donned their masks, dutifully sanitised hands and kept a safe distance, it felt like for the first time since the pandemic hit there was excitement in the air. And, through the various challenges – including running 1,886 laps of the Quad (to celebrate our founding year) and a 12-hour row – as well as generous match-funding from the Mansfield Development Board, alumni raised just over £70,000 in support of College’s top priorities. Thank you for your outstanding contributions. Looking forward, we aim to increase our alumni participation figure (the percentage who support their College) to 15% in the coming years (it is currently 12%) – to match the average across the Oxford colleges. Not everyone can make a ‘major’ gift, but every supporter gets us closer to this goal. And our regular contributors have built us a strong foundation for future growth.

Sara’s story

Key stats from the year

393

big thank yous to our regular supporters

30%

of our UK undergraduate offerholders are from the most disadvantaged group by Oxford’s measures

34%

of our UK undergraduates are first in their family to go to university

95% of our UK undergraduates come from nonselective state schools

100

Access Ambassadors encourage students to apply to Mansfield

‘ Being JCR President, I’ve really seen how donations are helping students. I’m from a low-income background so it was so helpful for me to use the Student Support Fund to pay for some of my books. I have friends who have used it to help them pay for accommodation during vac res, so they could have a suitable place to study. Support like this, thanks to alumni, makes everyone feel on equal ground. I think that’s incredibly important.’ Sara Cepele (Jurisprudence, 2019)

277

regular supporters giving every year for at least the last five years

The impact of your support

Forever Mansfield: the gift of a lifetime Tess McCormick, Development Director

Mansfield has only been able to continue to thrive through the outstanding generosity of its alumni and supporters, including through legacy gifts, and we wanted to do something transformative to recognise that. Helen Mountfield QC Principal

In 2020, in the midst of lockdown, the Principal and the College’s Head Gardener, Thomas Edgar, set about planning a revitalised planting scheme in what was formerly the Fellows’ Garden in the back Quad. In a year when we have lost far too many of our community, it felt important to create a space to recognise the people who have come before, and made Mansfield the leading, forward-thinking academic community it is today. The first ever ‘Legacy Garden’ in an Oxford college, this tranquil area was devised as somewhere for quiet reflection, for reading and study. Moreover, we wanted a dedicated place at Mansfield to honour and remember everyone who chooses to pledge a legacy gift to the College. By the Spring of 2021, the beds were bursting with colour. The new planting and reordered layout of the grounds can now be enjoyed by all those looking out from

the surrounding offices, academic and study rooms, and student bedrooms.

to support their College with a gift of a lifetime, by including Mansfield in their will.

Thanks to a donation from alumnus, Jan Fischer (PPE, 1989), we purchased two attractive wooden tepees for use during times of social distancing. It has been wonderful to see tutorials happening beneath them – visited by the occasional cat – in the middle of the Legacy Garden lawn.

If you have already done this, please let us know so we can thank you and discuss your wishes and how you might like your gift to be recognised. You will also be invited to join Mansfield’s Sarah Glover Society, named after one of our founders, for all those who have chosen to support the College in this way. You might also wish to have your generosity recognised by a plaque bearing your name, or that of a loved one whose contribution to the life of Mansfield you wish to commemorate, in our beautiful new Legacy Garden.

For most of us, supporting the causes closest to our heart, particularly through turbulent times, is important, but something we can only do modestly during our lifetimes. A planned or legacy gift can change that. Once you have made provision for your loved ones, this could be your gift of a lifetime: making a fundamental difference to the future of Mansfield and its students. It has been truly uplifting to hear from so many alumni this year about their plans

For more information – including the simple sentence you can use to include Mansfield in your will – visit our legacy webpage: https://www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk/ your-legacy-mansfield

Getting into Mansfield was, hands down, the best stroke of luck that has ever happened to me – especially for someone from my background. At Mansfield I learned that nothing was out of reach. So, being able to help by pledging a gift in my will, and expand the world for others, is immensely gratifying. Rishi Dastidar (Modern History, 1996)

The impact of your support

Our supporters We give our sincere thanks to the 715 people who have made donations to Mansfield in the last financial year (1 August 2020 to 31 July 2021), including those who have chosen to remain anonymous. We are so grateful to you for your generous support. Individuals are grouped by their year of matriculation. We would like to give particular thanks and recognition to the members of our Sarah Glover Society, the 54 alumni and friends who have chosen to pledge a legacy gift to Mansfield. We also thank members of The Bancroft Fellowship Mr Antonio Bonchristiano (PPE, 1984) Revd Charles Brock (Theology, 1967) Mr Jan Fischer (PPE, 1989) Mr Guy Hands (PPE, 1978) and Mrs Julia Hands MBE Sir Joseph Hotung Mr Harry Leventis Sir Paul Ruddock (Jurisprudence, 1977) 1956 Revd David Allen Mr Michael Edwards Revd Barry Parker Mr Michael Walton 1957 Revd Robert Scribbins Revd Brian Wren 1958 Prof Ian Bellis 1959 Prof Robert Adams Revd Clabon Allen Revd John Muir Revd Dr Donald Norwood Mr Victor O’Connell Revd Dr Harold Tonks

1967 Mr Sidney Blankenship Mr Gregory Bowden Mr Paul Jay Mr Peter Johnson Mr Francis Jurksaitis Revd Dr Roy Long Revd Pastor Arthur Pedersen 1968 Mr Geoffrey Bott Mr Michael Harris 1969 Mrs Kathryn Compston 1970 Dr Philip Aylett Mr John Bell Revd David Ivorson Mr Roger Jackson Revd John Landon Dr Robert Lively Mr Charles Long Mr Christopher Rivington OBE Mr Jonathan Rooper Mr Stephen Sheedy Mr Peter Wastnedge Dr Jonathan Wild

1960 Revd Peter Moth

1971 Dr Douglas Connor Mr Roger Finbow Mr John Higgs Mr Stewart Rutter Dr Doug Stange

1961 Revd Robert Blows Prof John Creaser Mr Richard Hill Prof Mason Lowance

1972 Prof Eric Lund Mr Craig Nelson Dr Homer Rogers Mr Stephen Sayers

1962 Mr Michael Burman Mr Antony Payn Revd Donald Rudalevige Mr Richard Thomas

1973 Mr Jonathan Arkush Mr John Fitzpatrick

1963 Revd George Agar Mr Andrew Daykin Mr Chris Horrocks CBE Dr Kenneth Parker Mr Robert Porrer Mr David Reston Revd Dr William Rusch Mr Robert Smith Mr John Thorndyke 1964 Mr Roy Foster Revd Stephen Haine Mr Anthony Lunch 1965 Revd Dr Thomas Best Revd William Boyd Revd Dr Noel Davies Prof Jeffery Hearn Dr Fisher Humphreys Mr Keith Lock Revd Julian Macro Mr Michael Ward 1966 Mr John Cooper Dr John Dorrell Prof David Fell Mr Peter Froebel Mr Graeme Hartley Mr Ralph Holmes Judge Paul Worsley QC Mr Glenn Yocum

1974 Mr William Annandale Mr Ian Howard Mr Stephen Maguire Mr Ian Neville Mr Steven Paull Mr Ian Taylor 1975 Dr David Bailey Mr Ian Davison Mr Chris Frewer Mr Simon Gregory Mr Charles Linaker Dr Arthur Mielke Mr Simon Morrow Mr Martyn Scrivens Mr Gordon Woods 1976 Mr Crispin Barker Mr Sean Crane Mr Philip Dean Mr Stephen Gaskell Mr Kent Kildahl Mr Robert Matley Mr Hugh Purkiss Mr Robert Wakely 1977 Mr Chris Jenkins Sir Paul Ruddock Mr Jonathan Wells 1978 Mr Timothy Booth Revd Richard Church Mr Antony Cook

Mr Guy Hands Mr Philip Jemielita Ambassador George Krol Dr Colin Podmore Mr Colin Sedgewick

Mrs Kathleen Russ Dr Matthew Scott Mr Timothy Storrie QC Mr Rik Tozzi Mr Andrew Willman

1979 Mr Bashir Ahmed Mr Mark Beardwood Mr Andrew Cannons Mr Martin Christensen Mr Martin Clemmey Mrs Patricia Dean Dr Jonathan Goss Prof Glenn Holland Mr Michael Ingledow Mrs Victoria Owens Mr Gavin Prosser Mr Martin Riley Mr Peter Vickers

1987 Mrs Deborah Chism Mr Nick Chism Mr Richard Darby Mr Brian Millar

1980 Mr Mark Jones Mr Henry Kopel Mr Paul Midwinter Mr Paul Palmarozza 1981 Mr Nigel Clarke Mrs Melanie Clemmey Miss Jane Coughlin Mrs Melinda Cripps Mr Geraint Rees Mr Paul Vine 1982 Ms Sharon Flaxbeard Mr Adrian Flook Mr Rolf Howarth Mr Richard Klein Mr Sean Moriarty Mr David Testa Mr John Weston Mr Richard Young 1983 Mr Yogesh Bhagat Mrs Lisa De Silva Ms Gill Duddy Mr Mark Jones Mr Saul Jones Mr Daniel Pollick Mr Steven Ruth Mr Matthew Tipper 1984 Mr Brian Ashe Mr David Bailey QC Mr Antonio Bonchristiano Mr Andrew Davies Revd Peter Elliott Mr Timothy Harris Mr Donald Macdonald Revd William MacKinnon Mr Robert Mison Mr Juan Sabater Mrs Lisa Tedeschini 1985 Mr Michael Holyoake Mr Douglas Jeffery Mr Trevor Jones Mrs Jane Roberts Ms Jaee Samant CBE Mrs Veronica Williams 1986 Mr Giles Atkinson Dr Charles Carter Ms Alexandra Clark Mr Jon Fish Ms Diana Glassman Mr Daniel Nestel

1988 Mr Benjamin Auslander Ms Lisa Baglin Mr Timothy Burroughs Ms Emma Heald Mr Jason Klein Ms Catherine McClen Mr Jonathan Steinberg Dr Richard Underhill Mr Michael Walls Mr Stewart Wilkinson 1989 Mr Phei Cheung Mr Neil Elton Mr Jan Fischer Mr Toby Gosnall Ms Jessica Graham Mr Matthew Keats Mrs Elizabeth Marshall Mr Andrew Moulton Dr Toby Purser Miss Frances Reynolds 1990 Mr Angelo Basu Mrs Nicola Cathery Ms Joanna Jameson Mr Joseph Nuttall Mrs Katie Schoultzinatler 1991 Mrs Kathryn Flanders Mrs Shevaun Haviland Ms Gill Kirk Mr Daneree Lambeth 1992 Mr Brian Arnold Mr Jonathan Brod Mr Simon Carmichael Mr Andrew Croxson Mr Paul Jackson Mr Richard Kelly Mr Benjamin Shaw 1993 Miss Elizabeth Badger Mr James Burnett Ms Shona Colaço Mr Stuart Ferguson Mrs Barbara Guenther Mr John Glen Mr Stephen Gough Mrs Alexandra Harle Mr James Pearson Mr John Zolidis 1994 Mr Tom Bray Mrs Kumiko Brocklebank Mr Richard Davies Revd Tiffany-Alice Ewins Revd Christopher Glover Revd Derek Hopkins Mr Simon Kennedy Mr Joshua Kurtzig Mr Andrew MacDonald Revd Iain McDonald Mr Jonathan Parry Ms Clare Skidmore

Miss Brigitte Worth Mr Andrew Young 1995 Ms Katherine Allport Mrs Catrin Bennett Mr Edward Bryce Morris Mr Simon Calhaem Ms Olwen Greany Mr Michael Margolis Mrs Gina Pattisson Brusik Mr William Purser Dr Briseida Deyanira Sanchez Mr Stephen Tall Mr Marcus Williamson 1996 Ms Laura Baggaley Mrs Carolyn Bryce Morris Mr William Cadbury Mr Charles Classen Mr Rishi Dastidar Prof Jane Hamlett Mr Marcus Haywood Miss Anna Jenkins Mr James Selby Mr Rhys Watkin Ms Amber Wheeler 1997 Mr Philip Avery Mr David Clyde Revd June Colley Revd Patricia Davis Mr John Doy Mrs Deborah Edwards Mr David Falkner Mr Christopher Foster Mr Yang-Wahn Hew Revd John-Daniel Laurence Mr Assad Maqbool Ms Hayley McRae-White Dr Jayne Nicholson Dr Daniel Palazuelos Mr Matthew Reed Mr James Uffindell 1998 Ms Helen Bray Mr Richard Colebourn Dr Kate Flynn Mr Martin Hall Revd Michael Hopkins Ms Chantal Hughes Mr Damian King Dr Rebecca Lodwick Mr Sean Mackenzie Mrs Emma Pell Mrs Mary Pert 1999 Mrs Marie-Anne Barnes Ms Cheryl Law Dr Christine McCulloch Dr John-Paul Salter Mr Simon Wicks Mr Alexander Wright Mrs Catherine Wright 2000 Mr Adrian Barlow Ms Katherine Bilsborrow Mr Clayton Bond Mr Robert Cumberland Mrs Clarice Dargan Mr Marcus Edwards Mr Niall McCarthy Ms Lindsey Mepham Mr Wichanun Niwathinda Dr Emilie Prattico Mr David Robson Mrs Rebecca Sumner Smith

2001 Mr Sean Beck Mr William Bonner Mr Tom Buttle Mr Gareth Davies Dr Richard Day Mr Simon Hale Mr Timothy Hirst Mr Robert McGhee Mr Onyemachi Njamma Miss Helen Prowse Mr Nigel Simkin Mr Jonas Twitchen Mr Andrew Walker Mr Kevin Whibley Ms Alison Clare Withers 2002 Mr Muhamet Alijaj Mr Ryan Amesbury Mr Richard Bazzaz Mr Leighton Cardwell Mr Anthony Dewell Ms Alexis Faulkner Dr Arthur Fraas Miss Jemima Kate Jewell Ms Clare Knight Mr Jonathan Lord Dr Christopher Salamone Mr Gregory Smye-Rumsby Mr Georg Von Kalckreuth 2003 Miss Amanda Claire Barton Mr Alastair Brown Mr Matthew Castle Revd Dr Chigor Chike Mr Ryan Fitzgibbon Dr Carlos Jaramillo IV Mr Edward Mayne Mr Andrew Mitchell Dr Katie Moore Mr Peter Ringlee Mr Jack Sheldon Mr David Wall 2004 Mr William Brewster Dr Valentina Iotchkova Miss Alexandra Jezeph Mr Benjamin Jones Miss Rebecca Linnett Ms Helen McKenzie Mr Thomas Oliphant Mr Matthew Putorti Mr Richard Saynor Revd Timothy Searle Miss Olivia Stones Miss Carina Watney Mr Joseph Zhou 2005 Mr Horatio Boedihardjo Mr Roy Cooper Dr James Dray Mr Richard Dyble Ms Emma Gerrard-Jones Dr Daniel Harvey Miss Hildie Hoeschen Miss Amy Icke Miss Melissa Julian-Jones

Mr Thomas Leveson Gower Revd Iain McLaren Dr Caroline Roberts Mr Daniel Thompson Miss Bethan Williams 2006 Ms Ruth Cook Mr Vikram Dhindsa Mr Siddhartha Haria Mr David Hartmann Ms Felicity Hawksley Mr Reuben Holt Miss Lauren O’Donnell Mr Michael Shaw 2007 Ms Sara Bainbridge Mr David Bruce Mr Luke Bullock Miss Sonia Chandaria Tillu Mr Daniel Cowley Mrs Marianne Dring-Turner Mr Nicholas Gomes Mr Chirag Goyate Mr John Kerr Mr Giles Rabbitts Mr Daniel Seiderer Mr Luke Webster Mrs Joanna Wood 2008 Mr Andrew Campbell Mr Christopher Du Boulay Mr Benjamin Featherstone Mrs Grace Featherstone Ms Bryony Makin Mr James Nettleton Miss Eilise Norris Miss Freya Smith Miss Adina Wass Mr Matthew Williams Mr Simon Williamson 2009 Mr Benjamin Ball Dr Cheng Cheng Mr Alexander Ford Miss Rachel Freeman Mr Matt Jones Mr Christopher Major Mr Andrew McCormack Mr Frederick Overton Mr Daniel Rey Mrs Amy Rutter Mr Alec Selwyn Mr Nathan Webster Mr Hao Wu 2010 Mr Jacob Anderson Mr Oliver Cohen Dr Sarah Connolly Mr Matthew Dodd Miss Ashley Fry Mr Bo Guan Miss Rosemary Hart Mr Christopher Lee Evans Mr David Lukic Dr David Macdougal Mr Amir Sokolowski

Ms Rachel Wears Mr Oliver Wood 2011 Miss Sophie Ball Mr Matthew Bradbury Mx James Burnett Miss Bethany Collett Mr James Fisher Dr Franziska Kirschner Mr Karl Laird Ms Wai Yin Deborah Lo Mr Joseph Morris Mr Daniel Orford Ms Courtney Penna Mr Timothy Smith Mr Alex Starr Mr Daniel Tarry 2012 Dr Peter Bergamin Mr Alexander Botham Miss Katherine Danks Mr Adam Deane Miss Nastassia Dhanraj Miss Victoria Hawley Miss Rebecca Hird Ms Rebecca Lee Ms Ariane Moshiri Mr Ulysse Schnyder Miss Effie Simmons Miss Alice Willcox Mr Thomas Windsor Miss Margaret Woods 2013 Mr Wojciech Dziwulski Mr Sam Goodman Mr Yongan Guo Miss Tabitha Jones Miss Rachael Kershaw Ms Manon Yvonne Schutz Miss Emmeline Skinner Cassidy Mr Brandon Tensley Mr Pei Wang Miss Fay Watson 2014 Miss Eloise Abbott Mr Ferran Brosa Planella Mr Toby Chapman Mr Owen Clarridge Miss Claire Maria Siu Kam Gibson Mr James Harrison Mr Lukas Hensel Mr Louis Jamart Miss Alice King Miss Stephanie McGuire Mr Kiran Modi Rabbi Steven Philp Mr Joseph Roberts Dr Anna Senkiw Miss Charlotte Stephens Mr Frank Vitale IV

Ms Zoe Hodge Ms Megan Izzo Miss Miriam Nemmaoui Mr Alexander Oscroft Mr Matthew Palmer Ms Amaris Proctor Mr Michael Railton Mr Matthew Sylva Mr Conor Youngs 2016 Ms Emily Cameron-Blake Mr Vladimir Lovric Ms Adrienne Mortimer Miss Grace Walker 2017 Mr Pedro-José Cazorla García Miss Jessica Duffy Mr Daniel Hall Mr Henry Harrs Mr Daiyun Huang Mr Loïc Lannelongue Miss Sarah Lawrence Ms Roisin Reilly Mr Matthew Rueter Ms Charlotte Sellers Mr Igor Tischenko 2018 Mr Juan Rafael Alvarez Velasquez Dr Kazuo Araki Miss Katerina Kapodistria Miss Charlotte Moore Miss Boluwatife Soyebo Mr Oliver Woolley 2019 Miss Margaret Burns Mr Julian Goldmann Mr Mitchell Marshall Miss Jennifer Smallwood Miss Jia Wan 2020 Mr Hatam Barma Miss Gemma Fulton Miss Connie Hammond Mr Alexander Hopkins-McQuillan Miss Sarani Jayawardena Miss Isabelle Kershaw-Halliwell Miss Ellie Obrien Ms Rachel Ricucci Mr Connor Searston Miss Cory Winter

2015 Ms Anca Gabriela Bunda Ms Heather Burke Mr Michael Corbett Mr Massimiliano Di Tommaso Ms Kirsten Hedde

College members Prof Sinan Acikgoz Prof Ros Ballaster Prof Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell Mr Tony Berezni Dr Pam Berry Ms Eleanor Crawford Mrs Catherine Conisbee Dr Andrew Gosler Mr Greg Jennings Dr Helen Lacey Prof Helen Margetts OBE Ms Tess McCormick Mrs Gemma McPhail Mr John Oxlade Prof Colin Please

Chris Jenkins (PPE, 1977) Bishop Tor Jorgensen Matthew Keats (Geography, 1989) Joe Klein Ambassador George Krol (PPE, 1978) Dr Helen Lacey Daneree Lambeth (Jurisprudence, 1991) Dr Gail Leckie Dr Tony Lemon Malcolm Levi (Modern History, 1967) Andy MacDonald (PPE, 1994) Donald MacDonald (English, 1984) Dr Lucy Mahoney (DPhil Geography & the Environment, 2009) Prof Helen Margetts OBE Sophie McBain (PPE, 2004) Prof Derek McCormack Julian McCrae Lauren McFadyen (Maths, 2010)

Dame Julie Mellor Prof Michèle Mendelssohn Kiran Modi (PPE, 2014) Alisdair Morrison (Materials Science, 2008) Justice Dikgang Moseneke Prof Catherine O’Regan John Okten Ben Okri OBE Yana Peel Prof Colin Please Justice Brian Preston Anna Ridler (English, 2004) Sir Paul Ruddock (Jurisprudence, 1977) Lucinda Rumsey MBE Kathleen Russ (History, 1986) Micky ScottBey Jones Prof Sir Nigel Shadbolt Dhruti Shah (English, 2000) Clare Skidmore (English, 1986)

Mrs Lynne Quiggin Dr Joel Rasmussen Mr Richard Scanlon Revd Dr Jennifer Strawbridge Friends Mrs Yoko Araki Mrs Jill Barnett Ms Margaret Belich Mr Oliver Blake Mr Yves Bonavero Ms Jillian Brown Mr Mark Carter Ms Alice Clarke Mrs Madeline Clayton Mr Mark Curtis Mrs Alison Edwards Mrs Jacquie Featherstone Mr Andrew Freed Dr Heinz Fuchs Mr Derek Goldrei Mrs Carol Mahoney Greatorex Mr Adam Gwilt Mrs Diane Gwilt Mr Peter Harkness Mrs Julia Hands MBE Mr Richard Hitchcock Mrs Brenda Hunt Dr Gueorgui Kantor Mr Alistair Kennedy Mr Ben Leach Ms Charmaine Lee Ms Jennifer Lee Ms Lula Margetts Ms Karen Maylin Mrs Marion Minchinton Mr Paul Minchinton Mr James Minogue Mr Edward Morris Lady Anne Mountfield Prof Catherine O’Regan Mrs Frances Paull Mr David Perry Dr Sheila Porrer Mrs Rachel Ramsay Mr Jonathan Scheele Ms Colette Stein Ms Sally Tarry Mr Alexander Thomas Ms Karen Thomas Mr Richard D Thomas Mrs Janet Tipper Mr Remy Vidal Mrs Tasmin Wilkinson Mrs Margaret Wilmot Ms Laura Young Ms Yuxi Zeng Organisations Apple Matching Gifts Program Beard Charitable Foundation Council of Lutheran Churches Goldman Sachs Malott Family Foundation State Street Corporation In memorium Hilary Allen Geoffrey Fuller (Jurisprudence, 1980)

With special thanks to: Serena Arthur (English Lang & Lit, 2016) Martin Atkinson (English, 1977) Dr Shreya Atrey David Bailey QC (Jurisprudence, 1984) Prof Ros Ballaster Josie Bearden (Economics and Music, 2014) Prof Sir John Bell Dr Peter Bergamin (Jewish Studies, 2012) Dr Pam Berry Revd Inderjit Bhogal Matt Brindley (English, 1997) Michael Burman (Chemistry, 1962) Isabel Chalmers (PPE, 2016) Martin Clemmey (Geography, 1979) Dr Richard Coggins Sarah Connolly (Materials Science, 2010)

Rishi Dastidar (History, 1996) Edmund de Waal CBE Dana Denis-Smith Dr Janet Dyson Oliver Feltham (PPE, 2012) Prof Kate Flint Alex Ford (Materials Science, 2009) Prof Michael Freeden Prof Andy Gosler Lord Hague of Richmond Baroness Hale of Richmond Afraa Hashem Henry Hempstead-Faldon (English, 2018) Prof Simon Hix Hildie R Hoeschen (Human Sciences and Theology, 2005) Dr Tristram Hunt Michael Jackson (Jewish Studies, 2017)

Paul Solman Tim Storrie (English, 1986) Dr Stephanie Straine Dr Damian Tambini Lloyd Thomas (Jurisprudence, 2005) Prof Irene Tracey Errollyn Wallen CBE Xinxian Wang (Economics & Statistics, 2019) Miranda Wayland Matt Whitticase (History, 1998) Rhys Williams (Physics & Philosophy, 1999) Wendy Williams Bishop Munib Younan Members of the Mansfield College Development Board The Committee Members of the Mansfield College Alumni Association Giving Day 2021 Ambassadors

We take great care to ensure these details are correct. However, please let us know if you are aware of any inaccuracies. 47

Bonavero news

Despite the challenges presented by the pandemic, the Faculty of Law’s Bonavero Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) at Mansfield has had a busy and stimulating year. Professor Kate O’Regan, Director of the BIHR, reflects on some highlights of 2020/21. The Symposium on Strength and Solidarity for Human Rights

Staff updates On the staffing front, we were sad to bid farewell to Dr Annelen Micus, our Head of Programmes, who has accepted a position at Amnesty International in Berlin. We wish her well in her new role. We were pleased to welcome Dr Ruth Kelly to work on the Symposium on Strength and Solidarity and Bharat Shivan as Grants and Finance Officer.

This year, we’ve commenced a new three-year partnership with the Fund for Global Human Rights to run The Symposium on Strength and Solidarity for Human Rights (https:// strengthandsolidarity.org), which aims to support human rights leaders across the world and build greater organisational strength and resilience in the sector. Twice a year the Symposium will draw together groups of human rights leaders to engage in moderated conversations, based on curricula that will be developed by the team at the BIHR. Ordinarily these meetings will be in person, but because of Covid, they have had to be online. Participants share and learn from one another through the discussion of cases and the review of past experience. You can learn more about the work of some of the participants in the podcast series, Strength and Solidarity (https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts).

Massive Open Online Course In Trinity term 2021, the Bonavero team delivered its first ever Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) in partnership with UNESCO which generously funded the project. The MOOC consisted of five modules addressing different aspects of freedom of expression, released weekly on the delivery platform EdX Edge. It was aimed at judges, prosecutors and legal practitioners from across the globe. Nearly 3500 individuals from 167 different countries and territories participated. Response to the MOOC was enthusiastic and we are fairly sure this will not be our last venture into the format.

Strengthening student engagement with the BIHR In Michaelmas term 2020, we offered an innovative noncredit course on ‘The Past and Present of Slavery – Developing a Strategic Response’ to 30 undergraduate and graduate students from various disciplines at the University of Oxford. This course was part of the Bonavero Institute’s ‘Gateways to Human Rights Research and Practice’ initiative, which aims to deepen student engagement with the Institute’s research and human rights practice. Partly inspired by the BIHR’s role as one of the six academic institutions forming the new Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre (https:// modernslaverypec.org), the programme was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The course was delivered by leading scholars and practitioners in the field and was followed by a well-attended three-part panel series on the same topic in Hilary term 2021. Those lectures are available on our YouTube channel, accessible as are recordings of nearly all our public events, on our website (https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/centresinstitutes/bonavero-institute-human-rights/watch-listen).

If you are interested in the work of the Bonavero, please sign up for our weekly-termly newsletters (https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/centres-institutes/bonaveroinstitute-human-rights/keeping-bonavero-institute), which contain information about our events and programmes. Many of these are open to the public, so you would be very welcome to join us. As always, we remain deeply indebted to the generosity and support of our funders, and we express our sincere thanks to them.

Obituaries Allan Dodd

‘Allan was a wonderful man, and we are grateful to have had the pleasure of knowing him. His contribution to Mansfield and the legacy he leaves behind will be long-lasting and impact many students for generations to come.’

Mansfield College Bursar (2011-19) 1954 – 2021

His widow, Vicki, wrote to me in the days immediately after his death about how much Mansfield meant to Allan. As she said, and as was plain to anyone being shown around it by him, the Hands Building was ‘his pride and joy’. She added:

It was a sad moment, at the University’s Encaenia Ceremony in the Sheldonian Theatre on 22 September 2021, to hear Allan Dodd’s name read out in the in memoriam list of recently departed senior University figures. Allan’s death, so quickly after his retirement, came far too soon, and our sympathy for his beloved wife Vicki was matched by our own sense of loss. Allan was the Bursar at Mansfield between 2011 and 2019. He had a truly transformative effect on the College’s fabric, finances and fortunes. Pre-Allan Mansfield and post-Allan Mansfield were different places: and the changes he made were all for the better. As our former Principal, Baroness Helena Kennedy says, he was ‘a marvellous Bursar’, her ‘right arm’ with a vital role in the development of Mansfield. His contribution to the College was immense. How hard he worked to take Mansfield forward, and how successful were his efforts! The fruit of his work is all around those of us lucky enough to live and work here. Our lives are immeasurably better than they would have been without him. His achievements were legion: not only the major works of creating new kitchens and atrium space and transforming the College Chapel into a humming Dining Hall as well as a chapel and concert venue; not only the negotiations and project management involved in bringing the Hands Building and Bonavero Institute of Human Rights into being; not only his inspired redesign of the gardens, or overseeing the successful organ appeal, or the restoration of the ‘True Vine’ tapestry in hall; or arranging the installation of a major bronze statue of Eleanor Roosevelt. His contribution to Mansfield

‘He so hoped that getting the all-important extra income from both the Institute and student rooms would give Mansfield a future. He was so excited about that… It was brilliant to watch that bit of land and no money turn, day by day, from a vision to an exciting working environment. I know that he did so much more, all trying to get Mansfield a secure future. I know the extraordinary dedication he put into all he did there.’ was human as well as material. As one senior Fellow said to me: ‘He was a superb Bursar, and so much of the nature and smartness of the fabric of the College, gardens and new buildings, is down to him. But also a very goodhearted and kindly man, and utterly straightforward… [with] an inner honesty – and he could be very funny… He really liked things being taken care of properly and not neglected, and that is the attitude he had about the fabric of the College. He did so much for making the place look loved and cared for, rather than just noble but a bit down at heel.’ Allan did the work of three bursars in many larger and richer colleges. As well as his contribution to our physical environment through his strong project management skills, he used his financial acumen to put Mansfield on a far stronger, more selfconfident footing than ever before, with its head held high. Guy Hands, a major College donor, wrote:

And so too do his colleagues. Allan moved College closer to a sustainable footing which it had never before enjoyed. If Allan had not done his work as well as he had, Mansfield would not have survived the Covid crisis. It is as simple as that. Allan was also a great contributor to the life of the College. He and Vicki were committed supporters of College music; the restoration of the organ, completed in the summer of 2021, owes a lot to Allan and Vicki’s backing. He was an advocate of Mansfield sport too, and put in place the first dedicated Blues fund to support elite sportswomen and men. He really cared about the needs of students, and ministered College hardship funds discreetly and sensitively to ensure that students were not overcome by worry or forced to leave as a result of financial anxiety. He also sat on the University hardship committee. At heart, Allan was very kind. One former graduate student, who is blind, could not return to his home abroad during his first

Obituaries Oxford Christmas. He remembers Allan making sure that he had a ‘household’ to look after him over the holidays, to cook his Christmas dinner, and to pull crackers with him. We were very touched and grateful that Allan’s widow, Vicki – also a close friend of the College – set up a generous fund for students in hardship, because he knew, and she knew, that sometimes ‘the right funding at the right time could make the difference’. Allan didn’t like tributes, and he certainly didn’t like a fuss to be made about him (when, in his final Governing Body meeting, there was sustained applause, he positively blushed!). But he did love Mansfield, and Mansfield loved him. We wish he could know how greatly we appreciate his work for the College, and with what gratitude and warmth he will be remembered here. We mourn his untimely death, and we will miss him. Helen Mountfield QC, Principal Mansfield College

Geoffrey Fuller MA Jurisprudence, 1980 3 March 1961 – 10 January 2021 Geoff was an experienced and highly respected legal practitioner and author. He worked at City law firm, Allen & Overy, for 37 years and was a partner for 26 of them. His clients and colleagues valued his ability to analyse complex legal issues with speed,

precision and clarity and to apply the law with commercial practicality to multifaceted financial transactions. In a setting in which solicitors tend to develop relatively narrow specialisms, he was known as a hugely versatile lawyer, developing his practice from advising

corporate trustees on international bond issues to advising banks structuring complex finance products. He later developed expertise in advising public bodies on accessing the capital markets. As well as banks, his clients included HM Treasury, universities and housing associations. Geoff was the author of two leading legal texts, Corporate Borrowing, Law and Practice, now in its fifth edition, and The Law and Practice of International Capital Markets, for which he was in the process of preparing a fourth edition at the time of his death. He was also the author of the chapter on corporate lending in GoreBrowne on Companies and co-author of McKnight and Zakrzewski on the Law of Loan Agreements and Syndicated Lending. His writing was carried out in addition to the demands of his busy City practice.

was the proudest of all his achievements: our twins, Ellie and Matthew. We all miss him very much but like to think of him telling us about his latest discoveries, planning interesting activities and coming up with quizzes and jokes for us. Liz Fuller

Revd Anthony Green MA Theology, 1940 28 April 1922 – 13 December 2019 Throughout his life, Tony spoke warmly about his time at Mansfield, studying under

Geoff was born and grew up in Kent and was educated at Borden Grammar School in Sittingbourne. Gaining a place to read Jurisprudence at Mansfield was a hugely significant turning point for him and one of which he remained deeply appreciative. Geoff always spoke of his time at Oxford with enthusiasm and pride, from playing croquet on the lawn at Mansfield and the deep friendships he made, to the academic training that inspired and informed his legal career. It was with a great sense of fulfilment that he was able to return to the College and participate in the work of the Development Board. He also relished using the Bodleian when researching and updating his books, and was honoured to represent his firm on the Council of Benefactors as a result of Allen & Overy’s endowment of a Chair in Corporate Law and an Equality Officer role within the Law Faculty. So many of the tributes paid to Geoff refer to his sense of fun, his generosity, his kindness and his wry wit. He loved to entertain friends over good food and excellent wine, but he was a quiet man and happiest when his mind was active. Weekends could not begin before the Times cryptic crossword had been completed. His interests were wide ranging, from architectural history to politics; he relished the acquisition and application of knowledge. Geoff had a great love of all kinds of music and an especial appreciation of choral works and opera. He supported his local team, Arsenal, and true to character, was working on building his knowledge of the game and the team, which he did not feel was adequate. Anyone who had met Geoff in the last 14 years would be left in no doubt about what

Revd Dr Nathaniel Micklem in preparation for ordination as a Congregational (later United Reformed Church) minister. He was ordained in 1946 at Union Church Mill Hill, and at the time of his death, at the age of 97, he was the longest serving URC minister. He had a strong preaching and pastoral ministry and indeed, was exercising this until almost the end of his life. Revd Judith Satchell

Obituaries Revd Dr John Muddiman

John’s academic interests extended beyond College and Faculty, and he was also involved as a Governor both of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies and the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies; served on the Europaeum Committee; and on the Permanent Private Hall and Recognised Independent Centres committees. In meetings, John is remembered by colleagues as never dominant, but always judicious, gentle, and constructive.

As a scholar, John was precise, original, and erudite. He eschewed the principle to which some scholars adhere, to leave no thought unpublished, and judiciously wrote on subjects to which he could make a real contribution. His well-received commentary on Ephesians in the distinguished ‘Black’s New Testament Commentary’ series defied norms of the genre by being both highly original and oriented to the primary text rather than endlessly discussing secondary literature. He partnered with Professor John Barton to edit the monumental 1.5 million-word Oxford Bible Commentary, which has become a classic among theological students because of its unmatched pound-for-pound value in scholarship and scope. In seminars his vast but lightly worn learning was on display, as he would recall arcane textual variants from memory or argue in novel ways for the literary dependence of one text upon another, or perhaps contend for the revision of some long-held scholarly prejudice about a New Testament text’s date or composition history. His joy and fascination with the material inspired hundreds of theological students in tutorials and lectures, as he invited them to join him in the task of interpretation. His convivial hospitality – mentioned multiple times by almost all who knew him – was a welcome comfort during demanding terms. John was known too for his witty humour and his ever-humane and liberal values. He was greatly loved by his students.

Within Mansfield, John was widely regarded by students across years and disciplines. He is remembered for many social gatherings in his College room on a Sunday evening, graduation dinners and termly meals of pizza and garlic bread in his home; the warm greetings shared across the Quad as he arrived each day wearing his bike helmet; and, of course, the image of John sitting on a bench smoking his pipe. His compassion and kindness spilled over to students and colleagues alike. As one former JCR President recounts, when she became President, John ‘voluntarily consulted me on the grace to make a slight (and Muslim-friendly) amendment to [what] I’d have to read out – Jesus Christ the Redeemer rather than Jesus Christ the Lord.’ As she continues, ‘I was touched by it and even now am moved by his kindness and thoughtfulness.’ A popular lecturer and teacher, John always pushed his students in their thinking and writing and was keen to form his doctoral students as teachers. He often invited them to co-lecture with him and would then spend hours after each lecture offering feedback over a comforting cup of tea.

John always had one foot in the academy and one in the Church, standing ‘in the great tradition of Anglican scholar-priests’ (The New Testament and the Church). This is embodied by his first book, The Bible, Fountain and Well of Truth, reviewed by GB Caird (in an article published after the latter’s death): ‘Dr Muddiman writes out of a conviction that today renewal must be scriptural in character, and that it must entail a proper balance between the critical study of the Bible and Bible reading with the eyes of faith nurtured on the corporate life, traditions, and experience of the Church’ (JTS, Oct 1984). As in the academy, John’s loyalty to the Church was also marked by service, including membership of the AnglicanRoman Catholic International Commission (1991-2005) and as Chair of the Church of England’s Theological Education and Training Committee (1995-2002). Closer to home, John was a well-known figure in the College Chapel at Mansfield where he served as Associate Chaplain. Ordained as Deacon in the Church of England in 1971 and as Priest in 1972, John served the parish churches of St Mary and St

1947 – 5 December 2020 John Muddiman was a gentle giant in the field of New Testament Studies and the community of Mansfield College. He first came up to Oxford in 1965 as an open scholar in Classics & Theology at Keble College, where he took a first-class honours degree. According to The New Testament and the Church (ed Groves and Barton), a festschrift presented to John in 2015, his background in Classics & Theology gave him ‘an intuitive understanding of the world of the New Testament and an ability to convey it to others’. After completing his degree at Keble, John spent two years at Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he took a starred first in Part Three of the Theology Tripos (now called an MPhil), and a year in Leuven (1971/72) with the World Council of Churches. John returned to Oxford to serve as the Hastings Rashdall Research Fellow and Assistant Chaplain at New College (1972-74), Greek Tutor for the Theology Faculty (1976-83), Tutor, Director of Studies, and Vice-Principal of St Stephen’s House (1976-83), Chaplain of St Hilda’s College (1981-83), and a Mansfield College Lecturer and New Testament Tutor (1980-83). In the midst of these posts, John completed his DPhil in 1976 under the supervision of George Caird at Mansfield on the fasting controversy in Mark’s Gospel. In 1983, John was appointed as Lecturer in New Testament Studies at the University of Nottingham, a post he held for almost eight years. He returned to Mansfield in 1990 – much to the delight of Fellows and friends – to the post named after his supervisor: the GB Caird Fellow. In 1992, he was given a joint appointment in the Theology Faculty of the University alongside his Mansfield fellowship. As recounted at the time of John’s retirement in 2012, few people gave so much to Mansfield and with such good humour as John. Out of loyalty to his Faculty and College, he took on much more than his share of administrative responsibilities. During his time at Mansfield, he served the College as Tutor for Admissions (1992-97), Co-director of the Oxford Centre for Environment, Ethics & Society (1992-96), and Tutor for Welfare (2012); and the Theology Faculty and University as Chair of the Faculty Board (2000-02), Chair of the Faculty (2011/12) and University Assessor

(2009/10). In fact, as Mansfield had only recently become a College within the University, this was the first time the College elected an Assessor or Proctor, and John was the first Mansfield Fellow to serve in this role. As colleagues recall, his calm and measured approach equipped him well for this, though he also sought to innovate imaginatively in the interests of students.

Obituaries Nicholas, Littlemore, St Cross, and St Mary Magdalen. He had a wide and welldeserved reputation for his preaching. For many years, John assisted the Vicar of Littlemore – the Revd Dr David Nicholls. When David died unexpectedly, John shouldered the responsibility of parish services and pastoral care alongside his University and College duties, much to the amazement of his colleagues and friends. During this period, John’s friendship with David’s widow Gillian, a medic, gradually grew. Gill would regularly attend Wednesday Chapel services at Mansfield and dinner afterwards and they enjoyed travelling together, advanced cooking courses, and sharing their culinary delights with their many friends. They were engaged and married in 2010 and the reception at Mansfield was an absolutely joyous occasion. Tragically, Gillian died from aggressive cancer shortly after their honeymoon. John has two sons – Joe and Tom – and he remained close to them and their families. John retired to Bingham in 2012 to be near his son Joe. He looked after his grandchildren multiple days each week and enjoyed cooking Sunday lunch with them. John was, of course, a superb cook and skilled at sugar craft, making brilliant family wedding cakes, including his own. These reflections include contributions from Dr Tony Lemon, Dr David Lincicum, Professor Peggy Morgan, Rosna Mortuza, and the Revd Dr Jennifer Strawbridge.

Dr Donald Sykes Mansfield Principal (1977-86) 1930 – 26 December 2020 Mansfield was very dear to Donald, and he was held in great affection by generations of Mansfield staff and students. His long and close association with the College goes back to 1955, when he came up to read Theology. In 1959 he became a Theology tutor and was successively Senior Tutor, Principal (1977-86), Senior Research Fellow (1986-89) and Honorary Fellow from his retirement in 1989.

school in Airdrie and Dundee, Donald read Classics at the University of St Andrew’s. This was followed by National Service in the Royal Army Educational Corps, about which Donald told some amusing stories. He won the Guthrie Scholarship to Cambridge from St Andrew’s, but then elected to go to Oxford. After taking a first in Theology at Mansfield (195557) he returned to Scotland in 1958 to Jordanhill College of Education in Glasgow, where he was awarded two diplomas, one of them in Religious Education. He then taught Classics for a year at Glasgow High School before returning permanently to Oxford and Mansfield, where he replaced Erik Routley as Tutorial Fellow in Theology. His Oxford doctorate, on St Gregory of Nazianzus, a fourth century Archbishop of Constantinople, was awarded in 1967. In 1969/70 Donald taught for a year at St Olaf College in Minnesota, returning in 1987/88. St Olaf awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Divinity in 1979. Donald was a dedicated scholar, primarily of Early Church history. In his first years at Mansfield, he concentrated on the Eastern Greek-speaking church, conveying a deep understanding of the early church fathers. Later he discovered Augustine and turned westward. He continued his research well into retirement, converting a garage into a densely packed library in Headington and later reproducing his library in his home with Sarah in Blisworth, Northamptonshire. But it is above all as a teacher that Donald will be remembered: for this he had a real vocation and influenced many generations of students, who appreciated his scholarship, his encouragement, his humour and his pastoral care. He went out of his way to help any student who needed it and will be fondly remembered by many. In the 1970s Donald was a very successful Senior Tutor at Mansfield. He went on to be elected as the College’s first lay Principal in succession to George Caird. The hospitality for which Donald and his first wife Marta were already renowned continued in

the Principal’s Lodgings, with regular entertaining of students, SCR colleagues and visitors. But the serious financial problems and the challenges of achieving college status in a University that did not want more poor colleges gradually bore down on Donald and he became seriously unhappy in his role as Principal. It became clear that it was best to step down and return to the tutoring which he loved. It took courage to make this decision and return to the Senior Common Room in his former role, but with great support from his family and from the College too, Donald made this transition successfully and made a full recovery. I clearly remember my first meeting with Donald, in the Dining Hall at Mansfield, when he and Marta returned from their year in the USA at St Olaf. Mansfield had a true family atmosphere then, and their return was eagerly awaited. I soon understood why, when they radiated warmth and kindness that evening. All those contributing to this obituary have stressed the affection which Donald aroused among colleagues, staff and students. He was not only lovable and kindly but sharply intelligent and happy to converse on a wide range of topics, which reflected the breadth of his reading and interests. He had a deep fascination with both classical music and jazz and regularly enjoyed the London Review of Books. Donald also had a profound love of things Scottish and I recall his giving a radio talk on the Scottish poet Edwin Muir. He had a wonderful sense of humour, often characterised by sotto voce remarks at formal dinners and solemn moments during the annual Commemoration, and he was a notable raconteur with a considerable stock of highly entertaining anecdotes. The tragic death of Marta at the age of 59 was a deep and lasting blow to Donald and his sons Roger and Martin, but he was blessed to find new love with Sarah, a family friend and doctor, whom he married in 2002. In the early years of their marriage they were able to visit Martin and his family in New Zealand. Donald and Sarah enjoyed 18 happy years together – even in later years, when Donald began to experience a degree of dementia – first at Blisworth and latterly at Bovey Tracey in south Devon. With thanks to the Revd Charles Brock (Theology 1967), George Caird, Dr John Creaser, the Revd Dr Peter Jupp (Theology, 1966), the Revd Don Rudalevige (Theology, 1962) and Roger Sykes for their contributions.

Donald was born in Sunderland in 1930. His father Leonard was ordained into the ministry of the Congregational Union of Scotland in 1937 in Rhynie and served in several Scottish churches. After going to

Dr Tony Lemon, Emeritus Research Fellow, School of Geography & the Environment

Staff & Fellows’ news Professor Sinan Acikgoz Tutorial Fellow in Civil Engineering

Dr Mark Atherton Stipendiary Lecturer in English Language & Linguistics

Sinan has been honoured with a New Investigator Award by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

On 25 March 2021, Mark gave a talk to The Battlefields Trust attended online by 200 people. His topic was loyalty, fortitude and the nation in crisis, 1000 years ago. ‘The Battle of Maldon in the year 991’ was the emergency threatening the newly founded kingdom of England in the face of massive Viking incursions on the east coast of the country. The event stands out and is well remembered because an anonymous poet composed an epic commemoration, The Battle of Maldon. For pragmatic reasons, this poem is familiar to all students of English Language & Literature at Oxford as one of the set texts for commentary in their first-year prelims. But eclipsed as ever by the legendary and more famous Beowulf, the poem The Battle of Maldon has not been the subject of many book-length studies in recent decades. However, see now Mark Atherton, The Battle of Maldon: War and Peace in Tenth-Century England (London: Bloomsbury, 2021):

This £430,000 award will enable the development of new techniques to characterise the mechanical properties of old construction materials, such as brick masonry. Understanding these properties is essential to extend the life of the UK building and infrastructure stock, which is one of the oldest in the world. Existing techniques to characterise materials provide insufficient information and require extensive sampling and destructive tests. The new techniques will instead focus on in-situ testing with noncontact imaging, to minimise influence on the historic fabric and reveal detailed information on material properties.

Dr Sarah Apetrei Lecturer in Theology and Graduate Studies Coordinator of the Faculty of Theology & Religion

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-battle-ofmaldon-9781350134034/ Recent publications Complete Old English, Teach Yourself Series (Hodder, 2019). ISBN 978-1-473-62792-5. New edition.

In Michaelmas term 2020, Sarah worked with others in the Faculty of Theology & Religion to deliver small care packages to new graduate students. The team put together the packages with a book donated by a member of the Faculty to send to all postgraduates. The packages included books from prolific and popular writers (Diarmaid MacCulloch, Alister McGrath, John Barton), and authors generously donated some 50 signed books. In total, the Faculty received 350 donations of new books on all topics. It then went through the students’ application statements and thesis titles, and matched the books to each graduate student.

Professor Ros Ballaster Professorial Fellow in English Ros is Principal Investigator of the Digital Edgeworth Network funded by the UK and Irish Research Councils until November 2021. She is working with fellow researchers at University College Cork, librarians and archivists at the Bodleian Libraries and the National Library of Ireland, and the Maria Edgeworth Centre in County Longford, to produce new resources based on digital methods of investigation and remediation of the manuscript correspondence of the Edgeworth family. The project employs a Research Assistant, Dr Anna Senkiw, who took her graduate degree funded by the John Hodgson Research Fellowship at Mansfield.

At the end of seventh week of Michaelmas term, Sarah and several of the administrative staff put on masks and Santa hats and had a jolly day putting the packages together at socially distanced workstations in the lecture room. The packages included a book (many of them signed); a handwritten postcard and note indicating who had donated the book; a Fairtrade Dalit candle; Fairtrade teabags/coffee bags; and Fairtrade chocolate. They were sponsored by funds from the Graduate Studies Committee and the Graduate Joint Consultative Committee (GJCC).

Making good use of the lockdown time she spent in front of the television, Ros is delivering a keynote lecture about the representation of 18th-century theatre in contemporary screen adaptations of historical fiction (Bridgerton, Outlander) at the annual conference of the Canadian Society for 18th-Century Studies, in October 2021. In other news, Ros has stepped down after four busy years as Faculty Board Chair in English and returns to her College responsibilities.

Sarah and staff wanted the students to know that they were thinking of them, as individuals as well as a cohort. They were touched by the thanks received by those in difficult circumstances (including one student who received the package while in hospital with Covid).

Staff & Fellows’ news Dr Peter Bergamin Lecturer in Oriental Studies

Professor Stephen Blundell Professorial Fellow and Tutor in Physics

Peter co-convened with Professor Yaacov Yadgar a seminar entitled ‘Reconsidering early Jewish nationalist ideologies’ in all three terms of 2020/21. He was appointed Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies in June 2021, after having been a ‘Visiting Scholar’ there since 2018. The same month he began a new research project that will look at the British historian and Zionist, Paul Goodman and his wife Romana (‘Paul Goodman and Anglo-Jewry’). Since August 2020, Peter has been cataloguing his papers into the newly created ‘Paul Goodman Archive’, currently held at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies.

Stephen has been completing work on some Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)funded projects which include using density functional theory to identify muon sites in crystals and to study decoherence effects in fluorides. He has spoken at several international conferences this year, although these have all been online. Recent publications ‘Magnetic order and ballistic spin transport in a sine-Gordon spin chain’, BM Huddart, M Gomilšek, TJ Hicken, FL Pratt, SJ Blundell, PA Goddard, S J Kaech, J L Manson, and T Lancaster in Physical Review B 103, L060405 (2021).

During the year, Peter has also given various papers, including: ‘“I’m the best friend that the Jews ever had”: Ernest Bevin and Palestine’, David Patterson Lecture, Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies (22 October 2020); ‘Madge MacBeth’s play, A Demonstration of Scientific Salesmanship, and its relationship to Judaism and identity in Canada at the turn of the 20th century’, York University, Toronto, online (3 November 2020); and ‘Guns and Moses: Jewish anti-British resistance during the Mandate for Palestine’, Israel Studies seminar, University of Oxford (24 November 2020).

‘Magnetic ground state of the one-dimensional ferromagnetic chain compounds M(NCS)2(thiourea)2 (M = Ni, Co)’, SPM Curley, R Scatena, RC Williams, PA Goddard, P Mac-chi, TJ Hicken, T Lancaster, F Xiao, SJ Blundell, V Zapf, JC Eckert, EH Krenkel, JA Villa, ML Rhodehouse, and JL Manson in Physical Review Materials 5, 034401 (2021). ‘The internal field in a ferromagnetic crystal with chiral molecular packing of achiral organic radicals’, SJ Blundell, T Lancaster, PJ Baker, FL Pratt, D Shiomi, K Sato and T Takui in Magnetochemistry 7, 71 (2021).

Recent publications Book review, Jabotinsky’s Children: Polish Jews and the Rise of Right-Wing Zionism, Daniel Kupfert Heller, in Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 20(1): 119–120.

Muon Spectroscopy: An Introduction ed SJ Blundell, R De Renzi, T Lancaster, FL Pratt (Oxford University Press, 2021).

Book review, Hebrew Fascism in Palestine 1922-1942, Dan Tamir, in Israel Studies Review, Vol 35, Issue 1, Spring 2020: 115-17. Book review, Hebrew Fascism in Palestine 1922-1942, Dan Tamir, in Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte, 71/1 (2021): 207-08 (in German).

Mikayla Brier-Mills Junior Dean Mikayla has read for the BCL and MPhil at Oxford. During this time, she has volunteered for the Oxford Pro-Bono Publico, the Bonavero Institute for Human Rights, and the Oxford Human Rights Hub. She also tutored for the Oxford Law Summer Programme and worked at the Blavatnik School of Government.

Dr Pam Berry Supernumerary Fellow in Geography The UK Government is required, under the 2008 Climate Change Act, to publish a climate change risk assessment (CCRA) every five years. Pam has been co-leading the Natural Environment chapter for the UK’s third Climate Change Risk Assessment, which was published in June 2021. This sets out the risks to the natural environment (for example, ecosystems, species agriculture, forestry, landscape) from different elements of climate change, pest, pathogens and invasive species, as well as possible opportunities that climate change may represent. The work also involves assessing the risks to infrastructure, health, communities and the built environment, business and industry, as well as the international dimension. This assessment is used to inform Government and to produce the statutory National Adaptation Strategy.

Mikayla left Mansfield for California in September 2021 to become a Fellow in the Stanford Program in International Legal Studies. Her thesis there will be focused on the ratification and implementation of the Istanbul Convention, on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, in Tunisia. Mikayla has published in the Global Community Yearbook on International Law and Jurisprudence (for which she is also Editorial Assistant) as well as the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law. She looks forward to returning to the Mansfield community for the completion of her DPhil after Stanford.

Pam is now also contributing to the Europe chapter of the ‘Intergovernmental panel on climate change sixth assessment’ report.

Recent publications Case summary: Slovenia v Croatia, application no. 54155/16 18 (2021) Global Community Yearbook on International Law and Jurisprudence.

In September 2021, Pam retired from her role as Supernumerary Fellow in Geography. We at Mansfield wish Pam the best for the future – she will be sorely missed. See p.12.

‘Why Turkey’s Withdrawal of the Istanbul Convention was Inconsistent with International Law’ (2021), Oxford Human Rights Hub Blog. 54

Staff & Fellows’ news Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell Professorial Fellow in Physics

devices, manufactured by Smart Separations, which neutralise coronavirus in the air. This year Ian was introduced to Ash Ardian, a mathematician and an asylum seeker who has recently joined us at College as part of Mansfield’s role as a College of Sanctuary. Following discussions together, Ian and Ash, along with colleagues Professors Pete Grindrod and Sam Cohen from the Mathematical Institute, organised two events for asylum seekers over the summer. The events showed the value of reaching out as a UK Mathematics community to asylum seekers who have an education in Mathematics and related subjects and find themselves here in the UK. The meetings were set up by Asylum Welcome (https:// www.asylum-welcome.org), of which Ash is a member. They were attended by a range of asylum seekers, including undergraduate students, teachers and academics. During these meetings, Ian, Pete and Sam talked about their work and how those in the audience might get involved to become more established in the UK Mathematics community. The feedback was positive, and Ian, Ash, Pete and Sam are now exploring the next steps. This includes thinking about a larger national online event, connecting with other Oxford colleges, and exploring how Mathematics asylum seekers might engage further with the University.

This year Jocelyn received a flurry of awards for her exceptional contribution to research efforts in the field of Astronomy. In January 2021, she became a recipient of the prestigious Royal Astronomical Society Gold Medal for Astronomy, in August, she was awarded the world’s oldest scientific prize, the Royal Society’s Copley Medal, and most recently Jocelyn won the German Astronomical Society’s (Astronomische Gesellschaft) Karl Schwarzschild Medal and Lecture. Jocelyn is serving for a six-month period as Interim President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh – Scotland’s National Academy. We couldn’t be prouder of Jocelyn and have, this year, launched a new named lecture in her honour (see p.5 for details).

Professor Jon Chapman Professorial Fellow in Mathematics & its Application

Revd Walter Houston Emeritus Fellow in Theology

John gave the Wolfgang Wasow Memorial Lecture at the University of Wisconsin, on 8 October 2021. He is due to give a brief public lecture entitled ‘Can you hear the shape of a drum?’ as part of the Orchestra for the Age of Enlightenment ‘Bach, the universe and everything’ series on Sun 21 November 2021.

Walter was President of the Society for Old Testament Study for the calendar year 2020, presiding at its winter meeting in January 2020. The summer meeting was cancelled, but Walter attended two meetings in 2021 online, and that of the European Association of Biblical Studies in August. Recent publications Justice for the Poor? Social Justice in the Old Testament in Concept and Practice (Cascade Books, 2020). ISBN 978-1-5326-4600-3.

Revd Sarah Farrow Chaplain

‘Work in God’s World. Reception and Theology of the Sabbath Commandment in the Decalogue’ (SOTS Presidential Address, Nottingham, 2020), Journal of Theological Interpretation 1/15 (2021): 157–77.

In September 2021, we waved a fond farewell to Sarah, who is moving on to take up a permanent position at King’s College London, as Vice Dean, and Chaplain to the St Thomas’ & Waterloo Campuses. We at Mansfield would like to thank Sarah for her wonderful contribution to our College community, and wish her well with her future plans.

Dr Philip Kennedy Senior Research Fellow in Modern Theology

Professor Ian Griffiths Tutorial Fellow in Industrial Mathematics

Philip published a chapter in a textbook at the end of last year.

Ian has been working with academics at Cardiff University, the Welsh Government, and start-up company Smart Separations, to tackle the pertinent question of reopening strategies for indoor spaces such as classrooms, restaurants and gyms.

Recent publications: Philip Kennedy, ‘Schillebeeckx on God’, in the T&T Clark Handbook of Edward Schillebeeckx, ed Stephan van Erp and Daniel Minch (London and New York: T&T Clark, 2020), ch. 14: 223-236. ISBN 978-0-567-66243-9.

The project involves the development of a mathematical model for the transmission of airborne virus particles in indoor spaces, which is used to determine safe occupancy times in rooms that are occupied by infected people. The work also involves the investigation of the benefits of placing portable air-purification

Staff & Fellows’ news Professor Tarunabh Khaitan Governing Body Fellow

resources via species-specific movement-patterns in response to built-up features. Nishant also started a new international research cluster entitled ‘People, Animals and Waste Systems’, and is part of the core team that has formed the multi-institutional Chicken Journal Club in the UK. These projects will contribute to optimising urban space for humans, while accommodating animals that have adapted to urban environments in a way that minimises health risks associated with cohabiting.

Tarunabh became a Governing Body Fellow of the College in July 2021, on taking up his position as Head of Research at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights. He was formerly a Professor of Public Law & Legal Theory at Wadham College, and a Vice Dean in Oxford’s Faculty of Law. Tarunabh is also a Professor and Future Fellow at Melbourne Law School, working on a project on constitutional resilience, with a focus on south Asia, and he is the founding General Editor of the Indian Law Review.

Recent publications: ‘Raptor research during Covid-19 provides invaluable opportunities for conservation biology’. Sumasgutner F, Buij R, McClure CJW, Shaw P, Dykstra C, Kumar N, and Rutz C, in Biological Conservation 260 (109149) (2021).

Tarunabh specialises in legal theory, constitutional law and discrimination law. His monograph A Theory of Discrimination Law (OUP, 2015) and related research has been cited by several senior courts. He was awarded the Woodward Medal in 2019 for making ‘a significant contribution to knowledge in a field of humanities and social sciences’. Tarunabh has also been a recipient of the Letten Prize (2018) awarded biennially to a young academic conducting excellent research of great social relevance. He is the founder and chief advisor of the Junior Faculty Forum, an initiative dedicated to building and improving research capacity in early career legal scholars on the Indian subcontinent.

‘Birds of a feather flocking together: a transdisciplinary network initiative to break science boundaries in the chicken world’. Veltcheva D, Kumar N et al, for ‘Science & You’ conference (Paris, 2021).

Dr Helen Lacey Supernumerary Fellow in Late Medieval History; Tutor for Visiting Students and acting Senior Tutor

Judge Kriangsak Kittichaisaree Visiting Fellow and former Bonavero Visiting Researcher

In 2021 Helen co-edited a volume of essays in Medieval History dedicated to the memory of Professor WM Ormrod. Professor Ormrod was one of the leading historians of his generation.

In Michaelmas term 2020, the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights cohosted a book launch with the Public International Law Group for Kriangsak’s new book, International Human Rights Law and Diplomacy. Kriangsak also held a discussion of his forthcoming book The Rohingya, Justice and International Law.

Recent publications: People, Power and Identity in the Late Middle Ages, ed G Dodd, H Lacey and A Musson (Routledge, 2021), ISBN 9780367859978.

Professor Paul Lodge Professorial Fellow in Philosophy

https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/events/book-discussion-rohingyajustice-and-international-law. Recent publications: International Human Rights Law and Diplomacy, Principles of international law series, K Kittichaisaree (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020), ISBN 978 1 83910 218 9.

In 2020, Paul co-edited Leibniz’s Key Philosophical Writings: A Guide, alongside Professor Lloyd Strickland. The book offers an overview of Leibniz’s ideas and arguments. Paul also participated in a free online event via TORCH, ‘It Sings Therefore We Are: Philosophy and Music in Conversation’, on 20 October 2021.

The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, K Kittichaisaree (Oxford University Press, 2021), ISBN 978 0 19886 529 2.

Recent publications: Leibniz’s Key Philosophical Writings: A Guide, ed P Lodge, L Strickland (Oxford University Press, 2020). ISBN: 9780198844983.

Dr Nishant Kumar College Associate Nishant has expanded his research on ritualistic feeding of animals that inhabit urban environments (commensals) – for example, dogs, kites, macaques and livestock – in Delhi, India. He received a grant of £5000 from the India Oxford Initiative and £100,000 from the Raptor Research & Conservation Foundation, Mumbai, to understand the health implications of human-animal contacts and/or conflicts due to commensals that also extend scavenging services on urban waste. Along with his mentor, Professor Andrew Gosler, he is GPS-tracking animals that access anthropogenic 56

Staff & Fellows’ news Professor David Marquand Mansfield College Principal (19962002)

issues of legal and constitutional interest for Matrix Chambers and has given oral evidence to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights (on the Independent Human Rights Act Review); the House of Commons’ Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee on the Elections Bill; and the All Party Parliamentary Group on the future of work’s inquiry into Artificial Intelligence (AI) and surveillance in the workplace.

On a beautiful July day in 2021, the Principal, Helen Mountfield QC, travelled to Penarth in Wales to hand over the DLitt that had been awarded by the University of Oxford to Professor David Marquand in recognition of his long and distinguished academic career.

Dr Amber Murrey Tutorial Fellow in Geography

Professor Marquand was Principal of Mansfield between 1996 and 2002 and published many influential books and articles on his concepts of progressive politics and social democracy.

This year, together with Oxford’s Department of Education and the University of South Africa, Amber has launched a new collaborative online course, ‘Decolonising Research Methodologies’ https://www.geog.ox.ac. uk/study/graduate/decolonising-research-methodologies.html.

In a short and impromptu ceremony in front of family and friends, the Principal reflected on the influence of Professor Marquand’s illustrious academic and political career, and his contribution to the life of Mansfield College.

Designed for postgraduate students in the social sciences at Oxford and universities in Africa, this experimental course is funded by Oxford’s Teaching Development and Enhancement Project Award. Enrolled students receive financial assistance for internet data packages and device upgrades.

Professor Marquand made a heartfelt speech thanking his wife of over 60 years, Professor Judith Marquand, for all she had given to his life and work. It was a happy day.

Amber is also working alongside Professor Patricia Daley, Professor of Human Geography and Vice-Principal at Jesus College, on ‘Dismantling the Colonial University: Defiant Scholarship & Decolonial Thought in Africa’ as part of a series on global racial equity and the future of higher education.

Professor Michèle Mendelssohn Tutorial Fellow in English Michèle is a Commissioning Editor for English Review, a specialist magazine for A-level students and their teachers. The magazine is professionally published by Hodder. It has a long-standing tradition of contributions from English teachers and academics. Contributors are paid £100 for 1500 words; £150 for 2000 words. If you are interested in writing for the magazine, send a 250-300 word pitch to michele.mendelssohn@ell.ox.ac.uk.

Dr Ash Parton Stipendiary Lecturer in Geography, Inaugural Chair of Mansfield’s Environmental Sustainability Working Group (see p.6)

Dr Annelen Micus Head of Programmes, Bonavero Institute of Human Rights

Ash has been involved in researching and writing a paper published in the scientific journal Nature that investigates the ways in which periodic climate change impacted early human migration in southwest Asia.

After a wonderful three years, Annelen made the difficult decision to leave the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at the end of Hilary term 2021, after accepting an offer to join Amnesty International (Germany).

Ash’s role was in mapping the geomorphology and palaeoenvironmental analyses of ancient lake sediments excavated at the field sites. Recent publications: ‘Multiple hominin dispersals into Southwest Asia over the past 400,000 years’, Groucutt HS, White TS, Scerri EML, et al. Nature 597 (2021): 376-80.

We hope you will join us in wishing Annelen well in her new role.

Helen Mountfield QC Principal of Mansfield College Richard Scanlon Bursar

Helen has continued judging and litigating alongside her role of Principal, though this year almost entirely online from her College study. She was delighted when her clients in Big Brother Watch & Others v UK won their case in the European Court of Human Rights in May 2021 (which arose from the Edward Snowden disclosures). Helen also appeared in the Supreme Court and Privy Council three times in 2020/21, most recently representing Counsel General for Wales in a devolution reference. She continues to podcast on

In September 2021, Mansfield said a fond farewell to Richard, who is retiring from his role as College Bursar. Richard has done an incredible job of leading the College through one of the most challenging times in its history. We would like to thank him for his hard work and support for the Mansfield community. 57

Staff & Fellows’ news Professor Jenn Strawbridge Tutorial Fellow in Theology & Religion In 2020/21, Jenn began serving on the first Scholarship and Fellowship Committee for the St Augustine’s Foundation (an educational charity). This committee – made up of scholars from ten different countries – funds the development of theological education in the Majority World through scholarships, fellowships and mentoring. Jenn also began a three-year term on the Anglican Communion Science Commission, which is tasked with resourcing the whole Anglican Communion for confident leadership in issues involving science, and advising and supporting academic and practical initiatives in the interface of science and faith.

Dr Stefan Theil Former Postdoctoral Fellow Stefan left his postdoctoral fellowship at Mansfield in September 2021 to take up the John Thornely Law Fellowship at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He launched his monograph Towards the Environmental Minimum (CUP, 2021) at the Bonavero Institute on 13 October 2021. Stefan’s book engages with pervasive environmental harm that disproportionately impacts vulnerable members of society and explores why it is left largely unregulated by states, despite their existing legal commitments to human rights. The book proposes a normative framework for environmental protection through human rights law: the environmental minimum framework. Stefan writes: ‘Goodbyes are never easy, especially when you love your work, and you are privileged to work alongside brilliant colleagues. I joined the Bonavero Institute and Mansfield College a bit over three years ago – and I did not know it back then, but Mansfield was the ideal College for me… Thank you to the Principal, Fellows and students, past and present, for shaping this community and welcoming me with open arms.’ Recent publications: Towards the Environmental Minimum: Environmental Protection through Human Rights (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021), ISBN 9781108891769.

College and University prizes 2020/21 Scholarships

Richa Nahata (Engineering Science)

Alizeh Abdul Rahman (Philosophy & Theology)

Yasmin Nguyen (Human Sciences)

Femi Fakokunde (Materials Science)

Anna Obernoster (Human Sciences)

Anna Fraser (English Language & Literature)

Tobia Beccari (Mathematics)

Vlad Popescu (History)

Travis Godfrey (Hebrew Studies)

Samuel Benjamin (Philosophy, Politics & Economics)

Mukesh Ramanathan (Mathematics)

Amira Izhar (English Language & Literature)

Kieran Rivers (Materials Science)

Nicholas Joinson (Materials Science)

Nathan Bentley (Physics)

Rosanna Roskilly (Materials Science)

Caed Knight (Engineering Science)

Jamie Bingham (Engineering Science)

Jenny Scoones (English Language & Literature)

Harry Morrison (History)

Liam Connolly (Philosophy, Politics & Economics)

Jihyun Shim (Mathematics & Statistics) Cassie Song (Materials Science)

Alison Porter (English Language & Literature)

Tommaso Crestani (Classics & Oriental Studies)

Mateusz Szewc (Engineering Science)

Jamie Priestley (Physics)

Frankie Taylor (History)

Connor Searston (Jurisprudence)

Vincent Elvin (Theology & Religion)

Jia Tham (Geography)

Jasmine Simms (Physics)

Louis Emanuel (Engineering Science)

Jasper Threadingham (Engineering Science)

Yan Shen Tan (Jurisprudence)

Oliver Farquharson (Engineering Science)

Tallulah Tufton (Theology & Religion)

Emily Thornton (Jurisprudence)

Matthew Feaster (Physics)

Edward Turner (Mathematics & Statistics)

Ming Gei (Engineering Science)

Ewan Van Der Poel (English Language & Literature)

Sarah Townsend (English Language & Literature)

Benjamin Campbell (Engineering Science)

Ilina Georgieva (Jurisprudence) Robin Gerlach (Mathematics) Dan Guest (Mathematics)

Natalie Vriend (Philosophy, Politics & Economics)

Sophie Gwilt (English Language & Literature)

Ellen Walkingshaw (Theology & Religion)

Philip Holdridge (Mathematics)

Joel While (Geography)

Leila Hua (Materials Science)

Mary Whittingdale (Theology & Religion)

Russell Indradjaja (Materials Science)

Charlotte Withyman (Materials Science)

Matei Iorgulescu (Mathematics & Statistics)

Yilong Yang (Engineering Science)

Tabitha Kirkwood (Arabic & Islamic Studies)

Steven Ye (Physics)

Larissa Koerber (Jurisprudence with Law in Europe)

Jiahe Zhu (Mathematics)

Filip Kulas (Engineering Science)

Freya Webb (Jurisprudence)

John Yap (Jurisprudence)

Nick Lai (Mathematics)

Exhibitions

Nikola Langov (Mathematics & Statistics)

Srutokirti Basak (History)

Ho Kyeong Lee (Engineering Science)

Martha Birtles (English Language & Literature)

Alexander Marlow (Jurisprudence) Mitch Marshall (History) Cameron Matchett (Physics) Peter Miller (English Language & Literature) Mustaqim Mohammad Iqbal (Jurisprudence) Tom Morris (Mathematics)

Aftab Chhina (Jurisprudence) Matthew Coulson (Materials Science) Dario Cowdery (Theology & Religion) Brennig Davies (English Language & Literature)

Katie Egerton (Theology & Religion)

Rajun Phagura (Materials Science)

Nathan Walemba (Materials Science) Di Wan (Engineering Science) Codie Wood (Mathematics & Statistics)

College prizes Andrew Olive Prize for Economics Samuel Benjamin Kwabena Osei-Boateng Engineering Science Prize Holly Freed Mason Lowance Prize in memory of Malcolm Parkes for best performance in English Language & Literature mods Wiktor Kepa Mason Lowance Prize in honour of John Creaser for best performance in English Language & Literature secondyear work Sophie Gwilt

College and University prizes 2020/21 Mason Lowance Prize in memory of Stephen Wall for best performance in English Language & Literature finals Brennig Davies and Alison Porter Henty Prize for outstanding secondyear work in Geography Ben Paterson Mahony Prize for most commendable second-year performance in History

Visiting Student Prize for 2020/21

Prelims Gibbs Prize for Human Sciences

Nina Buoni

Finn Prout

College Essay Prize 2020

Littleton Chambers Prize in Labour Law (FHS Jurisprudence)

Vaishna Surjid

Beth Gilmour Principal’s Prize for outstanding performance Philip Holdridge

Mustaqim Mohammad Iqbal

Emily Tait

University prizes

Worsley Prize for Law

Law Faculty Prize in Advanced Property & Trusts (BCL)

Beth Gilmour Simon Calhaem Scholarship for Law Ilina Georgieva John Sykes Prize for best Part I Materials results Prisma Gautam Adam Monk Scholarship for Mathematics Ahmed Ittihad Hasib Bob Coates Prize for Mathematics 2020 award: Philip Holdridge 2021 award: Tobia Beccari and Codie Wood Horton Davies Prize for best secondyear work in Theology

Gibbs Prize Proxime Contract/Tort/ Land Law/Trusts (FHS Jurisprudence)

Andreas Giannakopoulos Ellerton Theological MSt Essay Prize Aamir Kaderbhai John House Prize runner-up (Prelims Geography) Yihang Fang JCA Meldrum Essay Prize runner-up (FHS Geography) Rachael Chan Linda McDowell Prize for Critical Human Geography (FHS Geography)

Armourers & Brasiers’ Company Prize for best second-year Materials selection poster Nicholas Joinson and Rosanna Roskilly Armourers & Brasiers’ Company Prize for year-2 business plan team presentation Matthew Coulson, Leila Hua, Russell Indradjaja, Nicholas Joinson, Rosanna Roskilly, Elysia Zdolyny Armourers & Brasiers’ Company / TATA Steel Prize for the best team design project Femi Fakokunde, Prisma Gautam, Rajun Phagura, Abhinav Vudathu, Nick Watt, Charlotte Withyman

Rachael Chan

Worshipful Company of Ironmongers’ Prize for best presentation on an MS Part II project

CDD Gibbs Prize (FHS Geography)

Kieran Rivers

Mary Whittingdale

Rachael Chan

Lynda Patterson Scholarship for best prelims distinction performance in Theology or Philosophy & Theology

JCA Meldrum Essay Prize (FHS Geography)

Philip Holdridge

Georgina Morris

James Mew Senior Prize (FHS Oriental Studies)

CDD Gibbs Book Prize (FHS Geography)

Travis Godfrey

Gibbs Prize for Mathematics Part C

Matthew Bowen Sarah & Peter Harkness Bursary

Jia Tham

Adam Austin Gabriel Lazar Alex Williamson

Transport Geography Research Group undergraduate dissertation Prize (FHS Geography 2020)

Commendation for practical work (Prelims Physics) Leo Yue

Jamie Ward

Canon Hall Preliminary Greek Testament Prize Matthew Bowen

Grenader Family Visiting Student Prizes

Kirk-Greene Thesis Prize for the best thesis on modern African history (FHS History)

Max Gebauer Michaelmas term 2020

Vaishna Surjid

Sarah & Peter Harkness Prize James Allen

Nina Buoni Hilary term 2021 Anna Ren Trinity term 2021

Examination results 2020 MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (MBA)

UNCLASSIFIED HONOURS Materials Science Part I

Distinction

Pascal Riederer

Honours Pass Kieran Rivers

Pass

Alex Beck

Honours Pass Cassie Song

Pass

Zeus Chen

Honours Pass Amin Zouine

Pass

Shola Diop

Pass

Daniel Holod

Mathematics Part A

Pass

Caspar Jopling

Honours Pass Tobia Beccari

Pass

Zouhair Tabbaa

Honours Pass Robin Gerlach Honours Pass Oliver Harding Honours Pass Nick Lai

MASTER OF SCIENCE (MSc) Nature, Society & Environmental Governance Pass

Bivishika Bhandari

Social Science of the Internet Merit

Andreas Tsamados

MASTER OF STUDIES (MSt) Philosophy Pass

Oli Woolley

Mathematics & Statistics Part A Honours Pass Szymon Gorczyca Honours Pass Chi Jin Physics Part A Pass

Nathan Bentley

Pass

Lex Joosten

Pass

Forest Liu

Pass

Cameron Matchett

Pass

Jamie Priestley

Pass

Jasmine Simms

Pass

Steven Ye

Physics Part B Class I

Emma Godden

Class IIi

Matthew Feaster

Class IIi

Qihao Wang

Examination results 2021 DOCTORATE (DPhil)

Mathematics

MASTER OF ENGINEERING Nash Treetanthiploet

Astrophysics Alvaro Menduina Condensed Matter Physics Lukasz Gladczuk Nikol Lambeva

Oriental Studies Min Hui Yeo Politics Stuart Bramwell Sam Maynard

Economics

Yuan Wang

George Charlson Fernando Eguren Martin Engineering Science Liyang Han

Science & Technology of Fusion Energy Matthew Lloyd Theology

Denis Lebedev Jolanta Mirecka

Lucas Kruitwagen Industrially Focused Mathematical Modelling Attila Kovacs Oliver Sheridan-Methven Information, Communication & Social Sciences

Ross Gildea Law Eleni Katsampouka

Benjamin Campbell

Class I

Oliver Farquharson

Class I

Richa Nahata

Class IIi

Josch Spiedel-Johnson

Class IIi

Jasper Threadingham

Materials Class I

Kieran Rivers

Class I

Cassie Song

Class IIi

Amin Zouine

MASTER OF MATHEMATICS

Greg Morgan

Mathematics

BACHELOR OF CIVIL LAW (BCL) Distinction

Andreas Giannakopoulos

Merit

Swapnil Tripathi

BACHELOR OF PHILOSOPHY (BPhil) Distinction

Sasha Arridge

Pass

Benjamin Logan

Theodora Sutton International Relations

Class I

Elizabeth Li

Horia Porav Geography & the Environment

Engineering

MAGISTER JURIS (MJur)

Distinction

Dan Guest

Distinction

Philip Holdridge

Mathematics & Statistics Distinction

Nikola Langov

Pass

Danlong Gao

MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY (MPhil) English Studies (Medieval) Merit

Yinuo Wu

Medical Anthropology Distinction

Gaia Ardizzone

Merit

Natalia Brigagao Ferrer Alves Carvalho

Politics: Political Theory

Merit

Irene Papoutsi

Distinction

Rory Gillis

Merit

Alexander Silke

Distinction

Julian Goldmann

MASTER OF PHYSICS

Materials Laiyi Weng

Class I

Emma Godden

Class IIi

Matthew Feaster

Class IIi

Qihao Wang

Examination results 2021 MASTER OF PUBLIC POLICY Distinction

Adam Flaherty

Distinction

Taylor Panzer

Merit

Mirza Saaib Beg

Merit

Ghita Chraibi

Merit

Mauricio Cuadra Moreno

Merit

Dennis Martey

MASTER OF SCIENCE (MSc) Environmental Change & Management Distinction

Robert Edge-Partington

Distinction

Diana Jaramillo Araujo

Evidence-Based Social Intervention & Policy Evaluation Distinction Distinction

Alejandro Biondi Rodriguez Sarani Jayawardena

Mathematical & Computational Finance Pass

Sujing Zhang

Mathematical Modelling & Scientific Computing

MASTER OF STUDIES (MSt)

Class I

Jia Tham

English (1830-1914)

Class I

Joel While

Class IIi

George King

Class IIi

Robert Power James Howard

Merit

Charlotte Bausch

Pass

Margaret Draper

Pass

Nabilah Shah

Class IIii

English & American Studies

History

Distinction

Andrew Ballard

History: Medieval History Merit

Joseph Brown

Oriental Studies Distinction

Setayesh Dashti

Philosophical Theology Distinction

Andrew Blanton

Distinction

Aamir Kaderbhai

Merit

Isabella Copleston

Theology

Shenghao Ye

Distinction

Zachary Wagner

Merit

Meng Yu

Merit

Braden Zufelt

Pass

Xueyan Cao

Pass

Yibing Liu

Politics Research Merit

Scott Martens

Refugee & Forced Migration Studies Merit

Kessem Adiv

POSTGRADUATE CERTIFICATE IN EDUCATION (PGCE) Pass

Gemma Fulton

Pass

Olivia Owen-Sinclair

Vaishna Surjid

Class I

Frankie Taylor

Class IIi

Callum Brignall

Human Sciences Class I

Rachel Thomas

Class IIi

Yasmin Nguyen

Class IIi

Anya Sochacka

Class I

Beth Gilmour

Class I

Mustaqim Mohammad Iqbal

Class I

Yan Shen Tan

Class IIi

Adam Austin

Class IIi

Caitlin Corrigan

†Class I

Tobia Beccari

†Class I

Robin Gerlach

†Class I

Nick Lai

†Class IIi

Oliver Harding

Mathematics & Statistics

BACHELOR OF ARTS Class IIi

†Class IIi

Chi Jin

Class IIii

Szymon Gorczyca

†Continuing to 4th year MMath/MMathPhys

Ming Gei

Distinction

Jake Stein

Merit

Hannah Bennett

English Language & Literature

Merit

Yining Xu

Class IIi

Natasha Andrew

Class IIi

Martha Birtles

Class IIi

Caitlin Charles

Statistical Science

Katie Hunter

Class I

Mathematics

Engineering Social Science of the Internet

Sara Dalzell

Class I

Jurisprudence

Study of Religions

Merit

Medical Anthropology

Class I

Distinction

Yuling Chen

Class IIi

Vassia Gkogkou

Merit

Janay Bhudia

Class IIi

Kyaice Hendricks

Merit

Lucas Lin

Class IIi

Amira Izhar

Merit

Pavel Novitskii

Class IIi

Isabella Mann

Class IIi

Jenny Scoones

Geography Class I

Rachael Chan

Class I

Georgina Morris

Class I

Fran Rigby 63

Oriental Studies Class IIi

Tabitha Kirkwood

Philosophy, Politics & Economics Class IIi

Caitlin Deacock

Class IIi

Sam Gibson

Class IIi

Jess Hemsley

Class IIi

Eloise Ireland

Class IIi

Alex Kitching

Class IIi

Nichita Matei

Class IIi

Iona Watters

Theology & Religion Class I

Katie Egerton

Class I

Ellen Walkingshaw

Examination results 2021 UNCLASSIFIED HONOURS

Jurisprudence

Engineering Science (Part B)

Distinction

Ilina Georgieva

Distinction

Ittihad Hasib

Distinction

Larissa Koerber

Pass

Distinction

Alexander Marlow

Konstantinos Adamopoulos

Pass

Isobel Brown

Pass

Alice Armes

Pass

Aftab Chhina

Pass

Aleksander Bosek

Pass

Deepak Ganger

Pass

Dan Maloney

Pass

Katerina Panesova

Pass

Alex Young

Class I

Yilong Yang

Class IIi

Louis Emanuel

Class IIi

Caed Knight

Class IIi

Jim Laney

Class IIi

Ho Kyeong Lee

Materials Science (Part 1)

Pass

Joshua Chima

Pass

Gabriel Lazar

Pass

Mikolaj Pasternak

Honours Pass Femi Fakokunde Honours Pass Prisma Gautam Honours Pass Abhinav Vudathu

PRELIMINARY EXAMINATIONS

Honours Pass Nick Watt

Engineering

Honours Pass Charlotte Withyman Mathematics (Part A) Honours Pass Luci Mullen Honours Pass Flora Walker Honours Pass Jiahe Zhu Mathematics & Statistics (Part A) Honours Pass Matei Iorgulescu Honours Pass Ed Turner Physics (Part B) Class I

Nathan Bentley

Class I

Steven Ye

Class IIi

Lex Joosten

Class IIi

Forest Liu

Class IIi

Cameron Matchett

Class IIi

Jasmine Simms

Class IIii

Jamie Priestley

Physics (Part A) Pass

Alex Fisher

Pass

Andrew Huang

Pass

El Salter

Pass

Jia Wan

MODERATIONS English Language & Literature Distinction

Wiktor Kepa

Pass

Hana Andari

Pass

Abbie Bradley

Pass

Chantale Davies

Pass

Molly Drayton

Pass

Alex Hopkins-McQuillan

Pass

Isabelle Kershaw-Halliwell

Pass

Anna Studsgarth

Pass

Robert Brucal

Pass

Eva Hassan

Pass

Wiktoria Malota

Pass

Evan Marlow

Geography Distinction

Yihang Fang

Pass

Melissa Greenough

Pass

Muzzy Khan

Pass

Emma Ramsay

Pass

Euan Vosper

History Distinction

James Allen

Distinction

Karol Janiuk

Distinction

Toby Whelton

Pass

Jessica De Marco

Pass

Joe Emmens

Pass

Emma Francis

Pass

Cormac Malone

Pass

Mamie Michael

Pass

Catrin Phillips

Human Sciences Distinction

Finn Prout

Pass

Max Harrison

Pass

Amelia Mills

Pass

Eric Zhang

Materials Science Pass

Rowan Burford

Pass

Aryan Dixit

Pass

Ruth Gregg

Pass

Sirui Liu

Pass

Anahita Manchala

Mathematics

Oriental Studies Distinction

Akram Ghauri

Pass

Tami Davidson

Pass

Annabelle Leivers

Physics Distinction

Leo Yue

Pass

Hatam Barma

Pass

Yixuan Guo

Pass

Maxwell Huddart

Pass

Ellie O’Brien

Pass

Archie Smedley

Philosophy, Politics & Economics Distinction

Max Winterbottom

Pass

Catherine Comiskey

Pass

Izzy Godley

Pass

Connie Hammond

Pass

Rebecca Horne

Pass

Freya Pierrepoint

Pass

Ellie Scyner

Theology & Religion Distinction

Matthew Bowen

Distinction

Oliver Elliot-Williams

Distinction

Lizzy Flaherty

Pass

Ruth Beecroft

Pass

Kirsty Maylin