Wolfson Plans & Prospects 2019

Academic agenda 

Wolfson 

Plans & Prospects 

For all Wolfsonians around the World 

Issue 9: June 2019 

CHAIRING THE GENERAL MEETING | EARTHQUAKES, ELEPHANTS AND... | NEWS AND EVENTS 

www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk


Plans and 

Prospects 

FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS 

Contents 

A message from the President, 1 

Sir Tim Hitchens 

Good vibrations: of 4 

earthquakes, elephants, 

and extraterrestrial life 

A new perspective on Pakistan 7 

Relearning diplomacy for the 9 

21st century 

Internationalism: thinking 11 

way beyond Oxford 

Chairing the General Meeting 13 

Wolfson news 17 

Wolfson events: Oxford and 

beyond 20 

Fundraising: Aims and ambitions 26 

for 2019–20 

Supporting Wolfson 28 

Staying in touch 29 

Photo credits 

Cover image: Reflections Tree Houses by Jenny 

Blyth; p 18: Reflections: White on Blue by 

Jenny Blyth 

Alumni Christmas drinks and London Lecture: 

Thomas S. G. Farnetti 

Syme Lecture: Liam Curtin 

Washoku dinner, Haldane Lecture and other 

events: John Cairns 

Alice in Wonderland Ball: Marie Wong 

Tokyo events: Oxford University Alumni Office 

Delhi events: Bill Conner 

Wolfson College: Lisa Heida 

Plans and Prospects is edited by 

Jackie Morgan 

Design by Baseline Arts Ltd 

Printed by Leachprint 

Introduction 

Dear Friends 

More than a decade has passed 

since I first visited Wolfson. It 

has been a golden period for the 

College and a source of great 

satisfaction to have been part of 

the team that made a difference 

to this wonderful place. Working 

with the President, Professor Dame 

Hermione Lee, and the entire 

Wolfson family, we put the College 

on the map in a new and highly 

visible way. The new academic wing 

is the most obvious development during my years here, but the massive 

increase in provision for students and the extraordinary research activity – 

along with the public engagement related with that research – has made for a 

wonderful journey. 

It is now time for me to retire and to pass the baton to my able successor, 

Dr Huw David. Fundraising and Alumni Relations is a group activity and 

everyone in the College has been involved in making the experience of being 

a Wolfsonian what it is. The new President, Sir Tim Hitchens, has laid out new 

ideas and directions for the College, building on the ethos inherited from our 

founder, Sir Isaiah Berlin. You will read more about this in the following pages. 

Huw brings to Wolfson his own academic accomplishments in British 

and American history and has spent the past seven years working at the 

Rothermere American Institute, Oxford’s department for teaching and 

research in American history, politics, and literature. As a graduate of St 

Anne’s College, he is no stranger to North Oxford and I know he looks 

forward to immersing himself in College life, to meeting and working with 

Wolfsonians, and to leading the Alumni and Development Office in its 

new initiatives to extend student support and scholarships, and to sustain 

Wolfson’s academic excellence. 

In the past few months we have delivered on some particularly important 

projects including finding support for the next six years for academics at 

risk, a new partnership with the Oxford Lieder Festival, and extending the 

Stallworthy poetry prize further into the future. In the greater scheme of things 

at Oxford, these are small accomplishments, but they are outsized in their 

importance to our community of Wolfsonians. 

By the time this issue of Plans and Prospects is published, I will have left 

Oxford, but will be watching with interest what comes next. Thanks to 

everyone for a wonderful decade. 

William J Conner 

Emeritus Fellow, Director of 

Development 2008–19 

ii WOLFSON . COLLEGE OXFORD 

. PLANS & PROSPECTS . 2019

President’s message 

How can I help Wolfson 

College as an organisation 

best support its students and 

Fellows, who are the reason 

we exist? 

A message 

from the President 

Sir Tim Hitchens 

Since becoming President of Wolfson 

College in May 2018 I’ve often been 

asked how I’m finding it. To which my 

answer is that it’s proved one of the 

most stimulating periods of my life. I 

am shifting from one strong culture – 

the discretion, efficiency, and political 

discipline of public service (when at its 

best!) – to another – the independence 

of thought, creativity and competition 

of ideas which is Oxford University 

(again, when at its best…). Every 

day I meet someone whose research 

interests fascinate and challenge me. 

And every day I discover something 

else new which Wolfson people 

are discovering. Haruki Murakami 

famously said that if you only read the 

books that everyone else is reading, 

you can only think what everyone else 

is thinking; being at Wolfson is like 

reading a whole new library. 

So the question I ask myself is: “how 

can I help Wolfson College as an 

organisation best support its students 

and Fellows, who are the reason we 

exist?”. 

I have deliberately taken my time 

in thinking through where Wolfson 

College should go in the next ten 

years. I have lots to learn, both of 

Oxford process and culture, and 

also the views of all those people 

who make up a College and whose 

opinions matter: the Fellows, the 

students, the Emeritus Fellows, the 

College supporters, the staff. I’m not 

in a hurry, and the Governing Body 

isn’t in a hurry, to uproot things which 

work well. 

Now, after twelve months in the job, I 

have come to three broad conclusions 

which seem to me important. 

First, that at Wolfson we provide an 

extraordinary home in Oxford for our 

students from around the world. The 

architecture of Powell and Moya, 

expressing confidence in the future 

and wearing so much better than 

any other piece of 1970s architecture 

I know. The culture of friendliness, 

informality and intimacy which sets 

us apart from so many other parts of 

Oxford. The family friendliness. 

And yet we can provide rooms here 

for fewer than half our students, 

and not all our first-year students 

who want one. So it is a priority to 

increase the number and quality of our 

accommodation, while ensuring rents 

stay affordable. 

Second, that Hermione Lee’s brilliant 

insight was that without an intellectual 

heartbeat, a graduate college risks 

becoming simply a boarding house. 

The new Academic Wing, Auditorium 

and this year the Buttery give us 

great assets. Our clusters have 

moved the intellectual heart of Oxford 

a little further northwards. We are 

playing to our strengths, particularly 

our strengths across all of Oxford’s 

WOLFSON COLLEGE OXFORD . PLANS & PROSPECTS . 2019 . 1


disciplines – science, medicine, 

humanities, social sciences – and our 

consequent strength in work across 

disciplines. 

But there is scope for us to go 

further, and create a new space – yet 

to be defined – to be a permanent 

intellectual centre for our researchers 

and clusters. 

And finally, that the question of 

graduate access is about to hit 

us. Much public debate on Oxford 

has focused on whether our 

undergraduates represent as broad a 

variety of British communities as they 

could. But this year, for the first time, 

Oxford is taking more graduate than 

undergraduate students, and over the 

next four years that number will rise 

further by at least 850. This summer 

we are one of the founder members of 

the UNIQ graduate school, aiming to 

encourage those from less advantaged 

backgrounds to think of undertaking 

graduate study at Wolfson and Oxford. 

But in the longer term, and 

consistently, we need to be sure 

that we are taking the best graduate 

students from Britain and the world, 

and not just those with deep pockets. 

I want to ensure that we minimise 

the occasions, sadly too common 

now, when we are offering places to 

graduate students, only to see them 

turned down for lack of finance. 

If those three points are all true, what 

can we do about them? 

With the help of the wide Wolfson 

community – students and Fellows, 

staff and academics, those here 

now and those who used to be here, 

those passionate about the subjects 

in which we excel as a College – I 

want to begin a campaign which 

addresses those three issues. More 

accommodation so more students can 

benefit from the Wolfson experience 

close up. A new permanent intellectual 

centre. More scholarships for our 

graduate students. 

In 2026, when we celebrate our 

sixtieth anniversary, wouldn’t it be 

wonderful to have made big strides 

towards all three aspirations? 

There’s plenty of work to be done to 

define how to get there, and what 

those broad aims mean in detail. But 

I hope all those of you reading this will 

be interested in the project, and will 

think what part you might play. We’ll 

be developing the campaign over the 

coming months and will provide more 

information in due course. 

The next few years are going to 

be challenging for Britain’s higher 

education sector. The squeeze on 

student loans. The uncertainties 

around student numbers from the 

European Union. A likely Chinese 

economic slowdown. But the greatest 

risk is always our own paralysis in the 

face of the inevitable uncertainties. 

What I’ve seen of Oxford this year 

persuades me that the University has 

the organisational resilience, and the 

2 . WOLFSON COLLEGE OXFORD . PLANS & PROSPECTS . 2019


outstanding people, to thrive over the 

next decade, particularly in supporting 

the world’s top graduate students; 

and that Wolfson will be able to ride 

through those immediate bumps with 

confidence and style. I hope you will all 

help us achieve our goals. n 

Follow Tim on Twitter 

@SirTimHitchens 

L With alumni and friends in Japan 

K With Wolfsonians at the Alumni 

Christmas party, Lancaster House 


Earthquakes, elephants, and extraterrestrial life 

Good vibrations: 

of earthquakes, 

elephants, and 

extraterrestrial life 

At this year’s London Lecture, Tarje Nissen-Meyer introduced his audience 

to seismology’s wide range of applications, including the ability of elephants to 

communicate via vibration in the Earth’s surface. 

Vibrations are everywhere. 

Whether signals from deepest 

space, telecommunications, 

human conversations or 

volcanic tremors, waves encode 

information about every aspect 

of our lives, planet and universe. 

Seismology, the study of 

deciphering earthquake-triggered 

waves, has come a long way from 

determining earthquake locations, 

their hazard and Earth’s interior. 

Owing to recent developments in 

instrumentation on land, sea, and 

above, big datasets, numerical 

techniques, supercomputing and 

machine learning, we can now 

extract novel information from the 

most complex vibrations which 

continuously excite our planet, 

covering scales from molecular 

motions to Earth’s tides. 

At Wolfson’s London lecture, I 

attempted to convey a diverse range 

of novel seismological avenues: 

Can we determine the chance of 

extraterrestrial life deep inside Jupiter’s 

icy moon Europa by analysing tidal 

cracking? Can we estimate remote 

landslide activity in real-time without 

being anywhere near? Can we find 

ancient hurricanes in the seismic 

record? Can machine learning on 

ancient scripts from Persia help in 

better understanding earthquake 

cycles? What is the role of glacial 

calving in ice-sheet depletion and 

sea-level rise? Are there Marsquakes? 

What is the underlying process behind 

three-dimensional cat-scan images 

of the Earth’s ‘brain activity’, or 

mantle convection, for instance water 

deep inside the Earth? What is the 

psychological aspect and subjective 

bias in interpreting such tomographic 

images? And last but not least, do 

elephants communicate seismically 

over many kilometres? Can our 

techniques discriminate their behaviour 

much like one earthquake from another 

in real-time, and help in combatting 

poaching? The common denominators 

between these questions are seismic 

vibrations that contain cues about the 

underlying nature of the corresponding 

process, to be recorded with evermore 

sensitive seismic instruments 

which nowadays record ground 

vibrations down to molecular scales. 

Seismic data are vast, complex, and 

irregular, and cover a vast range of 

resolutions and frequencies. Rather 

than focusing on big (and often 

duplicate) data, seismologists often 

hunt for faint, precious observations 

bearing valuable information, such as 

those rare waves carrying structural 

information from the centre of the 

Earth, or any clue on past seismicity 

to assess the seismic recurrence 

cycle. In this context, I argued that 

modern methods of data mining may 

aid in collaborating with archives and 

collections of ancient manuscripts to 

find hints on earthquake occurrences 

throughout human history. With 

seismic recordings barely covering 

more than a century, earthquake 

cycles of thousands of years require 

further evidence from the past to 

assess whether geological faults may 

yield in the “foreseeable” future. 



J Tarje speaking at London Lecture 

Inferring models from observed 

data poses numerous problems, 

most prominently the non-uniqueness 

of resultant models. In many cases, 

there exists an infinity of solutions 

to satisfy the same data with very 

different models. For instance, an 

elephant-generated signal may 

have propagated 1 km in slow, 

unconsolidated sand and arrive at 

a seismometer at the same time as 

a signal from 500 m propagating 

through harder rock. A wiggle from 

a solar burst looks the same as a 

calving glacier. It is the daunting job 

of geophysicists to try and limit this 

infinite-dimensional space of possible 

solutions to a meaningful outcome. 

This relies on a clever combination of 

different data types, and adding prior 

knowledge of a certain setting. For 

instance, it seems sensible to assume 

that the Kenyan savannah is not 

floating atop a submerged ocean, but 

will be composed of typical rocks and 

their corresponding seismic properties. 

Simulating 

the complexity of diverse 

vibration sources, in combination 

with the complicated material 

through which they propagate, 

is crucial to deciphering seismic 

records. Such numerical modelling 

of seismic wavefields has been the 

cornerstone of my research, requiring 

interaction with supercomputing, 

applied mathematics, physics and 

engineering. 

The beauty of these 

methods – however 

impenetrable these algorithms 

seem especially for incoming 

postgraduate students – lies in their 

scalability. We use the exact same 

method to detect elephant rumbles 

and to perform wave propagation to 

understand the interior of Mars with 

Nasa’s ongoing InSight mission. 

The elephant in the Savannah, 

however, claimed the main part 

of the London Lecture. This work 

emerged from a collaboration with 

Oxford zoologist Beth Mortimer, who 

contacted me to work on elephant 

seismology after finishing her DPhil 

on spider vibrations. Such risky yet 

rewarding multidisciplinary ideas 

with societal context have always 

attracted me, and so we set out to 

Kenya to observe and seismically 

measure the vibrations induced 

by elephants walking by. We then 

employed typical seismological 

inference to determine elephant 

location, the maximal distance at 

which these waves can be detectable 

by eavesdropping scientists as well 

as any other animal, suggesting that 

seismic communication could be 

possible between elephant herds 

separated by up to 6 km. Moreover, 

we were able to classify different types 



of elephant behaviour based on the 

seismic recordings alone: fast versus 

slow walking, or deep infrasonic 

rumbles that can thereby be discerned 

using such passive, non-invasive and 

inexpensive deployments of seismic 

instruments. 

This preliminary study was published 

last year and triggered media attention 

as well as a TED talk (online later in 

2019), primarily due to our suggestion 

that these methods can in principle 

be considered for efficient, real-time 

wildlife monitoring and combatting 

poaching, which has sadly been 

on the rise again in recent years 

in Africa. We managed to acquire 

modest financial support (primarily 

National Geographic) for a larger field 

experiment to test and further develop 

these ideas in the Kenyan Savannah. 

Shortly after the London Lecture in 

February 2019, we went to the Mpala 

Research Centre near Mount Kenya 

and installed 20 seismometers, 30 

video traps and 8 microphones in a 

multi-scale setting focusing on the 

last wet dam of the region during 

this dry season, where all species 

congregate daily. We observed 

hundreds of elephants, zebra, giraffes, 

gazelles, lions, leopards, cheetah, 

warthogs, and many other species 

interacting at the dam, and recorded 

this scene for three continuous weeks, 

with instrumentation stretching out 

to 6 km in various directions. The 

human-wildlife conflict is of utmost 

importance to many sub-Saharan 

countries, with elephants raiding 

crops, and with cattle being chased 

by lions. Our seismic experiment 

was done in collaboration with local 

communities, scientists, workshops, 

and cattle rangers to identify paths 

towards long-term wildlife monitoring 

across the seasons. Back with this 

rich dataset from our fieldwork, we will 

now apply deep learning techniques 

to understand, dissect and classify the 

seismic data for the various species, 

herd sizes and behaviour. 

In summary, the goal of this lecture 

was to present our discipline as 

one with far-reaching applications 

across many discipline boundaries 

and scales: from zoology to machine 

learning, from the solar system to 

oceanography, from supercomputing 

to ancient scripts. More generally, I 

believe research into the fascinating 

and crucial interplay between humans, 

technology and our pristine planet with 

its finite resources and landscapes will 

continue to grow in importance as we 

re-evaluate and adapt to our relatively 

shrinking living space for the future. n 

TARJE NISSEN-MEYER 

Tarje Nissen-Meyer is an 

Associate Professor of 

Geophysics in Oxford’s 

Department of Earth 

Sciences and a Wolfson 

Governing Body Fellow. 

After graduating from 

LMU Munich and McGill 

University, he gained a PhD 

from Princeton and subsequently held research positions 

at Caltech, Princeton and ETH Zurich before arriving at 

Oxford in 2013. His research interests revolve around 

wave phenomena anywhere between the Sun’s interior 

and elephants. He has pioneered a number of numerical 

methods for wave propagation which are widely used by 

the research community. Tarje and his collaborators work 

on understanding the Earth’s deep interior, deciphering 

complex wavefields, seismic tomography, inverse theory, 

numerical methods, seismic hazard; mapping ocean storms, 

Marsquakes and Mars’s composition; seismic exploration, 

nuclear monitoring, machine learning, supercomputing, and 

elephants’ seismic communication. He collaborates with 

colleagues worldwide and has given many lectures, including 

a TED talk on elephant seismology. His work has been 

featured in publications and broadcasts, including the New 

York Times, Le Monde, National Geographic and Physics 

Today; on the BBC and on WNYC’s Science Friday. 

Tarje teaches mathematics, seismology, and Earth 

dynamics, but most enjoys time with his children, as well 

as skiing, ice hockey, football, nature, arts, rock/folk music, 

and social events at Wolfson. n 


New perspective on Pakistan 

Matthew McCartney is 

an expert in the growth and 

development of India, Pakistan, 

Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He 

recently spent time in Pakistan to 

explore fundraising opportunities 

for South Asia teaching and 

research. For part of the time he 

was joined by his wife, Ranjana, 

on her first visit to Pakistan. Here 

they talk about the experience. 

A new 

perspective 

on Pakistan 

Ranjana McCartney: This was my first 

visit to Pakistan. This wasn’t the same 

as my first visit to Paris. This was the 

first time anyone in my entire family from 

(South) India had ever visited Pakistan. 

My associations weren’t with holiday 

snaps but with a place that appeared 

in my conscience as a looming 

menace in newspaper headlines. Yet 

it wasn’t the complete unknown as 

I was accompanying Matthew, who 

has visited many times. But there 

was a satisfying sense of shock and 

awe from my Indian family that gave 

a definite nervous thrill once the visa 

bureaucracy had been completed and 

we booked the taxi to Heathrow. 

Matthew McCartney: I have been 

to Pakistan regularly over the last 15 

years but I was nervous this time. With 

Sir Tim and Bill Conner from Wolfson 

and Rachel Kirwan from the University 

Development Office I was tasked with 

transforming my calorie-laden Lahore 

hospitality into productive and serious 

meetings to discuss fundraising 

to further Wolfson’s teaching and 

research in South Asia. 

RM: The hospitality was amazing. Not 

just a kind welcome but a real sense 

of generous hospitality embedded 

in deep traditions. Lahore was the 

sort of place I wouldn’t have been 

worried had I been lost and penniless 

– someone would have helped. The 

most charming moment was in a 

restaurant when the next table heard 

mention there was an Indian present 

and they came over to welcome me to 

Pakistan. 

MM: Contacts are not a problem in 

Lahore. Everyone knows everyone. 

I can never believe this is a country 

of nearly 200 million people. 

Handshakes, hugs and biryani are 

always exchanged with the host and 

the assortment of guests, friends 

and colleagues at dinner, so every 

handshake opens up the possibility 

of more meetings, introductions and 

hospitality. 

RM: The newspaper headlines in 

both India and Pakistan during the 

recent military faceoff were pretty 

gung ho. Yet in day-to-day life people 

in Pakistan referred to Indians and to 

India with great warmth. I won’t forget 

the taxi driver who proudly pointed 

out that the water from the canal we 

were driving past came from India, 


New perspective on Pakistan 

or the speeches at Founder’s Day in 

Aitchison College that proclaimed the 

origins of the school in teaching boys 

from across North India. The Sikh 

Gurudwara and Hindu Temple in the 

school grounds may no longer be full 

of boys praying before lessons but 

they are treated as a proud part of the 

school’s traditions. People in Pakistan 

talked about Indians as cousins they 

haven’t seen in too long, ones they 

grew up with but haven’t managed to 

keep in touch with since; a sense of 

regret rather than anger. 

MM: Tim was blissfully easy to host. 

He didn’t just pose in a rickshaw 

for a photo but used them as a 

practical form of transport. We took 

several pictures en route to important 

meetings in rickshaws as evidence 

for Wolfson’s bursar that it was a 

cost-effective trip! Bill was a pleasure 

as always, revelling in new friendships 

and new calorie-laden meals, charming 

hosts into pondering whether to reach 

for their chequebooks. 

RM: This is not the place for 

vegetarians. Lahori salads usually 

consist of a sliced tomato mixed with 

some leaves of wilted lettuce lost amidst 

L Tim Hitchens and Matthew McCartney 

the splendour of steaming, sizzling, 

meaty piles. Even a dish of dal is often 

filled with fleshy goodness. Combine 

rich, succulent food with traditions of 

hospitality and the result was often 

long periods of digestive recovery 

interspersed with aromatic burping. 

MM: The Wolfson team and Rachel 

had a number of excellent discussions 

with good contacts regarding promoting 

– and funding – Pakistan studies at 

Wolfson and Oxford. We also launched 

the exciting new Rangoonwala 

Fellowship, generously funded by the 

Rangoonwala Foundation. Pakistan is 

a large country of 200 million people 

that is located on one of the key global 

geographic fault-lines, between China, 

DR MATTHEW MCCARTNEY is a Governing Body Fellow and University 

Lecturer in the Political Economy and Human Development of India, School 

of Interdisciplinary and Area Studies (SIAS). He has studied economics 

throughout his academic career, with a BA from King’s College, Cambridge; 

MPhil from Keble College, Oxford; and a PhD from SOAS, University of 

London. Matthew’s research interests include the growth and development 

of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka since independence; the state 

and late industrialisation; political economy; institutions, geography, history, 

openness and culture as fundamental determinants of economic growth; and 

the comparative economic growth in Africa and Asia. 

RANJANA MCCARTNEY is an engineer by profession, working with an 

Indian R&D company involved in the design and development of industrial 

power electronic solutions. Born and raised in the Indian Silicon Valley, 

Bangalore, Ranjana now lives in London. A foodie and a travel enthusiast, 

she loves cooking and enjoys board games. Since moving to the UK, she has 

new-found interests in murder mysteries, Christmas music and cheese! n 

India, Afghanistan and Central Asia. 

It is at the heart of China’s New Silk 

Road project. 

We need more students of the 

anthropology, economics, politics and 

international relations of Pakistan, 

and Wolfson and Oxford provide 

a wonderful location for this effort. 

Where else in the world can Indian and 

Pakistani students, Chinese diplomats 

on career breaks, UK journalists and 

an assortment of future influential 

others debate and discuss and drink 

chai over the difficult issues faced by 

South Asia? Our meetings confirmed 

a general sense of excitement at 

Wolfson’s plans. But as Bill Conner has 

always reminded me, fundraising is like 

a courtship; it takes a long time. There 

is a lot still to do but we are confident 

that we have made a good start. 

RM: At the end of my trip I walked 

across the border at Wagah. It was a 

charming experience. The questions 

about why an Indian had been visiting 

Pakistan were professional, warm 

and competent. When the gate 

opened and India lay across a white 

line I cried. I have cried about excess 

baggage charges at airports in the 

past but I have never truly crossed a 

border like this before. I crossed into 

India and I was home. I turned around 

and took a picture of the Pakistan 

flag, I was leaving a cousin behind, a 

cousin I haven’t been in contact with 

enough over the years. I am glad we 

are back in touch. n 


Diplomacy for the 21st century 

Relearning diplomacy 

for the 21st century 

Tim Hitchens reflects on the 

impact of change on his former 

profession 

During the rule of King Izezi of 

Fifth Dynasty Egypt, there was an 

outstanding Vizier, Ptahhotep. He was 

coming to the end of his working life – 

records suggest, stretching the truth I 

fear, that he was 110 – and he wanted 

to retire. But the King would only let 

him retire and pass his mantle to his 

son if he wrote down his accumulated 

wisdom to support his son in the job, 

which he did in his famous maxims. 

Among them my favourite is this: “Be 

a craftsman in speech, that you may 

be strong: for the strength of one is 

the tongue, and speech is mightier 

than all fighting.” 

As a professional diplomat, that’s pretty 

much what you hope your career is 

all about: honing, crafting, and using 

words to avoid war. 

When I arrived at Wolfson last May, 

having just handed back my diplomatic 

passport and my Foreign Office pass, 

and no longer called Ambassador, 

I was asked to use this first year at 

Oxford to invite some of those I most 

admired to speak at the College about 

diplomacy. The task I set them each 

was as follows. Many of us have lived 

through the twentieth century, and 

understood its diplomacy, especially 

the post-war variety. We know Kofi 

Annan and the classic UN diplomacy 

that through painful and cautious small 

steps can build consensus through 

compromise (the informal UN motto 

is “Blessed are the peacemakers, for 

they shall take flak from both sides”!). 

We know the way in which G7 leaders 

meet annually to agree the broad lines 

of economic policy. We know how US 

and Soviet, then Russian leaders have 

engaged with each other. We’ve seen 

“special relationships” between the UK 

and US mediated through a series of 

presidents and prime ministers. We’ve 

seen the long and careful evolution of 

the European Union. And we’ve seen 

the way in which these organisations 

and partnerships have dealt with war 

and conflict in flashpoints around the 

world. 

But we need to relearn diplomacy for 

this century. Foreign policy is not just 

a Euro-Atlantic process dealing with 

difficult countries elsewhere. It has new 

centres of power, new players, and 

above all new ways of playing. What 

are the new rules of the game? Are 

there rules of the game still? 

So I invited a range of speakers to 

come to Wolfson to set out how they 

think the world will be different this 

century, and the way in which the 

diplomacy that tries to regulate it will 

be different. 

Koji Tsuruoka is not a typical 

Japanese Ambassador. His English 

is impeccable (if American, I am 

L Tim Hitchens with Koji Tsuruoka, 

Japanese Ambassador to the UK 

tempted to say); his background is 

as an interpreter for Prime Ministers 

and Foreign Ministers, honed in the 

US, but also as a hard-nosed trade 

negotiator. He described for us the 

way in which we Europeans need to 

be less Euro-centric, and how the 

strategic interests of the US were 

moving from the East Coast and 

Atlantic to the West Coast and Pacific. 

The heart of global growth – what kept 

us all from crashing further in 2008-09 

– was the Asian tiger, including but 

not exclusively China. The existential 

challenge for global leadership and 

global governance in this coming 

century will be between the US and 

China, and will be negotiated or fought 

out across the Pacific. The Europeans 

and the Americans will still be critical 

actors, but their importance will rest 


Diplomacy for the 21st century 

It was a stark reminder that some of 

the European and American ways of 

thinking about Africa are way out of 

date and that Africa is now a high net 

worth player, not just a pitch for others 

to play on. 

L Japanese Ambassador, Koji Tsuruoka, addressing the College 

upon how far they are active in this 

new Pacific-centric world. And Asia 

is not a place which has its own 

multilateral strategic alliance structures 

like NATO; it has a series of bilateral 

security relationships, with the US and 

to a lesser degree with China, which 

provide structure but not necessarily 

sufficient reassurance for the region 

as a whole. Ambassador Tsuruoka 

of course described Japan’s place in 

this region – a close ally of the US, 

a mature economy with an ageing 

demographic, working through some 

difficult issues with China – but I think 

his main message was that the main 

stage for the power balance which will 

affect us all this century is not Europe, 

as it was last century, but the Asia 

Pacific region. Let’s hope the Pacific 

lives up to its name. 

Yamina Karitanyi comes from 

Rwanda, which has just ended its 

term as Chair of the African Union. 

As Rwandan High Commissioner 

she described, to a rapt audience in 

the Leonard Wolfson Auditorium, the 

two big themes of Africa: first, that 

African nations like hers were now 

much more focused on growth and 

governance than on war and famine. 

(I had seen this myself as a diplomat – 

for example, the spectacular number 

of British Nigerians and Ghanaians 

deciding to move (back) to Nigeria 

and Ghana to bring up their families, 

as those countries become simply 

more “normal”.) And her second big 

theme, that development was as 

much about donors breaking free of 

the “donor/recipient” mentality as it 

was the emerging nations doing so. 

K Yamina Karitanyi the Rwandan High Commissioner to the UK 

We had further speakers. First, 

Peter Gluckman, who flew in from 

Wellington, New Zealand, to talk 

about the way diplomacy this century 

is no longer just about security and 

economics, but crucially as much 

about science. He was the very first 

Chief Scientific Adviser to a Prime 

Minister – the New Zealand Prime 

Minister – and sparked a whole new 

set of scientific diplomats who have 

brought a quantitative rigour and 

new perspective to diplomacy that 

will only grow this century; how to 

mitigate climate change; how to avoid 

widespread resistance to antibiotics; 

how to catch and control the next 

Ebola outbreak. 

And finally, I offered my own thoughts 

on what the rulebook for diplomacy will 

be in the coming century. I quoted the 

British philosopher and parliamentarian 

Edmund Burke, who said that “rage 

and frenzy will pull down more in half 

an hour than prudence, deliberation, 

and foresight can build up in a hundred 

years” and suggested that “at least 

in international law, he was spot on. 

After my years in diplomacy, and in 

the midst of one of the most severe 

challenges to the international system 

I have encountered – one where force 

and extremity, rage and frenzy are 

in such abundance – the quiet and 

ineluctable force of a rulebook is one 

of the most powerful tools we have in 

international relations.” 

One wonders what Vizier Ptahhotep 

would have had to say about current 

diplomatic practice. What would his 

maxim for the twenty-first century be? 

Perhaps: a true craftsman in speech 

uses words on reflection, not words 

from the hip. n 


Wolfson’s International Community 

Internationalism: 

thinking way beyond 

Oxford 

The President looks at how Wolfson can maintain and develop 

its international community 

When Wolfson was founded in 1966, 

being international meant thinking 

beyond Oxford: understanding 

the US university system, using 

Commonwealth links, having ambitions 

for European collaboration, looking 

beyond British shores for some of our 

student population. Isaiah Berlin – the 

brilliant refugee from Russia, adopted 

by the UK and Oxford, and who 

brought to Oxford an understanding of 

Europe, Russia and the US way beyond 

what was the academic norm of the 

time – was the perfect embodiment of 

the international intellectual. 

But being international now is different 

again, because the world itself is 

changing so fast. Being global is 

like having access to the Internet; 

impossible and crazy to think of 

unplugging from it. 

Wolfson College is now one of the 

most multinational Oxford colleges. 

Seventy per cent of our students are 

not British, and they come from 68 

different countries. As I walk around 

the College, peering into the library 

or listening in to a performance at 

the auditorium, I am as likely to hear 

Turkish language lessons, or Japanese 

children playing, or Greek dancing, as 

I am to hear English or Welsh accents. 

Our student body is undoubtedly 

multinational and multilingual. If you 

don’t believe me, have a look at the 

video we put up on YouTube to 

celebrate International Mother 

Language day, where our student 

body introduce themselves in their 

mother tongue. 

(https://www.youtube.com/ 

watch?v=lD0xClsr8Ls) 

And I’m delighted that the artistic 

environment at Wolfson is getting 

more global; we have started to 

showcase some of the centuriesold 

sculpture from South Asia on 

loan from the Ashmolean, as well as 

contemporary African art, which is 

now entering the UK auction market 

and is from this spring on loan on our 

walls for the first time. 

So our student body and our 

environment are changing fast. What 

about our Fellows? Well, we are 

pretty international, but 

overwhelmingly 

European. The 


Wolfson’s International Community 

nationalities of 77 per cent of our 

Governing Body, for example, are 

European (including 53 per cent from 

the UK and several dual nationals); 16 

per cent are from North America and 

7 per cent are from elsewhere. The 

picture for the broader Fellowship is 

similar. 

In the current political environment, 

it’s great that we are so demonstrably 

European. But I’d like to take further 

steps to become not only a global 

centre of European and North American 

expertise but also an acknowledged 

centre of global expertise. In some 

areas – South Asia is the most obvious 

– we have been very successful in 

building that deep knowledge and 

experience. But in others – East Asia, 

for example – we have some way to go. 

So how do we ensure enough global 

academics want to join us? 

There is no substitute for successful 

precedent; ensuring potential 

candidates see successful forbears 

being intellectually active at Wolfson. So 

we’re determined to use all the means 

at our disposal to bring academics from 

round the world to work at Wolfson and 

become part of its broader community. 

Our Junior Research Fellowships and 

Visiting Scholar schemes are central 

to all this. There are four particular 

organisations we now work with: 

l The Council for At-Risk Academics 

(CARA) 

l The Global Young Academy (GYA) 

for early career scientists 

l The Africa Oxford Programme (AfOx) 

With our four partners we are planning 

the following: 

l We have an anonymous donor 

who has generously contributed 

$400,000 to support our work 

with both CARA and GYA. CARA 

has about 200 scholars currently 

in need of placement. The most 

urgent need is to place families 

because of the greater cost. We 

have one female scholar with a 

family whom we plan to support at 

Wolfson from 2019 to 2021. Thanks 

to kind donations from alumni and 

friends, we can now provide homes 

in Wolfson for two families at a 

time, each lasting two years, over a 

six-year period to 2025. This is not 

charity; each one will enrich us and 

give us more global insight. 

l The GYA enables the re-integration 

of exceptional, early-career at-risk 

and refugee scholars into research 

through a mentorship programme 

developed and led by GYA 

members. The initiative has two 

main aims: to use mentorship to 

enable at-risk scholars to acquire 

and expand the professional skills 

and research network access 

needed to maintain careers; and 

to identify outstanding at-risk 

and displaced scholars and 

support them to access new, 

interdisciplinary research and 

collaboration networks. For the next 

few years Wolfson will host and 

support the annual three-day GYA 

leadership event for scholars. 

l AfOx brings academics from top 

African universities to Oxford 

colleges for 4–8 weeks during June– 

September to complete academic 

projects. Wolfson College will take 

one scholar in 2019, and hopes to 

develop that in future years. 

l And the Global South Scholarship 

administered by TORCH brings 

outstanding academics in the 

humanities from the Global South 

to Oxford for single term projects. 

Wolfson has just agreed two such 

scholars as Wolfson Visiting Scholars, 

one from Surinam and the other from 

Ghana. This scheme runs as part of 

a Mellon Foundation grant through to 

the end of Michaelmas Term 2019. 

These four groups are not the only 

ones we work with. Wolfson has 

Oxford’s pioneering Masason Scholar, 

supported by Japan’s Softbank 

corporation. We’re supporting 

French scholars through the Maison 

Française, and European Studies 

scholars through an alliance with 

Leiden and the Sorbonne. We also 

recruit Junior Research Fellows in 

collaboration with the Brussels based 

Wiener-Anspach scholarship scheme. 

All are an indicator of the direction we 

are taking. In a post-Brexit, or Brexit 

transition world, situating ourselves as 

not just British, but European and global, 

is the ticket to survival and success. I 

hope our predecessors in 1966 would 

be intrigued and pleased by what they 

see evolving at the College now. n 

l The TORCH (Oxford Research 

Centre in the Humanities) 

Global South Visiting 

Professor and 

Scholarship 

Scheme 

“I’d like to take further steps to become not 

only a global centre of European and North 

American expertise but also an acknowledged 

centre of global expertise.” 


Chairing the General Meeting 

Chairing the 

General 

Meeting? 

Jackie Morgan talks 

to five recent Chairs 

of General Meeting to 

find out what motivated 

them, what they felt they 

achieved and how they 

viewed the experience. 

Free tampons, subsidised salads, improved welfare, 

additional formal nights, improved transparency – these are 

some of the topics that have motivated Wolfson students 

to stand for Chair of General Meeting in recent years. It’s 

a demanding and time-consuming role but it appeals to 

students who want to make a difference to College life. Luis 

(Lucho) Hildebrandt Belmont says he wanted to increase 

transparency about what was going on in College: “I realised 

there wasn’t a lot of communication about the work of the 

committees and I didn’t think they necessarily took student 

views into account. I wanted to improve transparency and 

make sure people knew what was going on.” 

Most of the GM Chairs had already been 

active in College social activities but the 

role of Chair opened the door to greater 

influence within the College community. 

“I had been chair of the external ENTZ 

committee, organising events for the 

College, and then chaired the social and 

cultural committee. I realised I wanted 

to influence things more broadly and 

that I had the experience to do so”, says 

Maysa Falah. 

When asked what they wanted to 

achieve, some had quite specific goals. “It became 

apparent that some people were inhibited by the formality 

of the College committee system”, says Akash Trivedi, “so 

we set up regular surgeries where elected members could 

meet with any member of the community with issues they 

wanted to raise. These were quite informal, often in the 

common room or bar, so people felt more comfortable 

coming to us.” 

During Matthew Naiman’s time in office, he saw the need 

for a third formal hall – there had previously been two each 

term. “The guest nights are popular but the cost was a little 

on the high side. Formal halls are more student-oriented 

and aren’t so expensive, even if you 

“Most of the GM Chairs 

had already been active 

in College social activities 

but the role of Chair 

opened the door to greater 

influence within the 

College community.” 

bring a guest. They were universally 

enjoyed and always sold out 

immediately.” 

Often there’s a thread that runs 

through from one Chair to another. 

“Matthew got the third formal hall 

introduced and then it was stopped. 

We managed to get it re-instated 

when I was Chair”, says Maysa. 

“We also argued for subsidising 

the salad bar for students. It didn’t 

make sense that the healthiest option on the menu was not 

subsidised.” Sometimes it was a case of stopping things 

that might otherwise have happened. “There was a move 

to have children banned from brunch because of the noise 

and the fact that they were running around. But we felt the 

involvement of families at Wolfson was something precious. 

Wolfson is a big family society and we like it that way”, says 

Maysa. 



That sense of community can also be an important 

motivator. Tabassum Rasheed found herself involved in 

College life from the get-go. “My housemates were all quite 

involved and I had friends on BarCo and the ball committee. 

I became really interested in Governing Body and I was 

impressed at the level of student access. Wolfson is quite 

proud that it allows its students to get so involved, and 

Hermione was a good role model.” 

During the period 2013/14, Wolfson was in expansion 

mode and working towards its goal of increasing numbers 

of scholarships, which Tabassum supported. Other things 

she set out to achieve she describes as small changes: 

“tightening up on smoking spaces, providing free tampons 

and ensuring the machines were re-filled, improving welfare 

and well-being through regular informal events. These things 

all helped make community life more pleasant.” 

Significant initiatives sometimes arise from unusual 

situations. During his year as Chair, the Social and Cultural 

Committee (SCC) was approached by a Tibetan studies 

student, Güzin Yener, who wanted financial support 

for a Tibetan New Year celebration. Matthew agreed: 

“SCC gave her £350 to run an event, encouraging her 

to put in her request earlier in the year in future. It was 

a great event, but more significantly, it made me realise 

that we needed budgetary reform to free up funding for 

active clubs and events like the one Güzin ran, rather than 

providing money for clubs that had become defunct.” The 

Tibetan New Year has become an annual event that has 

found favour with the whole community. 

Choosing the Chair 

Wolfson’s governance rules say: ‘Members of 

Common Room are entitled to vote for their 

Common Room Officer including the Chair of the 

General Meeting who is elected annually.’ Typically 

the General Meeting Chair is one of five students 

elected to Governing Body. If there is more than one 

candidate there is an election but this is rare. It did 

happen 2016–17 when Maysa stood against Lucho 

and won. For Lucho, it turned out not to have been a 

bad result. “I didn’t get it that first year when Maysa 

also stood. But as a result of the experiences I had 

that year, I understood much better what it was to be 

on Governing Body. I also realised I really wanted to 

do it, so I tried a second time.” 

Sometimes Chairs have had to address changes made 

by the College that have given rise to anxiety within the 

community. Says Akash, “Over last summer, there was 

a change in the way the college/university payment 

system operated. Previously we had a card on which we 

made payments and then cleared our credit at the end 

of the month. The system changed to require an up-front 

top-up payment. Some people were unhappy about the 

change and, in some instances, there were real practical 

issues – with funding bodies, for example. I became 

the mediator: trying to voice the community’s concerns 

in an appropriate way to staff responsible for making 

Matthew with Colleen Corran from Corpus Christi 

MATTHEW NAIMAN 

Matthew obtained a double major in classical 

archaeology and ancient history, and latin, at Franklin 

and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 

He came to Oxford to do his Masters in classical 

archaeology and stayed for a further year to take 

an MPhil, also in classical archaeology. He loved his 

experience at The School of Archaeology, especially 

working with Chris Howgego, Keeper of the Heberden 

Coin Room at the Ashmolean Museum, who became 

supervisor for his DPhil in classical numismatics. 

Matthew is currently working as a researcher with a law 

firm prior to attending Duke Law School. He plans to 

practice art law after graduation. 

Matthew: I found the Junior Research Fellows to be a 

fantastic asset. Because there are no undergraduates, 

it’s a different kind of interaction. I found someone from 

a biology background who was helpful on statistics 

and network analysis; someone doing archaeology 

who helped on databases. The Fellows themselves are 

amazing fun, fantastic people – we had some great 

conversations. 



the transition –and then reassure students and others that 

changes were being made in their best interests. It was 

quite challenging.” 

A GREAT LEARNING EXPERIENCE 

Everyone agrees that being GM Chair is a great learning 

experience. “Wolfson consists of a fairly radical student 

population and my role was to translate what they wanted 

to Governing Body”, says Tabassum. “Being able to 

communicate across these two groups was a valuable 

lesson for my working life. It required planning and I really 

learnt how to organise my time.” 

“GM Chairs are often involved in 

interview panels for senior positions, 

something that is quite unique among 

Oxford colleges.” 

“The capability I’ve gained to represent unheard voices is 

something I’ve found very rewarding”, says Akash. “And 

learning how to manage different stakeholders in College is 

an important part of my personal development.” 

MAYSA FALAH 

Maysa graduated from the University of Science and 

Technology in Jordan with a degree in pharmacy. She 

came to Oxford for her MSc degree in the Department 

of Pharmacology, where she studied mechanisms of 

depression in Parkinson’s disease. For her DPhil project she 

investigated the excitotoxic role of NMDAR hyperfunction 

in human hippocampal sclerosis, a collaboration between 

the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences and the 

Department of Pharmacology. She is now working as a 

postdoctoral researcher in pharmacology and a tutor of 

medicine, remaining in Oxford. 

Maysa: I invested a lot of time in researching the different 

colleges. I chose Wolfson because it’s a graduate college 

and it provides plenty of accommodation, not just in the 

first year. And graduates are the core of the College so I 

knew that my chance of meeting similar minded people was 

higher. And what surprised me was the location – it’s as if 

you’re in the countryside but close to the centre. 

TABASSUM RASHEED 

Tabassum read for a degree in PPE from St John’s, Oxford 

and initially thought that was enough of academia. However, 

her desire to work in the third sector led her to return to 

Oxford for an MPhil in Middle Eastern Studies with Arabic, 

where she focused her research on the emerging modern 

art scene in the Gulf states. On graduating, she worked 

for the anti-corruption NGO Transparency International, 

specialising on countering corruption in the defence sector. 

Tabassum joined the UK Civil Service in 2015, and has 

served in a variety of roles in the UK and abroad. She 

currently works for HM Revenue & Customs. 

Tabassum: I ended up at Wolfson by accident, and having 

gone to a more traditional college for my undergraduate 

studies, it was quite a culture shock. What has really stuck 

with me was the number of role models I found there. There 

were so many remarkable academics who all pitched in 

to college life and consciously got involved in making the 

community around them a better place for everyone. And I 

have a lot of fond memories of lounging around on punts or 

by the harbour! 



Lucho agrees: “I have learnt how to resolve conflict, how 

to negotiate between different groups. I’ve learnt to listen 

more and I’ve learnt to communicate better. I’ve made a lot 

of mistakes I’m sure but every experience is something you 

learn from. And I’ve had a very good experience of standing 

in front of GB – and that can really help in preparing for PhD 

presentations.” 

Chairing the meeting itself is a skill. Matthew was particularly 

impressed watching former President Hermione Lee chair 

Governing Body. “Learning from Hermione was fantastic”, 

he said: “the way she moved through agenda items and 

deferred to various opinions on different topics.” 

GM Chairs are often involved in interview panels for senior 

positions, something that is quite unique among Oxford 

colleges. Maysa had the good fortune to be involved in 

interviews for the new College President. “As students, we 

had the opportunity to interview all the candidates on their 

own and we were asked to give our feedback. The final 

choice was made by Governing Body but it was pleasing 

that our choice coincided with theirs.” 

AKASH TRIVEDI 

After studying aeronautical engineering at Imperial College, 

London, Akash returned to his home town of Leicester 

as a secondary school teacher. He joined Teach First, the 

organisation that takes top graduates and provides teacher 

training in return for a commitment to teach for at least two 

years. Akash found it a really challenging and rewarding 

experience but realised he wanted to continue with his 

engineering studies. He is currently working towards a DPhil, 

with a project that involves trying to predict the mechanical 

behaviours of soft materials when you impact them or 

compress them quickly. Akash also maintains his teaching 

interest by teaching undergraduates at Christ Church and in 

the Department of Engineering Science. 

Akash: I was initially disappointed that I wasn’t among the 

‘dreaming spires’ but what I hear from friends at other colleges 

is that, as graduate students, they are not as well served 

as we are. Here we have so many facilities like the nursery. 

There’s a general caring and friendly atmosphere between 

staff, students, and Fellows. This is something I’ve really 

grown to appreciate. 

LUIS HILDEBRANDT BELMONT (LUCHO) 

Lucho did a Masters degree in speech language therapy 

at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, but his 

real ambition was to study psycholinguistics, which 

was not available in Peru. He came to the UK and went 

to the University of Essex where he took a Master’s in 

psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics, and another one in 

cognitive neuroscience. The experience left him enthusiastic 

about a career in academia and, after visiting friends in 

Wolfson, he decided that Oxford, and Wolfson, was the 

place. He is currently doing a DPhil in comparative philology 

and general linguistics, focusing on psycholinguistics and 

cognitive linguistics. 

Lucho: Wolfson is very welcoming. If this college had been 

built as all the others colleges, I think people would act in 

the same way as they do – with more traditional structures, 

more hierarchy, and without the mixing between students 

and professors. I think the egalitarian nature of the place is 

one of the most wonderful things about Wolfson. When I 

first came here to visit a friend, I thought it was paradise – 

and I was not wrong! 


Wolfson News 

For more Wolfson news, visit www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/news 

Wolfson news 

Washoku dinner hosted by 

Embassy of Japan 

The College welcomed the Embassy 

of Japan to host a Washoku dinner 

as part of the Japan UK Season of 

Culture 2019–20 on 2 February. The 

dinner presented Japanese food in 

its social and historical context, with 

a particular focus on how umami 

flavours came to be so integral to 

Japanese cooking. 

Chef Daisuke Hayashi of London 

restaurant Tokimeite worked in 

collaboration with Tony Baughan, 

Wolfson’s Head Chef, to create a 

menu that showcased Japanese 

ingredients. The evening began 

with Chef Hayashi introducing some 

of the key concepts of Japanese 

cooking: combining ingredients such 

as kombu seaweed and bonito flakes 

to amplify the effect of the so-called 

‘fifth taste’, umami. He also discussed 

the importance of water in creating 

the perfect dashi, a class of soup and 

K Team work at the Washoku dinner 

cooking stock that is the cornerstone 

of much Japanese cooking. 

Commenting on the evening, Tim 

Hitchens said: “Tony Baughan 

and Hayashi san partnered up to 

produce a meal which was wellbalanced, 

unforgettable, and a perfect 

introduction to Japan’s unique cuisine. 

And the food was complemented 

by a suite of sake varieties, each 

appropriate to the dishes. The evening 

was a triumph.” 

Celebrating International Mother 

Language Day 

Wolfson celebrated International 

Mother Language Day on 21 February 

with a video featuring students talking 

in their own mother language. From 

Bengali to Hungarian, British Sign 

Language to Dutch, ten different 

languages are highlighted in the 

video. International Mother Language 

Day aims to promote peace and 

multilingualism around the world and 

K Sampling sake 

to protect all mother languages. It 

was established to recognise the 

1952 Bengali Language Movement in 

former East Bengal and the day was 

proclaimed by the General Conference 

of UNESCO in November 1999. 

Wolfson Fellow discovers new 

biochemical pathway in plants, 

named CHLORAD 

Professor Paul Jarvis at the 

Department of Plant Sciences and 

his team have discovered a new 

biochemical pathway in plants 

which they have named CHLORAD. 

By manipulating the CHLORAD 

pathway (from ‘cloroplast-associated 

protein degradation’), scientists can 

modify how plants respond to their 

environment. The researchers hope 

that their results, published in Science, 

will open the way to new crop 

improvement strategies as we face the 

prospect of delivering food security for 

a global population that is projected to 

reach nearly 10 billion by 2050. 



Reflecting our landscape 

In February, Wolfson hosted an 

exhibition of photography by 

Jenny Blyth who had spent a year 

photographing the College and 

the gardens that run down to the 

River Cherwell. Of ‘Reflecting the 

Landscape’, Jenny said: “I walk daily 

whatever the weather and find a sense 

of oneness with nature that I attempt 

to capture in my photographs. I am 

drawn to the poetry in the landscape 

and find that I am chasing beauty.” 

An experienced curator and gallerist, 

Jenny was curator at The Saatchi 

Gallery from 1990 to 2002 and ran a 

floating gallery for ten years thereafter, 

originating projects and mounting 

exhibitions largely in London, 

Manchester and Oxford. 

Wolfson student tackles plastic 

pollution in Aldabra 

Josephine Mahony, a geography 

student at Wolfson, has taken part in 

an expedition to tackle the problem of 

plastic pollution on the remote island 

of Aldabra in the Seychelles. The 

six-week expedition in February and 

March comprised seven people from 

the Seychelles and five from Oxford. 

The team worked in some of the most 

isolated and hostile terrains to clear 

this otherwise pristine atoll of plastic 

pollution. 

Launched in May 2018, the project 

has reached its fundraising target 

thanks to a mix of generous corporate 

and individual sponsors. It is attracting 

growing international interest and was 

highlighted by the president of the 

Seychelles at the 2018 G7 Summit. 

New Development Director 

The College has appointed Huw David 

as Development Director to succeed 

William Conner, who has retired. 

Huw David has served as the 

Development Director of the 

Rothermere American Institute, 

L Reflections: White on Blue, 2018, a photograph at Wolfson College 

by Jenny Blyth, www.jennyblythfineart.co.uk 

L Huw David 

Oxford’s department for teaching 

and research in American history, 

politics and culture, where he led and 

managed the Institute’s multi-millionpound 

fundraising campaign. He had 

previously completed his DPhil in Anglo- 

American History at Lincoln College. 

His first book, Trade, Politics, and 

Revolution: South Carolina and Britain’s 

Atlantic Commerce, 1730-1790, was 

published by the University of South 

Carolina Press in November 2018 and 

in February won the South Carolina 

Historical Society’s Rogers Prize for 

the best book of South Carolina history 

published the previous year. 

College President Tim Hitchens said: 

“I am delighted that Huw has joined 

us at Wolfson at the start of a new 

chapter in the College’s development. 

Huw brings with him an excellent track 

record in fundraising; as important, he 

also represents the research-driven, 

ambitious and engaging style which 

is true to this College and the modern 

Oxford.” 

The Palestinian History Tapestry 

opened by Judith English 

In March, the College hosted the 

Palestinian History Tapestry (PHT) 

exhibition which illustrates the history 

of the Land of Palestine, from the 

Neolithic era to the present. Palestinian 

women, many of whom live in refugee 

camps across the Middle East, 

produced the artworks which are an 

honest and touching depiction of the 

history of the land, its people and their 

everyday lives. The exhibition was 

organised by Judith English, former 

Principal of St Hilda’s College and a 

founder member of the PHT project. 

Wolfson to support UK settlement 

Governing Body has decided to pay 

the fees of all EU employees, Research 

Fellows and Junior Research Fellows 

(RFs and JRFs) and their close families 

wanting to apply for settlement or 



support to projects such as the 

Wolfson-Amref Bursary and recently, 

the ‘Health for Young People’ project.” 

L Ryan Walker meeting HRH The Prince of Wales 

Outrunning his demons 

In February 2016, marathon runner 

and journalist alumnus Phil Hewitt 

was attacked in Cape Town. Deeply 

traumatised by the attack, he turned 

to running – and found a rich source 

of healing and recovery. He tells his 

story in his new book, Outrunning the 

Demons, as well as the stories of 34 

other people who have similarly used 

running in the wake of war, terrorism, 

assault, addiction, bereavement, 

depression and serious illness. He 

offers it as a book about hope and 

survival. 

“The trouble with being stabbed, 

assuming you survive, isn’t so much 

the knife that goes into you. No, the 

real trouble is the mess of thoughts 

it leaves behind – thoughts, in my 

case, far harder to deal with than the 

physical injuries”, Hewitt said. 

Phil Hewitt gained a DPhil in French 

as a student at Wolfson from 1987 

to 1990. He is currently the Group 

Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. 

Outrunning the Demons is published 

by Bloomsbury Sport. 

L Gaza Rooftops, one of the tapestries on display at the PHT exhibition 

pre-settlement status in the UK. The 

announcement is in line with Oxford 

Univeirsity’s newly introduced scheme 

to pay for all its EU employees. Tim 

Hitchens said: “In the midst of the 

Brexit uncertainty, I want to ensure 

that those EU nationals working at 

Oxford are supported in any way that 

we can. They – you – are a vital and 

welcome part of College and University 

life, and I have discussed with the 

Vice Chancellor ways in which we can 

provide a little more certainty.” 

DPhil student Ryan Walker at 

Health in Her Hands launch 

Amref’s spring campaign, launched 

at Clarence House on 8 March, aims 

to shine a light on the female health 

workers saving and changing lives 

across Africa. The event was hosted 

by Amref’s long-time Patron, HRH The 

Prince of Wales, who has supported 

the charity since he first visited Amref’s 

work in Kenya in 1971. Ryan Walker, 

a DPhil candidate in Clinical Medicine, 

was “delighted to be offered the 

opportunity to attend the event on 

behalf of the College and promote 

some of the excellent work that 

Wolfson does. Everyone I spoke to 

was extremely interested to hear of the 

work done by the College, whether it 

be our fundraising efforts, our direct 

L Phil Hewitt 


Events and activities 2018-2019 

WOLFSON EVENTS: 

OXFORD AND BEYOND 

Good vibrations at 

Lincoln’s Inn 

This year’s London Lecture featured Tarje Nissen-Meyer 

on the subject ‘Good vibrations: of earthquakes, elephants 

and extraterrestrial life’. Once again, Fellows, alumni 

and friends enjoyed a wonderful lecture and networking 

over drinks and canapés at Lincoln’s Inn, thanks to the 

generosity of Thomas Sharpe QC. n 

20 . WOLFSON COLLEGE OXFORD . PLANS & PROSPECTS . 2018


Lancaster House 

hosts Annual 

Alumni Drinks 

Wolfson alumni and friends were 

thrilled to be invited to Lancaster 

House for the 2018 Christmas drinks 

party, thanks to the good offices of 

College President, Sir Tim Hitchens. 

Managed and run by the Foreign and 

Commonwealth Office, Lancaster 

House has often been the location 

for major national and international 

conferences – and as a film location, 

including in Netflix’s The Crown. n 

Isaiah Berlin on Liberty 

The annual Isaiah Berlin Lecture, generously supported 

by the Rothschild Foundation, was given on 

8 November 2018 by Dr Aileen Kelly, Fellow of Kings 

College, Cambridge. An expert in nineteenth- and early 

twentieth-century Russian intellectual history, Dr Kelly’s 

talk was entitled ‘Isaiah Berlin on Liberty’. n 

Royal Society President 

gives Haldane Lecture 

The College was delighted to welcome Sir Venki 

Ramakrishnan, President of the Royal Society, to 

give the 2019 Haldane Lecture on 7 February. His 

topic: ‘The Quest for the Structure of the Ribosome: A 

Personal Voyage’. n 



Nero and 

Tiridates of 

Armenia on the 

Bay of Naples 

Wolfsonians and their guests were 

treated to a fascinating talk about 

Parthian Prince Tiridates and his 

journey to Italy at the Ronald Syme 

Lecture on 1 November 2018. The 

speaker, Kathleen Colman, James 

Loeb Professor of the Classics at 

Harvard University, spoke on the topic: 

‘Spectacular Diplomacy: Nero and the 

Reception of Tiridates of Armenia on 

the Bay of Naples’. n 

Alumni and donor visits in 

India and Pakistan 

Tim Hitchens joined Associate Professor Matthew 

McCartney for visits with alumni and prospective donors 

to support South Asia Research Cluster activities in 

January 2019. n 


Events and activities Academic 2018-2019 agenda 

President 

in Tokyo 

The United Nations University (UNU) in Tokyo hosted 

‘Brexit, Soft Power, and Education’, a conversation with 

Sir Tim Hitchens on 21 March. The President joined Dr 

David Passarelli, UNU Executive Officer, to discuss the 

impact of Brexit on the UK’s global soft power and the 

reputation of its universities. 

The event coincided with the Oxford University Reunion 

in Tokyo, where Tim also spoke and had the opportunity 

to meet alumni and friends. n 

The Fate of Pakistan 

Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy spoke on the intriguing topic ‘The Fate 

of Pakistan – three ways in which things could really go 

wrong, and reasons for hope they may not’ at the Sarfraz 

Pakistan Lecture on 18 October 2018. n 

Sir Thomas Allen in Conversation 

Leading Baritone, Sir Thomas Allen, performed and was in conversation 

with Radio 3 presenter and Weinrebe Research Fellow in Life-Writing, 

Kate Kennedy, and pianist Simon Over for the second Weinrebe Lecture 

on 25 January. Sir Thomas has sung more than 50 roles at the Royal 

Opera House, Covent Garden and in recent years has added directing to 

his credits, making an acclaimed US debut with The Marriage of Figaro. n 


Academic Events and agenda activities 2018-2019 

The 

Alice in Wonderland Ball 

Alice in Wonderland was the theme for the 2018 Winter Ball on 1 December. 

Decorations were spectacular and there were magicians, face painters and The 

Evil Queen all providing the guests with an unforgettable experience as they ate 

the delicious food – everything from burgers to dim sum and Indian street food. 

The highlight of the evening was the recreation of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party 

while an amazing selection of bands provided guests with music to listen and 

dance to while enjoying their evening. 

Aditi Agrawal

Events and activities Academic 2018-2019 agenda 

A busy year 

for Wolfson 

choir 

Wolfson’s choir has had a busy year under new music 

director, Caroline Lesemann-Elliott, who is studying 

conducting as part of her Masters in Musicology at Royal 

Holloway. To celebrate the end of Michaelmas term and the 

start of Christmas, the choir performed a mix of traditional 

carols and popular songs, as well as some Holst (‘This have 

I done for my true love’), and a song written by a 17thcentury 

Mexican nun: ‘Madre la de los primores’. For this 

they were joined by cellist Kate Kennedy-Allum from the 

Oxford Centre for Life-Writing, with her son on percussion. 

On 12 March, the choir performed folk songs from around 

the world in a joint concert with St Cross College in the St 

Cross Chapel. The choir rehearses regularly at 19.30 on 

Mondays – all welcome. 

Ursula Westwood 

Supporting the BME 

community 

BME rep Woohee Kim strives to create supportive 

spaces for black, Asian and minority ethnic students 

and family members at Wolfson, championing 

issues related to diversity and inclusivity at the 

College. Woohee was elected as the BME rep during 

Michaelmas term and has organised a number of 

events. These have included ‘Speaking through 

silence: Blackness Cambridge and radical archive’, 

a talk featuring the president of the Black Cantabs 

Society at Cambridge, which formed part of Common 

Ground Oxford’s Festival of Liberated Curricula in 

February. She also organised ‘A conversation on 

women of color’s experiences at Oxford’. This was 

co-organised with BME reps at Keble, Brasenose, 

St Hilda’s and Wadham, successfully creating an 

intimate conversation that went beyond the planned 

time, lasting for three hours. Other events have 

included BMETea, a supportive space for all self- 

identifying black, Asian, and minority ethnic students and 

family members to come together for tea and snacks, and 

a Lunar New Year welfare cake event with snacks from 

cultures that celebrate Lunar New Year. 


Fundraising aims and ambitions 

Fundraising 

Aims and ambitions for 2019–20 

SUPPORTING WOLFSON 

The generosity of Wolfson’s alumni 

and friends has a huge impact on the 

life of the College. In recent years, the 

Academic Wing, the Leonard Wolfson 

auditorium, the 50 DPhil scholarships 

established to coincide with the 

College’s fiftieth anniversary, and the 

vitality of Wolfson’s academic clusters, 

from the Ancient World to Quantum 

Physics, are testament to the value 

of all gifts, large and small, from the 

College’s many supporters. 

In 2018–19, your generosity was 

instrumental in making several 

important initiatives happen. In 

this publication two years ago, we 

appealed for support to provide 

academics at risk with a temporary 

safe place to continue their academic 

work and research. Wolfsonians’ 

response was tremendous. Thanks 

to more than 100 alumni and friends, 

supplemented by a wonderful gift 

of $400,000 from an anonymous 

benefactor, the College will host at 

least six at-risk academics and their 

families over the next six years. 

SUPPORTING STUDENTS 

Supporting students through 

scholarships and increasing the 

number of fully-funded research 

fellowships is at the heart of Wolfson’s 

fundraising ambitions. We want to 

ensure that Wolfson continues to take 

the best graduate students from the 

UK and around the world – and to 

make education at Wolfson open to 

people from all walks of life. To do so 

requires more scholarships and more 

support for students who encounter 

unexpected hardship. 

Thanks to the generosity of alumnus 

Simon Harrison, who received a DPhil 

in Applied Physics in 1972, the College 

has been able to offer nine fullyfunded 

DPhil scholarships in physics 

and computer science. The Wolfson 

Harrison UK Research Council Physics 

Scholarship and the Wolfson Harrison 

UK Research Council Quantum 

Foundation Scholarship were awarded 

again in 2018–19. These are two of 

the many scholarships made possible 

by Wolfsonians’ philanthropy. 

In the current environment, 

students need all the help they 

can get. Hundreds of alumni 

have made donations to Wolfson 

College over the past decade, 

some of them making gifts every 

year. To help us grow the pool of 

funding available for scholarships 

and other student support, please 

make a contribution today by 

visiting: 

www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/make-gift 

If you are a US tax payer, visit: 

www.oxfordna.org/donate 

If you pay tax in Canada or any 

other part of the world, visit: 

www.campaign.ox.ac.uk/ 

wolfson-college 

LEGACIES 

Legacies have been vital to Wolfson 

since the College’s earliest days and 

are essential to its future. Across five 

decades, Wolfsonians have benefitted 

from the generosity of predecessors 

who have helped the College flourish 

by making legacy gifts. 

In 2018–19 two generous legacies, 

from the estates of Geoffrey Garton 

and Andrew Watson, have enhanced 

the College’s buildings, environment, 

and cultural life. Thanks to the 

generosity of Dr Garton, a former 

Fellow and Bursar of Wolfson, we 

have established a permanent 

26 . WOLFSON COLLEGE OXFORD . PLANS & PROSPECTS . 2019 2018

Fundraising aims and ambitions 

fund to support the acquisition of 

works of art and to display them 

around the College, to fund music 

concerts, and to support the visiting 

Geoffrey Garton Creative Arts Fellow. 

Professor Watson’s kind legacy has 

allowed us to refurbish the Buttery 

as a magnificent space for College 

receptions, meetings and meals. 

If you are considering leaving a legacy 

to Wolfson College, please contact the 

Alumni Office or follow this link: 

www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/make-gift 

JON STALLWORTHY POETRY PRIZE 

One special initiative in 2019 is to 

honour the life of Jon Stallworthy by 

endowing the Jon Stallworthy Poetry 

Prize for Oxford graduate students. 

A much-loved tutor, scholar and 

poet, Jon Stallworthy was a Fellow of 

Wolfson between 1986 and his death 

in 2014 and twice Acting President 

of the College. Thanks to generous 

gifts from Old Possum’s Practical 

Trust and the Derek Hill Foundation, 

the prize was first awarded in 2016. 

We now want to endow the prize 

as a permanent tribute to Professor 

Stallworthy and hope that his many 

friends and admirers in the Wolfson 

community will give their support. 

Thanks to the generosity of several 

donors, we have secured nearly half 

of the £75,000 required to endow 

the Jon Stallworthy Poetry Prize in 

perpetuity. For more details of the prize 

and how you can make a donation 

to this valuable initiative, please visit: 

https://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/jonstallworthy-poetry-prize. 

n 

K Jon Stallworthy 

PLANS & PROSPECTS . 2019 . 27

Academic Supporting agenda Wolfson 

Supporting Wolfson 

A donation will help 

to secure the future 

of Wolfson 

Methods of giving 

Online giving 

Our recommended method – if you are resident anywhere 

except the USA, please donate online at our special 

website www.campaign.ox.ac.uk/wolfson-college 

You can set up regular giving there, or make a single 

gift with a credit or debit card. 

In the USA, you can donate tax efficiently through 

Americans for Oxford at www.oxfordna.org/donate 

Telephone giving 

If you live in the UK or anywhere except the USA, call the 

Wolfson College Development Office on +44 (0) 1865 

611041 for secure, single gift card payments. If you live in 

the USA, please call the team at Americans for Oxford on 

(212) 377 4900 to make a secure, single gift card payment 

or to set up a regular giving plan using a credit card. 

Giving by post 

You can use the donation form enclosed with this magazine 

or download the form at www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/makegift. 

Please send the forms to the Wolfson Alumni and 

Development Office, Wolfson College, Linton Road, 

Oxford OX2 6UD. You can also call us on 

+44 (0) 1865 611041 

Tax efficient ways of giving 

Depending on where you live and whether or not 

you are a taxpayer, there are several ways you 

can increase the value of your gift to your College 

beyond what it costs you. 

UK taxpayers 

Please make sure to cover your donation under the Gift Aid 

scheme to increase the value of your gift by 25%, courtesy of 

HM Customs and Revenue. Higher rate tax payers will get a 

further deduction from their taxes. 

USA taxpayers 

Please send a cheque to Americans for Oxford, an American 

501c3 charity, with clear instructions that it is for Wolfson 

College (include postal address: Linton Road, Oxford OX2 

6UD). You may also use the online giving method offered by 

Americans for Oxford: www.oxfordna.org/donate 

Continental European Residents 

Tax efficient giving is available through the Transnational 

Giving Europe Scheme. For full information, go to www. 

campaign.ox.ac.uk/contribute/worldwide_giving/index. 

html 

Canadian taxpayers 

The University of Oxford is recognised by the Canadian 

Revenue Agency as a prescribed institution under Section 

3503 of the Canadian Income Tax Regulations. On receipt 

of your donation, we will ensure that you are sent a receipt 

for Canadian tax purposes. For full information, go to www. 

campaign.ox.ac.uk/contribute/worldwide_giving/index. 

html 

WOLFSON COLLEGE 

UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, Linton Road, Oxford 0X2 6UD 

www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/make-gift or contact the Alumni and Development Office. 

Email: development.office@wolfson.ox.ac.uk 

Telephone: +44 (0) 1865 611041 

28 . WOLFSON COLLEGE OXFORD . PLANS & PROSPECTS . 2019 2013 2018

Academic Staying in agenda touch 

Staying in touch 

Huw David 

Development Director 

Kathie Mackay 

Senior Development Officer 

Clare Norton 

Development Officer 

Alumni and Development Office 

Wolfson College 

Linton Road 

Oxford OX2 6UD 

Dr Huw David 

Development Director 

+44 (0)1865 284333 

huw.david@wolfson.ox.ac.uk 

Join the global 

OXFORD ALUMNI COMMUNITY 

Kathie Mackay 

Senior Development Officer 

+44 (0)1865 611041 

kathie.mackay@wolfson.ox.ac.uk 

Clare Norton 

Development Officer 

+44 (0)1865 611042 

clare.norton@wolfson.ox.ac.uk 

Sign up with: 

Download the app: 

YOUR LEGACY TO WOLFSON COLLEGE 

No matter how small or large, a bequest will help to secure the future of 

Wolfson, as well as that of generations of Wolfsonians to come. 



Alumni and Development Office . Wolfson College . Linton Road . Oxford OX2 6UD 

Dr Huw David, Development Director . huw.david@wolfson.ox.ac.uk 

Kathie Mackay, Senior Development Officer . kathie.mackay@wolfson.ox.ac.uk . +44 (0)1865 611 041 

Clare Norton, Development Officer . clare.norton@wolfson.ox.ac.uk . +44 (0)1865 611042 

www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk 

Cover photograph: 

Reflections Tree Houses by Jenny Blyth

Wolfson Plans & Prospects 2019

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?