Summer 2010 - St Antony's College - University of Oxford

Oxford North American Reunion
University Chancellor Lord Patten with St Antony’s Eugene Rogan
Roger Goodman moderating
Despite the best attempts by Volcano
Eyjafjallajoekull, this year’s North American
Reunion in New York (April 16-18) was
well represented by Antonians and a very
successful series of events.
Saturday commenced with informal
breakfast gatherings hosted by the Heads
of Oxford’s four academic divisions and
the department of Continuing Education.
The program continued with a plenary
session, “Magna Carta @ 800”. The
session featured Dr Sarah Thomas, Bodley’s
Librarian and Richard Ovenden, Keeper of
Special Collections and Associate Director
of the Bodleian Library, who reviewed the
history of the document, the historical
context surrounding its creation, and its
lasting impact upon our world.
The next academic session included
Nicholas Kristof, New York Times Op-
Ed columnist (Magdalen College, 1981)
and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn. The panel
was moderated by Professor Margaret
MacMillan, Warden of St Antony’s. The
session, titled “Half the Sky,” argued that
the most effective way to fight global
poverty and insecurity is to educate and
empower women.
Lunch followed, including a question and
answer session with the Vice-Chancellor
led by Ms Chrystia Freeland, Global Editorat-Large
for Thomson Reuters (‘93). This
was the Vice Chancellor’s first Reunion,
and guests were able to hear about his
plans for the University’s future, and ask
their own questions.
In the afternoon was “Oxford and Public
Policy: Accomplishments and Potential.”
Despite its lack of a School of Public
Policy, Oxford has a long and rich tradition
of educating generations of leaders in
government and public life. Professor
Ngaire Woods, (University College),
Director of the Global Economic
Governance Programme, led a discussion
focusing on what Oxford has done, and
could do, in this important area. Professor
Roger Goodman (St Antony’s) introduced
the panel and Michael Elliott, Editor of
TIME International (Worcester, 1972)
joined Professor Woods on the panel.
The final discussion, “Is Democracy
Exportable” was moderated by Mark
Whitaker, Senior Vice President for NBC
News (Balliol, ’79) with the Chancellor and
Dr Eugene Rogan, (St Antony’s) speaking.
This panel considered whether or not
democracy is strictly a Western principle
and if efforts to foster its spread are likely
to succeed.
Saturday evening, we hosted a dinner
at the Cornell Club jointly with Corpus
Christi College and in fact outnumbered
the Corpuscles – a fabulous dinner with
around 40 Antonians!
We would like to say an enormous thank
you to Suzy Assaad Wahba (’91) for hosting
a lovely cocktail reception, to which around
40 Antonians and friends came.
Emma Tracy
University Vice Chancellor Professor Andrew Hamilton with St Antony’s alumna Chrystia Freeland
[photos credit Allan King]
10