Issue 19, 2013 - Balliol College - University of Oxford

college news
New Fellows
Jin-Chong Tan
Jin-Chong joins the College as a tutorial Fellow in
engineering science. He carried out both his doctoral
and post-doctoral research in the Department of
Materials science and Metallurgy at Cambridge. His
research interests focus on the mechanical behaviour
of advanced engineering materials
useful for structural and functional
applications, many of which
operate under extreme conditions.
Among the novel materials
being developed are ultralightweight
composite systems,
multifunctional coatings, and a new
class of nanoporous materials termed
‘Metal-organic Frameworks’, targeted
at emerging areas linked to
energy, sustainability, and
biomedicine.
Concepción Naval
Visiting Fellow and oliver smithies Lecturer
(education), Concepción has since 1993 been
Professor of educational theory at the university
of navarra, where from 1996 to 2001 she directed
the Department of education and where she
was appointed Vice President in 2001. she is the
author or co-author of various books, including
Educación Retórica y Poética (1993), Educar
ciudadanos (2000, 2nd ed.),
and Gerontología educativa
(2001). Concepción’s
research while at Balliol
will focus on new
media literacy among
primary and secondary
school teachers, the
social responsibility of
universities, and museums
as educational spaces.
Elena Lombardi
elena joins Balliol as a tutor in italian. she was
Assistant Professor in italian studies at McGill
university from 2000 to 2005, and senior Lecturer
in the school of Modern Languages at the university
of Bristol from 2006 to 2012. Her undergraduate
teaching focuses on Dante, early
italian Poetry, and Medieval
studies, her post-graduate
teaching on Dante. Her
research is on concepts
of language and desire
in the Middle Ages,
medieval poetics,
ideas of the book in
medieval times, and
the Renaissance
epic-chivalric poem.
John-Paul Ghobrial
John-Paul is Lucas Fellow and tutor in History.
Also a university Lecturer and tutorial Fellow in
early Modern History, he is primarily interested
in exchanges between the Middle east and
europe in the early modern period. His first
monograph, forthcoming from ouP, explores
the circulation of information between istanbul
and europe in the late 17th century. this
project led to a renewed interest in eastern
Christians and their roles as intermediaries
between europe and the east. He is at work
on a second book called The Secret Life
of Elias of Babylon, a microhistory of the
adventures and writings of a 17th-century
Chaldean traveller to the Americas.
Stefano
Zacchetti
stefano joins Balliol
as the university’s
Yehan numata
Professor of
Buddhist studies.
He was Associate
Professor at the
international
Research institute
for Advanced
Buddhology (tokyo)
from 2001 to 2005,
and he worked as
a tenured lecturer
(ricercatore) at
the Ca’ Foscari
university of Venice,
Department of
Asian and north
African studies,
from 2005 to 2012.
stefano’s research
focuses on the
transmission of
Buddhism from
india to China, and
on early Chinese
Buddhist literature
(particularly
translations and
commentaries). His
publications include
the monograph In
Praise of the Light
(tokyo, 2005).
William Jones
William is Junior Research Fellow in the social
sciences (Politics). He is currently a research officer
at the Refugee studies Centre, working on a two-year
project on political mobilisation and transnational
exile networks in African diasporas (in particular,
of Rwanda, eritrea, Angola, and Zimbabwe) as part
of the Leverhulme oxford Diasporas Programme.
He is the Convenor of the oxford Central Africa
Forum, a regular seminar
series presenting new
research on the politics,
history, and sociology
of the Great Lakes
region. He is also
editor of St Antony’s
International Review and
a contributor to reports
by the Commonwealth
Human Rights initiative
for submissions to the un
Human Rights Council
and African Human
Rights Commission.
Matthew Robinson
Matthew returns to Balliol, where he studied as
both an undergraduate and a graduate, as tutorial
Fellow in Latin Literature after 11 years as a lecturer
at university College London. His primary research
interests centre on Augustan poetry, though they
also include Greek astronomy and astronomical
mythology. His most recent
book was a commentary
on Book 2 of ovid’s Fasti
(ouP, 2010); his current
research examines the
ways in which Augustan
texts interact with
various non-textual
aspects of shared cultural
experience, ranging from
art and architecture to
memory training and
the movements of the
night sky.
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