College Record 2017

Tantric Ritual Manuals by Professor Carmen Meinert (Bochum, Germany); and The
Organisation of the Sacred Landscape of Sikkim: Between Tradition and Modernity
by Dr Olivier Chiron (Bordeaux).
In Hilary term 2017 we had Gakar Rinpoche, a Buddhist lama from Nepal, staying
with us as the So-Wide Visitor in Buddhist Studies. He offered a weekly reading
class in Tibetan Buddhist literature and was available for individual interviews. He
also gave a talk at Wolfson, organised by the Centre for Buddhist Studies. In the
same term we showed A Gesar Bard’s Tale, a poetic documentary telling the story
of a traditional Tibetan epic bard and his life in contemporary China. The Losar
(Tibetan New Year Party) has become a fixed item in our calendar, and it is getting
better every year: there is a report under ‘Clubs and Societies’.
All in all, it has been a good year, and we hope to maintain this pace and diversity.
For information on future events, go to www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/clusters/tibetanhimalayan.
Ulrike Roesler
Research Fellows’ activities
by Anne Deighton (EF), Research Fellows' Liaison
Officer
The College numbers almost 120 Research Fellows and Junior Research Fellows,
who range across the academic piste at very different stages in their professional
lives. It has arranged lunches for them every fortnight in term and vacation, and
speakers who included most recently the University’s Head of Brexit Strategy, an
issue which confronts us all. As Research Fellows’ Liaison Officer, I have been
available to individual Fellows to discuss issues which concern them, but there is
much much more to be done with regard to support, interaction, networking and
forging links with the relevant Members of Common Room. I have only been able to
scratch the surface of a project so important to the College: the post-doctoral world
lies on the cusp between research, specialisation and future employment, which may
sometimes entail refocusing one’s professional life.
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