Regent's Now Magazine 2019 WEB

REGENT’S NOW

THE MAGAZINE OF REGENT’S PARK COLLEGE | 2019

IRIS MURDOCH

AND THEOLOGY

ROME AFTER SULLA

CELEBRATING THE YEAR

New Fellows for the College

Contents

Principal’s Foreword – Dr Robert Ellis 1

COLLEGE LIFE

Highlights from 2019 2

The Impact of Generosity – Viola Kerr 3

Building a Regent’s for the Future – Dr Stephen McGlynn 5

New Directions for OPGDI – Dr Shidong Wang 6

Nobel Laureate becomes Honorary Fellow - Dr Mamtimyn Sunuodula 7

PROFILES

Profile: Dr Lynn Robson – Dr Marchella Ward 8

Profile: Dr Christine Joynes 10

FEATURES

Rome after Sulla: The Language of Political Violence in Ancient Rome

– Dr J. Alison Rosenblitt 12

Finished with Religion?: Iris Murdoch and Theology – Revd Andrew Taylor 14

In the Footsteps of Pilgrims – Adam Large and Alex Priestley-Leach 16

Hope in the Hills: Appalachia and Post-Coal Transition in the United States

– Meredith Scalos 18

A Refuge in War – Pam Davies, with Neil Jones 20

STUDENTS

A Year in the JCR – William Robinson 22

A Year in the MCR – Andy Baxter 24

News from the Ministerial Community – Neil Jones 26

ALUMNI AND FRIENDS

My Proudest Affiliation: Celebrating Regent’s

friendships in North America – Dr Carroll Stevens 28

Can I Have a Word? – Revd Nick Fawcett 30

Student Recognition 32

In Memoriam 33

Principal’s

Foreword

Dr

Dr Robert Ellis

Another year, and once again Regent’s Now magazine gives a

glimpse into the life and achievements of members of the College

community. In this issue you will see profiles of the new Fellow

and Director of our new Centre for Baptist Studies, Dr Chris

Joynes, and also of Dr Lynn Robson, who was elected to a Tutorial

Fellowship during the year. Features include Iris Murdoch’s

contribution to theological enquiry following a symposium

that we hosted this year, and our ancient historian Dr Alison

Rosenblitt’s new book, Rome after Sulla.

I have mentioned our newly re-shaped Centre for Baptist Studies,

and we are also re-launching our other research centre as the

Oxford Centre for Religion and Culture. We were delighted to

welcome Dr Anthony Reddie to our staff team as he took up his

post as part-time director of the OCRC on 1 January 2020.

We are also very pleased to announce that Dr Kate Kirkpatrick

will be joining Regent’s in the Trinity term as our new Fellow

in Philosophy and Christian Ethics. Dr Kirkpatrick is currently

Lecturer in Religion, Philosophy and Culture at King’s College

London and her publications include the new ground-breaking

biography of Simone de Beauvoir, Becoming Beauvoir: A Life

(Bloomsbury, 2019).

An ambitious programme of upgrades to the College site has

been made possible recently thanks to our improved and stable

financial position, as our treasurer Tony Harris and Director of

Operations Dr Stephen McGlynn explain. Some of this work in

refurbishment is supported by gifts and donations, and a cause for

considerable gratitude in College is the support we receive from

friends and former students which makes so much of our work

possible. As well as upgrading our facilities, you can read in this

issue about how gifts support such initiatives as two new Junior

Research Fellowships, and the graduate studentship in memory of

Pamela Sue Anderson.

Part of the great richness of the Oxford experience is in the

many visitors who pass through and leave their mark. Among

a number of visiting academics to Regent’s this year we were

delighted to welcome back Dr Mo Yan, the first Chinese winner of

the Nobel Prize for Literature. Mo Yan is collaborating with our

Oxford Prospects and Global Development Institute, which has a

Robert Ellis with new Honorary Fellow, Dr Mo Yan

special focus on academic links with China of various kinds, in a

new writing competition open to students in Oxford and Beijing

that we will launch next year. We elected Mo Yan to an Honorary

Fellowship of the College, and we recognised his Fellowship at an

event in June attended by members of the academic and diplomatic

communities. Indeed, the celebrations continued for several days,

with Mo Yan also participating in a conversation about literature

with other leading authors, Yu Hua and Su Tong, hosted by former

Literary Editor of The Independent, Boyd Tonkin.

They say that ‘every picture tells a story,’ and one of the ways in

which Oxford colleges tell their stories is through collections

of portraiture. This year we unveiled a new collection of new

portraits featuring four significant figures in the life of the

College and indicating our increasingly diverse community. Two

charcoal portraits by James Findlay depict the aforementioned

new Honorary Fellow Dr Mo Yan; and also the College’s first

female ministerial student, Violet Hedger

– the centenary of whose arrival in College

we marked in 2019. Alongside these are two

photographic portraits by David Tolley, who

leads the University’s photographic society

which meets in Regent’s every week. The

first features the College’s first female Fellow

(now also an Honorary Fellow), the Revd

Professor Jane Shaw – who is also the first

Regent’s alumna to be appointed a Head of

House in Oxford, at Harris Manchester; and

the other features HRH Prince Ghazi bin

Muhammad of Jordan, the Honorary Fellow

who has done so much to support and make

possible the Project for the Study of Love in

Religion. These four permanent portraits

will be joined by another set of portraits

for which we hope our Regent’s community

will make nominations, a set of smaller

photographic portraits which we envisage

will change every few years and will celebrate

the achievements of Regent’s alumni in a

wide range of careers and activities. Watch

out for the call for nominations!

Thank you so much for your continuing

interest and support – it means a great deal

to us all here.

New portraits unveiled

1

REGENT’S NOW COLLEGE LIFE

Highlights from 2019

The College hosted a signing ceremony

with Ms Xiaodan Zheng, representative

of the JALA Group, whose generosity is

supporting academic programmes through a

partnership with the Oxford Prospects and

Global Development Institute (OPGDI) at the

College.

Regent’s women earned Blades at

Summer VIIIs, with the men reaching their

highest position ever by avoiding bumps for

16 days.

Regent’s and Greyfriars alumni and staff

gathered in style for the annual London

Drinks. We were delighted to be hosted at

the renowned Groucho Club in Soho, thanks

to the generosity of alumnus Tony Harris

(English, 2007), who also enlivened the

evening with an impromptu auction in aid of

the College. Surrounded by pieces from the

Club’s contemporary art collection, guests

were treated to a selection of brightly coloured

cocktails and the conversation sparkled well into

the evening.

Three members of staff were

nominated by students for awards from

‘Oxford SU’: Dr Anthony Clarke (‘Diverse and

Inclusive Education’), Dr Stephen McGlynn

(‘Best Support Staff’), and Bailey Thomas

(‘Supporting Students – Non-Academic’).

The Angus Library and Archive took

an exhibition of artefacts to London for

this year’s Sam Sharpe Lecture by Professor

Verene Shepherd (University of the West

Indies): ‘Women in Sam Sharpe’s Army:

Repression, Resistance, Reparation’. The

College is proud to be a partner of the Sam

Sharpe Project, exploring the life and legacy

of a man who was, variously, slave, deacon

and freedom fighter; Sharpe is credited with

leading Jamaica’s 1831 Slave Rebellion, which

would mark the beginning of the end for

slavery.

Staff, families and friends gathered at

the Valedictory Service to bid farewell to

departing students. On a gloriously sunny

day, the ceremony in Helwys Hall, when

students who have reached the end of

their studies sign the College Register, was

followed by tea in the Quad.

Lecturer in Old Testament

Hermeneutics, Dr Deborah Rooke,

appeared on BBC Radio 3 to discuss the

concept of sacrifice in the Old Testament

with The Revd Richard Coles, during a

BBC Proms performance of Handel’s

‘Jephtha’.

The College contributed to Oxford’s

annual Meeting Minds weekend with a

lecture by Dr Mark Atherton, Senior Lecturer

in English Language: ‘J. R. R. Tolkien and the

Making of England’.

2

Viola Kerr, Director of Development & Alumni Relations


The Impact of Generosity

The sense of community at Regent’s continues long after

students have graduated, and we are grateful that so many

alumni and friends continue to show their commitment by

supporting the College’s vital fundraising. All gifts and offers of

help make a tangible and noticeable difference to what Regent’s

can achieve – and the profile we have, both within and beyond

Oxford.

Enriching Academic Life: the Stevens-

Barlow Junior Research Fellowships

Following a generous benefaction, we have been able to launch

two new Junior Research Fellowships. These are a prestigious early

career opportunity for anyone who has completed or is soon to

complete their doctoral degree. Being able to offer these highly

competitive Fellowships marks a key moment in the development

of the College, with our growing postgraduate cohort. Junior

Research Fellows provide academic support to our postgraduate

students, whilst also enriching academic life in the College

through their research.

an exciting opportunity to generate impact from my research

by sharing the latest academic knowledge with investment

practitioners, including meetings at the Élysée Palace in Paris and

the UN Climate Week in New York. I am excited to see growing

climate awareness and action within the financial system. I

would like to thank the donors and Regent’s Park College for the

experiences made possible by this Fellowship, and look forward to

continuing my research and further promoting climate awareness

and action at both the individual and the institutional level in

Oxford and beyond.’

In January 2019, we were delighted to welcome Dr Elizabeth

Harnett and Dr Roger Nascimento as the inaugural Stevens-

Barlow Junior Research Fellows.

Dr Roger Nascimento

Dr Elizabeth Harnett

Elizabeth holds degrees from Oxford in nature, society and

environmental policy and a doctorate in economic geography;

her research focuses on sustainable finance practices and she is

currently leading the Future of Engagement programme at Oxford’s

Smith School of Enterprise and Environment. She explains:

‘It has been a pleasure to hold the position of Stevens-Barlow

Junior Research Fellow. I have very much enjoyed being part of

Chapel, joining lively discussions at meal times and acting as an

interviewer and tutor for geography undergraduates. As a result,

I have recently been able to secure a position of Stipendiary

Lecturer in Human Geography at Jesus College, which would

not have been possible without the experience of being a JRF. I

have also greatly appreciated the academic freedom afforded by

this Fellowship and the warm support of colleagues who have

encouraged me to pursue research impact. In particular, I have

been able to undertake a part-time secondment as technical

advisor to the One Planet Sovereign Wealth Funds initiative. The

role supports a coalition of some of the world’s largest investors

with more than $19tr assets under management, who are seeking

to share knowledge and undertake joint action to better align

portfolios with the investment risks and opportunities related to

climate change and a net-zero carbon transition. This has been

Roger’s work centres on international health and tropical

medicine within Oxford’s Centre for Tropical Medicine and

Global Health. Roger is also a Research Affiliate of the School of

Anthropology and Museum Ethnography. Roger writes:

‘It has been a great honour to serve as one of the

inaugural Stevens-Barlow Junior Research Fellows. I have

benefited immensely from the generous collegiality and academic

freedom extended to me. I received advice from faculty members

on how to develop my research plans and enjoyed extensive

exchanges of ideas with colleagues over the meals shared in

College. I have been able to purchase recently published books

on new developments in my field of enquiry, including novel

methodological approaches and theoretical and conceptual

innovations.

“Being able to offer these highly

competitive Fellowships marks a

key moment in the development

of the College.”

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As a result, my current writing project on contemporary issues

in educational diversity has incorporated more up-to-date

ideas. Furthermore, I have invested in teaching resources that

directly support my research practice based on participant

observation. By enhancing visibility of my scholarly project,

the Fellowship also created opportunities for collaboration

across the University, as exemplified by the invitation to help

organise and present at the Equity in Academia symposium in

September 2019’.

Lifeline for Students in Times of Need

A new Student Support Fund is already proving to be hugely

valuable to students, allowing the College to provide help when

members of our community are confronted by unexpected

financial difficulties. Studying in Oxford is challenging enough

without dramatic changes in personal circumstance, but many

students also face sudden crises which can cause a great deal of

stress and even pose a threat to the viability of their studies. Our

aim in these situations is to alleviate the burden as much

as possible.

We were able to set up this fund thanks to a generous donation

given in memory of an alumnus by his family. We rely entirely

on support from alumni and friends to continue growing

this fund.

A Lasting and Personal Gift

We are deeply moved when alumni, staff and friends

feel strongly enough about what Regent’s meant to

them that they choose to support the College in the

future, beyond their own lifetime, by leaving a legacy.

Leaving a gift in your will is an opportunity to make a

lasting impact on a cause that is personally important

to you. For Regent’s, legacies have been a foundation on

which the College has been able to develop since first

matriculating students in the 1950s. Now, as the College

seeks to remove financial barriers to academic study,

deliver outstanding teaching and research and create

the best possible learning environment for students, the

need is greater than ever before.

If this is something you are considering and you would

like to talk about your interests, wishes and intentions,

please feel free to get in touch: 01865 288141 or

viola.kerr@regents.ox.ac.uk.

Viola Kerr has been Director of Development and Alumni

Relations since July 2019.

A Living Memorial

The Pamela Sue Anderson Studentship for the Place of Women

in Philosophy was set up in 2017, in memory of the College’s

late Fellow in Philosophy, to support exceptional postgraduate

students in Professor Anderson’s field.

Dr Jordan Bell, Senior Lecturer and Director of Studies in

Philosophy and Logic, is a member of the Academic Selection

Committee for the Studentship, and he has reflected:

“Those of us who knew Pamela find it hard to think that she is

no longer here at Regent’s Park. Her independence, loyalty to her

students, and infectious sense of humour (whether about things

that she liked or found annoying) are just a few of the traits that

made her Pamela. Many (with me very much included) miss her

greatly. The Pamela Sue Anderson Studentship – generously

initiated by her family – is a particularly appropriate memorial

to her. It is a living memorial in that it commemorates Pamela

through the philosophical work of new generations of graduate

students. The first studentships were awarded in 2018. The

selection panel – consisting of Professor Adrian Moore, Dr Kate

Kirkpatrick and me – was impressed by the quality and the

number of the applicants for the award. In 2018, we gave the

studentship to two graduate students: Lily Johnson and Catrin

Gibson. Their presence in

Regent’s Park over the last

academic year has enriched the

academic life of the College in

a way that would have given

Pamela pleasure. We were

pleased to welcome Valquira

Borba to Regent’s Park this

Michaelmas as the new holder

of the studentship.”

Alumna Lily Johnson

(Philosophy and Theology,

2014), was awarded the

Studentship in 2018 and has

The portrait of Professor Anderson

that now hangs in Helwys Hall

recently completed the MPhil in Philosophical Theology, with a

thesis entitled: ‘Reconsidering Faith and Reason in the Philosophy

of Religion: A Case for a Broad Conception of Rationality’. She

writes: “Receiving Pamela’s studentship has meant a lot to me this

year. It was really encouraging to get this support, in particular

given my personal connection to Pamela [as a former student].

On a financial level, it has helped spare me some of the burden

of graduate student debt, for which I am grateful. I hope that

in future years many other people can continue to benefit from

Pamela’s legacy in the way I have been so fortunate to.”

This fund remains open to donations. If you would like to donate

in memory of Professor Anderson, you can do so at:

www.development.ox.ac.uk/regents-park-college.

4

Dr Stephen McGlynn, Director of Operations


Building a Regent’s

for the Future

This summer, I had the pleasure of seeing my first

cohort of fresher undergraduates finish their Finals

and return - for their first alumni event - to graduate

in September. A month later, I found myself dressed

in sub-fusc, bowing before the Vice Chancellor in the

Sheldonian Theatre, asking (in Latin, of course!) that

our students be matriculated.

Witnessing the Oxford ‘circle of life’ has offered a time

not only to reflect on the changes that the College has

experienced over the past few years, but also to look

to the future, and consider how our students can stay

engaged with Regent’s once they finish.

Investing in Refurbishment

The most prominent recent changes for me are those

to our buildings and fabric, which have benefited

from significant investment over the past five years.

We have kick-started a rolling refurbishment of our

student accommodation and have made some of the

‘tired’ communal spaces more fresh and modern,

refurbishing the Main Block kitchenettes and creating

four new private bathrooms in the Vinson corridor.

The College kitchen equipment has been completely

renewed and, thanks to a timely gift from an alumnus,

the Hall tables have been sanded and stained.

Perhaps the most long-awaited development has been

that of the ‘Gould Doorway’, a new doorway by the JCR

staircase, linking Main Block and the Quad through

to the Angus and Gould blocks. While several old

members may miss the days of having to climb through

the window, I am most grateful for the generous

donation that made this possible, especially now that I

don’t have to run quite so far if the fire alarm sounds!

The College Library and the Chapel have both

benefited from new facilities and redecoration – only

the beginning, in fact, of what we have planned for

these spaces.

Much-Needed Space for

Our Growing Community

In the longer term, we have ambitious plans to develop

our estate, and our much healthier operating financial

performance has allowed us to move forward with

these as real possibilities. We are currently in the

planning stages for the development of graduate

accommodation at a property on Banbury Road, and

are in the feasibility stages of exploring mansard

extensions to the main site. These developments will

allow us to offer much needed space, incorporating

The annual Christingle service in the newly refurbished chapel

5


new teaching, residential, social, library, student and community outreach

spaces. This is particularly important given that the size and shape of our

community has changed dramatically over the past few years, most notably with

the College welcoming more graduate students than ever before.

Student Services and Support

As well as radically overhauling services for students such as catering and IT,

we have focused much energy into enhancing the support and welfare available

to students. This has including growing the decanal team, the initiation of a

vacation residence support grant, collaborating with the University’s harassment

and sexual violence support service, and engaging in professional development,

particularly in areas surrounding mental health, and in best supporting the

needs of our diverse community.

From Strength to Strength

Tony Harris (English, 2007), Honorary Treasurer

Over recent years, sustained and focused work has gone into ensuring the

College finances are stable and strong. This has resulted in a major positive

turnaround. I am very glad to report that we have posted regular surpluses

for the last four years and have doubled our endowment. The future for the

College looks very good; having stabilised our finances, we are investing in our

infrastructure and are embarking on an ambitious set of new building projects.

You can get involved knowing that donations will be looked after carefully, spent

wisely and have a real impact. Thank you for your support during the hard times

and we look forward to your continuing support during the good times.

We hope that this brief update has provided you

with a flavour of recent developments and what we

have planned – we will continue to share information

through the website and social media, or over a cup

of tea if you are coming to College!

Regent’s is undergoing an exciting time of growth, and we

are delighted when old members and friends continue to play

an active role. There are many opportunities for you to be

involved in shaping and supporting these projects and there

is considerable scope for remembering your name or that of a

loved one in rooms throughout the College. For those whose

interest lies in giving students the best opportunities to excel,

we welcome donations to our Student Support Fund. For

further information please contact Viola Kerr,

Director of Development and Alumni Relations at

viola.kerr@regents.ox.ac.uk

Dr Shidong Wang, with

Dr Mamtimyn Sunuodula

New

Directions

for OPGDI

The Oxford Prospects and Global

Development Institute – OPGDI – is an

interdisciplinary centre of Regent’s Park

College that has developed and flourished

since its foundation.

OPGDI began with a student mobility

initiative, the Oxford Prospects Programmes

(OPP), alongside a one-year Visiting Students’

Programme involving eight Oxford colleges.

Since then, we have built an extensive Chinese

university alumni network of distinguished

students whose study lives have been reshaped

through their academic experiences at Oxford.

Our strong partnerships and international

collaborations with more than twenty leading

Chinese universities, and Shanghai MEC, have

enabled us to stand out as a diverse academic

community in Oxford.

Key to the success of OPGDI has been our

ability to attract senior academics and policymakers,

committed to our interdisciplinary

projects and our initiatives and helping to

build historic links between the UK and

China. Principal Investigators working on

specific research projects have been vital and

they continue to sustain our vibrant academic

community. Besides four cross-border

programmes, we are proud to now be delivering

research: ‘Performing Literatures and Cultures:

The Humanities in a Global Context’; ‘Brand

Made in China – Its Path to Globalisation

and Impacts’; ‘Education and Modernisation

of Social Governance’; ‘The Oxford-China

Restorative Practices and Principles Project’;

‘The Chinese Heritage Project at Regent’s Park’;

‘Technology, Society and Ethics’.

OPGDI would not have developed such a profile

without strong support from the wider College

community, particularly the Principal, and the

vision and support of our key donors.

6


Nobel Laureate Dr Mo Yan

becomes Honorary Fellow

of Regent’s Park College

OPGDI is also privileged to be home to the Mo Yan International

Writing Centre, headed by Dr Mo Yan, the first Chinese Nobel Laureate

in Literature. Mo Yan became an Honorary Fellow of the College on

Wednesday 12 June during a special ceremony.

Dr Mamtimyn Sunuodula, Head of the East Asia section at the Bodleian

Library, was present for these events. He reflects:

“The visit to Oxford by celebrated Chinese author and Nobel Laureate for

Literature Dr Mo Yan in June 2019 is a significant event in the history of

literary and intellectual exchanges between China and the UK. During his

week-long stay in Oxford, Mo Yan was awarded an Honorary Fellowship

by Regent’s Park College and delivered public lectures. Accompanied by

two other equally prominent Chinese writers, Su Tong and Yu Hua, Mo

Yan visited the Bodleian Library to present his work and to see some of the

Library’s earliest Chinese books.

The origin of cultural and literary exchanges between the UK and China

can be traced to the Bodleian Library’s Chinese collections. The founder

of the Library, Sir Thomas Bodley (d. 1613), bought the Library’s first

Chinese book in 1604, just two years after it opened its doors. The book is

an incomplete copy of Four Books, an essential collection of Confucianism.

Arguably, the book is the earliest acquisition of a Chinese book by any

library in the world. Thomas Bodley recorded in the book the name of

the donor who enabled the purchase and the year, but it was in the wrong

end of the book and written upside in relation to the Chinese text. The

Library acquired well over one hundred volumes of Chinese books by the

end of the seventeenth century. However, no one in the British Isles had

the knowledge of either the language or the script for eighty-three years

until 1687 when the Bodleian employed a Chinese Jesuit convert to decipher

its books. The Chinese convert, Shen Fuzong, spent six weeks in Oxford

cataloguing Bodleian Library’s collection of Chinese books and teaching

Bodley’s Librarian Thomas Hyde about the language, culture and history.

The interest Shen’s visit helped to stimulate in England and the relations he

built up with Thomas Hyde began a process that saw a continuous flow of

cultural, literary and linguistic exchanges over the centuries that followed

and still resonates today.

“The visit to Oxford by celebrated

Chinese author and Nobel

Laureate for Literature Dr Mo

Yan in June 2019 is a significant

event in the history of literary

and intellectual exchanges

between China and the UK.”

The establishment of the Mo Yan International Writing Centre in Regent’s

Park College is aimed at building on the centuries-old historical relations

between Oxford and China and deepening mutual understanding and

literary exchange.”

Dr Shidong Wang, FRSA, is Director of the Oxford Prospects and Global

Development Institute. Dr Mamtimyn Sunuodula is Head of the East Asia

section at the Bodleian Library.

7

REGENT’S NOW PROFILES

Profile:

Dr Lynn Robson

Dr Robson was made Tutorial Fellow in English Literature in 2019. Dr Marchella Ward looks at

the impact she has made on the lives of her students, colleagues and the College.

‘Teach me how / To name the bigger light, and how the less.’ If I heard this line from The Tempest

said of almost anyone else in the world, I would condemn it, as Twelfth Night’s Fabian has it, as ‘an

improbable fiction’. But anyone who has ever been taught by Lynn will recognise immediately the

following statement as true: “Lynn Robson taught me how to read.” I know that Lynn’s students

will recognise that statement because when I told them that the College had asked me to write an

article on Lynn’s election to a Fellowship, each of them used almost these exact words to recall their

former English tutor. I think about what they must mean by it, all these students who remember

Lynn teaching them how to read: for some, it’s about empathy with characters, some narrative,

some attention to linguistic detail. For some, it’s historical context and the importance of not being

taken in by rhetorical bluster – and in this world of fake news, revolving headlines and misleading

hashtags, I can’t help but marvel at what a thing the ability to read is to have been given.

There are other things Lynn’s students of past and

present wanted to remind me about her, too. Every

person I spoke to in preparing this article wanted to

tell me of a specific way that Lynn had guided them

through a period of difficulty – and to impress upon

me that they could not have completed their degree

at all without Lynn’s absolute commitment not only

to pedagogy and innovative, exacting teaching but to

each individual’s emotional welfare. ‘It’s not life or

death,’ she is often heard saying, when the pressure of

exams or early morning rowing training or the pain of

termly broken hearts becomes too much for any of her

students. She doesn’t say this because she considers

whatever it is that prevents any of her students from

preparing their tutorial essays on time in any given

week to be inconsequential – far from it. She says

it because unbeknown to us, Lynn had been at the

forefront of work that really was life or death, before

she became an academic. Prior to completing her BA

“I have always thought that mending

hearts was the perfect preparation

for the kind of teaching of literature

that Lynn alone is able to do.”

at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, Lynn had been a senior

staff nurse working in cardiac intensive care and

had spent time working in an intensive therapy unit.

This experience meant that she brought to academia

not only an absolute commitment to the welfare and

well-being of those that she is responsible for, but also

the calmest of demeanours, and an absolute refusal

to let even the darkest depths of Fifth Week in term

time unsettle her. I have always thought that mending

hearts was the perfect preparation for the kind of

teaching of literature that Lynn alone is able to do.

That Lynn is a fantastic teacher doesn’t go unnoticed

in the College, where she has a reputation for excellent

pedagogy (and the certificates of recognition by the

student body hanging on her office walls to prove

it!), but while completing my doctoral work I had the

huge pleasure of experiencing first-hand how hard

Lynn works in a number of other capacities too. Many

people don’t know (because Lynn is not the kind

of person to shout about it) the strength of Lynn’s

commitment to widening access to higher education.

Having begun her own academic career with a

foundation certificate from Oxford’s Department

for Continuing Education (before continuing it at

the universities of Oxford and Warwick), Lynn is

convinced of the obvious truth that Oxford students

don’t need to be a particular age, from a particular

8


background, or to enter higher education via a

conventional route in order to excel. This is nowhere

more clear than when she is taking part in the

Admissions process: Lynn’s questions of applicants

are demanding, but she asks them in a way that makes

it obvious that she believes deeply in the ability of

whoever is sitting opposite her to deliver an insightful

and interesting answer – and she is never surprised

when they do.

“Lynn is convinced of the obvious truth

that Oxford students don’t need to

be a particular age, from a particular

background, or to enter higher education

via a conventional route in order to excel.”

Lynn’s commitment to broadening access to

education has also led to a number of international

connections with students and academics from all

over the world, creating opportunities for students

across the globe to experience Oxford-based learning.

Having grown the Visiting Students’ Programme

since taking over as its director in 2007, Lynn recently

helped establish the Oxford Prospects Programme,

encompassing exchange possibilities for students

between Oxford and China as well as summer

programmes, pedagogical training for teachers and

educators (particularly in matters of welfare) and an

international writing centre. Developing relationships

with others seems to come naturally to Lynn, and this

is patently obvious to anyone who has been fortunate

enough to work closely with her in any of her various

roles within the College.

As well as her commitments to teaching, welfare,

admissions and a number of other aspects of College

life, Lynn is also an innovative researcher, making full

use of her periods of research leave to make exciting

in-roads into new areas of the field of early modern

literary studies. A common thread throughout her

research and teaching is Lynn’s interest in looking

at literature in new ways, with particular attention

to what happens to literature in performance: she

plays an active role in developing new ways of looking

at literature in her undergraduate teaching, on the

Master of Studies Course in Women’s Studies, and in

the work she continues to do for the Department for

Continuing Education. Lynn’s undergraduate students

at the College benefit from her investment in literature

coming alive off the page, too: for many years she

has convinced them of the merits of seeing drama

in performance, making regular trips to Stratford

and London to see Shakespeare’s (and others’) plays

onstage, and even setting up a College fund to off-set

the costs of her students experiencing literature in

this way.

In writing this article, as when writing any of the

many things I write on a daily basis as an early career

academic, I have in the back of my mind what the person I have called

variously over the last decade a teacher, scholar, co-interviewer, colleague

and friend – and am now delighted to call a Fellow of Regent’s Park College

– might make of the words emerging onto the page in front of me. I think,

in the characteristic way that Lynn is often heard making light of the huge

impact she has had and continues to have on the lives of her students,

colleagues and the College, she might say that all of these things for which

she is so rightly celebrated – pastoral care and emotional intelligence,

solidarity and cooperation with colleagues, commitment to those who have

not been among the most privileged in society – are really just part of what it

means to be a good reader.

Dr Marchella Ward read Classics and English (2009) at the College, before

pursuing postgraduate studies at St Hilda’s College, Oxford. After a spell as

Access Officer at Regent’s, she became the inaugural Tinsley Outreach Fellow at

Worcester College, Oxford.

9


Profile:

Dr Christine Joynes

The new Fellow and Director of the Centre for Baptist Studies talks about her academic background

and vision for the Centre.

As the newest member of the College’s academic team, I am grateful for this opportunity to introduce

myself: as of October 2019, I became Fellow and Director of Studies in Theology & Religion and Director

of our new Centre for Baptist Studies (successor to the Centre for Baptist History and Heritage).

My origins are in the north of England, where I grew up in Oldham, Lancashire, as the youngest of three

daughters of a Baptist minister and a social worker. Given that my parents were both politically active

as local councillors, it is perhaps unsurprising that I learned a lot about campaigning for change – I was

once reprimanded at school for organising a petition to the headteacher – and I am looking forward to

working in a College whose motto begins with the challenge to ‘test everything’!

I am also a keen musician. As a young person, most of my spare time was spent doing concerts and

competitions with Oldham Music Centre Brass Band in which I played the cornet. Later, through an

advertisement in The Baptist Times passed on to me by my dad, I became involved with a wonderful

music group – the New English Orchestra – with whom I performed the Feast of Trumpets at the

Birmingham Symphony Hall. I went on to become a member of their choir and travelled widely with the

group during my twenties. My love of music has stayed constant throughout my adult life and I still play

the cornet, now in my local church music group.

“My intention is to raise the profile of

Baptist studies within the University

and beyond, and to alert people to

the treasures Regent’s holds in

the Angus Library.”

10


As a student, I read Theology at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, drawn

by the prospect of being able to integrate three of my loves:

languages, literature and history. During my time at university,

I developed a particular passion for biblical studies and whilst I

quickly developed an ambition to pursue postgraduate work, the

friendship of a guest at Regent’s, Dhirendra Sahu, and his family,

gave me an opportunity to teach New Testament at Serampore

College in India. So, immediately after graduation, I spent six

months living and teaching there, which was a huge privilege –

as well as a big challenge. I recently met a Bengali student at my

first Freshers’ Dinner at Regent’s and discovered that I could still

remember some of the Bengali conversation I had learned all those

years ago!

Teaching in India

Following my time in India and anticipating the next phase of my

studies, when I would need to engage with German scholarship,

I spent a happy semester as a visiting student at the Baptist

Theological Seminary in Hamburg. I then returned to Oxford to

complete a Master of Studies degree and a doctorate under the

supervision of the celebrated New Testament scholar, and expert

on William Blake’s engagement with the Book of Revelation,

Professor Chris Rowland.

Thereafter, my first teaching job was at Westminster College,

Oxford – now part of Oxford Brookes University – followed by

Trinity College, Oxford, where I was the Bampton Fellow in

Theology for three years. During this period, I co-founded the

Centre for Reception History of the Bible: an interdisciplinary

research centre exploring the ways in which biblical texts

have been interpreted across the centuries. I went on to direct

this Centre, securing funding for various projects, including

Perspectives on the Passion: Encountering the Bible through the Arts

(published by Continuum) and Biblical Women and their Afterlives

(published by Sheffield Phoenix Press).

I am passionate about reception history of the Bible, which

is a relatively new methodology within biblical studies, and I

am particularly concerned to highlight notable female biblical

interpreters. The fantastic resources of the Angus Library

at Regent’s offer ample scope for me to pursue this interest

further, and I am already enjoying the opportunity to learn more

about figures such as Anne Dutton, Anne Steele and Marianne

Farningham.

The skills I gained co-ordinating the activities of the Centre for

Reception History of the Bible for more than a decade will stand

me in good stead as I take up the reins at the Centre for Baptist

Studies. With regard to my future vision for the new Centre:

my intention is to raise the profile of Baptist studies within

the University and beyond, and to alert people to the treasures

Regent’s holds in the Angus Library. In collaboration with the

library staff, I hope to secure funding to enable digitisation of

some of these resources so that they can be used much more

widely than the space in the College basement currently allows.

I also intend to build on the foundations established by my

distinguished predecessor, Professor Paul Fiddes – Principal

Emeritus and Professor of Systematic Theology at Oxford – ably

assisted by Dr Larry Kreitzer, who continues to coordinate the

Centre’s extensive publication activities. I plan to nurture existing

projects which focus on aspects of Baptist history; I am delighted,

for instance, that the Centre will play an active role in supporting

the Sam Sharpe Project, highlighting the ongoing significance of

this national Jamaican Baptist hero. I am also keen to build links

with other institutions promoting Baptist studies, facilitating a

global network and encouraging more people to come to Oxford.

Our first day conference took place in November on the theme

‘Baptist Women through the Centuries’. This marked the

centenary of Violet Hedger’s admission to ministry at Regent’s

by looking at Hedger herself, as well as her predecessors and

successors. Emily Burgoyne, the Angus Librarian, presented a

special display of relevant archive material for the occasion. The

event also offered the chance for people to share ideas about

future themes they would like to see the Centre engage with.

Following this, our official launch event on 21 March 2020 – ‘Blake

and the Baptists’ – will explore how William Blake was influenced

by a range of Baptist figures.

If you would like to know more about the Centre’s activities, or to

share ideas of events you would like to see, please do drop me an

email (christine.joynes@regents.ox.ac.uk): I would be delighted to

hear from you.

Dr Joynes with her family

11

REGENT’S NOW FEATURES

Dr J. Alison Rosenblitt

Rome after Sulla

The Language of Political Violence in Ancient Rome

‘Therefore there is no chance of

tranquillity and leisure with liberty,

which many honest men used to seek in

preference to toil with political offices. In

such times, Romans, it is a case of slaving

or ruling, living in fear or inflicting it.’

The Roman historian Sallust wrote these words

in the 30s BC, in the middle of civil war, at a time

when the struggle for supremacy between Marc

Antony and Octavian (later Augustus) pitted Roman

legions against each other in fratricidal conflict and

devastated populations across the Mediterranean.

Nations that had already suffered from the

exploitation, corruption, and injustices of the Roman

empire now faced even greater demands for funds,

supplies, and food to maintain partisan Roman

armies at the same time that war devastated their

own cities, economies, and agricultural fields.

But Sallust’s words do not describe the civil war which

was raging as he wrote his Histories. ‘In such times,

Romans, it is a case of ... living in fear or inflicting it’:

these are words which Sallust put into the mouth of a

Roman consul speaking in the Forum to the Roman

people some forty years before the civil war between

Antony and Octavian. As Roman political order

crumbled about him, Sallust looked back and wrote

with one question dominating all others: how did we

come to this?

To answer that question, Sallust turned to the first

civil war of his lifetime – indeed, the first civil war

fought in the Roman republic since the expulsion of

the Roman kings more than four centuries before. He

focused not on the causes of this first civil war, but on

its consequences. Thus he opens his Histories in the year

78 BC, three years after the civil war was won by Lucius

Cornelius Sulla. In doing so, he chooses as his starting

point the year in which Sulla himself died and the

consul Marcus Aemilius Lepidus turned demagogue.

Sulla’s victory had been brutal. After he seized the

city of Rome, he organised the public slaughter of

several thousand war captives, whose screams could

be heard for miles. He expropriated land in Italy on

which to settle his own veterans, with no provision

for the Italians whom he made homeless. And he

published proscription lists in the Forum: lists of

the names of enemies whose lives and property were

thereby declared immediately forfeit, as were the lives

of anyone caught harbouring or assisting any man

– father, son, husband, dearest friend – whose name

appeared on the lists.

Sallust’s words are a window onto the traumatised

society that Sulla left behind. Although he does not

record the verbatim words of the historical Lepidus

(which did not survive, even to Sallust’s own day),

the speech was composed by Sallust to be true to

Lepidus’ character and politics, as well as true to

the tenor of the Roman rhetoric which Sallust knew

and had experienced himself first-hand. In these

words of Sallust, put into the voice of Lepidus, and

also in the words of others who speak similarly in

Sallust’s Histories, we have a unique record of a new

and dangerous political discourse through which

the urban plebs were encouraged to understand

the Roman political elite as foreign enemies. These

demagogic orators thundered to their audiences that

they, the Roman people, had been defeated as if in war,

treated as if war captives, despoiled, enslaved. They

argued that consensual politics had ceased to exist,

and that the only way to achieve political aims was

through the infliction of fear.

The urgency today of reflecting on such political

discourses is as obvious as it is regrettable. For me,

studying this language and these ideas in ancient

Rome is not a deflection of its urgency but rather an

opportunity, and one which is all the more compelling

on account of the ambivalences of sympathy which

it provokes. There is a sense in which the plebs, the

majority of whom sympathised with the losing side,

had been conquered in the civil war, and the Roman

elite remained unwilling to address the injustices

entrenched by the Sullan victory.

12


Many wealthy Romans had grown yet wealthier from wartime

profiteering. Meanwhile, in the decade after Sulla, the urban plebs

suffered some of the most serious corn shortages in Roman history.

While the elite clung to the fruits of victory, a succession of Roman

demagogues capitalised on widespread hunger and poverty, on

the social trauma suffered by the urban plebs, and on the political

anger which they justly carried. Yet how far can one sympathise,

not only with a language of political violence, but with a demand

for corn which was enacted through eagerness to exploit empire,

diverting provincial supplies of grain to the city of Rome; or with

metaphorical complaints about enslavement which lament political

oppression by appropriating the sufferings of slaves?

Sallust’s Histories trace the disintegrating nature of civic life

which caused this language of political violence and the further

disintegrations which were, in turn, fuelled by it. Ultimately, it

led again to civil war and to the end of the Roman republican

order. The text of the Histories does not survive in full, but even

the partial account which remains offers a caustic and sorrowful,

and ultimately deeply moving, testimony of a man witnessing the

collapse of his world.

Dr J. Alison Rosenblitt is Senior Lecturer and Director of Studies in

Classics and Ancient History at Regent’s Park College. She is the author

of several books, including E.E. Cummings’ Modernism and the

Classics: Each Imperishable Stanza (Oxford, 2016), winner of a First

Book Award from the Classical Association of the Middle West and South

(CAMS) in 2018. Her latest book, Rome after Sulla, is published by

Bloomsbury Academic.

“For me, studying this language

and these ideas in ancient Rome is

not a deflection of its urgency but

rather an opportunity, and one

which is all the more compelling

on account of the ambivalences of

sympathy which it provokes.”

13


Revd Andrew Taylor

Finished with Religion?

Iris Murdoch and Theology

In early May 2019, as its contribution to

the centenary celebrations of the birth of

Iris Murdoch in 1919, the College (under

the auspices of the Centre for Christianity

and Culture) was pleased to host a oneday

symposium on her contribution to

theological enquiry. Entitled ‘Finished with

Religion’, the day was inspired by one of

those casual remarks that Murdoch was

fond of making in correspondence: ‘Do not

think that I have “finished with religion”. I

haven’t even started.’

“She appears to have recognised what she

calls the ‘worth’ of religion – Christianity, in

particular – while in adult life coming to think

that its narrative is nothing but a ‘fairy tale’.”

Some Murdoch scholars believe that, had it

not been for her marriage to John Bayley and

his antipathy to organised religion, she may

have made a more significant contribution

to the task of theological conversation

than she did. Everyone knows Murdoch

as a philosopher, of course, but both her

philosophical writings, and especially her

novels, betray an abiding interest in Christian

theology and the peculiarities of the Church.

In her autobiographical comments she refers

to her own Christian upbringing, with a

mother and father who were respectively

Anglican and Quaker. Her exposure to

Quakerism continued at Badminton School,

and she appears to have attended both

Congregationalist and Anglican Services in

her teens, before deciding to be confirmed as

a member of the Church of England.

14


Despite a later adult decision against Christianity, throughout her

life Murdoch felt a continuing attraction to the figure of Christ,

whom she easily divorced from the institution of the Church. She

appears to have recognised what she calls the ‘worth’ of religion

– Christianity, in particular – while in adult life coming to think

that its narrative is nothing but a ‘fairy tale’. And her fascination

with organised religion is there to see throughout her novels, as

many readers know, littered as they are with examples of ‘failed’

Christians, priests not least amongst them.

Murdoch’s interest in theology, however, was lifelong and founded

in an early conviction that the divorce between philosophy

and theology that was characteristic of British and French

philosophy during the middle part of the twentieth century was

fundamentally mistaken; the abandonment of metaphysical ideas

in both disciplines that was one of the chief characteristics of the

linguistic models that prevailed.

“Murdoch’s novels provide

an ‘unending commentary’

on forgiveness and the

impact it has on our

friendships and well-being.”

In organising our symposium, we were fortunate in having

the support of some of the leading Murdoch scholars of this

generation. Miles Leeson is Senior Lecturer in English Literature

at Chichester University and the Director of the Iris Murdoch

Research Centre. He is the lead editor of the Iris Murdoch

Review and has published widely on Murdoch’s work, including Iris

Murdoch: Philosophical Novelist (Continuum, 2010). In an opening

paper entitled ‘Murdoch and Fictionalised Theology’, the scene

was set for the remainder of our day, as the exact nature of her

interest in the theological task was illustrated through some of

the plots and characters of her novels. In the paper that followed,

Anne Rowe, Visiting Professor at the University of Chichester

and Emeritus Research Fellow with the Iris Murdoch Archive

Project at Kingston University, investigated Murdoch’s interest

in Christian spirituality in a paper entitled ‘Anchorites as God’s

Spies: Iris Murdoch and Dame Julian of Norwich’, in a deliberate

treatment of the influence of one particular writer on another.

Our own Paul Fiddes – Principal Emeritus – then treated us to an

examination of Murdoch’s very real desire not to confuse ‘God’

and ‘Good’, by looking at her treatment of both in two very specific

novels, The Time of the Angels and The Good Apprentice. Murdoch

once claimed, as a convinced Platonist, that ‘We can lose God

but not (the) Good’. If the idea of ‘God’ serves any purpose at all,

then it can only be as yet another pathway on the way to realising

the Good. And the formal part of the day came to an end with

a paper from Scott Moore, Associate Professor in the Faculty

of Philosophy at Baylor University and longstanding friend of

the College, who spoke on the theme of ‘Forgiveness and the

Beautiful: The Unexpected Strangeness of the World in Iris

Murdoch’. The paper took as its cue the fact that Murdoch’s

novels provide an ‘unending commentary’ on forgiveness and

the impact it has on our friendships and well-being; that in their

own way all of the novels are about friendship and its failures,

with a concomitant need to recover ‘love’ as a central concept in

building a moral philosophy.

Perhaps the most ‘difficult’ part of the day belonged to our

‘Symposium respondent’, Priscilla Martin, emeritus Fellow

of St Edmund Hall and member of the English Faculty. In

a mere twenty minutes, she was presented with the task of

summarising some of the main themes and cross currents of

the day as she had interpreted them. It is never an easy task,

but Priscilla’s pointers gave us much for the subsequent plenary

discussion to round off what had been a deeply enjoyable time.

Blessed with fine weather, the beauty of the College quad at

that time of the year, and the excellence of our catering team,

all participants departed with much to rejoice in and to ponder

further.

Iris Murdoch was a novelist who took the moral life more

seriously than one will find in the work of most other

contemporary authors. Her consistent desire to prove that

the good life is possible, that many people seek to live it even

when they wouldn’t know, or actively acknowledge, that

they are doing so, continues to make her work a source of

fascination and ongoing engagement to theologians. If our

little contribution to that particular endeavour has served that

purpose, then we are glad to have done so.

We hope to publish the papers from the Symposium in

due course.

The Revd Andrew Taylor is a priest in the Church of England,

currently serving in the Diocese in Europe. He is a research

associate of the Oxford Centre for Religion and Culture at

Regent’s Park College.

“Some Murdoch scholars believe

that, had it not been for her

marriage… she may have made

a more significant contribution

to the task of theological

conversation than she did.”

15


Adam Large and Alex Priestley-Leach

In the Footsteps

of Pilgrims

The Camino de Santiago, the ‘Way of St James’, is

an ancient pilgrimage stemming back to the ninth

century. Following the discovery of the remains of the

Apostle James, pilgrims started walking from across

Europe to visit the site of his burial; now the site of

a magnificent cathedral. The Camino de Santiago is

not just one route but a variety of routes from various

starting points and is still walked by thousands

of pilgrims every year, many seeking some kind of

spiritual reward. Hence, following the spiritual aridity

of two years as Oxford undergraduates, we decided

to dust off our hiking boots and head into the breach.

Five hundred miles, thirty days, and a rucksack full of

Compeeds: God help us.

Our average day would begin at around five o’clock

with early-risers packing up and heading off in an

attempt to beat the midday sun. After giving up on

further slumber, we would fumble around in the

dark and stuff our lives back into rucksacks, praying

that we were leaving nothing behind (washing lines

across the Camino are a necropolis of neglected

laundry). After an acknowledging grunt at each other,

we would set off into the darkness. The first hours

always went the fastest as we paced our way to the

nearest supermarket for breakfast; some days two

kilometres, others seventeen. Ten brioches for a euro?

Perfect. The walk between breakfast and lunch was

generally a varied affair. Towns and villages, vineyards,

roads, hills and rivers passed us by. Quiet reflection,

conversations and cricket podcasts filled our time.

After walking about twenty-seven kilometres we

stumbled in to our albergue, overjoyed to hear there

were spare beds; only one day being forced to walk,

dehydrated and delirious, an extra ten kilometres

in pursuit of accommodation. After a lunch of fresh

bread and salami, we partook in the great Spanish

tradition of la siesta. Many of the albergues we stayed in

were old church buildings or town halls, with chipped

paint and old iron bunk beds more befitting a military

hospital in the Crimean war. Our evenings were often

spent in the company of interesting individuals and

a bottle of vino tinto, happily sharing our life stories

before heading back to the albergue in time for the

ten o’clock curfew. Sleeping bag sorted, eye mask on

and ear plugs in, we would try to drift off before the

snorers: same again tomorrow.

Despite the regularity of our daily lives on the

Camino, the diversity of our surroundings and the

people we encountered made each day unique. We

were privileged in seeing parts of Spain ‘untouched’

by tourism yet unflinching at the sight of sweaty

pilgrims. By chance, we arrived in a small town called

Los Arcos for the first night of their annual festival.

Following a bull run through the town, it felt quite

surreal to be sitting, munching on sunflower seeds,

watching the taunting of bulls by merry Spaniards; on

that night, no bull fell victim to the sword.

16


“Each of these communities provided a different memory that stands

as a witness to the kindness shown to us along the Camino.”

Similarly, whilst crossing the barren

Spanish plains and seeing barely any form

of civilisation, it was precious to watch

a youth group descend on a local spring

and spend the afternoon playing in the

water. Likewise, the surprise at finding a

beautifully ornate church in a town without

so much as a supermarket was a joy.

Along the way, we met people from all over

the world. A South Korean mine hunter,

a self-proclaimed Russian oligarch, and

an American meditation instructor were

just a few of the ‘quirkier’ individuals we

met. Yet, the people who left the greatest

impression on us were the hospitaleros

(albergue volunteers), especially those

working at donativos (hostels funded solely

by pilgrims’ donations). The idea that we

could be welcomed into a hostel without

the expectation of payment is so contrary

to the culture in which we live; one lady

actually thanked us for giving her the

opportunity to volunteer. Each of these

communities provided a different memory

that stands as a witness to the kindness

shown to us along the Camino: nuns

inviting us into their Romanesque chapel,

high up on a hill; peeling vegetables with

Spanish grandmothers who doted upon us

young chaps; being waved off with a warm

embrace by a kindly Italian hospitalero who

was grateful for our efforts to wash the

dishes the night before.

As I am sure you can imagine, after twentyeight

days of walking we were pretty eager

to get to Santiago. So eager, in fact, that we

walked a whopping forty-three kilometres

on our last day. But, to be honest, arriving in

Santiago was somewhat anti-climactic. Yes,

we saw the burial site of St James and were

glad to have made it, but (save a personal

flypast and parade) no city could properly

encapsulate the roller coaster of emotions

we had experienced in the preceding month.

Nonetheless, as we watched the sun set over

the Atlantic coast on the final evening of

our trip, we were able to reflect on a job well

done. We had realised that you really don’t

need many belongings in life. Although now

grateful for our home comforts, it is also

reassuring to know that we could survive

with little more than a change of pants and

a bar of soap, if needs be. This quiet, selfassured

approach to life is cultivated by the

Camino as you achieve something immense

with barely any planning or preparation.

Considering the stage of our own lives,

soon to leave university, our Camino was

an exercise in learning to cross bridges;

following the metaphorical arrow of life and

sticking to what seems to be the right path,

hopefully one cannot go too far wrong. It’s

just a case of putting one foot in front of

the other.

Adam Large and Alex Priestley-Leach (pictured

here outside Santiago de Compostela cathedral)

are undergraduate students, reading for degrees

in Theology and Religion (2017) and History

(2017), respectively.

“This quiet, self-assured approach to

life is cultivated by the Camino as you

achieve something immense with barely

any planning or preparation.”

17


Meredith Scalos

Hope in the Hills

Appalachia and Post-Coal Transition in the United States

There are many roads I have taken in this

life, but I never thought one of them would

be to do field research in the humble hills

of Kentucky where my family has been for

generations. Where I was born and raised

– in rural Kentucky in the United States

– there is a sense that the smart and lucky

should ‘run away’ from the entrenched

attitudes of rural life and the assumed

isolation and ignorance. While there is

a grain of truth in most stereotypes, the

danger of a single story looms heavy here.

I found in my field work, my research, and

perhaps my very existence as an Oxford

graduate from one of the poorest areas in the United

States, a grain of resistance that could be taken as

symbolic of the region itself.

Central Appalachia itself is many things.

Immeasurable beauty lies within the hills and ridges

of the region, part of one of the oldest mountain

ranges in the world. The folding pattern of the

ridge makes narrow inlets up the mountains called

hollows, pronounced ‘holler’ by the locals. Holler

living is different from much of the rest of the United

States, with the isolation providing hardship but also

fostering resilience, something that is marked on the

lives of all who remain there. The Central Appalachian

region has also been one of the largest sites of mineral

exploitation in the United States, as the primary

source of coal for the rest of the nation – and indeed

much of the world – over the past century and a half,

or more. This history of extraction and exploitation is

deep, painful, and complex and cannot be summarised

in these short paragraphs, but it bears noting that

the history of Appalachia is informed as much by the

exploitative acts of humans as it is marked by the

extreme resilience of the land and people.

In this complex tapestry of stereotypes and

exploitation, beauty and comfort, simplicity and

complexity, I traveled back to the land where my

own family is from to study post-coal transition and

economic development. I set out to prove a point about

academic study of ‘development’ – a direct challenge

to what it means to be ‘developed’ – and to consider

in greater depth the problems of my home through

the eyes of those who live there. This was a simple

prospect but a daunting one. I soon took on the role

of the ‘insider-outsider’, both belonging to the culture

of my home as well as occupying a space of power and

‘otherness’ of my own as researcher and interloper.

The details of my research I will spare the reader, but I

will say that in taking up the project I perhaps learned

more about myself than I did post-coal transition

or any other academic term one could apply to the

“In the hills, there is the pain of a history

fraught with conflict and war, rebellion and

uprising, exploitation and extraction – but

there is also hope, strength, and resilience.”

18


historic moment Central Appalachia is experiencing

now. In the mountains, the fog never really lifts and

clings low to the earth, wisping along the surface

of the water like smoke. The sun rises later and sets

sooner, dipping behind the sloping peaks and making

one slightly more grateful for the daylight hours.

In one of my field sites, one of the oldest gorges in

the United States sits at the Russell Fork, a small

tributary barely worth mentioning but attracting

adventure tourists from all over the world every

year at the annual release of the waters in the fall,

making for Olympic-level rapids for those seeking to

chase. The town nearest the fork, Elkhorn City, is a

true blink-and-you’ll-miss-it kind of town, of fewer

than a thousand inhabitants, a single main road that

runs the length of it and few stores outside the local

hardware store and grocery. But Elkhorn City, for a lot

of folk around the area, is a symbol as much as a place.

The town was once a booming coal town, settled

right on the state line. The mines and the railroads

still run, if infrequently, but the town’s bustle is gone,

except for during the release of the rapids. However,

local politics have proven fraught and friction between

the townspeople and local government has prevented

much of the development the community members

desire; namely, development that celebrates the river

and the rapids, instead of exploitative businesses that

come and go.

For Appalachia, the land is as much part of the

heart and soul of the region as it is the history and

geography. Place in the thick sense of the word –

including the rituals, the culture, the memory and the

feel of a location, not simply the point on the map – is

entwined so thoroughly into the Appalachian story

that it cannot be unwound. Why would one want to?

These paltry words and few photos cannot truly do

justice to Appalachian Kentucky and the surrounding

area, but I hope to leave you with this food for

thought. Despite what one may hear in the news or

in the pop culture either about Appalachia (Hillbilly

Elegy, anyone? Do yourself a favor and pick up What

You’re Getting Wrong About Appalachia by Elizabeth

Catte instead), Appalachia is a proud region full of

faults, but so much more. In the hills, there is the pain

of a history fraught with conflict and war, rebellion

and uprising, exploitation and extraction – but there

is also hope, strength, and resilience. The concept

that Appalachia is ‘dying’ is a false one, as my own

history and research so fully describe. Appalachia is

very much alive, if wounded. Much like the mountains

themselves, Appalachia and her people aren’t going

anywhere – we are just getting started.

Meredith Scalos was a Visiting Student (2014) at the

College and returned to read for the MPhil in Development

Studies (2017).

19


Pam Davies, with Neil Jones

A Refuge in War

“I hope,

as I look

at global

conflict in

the present

day, that

we will not

forget the

lessons that

people such

as this have

taught us.”

By the winter of 1914 the Western Front had become

an entrenched war zone with little movement from

either side. Around the Belgian city of Ypres, a

salient had developed. Ypres itself was reduced to

little more than rubble, yet was a fiercely fought over

piece of land. The German army held most of the

high ground, whilst the Allies, consisting of many

British personnel, were much lower. This state of

affairs lasted largely unchanged until the battle of

Passchendaele in 1917. As a result of the need to allow

soldiers time away from the trenches, the town of

Poperinge, approximately eight miles ‘behind’ Ypres,

became a popular place for the men to visit, served by

numerous bars, restaurants, concert halls, brothels,

movie theatres and shops. It was also the place where

the chaplaincy of the day sought to provide soldiers

with ‘an oasis of serenity in a world gone mad’.

Talbot House, ‘Every Man’s Club’, opened in 1915 and

was a huge success. Known affectionately as ‘Toc

H’, which is the abbreviation of Talbot House, using

the ‘signals spelling alphabet’, of the British Army in

World War I. It was home to Army Chaplain Philip

‘Tubby’ Clayton, who was hugely popular with the

men. One of his principles was that everyone was

equal; as they stepped into Toc H, everyone was

referred to by their first name and on Tubby’s office

door the sign read ‘All Rank Abandon Ye Who Enter

Here’! There is a story that an army general once

visited the house and knocked on Tubby’s door, but

was told to wait as he was having lunch with a private

– something that would never have happened outside

of the chaplaincy.

In the ‘Upper Room’ of Toc H was the chapel. A

wonderful place of calm and serenity, faith and hope.

Many men gave their lives to Christ there. A good

number took their first Communion there. Many took

their last.

After the war ended, Tubby returned to London and

took up a role in All Hallows by the Tower, in Tower

Hamlets. However, he was frequently contacted by

veterans seeking to rekindle the spirit of Toc H.

From this, Tubby formed the organisation Toc H which

still operates today. Whilst very different in nature

to the original, the modern Toc H seeks to promote

friendship, inspire service, encourage fair-mindedness,

and grow the Kingdom of God through humble

witness. Many people have benefited from the role Toc

H has played during the last one hundred and four

years, and the hope is that many more will in the years

to come.

Each year, a group of ordinands from any Christian

denomination are invited by Toc H to travel to Talbot

House to reflect upon peace and reconciliation in the

light of great conflict.

The week begins with the busyness of packing and

public transport, as each group of ordinands gathers in

London to travel together to Poperinge on a Monday

morning in early September. The transition from city

life to the reflective atmosphere of Toc H is tangible.

Tuesday begins with prayer, followed by a trip to the

‘In Flanders Fields’ museum in Ypres. A poem by Ivor

Gurney displayed on one of the walls, reads: ‘Memory,

let all slip save what is sweet of Ypres plains’. The

writing provokes a sense of solemn irony that groups

visit in attempt to remember, or recapture, events

that so many have been desperate to forget. Painted

displays record the horrors of the war and their digital

counterparts retell narratives from the perspective of

soldiers who were unfortunate enough to experience

them. The afternoons then involve a visit to some

of the trenches that have been preserved. They offer

an insight into the realities of war and even during

peacetime are damp, cold, dark and claustrophobic

places. The corrugated metal lining the mud would

have offered little in terms of protection to those

crouching behind it.

Wednesday provides an opportunity to discuss the

theme of ‘Conflict and Resolution’. This time allows

students to reflect not only on what they have seen

and heard, but also to discuss and question how these

experiences might shape either their present or

future ministry.

20


Space is given later on in the day to reflect quietly

in the garden or to visit the Talbot House museum.

There are also visits to the Lijssenthoek cemetery and

the execution site at the Town Hall at Poperinge. Both

of these visits call to mind specific historical events,

preventing the conversation from becoming abstract

and theoretical.

On Friday, the final day of the trip, there is a

communion service in the chapel at Toc H. There

are opportunities for ordinands to lead worship in

the space, and it is in this same chapel that Kenneth

Prideaux-Brune, Chair of Toc H and All Hallows

Trust, shares stories of Tubby Clayton and his

ministry at Toc H during the war. These stories

convey a sense of familiarity that cannot be captured

in any other context.

Of her experience at the Menin Gate, Pam Davies

writes:

“Although I visited Toc H over a year ago, I can recall

my experience at the Menin Gate with remarkable

clarity. We arrived early, perhaps an hour before the

ceremony and already the Gate was full of people,

some who had travelled incredible distances to

participate in the memorial. We waited as the police

arrived and the flow of traffic was diverted elsewhere

and watched the buglers stand in line in preparation

for the call. The space was so full that people at the

back were standing on their tiptoes to make sure

they could see what was happening.

Grave of Nellie Spindler,

one of only two British

female casualties of World

War I buried in Belgium

Preserved trench at

Hill 62 in Ypres Salient

On Thursday, the theme of ‘Resolution’ is explored

in greater detail, which is reflected in the nature

of the visits which take place. Included are a mine

crater, which has now become a Pool of Peace,

a memorial to the Christmas Truce, Messines

Church and the Island of Ireland Peace Park.

The Peace Park displays a record of the words of

Terence Poulter, 7 th Royal Dublin Fusiliers:

‘This was joyous news,

approaching eleven o’clock in our sector,

you could have heard a pin drop,

when eleven o clock came there were loud cheers,

the war was over,

as far as we were concerned.’

On Thursday evening, there is a visit to the Menin

Gate, where thousands of people gather to hear

the Buglers from the Last Post Association sound

the ‘Last Post’. This war memorial is a moving

expression of thanks and gratitude for those who

made sacrifices for Belgium’s freedom.

I was standing amongst a huge crowd of people,

and in front of me I could see a much older man in

uniform. He was surrounded, presumably, by his

family. At 20:00 hours, when the ‘Last Post’ was

sounded, this perfectly composed, official-looking

gentleman, started to cry into a handkerchief he had

kept in his pocket. He did not stop weeping for the

duration of the ceremony. As I watched his reaction

and considered my own, I realised that while I was

moved by the memorial, horrified by the loss I had

reflected on during the week and thankful for the

resolution that Terence Poulter described in his

poem, I have no lived experience of war. From this

stranger’s reaction, I suspected that he most likely

did. This prompted a mixture of emotions as we

shared in a minute silence; empathy for the depth

of this person’s pain, awareness of my own lack of

understanding as to the cause of it, and immense

gratitude that because of the sacrifice of those who

have gone before us; we have not had to share in the

horrors that they have seen. I hope, as I look at global

conflict in the present day, that we will not forget the

lessons that people such as this have taught us.”

Pam Davies and Neil Jones are ministerial students;

Pam is reading for the MTh in Applied Theology (2017),

whilst Neil is a mature student reading for the BTh in

Theology (2017).

21

REGENT’S NOW STUDENTS

William Robinson

A Year in the JCR

The JCR has had a strong year in every respect. From

sport (both on the river and on terra firma) to drama,

charity work, music and journalism, Regent’s has

again shown – for the umpteenth time – how far we

punch above our weight in the contribution we make

to the life of the whole University and beyond.

The year began with a bang with an excellent Freshers’

Week organised by Charlotte Haley and Jody Clark,

but Michaelmas festivities certainly did not stop

there. A Murder Mystery, jointly organised by all

three common rooms was a roaring success, with

some particularly memorable performances from

certain SCR members permanently altering the JCR’s

perspective of them… As ever, the Panto was held in

Eighth Week in aid of the JCR charities, and was a

wonderful collaborative effort by several members;

this was quickly followed by the whirlwind of

Christmas in Oxford with Secret Santa, carol services

and Advent Formal.

Hilary saw a flurry of activity in the JCR itself. A new

student-led committee was created by JCR and MCR

members keen to get involved with College’s alumni

outreach: the perfect metaphor for the initiative and

passion for College life of Regent’s students. Plans

for a new College-based society were also laid (which

are coming to fruition as I write!), which will see JCR

members invite speakers from all sorts of professions

in order to strengthen our offering of careers events;

members of the wider University will be welcome

at these talks too in an effort to show our fellow

students what a hidden gem Regent’s is. Although our

footballing prowess was perhaps not quite as on display

as it could have been in cuppers this year, our team put

out a series of sterling performances, and the season

ended with an agreement to form a merger with the St

Benet’s Hall team. Great sporting success is certainly

to come for the football team next year, but our rugby

output is already soaring, thanks to our merger with

the Merton and Mansfield teams to form MMRRFC,

who performed well in the intercollegiate league.

Trinity however, even by Regent’s standards, really

did stand out this year. Our Arts Rep., Skye Humbert,

organised and directed Oscar Wilde’s The Importance

of Being Earnest, with a fabulous cast of JCR members.

Held over two warm, summer nights in our very own

“a perhaps rather

too enthusiastic

game of ‘Soak the

Exec’ (all for a good

cause, I suppose…)”

22


The Importance of Being Earnest, performed during Trinity

“Regent’s has again shown – for the umpteenth time –

how far we punch above our weight in the contribution

we make to the life of the whole University and beyond.”

quad, the play drew large audiences (reclining on

picnic blankets on the grass) and rave reviews, and

we raised more than £250 for the Stroke Association.

Summer Eights was next, and it was a bumper year for

the Regent’s rowers. The Women’s Boat won Blades,

and although the Men’s Boat narrowly missed out,

they finished the week at their highest ever position

on the river. Emmanuelle’s birthday party was as great

a success as ever, with some truly incredible baking

by JCR members in the student kitchens for the bake

sale, and a perhaps rather too enthusiastic game of

‘Soak the Exec’ (all for a good cause, I suppose…). All in

all, the party raised a massive £771.30 for Meningitis

Now. Before any of us knew it, it was the end of term,

the finalists had survived their exams and the long

vac beckoned, but there was one more thing to fit

in. Charlotte Haley and James Brown organised an

incredible Final Fling, entitled ‘World Fair’, complete

with highly imaginative (and potent) cocktails, live

music, a silent disco, and even a firebreather. It was

the perfect way to end and celebrate a year packed

with achievements by the JCR as a whole and by its

individual members. I can’t wait to see what the JCR

gets up to over the coming year; if it’s anything like the

one we’ve just had, we’re all in for a treat.

William Robinson is President of the Junior Common

Room (2018-19) and an undergraduate student reading for

the BA in Theology and Religion (2017).

23


Andy Baxter

A Year in the MCR

“Regent’s has always

been known for its

inclusivity, and I

believe that the MCR

is a tremendous

embodiment of this

historical legacy

with a wonderful

mix of nationalities,

disciplines, life

stages, and careers.”

MCR members with Andy Baxter seated, centre

2019 has been a phenomenal year

for the MCR! As our membership

continues to grow and diversify,

the MCR experience becomes

more and more enriching for our

members. Regent’s has always

been known for its inclusivity,

and I believe that the MCR is a

tremendous embodiment of this

historical legacy with a wonderful

mix of nationalities, disciplines,

life stages, and careers. When I

began my tenure as President, I

stepped into a daunting role of

leading an organisation that had

already enjoyed significant success

under the previous executive.

Thankfully, I’ve been surrounded

by a team of exceptional officers

who have continued to develop

the MCR as both an academic

institution and a welcoming

community.

Over the past year, the MCR has

leveraged the vibrant academic

environment of Oxford to help our

members become service-oriented

leaders. This year, we introduced

movie/documentary screenings

for International Women’s Day

and Black History Month, and we

hosted a charity event focused on

homelessness in Oxford. Further,

we have continued to host the

Graduate Research Seminars with

topics ranging from the morality

of historical missionaries to

the failure of international law

for climate refugees. Whether

discussing such important matters

in official forums or casually over

a pint at the King’s Arms, the

diversity of the MCR provides a

wonderful opportunity for our

members to exchange perspectives

and learn from one another.

Of course, the constant academic

rigour of Oxford can often be

overwhelming, so a supportive

community is a necessity. In this

regard, the MCR has excelled in

the past year. From a Eurovision

party to a ‘Thanksmas’ party

(combining Thanksgiving and

Christmas), day trips to pub crawls,

or Burns’ Night to Bonfire Night,

we have hosted a huge variety of

social events over the past year.

Our WhatsApp group has been

very active, resulting in frequent

spontaneous meetups. As a result,

our members have formed a closeknit

community that celebrates,

struggles, and simply lives life

together.

24


In Michaelmas Term, we welcomed fifty new postgraduate

students. For Freshers’ Week, we built upon the model that was

introduced last year with events such as gown shopping, a movie

night, and an introduction to sports and societies at the College.

While we experience extremely high turnover between years, this

new group has very rapidly adopted Regent’s ethos and has already

shown a desire to invest back into the College.

In 2019, the College and MCR have made tremendous progress in

responding to the rapid growth of the postgraduate community.

In particular, the College has expanded the number of rooms

for postgraduate accommodation by fifty percent and plans

to continue this expansion in the next few years. Increased

accommodation plays an amazing role in fostering community

and in easing the burden of moving overseas for many of our

members. Further, within the MCR, we have continued to iterate

on our governance structure to better accommodate our growth

in numbers and the rapid turnover of our students.

As I stated at the beginning, this has been a phenomenal year.

Serving within this amazing organisation at this historic College

has been a joy that I never anticipated. However, as I come to

the end of my tenure, I hope that my successor will have an even

better report to give next year. I already believe that Regent’s MCR

is the best MCR in Oxford, but I also trust that our best years are

still to come!

Andy Baxter is President of the Middle Common Room (2018-19); he

arrived at the College in 2018 to read for an MSc in Global Governance

and Diplomacy, and is now completing an MBA (2019).

“Of course, the constant academic rigour of Oxford can often

be overwhelming, so a supportive community is a necessity.”

25


Neil Jones

News from the Ministerial Community

2018-19 was an interesting year for the ministerial

cohort. Having said goodbye to the third years, we

were anticipating a new group of freshers; but we were

surprised to learn that there had been no applications

received and, therefore, that there would be no first year

ministerials! This didn’t interfere with our experience

in College, however, and for those who were to carry on

with their formation, it was a good year of training.

Before we returned to the College from the summer

vacation, a number of us, along with Dr Myra Blyth, Dr

Matthew Mills and Dr Eleanor McLaughlin, went on a

ten-day trip to Romania to experience Baptist ministry

in a different context. We met some wonderful people,

saw some amazing sights (the Carpathian Mountains in

Transylvania were just stunning – especially for the two

of us who braved a 7am run!), were left in awe of some

of the architecture, and were truly moved by the living

conditions of some communities in the Ferentari borough

of Bucharest. The highlight for many of us, however,

was working with the Roma Gypsy folk, predominantly

children, at ‘Project Ruth’ in Bucharest and at a small

church in the suburbs. We also had the privilege of

meeting His Grace Ieronim of Sinaia, Assistant Bishop

to the Patriarch, at the Patriarchal Palace in Bucharest;

he is one of the most senior bishops in the Romanian

Orthodox Church. We were grateful to Myra for using

her experience and network from days working with

the World Council of Churches to arrange the visit,

since historically there has not been a good relationship

between the Orthodox and Baptist churches in Romania.

Our special thanks for the success of this trip must go

to Dr Sorin Badragan, an alumnus of Regent’s and, as a

senior member of the Baptist Faculty of Theology at the

University of Bucharest, also our generous host.

in College and the rest of the week being a blend of reading and essaywriting

and our church-based placements; each student has their own

unique experience of ministry. The days in College consist of prayers or

chapel at the beginning and end of each day, classes, tutorials and prayer

groups. The prayer groups are an important time for us to share with one

another in a confidential environment, and many students will testify

to how essential they can be to maintain good mental, emotional and

spiritual health. At the end of term, we had our Christingle service led

by the third years, followed by Carols in the Quad with the Salvation

Army band.

Following this, it seemed like no time at all until we

were back in College for the first block week of the year.

Block weeks are a chance for us to delve deeply into a

specific topic for a number of days and our subject for

this week was ‘justice’. We learnt about racial, immigrant

and refugee, disability and gender justice. This was a

challenging time for all attendees. As part of the block

week, we also spent time socialising with each other and

the tutors. Sadly, owing to the lack of first-year students,

the legendary annual skittles competition could not take

place; it did return with a vengeance in 2019! The term

then progressed with the usual pattern of Tuesdays spent

26


2019 began with another block week, this time focusing on

‘sexuality and gender’, and there was universal agreement that

these are crucial issues for the church to grapple with. At the

end of term, since Easter was particularly late this year, we held

another block week concentrating on creative approaches to

mission, which included visits from a number of ministers who

are involved in innovative forms of church, such as a coffee shop

in Brick Lane, London, and specific work with millennials. Then

– oh, so quickly – Trinity term was upon us and the third years

were preparing for the next stages in their careers, whether taking

on full-time roles in churches or seeking further development in

academia. For those of us in the second year, we were anticipating

them leaving us with sadness in our hearts. Our final Tuesday

activity was scheduled to be punting, but this was cancelled due

to rain; instead, we enjoyed a walk to a coffee shop and on to the

Perch in Binsey, across Port Meadow. The third years were given

a good send off by means of a comedy sketch highlighting some

of their idiosyncrasies! The term ended with another short block

week, looking at mission in both rural and urban environments.

This was a good year, with many highlights and memories to be

carried with us. We have loved our time at Regent’s and value the

community we have encountered here.

Neil Jones is the Ministerial Association Representative (2018-19) and a

mature student, reading for the BTh in Theology (2017).

The Black Church in Brasov in the

Transylvanian region of Romania

27

REGENT’S NOW ALUMNI AND FRIENDS

Dr Carroll Stevens

My Proudest Affiliation

Celebrating Regent’s friendships in North America

In the late 1990s the College’s then Principal, Paul

Fiddes, aspired to formalize a link between Regent’s

and its graduates and friends in America. His vision

was to create a US board of advisors to promote the

College’s interests and generate financial support

for its priority needs. Regent’s had just established

its first partnership with a US college – Georgetown

College, in Kentucky – and it wanted to further

capitalize on its abiding relationship with alumni,

Baptist institutions, and academic leaders from

across the country.

Because of my connection to Georgetown (as a

graduate and a trustee) and given my role as Associate

Dean at an Ivy League institution, the Yale Law

School, I was asked by Dr Fiddes to take a facilitative

role in the Georgetown-Regent’s discussions. He and

the Chair of Governing Body, Bill Johnston, wanted

an intermediary who could relate to both parties’

interests, understanding from experience their relative

situations and requirements.

Once that partnership was secure, Dr Fiddes asked for

my help in recruiting and leading the new advisory

group. I had worked with two such bodies in the past,

one at the University of Kentucky and the other at Yale,

and he felt that I had a sense of how such an advisory

group could function without undermining College

governance. The College Council and Governing Body

endorsed the idea and we were soon underway.

The late Olin Robison (DPhil Theology, 1960), who

had been president at Middlebury College in New

Hampshire and before that, provost at Wesleyan

University in Connecticut, was an obvious first recruit.

Olin, a distinguished public intellectual, had also

served as advisor to the US government, to charitable

foundations, and to leading US-based businesses.

Above all else he was a stalwart Regent’s supporter and

benefactor. Greg Riggs (Jurisprudence, 1973), a senior

executive with Delta Air Lines in Atlanta, and financier

Steve Mace, a former William Jewell College visiting

student at Regent’s, readily accepted the invitation

to join the group, as did Bill Crouch, Georgetown’s

president at the time.

Prolific author and successful business executive Davis

Bunn, and philanthropist and serial entrepreneur

Craig Knight (BA Jurisprudence, 1978) likewise joined

at a very early stage. Retired Ottawa University

president Harold Germer, Baptist pastor Ken Meyers,

Baptist theologian John I. Durham of Southeastern

Baptist Theological Seminary, and publisher and

literary agent Chip McGregor came on in quick

succession. Canadians Wesley Pue (Geography, 1974;

Jurisprudence, 1977), a distinguished university

leader, and Mark Fell (Jurisprudence, 1991), a banker,

participated as they could, as did Adrian Wyard

(MSt Theology, 2003), David Cowan (MTh Applied

Theology, 1998), Fred Cate and Tom Simpson,

prominent professionals all.

Noah’s Ark it wasn’t, but it did make for a nicely

representative group by industry, region and Regent’s

affiliation. We met periodically, at least once a year,

and regularly supported the College financially, always

choosing a project in need of priority funding. Craig

Knight assumed the lead in developing our focus on

facility renovations, taking it on himself to fund the

renovation of the room that now bears his name. At

our first outing together we donated the funds to

renovate the Senior Common Room, followed by many

other spaces over time.

We traditionally gather with other friends and

alumni at Oxford’s North American Reunion, helping

organize the College’s own event. One of our best

attended programs was devoted to religion and public

policy, a capstone in a series entitled Separation and

Participation: Church-State Relations in the US and the

UK.

Our charge has also included helping Regent’s build

relationships with American colleges in addition

to Georgetown. As a result, over two hundred

US students have had the full Oxford experience

through a growing number of collegiate partnerships,

including with Columbus State, Yale, Claremont

McKenna, William Jewell and many more.

28

Dr Carroll Stevens at the

2018 Valedictory with

(left) Elizabeth Smith,

visiting student from

Georgetown College and

(right) Makayla Haussler,

visiting student from

Yale University.


“Regent’s Christian ethos, its intellectual hospitality, and its

inclusive spirit beckon the best and brightest from our shores

to this very special place where lives are transformed, my own

included. It has been and will remain, my proudest affiliation.”

Visiting Regent’s students from America have gone on

to careers of distinction in law, medicine, ministry,

business, finance, the military, government, and

university education. Many Georgetown participants

have earned doctorates in the US and abroad, in such

disparate fields as Art History, English, Mathematics,

History, Sociology, Chemistry, Philosophy, Psychology,

Medieval Literature, Medieval Irish and Celtic

Studies, and Neuroscience. Among them is the US

Episcopal Church’s youngest cathedral dean and the

newest member of the Georgetown College faculty of

Sociology.

This legion of American students both derived

nourishment from Regent’s and gave sustenance to it,

regularly rising to positions of leadership in Oxford

University student organizations. They are a vivid

expression of the College’s mission to be of service to

the wider world.

As for myself, I have migrated to a broader Regent’s

repertoire, becoming an Honorary Fellow of the

College and serving as a member of Governing Body.

Over the next two years I will transition from my

leadership roles with a sense of fulfillment in the

considerable progress made by the College and with

gratitude for the opportunity to serve. Regent’s Park

is now in a posture of financial and programmatic

sustainability, and is situated nicely to enhance its

position of leadership in the University.

‘Test everything, hold fast to that which is good’: the

College’s motto derived from scripture, has proven

to be a clarion call to the American spirit. Regent’s

Christian ethos, its intellectual hospitality, and its

inclusive spirit beckon the best and brightest from

our shores to this very special place where lives are

transformed, my own included. It has been and will

remain, my proudest affiliation.

Dr Carroll D. Stevens is an emeritus member-leader of

the Yale Law School and Claremont McKenna College

communities. He is an investor in and advisor to

new technology companies spanning the domains of

additive manufacturing, orphan drug pharmaceuticals,

agricultural metadata, and software and financial services

for the education sector.

Alumni and friends of Regent’s and Greyfriars are warmly invited to join us for

drinks on the evening of Saturday 18 April 2020 at The Yale Club, 50 Vanderbilt

Avenue, New York, as part of the University of Oxford Meeting Minds Alumni

Weekend. Contact development@regents.ox.ac.uk for further information.

29


The Revd Nick Fawcett

Can I Have a Word?

Words, words, words – we’re bombarded by them

from all sides, aren’t we? And here are roughly a

thousand more pleading for your attention. ‘So

why read further?’ I hear you ask. ‘I’ve enough to be

getting on with already, so I’ll just skim this page.’

But WAIT! For I guarantee that the words I’m going

to be talking about in a moment aren’t anything like

most you come across. They will fascinate, amaze,

entertain, puzzle, confuse, even enrage. Don’t

believe me? Then take a look at my website:

canihaveaword.home.blog, which offers a host of

further daily definitions, tips and resources. But I’m

getting ahead of myself. First, just a word or two by

way of introduction for those who don’t know me.

My time at Regent’s (from 1980 to 1983) will always

hold one huge personal regret: seconded to Oxford to

study for an MPhil by Bristol Baptist College, I found

myself caught between two stools and academically

supported by neither. Our MPhil group was informed

after a year had gone by that there’d been some kind

of procedural error, meaning there was no way we

could complete the course in the two-year time slot, so

would have to switch to an MLitt, involving another

year. For me, with virtually no funding throughout my

time at Oxford, that was bad news.

I left Regent’s with the degree unfinished and

was never able to return to it. But I will always be

hugely grateful for my time there. The camaraderie

was something special, the mixture of theological

and non-theological students was healthy and

invigorating, and the opportunity simply to be part of

the Oxford scene, absorbing its unique ambience, was

a privilege beyond words. The city and College will

always hold a special place in my heart.

My time at Regent’s was, of course, dominated by

words – a hundred thousand of them, albeit never

submitted – and words were to dominate my life

thereafter, first in the Baptist ministry, where I

enjoyed happy pastorates at churches in Leigh,

Lancashire, and Gas Green, Cheltenham, before

becoming a chaplain for three years with the national

charity Toc H. I then took a complete career change,

venturing out as a full-time freelance editor while at

the same time building on the publication of my first

Christian resource book, No Ordinary Man, which has

since been followed by over 150 new titles (for more

about these, see nickfawcett.uk). Increasingly seeking

to write for people of all faiths and none – especially

in my recent book The Teacher and in my forthcoming

title Now That’s a Thought: A Mindful Guide to Fuller

Living – I’ve finally branched out yet further, July of

this year having seen the publication by Constable of

my book Can I Have a Word? A Fun Guide to Winning

Word Games.

And yes, here we come at last to those weird and

wonderful words I promised you. Let me offer

just a few: CH, ARD, CAA, EUOI, MNA, JEHU,

QULLIQ, VIZSLA, ZYZZYVA, BANJAX, HUMBUZZ,

MUUMUU, EUOUAE. No, I’m not going to tell you

what those mean, but each of these extraordinary

terms, and countless others, are defined in the book’s

pages, always with the emphasis on fun. This is a

not a dry technical read, but one that mixes humour

with careful research to offer you a resource that,

whether you’re a Scrabble addict, Words with Friends

aficionado, Lexulous enthusiast, or simply a lover of

words in general, you’ll want to keep on coming back

to. It rapidly expands your vocabulary, almost without

you realising it, offering invaluable advice on unusual

two- and three-letter words; using high-scoring tiles

to maximum effect; dealing with problem tiles; coping

with a rack full of consonants or one heavy in vowels;

and making bonus-scoring words; as well as offering,

in the closing chapter, various tips for victory. Why not

give it a go? I’m confident you won’t be disappointed.

I’ve many similar books in the pipeline, their

publication, of course, depending on sales of the first.

In my case, it will be contingent on one more thing –

health; out of the blue, back in 2010, I was diagnosed

with the incurable blood cancer multiple myeloma,

and told I probably had two or three years to live.

Unbroken chemotherapy since that time has caused

many complications on top of the constant risk of lifethreatening

infection, but I am one of the lucky ones,

still here after nine years and with a decent prognosis.

30


I don’t, then, in any way feel sorry for

myself; on the contrary, I count myself

fortunate simply to be here, and I grasp

every moment with immense gratitude,

intent on living each day to the full.

I love editing, I love writing, and, as you

will have seen, I love words. My hope is that

Can I Have a Word? will help to advance a

love of words, and indeed of life also,

for you too.

Nick Fawcett is an alumnus of the College,

now author, editor, proof-reader and

Baptist minister.

31


Student Recognition

2018/19

Each year, the College invites a member of the alumni community as its special guest –

and after-dinner speaker – at the Recognition Dinner, when the community gathers to

recognise the extracurricular achievements of student members. In 2019, Paul Roberts

(Geography, 1984) gave a witty and moving reflection, and it was wonderful that he could

be accompanied by his wife, Isabel, also an alumna (Jurisprudence, 1984).

There will have been many other student achievements in the last year besides those

listed here, not to mention superb academic accomplishments – it is often, and rightly,

said that Regent’s ‘punches above its weight’ in all areas of Oxford life – but this selection

was singled-out by the student community for special mention.

We are delighted to recognise the achievements of:

~ Izzi Blain

President, The Oxford Gargoyles

~ Shauna Brown

Artistic Director, The Isis Magazine

~ Bailey Cordonnier

Treasurer, Oxford Bar Society

Represented Oxford in Annual

Advocacy Cup against Cambridge –

and won

~ Caitriona Dowden

Social Secretary, Oxford University

Ceilidh Band

~ Alice Dyer

Secretary, Oxford Bar Society

~ Kitsu Egerton

Standing Committee, Oxford Union

~ Skye Humbert

Deputy Editor, Cherwell

~ Brigid Lahiff

Half Blue, Football

~ Natasha Mallett

Social Secretary, Oxford University

Symphonia

~ Meha Razdan

Deputy Editor, Cherwell

~ Ciara Samuels

Founder, ‘Humans of Oxford’

~ Alex Warren

Blue, Lacrosse

32


In Memoriam

Membership of any Oxford college

or hall does not end with graduation.

Friendships are often sustained

throughout life and we are always

interested to follow and celebrate

the achievements of old members.

At Regent’s, we are grateful for the

good links we manage to maintain

with many alumni and friends, often

over decades.

In this magazine, each year, we list

the names of those members of the

community whom we know to have

died. In doing so, we give thanks

for their contributions to College

life and seek to give fellow alumni

the opportunity to recognise their

passing; relatives and friends are vital

in ensuring that the College receives

and is able to share this news.

In 2018/19,

the College has lost:

~ Noel Davison (2 July 2018)

English, 2015

~ John Paul Humphreys (27 January 2019)

Theology, 1990

~ Duk-Sun Jeon (October 2018)

MTh Applied Theology, 2000

~ William (Bill) Marshall (22 January 2019)

Georgetown, KY – Marshall Sabbatical Programme

~ Wynford Phillips (3 June 2018)

~ Wes Pue (3 April 2019)

Geography, 1974; Jurisprudence, 1979

~ Jack Ramsbottom (26 April 2019)

Theology, 1969

~ Olin Robison (22 October 2018)

DPhil Theology, 1960

33

Events in 2020

Saturday 18 April

Drinks reception for alumni and friends of

Regent’s Park College at the Yale Club of New

York City, during the University of Oxford

Meeting Minds weekend in New York.

The Yale Club of New York City

50 Vanderbilt Avenue

New York

6pm-8pm

Week beginning 29 June

London drinks

Further details to come

Saturday 19 September

Alumni Gala Dinner

Regent’s Park College

6pm – 11pm

Wednesday 30 September

Ministerial Gaudy, with guest speaker

Revd Dr David Coffey OBE

Regent’s Park College

Drinks at 6.30pm followed by dinner

at 7pm

We’d like to make sure you are receiving the communications from Regent’s Park

College that you are interested in. Please update your preferences and contact details

on the enclosed postcard and return it to us, or email development@regents.ox.ac.uk.

Keep up to date with events

and other news at:

rpc.ox.ac.uk

@RegentsOx

@rpcoxford

Regent’s Park College, Pusey Street, Oxford OX1 2LB • www.rpc.ox.ac.uk • development@regents.ox.ac.uk

A Permanent Private Hall of the University of Oxford

Regent’s Park College is a registered charity (charity number 1181801). It is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales

(company number 11470540), whose registered office is at Regent’s Park College, Pusey Street, Oxford OX1 2LB.

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