Dr Lisa Kallet
The College deeply regrets to report the sad news that Dr Lisa Kallet, George Cawkwell Tutorial Fellow in Ancient History in 2006-21, and Emeritus Fellow of the College, died on Saturday 15 February after a short illness. Read more.

Mendl-Schrama Prize 2025
This year’s Mendl-Schrama Prize in Music was held on 1 February in the Holywell Music Room. You can read more here.

Historical Anxiety
Professor Nicholas Halmi, Margaret Candfield Fellow in English, invited four distinguished scholars from various disciplines to participate in an online seminar series on “Historical Anxiety”. Videos of the seminars are available to watch here.

Univ Online Talks: Dr Aneurin Ellis-Evans
Dr Aneurin Ellis-Evans, George Cawkwell Fellow and Praelector in Ancient History, delivered a talk online on 10 February, titled “Kleo Was Pregnant for Five Years”: How Did Women Experience Medicine in Classical Greece? Followed by questions facilitated by the Master. You can watch the talk here.

Univ Shakespeare Society presents Novels, Criticism, Translation
Professor Peter Boxall and Kate Briggs will be in conversation at Univ on Monday 3 March, 5pm, in the 10 Merton Street Lecture Theatre. Admission is free and all are welcome. The event has been organised by Professor Joe Moshenska, Univ Beaverbook and Bouverie Tutorial Fellow in English, on behlaf of the Univ Shakespeare Society. Read more.

Daisy Black, a Medieval Storytelling performance of Yde and Olive
Dr Laura Varnam, Lecturer in Old and Middle English Literature, has organised Daisy Black, a Medieval Storytelling performance of Yde and Olive, a medieval lesbian romance, to be performed in The Chapel at Univ on 5 March 2025, 7pm. Admission is free and all are welcome. Find out more.

Read all of Univ’s College news or explore Univ’s Treasures.

German History Society Prize for best thesis
Alexander Beard (2020, History and Modern Languages) has been awarded the German History Society Prize for best undergraduate thesis – a competition across the UK and Ireland. Read more.

Publications by Old Members
Enjoy the latest round-up of publications by Old Members.

Read all of Univ’s Alumni news.

Orchard rejuvenation
Tom Bartlett, Head Gardener at Univ, provided an update on Sustainability and Biodiversity at the College’s Staverton Road annexe, where our Univ North development is taking shape. You can read more here.

Read all of our Univ North news or visit our Univ North Page.

Explore all of our Profile Features.

Diary of my time in Türkiye and Cyprus
Josephine Forsythe (2021, Chemistry) has written a diary of her travels to Türkiye and Cyprus as a Roger Short Travel Scholar. Read more.

VMSG – MDSG 2025 Conference
In January, Megan Taylor (2024, Environmental Research (NERC DTP)) travelled to Ireland to attend a joint conference held by the Volcano Magmatic Studies Group (VMSG) and the Mineral-Deposit Studies Group (MDSG) at Trinity College Dublin, supported by the Old Members’ Trust Graduate Conference and Academic Travel Fund. Read more.

A trip to an ancient world
Thomas Freeman (2022, Ancient and Modern History) travelled to Türkiye in September 2024 with fellow Roger Short scholar, Rufus Jones, supported by a Roger Short Travel Scholarship. Read the travel diary here.

Travel Diary in Türkiye
Tiancheng Wang (2021, Ancient History) travelled to Türkiye in the summer of 2024, supported by a Roger Short Travel Scholarship. Read the travel diary here.

Read more Travel Reports.

Discover student-led Reviews.

Please note some of these items link to external sites.

Fellows

• Professor Tamsin Mather FRS, Supernumerary Fellow, commented in the Mail Online on what might occur if the Yellowstone supervolcano ever erupted.

For more news from our academics, please see the 2024 issue of The Record.

Old Members

• Peter Brown (1978, History and PGCE), a former organ scholar at Univ, is the founder and musical director of the Rock Festival Choir. His most recent choral compositions have been performed at the Edinburgh Fringe and New College, Oxford.

• Dr Mahan Ghafari (2018, Interdisciplinary Bioscience) has been awarded the Wellcome Trust Early Career Research Fellowship, which will support a five-year position in the Department of Biology at Oxford as a PI. Read more on the Wellcome Trust website.

• Professor Harry Gutman (1963, Jurisprudence) is chair of Bravo! Vail, an annual classical music festival held in Vail, Colorado.

• Simon Hitchings (1989, Classics) was appointed as a Research Fellow at the Craig Center at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia in early 2024.

• Dr Seán Lang (1979, History), Honorary Visiting Fellow at Anglia Ruskin University, launched BOATS theatre recently. The company grew out of the theatre writing Dr Lang has been producing since he taught at Hills Road Sixth Form College back in the nineties. One of his scripts, The Necessity of Atheism, tells the story of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s expulsion from University College.

• Dr Emilie McDonnell (2016, Law), an international lawyer and human rights advocate at Human Rights Watch, published “Challenging Externalisation Through the Lens of the Human Right to Leave” in the Netherlands International Law Review (April 2024, Vol. 71, pp. 119-154) and “Externalisation as a Breach of the Good Faith Principle” on Externalising Asylum, which she also presented at the Pacts, Promises and Refugee Protection 8th Annual Conference in June 2024.

• Professor Marcus Miller (1960, PPE), Emeritus Professor at the University of Warwick, has published discussion papers with ESRC CAGE and CEPR, London; and in conference volumes and journals such as NIER.

• Dr Henry Nolte (1975, Botany), Research Associate for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (where he was curator and taxonomist for more than thirty years), has a new exhibition of Indian botanical drawings at Kew in October 2025.

• Alastair Robertson (1991, PPE), Executive Director of Aakash Odedra Company, produced Songs of the Bulbul, a dance work which won the Best Show award at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2024, and which tours to Oxford Playhouse in July 2025.

• Storyteller and novelist Alastair Sim (1985, English) completed a five-star run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as writer and performer of a show about Robert Burns, with musical and light show accompaniment.

• The Honourable David Unterhalter (1984, Law) was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa in July 2024.

• Professor Michael John Walker (1959, Medicine and Animal Physiology) of the University of Murcia, has published a number of papers recently, including “Homo erectus’ slowly broadening Zone of Bounded Surprisals opened the way to technological culture” in Physics of Life Reviews (July 2024).

• Hugh Watson (1973, PGCE) recorded a new album, We’re Free We’re Rolling, with county-folk-rock band Willie and the Correspondents. All songs were written by Hugh Watson and Matthew Herbert.

• Alexandra Wilson (2013, PPE), who served as a barrister of family law in the United Kingdom, has joined Aronson Mayefsky & Sloan LLP, one of only two New York matrimonial firms to be ranked in Band 1 by the respected British legal ratings publications, Chambers and Partners and Chambers USA, in their Family/Matrimonial: High Net Worth Guides.