CrosswordThe St Cross College Magazine 2012

St Cross student undertakes the Cross Channel

swimming challenge

Also in this issueEyewitness to the Libyan Uprising

A Royal Salute for OCISThe Hunger-Obesity Paradox

St Cross College Gaudy Weekend Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 September A full programme of events make up this exciting reunion weekend. Please contact the Alumni Office to book.

Bristol Christmas Market Trip Monday 3 December The annual Christmas Market Trip this year will visit the harbour city of Bristol. As well as the seasonal delights of the market, Bristol offers excellent city centre shopping at Cabot Circus.

Carol Service Tuesday 4 December Enjoy the musical talents of the St Cross College choir during the traditional carol service in Pusey Chapel at 6pm, followed by mince pies and mulled wine in the Common Room.

Winter Drinks Wednesday 5 December The annual Alumni gathering in London takes place at the Oxford & Cambridge Club on Pall Mall. More details will follow in due course, but early booking is recommended to avoid disappointment.

Fred’s Lunch Friday 22 March 2013 Join the annual Alumni Association lunch for your opportunity to dine with St Cross friends old and new. We recommend early booking for this ever popular event.

European Alumni Reunion Event, Madrid Saturday 27 April 2013 Following the success of the reunion event held in New York in 2012, St Cross will be joining other Oxford Graduate Colleges to host this event as part of the University’s European Alumni reunion weekend. More details will follow in due course, but please do register your interest with the Alumni Office for early booking opportunities.

St Cross College Alumni Reunion Drinks Saturday 21 September 2013 The University’s annual Alumni reunion weekend will be taking place from Friday 20 to Sunday 22 September in 2013 and St Cross will be joining in as usual on the Saturday evening; more details to follow soon.

In addition, a range of informal events take place throughout the year in various locations; please subscribe to our social media streams for information and updates.

Crossword 2012

Published by St Cross College, Oxford

Design Jamjar Creative

Printed on an FSC paper

Dates for your diary

Issue 20Editors: Julia Wigg & Laura KingContributors: Julia Callaway & Monica Esposito

Student Representative Committee 2011-12We would like to take this opportunity to thank the committee for all their hard work this year.Student President: Alexander RaynerCommittee Officers: Rob Persson, Jonas Schutler, Teppei Kubo, Laura Wright, Adam Gilbertson, Tatiana Gavriliouk, Peter Fiske, Maria Suciu, Susheel Gokarakonda, Lavinia Warnars, Abi Tompkins, Paul Kelly, Ynhi Thai, Cohen Simpson, Stephany Wragg

Almost a year has passed since I joined St Cross in September 2011, as the fifth Master. Getting to grips with the complexities of Oxford has been an interesting

experience and I have greatly enjoyed meeting the Fellows, students and Alumni of St Cross; such an interesting variously intellectual and social community permeated by an international and informal spirit.

In this issue of Crossword, you will find coverage of the events of the last year. Some of the highlights have included the formal opening of Stonemason House, a new addition to St Cross student accommodation in Cowley; the historic dialogue at the Sheldonian Theatre between Professor Richard Dawkins and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, organised by St Cross Fellow Dr Margaret Yee in February, and the talk at the beginning of Trinity Term by the Colombian politician and anti-corruption activist Ingrid Betancourt, kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2002.

It was a matter of great pride and pleasure to the College that St Cross Fellow Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch, renowned historian of the Church, received a knighthood in the 2012 New Year Honours, in recognition of his services to scholarship.

And in May, the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, which originated in and has continuing links to St Cross, was granted a Royal Charter. This prestigious occasion was celebrated with an event hosted by the Centre’s Patron, HRH The Prince of Wales, at St James’s Palace.

I have had the opportunity to observe how strong the ties between St Cross students are, even after graduation. Our New York reunion event held in April, together with Wolfson and Green

Templeton Colleges, was well attended and gave US Alumni the opportunity to renew links with the College.

I look forward to the next academic year and hope to see as many of you as possible at the Gaudy reunion weekend in September.

Sir Mark Jones

Message from the Master

The Saugman Common Room has had a facelift, after the last refurbishment in 2008: walls repainted, new wooden doors, an elegantly striped dark red carpet, and toning

cushions on the sofas to pick up the colours of the carpet. The wall cabinets in which the collection of glass vases is displayed have been given new backing which sets off the glass very well.

The final flourish is a magnificent new piano. The Broadwood previously located in the Common Room had become uneconomical to repair and maintain, so an appeal was launched in last year’s Annual Fund for contributions towards a replacement. An extremely generous donor, who wishes to remain anonymous, responded with a gift of a sum sufficient to buy the new Kawai piano. It has now been installed and we hope that many of the College’s talented pianists will make use of it.

A new look for the Common Room

Contact detailsLaura King, Alumni Relations Office, St Cross College, Oxford OX1 3LZEmail: alumni@stx.ox.ac.uk / communications@stx.ox.ac.ukTel: +44 1865 278 480Fax: +44 1865 278 484www.stx.ox.ac.ukFacebook www.facebook.com/StCrossCollegeTwitter twitter.com/StCrossCollegeLinkedIn www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=159348LinkedIn US www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4506363

7 A Royal Salute for OCIS Dr David Browning reflects on the rise of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies

8 The Archbishop and the Atheist A report from the historic dialogue event at the Sheldonian Theatre

10 Eyewitness to the Libyan Uprising St Cross Student, Brian McQuinn’s research on the revolutionary brigades in post-Gaddafi Libya

14 A year in sport A round-up of this year’s sporting highlights

17 Cross Channel swimming challenge COVER STORY Student Kelsey Ida tells of her experience in the Varsity relay race across the English Channel

20 The bath tub double bass Alumnus Dr Ben Hebbert recounts the journey of the scrapheap orchestra to the BBC Proms

24 The hunger-obesity paradox Intriguing new research by St Cross Alumni into the surprising level of obesity amongst the homeless

28 Dates for your diary

Contents

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You may be interested to learn that phase one of the 50th Anniversary Archiving project is now complete.

So far the project has involved cataloguing and sorting the backlog of college records and documents that have accumulated over the years. A number of volunteers have been assisting the Archivist in her work, for which the College is immensely grateful.

During the last few months, a very interesting document came to light: a copy of the menu for the very first Founders’ Feast, held in Trinity College on the 9 December 1965. Not only is this document a very significant memento of an historic

moment in the early days of the College, but on the back are the signatures of 21 of the College’s founding Fellows.

You will have received a letter from the Master some months ago asking for your reminiscences, stories, photographs and images from throughout the College’s history. Thank you very much for all the submissions we have received so far. We would be grateful for as many items as possible, so please do contact Laura King in the Development Office if you have something to contribute.

A report from the College Archive

The focus of the Michaelmas Term meeting was how to recognise the most common varietal wines through sight, smell and taste. For instance, the subtle differences

between the pale, crisp, citrus and pear character of Macon-Villages chardonnay were compared to the golden hues and tropical fruit flavours of an old vine chenin blanc from South Africa.

In Hilary Term there was a tour around the world, tasting some signature wines from the top ten producing countries. The most popular wines were the Tapiz Torrontes from Argentina and the Casa de Mouraz Dao from Portugal.

Despite the inclement weather in early May, the wines for Trinity Term were selected to match summer occasions. The preferred wine to have with strawberries was the Cava Rosado made at the ancient Castillo Perelada in Spain, allegedly the favourite wine of Salvador Dali.

Gill will be continuing her series of tastings each term so do consider coming along to one or two this year to educate your palate and have some fun.

Wine TastingGill Davidson, Member of Common Room and wine connoisseur, reports on this year’s series of wine tasting sessions.

Ingrid Betancourt was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in February 2002 while campaigning for

the Colombian presidency. Her kidnapping received worldwide coverage, before her rescue by Colombian security forces in July 2008, six and a half years after she was captured.

Her talk gave an immensely interesting insight into the psychology of the prisoner. She talked about the changes her captivity made in her perception of time, when there was nothing to differentiate one day from the next, particularly during the last four years when she was attached by a neck chain to a tree. She spoke about the strength she

obtained from her repeated efforts to escape in the first two years, which maintained her sense of identity, and from the knowledge that others were all the time working to get her out.

Despite her appalling experiences Ingrid survived, retaining her Christian faith. She spoke of how she has moved forward since her release and is now studying Theology at Harris Manchester College.

This was a very moving evening for all who attended. Ingrid Betancourt’s fight to retain her identity and spirit was truly inspirational and we are grateful that she came to share her experiences with us.

Ingrid Betancourt talks to St CrossThis year the weekly programme of St Cross Talks (formally known as College Colloquia) has included not only current members of the College, but also one or two visiting speakers from elsewhere. A particular highlight was the talk at the beginning of Trinity Term by Ingrid Betancourt, Colombian politician and anti-corruption activist.

The 50th Anniversary Archiving Project team, left to right, Prof Glenda Abramson , Prof Emilie Savage-Smith, Ms Lesley Forbes and Mr Peter Benton (not pictured, Dr Tim Pound)

General news

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Following the creation of content-rich pages on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, St Cross College is also present on the professional networking platform LinkedIn. Past and

present students will be able not only to join the official LinkedIn St Cross group, but also to be part of subgroups created for specific geographical areas (United States, China, India, Japan), where they will receive notifications of local meetings, reunions and special events. We invite other groups of students who wish to create a local LinkedIn Group to contact the Development Office (communications@stx.ox.ac.uk).

St Cross College expands social media channels

“Is it really student accommodation? Looks more like smart flats to me” was the comment of a passer-by on Stonemason House in Magdalen Road, the newest addition

to the range of student accommodation provided by St Cross.The building was formally opened on 25 November 2011 by

the Rt Hon Andrew Smith (MP for Oxford East), together with the present Master and Professor Andrew Goudie, on the very last day of whose tenure as Master the lease was signed.

Andrew Smith admired the high quality of the accommodation provided, as being a place conductive to calm work and a pleasant social life. The 44 graduate students are housed in comfortable ensuite rooms, grouped into flats for five to seven people, so in a sense the passer-by was absolutely right.

St Cross increases student accommodation provision

Are you living in a computer simulation?, a paper written by Professor Nick Bostrom, Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology and

Fellow of St Cross College, has inspired Jay Scheib’s theatre production World of Wires, performed in New York in January 2012.

The paper, published in Philosophical Quarterly (2003), started the transhumanist debate with the renowned Simulation argument, stating that “at least one of the following propositions is true:

(1) the human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a “posthuman” stage;

(2) any posthuman civilization is extremely unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of their evolutionary history (or variations thereof );

(3) we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation”.It follows that the belief that there is a significant chance that

we will one day become posthumans who run ancestor simulations is false, unless we are currently living in a simulation. A number of other consequences of this result are also discussed.

Based on such an intriguing theory, World of Wires went on to win the 2012 OBIE Award for Best Direction. As writer and director Jay Scheib put it: “World of Wires is a performance about the unveiling of a computer simulation so powerful that it is capable of simulating the world and everything in it.”

Professor Nick Bostrom inspires futuristic play

“Election to a Fellowship at St Cross in 1968 brought me to a College that had just been established as the result of an initiative by a group of determined “non dons”.

Within that creative tradition in 1985, Farham Nizami was welcomed to the Fellowship as Founding Director of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies and I was allowed to retain my Fellowship in my capacity as Founding Registrar of that Centre. In addition, the College provided the Centre with its first home – the wooden hut where St Cross itself had started life – and the Governing Body agreed to be represented on the Centre’s Board of Trustees.

Since these origins, the Centre has sought by academic means to encourage a better understanding of the culture and civilisation of Islam and contemporary Muslim societies. It is creating a meeting point between the Islamic and Western worlds of learning and constructing a building worthy of serving that purpose. These

achievements have been the result of the vision and commitment of the Centre’s Trustees and a truly global range of supporters.

This initiative was greatly advanced in 1993 when HRH The Prince of Wales graciously agreed to be the Centre’s Patron. As such, he delivered an historic lecture in the Sheldonian Theatre on Islam and the West and has been tireless in helping the Centre bring together those from these two worlds who, in his own words, “have much to offer each other and much to do together.”

The grant of a Royal Charter to the Centre in 2012 represents the first occasion that an Islamic institution in this country has been so honoured. For the many friends of the Centre, it carries the hope and expectation that the Centre will long continue to promote inter-civilisational dialogue and mutual understanding. For St Cross College, this royal accolade should serve to remind us of the valued assistance we gave to the Centre at its point of origin.”

On the occasion of the award of its Royal Charter, Dr David Browning, Emeritus Fellow of St Cross and Founding Registrar of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, reflects on the centre’s history and its connection with St Cross College.

photograph by Ethan Levitas

A Royal Salute to the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies

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Shedding light on our dark genome

Professor Richard Dawkins and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, undertook a historic public conversation at the Sheldonian Theatre on 23 February 2012.

They were taking part in a dialogue moderated by philosopher Sir Anthony Kenny, the subject of which was the nature of human beings and the question of their ultimate origin. The event was hosted by Sophia Europa, part of Oxford’s Theology Faculty, in the presence of Lord Patten of Barnes, Chancellor of the University of Oxford. The Archbishop and Professor Dawkins used this valuable opportunity for open discussion, finding a number of points of agreement (for example, Dawkins admitted he could not positively disprove the existence of God), but leaving their audience with a sense of argument to be continued.

The historic meeting was organised by Fellow of St Cross Dr Margaret Yee, who is the Chairperson and co-convener of Sophia Europa. The 800 tickets for seats in the Sheldonian sold out within hours of being made available, two other halls in Oxford each holding another 400 or so had a live link, and the event was streamed live over the internet, where a remarkable total of over 173,000 people all round the world logged on to listen. Following the enormous digital success of the “Ultimate Origin” debate, Dr Yee has won the OxTALENT Award 2012 in the category “Use of technology for outreach and impact”. A podcast for the event can be found on the Sophia Europe Oxford website, at www.originsofnature.com.

The Archbishop and the Atheist - dialogue at the Sheldonian

Diarmaid MacCulloch, Fellow of St Cross and Professor of the History of the Church, has received a knighthood in the 2012 New Year Honours, in recognition of his services

to scholarship. During his long and distinguished career as a historian of the Church he has written important works on the Reformation and Thomas Cranmer, and is also well known to television viewers for his two series ‘A History of Christianity’ and ‘How God made the English’.

Professor MacCulloch commented: ‘It’s a surprise, a delight and an honour to have been singled out for knighthood, but apart from those personal feelings, I’m pleased for the recognition it gives to my chosen discipline of religious history, to the Oxford Theology Faculty, and more widely to all Arts and Humanities specialisms in this country’s universities; it should be a little reminder to the public that Arts and Humanities are vital to our national life.’

Knighthood for Diarmaid MacCulloch

It has been known for many years that every organism carries its hereditary information written on long DNA strands, known as its genome, and in the last few years technological

breakthroughs have made it possible to read whole genomes quickly and cheaply. Nevertheless, it is still not known if the largest part of these, known as the “dark genome”, has any function. Some of the dark genome of vertebrates includes the codes for the so-called endogenous retroviruses: humans have the remains of 100,000 such viruses in our genome, probably derived from the infections of our ancient ancestors.

Following the analysis of the genomes of 38 different mammals, the researchers found that many of the endogenous retroviruses

within them have been repeatedly transforming themselves into retrotransposons, which have some viral parts but lack perhaps the most “viral” property, infectivity, and hold the ability to proliferate dramatically within the genomes. These findings were observed to be a universal phenomenon: losing cell infectivity results in

roughly a 30-fold increase in their numbers within host cells.

Thus, it is suspected that endogenous retroviruses are forced to make a choice: either to keep their “viral” essence and spread between species, or to commit to one genome and then spread massively within it.

The significance of this research, according to Dr Magiorkinis, is that learning the rules of this ancient game will help us understand the role of these retroviruses in health and disease.

Dr Gkikas Magiorkinis, St Cross Emanoel Lee Junior Research Fellow, took part in research carried out by Oxford University and the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York into what controls the abundance of endogenous retroviruses in their host genomes. He is the lead author of the report published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

‘Humans have the remains of 100,000

endogenous retroviruses in our

genome, probably derived from the

infections of our ancient ancestors.’

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The study highlights the emergence of the National Shield, which it calls an ‘army-in-waiting’ and suggests there is a power struggle over the rebuilding of the Libyan National

Army; revolutionary commanders still distrust much of the leadership of the Libyan National Army and the Ministry of Defence who ran the war against them.

The research findings were published by the Small Arms Survey in ‘Research Note 18: Armed Groups in Libya – Typology and Roles’. It is based on seven months of field studies in Libya by Brian, who was based in Misrata at the time of the uprising but also conducted research in Benghazi, Sirte and Tripoli.

The research suggests that Libya’s revolutionary forces still command 75 to 85 per cent of the seasoned fighters and weapon stockpiles not controlled by the government; despite calls by

commentators for revolutionary brigades to join the national army, the study shows that there is a power struggle over how it is rebuilt.

‘While moves to reform the Ministry of Defence and the Libyan National Army are critical to long-term demobilisation efforts, local security initiatives are driving national policy. Revolutionary brigades have created a national network of revolutionary unions and established the National Shield, a national army-in-waiting, in order to safeguard the “ideals of the revolution”.

McQuinn adds: ‘Successful national elections in July will be critical for establishing a government that is seen as legitimate. The current delay in demobilisation programmes for brigade members is breeding disappointment among fighters; this situation has weakened their commitment to participate in the transition to a new Libya.’

Brian McQuinn, a St Cross student in his final year of Doctoral Research with Oxford University’s Centre for Anthropology, recently published new research showing that the revolutionary brigades in post-Gaddafi Libya are still a cohesive military force.

Jennifer wrote: “The £200 grant generously awarded by the College from the Travel and Research Fund has been applied toward a successful research trip to Ostia, the harbour city

of ancient Rome. The visit was integral to my DPhil research of mortar used in brick structures built in the 2nd century AD, because it afforded me the opportunity to examine the structures first-hand.

My work in Ostia began with preliminary investigations of the structures under study in my project. The primary purpose of this field trip was to collect samples to bring back to Oxford for laboratory analysis. A total of 28 samples were collected, whose addition to my research will increase the data set and allow for a broader and more rigorous analysis, hopefully generating more statistically significant results.”

The importance of Travel and Research GrantsThe following report was submitted by Jennifer Wehby, a second year DPhil student reading Archaeological Science, following a Travel and Research Grant made at the start of the academic year. These grants offered by the College, with the help of donors, are essential in helping students gain valuable experience and knowledge through field work in their chosen academic area.

Libyan revolutionary fighters develop a ‘national army-in-waiting’

‘Libya’s revolutionary forces still command

75 to 80 per cent of the seasoned fighters and

weapon stockpiles.’

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Now in its third year, the student photography competition goes from strength to strength. Entries in 2012 were of a very high standard, giving the judging panel of the St

Cross Arts Committee a difficult task in selecting a winner. The subject of the competition was ‘Hidden Oxford’ and the brief called

for ‘images of inspiring, little-known or unusual spaces, buildings or objects somewhere in or around Oxford, or a conventional subject from a new angle’. The winning entry by Zixi You does just that with her atmospheric photograph entitled ‘Oxford hidden behind pub windows No 2’.

Student Photography Competition 2012

1st - Zixi You

3rd - Anastasia Papanastasiou

Sebastian Peel

Anastasia Papanastasiou

Lana Pasic Gioia Forster

Rowena Henderson

3rd - Anastasia Papanastasiou 3rd - Douglas Whalin

Fan Xu

2nd - Gioia Forster

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Sport has been in our national consciousness more than usual this summer, and the same has been true at St Cross. The College may share some of its sports facilities and

teams, but its reach stretches throughout the University sporting arena. Our students (and also some of our Alumni – see page 19) have been taking part in an enormous number of sports. Within the College, we have thriving teams in a variety of disciplines: amongst others, football, swimming, rugby, rowing, cricket, basketball (in many cases jointly with Wolfson College), and also many more unusual sports and games such as table football.

St Cross also has University team members in water polo, women’s rowing, cycling, dancesport, swimming, equestrian, canoe and kayaking, karate, judo, fencing, mountain biking, golf (this year, St Cross was represented in the annual Intercollegiate Alumni Golf Tournament), surfing, morris dancing and gaelic football, plus chess which, though not exactly a sport, could undoubtedly be regarded as an extraordinarily demanding game in its higher reaches. We congratulate them all!

At the end of May, St Cross held the first College Sports Dinner, organised by Sports Fellow Dr Lorenzo Santorelli. The aim of the dinner was to build support for and celebrate our sporting community. The evening included the presentation of the St Cross College Sports Man and Woman of Year awards to Adam Lewandowski and Melissa Maczka respectively. The guest speaker was rower Colin Smith, Olympic silver medallist, Oxford Blue, and President of the University Boat Club in 2009, who passed around his Olympic medal for everyone present to admire and be inspired by to emulate.

A year in sport

Georgi Mintchev and Philipp Rottwilm competing in the Table Tennis Cuppers for St Cross this year.

They f inished third in the overal l University Championship, winning 3-0 against Somerville in the first round

and 3-0 against Exeter in the quarter-finals. Unfortunately they lost in the semi-finals against St Anne’s, the team that ultimately went on to win the tournament.

Table Tennis

The Wolfson-St Cross Football Team has had a very successful year. En route to the final they beat Lincoln 4-3 in the quarter-finals, played Christ Church in the semi-final,

whom they beat 2-0, and were victorious over Mansfield in the final with a score of 2-0.

Wolfson-St Cross Football Team wins MCR Football Cuppers

In the past few years St Cross women have been particularly strong in rowing and this year has been no exception.

St Cross makes up a good proportion of the Wolfson/St Cross rowing eights and has several members in the University boats: Dieuwertje Kooij (MPhil General Linguistics and

Comparative Philology, 2010), was named in the Oxford 2012 Women’s Blue Boat, although she was injured shortly before the Boat Race and could not compete in Henley on the day. Amy McLennan, a former student of St Cross (MPhil Anthropology, 2007) rowed in the Oxford openweight women’s reserve crew (Osiris), which beat the Cambridge reserve crew (Blondie) at the Henley Boat Races in late March. In addition, College Fellow Nanda Pirie is Senior Member of the Oxford University Women’s Lightweight RC, who also competed successfully at Henley. We would also like to congratulate the Women’s 1st Rowing Eight, who won blades in Torpids 2012.

Women’s rowing is quite rightly catching up with men’s in terms of prestige and press coverage. One very exciting event to look forward to is the 2015 Boat Race, at which for the first time both the men’s and the women’s races will take place on the same day and on the same historic course, from Putney to Mortlake.

Women in Rowing

Sport news

Guest Speaker Colin Smith, presents Melissa Maczka with the Sportswoman of the Year Award

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S P O R T N E W S

The Varsity Fencing team featuring St Crosser Michael Levenstein (front row, third from left)

The 2011/2012 Wolfson St Cross Cricket team

The Wolfson College Boat Club Men’s 2nd XIII “Crossfire”, during this year’s Summer Eights, where they got 4 bumps, featuring St Crossers Alex Rayner and Morgan Dirodi

For most keiki (kids) growing up along the Hawaiian coast, open-water swimming is a natural part of life.

Though my primary school geography teachers emphasised that temperature decreases as one moves further away from the equator, I don’t think I fundamentally comprehended this until March this year, when I, along with six other members of the Oxford University Swimming Club (OUSC), jumped into the chilly waters of Paignton, Devon, to begin training for the Varsity relay race across the English Channel.

The English Channel is one of the greatest challenges in the swimming world. Officially, from the beaches of Dover to the French coast near Calais, the distance is approximately 21 miles. However, 21 can easily turn into 26 if one

loses the tide or has to swerve to avoid getting hit by a tanker!

This chal lenge has been something I’ve dreamed of for

over a decade, though not a goal I thought I would ever have had a

genuine shot at attempting. After many years of competitive swimming in the United States, I thought my last competitive race was in the spring of 2010.

That changed when I ran into OUSC doing their pre-season training and they invited me to join them. I am so glad that I did: it has truly been a year of phenomenal experiences here at Oxford, especially in the pool.

In preparation for the Varsity relay race across the English Channel,

a trip was organised to Paignton in March to ensure all squad members had a chance to clock some open-water training time. However, after our very first session it became clear that the trip would embody mental conditioning much more

than physical training. Facing a water temperature as low as 7°C and extremely unfavourable open-water conditions, we all had moments of “what exactly did we get ourselves into?”

Thank goodness we had each other, both for safety and to boost morale! Armed with only our normal swimming costumes, hats and goggles, we continued to combat the cold water, making progress every day.

The race itself took place on 5 July. The water temperature on the day was a good deal warmer than during training but still only hitting a rather chilly 14 degrees. It was an incredibly exciting race throughout; we were on pace to break the world record until we hit the tide just off the French coast and got swept away from our intended landing point. However, the team pulled away f rom Cambr idge quickly in the first couple of swims, building up a good lead, which ultimately gave Oxford victory over Cambridge. We reached the French coast in 8 hours and 44 minutes, at around 12.30am on Friday morning.

It has been wonderful to fulfil a lifelong ambition to swim the Channel, alongside some of the truest and most dedicated individuals I’ve ever met. With support from my Channel teammates, OUSC, St Cross, and the entire University, the only thing to do is “just keep swimming!”

Kelsey Ida (2011, MSc Global Governance and Diplomacy) reports on why she braved the freezing waters of the English Channel.

Just keep swimming- to France!

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S P O R T N E W S

“I remember doing an interval session on the Iffley Road track when I first arrived in Oxford in 2009; the mural on the home stretch of Roger Bannister’s historic sub-four

minute mile brought a big grin to my face. I was so excited to be back running after a series of injuries that had kept me away from competing for nearly two years, and to be at a track with so much history was thrilling. But, unfortunately, less than a week later, injury struck yet again.

Previously, I competed nationally in Canada as a figure skater from the age of six, and in middle-distance running since before my teenage years. The combination of these two sports was never easy on my body, but this latest injury was different, and would prove to be a major hurdle not just for my comeback to running, but also potentially for my future quality of life. In February 2011, after many months of investigation, appointments and scans, I had surgery on my hip. There then followed many hours of physiotherapy and strength training. But eventually the pain started to disappear and a year post-surgery, I was back going for jogs.

By April 2012, I was training regularly on the track, making my comeback win in early May in the men’s 800m at the Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire County Championships. This earned me a place for the Blues 800m race a week later in the 138th Oxford versus Cambridge Varsity Athletics Match.

I have many people to thank for getting me to the start line of that historic event. Their belief and support helped me to be the first Dark Blue and second runner overall across the finish line at Varsity. We are told that there are specific moments in life that we will remember forever. For me, the sense of excitement with 100m to go, the familiar feeling of lactic acid in my legs, and Roger Bannister’s mural above the finish line will be forever in my memory.”

A race to rememberAdam Lewandowski, the St Cross Sportsman of the Year, is a keen middle-distance runner and third-year DPhil Student reading Cardiovascular Medicine. Here he recalls the long road to glory at the Roger Bannister Running Track.

Oxford students often have polyhedric interests: let’s take for example Melissa, a Statistics student at St Cross, currently in the third year of Doctoral

research. The focus of her work is imaging of brain function and she splits her time between the Department of Statistics and the Radiobiology Research Institute at the Churchill Hospital.

However, statistics is only half the story, as Melissa is also a national ice-dancing champion, coach of the Oxford University Cheerleading Squad and the St Cross College Sportswoman of the year.

Melissa started ice-skating when she was two years old at her local ice-skating rink in Romford, and went on to participate in her first national competition at the age of eight, winning first place.

During her career, Melissa has become the British Solo Ice Dance Champion five times. Although now technically retired, in February 2012 she returned to win the British Master’s Adult Solo Ice Dance Championships. Since then Melissa has

enjoyed competing occasionally, purely with the aim of beating her own best scores. She is currently working towards undertaking the Gold Star Ice Dance Test in July, the highest qualification in ice-dancing, for which she practises five days a

week at the Oxford Ice Rink.In her spare time, Melissa coaches the University

Cheerleading Squad, the Oxford Sirens. “It’s kind of like ice-skating, but more social” she says.

Sporting student profile: Melissa Maczka

‘In the end I was the sole representative of St Cross, but I was made to feel warmly welcome. We were lucky to have Frilford Heath Red and Blue courses to ourselves,

both in excellent condition looking splendid in the spring sunshine.

The golf was well organised, nicely paced and convivial, although taken seriously. The carvery lunch was good, again within a friendly atmosphere. Most of the players (and a few partners) came to the dinner afterwards at Balliol, where lively conversation and banter bounced around the full Hall. The food was excellent, the speeches amusing and the students’ bar downstairs provided the perfect venue for the diehards after the prizes were awarded (to Christ Church). All in all, it was a super event which I commend to all. Indeed, St Cross was mentioned in the speeches as having the smallest team present and we were enthusiastically encouraged to compete again with a full team of six next year. I for one would love to play again.’

Next year’s date is not yet fixed, but any interested golfers should contact the Alumni Office in the first instance.

Tee timeBill Gott (PGCE Physics, 1993) took part in the University’s Intercollegiate Golf Tournament at the end of March. He writes:

With just over 400m to go in the 2012 Varsity race, Adam is pictured wearing number 56.

On a sunny weekend in November 2011, St Cross alumna Emily Solis-Cohen (MSt Modern Middle English Studies, 2010) ran the Philadelphia Marathon. After many months of training, she completed the 26.2 mile race in 3 hours 47 minutes.

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away: I had the entire cello section to make, and the double basses. Once complete they would be played by the world-class BBC Concert Orchestra per forming Tchaikovsk y ’s 1812 Overture to a packed audience at the Proms: Scrapheap Orchestra presented by conductor Charles Hazlewood.

Every instrument I made began with a rigid pole construction. I started with broken masts from the local sailing club, but settled on taking apart some garden-sized football goal posts that I found in a local recycling centre. Unlike Scrapheap Challenge, failure was not an option. The instruments had to survive the filming, and they had to survive the performance. Springing apart in the middle of the last flourishes of the overture was unthinkable, let alone at any time beforehand.

The bodies of the instruments r a n g e d e n o r m o u s l y . T h e l e s s adventurous side of me led to knocking up a cello body from plywood, including sides from aeroply (the material once used to make Mosquito fighter bombers in the second world war). It ended up splintering all over the place, so I gave it a newspaper covering that led to rumours amongst the other makers that it might just be a real cello. It wasn’t, but in the final hours before the performance I had to take a knife to it, cutting holes in the sides to prove my innocence.

M y secret weapon was my

collaboration with the metals conservation department at West Dean College where I am head of instrument making. With metalworkers’ tools in hand, I was able to dream up other off-the-wall instruments. My favourite cello was made from the fuel tank of a series II Landrover from the 1960s. The fingerboard and tailpiece were fashioned from cast-iron guttering, and it had the look of something you might find in the Tardis. Another was made from bits of a filing cabinet and held together by cut-up strips of bicycle inner tubing. One double bass began life as a copper water tank from a central heating system, riveted to the bonnet of a 1980s Jaguar, but the best instrument of all was the bass I made from a zinc bath spotted in a field from the top of a double decker bus.

Part of the inspiration for the project had been Charles Hazlewood’s work with township orchestras in South Africa and (perhaps influenced by all the anthropologists I’ve known at St Cross) I became consciously aware that even though this was someone’s junk, in another world it would be unbelievably arrogant to cut up such a valuable thing to turn it into an instrument. The outcome was something akin to Robinson Crusoe, with a broken mast lashed to scraps of wood and the bottom of an old drawer. It takes ten minutes to turn the thing into a fully working double bass, and slightly less to return it to the use it was made for. The surprising thing was that of all the cellos, basses, violas and violins, this was the one instrument above all that really had the punch of its real equivalents.

On the night, the musicians did their best. The miracle of stringed instruments is the ability for these fragile wooden boxes to project with the power to fill a concert hall. Perhaps not exactly what could be said of our ensemble, which battled against wind, with brass players blowing harder than normal to gain control of their wayward instruments. It is difficult to know what Tchaikovsky would have thought of the work. He originally scored it for an enormous instrumentation of symphony orchestra, military brass band, canons and choir, but even in his lifetime it was seldom played with such awesome forces. The audience response was astonishing, and we took a spontaneous and instant standing ovation on both of the days it was performed.

Alumni news

On 23 July 2011 the Royal Albert Hall played host to what more than one commentator has described as the most extraordinary performance of classical music in the

history of the Proms. For me, as one of a team of leading instrument makers selected from around the country, it was the culmination of blood, sweat and tears of joy and frustration. The idea was a

simple one. We respect the genius of composers and the talents of musicians, but seldom do we think about the people who make the instruments that they play, or the ideas that create the designs that we take for granted. The madcap solution to highlight this part of the musical world was to assemble a team, and give us a mere two months to build an entire symphony orchestra from scratch. Notwithstanding that it normally takes as much time to make a single cello, or even that the task fell upon me right in the middle of a term of full-time teaching, the only criteria was that they had to be made entirely out of things that people had thrown

The bath tub double bassBen Hebbert (DPhil Music, 2002) reports on the making of an extraordinary orchestra and a triumphant performance.

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Bronwen Everill and Jonathan Gorrie have been named as joint St Cross Alumni of the Year for 2012. This is in recognition of the contribution they have both made to

the College since they left and in particular for the new annual prize they have founded for St Cross students, the Collingwood Prize for History. This is named after Bronwen’s home town in New Jersey where they were married in 2011. The award will be presented to them at the St Cross Gaudy Dinner to be held on Saturday 15 September 2012.

The St Cross Alumnus/a of the Year Award exists to celebrate those members who have contributed their time, skills and resources to the College. It is also in recognition of achievements of the highest level attained in pursuit of excellence in the professional world.

Nominations are now open for the 2013 Award. If you would like to propose an Alumna or Alumnus for the award, please contact the Alumni Office.

Alumni of the Year 2012Bronwen Everill (MSt European Archaeology, 2005) and Jonathan Gorrie (MPhil Modern Chinese Studies, 2005)Bruno Yaron (St Cross Visiting Fellow 1979, 1983,

1993)Soil sub-surface change: Chemical Pollutant Impacts (Springer, 2012). Study of the chemistry of contaminants that often disturb the natural soil-subsurface equilibrium as a result of human activity.

Christopher Ryan (Visiting student, Turkish and Persian, 1989-90)The Story of the Damascus Drum (Hawakati Press, 2011). A novel set in the ancient cities and mountains of nineteenth-century Syria.

Francesco Menotti (DPhil Archaeology, 1996)Wetland Archaeology and Beyond: Theory and Practice (Oxford University Press, 2012). An exploration of the finding, retrieval, conservation and research of archaeological material in wetland areas, focusing on the vital relationship between experts in the field and the general public.

Vasiliki Neofotistos (MSt Anthropology, 1997)The Risk of War: Everyday Sociality in the Republic of Macedonia (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011). This focuses on everyday life across ethno-national borders during the six-month armed conflict in 2001 between Macedonian government forces and the Albanian National Liberation Army, when fear and uncertainty regarding people’s existence and the viability of the state were intense and widespread.

Sue Walters (DPhil Education, 1999)Ethnicity, Race and Education: An Introduction (Continuum Press, 2012). An introduction to the key issues underlying contemporary work, thinking and practice around race, ethnicity and education drawing on current research, debate, policy and practice across mainstream and non-mainstream educational settings.

Edwina Thompson (Visiting student, International Relations, 2005)Trust is the Coin of the Realm (Oxford University Press, 2011). Study of the ‘money men’ of Afghanistan and their influential informal economy, Hawala, that links the Islamic world.

New books from Alumni

The Department of the Navy presented Dr Edward Furgol (DPhil Modern History, 1977) with a Meritorious Civilian Service medal on 26 October 2011 in recognition of his

exemplary service to the US Navy and the American public, including managing a highly successful intern program, and supporting the planning for the Navy’s War of 1812 bicentennial commemorations. In front of the fighting top from the frigate USS Constitution, Ed leans on a cannon from the former French ship-of-the-line Hoche, which was later on the American privateer General Armstrong during the War of 1812.

Mihai Razvan Ungureanu (associated student, Jewish studies, 1992) has been appointed Prime Minister of Romania. A former Foreign Minister and head of the Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service, he was nominated by President Basescu in February 2012 after Emil Boc stepped down in the face of street protests against an austerity programme. Mr Ungureanu’s office will be put to the people of Romania later this year when parliamentary elections are held in November.

D o u g l a s W i g d o r (MLitt Politics, 1993) who is representing the American hotel worker Naf issatou Diallo in the civil case she is bringing against Dominique Strauss-Kahn for al leged sexual assault, was invited to speak at the Cambridge University Faculty of Law in

March 2012 as part of the ‘Disinvite DSK’ campaign in response to the Cambridge Union asking Dominique Strauss-Kahn to speak there. Doug is a leading employment lawyer in New York, and was there to discuss how legal systems can disadvantage both women and immigrants, in the context of the Diallo/Strauss-Kahn case.

In the Oxford University’s Recognition of Distinction exercise in 2011, two alumni of St Cross have gained professorial status. These are:

Joel Ouaknine (DPhil Computer Science, 1995), Fellow of St John’s College, who is now Professor of Computer Science.

Paul Montgomery (DPhil Clinical Medicine, 1998) Fellow of Green Templeton College, who is now Professor of Psycho-Social Intervention.

Sue Walters (DPhil Education, 1999) has recently moved from her post as Lecturer in Education at Edinburgh University to the Institute of Education, University of London, where she is a Lecturer in Education with responsibility for leading modules in research methods as well as being the Programme Leader for an undergraduate programme. She is pleased to be back in London and close to Oxford after travelling so far north and would love to hear from old friends.

Hao-Pu Wang (MSc Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition, 2003), an English news anchor, translator and editor at a government-run radio station in Taiwan, is writing a blog (in Chinese) linked to a group of students and friends whose aims are to support fluency in English among the Taiwanese to enable international communication, and to assist in sending resources to poor farming villages in Burma.

Edoardo Gallo (MPhil Economics, 2005) has taken up a University Lectureship in the Department of Economics at the University of Cambridge and has joined Queens’ College as an Official Fellow. He remains affiliated to Oxford through his Associate Membership at Nuffield College and Junior Research Fellowship at Christ Church.

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They examined the body mass index (BMI) data of 5,632 homeless men and women in Boston, USA, and found that nearly one-third of them were obese. Compared to this

data set was the BMI of 5,555 non-homeless adults: obesity amongst the homeless (32.3%) was almost as high as among the general population (33.7%).

The study suggests that conditions associated with being homeless, such as a largely sedentary lifestyle, sleep debt, and stress may be contributing factors. However, the research paper expresses caution about the precise causes of obesity in the homeless and offers a range of hypotheses.

In this respect, Katie Koh, the study’s lead author, illustrates the so-called “hunger-obesity paradox”, which describes the co-existence of hunger and obesity in the same person: “The rise of obesity among populations that lack regular access to food has recently been documented in developing countries and certain low-income populations. This research shows that this paradox

may affect homeless people as well. Obesity among the homeless population could be due to the tendency to buy cheap, low-nutrient dense but highly caloric foods in the setting of limited resources. Another factor could be the physiological changes that occur in the body in the face of inconsistent food intake.”

Co-author Paul Montgomery, Professor of Psycho-Social Interventions at the University of Oxford, said: “To our knowledge, this is the first study to rigorously evaluate whether obesity is a problem among the homeless in the US. It highlights the importance of the quality, as well as the quantity, of food that the homeless are consuming.” Katie added: “Our hope is that this study can ultimately help generate changes in the content of meals served in soup kitchens and shelters for those who are homeless. The nutritional needs of the homeless have been largely ignored and unfortunately, obesity is an urgent problem that affects even the most impoverished.”

A new study by two St Cross Alumni, Katie Koh (2009, MSc Evidence Based Social Intervention) & Professor Paul Montgomery (1998, DPhil Clinical Medicine) has been published which challenges the idea that the homeless are starving and underweight. The research, published in the Journal of Urban Health, found that obesity is just as common among the homeless as it is among the general non-homeless population.

Investigating the hunger-obesity paradox

image copyright Franco Folini

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Alumni Reunion Fred’s Lunch

Winter Drinks

The new academic year began with the Alumni Reunion weekend drinks reception on Saturday 17 September 2011. This was Sir Mark’s first official engagement since taking

up the role of Master and a great opportunity to meet some of the St Cross Alumni. The highlight of the evening was undoubtedly the presentation of the 2011 Alumnus of the Year award to Dr Ed Furgol in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the American Friends of St Cross.

As the seasons moved on, St Cross held its annual Winter Drinks party in December, up at the Oxford and Cambridge Club in London. Well attended by over 80 Alumni from across the College’s history, members enjoyed a fascinating talk entitled “Diplomacy in the Digital Age” from Richard Makepeace, Fellow of St Cross

College and Registrar of The Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, who recounted his career in the diplomatic service with particular focus on his time in the Middle East.

With the arrival of spring, Alumni were treated to the sight of the College gardens awakening when they returned for Fred’s Lunch in late March.

A trip across the Atlantic was next up for the Master, who travelled to New York, along with Alumni Relations & Development Manager Laura King, for the North American Alumni Reunion. They participated in the University’s reunion events on Saturday 14 April and were delighted to meet with several St Cross Alumni during the course of the day. The highlight of the trip however was the St Cross reunion event at the Harvard Club, hosted jointly

An eventful year for St Cross alumniwith Green Templeton and Wolfson Colleges. Richard G. Frank, Professor of Health Care Policy at the Harvard Medical School, was the evening’s guest speaker and discussed ‘Politics and Perspectives on US Health Reform’.

The last year has provided great opportunities for Alumni to meet with current members of College as well as each other. In addition to the events detailed here, there have also been a number of informal events held in different locations, particularly a full calendar of events for members in the Washington DC area kindly organised by local alumnus, Ed Furgol.

We plan to continue to offer our members a range of opportunities to engage with the College and each other over the next year; please see overleaf for forthcoming dates for your diary.

New York Reunion

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