Wadham in Headlines 2025
Additional stories from Wadham's community, bundled with your e-newsletter.
Issue 87 - December
Journalist Richard Askwith describes his week on the Wadham Experience 'Attention in a Cacophonous World' programme.
Our Senior Research Fellow, Professor Nathalie Seddon, was one of nine experts presenting assessments of the scale of the changes needed at the 'first of its kind' national emergency meeting in Westminster on 27 November.
University of St Andrews Principal and Vice-Chancellor and our alumna, Professor Dame Sally Mapstone FRSE (English Language and Literature, 1975) has been honoured by the Saltire Society with a prestigious Fletcher of Saltoun Award for Public Life.
Dame Sally was presented with the award on Thursday 4 December at a ceremony packed with well-known faces from Scottish cultural life.
'The Poems of Seamus Heany' edited by our Emeritus Fellow, Bernard O'Donoghue, and Rosie Lavan with Matthew Hollis 'will be offering riches for years to come.'
Our alumna and former MCR President, Dr Cristina A. Bejan (PPE, 2004; DPhil in Modern History, 2005), received this award for her "tireless advocacy" for Rhodes Scholars in the Creative Arts. She is one of six winners for 2025 and the youngest Rhodes Scholar in the cohort.
Issue 86 - November
Read our Warden's interview on Cybersecurity, AI, and the New Age of Multilateral Defense.
Prof Seddon will speak about why nature loss is a national security issue and how healthy, biodiverse ecosystems protect us from floods and drought, underpin our food and water security, and support health, jobs and stability at the Emergency Briefing on the Climate & Nature crisis on 27 November 2025.
Our Senior Research Fellow, Prof Kam Bhui, has written a time-travelling novel for young adults. The Maharaja’s Bodyguard publishes on October 28 2025.
Set between 1800s India and 1960s Britain, the story follows Haroun, who must choose between embracing magical powers as a bodyguard to a Maharaja or staying in Britain to care for his mother. Prof Bhui blends historical fantasy with themes of trauma and identity, exploring how imagination and storytelling can help young people to process adversity.
Our alumna, Dr Marie Tidball (Jurisprudence, 2002 & DPhil in Criminology, 2011), has been named The Spectator magazine’s Parliamentarian of the Year 2025 in its annual awards.
The Labour Party
From his early football days in West London to his time on Oxford’s pitches, Jaydon shares in an interview with Oxford University what the sport means to him and how others can get involved in it.
Seun represents students' interests and ensures that the student voice is heard across the University. In this blog, she talks about her role and opportunities to get involved.
Michael Rosen's new one-person show, 'Getting Through It' is a double-bill of monologues, 'The Death of Eddie' and 'Many Kinds of Love' will be at the Oxford Playhouse on 9 January 2026.
This annual award is given to a person or organization that contributes to the importance of literature for children and young people all over the world. The prize money of five million Swedish kronor makes the award the world's largest of its kind. It shows how important reading for young people is, now and in the future. Our alumnus, Michael Rosen, is among the nominees for the Astrid Lindgren Award 2026.
Lord Bragg has 'declared his innings closed' after 27 years and 1,038 episodes of this wide-ranging discussion on Radio 4, to which two million listeners tune in each week.
Located in The Hague, Netherlands, the International Court of Justice is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. In November 2025, the Security Council elected our alumna, Phoebe Okowa (Kenya), BCL, 1998; DPhil Law, 1990, as a member of the International Court of Justice, voting concurrently with — but separately from — the General Assembly.
Issue 85 - October
The awards, hosted by Oxford City Council and the Oxford Mail, celebrated those who are making a difference in our community through their sustainable practices.
Wadham was nominated in the Sustainable Further Education School or College category and congratulate worthy winners, ACE Training.
On 22 October, Jaz Brisack (Mississippi & Wadham 2019), in conversation with Shruti Iyer (India and St Antony’s, 2019), will discuss their book 'Get on the Job and Organize: Standing Up for a Better Workplace and a Better World.'
A trove of unpublished poems by the late Irish poet Seamus Heaney is set to be printed alongside his collected and uncollected poems, published together for the first time.
The Department of Engineering Science annually awards Bronze, Silver, and Gold awards for excellence in teaching. Wadham is proud to announce that our Fellow and Tutor in Electrical Engineering, Prof Ekaterina Shamonina, has received a Gold Award for 2025!
An episode of the Past Present Future podcast features Wadham post-doctoral researcher, Dr Ian Ellison talking about "the most famous trial in literature that never actually takes place." Check out their discussion of Franz Kafka’s The Trial, first published in 1925.
Issue 84 - August
'Rosamund Pike rules in searing legal drama from Prima Facie team'. Read the Guardian's 4* review of 'Inter Alia', Suzie Miller's follow up play.
Read our Senior Research Fellow's article in The Conversation.
Oxford experts, including our Senior Research Fellow, discuss the impact humans are having on our environment, how we can work with nature to tackle the climate crisis, and why the human-nature relationship is so important.
Verity Babbs journeys through 50 key art movements across history, answering ten questions for each in just one sentence at a time in 'The History of Art in One Sentence', published by Bloomsbury. Verity will be in conversation with Amie McNee at Blackwell's, Broad Street, Oxford at 5.30pm on 16 October.
Odhran O’Donoghue (Medicine, 2016) is co-founder of Magentic, an AI company that deploys off-the-shelf, procurement and supply chain domain-specific AI teammates into operations. He is interviewed on ETS Live.
The dialogue between Urmila Seshagiri, Derek Attridge, Elleke Boehmer, & Ankhi Mukherjee, our Tutorial Fellow and Professor of English and World Literatures, grew out of a session on “Disgrace at 25” convened for the Postcolonial and World Literatures Seminar at Oxford University in November 2024.
Arden Jaeger (Mst History of Art and Visual Culture, 2024) and Diya Ramful (Environmental Research, 2024) combine their research with promoting social justice.
This year marks 50 years since our alumnus, Tsatsu Tsikata (BCL 1970, was called to the Ghana Bar.
Our alumna, Anuoluwatoyosi Onikosi (MSc in Law and Finance, 2023), spoke to the Africa Oxford Initiative about her work on development projects since leaving Oxford.
Issue 83 - July
Seven researchers at the University of Oxford including our Professorial Fellow in Microbiology, Professor Kevin Foster, have been awarded Advanced Grants from the European Research Council, each worth up to €2.5 million over a period of five years.
Our Junior Research Fellow, Dr Arran Davis, was part of a team that won the University of Oxford's Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Local Community Engagement.
Wadham was the joint winner, alongside Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, of the Higher Education Inclusion Excellence Award.
Our Senior Research Fellow in Biology and Nature-based Solutions Initiative Director, Professor Nathalie Seddon, coordinated the group of UK scientists who delivered an open letter to the Prime Minister setting out the latest peer-reviewed evidence on why protecting and restoring nature is essential for UK prosperity, security and global leadership as the world heads towards COP 30 (Belém, November 2025).
Our alumna, Labour MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, chair of the all-party parliamentary group on autism and co-chair of the disability parliamentary Labour party shared her views on the welfare bill and that 'we need a reset and fast'.
Our alumna and Honorary Fellow makes her National Theatre debut as Jessica Parks in Inter Alia. Writer, Suzie Miller, and director, Justin Martin, reunite following their global phenomenon Prima Facie with this searing examination of modern masculinity and motherhood.
His Majesty The King has approved the appointments of Mrs Justice Cockerill, Mr Justice Dove, Mr Justice Foxton, Mrs Justice May, Mr Justice Miles and Mrs Justice Yip as Lord and Lady Justices of Appeal.
Our alumnus, Rory Coonan, Hon. FRIBA and Secretary of the Sir Christopher Wren Foundation, delivered the lecture, "Wren, Wrenaissance and some also – Wrens: the enduring legacy of the British Leonardo”, at Gray's Inn on 3 July.
The Producers, directed by our alumnus and Tony Award-winning director, Patrick Marber, transfers to the Garrick Theatre this Autumn following a sold-out run at the Menier Chocolate Factory.
Dr Rowan Williams and Hilary Davies will introduce poems of their own as well as selected work by others, all relating to the concert's themes of landscape. The poetry and harp concert inspired by the landscape and heritage of Wales will take place on 27 July at Llansantffraed Church.
'Pepysian Perceptions of the Cape 1798-1828: Selections from the Western Cape diaries of Samuel Eusebius Hudson' by his descendent and our alumnus, Edward Hudson, was described in the TLS review by Malcolm Jack as '... a fine addition to the impressive HiPSA volumes on Cape and South African history.'
We are pleased to be 'Highly Commended' with Eyesea Green, in the Green Heat category of the UK Green Business Awards 2025.
All members of Wadham's community work together to improve our sustainability and reduce our carbon footprint. We were delighted that our efforts were recognised by the University for the second year with a gold Green Impact Award.
Issue 82 - May
Thirty years after the release of the song, Eric Clarke describes it as "the most brilliant single from the 1990s." BBC
Congratulations to our alumnus and Honorary Fellow, Lord Melvyn Bragg, who is among this year's recipients of honorary degrees from the University of Oxford.
Honorary Fellow and alumnus, Anita Anand becomes Canada's first Hindu Foreign Minister in cabinet shakeup. The Indian Express
Awarded by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, the award "recognizes positive impacts of artificial intelligence to protect, enhance, and improve human life in meaningful ways with long-lived effects."
The Guardian praises this rendition of Shakespeare's classic: "it’s like eating the richest steak possible."
A graduate student visited the recent exhibitions and wrote a detailed write-up on the experience on their blog, Mads Writes
Check out where Wadham stands in this 'dummy's guide' fromThe Cherwell.
Brian's colleague and former PhD student writes of his contributions to the field of botany. Press Reader
Issue 81 - April
Staff at Greater Anglia collaborated with the Essex Women’s Commemorative Project (EWCP) to install the blue plaque at the Ingatestone, in honour of our founder, Dorothy Wadham. Link
Many congratulations to Indro on his new role at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Patti Wong is quoted in the article, 'Why Hong Kong has become the art world's enigma' in the Financial Times
Anita Anand is now Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry within the Canadian Government.
Aubrey Peter Walshe is survived by his wife, Ann, four children (Sally, Jane, Dominic and Emma) and four grandchildren (Charlotte, Arabella, Lillian and Gwyneth). Notre Dame University
Robert Hannigan speaks to the Irish Examiner on the talent pipeline to Cork.
The UK Green Business Awards highlight some of the most inspiring and innovative projects and campaigns in the UK today, from organisations that are striving to build a more sustainable economy. Read more about our shortlisting.
Issue 79 & 80 - February
Sue Willman (Law, 1982) was awarded an Honorary KC for founding the Asylum Support Appeals Project (ASAP), providing free representation to destitute asylum-seekers. As well as for publishing articles, authoring a series of textbooks on asylum support, and advising a parliamentary committee on an inquiry to drive legislative reforms. UK Government
The call for papers is open and applications are invited from early career researchers, including doctoral students, on the theme – Treaty Regimes in International Law. Topics may include the functioning, control, and governance of particular treaty regimes, the activities of dispute settlement or monitoring bodies, and assemblies or conferences of State parties. Law Faculty
Eleanor McKeown (Ancient & Modern History, 2003) and her partner have developed Horse, a web-browser with a new approach to tab management. It was awarded Silver in the 'Bootstrapped & Small Teams' category in Product Hunt's Golden Kitty Awards.
The Brutalist is the new Brady Corbet-directed epic film about a fictional Hungarian architect called László Tóth. Felicity Jones plays Erzsébet, his equally complex journalist wife. Irish Examiner
Researchers at the University of Oxford and the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) have shown that terahertz light can induce chirality in a non-chiral crystal, allowing either left- or right-handed enantiomers to emerge on demand. The finding, reported in Science, on 23 January opens up exciting possibilities for exploring novel non-equilibrium phenomena in complex materials. Link
Lecture description: "In this lecture we obtain the spectrum and eigenstates of the harmonic oscillator through algebraic methods. Our starting point is the canonical commutation relation and a key new concept is raising and lowering operators." YouTube
This exciting event is designed to provide Year 12 UK-domiciled Tamil students with an invaluable insight into the Oxford application process and student life. Link