Giving Day Festival

Dates

26 April to 19 May

Location

Wadham College

Summary

We are excited to announce that eight alumni with extraordinary careers have agreed to a series of alumni-student events in College. The talks will provide a unique opportunity for current students to ask questions and hear from each alumnus about their time at Wadham and their journey since.

Speakers

Our confirmed speakers are:

  • Joshua Rozenberg (Law, 1968), a leading legal commentator
  • Neil Nightingale (Zoology, 1979), a prolific freelance wildlife filmmaker, producer and creative consultant with BBC Earth
  • Patrick Marber (English, 1983), a comedian, playwright, director, actor and screenwriter
  • Lissa Muscatine (PPE, 1977), Director of Speechwriting during the Obama administration and Senior Advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (via Zoom)
  • Phoebe Okowa (Law, 1988), the first African woman and the first black woman to serve on the International Law Commission; she is also Professor of Public International Law at Queen Mary University, London
  • Hari Kunzru (English, 1988), acclaimed novelist and journalist (via Zoom)
  • Amelia Gentleman (Russian & History, 1991), an award-winning Guardian journalist who broke the Windrush scandal
  • Jude Rogers (English, 1996) a journalist, broadcaster, art critic.

Please note that these events are not open to the general public.

Giving Day

Created to mark Wadham’s third Giving Day, which will take place 19-20 May, these alumni-student exchanges are another example of the inspiring ways in which Wadham alumni give back to College and offer their support to today’s students. Each event will be organised by students and we hope to make video recordings available online.

Warden Robert Hannigan said: “We are hugely thrilled to have so many accomplished alumni coming to Wadham over the month ahead to engage with our students in this way. It’s a rare opportunity for our students to hear stories and gain insights from a number of remarkable individuals, and we very much look forward to seeing them in College.”