Wadham College welcomes its new Honorary Fellows for 2024

We are delighted to announce our new Honorary Fellows. Robert Hannigan, Warden of Wadham College, said:

"We are, as always, proud of our alumni and their diverse contributions and areas of knowledge. This is exemplified by our new Fellows, who are all leaders in their fields of expertise. It is particularly appropriate that, in the 50th anniversary year of the first female students joining Wadham, five of our new Honorary Fellows are women."

Monica Ali CBE (Politics, Philosophy and Economics, 1986) is a bestselling writer whose work has been translated into 26 languages. She is the author of five books: Brick Lane, Alentejo Blue, In the Kitchen, Untold Story and Love Marriage. Monica is Chair of the judges for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2024.

Monica is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She has been nominated for, amongst others, the Booker Prize, the George Orwell Prize, and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. In the USA, she has been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Monica has taught creative writing at Columbia University, New York, where she was a visiting Professor. From 2015 to 2018 she was Distinguished Writer in Residence at the University of Surrey.

Brick Lane was turned into feature film produced by Film Four. Monica is currently adapting her fifth novel, Love Marriage, for television in conjunction with New Pictures.

Monica is Patron of Hopscotch Women’s Centre, a charity that was originally set up by Save the Children to support ethnic minority families who had come to join their partners in the UK. The organisation became independent in 1998 and continues to empower women and girls to achieve their full potential.

Alexandra Bech Gjørv (Diploma in Law – Jurisprudence, 1990) is CEO of SINTEF, one of Europe's largest research institutes. Her career spans the intersection of business, technology, law and policymaking. Alexandra has extensive executive experience in in Norsk Hydro and Equinor, including renewable energy and low carbon solutions, automotive parts, as well as staffs and corporate governance. She chaired the governmental commission appointed after the 2011 Norway attacks, which presented their findings in the Gjørv Report.

Alexandra is a lawyer and was a partner in the law firm Hjort before joining SINTEF in 2016. Alexandra has served on a number of company boards, and is currently chairing the board of Statkraft, Europe’s largest producer of renewable energy.

Professor Josephine Crawley Quinn (BA Literae Humaniores, 1992) is currently a Professor of Ancient History in the Classics Faculty and Martin Frederiksen Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History at Worcester College, Oxford. In January 2025 she will take up the Chair in Ancient History at Cambridge, where she will be the first woman to hold that post.

Professor Quinn works on Mediterranean history and archaeology, with particular interests in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods, the Phoenicians, and ancient North Africa. She has published articles on topics from Roman imperialism to Athenian sculpture to Numidian architecture to Edwardian education. She has co-edited volumes of essays on ‘The Hellenistic West’ (with Jonathan Prag) and ‘The Punic Mediterranean’ (with Nicholas Vella), as well as (with Andrew Erskine) the collected articles of the late Peter Derow, her Ancient History at Wadham.

Most recently, Professor Quinn has written two books. ‘In Search of the Phoenicians’, which was published by Princeton University Press in 2018, won the Goodwin Award of Merit from the Society of Classical Studies, and has since been published in French, Mandarin, and Arabic. ‘How the World Made the West’, which was published by Bloomsbury in February 2024, will be published in more than twenty translations over the next few years.

Lucy Lake OBE (Human Sciences, 1991) is a leader in the field of international education and development. She joined CAMFED (Campaign for Female Education) in 1994, shortly after it was founded, and went on to become CEO. CAMFED’s model has been scaled in five countries of Africa, supporting more than 7 million young people in education including 2.2 million girls to complete secondary school – cited in Forbes, “How some of the poorest girls in the world get exactly the education they need”. One of the most profound outcomes of CAMFED’s model is its graduate Association of women leaders – more than 250,000 strong – among them doctors, teachers, lawyers, business leaders and government officials, now at the forefront of a pan-African movement for girls’ education.

Under Lucy’s leadership, CAMFED has been awarded the Hilton Humanitarian Prize, the Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation, and the UN Climate Action Award, and has been recognised by the OECD for best practice in taking development innovation to scale. In 2020, Lucy was awarded the Yidan Prize for Education Development, “the world’s highest education accolade”, for her contribution to gender equality in education.

In 2023, Lucy stepped aside as CEO and passed the reins to Angeline Murimirwa, one of the first girls to be supported through school by CAMFED and a founding member of its graduate Association. Lucy now advises organisations and government on inclusion in education, and gender equality. She is a founding member and former Chair of the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative and has served on the High-Level Steering Group of the Education Commission’s Workforce Initiative, and the Advisory Board of the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report.

Roger Mosey (BA Modern History and Modern Languages, 1976) was a William Akroyd Foundation scholar at Wadham,

Roger is the Master of Selwyn College and a Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. Before taking up this post, Roger had an illustrious career at the BBC. His final role there was as Editorial Director. In his time at BBC Sport, Roger oversaw the coverage of the 2006 World Cup and the Beijing Olympics. He led the BBC’s London Olympics coverage across all platforms and genres, which won multiple awards including from the Royal Television Society.

Roger was Editor of Radio 4’s Today programme from March 1993 until his appointment as Controller of 5 Live at the beginning of 1997. Under Roger’s editorship, Today won Sony Gold Awards in 1994 and 1995, and was the Broadcasting Press Guild’s Radio Programme of the Year in 1995. Radio 5 Live was named the Sony National Radio Station of the Year in 1998.

Roger was elected Master of Selwyn College in 2013. He was appointed as one of the Deputy Vice-Chancellors of the University of Cambridge in 2018. He is a Syndic of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

Roger has written for many national publications, ranging from The Sunday Times to The Guardian to The Spectator and The New Statesman. He has written two books. “Getting Out Alive”, about news, sport and politics at the BBC was published in 2015 and "20 Things that would make the News Better" was published in 2022.

Roger has honorary degrees from the University of Lincoln (2011) and University of Bradford (2013). He is a fellow of the Radio Academy and the Royal Television Society.

Rosamund Pike (English, 1997) is a Golden Globe & Emmy Award-winning and BAFTA & Academy Award-nominated actress. She has earned international acclaim for her film, television, stage and audio performance roles.

Rosamund’s television roles include 'Wives and Daughters' and 'Love in a Cold Climate'. Her early film roles include Miranda Frost in the James Bond film, 'Die Another Day (2002), for which she won the Empire Award for Best Newcomer; Jane Bennett in 'Pride and Prejudice' (2005); and Elizabeth Malet in The Libertine (2004), for which she won the British Independent Film Award for Best Supporting Actress. Rosamund has several stage credits and in the same year, she starred in a production of Hedda Gabler on UK tour.

In 2014, Rosamund was the lead in David Fincher's ‘Gone Girl’, the film adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s best-selling book. She was nominated for an Academy Award, a SAG Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Critics’ Choice Movie Award and was honoured at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Rosamund was also presented with the Breakthrough Performance Award at the Palm Springs Film Festival and at the Women in Film & TV (UK) Awards.

In 2017, Rosamund won the award for Best Actress at the Oxford International Film Festival for the role of The Woman in the short film 'The Human Voice'. In 2019, she won an Emmy award for Outstanding Actress in a Short Form Series for 'State of the Union'. Further film roles include Helen Rodin, the female lead alongside Tom Cruise in 'Jack Reacher'; Marie Curie in 'Radioactive’; and Marie Colvin in ‘A Private War’, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe. In 2021, Rosamund won the Golden Globe for Best Actress for playing Maria Grayson in the crime thriller, 'I Care a Lot'. In 2023, she was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Elspeth Catton in 'Saltburn'.

Rosamund has played the iconic sorceress Moiraine Damodred, in Amazon Studios’ adaptation of the book series, ‘The Wheel of Time’, since 2021. In addition to her on screen performance, Rosamund has narrated the first three audiobooks from the series of novels for Audible. She won the Best Female Narrator Audie Award for her work on ‘The Eye of the World’ in 2023, and ‘The Dragon Reborn’ won the Audie Award for Fantasy in 2024.

Rosamund starred in and executive produced the eight-episode historical fiction podcast, 'Edith!' She is an executive producer on the Netflix series, '3 Body Problem'.

Rosamund Pike has been an Ambassador for Mines Advisory Group, an NGO that assists people affected by landmines, unexploded ordnance, and small arms and light weapons, since 2021. Rosamund has travelled to Lebanon and Cambodia with the landmine charity.

Michael Rosen (English Language and Literature, 1965) is one of the best-known figures in the children’s book world. He is renowned for his work as a poet, performer, broadcaster and scriptwriter. Michael has lectured and taught in universities on children’s literature, reading and writing. He is Professor of Children’s Literature at Goldsmith’s, University of London, and presents ‘Word of Mouth’, the BBC magazine programme that looks at the English language and the way we use it. Michael visits schools with his one-man show to enthuse children with his passion for books and poetry. He was one of the first poets to make visits to schools throughout the UK and has also visited schools throughout the world. He is a patron of the Shakespeare Schools Festival, a charity that enables schoolchildren across the UK to perform Shakespeare in professional theatres.

Michael Rosen was awarded one of France's top honours, Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Literature) in 2008. He was Children’s Laureate 2007 – 2009. Michael has a Ph.D. from the University of North London (now London Metropolitan University) and Honorary Doctorates from the Institute of Education, London (now part of UCL), University of East London-Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, University of Exeter, University of Brighton, University of West of England, and Nottingham Trent University. Michael has an Honorary Fellowship with the Royal College of Nursing. In 2021, he received the annual J.M. Barrie Lifetime Achievement Award from the charity Action for Children's Arts, "in recognition of his tremendous work championing the arts for children as well as his achievements as a performer and author. He won the 2023 Pen Pinter Prize for his "fearless" body of work.

Michael’s classic picture book ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, won the Nestle Smarties Grand Prize in 1989. The English Association awarded ‘Michael Rosen’s Sad Book’, which deals with bereavement, an Exceptional Award for the Best Children’s Illustrated Books of 2004, in the 4-11 age range. ‘Getting Better: Life lessons on going under, getting over it, and getting through it’ was published in 2024. In it, Michael explores the roles that trauma and grief have played in his life and investigates the road to recovery.