Download PDF - St. Catherine's College - University of Oxford
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THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY<br />
The Anniversary Weekend<br />
The showpiece <strong>of</strong> our anniversary celebrations<br />
was held over the second weekend in<br />
September. Almost 500 alumni, Fellows and<br />
friends attended a series <strong>of</strong> celebratory<br />
dinners, while a special programme <strong>of</strong> talks<br />
and lectures commemorated the diverse<br />
contribution <strong>St</strong> Catherine’s men and women<br />
have made to enriching society at large.<br />
The talks were recorded and streamed as<br />
podcasts by the <strong>University</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Oxford</strong>. In the<br />
week <strong>of</strong> their online release, the number <strong>of</strong><br />
hits made the series the most popular series<br />
streamed by the <strong>University</strong>!<br />
Visit http:/podcasts.ox.ac.uk/units/stcatherines-college<br />
to view coverage <strong>of</strong><br />
the panels, and to see something <strong>of</strong> the<br />
intellectual inquisitiveness with which<br />
<strong>St</strong> Catherine’s has rightly become<br />
renowned over the course <strong>of</strong> the last<br />
fifty years.<br />
Defining Moments in International<br />
Relations Since 1962<br />
With discussion focussed on the past<br />
fifty years, much attention was paid<br />
to the Cold War, rendering the post-<br />
1962 era one <strong>of</strong> ideological conflict<br />
and tension between superpowers.<br />
Domus Fellow Marshall Cloyd described the<br />
technological opportunities unleashed by the<br />
Space Race. Jens Tholstrup (2012, Economics<br />
and Social History), recently Managing<br />
Director <strong>of</strong> <strong>Oxford</strong> Economics, argued that<br />
increasing globalisation has been most<br />
pertinent in defining international relations.<br />
Discussion also referenced the influence<br />
<strong>of</strong> traditional security concerns in shaping<br />
relations between states. Clark Ervin (1980,<br />
PPE), a former Inspector-General <strong>of</strong> the US<br />
Department <strong>of</strong> Homeland Security, noted how<br />
unique the September 11 attacks had been as<br />
an assault on ‘home soil’ in pointing to their<br />
importance among the ‘defining moments’.<br />
Academic and journalist, James Rodgers<br />
(1984, Modern Languages) <strong>of</strong>fered a lively<br />
commentary on the contribution journalists<br />
and correspondents can <strong>of</strong>fer to the reporting<br />
<strong>of</strong> international affairs.<br />
Sir Humphry Davy: Natural Philosopher,<br />
Discoverer, Inventor, Poet, Man <strong>of</strong> Action<br />
Honoured by Napoleon and (unexpectedly)<br />
by the Czar <strong>of</strong> Russia, friend <strong>of</strong> Wordsworth,<br />
Coleridge and Lord Byron, Sir Humphry<br />
Davy was one <strong>of</strong> the brightest stars in the<br />
European intellectual firmament. Discoverer<br />
<strong>of</strong> sodium, potassium and five other<br />
elements, as well as the anesthetic properties<br />
<strong>of</strong> nitrous oxide, and inventor <strong>of</strong> the Davy<br />
miners’ lamp, he packed more action and<br />
achievement into his short life than most<br />
scientists before or after him, even those who<br />
outlived him by several decades.<br />
His remarkable journey from lowly<br />
origins in Cornwall to the pinnacles <strong>of</strong><br />
international fame was traced by Sir<br />
John Meurig Thomas, one <strong>of</strong> the UK’s<br />
most decorated contemporary chemists,<br />
in an amusing and absorbing lecture. Sir<br />
John is one <strong>of</strong> the UK’s most celebrated<br />
contemporary chemists, the author <strong>of</strong><br />
over 900 research papers and the holder<br />
<strong>of</strong> numerous international and national<br />
awards.<br />
30/THE ANNIVERSARY WEEKEND