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