the brick

the newsletter for the keble community • issue 78 • hilary term 2024

alumni news

college news

student life

FEATURE

Reflections from the Warden

Warden Dr Sir Mike Jacobs reflects on why Keble remains relevant and important.

We live in a precarious world and thanks to the 24-hour news cycle we are more aware of the potential threats to our safety, health and freedom of speech than ever before. Now more than ever the world needs leaders who are capable of grappling with complexity, and communicating complex ideas in an accessible way — powerful skills which are nurtured in our rigorous tutorial system.

College News

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EDI Fellow | Sabrina Martin

Dr Sabrina Martin teaches Politics for Keble and has been a Fellow by Special Election at the College since 2020. She became Keble’s Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Fellow in 2021.

‘Lifting the Lid’ on the Archives

A recent donation of biographical material relating to David Talboys, the College’s longest serving member of staff, prompted the Archivist and Information Compliance Manager to investigate what records exist in the archives about non-academic staff.

‘The Poet’s Essay’ with Adam Phillips

Matthew Bevis, Professor of English Literature, writes about one of the College’s most popular initiatives—now in its 10th year—the Adam Phillips seminar on The Poet’s Essay.

Keble Early Music Festival 2024

Director of Music, Christian Wilson set about planning a festival with three main intentions: to maximise our educational remit by drawing on Oxford’s young musicians and experts, to provide variety across genres and repertoires, and to celebrate Oxford’s inheritance in early music performance.

WHT Scholars 2023/24

The highly competitive Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Scholarships have been running at Oxford since 2007. Keble College is proud to take five Scholars on the programme each year, with all the scholarships funded by alumni.

College News in Brief…

ORI Presented With Queen’s Anniversary Prize; Professor Daniela Ferreira Awarded NIHR Professorship; Ten-Minute Book Club Shortlisted for VC award; Angela Saini at the Oxford Literary Festival; Nabila Photo Prize Winner; Farewell to Rachel Slater, former College Nurse.

Student Life

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Keble Treble

For what may be the first time in history, a single college has won the three major inter-collegiate football cup competitions.

Keble Arts Festival 2024

During 6th week of Hilary Term, Keble College celebrated the 2024 Keble Arts Festival. Organised by the JCR Arts and Publications Officers, the festival comprised a week of daily arts events and the launch of Keble’s annual in-house magazine, The Fig.

AI Lecture | Michal Staniaszek

Keble College graduate student Michal Staniaszek, a second-year DPhil in Engineering Science, appeared in the 2023 popular BBC Christmas Lecture from the Royal Institution, “The Truth about AI”.

Life After Cure | Theodor Sergiou

While facing the challenges of multiple diagnoses of bilateral retinoblastoma, which left him severely visually impaired in one eye and with blindness in the other, Theodor Sergiou (2020 PPE) has dedicated his life to making a difference.

Heavy Lifting | Laura Haas

Earlier this year, Keble MCR President Laura Haas (2021 DPhil Criminology), broke the Oxford deadlift record and achieved a Personal Best at the Oxford v Cambridge Powerlifting Varsity.

KA Featured Report | Rosie Quint

Rosie Quint (2021 Human Sciences) writes about travelling to Mozambique to participate in Oxford’s Paleo-Primate Field School in Gorongosa National Park.

COP28 Reflections | Hanbit Lee

Hanbit Lee (2023 MSc Energy Systems) reflects on her experience of going to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to join the largest climate conference ever: COP28.

Rowing Update

Sierra Sparks (2021 DPhil Engineering), KCBC President, provides an update on the ’exciting, although unusual, season’ for the Keble College Boat Club.

Rugby U20s | Alex Wilkinson

Alex Wilkinson (2022 Economics and Management) has recently been named in this season’s England U20s squad.

VIDEO

Graduate Research Feature with DPhil Michal Staniaszek

Graduate student Michal Staniaszek (2022 DPhil Engineering Science) works at the Oxford Robotics Institute to develop software that helps autonomous robots like Spot navigate their environment.

You can also read about Michal and Spot at the BBC Christmas Lectures here.

Alumni News

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Women in Business | Ruth Herbert

Ruth Herbert (1998 MPhys Physics) is the current CEO of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association (CCSA) and Director of Strategy at the Low Carbon Contracts Company (LCCC).

Alumni Careers

On 15 February, the Keble JCR, in collaboration with the college Alumni and Development Office, were delighted to welcome back three Keble alumni to talk to current students about their career journey.

Oxford Strategy Challenge

Keble past and present collided, with a little help from the Oxford Careers Service, when alumna Helen (Bassas) Ujvary’s company hosted current Keble student Cory Lines as part of the Oxford Strategy Challenge (TOSCA).

Mitre Club Merrymaking

The Mitre Club Evensong and Dinner was a very special occasion. It was the 76th Dinner (we think!) but this year marked the first time alumni were also in attendance.

New Faces in the Alumni and Development Office

We have welcomed three new members to the Alumni and Development team at Keble this academic year: Krista Karppinen, Alumni Relations Manager; Tallulah Horton, Development Officer; Hannah Shaw, EA to the Director of Development.

Alumni in Print

Recent publications from the Keble alumni community. Authors include James Gillies (1985 DPhil Physics), Donald Quicke (1973 Zoology) and Edward Ragg (1995 English).

New Year Honours

Congratulations to the following Keble alumni whose achievements have been recognised in the 2024 New Year Honours list.

Upcoming events

We warmly invite alumni and friends of the College to join us at our events. A full list of our upcoming events can be found on the Keble website. We look forward to seeing you soon!

View our events