King's College, Cambridge
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King’s College, Cambridge Annual Report 2015 Annual Report 2015 Contents The Provost 2 The Fellowship 5 Major Promotions, Appointments or Awards 14 Undergraduates at King’s 17 Graduates at King’s 24 Tutorial 27 Research 39 Library and Archives 42 Chapel 45 Choir 50 Bursary 54 Staff 58 Development 60 Appointments & Honours 66 Obituaries 68 Information for Non Resident Members 235 Consequences of Austerity’. This prize is to be awarded yearly and it is hoped The Provost that future winners will similarly give a public lecture in the College. King’s is presently notable for both birds and bees. The College now boasts a number of beehives and an active student beekeeping society. King’s 2 2015 has been a very special year for the bees have been sent to orchards near Cambridge to help pollinate the fruit. 3 THE PROVOST College. Five hundred years ago, the fabric The College’s own orchard, featuring rare and heritage varieties, is now of the Chapel was completed; or rather, the under construction in the field to the south of Garden Hostel. On a larger College stopped paying the masons who did scale, a pair of peregrine falcons has taken up residence on one of the the work in 1515. This past year has been full THE PROVOST Chapel pinnacles and they have been keeping pigeon numbers down. It is of commemorative events to celebrate this a pity that they are unable also to deal with the flocks of Canada Geese that anniversary; a series of six outstanding are now a serious nuisance all along the Backs. concerts in the Chapel featuring the music of each century, exhibitions, lectures and a There have been no extensive building projects within the College in the last multi-media event marrying materials year, though there has been a major refurbishment of Grasshopper Lodge Professor Mike Proctor inspired by the world of Samuel Beckett. In (the graduate hostel on Grange Road), and work has commenced on the August, the Xu Zhimo Poetry festival new Joint Colleges Boathouse funded by a generous gift from Robin Boyle. featured a remarkable evening of Chinese and contemporary English In the Front Court, the stonework of Gibbs’ has been cleaned, primarily as poetry in the Hall and, more recently and as part of the China-UK cultural a conservation measure. The soft glow of the Portland stone now provides exchange year, King’s hosted the Kunqu Opera House of Jiangsu even more of a counterpoint to the Chapel and Hall, and its improved Performing Arts Group (China). appearance gives great pleasure. It is hoped that more conservation cleaning will be possible over the next few years. Three books relating to the anniversary have been published. The first is an illustrated book of essays about the art, architecture, people and music of Richard Lloyd Morgan retired as Chaplain in July after twelve years’ the Chapel. The second is an excellent short history of the College written outstanding service. Apart from his day-to-day work he also had twice to by my predecessor, Ross Harrison, as a modern replacement for the similar take on the role of Acting Dean in very difficult circumstances. To mark sized text by Christopher Morris. The third, which has just appeared, is a Richard’s distinguished tenure, the College has created the special position scholarly edition of John Saltmarsh's “King’s College Chapel: A History and of Emeritus Chaplain and made him the first, and possibly the only ever Commentary”; it previously had been available only in manuscript form to holder. In his stead we have welcomed Andrew Hammond, also an visitors of King's College Archive Centre. [Copies of all three are available accomplished singer. Originally an undergraduate at Clare, he more recently for sale in the Library and from the King’s Visitor Centre.] (in 2006/7) completed an MPhil at King’s when he was also at Westcott House, and now comes to us from the parish of St Mary’s Willesden. Another major event in the Chapel was a lecture given by Amartya Sen, Nobel laureate and first winner of the Charleston-EFG John Maynard As far as our academic performance goes, we remain at the centre of the Keynes Prize. The Ante-Chapel was full to hear him speak on ‘The Economic Baxter tables overall, but once more score well on “value added”, and so come much higher up in the final year rankings. In other words, our students show a systematic improvement each year that they are with us, The Fellowship as has been the case for many years now. We are determined to continue to seek out talented young people from backgrounds that have not been traditionally associated with Oxbridge. The admissions interview is an 4 essential tool in the portfolio of information that we gather on each New Life Fellows 5 THE FELLOWSHIP applicant for determining which of our applicants will flourish in the Dr John Young special academic atmosphere we provide. However changes are afoot in the public examination system that will influence the way we operate; AS Fellows moving on: The following left their Fellowships in King’s in the last year: THE PROVOST levels are to be downgraded and will no longer be useful as a pre-A level performance predictor. For this reason, the University is debating the • Ross Harrison introduction of its own written examination. While such an exam would not resemble the old CCE papers, there is a slight feeling of déjà vu, and a • Pau Figueras worry that the change would tip the scales towards intensive preparation • Lorna Finlayson and away from true talent. We await developments. • Felix Fischer Finally I am able to report that in another first for the College, the ‘world’s • Richard Merrill tallest Lego tower’ will be constructed on Scholars’ Piece in the next 18 months. This will be a joint project between an engineering firm, • Flora Willson University staff and students. At a final height of 37 metres it will certainly, though briefly, will be a Cambridge landmark. Look out for photos on the New Honorary Fellow College website! JoHN eLiot GardiNer Having grown up on a farm in Dorset, in 1962 Gardiner won a history Mike Proctor scholarship to King's where he became secretary of both KCMS and the Ten Club and rowed in the College first eight. Finding himself torn between his competing interests in history, music, the Middle East (having worked for UNRWA for several months before coming up to King's) and sustainable agriculture and forestry, Gardiner was granted an additional exploratory year between Parts I & II of the History Tripos by the College on the recommendation of his Director of Studies, Edmund Leach (later Provost). Ostensibly reading Classical Arabic and medieval Spanish, in practice Gardiner spent a large part of that year researching and preparing a new edition of Monteverdi's 'Vespers of the Blessed Virgin' (1610), a work then almost totally unknown in Cambridge. He recruited a choir and orchestra and trained them in this unfamiliar italianate style for a single performance militarily supreme power, despite having previously regarded armed he conducted in the Chapel on 5th March 1964. supremacy as imperialistic. It turned out to be the epiphany he was looking for: it led to his decision to Stephen occasionally writes reviews and commentary for The Nation and become a full-time musician, studying first with Thurston Dart at King's other journalistic venues. He is also a very amateur photographer. In his 6 College London and then with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and it marked the spare time, he thinks up comedy ideas, talks about them, and fails to carry 7 THE FELLOWSHIP founding of the world-famous Monteverdi Choir. Gardiner traces his them out. subsequent recognition as one of the foremost pioneers of the Early Music movement to those seminal years in which the College encouraged him to SurabHi raNGaNatHaN (Fellow, Law) unite two of his strongest passions – music and history. His return visit to Surabhi Ranganathan joins the Faculty of Law and King’s College from THE FELLOWSHIP King's Chapel on Ash Wednesday last year marked the 50th anniversary to Warwick University. She was previously a JRF at King’s and the Lauterpacht the very day since he first conducted the Monteverdi 'Vespers' there as a 20- Centre for International Law. Her first monograph, Strategically Created year old undergraduate. Treaty Conflicts and the Politics of International Law, was published earlier this year by CUP; she is also assistant editor of the Cambridge Companion to Somehow in between the constraints and demands of a stellar career, both International Law (CUP 2012). Surabhi has studied at Cambridge (PhD, St. as artistic director of his own ensembles and as a guest conductor of the John’s, Gates scholar), NYU (LLM, Vanderbilt scholar) and National Law world's leading orchestras and opera houses, Gardiner has found time to School of India University, Bangalore (BA LLB Hons), worked at NYU’s pursue one of his other passions – running a successful organic farm and Institute for International Law and Justice in association with two major mixed-species forest in North Dorset. grant-funded projects on regulating private military companies and global administrative law, interned with UNICEF and UNHCR, and clerked at the Recently appointed President of the leading research institute in Bach Supreme Court of India. For four years the assistant editor of the British studies (the Bach Archiv in Leipzig) Gardiner's portrait of the composer, Yearbook of International Law, she serves on the editorial or academic 'Music in the Castle of Heaven', was published in 2013.