magdalene MATTERS Spring/Summer 2020 | issue 50 6 Big Bang Academy 8 The Food of Sichuan 14 Building Excitement magdalene college university of cambridge REGULARS 3 New Fellows Welcome 4–5 Fellows’ News Dear Members, 21 JCR and MCR Update Living and working in the time of the corona virus is certainly 24 Upcoming Events different, unsettling, worrying and sadly deadly for many but also strangely liberating for those of us who are lucky enough to be well this issue FEATURES and safely ensconced at home. Having time to cook rather than 6–7 Big Bang Academy commute, to think, to finally read that novel, these are the positives 8–9 The Food of Sichuan that will stay with me long after we return to ‘normal’. Life at Magdalene is busy all year round but Easter term in particular tends 10 Twenty-five years exporting to fly by in a blur of activity, so much so that we have neither time British food to appreciate our wonderful College gardens, our beautiful College 11 Immigrants in Nelson’s Navy nor the bustling City we are proud to live and work in. 12–13 My Time at Magdalene: The first three years of the Future Foundations Campaign have been a letter from the Master a whirlwind of activity involving many events, activities and global 14 –16 Building Excitement travel; three wonderful and rewarding years generating an amazing 17 Seamus Heaney’s Escape response. Again and again we have been gratified and humbled by the generosity, loyalty and commitment of our Members and Friends. from History 18–19 Working with the English As many of you will know, we had all but raised the money for the Speaking Union New Library which is looking wonderful in the north-west corner of the Fellows’ Garden but work stopped in late March and we don’t 20 Book Reviews know when it will start up again. We will keep you informed and 22–23 Human Adaptation and when the time is right will outline the revised financial situation and Changing Climates the new date for the grand opening of the New Library. For now, we are focussing all of our fundraising efforts on our people. Many of you took part in our first ever Giving Day in March which feels like a life time ago and we raised just shy of £100,000 during the 6 36 hours. Most pleasingly, 335 of you chose to make a gift and more than 100 did so for the very first time. Thank you for the part you played in making this such a successful endeavour. You will find a link to a gift form in this new look digital issue of Magdalene Matters. You will note that it invites you to help the College to look after our students, staff and Fellows during this unprecedented time by supporting the new Emergency Fund focussed on alleviating financial distress immediately and generously. Some of you will choose to respond and others will 18 dislike being asked. Magdalene’s pockets are not deep enough to help all those in our College community who need financial assistance now. That is why we look to you for help. Keep well, stay safe and keep in touch. We post regular updates on our website www.magd.cam.ac.uk CORINNE LLOYD Editor and Director of Development Magdalene Matters is published electronically by the Alumni and Development Office. For further information or if you would like to submit content for future issues please contact the Communications Officer, Mr Matthew Moon, or the Editor, Mrs Corinne Lloyd. The views expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily represent the views of Magdalene College Cambridge. Photo on the front cover Dr Rowan Williams, Master of Magdalene. 8 Taken by Paul Rodgers. Dr Meghji is a Lecturer in Ms Kreusser has been Social Inequalities at the elected to a Nevile (2011) (2019) Department of Sociology Research Fellowship and Official Fellow in in Mathematics. After Human Social and Political studying Mathematics Science at the College. Ali at the University of previously held a research Kaiserslautern with DR ALI MEGHJI fellowship in sociology at research visits at the Sidney Sussex College, and had a visiting fellowship MS LISA KREUSSER National University of Singapore and at Imperial at the Weatherhead Centre, Harvard University. He College London, she came to Cambridge for her PhD. studied for his BA, MPhil, and PhD (all in Sociology) Her research focuses on mathematical models in at the University of Cambridge, and, while an biology, industry and data science, combining her undergraduate at Magdalene, served as JCR President. desire to extend the boundaries of mathematical His research focuses on critical race theory and the knowledge with advancing the understanding of real- dynamics underlying contemporary racism through world problems of practical importance. For this work, the investigation of national racialised social systems, she has been awarded the Smith-Knight and Rayleigh- and analysis of the ongoing presence of coloniality in Knight Prizes, and has been selected as a TakeAIM the world system. Prize Winner by the Smith Institute. NEW FELLOWS WE ARE DELIGHTED TO WELCOME THE FOLLOWING NEW FELLOWS TO COLLEGE. (2017) (2019) (2013) Mr Bodey has been elected to Dr Caputo, the Lumley Junior Mr Gaffney, one of our new Bye- DR SARA CAPUTO MR JONNY BODEY a Bye-Fellowship from October Research Fellow, completed her Fellows, is an Archaeology PhD MR DYLAN GAFFNEY 2019. He originally came to PhD thesis in History on Foreign candidate researching human Magdalene to study Natural Seamen and the British Navy, 1793– prehistory in the Indo-Pacific Sciences as an undergraduate in 1815 at Robinson College. Her main islands, specifically on New Guinea 2013. He continued his studies, research area is transnational social and New Zealand. Dylan's New starting as a PhD student in and cultural history, exploring Guinea research has focused on experimental quantum physics. the ways in which individuals the production and exchange of His research requires him to spend negotiate interactions with state material culture by Austronesian- most of his time working in a boundaries. She is also interested speaking communities around dark, air-conditioned room with in the application of programming Karkar Island and Madang on the no windows, which has greatly and ’hard-quantitative’ techniques northeast coast of Papua New enhanced his love of the outdoors. to historical analysis. Whilst at Guinea; Pleistocene-Holocene This combined with a near-total Magdalene, she will be starting a settlement, agriculture, and trade immunity to bad weather, thanks new project on the medical culture around the New Guinea Highlands; to his rural North Yorkshire of sailors across various national and, most recently as the subject upbringing, means that he can fleets. Her main passion is studying of his PhD research, and human probably be found outdoors, as many languages as possible, and adaptation to small rainforested preferably on a hill, and almost seeing how they change islands in eastern Wallacea and definitely on two wheels. her worldview. northwest New Guinea. www.magd.cam.ac.uk 3 The Master, Dr Rowan Professor Bill Cornish Williams, and CMG QC (1990) Professor Williams Professor Cornish’s The Master and Professor entry in the Squire Law Jane Williams have both Library’s Eminent Scholars been elected as Honorary Archive, which consists of Fellows of the College from 1 October 2020. biographical details, bibliographies, photographs Honorary Fellowships bring enormous distinction and interviews with eminent scholars connected to the College by confirming and celebrating our with the Faculty of Law, has recently become association with scholars who share the values available. Please see more at: of Magdalene, who have contributed to the www.squire.law.cam.ac.uk/eminent-scholars- intellectual life of the College and who have made archive/professor-william-rodolph-cornish an impact on their personal field of study. Professor James Raven © THE Professor Sir John (1990) NOBEL Gurdon (1995) Professor Raven succeeds Sir John has received a Lord Boateng as Chair of FOUNDATION, doctorate honoris causa the English-Speaking Union in Translational Medicine of the Commonwealth U from the University of Pisa (previous Chairs include Winston Churchill and MONTAN Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna (Sant’Anna School of Francis Pym) with 30 branches in the UK and more Advanced Studies). John was recommended for than 50 national ESUs worldwide. To read more this honorary doctorate by the Italian Ministry of about Professor Raven and the ESU please see University and Research, and by the overwhelming page 18 and 19. support of the Institute of Life Sciences and the Academic Senate of the Scuola Superiore Dr Annja Neumann Sant’Anna. The award was conferred upon John (2014) in recognition of his distinguished life's work for Dr Neumann has published having revolutionised the pre-existing theories on Wrestling with Marionettes: cellular specialisation and paving the way for new Entangled Embodiment and vision of Biology and Medicine. Posthuman Agency in Schnitzler’s ‘Zum großen Wurstel’ in Professor Eamon Duffy Austrian Studies. It applies genetic analysis in (1979) order to examine the entangled embodiment of Professor Duffy has been the real audience in Schnitzler’s theatrical parody awarded an honorary by focusing on the mutual constitution of the doctorate of letters by materiality of bodies and their human and the University of Bergen other-than-human agency. Read more about in Norway. Professor Duffy has also published Dr Neumann's research on the College website. John Henry Newman: A Very Brief History, which www.magd.cam.ac.uk/theatres-of-medicine comes out to coincide with the canonisation of the English theologian. Dr Nikita Makarchev (2015) Dr Makarchev (Bye-Fellow Professor Paul Dupree from 2017 to 2018) has (1996) won the third prize at Professor Dupree was the Association of British awarded the B.