College bulletin: 10 June
Now we have all recovered from the four-day weekend to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee, we have the May Concert – the highlight of the College’s musical year– to look forward to, while we also count down to the May Bumps.
The May Concert takes place on Monday 20 June and ticket applications close on Wednesday 15 June, so don’t delay.
Wednesday 15 June also happens to be the first day of the May Bumps, which is the biggest week of boat racing in the year, so don your red clothing and head to the river bank to show your support to our crews. You will find all the details in the What’s On guide below.
College news
Tributes paid to Professor of Pathology who discovered that cells die
Award-winning pathologist Professor Andrew Wyllie has died after a long illness.
The father-of-three, a Fellow of St John’s, was part of a team of researchers at the University of Aberdeen who discovered ‘apoptosis’ – the process of cell death.
St John’s awarded Platinum accolade for green initiatives
St John’s has achieved the highest environmental award in the University of Cambridge Green Challenge for the second year in a row.
Athletes from St John’s in the running for University Sports Awards 2022
A winning ice hockey goal and Boat Race victory are among the historic achievements that have propelled students from St John’s onto the University of Cambridge Sports Awards 2022 shortlist.
Earth-abundant solar pixels found to produce hydrogen for weeks
Devices made of readily available oxide and carbon-based materials can produce clean hydrogen from water over weeks – according to new research.
The findings, co-led by Dr Virgil Andrei, a Research Fellow at St John's, could help overcome one of the key issues in solar fuel production, where current earth-abundant light-absorbing materials are limited through either their performance or stability.
65,000 years of food scraps found at Kakadu tell a story of resilience amid changing climate, sea levels and vegetation
For 65,000 years, Aboriginal people have returned to Madjedbebe rock shelter on Mirarr Country in the Kakadu region of Northern Australia – and in this immense span of time, the environment around it has changed dramatically.
Dr Anna Florin, a Research Fellow at St John’s and the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research in Cambridge, reveals more about the findings in The Conversation.
Other news
Young artists drawn to Merton Hall
Pupils from nearby Park Street C of E Primary School put pencil to paper at St John’s to draw some of our stunning surroundings as part of their art curriculum.
The Year 1 and 2 children (aged 5-7) visited the College just before half-term and thoroughly enjoyed an afternoon sketching Merton Hall. Their teacher Hannah Roberts said: “They have been learning to draw buildings in Cambridge focusing on developing their sketching skills and shading techniques through cross-hatching and stippling.
“We were keen to take the children to sketch in situ to apply their skills and visiting St John's provided us with the perfect opportunity. They produced excellent, detailed sketches and had a brilliant afternoon out – they were thrilled to cross over the Bridge of Sighs on route to Merton Hall.”
The class is pictured below along with Maggie, daughter of St John’s Fellow Dr Jodi Gardner and Evening Porter Sebastian Brimblecombe, with her artwork.
What’s on
Chapel
Morning prayer – weekdays, 8.30am
Taking place in Ante-Chapel every weekday morning, lasting about 15 minutes.
Evensong – daily, 6.30pm
Evensong – Friday 10 June, 6.30pm
Sung by the College Choir and the Choir of St John the Divine, Kennington.
Open to all, admission free.
Evensong for the feast of the St Barnabas – Saturday 11 June, 6.30pm
Open to all, admission free.
Student communion – Sunday 12 June, 8.30am
Student Communion takes place every Sunday at 8.30am, followed by a subsidised cooked breakfast in Hall.
Solemn Sung Eucharist – Sunday 12 June, 10.30am
Sung Eucharist for Trinity Sunday.
Open to all, admission free.
Organ recital – Sunday 12 June, 6pm
Robin Walker, concert organist, will be performing Reubke’s Sonata on the 94th Psalm.
Open to all, admission free.
A full programme for the term is available here.
Sunday Evensong Sermon series: No Shame in a Tutu – Sunday 12 June, 6.30pm
Preachers at Evensong this term have been invited to explore some of the areas about which Archbishop Desmond Tutu was passionate, and to which he made a significant contribution. The preacher this Sunday will be The Rev’d Dr Rachel Mann, Area Dean, Bury and Rossendale. Her sermon addresses LGBTQ+ equality.
Open to all, admission free.
Morning prayer – weekdays, 8.30am
Taking place in Ante-Chapel every weekday morning, lasting about 15 minutes.
Evensong – daily, 6.30pm
Open to all, admission free.
Evensong – Tuesday 14 June, 6.30pm
Sung by St John’s Voices and the College Choir.
Open to all, admission free.
Compline by Candlelight – Tuesday 14 June, 10pm
Come and find a little sanctuary for half an hour. Port and hot chocolate will be served afterwards.
Open to all, admission free.
Eucharist with Strings – Thursday 16 June, 6.30pm
Sung Eucharist for the feast of Corpus Christi (The Day of Thanksgiving for the Institution of Holy Communion). The setting at this service will be Mozart’s Missa Brevis in F (K 192).
Open to all, admission free.
May Concert – Monday 20 June, 8pm
This highlight of the College’s musical year. There will be contributions from St John’s Voices, the College Choir, Aquila and the Choral Scholars, and instrumental music, including oboe, violin, organ and cello solos. A wide variety of music will be heard – from Bach to Widor, from Schubert to MacMillan, as well as various lighter numbers. The concert will be followed by a wonderful array of refreshments in Chapel Court.
Limited tickets available, applications close on Wednesday 15 June and tickets will be issued the following day.
Open to all College members, admission free.
Choral services continue as listed on the website.
Other events
Cambridge Nature Festival 2022 – running now until Thursday 30 June
From art exhibitions and wildlife safaris to landscape heritage walks, there are an enormous range of events to get involved in during Cambridge Nature Network’s Cambridge Nature Festival 2022. Many events are free and there is a small fee for others.
Live lunchtime meditation – 1.15-1.30pm Monday to Friday (online)
Spend 15 mindful minutes relaxing or meditating with the University’s mindfulness practitioner, Dr Elizabeth English, in these weekday sessions. Free to students and staff.
Opera: Handel’s Xerxes – Friday 10 June, 8.15pm
This semi-staged production of Handel's Xerxes by St John’s College Music Society will feature singers and instrumentalists from across Cambridge. Sung in the original Italian with a free English translation provided, it is the first opera to take place in the Chapel since 2016, so provides a unique opportunity for students with exams (or who have just finished exams) to enjoy two hours of beautiful music and de-stress.
Tickets are free and can be obtained either via Eventbrite or on the door. There will be a retiring collection in aid of Alzheimer's Research UK.
More details on Facebook
Cricket match – Saturday 11 June, 2pm
St John’s playing fields.
St Johns 1st 11 team play the Old Boys.
Open to all, admission free.
Fellows and Staff Golf Competition – Tuesday 14 June, 8.30am
Ely Golf Club.
All Fellows and staff are invited to join in this social golf event for the President’s Cup. It is a Stableford competition, which means the player with the highest point total is the winner.
Email Porter Mark Nelligan for full details or pop into one of the Porters’ Lodges for a chat.
Palaeography for beginners – Tuesday 14 June, 3pm
Weekly online sessions for anyone interested in reading handwriting from c1500-c1750, using documents from the College’s institutional archives.
Sessions are informal and aimed at beginners, or those with a little experience who wish to practice their skills. Photographs of the documents will be emailed out in advance.
Open to all College members, admission free.
To register or make further enquiries, contact the archivist, Dr Lynsey Darby.
Pre-Dinner Lecture Series talk – Lessons from ancient flax fibre technology – Tuesday 14 June, 6.15pm
Main Lecture Theatre, Old Divinity School.
Dr Darshil Shah, St John’s Fellow and College Lecturer in Architecture/Design and Associate Professor in Materials in the Department of Architecture, will present a talk on how linen is woven into the fabric of human societies, dating back well before plant domestication and the Neolithic. Flax fibres were essential for making clothes, tools and many quotidian items, including not least the bags and containers whose manufacture drove emerging material cultures. In modern times flax fibres remain important in fibre technology.
Studying 4,000-year-old Egyptian mortuary linen and modern flax textiles with advanced micro-spectroscopic techniques, we observe significant differences between the ancient and modern materials. The findings reveal the cultural know-how of this ancient civilization in producing high-fineness fibres, as well as the exceptional durability of flax. Research further stimulates reflections on how historical practices may help achieve better performance and sustainability in today’s linen textiles.
The talk will last about 20-30 minutes and be followed by questions from the audience and then drinks. Also available on Zoom. Meeting ID: 875 7985 8622. Passcode: 441581.
Open to Fellows, affiliates and postgraduate students. Admission free.
May Bumps – Wednesday 15 June, 1pm – Saturday 18 June, 5.45pm
The Lady Margaret Boat Club will be taking to the river for May Bumps, the biggest week of boat racing of the year. Maggie will have 10 boats and over 80 students racing every day so grab all the red clothing you own and head down the towpath to support your friends from the river bank.
Upper Library open afternoon – Wednesday 15 June, 2-4pm
Upper Library, entrance via E staircase, Second Court, only.
The Upper Library is open for members of the College community and their guests every Wednesday 2-4pm during Full Term. Different items from the collections are on display each week and a member of staff will be available to answer questions.
(Note: drop-in visits are not available to the Upper Library via the Working Library this term.)
The Reading Room is open Monday to Friday for the consultation of Special Collections by appointment. Direct booking requests and enquiries to Special Collections.
Workshop on choosing a dissertation – Thursday 16 June, 2pm
This workshop and presentation aims to provide students taking on a dissertation next academic year with some inspiration on choosing a dissertation topic or creating a shortlist of potential topics.
Zoom. Meeting ID: 772 922 6894. Passcode: 410795.
Open to all students, admission free. For further information email Rebecca Le Marchand.
Online history talk - The Lindsay Psalter – Thursday 16 June, 7.30pm
2022 marks 800 years since the end of Robert Lindsay’s abbacy at Peterborough. St John’s Sub-Librarian and Special Collections Librarian, Kathryn McKee, and the University Library’s Medieval Manuscripts Cataloguer, Dr Sarah Gilbert, will introduce you to the collection held at St John’s and explore the Lindsay Manuscript and its digitized images in fascinating detail.
Open to all. £7 per viewing + booking fee.
Further details and register for tickets
Space Mystery: A Mystery in Space – Thursday 16 June - Saturday 18 June, 9.30pm
Main Lecture Theatre, Old Divinity School.
Ahead of going to the Edinburgh Fringe this summer, preview performances of a play co-written and directed by St John’s student Jasper Cresdee-Hyde.
Disaster strikes aboard the S.S. Space Cruise upon the murder of intergalactic mobster Dead Pan! Thrust on a madcap adventure of illegal crime, amorous romance, and deadly death, walking cliché DCI John Wood and over-eager Officer Love Interest must interrogate a motley ensemble to crack the case: mob boss Mr Fax, his femme fatale daughter Jessica, wizened war criminal Brookes, no-nonsense Captain and two escaped bandits who may have wandered into the wrong script. But which of them is a cold-blooded killer? A straight-talking farce from Cambridge comedians, it's a mystery... in space!
Open to all, tickets £5.
Palmerston and History Societies’ garden party – Saturday 18 June, 11.30am
Scholars’ Garden.
The societies’ annual garden party, with food, drink and live music.
Admission is free for members of the Palmerston Society and History Society and £3 for other members of the College.
Service of Thanksgiving for the birth and legacy of William Cecil – Wednesday 22 June, 11.30am
Westminster Abbey, London.
St John’s alumnus William Cecil, 1st Lord Burghley, served as Principal Secretary and Lord Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth I for almost all her reign. During this time, he was the most powerful man in England. There was no aspect of foreign or domestic policy in which he was not involved. He was the man who made England function and was at the heart of all the drama of the times and his influence can still be seen today.
The Lord Burghley 500 Foundation was established to celebrate the quincentenary in 2020 of his birth and to create an educational legacy in his name. The Foundation has arranged a Service of Thanksgiving to take place at Westminster Abbey where Burghley was High Steward.
Open to all. Register for tickets
Professional headshots – Wednesday 22 June, 10am-5pm
Student Services Centre, New Museums Site.
The Careers Service is hosting a photographer to take free professional headshots of students which you can use in portfolios, LinkedIn and similar profiles. These photos will be used in future Careers Service graphics as well.
Further details and to register
Careers Service Finalist Focus – Monday 27 June to Friday 8 July
The Careers Service is holding its Finalist Focus fortnight to help students with career plans after graduation. Highlights include a series of in-person careers workshops for wherever you are in your career planning, an online graduate jobs fair and opportunity to drop in and talk to the careers team. This is a great opportunity to discuss what’s next in a relaxed, informal setting and the Service hopes to see many students there.
End-of-term staff celebration – Friday 1 July, 4-7pm
Scholars’ Garden.
This drop-in ‘do’ for College staff will feature food trucks, drinks and music.
So we can have an idea of numbers, please register before Friday 17 June via Eventbrite
Interdisciplinary conference on allegory in Greco-Roman antiquity – Wednesday 14 September, 12pm to Friday 16 September, early afternoon
Faculty of Classics and Old Divinity School.
Co-organised and presented by Dr Benedek Kruchió, St John’s Research Fellow in Classics, the conference aims to explore the many forms of allegory in the imperial period of Greco-Roman antiquity, focusing on their interconnectedness across cultural divisions and medial borders. Popular with Greeks and Romans, Christians, Jews, pagans, philosophers, theologians and rhetoricians, allegory provides a unique opportunity to investigate the complex processes of exchange between all these groups.
Papers will be pre-circulated; the discussions will be introduced by brief summaries and invited responses. Two lunches, a drinks reception, and coffee/tea will be provided.
Open to all and free admission for College and University members (all participants have to register).
Further details and register for tickets
And finally…
The talented and creative winners of St John’s College Art and Photography Competition have been revealed.
Entries of photos, paintings, prints, sculpture and film were all invited for the 2022 competition, which was open to Junior Members of College in residence.
Full story and more winning images
