College bulletin: 11 November
If you’re growing tired of the news from the celebrity jungle and Twitter’s meltdown, look no further than today’s College Bulletin, with uplifting bird news from the Buttery, book launches and a winning streak from our Maggie rowers.
We are also gearing up to say goodbye to our Director of Music with a special Evensong and reception at the end of this term – read on for more about this and other events in our What’s On section.
College news
Postgraduates awarded research prizes
Three postgraduate students at St John’s have been awarded prizes by UK and international bodies to recognise and support their research in the fields of English, Law and Politics.
Stone eagles swoop back
Grade I-Listed gate piers of eagles at St John’s have been successfully relocated as part of the new Buttery, Bar and Café works.
The 18th-century stone gate piers, topped with stone eagles by renowned mason Robert Grumbold, were carefully deconstructed for the building works and have now been relocated.
The new position allows the piers to be once again viewed as an integral part of a sequential vista, along with the Kitchen Bridge stone gate piers of yales, also by Grumbold.
Paula Mejia-Wright, of architects MCW, said: “This vista was lost back in the 1970s when the previous dining room was constructed and the eagle piers were relocated further apart.”
Meanwhile, the Gardens team was busy yesterday digging bulbs in among the newly-planted lavender on the walkway to the new Buttery.
Pots appeal
In the Catering department’s drive to reduce, reuse and recycle, glass pots have replaced the plastic containers previously used to contain fresh fruit salad in the Buttery.
The pots have been flying off the shelves but not always flying back – so Catering is kindly requesting any jars that may have been taken away and left sitting on desks or in offices be returned to the Buttery to be washed and reused. This will avoid the need to charge extra for them in future, or stop them being takeaway items.
Thanks for your understanding in helping to make the Buttery practices more sustainable.
Orchestral manoeuvres in the Chapel
Staff and student musicians may be able to add another string to their bows by performing with St John’s College Music Society at its end-of-term concert.
Orchestral instrument-playing students and staff who believe they are at the required level can email conductor Max Todes for more information or to apply, detailing standard of playing and previous orchestral experience.
Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and Beethoven’s 5th Symphony and Coriolan Overture will be performed at the free concert, which is taking place in the College Chapel at 8pm on 22 November.
Other news
Writer in Residence’s new book is launched
A book blending poetry, prose and history written by Vona Groarke, St John’s Writer in Residence, is being published on Tuesday 15 November.
Hereafter: The Telling Life of Ellen O’Hara is based on the life of the Vona’s Irish great-grandmother who immigrated to New York in the late 19th century and worked as a domestic servant while financially supporting those at home in Ireland.
Hardback copies are available in the UK from booksellers including Waterstone’s, Blackwell’s, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.
Read up on the book from the publisher
New title highlights role of women scientists during Covid pandemic
Professor Sharon Peacock, Professor of Public Health and Microbiology in the Department of Medicine, Executive Director and Chair of the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium (COG-UK), and Honorary Fellow of St John’s, will be launching a book about the role of women scientists in the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium during the pandemic.
Snapshots of Women in COG: Scientific excellence during the Covid-19 pandemic will be launched at a special event on 19 January in the Old Divinity School and the deadline for registration is 5 December.
Alumna Fiona tells of UN role
Fiona Macklin: Race to Zero is a new blog highlighting the work of alumna Fiona (2012), who studied Modern and Medieval Languages at St John’s and is now the Race to Zero campaign manager for the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions.
Fiona has been attending and speaking at COP27 in Egypt.
What’s on
Chapel
Student communion – Sunday 13 November, 8.30am
Student Communion takes place every Sunday at 8.30am, followed by a subsidised cooked breakfast in Hall.
Remembrance Sunday – Sunday 13 November, 10.30am
There will be a special sung Eucharist in commemoration of all those who have fallen in battle or died as a result of war. The Choir will be singing the Duruflé Requiem, one of the most movingly beautiful pieces of choral music.
Open to all, admission free.
Organ recital – Sunday 13 November, 6pm
Robert Quinney of New College, Oxford will be performing works by Vaughan Williams, Byrd and Howells.
Open to all, admission free.
Sunday Evensong with Sermon – Sunday 13 November, 6.30pm
The preacher this evening is The Rev’d Canon Dr Jessica Martin, Ely Cathedral.
Open to all, admission free.
Morning prayer – weekdays, 8.30am
Taking place in Ante-Chapel every weekday morning, lasting about 15 minutes.
Eucharist sung by St John’s Voices – Monday 14 November, 6.30pm
Open to all, admission free.
Compline by candlelight – Tuesday 15 November, 10pm
This late night service lasts about half an hour and is the perfect way to end the day. The music and feel are monastic and reflective. Followed by port and our kitchen’s legendary hot chocolate.
Open to all College members and their guests, admission free.
Advent Carol Services – Saturday 26 November, 6pm, and Sunday 27 November, 3pm
Organ music will be played by George Herbert, Assistant Organist, and Alex Robson, Herbert Howells Organ Scholar. Full programme to be confirmed.
The Sunday service will be broadcast live by BBC Radio 3.
Applications have now closed.
Andrew Nethsingha’s final Evensong and Reception – Thursday 1 December, 6.30pm
This will be the final Evensong for Andrew, the College’s current Director of Music. It will be followed by a drinks reception in the Ante-Chapel. This will be an opportunity to thank Andrew for his wonderful leadership of the Choir over the past 15 years and to wish him well for his new role at Westminster Abbey.
To help with logistics, kindly indicate your attendance at the reception by completing the form at https://bit.ly/3E0ogv5
Follow the Facebook page, SJC Chaplain, for Chapel service updates; and Andrew is on TikTok @thedetoxpriest. The Chapel is always keen to hear from more volunteers to read in services or assist in other ways: please contact Andrew.
Other events
The Master’s Concert Series – Friday 11 November, 8.45 for 9pm
Main Lecture Theatre, Old Divinity School.
Professor Laura Mondiello, professor of guitar at the Monteverdi Conservatoire in Bolzano, Italy, and Beaufort Visiting Fellow at St John’s, will play music on the guitar by J.S. Bach, Britten and others.
The concert will be followed by a drinks reception hosted by the Sans Frontières programme.
Members of the College and their friends are most welcome. Free to attend, booking not required.
St John’s Postgraduate Research Symposium – Saturday 12 November, from 12.30pm
Palmerston Room, Fisher Building.
The SBR’s annual Symposium will see 10 postgraduates from St John’s give short presentations on their research across a wide range of topics, from tiger conservation and marble in art, to green technologies and the treatment of depression.
The talks will be followed by a drinks reception in the Fisher Building Foyer from 5.30-7pm.
Open to all College members. Admission free, booking not required. Email any questions to Matt Coulter, SBR Academic Officer.
Read the full programme of presentations
The Waste Land – Saturday 12 November, 2.30pm
ADC Theatre.
Several students from St John’s are involved in this new and experimental response to T.S Eliot’s The Waste Land, marking the poem’s 100th anniversary.
The production will explore the broken fragments of our culture, examine the nature of human connection, and seek to push the boundaries of theatrical conventions. It translates the stylistic and thematic features of Eliot's poem to a visual medium, aiming to demonstrate that theatre can communicate before it is understood.
This amateur production is presented by an arrangement with Faber and Faber on behalf of the Eliot Estate and is proudly supported by The Mighty Players.
Stephanie Childress Conducts St John’s Sinfonietta – Saturday 12 November, 8pm
Main Lecture Theatre, Old Divinity School.
Marking the 40th anniversary of the admission of women to St John’s, conductor and alumna Stephanie Childress, Assistant Musical Director of the St Louis Symphony Orchestra in Missouri and currently conducting Glyndebourne’s touring production of The Marriage of Figaro, returns to St John’s to conduct a sinfonietta ensemble of talented student musicians.
The programme includes the world premieres of two new celebratory new works commissioned from St John’s PhD student Victoria Pham, recent graduate Katrina Toner, and Charles Ives.
All welcome. Register for free tickets
Live lunchtime meditation – Monday to Thursday, 1.15-1.30pm
Via Zoom.
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.
Drop-in dissertation support group – Monday 14 November, 2pm
Via Zoom.
Weekly online group run during term time by the Library, offering a structured study space, support and encouragement for any undergraduate student who is taking on a dissertation next academic year.
Email Rebecca for the Zoom link or if you have any questions.
German translation workshop – Monday 14 November, 4pm
Teaching Room 2, Old Divinity School.
One of Germany’s most celebrated essayists, Daniel Schreiber, will offer a translation workshop based on an extract from his recently published book Alone (2021). Daniel is a writer and translator based in Berlin. He is the author of the Susan Sontag biography Geist und Glamour (Intellect and Glamour, 2007), as well as the celebrated personal-philosophical essays Nüchtern (Sober, 2014), Zuhause (At Home, 2017), and Allein (Alone, 2021).
Open to all undergraduate students with an intermediate or advanced level of German, limited places available.
Register at https://bit.ly/3DFWgg9
Maths for Everyone lecture series: Reducing uncertainty using data – Monday 14 November, 5.30pm
Boys Smith Room, Fisher Building.
St John’s Fellow Professor Nick Manton presents the sixth in a series of eight maths refresher lectures aiming to broaden and deepen understanding of what maths can do and how it works. This lecture looks at managing data, mean and variance, statistical inference – orthodox and Bayesian approaches, and hypothesis testing.
It will help if you have some familiarity with A-Level maths topics.
Open to all College members. Admission free, booking not required.
UniVox rehearsals – every Wednesday during term, 5.15-6.30pm
Palmerston Room, Fisher Building.
UniVox is a non-auditioned contemporary choir for students across the University run by the new Centre for Music Performance (CMP) and hosted by St John’s.
Places are limited so must be booked via the UniVox page of the CMP website.
St John’s College Music Society late concert – Tuesday 15 November, 8.30pm
St John’s Ante-Chapel.
This term the theme of St John’s College Music Society’s Chapel Lates is ‘music and poetry’. For the third concert in the series the society is presenting an evening of Chinese song and poetry.
Open to all, admission free.
Postgraduates Dine with Fellows – Wednesday 16 November, 7.30pm
Hall.
Open to College postgraduates. Free of charge, limited places, register via Upay after 20 October.
Dramatisation from The Divine Comedy – Wednesday 16 & Thursday 17 November, 7.30pm
Main Lecture Theatre, Old Divinity School.
Fellow Professor Patrick Boyde presents Dante’s Virgil: the Tragedy of a More-than-Father, a semi-staging of scenes from Dante’s Divine Comedy.
In Italian with subtitles, images and music.
Open to College postgraduate students, Fellows, visiting Fellows and their guests as part of this term’s Sans Frontières events programme.
Admission free, booking recommended.
Book for Wednesday 16 November performance or Thursday 17 November performance
St John's College Music Society (SJCMS) lunchtime recital – Thursday 17 November, 1.15pm
Lightfoot Room, Old Divinity School.
Performed by Francis Bamford, countertenor, and Jonathan Lee on piano.
Open to all, admission free, booking is not required.
St John’s Linguistic Society language tutorial: Choctaw and Muskogean languages – Thursday 17 November, 5pm
Arthur Quiller-Couch Room, Old Divinity School.
Dr Matthew Tyler, Junior Research Fellow at Christ's College, will be giving an overview talk on Choctaw and Muskogean languages and their linguistic features. He will also talk about conducting fieldwork in the US.
Open to all, admission free, booking is not required. Further details
Mya-Rose Craig, ‘Birdgirl’, at Cambridge Literary Festival – Saturday 19 November, 2-3pm
Palmerston Room, Fisher Building.
Mya-Rose Craig, author of Birdgirl and second-year BA student at St John’s, will be appearing at the Winter Festival in conversation with fellow birder and nature writer Helen McDonald.
Full-price tickets are £12; concs tickets are available to under 25s, the unwaged ‘and those feeling the pinch’.
Time is of the Essence zine launch – Sunday 20 November, 8pm
New Music Room, First Court.
Time is of the Essence is the first edition of a new print zine publishing works of writing and photography by Cambridge students. The launch event will include performances from student musicians and poetry readings exploring the idea of time.
The zine is designed and edited by St John’s student Isabella Bottle and includes work by fellow St John’s undergraduates Sarah Adegbite, Daniel Livermore and Anna Strazda, among others from Colleges across Cambridge.
Open to all, admission free, booking is not required.
St John’s College Music Society end-of-term concert – Tuesday 22 November, 8pm
Chapel.
Conducted by St John’s undergraduate, Max Todes, with works by Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.
Open to all, admission free.
Careers Service Barrister Fair – Thursday 24 November, 2.30-3.30pm
The Careers Service is holding a final Career Fair this term to help with applications and preparation. Registration opens a week in advance at 9am.
Further details and to register
Visit the Careers Service website for more information.
Ghost walk – Thursday 24 November, 5.45pm
Meet in the Third Court Cloister by the Bridge of Sighs.
With Fellow Dr Mark Nicholls.
Open to College postgraduate students, Fellows, visiting Fellows and their guests. Admission free, booking not required.
Johnian Society Careers Forum: Academia – Thursday 24 November, 6.30pm
Imperial College London.
Are you thinking about where your next steps in an academic career might take you? St John’s Fellow and alumnus Professor Nick McCave (1986) and alumnus Dr Oliver Buxton (2003) host an informal discussion on how to build and sustain a career in academia.
Nick and Oli will share the benefit of their extensive, international research careers in their respective specialisms of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Fluid Mechanics. Topics will include the academic job market, funding your research, and finding valuable networks and mentors.
Open to St John’s students, admission free, booking required by Tuesday 15 November.
Further details and to register
St John’s Book Club (undergraduates) – Monday 28 November, 5.30pm
Merton Hall Cottage, behind The School of Pythagoras.
This is the launch meeting of the new book club for undergraduate students set up by Vona Groarke, the College’s Writer in Residence. The first book is Claire Keegan's Foster.
A second book club for postgraduates, College staff and members of the English Faculty, is taking place on Tuesday 6 December at 5.45pm.
Email Vona for more information.
Precarious lives: inequalities in health through the lens of the film maker – Wednesday 30 November, 1.15pm for 1.45pm start
Palmerston Room, Fisher Building.
Director Ken Loach is due to appear at this rare afternoon workshop and screening of his acclaimed 2019 film Sorry We Missed You.
St John’s Reading Group on Health Inequalities has organised the event, which comes at a time of deep concern about the impact of rising poverty on child health and development, in association with the University’s Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH).
Free of charge. Donations will be collected at the event for Cambridge City Foodbank and Cambridge Aid.
Book your place via the CRASSH events page
Behn Quartet concert – Friday 2 December, 8pm
Main Lecture Theatre, Old Divinity School.
In this term’s final concert to mark the 40th anniversary of the admission of women to St John’s, the Behn Quartet – whose cellist is Johnian alumna Ghislaine McMullin – takes its name from the 17th-century playwright, political activist and philanthropist of the arts, Aphra Behn.
Its recital places two refined Neoclassical string quartets from the 20th century alongside one of Haydn’s most effervescent and soulful contributions to the medium. Tailleferre’s only string quartet gained her an invitation to the group of young composers that became known as Les Six, while the fourth and most widely performed of Bacewicz’s seven quartets draws eloquently on elements of Polish folklore.
All welcome. Register for free tickets
St John’s Book Club (postgraduates, English Faculty and College staff) – Tuesday 6 December, 5.45pm
Merton Hall Cottage, behind The School of Pythagoras.
This is the launch meeting of the new book club for postgraduates, English Faculty and College staff set up by Vona Groarke, the College’s Writer in Residence. The first book is Claire Keegan’s Foster.
Email Vona for more information.
Ghost stories – Wednesday 7 December, 8.45pm
Combination Room.
With Professor Patrick Boyde.
Open to College postgraduate students, Fellows, visiting Fellows and their guests. Admission free, booking not required.
Close-up with manuscripts – Thursday 8 December, 6pm
Online.
St John’s postgraduate Lewis Roberts will be among several speakers exploring the emotional, creative and social stories behind their favourite manuscripts in the Wordsworth Trust’s collection at Grasmere, the former of home of William Wordsworth, St John’s alumnus.
Lewis, whose PhD is on the value of line-endings in poetry of the long 19th century and manuscript revision, will focus on the drafts of what became Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Dejection: An Ode.
Tickets cost £5.
More information, including how to book
Book launch, Snapshots of Women in COG: Scientific excellence during the Covid-19 pandemic – Thursday 19 January 2023, 11am-3pm
Main Lecture Theatre, Old Divinity School.
A book presentation by St John’s Honorary Fellow Professor Sharon Peacock, Professor of Public Health and Microbiology in the Department of Medicine and Executive Director and Chair of the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium (COG-UK). The presentation will be followed by a roundtable discussion, lunch and networking.
Open to all, admission free. Further details and to register.
Registration closes on Monday 5 December.
And finally…
Lady Margaret Boat Club first men and women’s boats have both been victorious in the annual Uni IV’s race, making it through multiple rounds to win their divisions.
The second men and women's boats also put in strong performances in the knock-out regatta, which lasts several days, but both were knocked out in final rounds.
Eliza Leake, LMBC Communications Officer, said: “The club is springing off these amazing results to motivate their training for the Fairbairn cup, the next major race of term.”
