College bulletin: 20 May
Second Court was bustling with graduands again this morning as St John’s hosted the largest graduation celebration in College since 2019.
A total of 105 students received PhDs, MAs, MPhils, an MB and an MBA. The graduates and their guests dined together in Hall after the ceremony in the Senate House.
Read on for all this week’s latest news, events and announcements from St John’s – we’ve got everything from a cantata based on a near-death experience to details of next week’s Ascension Day event which started life as a bet and turned into a College tradition.
College news
Top international prize for St John’s academic for his work fighting childhood cancers
A St John’s scientist whose pioneering research identified the origins of aggressive childhood brain tumours has been named The Society of Memorial Sloan Kettering prize-winner for 2022.
Professor Richard Gilbertson, a Fellow of St John’s, has been awarded The Society Prize, a prestigious recognition that is awarded annually to a researcher, physician, or team lead who has made a positive and lasting impact in the fight against paediatric cancer.
Other news
Warsaw trip helps Ukrainian refugees
Student fundraisers have travelled to Warsaw in Poland to buy and deliver hundreds of supplies for Ukrainian refugees with money collected from the St John’s Help Ukraine Gig.
Held on 21 March, the music festival at the Old Divinity School raised £1,034 in support of humanitarian aid for Ukraine. Leon Zaporski (pictured centre, below), a PhD student in Physics at St John’s, and fellow organisers decided to travel to Warsaw to stock up on essential items themselves, after checking what items the refugee centre there required.
The items they bought included 107 t-shirts and 183 pairs of socks, 75 pairs of sport shoes, 60 pairs of leggings and 96 pairs of underwear.
The Help Ukraine Gig was organised and supported by Jambridge, Cambridge University’s Portuguese, Ukrainian and Polish Societies, Cambridge music shop PMT, and St John’s.
SBR Football Team in MCR Cup Final
The St John’s SBR Football Team has reached the MCR Cup Final for the first time in its history after a 6-1 win over Cambridge Assessment Academical in the semi-final last Sunday.
The cup final will see St John’s vs The University Contractors at Comberton Village College’s 3G Pitch on Sunday 29 May at 10.30am and all St John’s supporters are welcome to go along to watch the match.
Team Captain Adil Lakha, a final year student doctor at St John’s, said: “It’d be great to get a big John’s crowd out for this since there will be a trophy presentation and medals.”
Memoir shortlisted for translation prize
A memoir translated into English from Russian by Sasha Dugdale, St John’s Writer-in-Residence, has been shortlisted for this year’s Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize by the Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation Research Centre.
The prize is for book-length literary translations into English from any living European language and aims to honour the craft of translation, and to recognise its cultural importance. Sasha has been shortlisted for her translation of Maria Stepanova’s In Memory of Memory.
The winner from a shortlist of eight titles will be announced on Saturday 11 June at Oxford Translation Day 2022, a free celebration of literary translation consisting of workshops and talks at St Anne’s College, Oxford.
Academic talks Tudors on BBC Radio 3
Dr Christina Faraday, External Director of Studies in History of Art and alumna of St John’s, Research Fellow at Gonville & Caius, will be appearing in The Tudor Mind – an episode of BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking programme – at 10pm on Wednesday 25 May. The discussion will be chaired by fellow AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker John Gallagher.
The programme will be available on BBC iPlayer after the broadcast
Playing Fields car park part-closure on Monday
A portion of the College’s Playing Fields car park will be closed on Monday 23 May for Barnes, the community hub construction company, to decant concrete into smaller vehicles that will fit under the Queens’ Road gates.
Barnes intends to section off an area in the car park this evening ready for Monday morning. They anticipate that Monday’s work will be completed early afternoon.
Help in choosing a dissertation
The St John’s Library Dissertation Support Group is running an online workshop and presentation for students taking on a dissertation next academic year. The aim of the session is to provide some inspiration on choosing a dissertation topic that suits you, or creating a shortlist of potential topics.
The same workshop will be held over Zoom at 2pm on multiple dates: choose from Friday 27 May, Tuesday 31 May, Thursday 9 June, Thursday 16 June and Friday 24 June.
For further information email Rebecca Le Marchand.
More than 60 species identified during College BioBlitz
Thanks to the work of the Gardening team, the gardens at St John’s are being increasingly managed to benefit biodiversity and wild species, as discovered by those who took part in the College BioBlitz on Saturday 7 May.
Organisers Tom White, PhD student in Zoology, and Ed Lucas, JCR Environment and Ethical Affairs Officer, who is a second-year Natural Sciences undergraduate, have reported that more than 60 animal species were identified in the College grounds at the event attended by College members and their families.
What’s on
Chapel
Cantata Evensong – Saturday 21 May, 6.30pm
The College Choir will join the College baroque ensemble St John’s Sinfonia for a Cantata Evensong. The services offer the experience of hearing the music of Bach and other baroque composers performed in a liturgical context. The College Choir will be singing two of J.S. Bach’s Cantata’s: Cantata no. 83 Erfreute Zeit im neuen Bunde and Cantata no. 6 Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend warden. The service is expected to last until around 7.50pm.
Open to all, admission free.
Student communion – Sunday 22 May, 8.30am
Student Communion takes place every Sunday at 8.30am, followed by a subsidised cooked breakfast in Hall.
Organ recital – Sunday 22 May, 6pm
Anthony Gritten, of the Royal Academy of Music, will be performing works by Pierre Kunk, Kreisler, Roth and Grunenwald.
Open to all, admission free.
A full programme for the term is available here.
Sunday Evensong Sermon series: No Shame in a Tutu – Sunday 22 May, 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 The Very Rev’d Frances Ward who is Priest in Charge, St Michael’s, Wokington Dean. Her sermon addresses the Environment.
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
Evensong – Monday 23 May, 6.30pm
Sung by St John’s Voices.
Sung Eucharist – Thursday 26 May, 10.30am
Attended by the pupils of St John’s College School.
Ascension Day Sung Eucharist – Thursday 26 May, 10.30am
This service is attended by pupils of St John’s College School. On Ascension Day we celebrate the moment when, forty days after his Resurrection, Jesus is taken from his disciples' sight and returns to heaven.
Open to all, admission free.
Ascension Day Tower Service – Thursday 26 May, 12 noon (assemble in First Court)
Since 1902, following a bet with the then Director of Music and a Fellow that the Choir couldn’t be heard on the ground from the top of the Tower (which the Fellow lost), the Choir has ascended the Tower to lead us in this short tower service with the traditional singing of the Ascension Day Carol at midday.
Open to all, admission free, assemble in First Court just before midday.
Choral services continue as listed on the website.
- 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
Tea and cake in the Chaplain’s garden – Sunday 22 May, 3-5pm
Merton Cottage, Queens’ Road (access from the road or from Scholars’ Garden).
A chance to escape revision, deadlines etc. for a little while.
Open to all, admission free.
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.
Dirac Lecture 2022 – The Entropy of Hawking Radiation – Monday 23 May, 2.30pm
Wolfson Room, MR2, Centre for Mathematical Sciences.
A lecture by Professor Juan Maldacena, Institute for Advanced Studies, on how black holes are fascinating space-time configurations predicted by general relativity. When quantum mechanics is taken into account, black holes are found to emit thermal radiation, called ‘Hawking radiation’. Recently an interesting area formula for the quantum entropy of black holes was derived. This also leads to a surprising new way to compute the entropy of Hawking radiation. This result indicates that the black hole formation and evaporation is consistent with standard quantum mechanical laws.
Open to all, admission free.
Palaeography for beginners – Tuesday 24 May, 3pm
Weekly online sessions for anyone interested in reading handwriting from c.1500-c.1750, using documents from the College’s institutional archives.
Sessions are informal and aimed at beginners, or those with a little experience who wish to practise 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.
Upper Library open afternoon – Wednesday 25 May, 2-4pm
Upper Library, entrance via E staircase, Second Court, only.
The Upper Library is now open for members of the College community and their guests every Wednesday 2-4pm during Full Term. Different interesting items from the collections will be 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.
History of the Book Seminar 2021-2022 – Wednesday 25 May, 5.30pm
Parker Library, Corpus Christi College.
Dr Orietta Da Rold, an Associate Professor in the Faculty of English and a Fellow of St John’s, will be presenting this seminar, Medieval Paper in Cambridge College Libraries and Archives, based on her current research. She will focus on manuscripts from Corpus Christi and Trinity Colleges to show how some of the books and documents in Cambridge libraries and archives can contribute to medieval paper mapping and what they can tell us about chronology and use.
To attend, please register with the convenor, Dr Laure Miolo, by Tuesday 24 May.
A Vision of a Garden film screening and cantata – Wednesday 25 May, 6.15pm
Main Lecture Theatre, Old Divinity School.
Following his near-death encounter with Covid-19 in 2020, Professor Peter Johnstone was invited to write the text for a cantata based on his experiences, written by Richard Blackford, which was premiered at the Royal Festival Hall last October.
A short film of his experiences has also been made by Professor David McMullen's daughter, Kate.
All are invited to a showing of the film and cantata, followed by drinks.
Workshop on choosing a dissertation – Friday 27 May, 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.
Cambridge Nature Festival 2022 – Friday 27 May to 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 cost for others.
MCR Cup Final – Sunday 29 May, 10.30am
3G Pitch, Comberton Village College
St John’s SBR Football Team go up against The University Contractors in this exciting MCR Cup Final.
All welcome from St John’s to cheer on the postgraduate team.
St John’s College Jubilee afternoon tea – Wednesday, 1 June, 2-4pm
Enjoy this all-College drop-in afternoon tea to mark the Queen’s 70th Jubilee. All College Fellows, students and staff are warmly invited for drinks and light snacks.
This is an informal event for which there is no dress code.
To gauge numbers for catering purposes only, please register in advance via Eventbrite.
Lecture on Monotheism and Divine Translation – Wednesday, 8 June, 6-7pm
Main Lecture Theatre, Old Divinity School.
Professor Ron Hendel will deliver a lecture, hosted by St John’s Fellow Professor Nathan McDonald, to examine how cross-cultural discourse about gods occurred in the ancient world and how this related to the development of monotheism in ancient Israel.
Professor Hendel is the Norma and Sam Dabby Professor of Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies at the University of California, Berkeley and the author of numerous books including Remembering Abraham: Culture, History, and Memory in the Hebrew Bible, The Book of Genesis: A Biography, and How Old is the Hebrew Bible? A Linguistic, Textual, and Historical Study.
The lecture is free and open to all.
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.
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.
And finally…
The College’s resident swans have been spotted in the grounds and river with their six cygnets.
Several members of staff have reported seeing the proud parents swanning around with their offspring, as seen in this photo of their nest by Porter Ian Marfleet.
