College bulletin: 3 November
This week members of College had a spooktacular time marking Halloween with a themed Formal Hall and postgraduates honed their carving skills on pumpkins during an SBR event.
There’s plenty more ghostly fun and events coming up – more details in the What’s On guide below.
College news
Using lasers to ‘heat and beat’ 3D-printed steel could help reduce costs
A research team led by St John’s Fellow Dr Matteo Seita, Granta Design Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering, has invented a method for 3D printing metal that could help reduce costs and make more efficient use of resources.
Architecture academic’s book examines Aalto Studio’s religious buildings
A new book by Dr Sofia Singler, Assistant Professor of Architecture and Fellow of St John's, presents the first critical account of the religious architecture designed by the studio of the ‘Father of Modernism’, Aalto.
The Religious Architecture of Alvar, Aino and Elissa Aalto includes previously unpublished drawings and photos from the Aalto Foundation archive and is published by Lund Humphries.
College bulb planting date announced
Volunteers from across the College community are invited to get their hands dirty on Saturday 11 November by helping the Gardens team plant bulbs.
Last week the gardeners took delivery of 68 crates of bulbs, containing 840 bulbs each. They will be planted along the lime tree-lined avenue from the Queen’s Road gates to the Bin Brook.
Head Gardener David Austrin said: “We have 57,120 bulbs to plant so all help is greatly appreciated. We have made a start but if staff, students and Fellows would like to help us get a few more in the ground, they’re welcome to join us for a drop-in bulb planting session.”
The planting day will take place from 9am until 3pm. If you have gardening gloves, bring them along, but they can be supplied if necessary. Tools will be provided.
Volunteers will be able to enjoy hot chocolate from the Catering department and biscuits to keep them energised.
If you would like to volunteer, please email David Austrin.
What’s on
Chapel
Student Communion – Sunday 5 November, 8.30am
Gather in the small chapel in the Ante-chapel for a half-hour service of Holy Communion (aka the Eucharist) with sermon, then go to Hall for cooked breakfast (which is subsidised). This appeals to a real cross-section of the student community.
Organ recital – Sunday 5 November, 6pm
Tingshuo Yang (St John’s College) will be performing Duruflé’s Suite.
Open to all, admission free.
Sunday Evensong with sermon – Sunday 5 November, 6.30pm
This term’s sermon series is Who do you say that I am? Different preachers are offering their own perspective on Jesus Christ: how they understand him, what he means today and what we might learn from what we know of Jesus and how he has been portrayed in the last two millennia. This evening Dr Tobias Cremer, Junior Research Fellow in Religion and the Frontier Challenges at Pembroke College, Oxford, will be preaching on The Right-Wing Jesus.
Compline by Candlelight – Tuesday 7 November, 10pm
One of the most popular services among Cambridge students for decades. Based on the late evening service in monasteries, it is sung by a consort of the Choral Scholars and the Chaplain. It lasts about 35 minutes, followed by port and hot chocolate.
Open to College members and their guests.
Farewell Evensong for The Rev’d Dr Mark Oakley – Thursday 23 November, 6.30pm
Advent Carol Services – Saturday 25 November, 6pm & Sunday 26 November, 3pm
Applications for tickets now closed.
For all other regular services, see the Chapel webpage.
The Chapel team is always keen to hear from more volunteers to read in services or assist in other ways: please contact Andrew.
Other events
Poetry reading – Friday 3 November, 6pm
Boys Smith Room, Fisher Building.
Three leading Irish poets will be reading from their work at this event hosted by St John’s. Nick Laird, Tara Bergin and Colette Bryce are among the most acclaimed, innovative and intriguing contemporary poets, with work regularly appearing in publications such as The LRB, Poetry Review and the New Yorker.
The reading will be followed by a wine reception and a chance to meet the poets.
Open to all, admission free, no booking required.
LMBC Fireworks and Mulled Wine – Saturday 4 November, from 6pm
Lady Margaret Boat Club.
The College boathouse is hosting an event to watch the annual Midsummer Common fireworks display from a safe vantage point.
£8 for entry and two servings of mulled wine, £5 entry only. This event is sold out but a waiting list is available.
Live music in the Bar: ‘Femenine’ by Julius Eastman – Saturday 4 November, 9pm
Bar.
Femenine is a sprawling, strident, minimalist semi-improvised piece that dances and shimmers in an immersive and hypnotic experience. It will be performed by University students Leon Sturdee, Annabel Beniston, Adam Howell, Manav Paul, Sohan Kalirai, Michael Calnan, Max Pullinger and Ed Hinchcliff.
Admission free, no booking required.
St John’s College Picturehouse: A Haunting in Venice – Sunday 5 November, 7.15pm
Palmerston Room, Fisher Building.
The recently released A Haunting in Venice is based on the sensational novel by Agatha Christie; upon attending a seance, former detective Hercule Poirot is the one to uncover a killer roaming in Venice.
All Picturehouse films are shown using a cinema grade DCP projector and the venue is wheelchair accessible with space for up to 10 wheelchair users. Seating is padded.
Open to all students, staff and Fellows, tickets £4. Buy tickets
Drop-in dissertation support group – Monday 6 November, 2.30-4pm
Library Seminar Room.
Weekly group run during term time by Harriet Edwards, Library Graduate Trainee, offering an informal setting for students to work on their dissertations and other pieces of coursework alongside other students going through the same thing.
There is support, encouragement and the opportunity to ask questions about study skills such as researching, referencing and time management. The group is mostly for undergraduate students but postgraduates are also welcome if they think it would be helpful.
Email Harriet if you have any questions.
Physics for Everyone: Space, Time, and Spacetime -- The Absolute and Relative in Einstein's Relativity – Monday 6 November, 6pm
Boys Smith Room, Fisher Building.
The fifth in a series of eight lectures by Fellow Prof Nick Manton, giving an overview of the world of physics for everyone at St John’s. Physics investigates the observable phenomena in our Universe, from the very large to the very small. Elegant theories have emerged, accurately describing a broad range of these phenomena.
These lectures cover the key concepts of space, time, particles, matter, energy, forces and fields. This week’s lecture explores distance and time, relative and absolute quantities in ordinary spacetime, absolute geometry of ‘relativity’ theory, and observable consequences.
Open to College members and their guests. Admission free, no booking required.
College Bar quiz – Monday 6 November, 8.30pm
Bar.
Open to all, admission free.
Aquila rehearsal – Tuesday 7 November, 5.15-6.45pm
New Music Room.
Aquila is a friendly a cappella singing group for female students, Fellows and staff, led by Music Director Dr Chloe Allison. It welcomes new members – no audition is necessary, simply drop in to one of its weekly Tuesday evening rehearsals to try before joining.
For more information and events, visit Aquila’s Facebook or Instagram @johnsaquila
Pre-Dinner Lecture Series talk: Governing his alma mater. Chancellor Burghley and the Fractious Fellowship of St John's – Tuesday 7 November, 6.15pm
Boys Smith Room, Fisher Building.
Dr Norman Jones, Burghley Visiting Fellow at St John’s, will examine how William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley – St John’s alumnus, Chancellor of Cambridge University and Chief Adviser to Queen Elizabeth I – dealt with the religious and political factions in the College and wider University. This talk will look at the troubles at St John’s in the context of Burghley’s larger conceptions of his role as Chancellor, complicated by his being a loyal member of the College.
The lecture will last 20-30 minutes and be followed by audience questions and drinks.
Open to Fellows, affiliates and postgraduate students. Admission free.
Upper Library opening – Wednesday 8 November, 2-4pm
Enter via E staircase, Second Court.
Open every Wednesday afternoon in term time, view manuscripts and rare printed books from the collections in the Upper Library. Requests for material to be exhibited can be emailed to Special Collections and they will do their best to accommodate these during the term.
Open to College members and their guests. Admission free, no booking required.
Beer tasting – Wednesday 8 November, 6-7.15pm
Wordsworth Room, First Court.
With Prof Michael de Volder, Fellow of St John’s.
This event has limited places and is restricted to postgraduate students of St John’s, Fellows and Visiting Fellows. Places cannot be offered to guests of College members on this occasion.
Thirty places are available for postgraduates, priced £10 each – please book via Upay if still available. Ten places have been made available for Fellows or Visiting Fellows; Fellows should contact the Postgraduate Administrator to enquire if any places remain and for an Entertainment Expenditure Form so the £10 fee can be charged to your account.
Blues night – Wednesday 8 November, 8.30pm
Bar.
Featuring blues and jazz music to celebrate the end of Week 5.
Open to all University members, admission free, no booking required.
St John's College Music Society (SJCMS) lunchtime recital – Thursday 9 November, 1pm
New Music Room.
Open to all, admission free, no booking required.
Tour of the Scott Polar Research Institute Museum – Friday 10 November, 2pm
Meet Dr David Waterhouse at the Institute Reception (entrance via the car park side of the building, not the main entrance).
Open to College postgraduate students, Fellows, Visiting Fellows and their guests as part of this term’s Sans Frontières events programme. Admission free. The first 15 people to email the Postgraduate Administrator may book a place.
Palaeography for beginners – Friday 10 November, 3pm
Via Zoom (link below).
Weekly sessions for anyone interested in reading handwriting from c1500-c1700, 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.
Sessions are held on Fridays at 3pm and take place online using photographs of the documents. If you would like to join, or have any queries, please email the archivist, Dr Lynsey Darby. If you aren’t sure until the last minute, please join anyway.
Open to all, admission free.
Orchestral concert – Friday 10 November, 8pm
St John’s College Chapel.
A concert arranged by St John’s College Music Society (SJCMS), with music by Mozart, Holst and Rimsky-Korsakov. Conducted by St John’s Lay Clerk, Carlos Rodríguez Otero.
Open to all, admission free.
What’s On in the coming weeks
Andrew Chamblin Memorial Lecture 2023 – Tuesday, 14 November, 5pm
Meeting Room 2, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA.
The 17th Andrew Chamblin Memorial Lecture, entitled Illuminating the Dark Universe with Gravitational Waves, will be given by Professor Alessandra Buonanno, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics.
The lecture will also be livestreamed on YouTube.
Admission free, booking required via the Faculty of Mathematics Events page.
Postgraduates Dine with Fellows – Wednesday 15 November, 7.30pm
Hall.
Open to College postgraduates. Attendance at Postgraduates Dine with Fellows events is restricted to one event per academic year.
Free of charge, limited places, registration details to be confirmed.
‘Swish’ clothes swap event – Saturday 18 November, 10.30am, then 11am-noon
Hall.
St John’s College is holding its second ‘Swish’, a clothes swap party that helps you to refresh your wardrobe while going easy on the planet. Doors open at 10.30am for participants to bring their clothes to swap before the ‘swish’ starts at 11am.
Open to all College members and their guests. Admission free.
Short Book Club for postgraduates, English Faculty and College staff – Monday 20 November, 5.45pm
Merton Hall Cottage (behind the School of Pythagoras).
Join Vona Groarke, St John’s Writer-in-Residence, to discuss this month’s book, Gwendoline Riley's 2021 My Phantoms. This short novel is about a difficult mother-daughter relationship, reviewed in The Guardian as ‘a devastating, quietly brutal... bitterly funny novel’; in The Times as a ‘riveting, merciless little novel’; in The Big Issue as ‘a work of genius’, and in the Financial Times as ‘a slim but brilliant novel’.
Newcomers welcome. Refreshments available. If you are interested in attending, email Vona.
Dramatisation: Bérénice – Wednesday 22 November, 7.30pm
Main Lecture Theatre, Old Divinity School.
A true-life story of royal love and renunciation in 1st-century Rome, brought to life at the 17th-century royal court of Versailles by one of the greatest tragedians, Jean Racine, in one of his best-loved dramas.
Directed by Prof Patrick Boyde, Emeritus Professor of Italian and Fellow of St John’s, this is an abridged, semi-staged performance in the original French. With English subtitles, images, and incidental music by Chopin.
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. Further details and to book
Ghost walk – Thursday 23 November, 5.45pm
Meet in Third Court Cloister by the Bridge of Sighs.
With Dr Mark Nicholls, Fellow of St John’s.
Open to College postgraduate students, Fellows, Visiting Fellows and their guests as part of this term’s Sans Frontières events programme. Admission free.
Ghost stories – Wednesday 6 December, 8.30pm
Combination Room.
With Prof Patrick Boyde, Fellow of St John’s. Details to be confirmed.
Open to College postgraduate students, Fellows, Visiting Fellows and their guests as part of this term’s Sans Frontières events programme. Admission free.
Staff photography exhibition – Monday 11 December to Wednesday 10 January
Library Exhibition Area.
An exhibition of all submissions to the 2023 staff photography competition.
Full details and how to enter (staff intranet)
Short Book Club for postgraduates, English Faculty and College staff – Tuesday 12 December, 5.45pm
Merton Hall Cottage (behind the School of Pythagoras).
Join Vona Groarke, St John’s Writer-in-Residence, to discuss this month’s short book, Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach, set in July 1962, just before 'the Swinging Sixties changed the notion of innocence forever’. Shortlisted for the 2007 Booker Prize (controversially, on account of its shortness), the novel was adapted for film in 2017, starring Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle.
Newcomers always welcome. If you are interested in attending, email Vona.
And finally
Bedmaker Marisa King, known as Joy, retired this week after working at St John’s for more than 20 years.
The housekeeping department held a farewell party to present her with gifts and thank her for her hard work and dedication over two decades. Joy usually mainly worked in New Court and she is now looking forward to welcoming her first grandchild very soon.
