News & events from Corpus Christi Cambridge
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Corpus Christi College, Lent 2024
A BUSY TERM AHEAD
Rachel Lawson photographed by Pari Naderi for Forty Years On • Women of Corpus
Save the date! 22 June 2024
40 Years On: Family & Friends Garden Party
Last year, we were delighted to welcome 1,137 Members to our events, well up on 662 registrations the year before. We want the garden party to be a fantastic celebration, bringing our whole community together –students, Fellows, staff, alumni, family, and friends. Let’s make it our largest gathering ever!
We are starting Lent Term with a spring in our step. As I write, returning students are flocking through frost-covered New Court, and the air is buzzing with chatter as they race to Hall for a warm and hearty lunch.
We have important news about the renovation of Mogford Lodge, formerly known as Ashton House, the Georgian cottage on Newnham Road, within the curtilage of Newnham House. The increased intake of ten students a year on the Bridging Course coincided with a notice issued by the Council’s Health and Safety executive requiring the closure of some attic rooms in Old Court. This has put extra pressure on our accommodation stock. Thank goodness for your philanthropy, which is helping us to meet the need for more undergraduate rooms.
Major planning is underway to mark the 40th anniversary of the admission of women undergraduates. Representatives of the 2,700 alumnae who now call Corpus their alma mater will enjoy an exciting weekend programme of events on 8 and 9 March. If you have not done so already, click the button below to look at the wonderful work our communications team has done to shine a light on many historical and current women of Corpus.
-Rachel Lawson, Director of Development & Alumni Relations
NEWS
NEW YEAR'S HONOURS FOR CORPUSCLES
Many congratulations to four Old Members whose accomplishments were recognised in the King's New Year's Honours: Dr Sabesan Sithamparanathan OBE (2008, PhD Electronic Engineering), The Very Rev Dr David Hoyle MBE KCVO (1976, MA Theological & Religious Studies), Professor Kenneth Falconer CBE (1971, MA PhD Mathematics & Research Fellow from 1977 to 1980), and Mr David Farnsworth OBE (1991, MA Law).
MOGFORD LODGE RENOVATION UNDERWAY
Work has started on Mogford Lodge (formerly Ashton House) for seven new student rooms and a relandscaped outdoor space – with thanks to our members for making this possible and appreciation for David Mogford (m.1972) for his leadership gift.
DEBUT NOVEL DRAWS ON ESPIONAGE EXPERTISE
A Corpus alumnus writing under the pseudonym Angus Blair has published a new spy novel that the Times deemed its 'Thriller of the Month' for December 2023. Shock Therapy was written after Angus took a novel-writing course during lockdown, and incorporates his knowledge of the Intelligence Service gained through the tutelage of Professor Christopher Andrew at Corpus and Angus' own experiences as a widely travelled businessman. Find out more about how Angus became an 'unexpected' author.
NEW BENCH FOR SIR FRANK LEE
Alumnus Dr Chris Caldwell-Nichols (m.1967) is leading an initiative to fund a replacement bench in the Fellows' Garden to honour Sir Frank Godbould Lee, Master of Corpus from 1962 to 1971. This will replace the existing bench dedicated to Sir Frank, now sadly broken. Anyone interested in joining Dr Caldwell-Nichols in making a contribution to help fund the bench should get in touch here. Any remaining funds will be designated for the upkeep of the garden.
FORTY YEARS ON • WOMEN OF CORPUS
Baroness Kathy Willis will deliver the Keynote Address
Forty Years On • Weekend of Events
We are very much looking forward to welcoming our alumnae back to Corpus for a weekend of discussion, reflection and networking. The 8-9 March will see a wide range of panel sessions and presentations, including our Keynote Speaker, Professor Baroness Kathy Willis, CBE (m.1986), Professor of Biodiversity and Principal at St Edmund Hall Oxford.
Events will take place on International Women's Day and are informed by this year's theme of 'Inspire Inclusion':
- Improving diversity and equality for women in finance and business
- Empowering women’s choices in healthcare/science
- Shaping conversations: women’s voices in the media
- Women in tech on women in tech
- Celebrating the rich content of women authors
- Women forging change across the world
- Concert in Chapel and performances in Corpus Playroom
- Oral History review led by student interviewers
- Networking session
- Rowing outing on the Cam
- Ada Lovelace Society coffee morning for STEM students and alumnae
MEET OUR ALUMNAE
We have so many exceptional alumnae across the worlds of business, academia, the creative industries, healthcare, tech, the media and much more. We've been posting profiles of these inspiring women on our website and LinkedIn. Follow us there to read more and join the conversation.
COLLEGE COMMUNITY
The Record No. 102
Your printed copy of The Record will soon be delivered to your postal address, but if you'd like a sneak peek, you can take a look at the College's annual review online. This issue contains reports from the Master, Senior Officers, JCR and MCR, Chapel sermons, details about sports, music and societies, and news of Fellows and Old Members.
WIDENING PARTICIPATION PROGRAMME IS A SOARING SUCCESS
Aoife Sargent in the Parker Library during the residential Pelican Programme in 2022.
Michaelmas Term saw the first students from our Year 12 Arts and Humanities super-curricular Pelican Programme take up places at Cambridge. We were delighted that 15 of the 21 participants who completed the course in its first year applied to Cambridge and Oxford, and of these nine were made offers. We welcomed three of these students to Corpus to commence their undergraduate study with us in October.
Aoife Sargent, now studying History at Corpus, said of her experience with the Programme: “Having the ability to talk to lecturers or supervisors quite seamlessly about topics that I'm interested in has been a great reward. I don't think I'd be where I am today without the Pelican Programme, not just for the confidence that it gave me but the ability to see myself at Cambridge, in the position where I can challenge academics.”
PROFESSOR CHRISTOPHER KELLY & RACHEL LAWSON IN THE US
THE MASTER AND THE DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT WILL BE IN SEATTLE, SAN FRANCISCO AND NEW YORK IN APRIL 2024
There will be a drinks reception in each location to which Old Members are welcome:
Seattle: Friday 5 April 5-7.30pm The Fairmont Olympic Hotel, 411 University Street, Seattle
San Francisco: Monday 8 April 5-7pm venue TBC
New York: Wednesday 10 April 5.30-7.30pm Elevated NY, The Hippodrome, 1120 Avenue of the Americas, New York
To pre-register for any of the above events, please email alumnievents@corpus.cam.ac.uk.
Old Members wishing to meet The Master and Rachel at another time – please contact development@corpus.cam.ac.uk
REPORT FROM COP28
PhD Engineering student Yashas Ray recently attended COP28 with the Centre for Climate Repair and the We Are Family Foundation. Yashas, who researches refreezing the Arctic through technology, reports on his experience of attending an environmental conference and staying in a hotel with a view over the world's largest gas-fired power plant. Read about Yashas' 'surreal' COP28 experience.
AFTER THE PLAGUE
Dr Chris Smith from the popular science podcast 'The Naked Scientists' visited Corpus recently to discuss new research based on the skeletons of plague victims buried under the original entrance to the College. The research continues to examine the lives of medieval residents of Cambridge as part of the multidisciplinary project 'After the Plague', which uses archaeological techniques including ancient DNA analysis to learn more about the lives - and deaths - of the College's ancient neighbours.
Dr Chris Smith and
Dr Christiana Scheib.
EVENTS
If you're local, or visiting Cambridge, drop by for our wonderful 30-minute lunchtime student-led musical recitals in Chapel: the Bene't Club on Thursday and organ concerts on Fridays. Free. All welcome.
Wednesday 24: Jan BOUTWOOD LECTURE The Next Billion Years by Professor Payal Arora
Saturday 3 February: Lewis Society of Medicine Annual Lecture & Dinner
Wednesday 7 February: BOUTWOOD LECTURE Women and Conspiracy: Experiments with Paranoid Knowledge by Professor Clare Birchall
Saturday 10 February: Old Members' Guest Night
Saturday 2 March: the Varsity Rugby Matches 2024
Saturday 2 March: Lent Bumps Dinner
Friday 8 – Saturday 9 March: Forty Years On • Women of Corpus Women of Corpus Weekend
Wednesday 13 March: BOUTWOOD LECTURE The Future of Reproduction by Professor Sarah Franklin
Saturday 16 March: Nicholas Bacon Law Society Annual Dinner
Saturday 13 April: Beldam Reunion Dinner (1978-82)
Saturday 20 April: Oliver Rackham Society Annual Lecture & Dinner
Saturday 18 May: Old Members' Guest Night
Saturday 22 June 2024: Forty Years On • Women at Corpus Garden Party (to be held at Leckhampton)
Friday 27 September: Cambridge Alumni Festival
Saturday 28 September: MacCurdy Reunion Dinner (1972-77)
