Latest News

Tess Somervell, a second year undergraduate studying English at Christ Church, has been awarded the Lord Alfred Douglas Memorial Prize 2010 with her poem 'From Mary Spencer to George Stubbs.' Tess has edited poetry for Cherwell (the independent student newspaper of Oxford University) and acted as President of the Oxford University Poetry Society. She was a winner of the Foyle Young Poet Award in 2006  and afterwards co-founded the poetry e-zine Pomegranate, for which she is now Art Editor. As a student in the 2009 Tower Poetry Summer School three of her poems will be available in August in the published collection. Her prizewinning poem 'From Mary Spencer to George Stubbs.' can be read on the Tower Poetry website http://www.towerpoetry.org.uk/poetry-matters/poetry.

Christ Church's Chris Pelling (Oxford University's Regius Professor of Greek, shown left), and Llewelyn Morgan (Classics Fellow at Brasenose College, Oxford) have collaborated on a pamphlet just published by the thinktank 'Politeia', arguing that Latin should be included among the languages that may be taught at primary schools if the schools wish.

Christ Church's Prof. Judith Pallot is leading an important conference entitled 'Gender, Geography and Punishment in Comparative Perspective', on June 22nd and 23rd 2010. The conference is sponsored by the ESRC and will be hosted by the School of Geography and Environment and Centre of Criminology, with events taking place at Christ Church.

A facsimile edition of the famous Dow manuscripts from Christ Church Library has recently been published, making more widely available one of the most important surviving music manuscripts from Elizabethan England and a major source of works by William Byrd...

Professor Roger Davis has taken on the role of President of the Royal Astronomical Society at what he warns is a critical time for the discipline, as further cuts to astrophysics could result in Britain losing a generation of talented young scientists.

Roger Davies is Philip Wetton Professor of Astrophysics, Chairman of the Physics Department and Dr. Lees Reader in Physics at Christ Church.  

Oxford's Summer Eight boat races came to a joyful end for Christ Church on Saturday 29th of May, and the sun broke through the clouds as Christ Church's Men's First Eight raced to an easy victory, to retain the position of Head of the River. There were remarkable performances at all levels throughout the four days of racing which were a credit to all the crews taking part.

Christ Church's tortoise, 'Sampras' took part in the annual Oxford Inter-Collegiate Tortoise Races in the garden of Corpus Christi College last Sunday, and in front of a large crowd raced home to a respectable fourth place, out of six. College tortoise rep. Anoosh Chakelian had prepared Sampras for the race. See the story of the race in pictures here...

Photos: Anoosh Chakelian

The Tenth Christopher Tower Poetry Prize competition’s theme was ‘Promises’. The entrants (over 1000, all born between 1991 and 1993) from every part of the UK, were inspired with the topic and produced many poems with the hint of promise.

At a lunchtime reception, as part of The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival, in Christ Church on Wednesday 24 March seventeen year-old Emily Harrison (shown left and below), from Cirencester College, Gloucestershire, won the £3,000 first prize for her poem Love Has No Larynx.

The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival has begun, and once again Christ Church is delighted to host this increasingly important cultural feast. The Festival runs from 20th to 28th March 2010 and its main marquee is on Christ Church Meadows, but events are taking place throughout the college, cathedral and other nearby locations.

As the traditional Torpids bump races came to an end on the river Isis on Saturday March the 6th, the Christ Church Men's First Torpid rowed home with elegant ease to maintain the position it won last year at the 'Head of the River'. The power and speed of the crew throughout the week placed them comfortably beyond the reach of the boats of Pembroke and Magdalen colleges which pursued them.