News

Efforts to embed Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) in infrastructure are facing growing structural pressure – from tighter financing conditions to shifting political priorities – and risk being sidelined as an ‘optional extra’. A recent workshop at Christ Church Research Centre brought together policymakers, practitioners, financiers and researchers to focus not on why inclusion matters, but on how it can be embedded in project design and delivery under these conditions.

Visitors to Christ Church may have noticed recent gardening activity in Tom Quad, where planting has begun in the gullies around its perimeter. This forms part of a project to enhance biodiversity within the College’s historic landscape.

This year, Christ Church launched a new Oracy Programme for Year 10 pupils in the North East of England. The programme was aimed at students attending state schools who demonstrate strong academic potential, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds or those who would be the first in their families to go to university.

A recent graduate of Christ Church is among the founders of a new artificial intelligence startup attracting international attention, including from The Wall Street Journal, and has recently raised $94 million in investment.

Christ Church’s annual Special Interest Event is a four-day residential programme held each spring, bringing together leading academics and specialists to explore a single theme through a series of lectures, discussions and shared meals.

A Christ Church undergraduate welcomed one of the fashion industry’s leading editorial figures to Oxford earlier this month, as the Oxford Fashion Society hosted Adam Baidawi, the newly appointed Global Editorial Director of GQ, for a special ‘in conversation with’ event.

Christ Church undergraduates Holly Culhane and Mimi Barsham were part of the Oxford University Competition Dance (OUCD) team that was named Best Overall University at the Loughborough University Dance Competition, a national event bringing together around 30 universities from across the UK.

A Christ Church graduate student is at the forefront of a groundbreaking study aiming to transform how sports-related concussion is diagnosed and understood – research that has recently attracted national media attention.

Last month, an exhibition curated by Christ Church doctoral student Aniq Shamsi and artist Alice King brought together student and professional artists to reflect on art, technology, and what it means to create in the age of artificial intelligence.

Christ Church’s Dr Joram van Rheede has been awarded a prestigious five-year EPSRC Open Fellowship worth over £1.95m to develop the next generation of ‘sleep-aware’ brain stimulation therapies – an important step towards smarter, more targeted treatments for neurological conditions.

Ahead of International Women’s Day on Sunday 8 March, we celebrate the work of three Christ Church academics whose research not only advances knowledge in their fields, but places women, gender and equity at its centre.

Christ Church Boat Club is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Ben Reed as its new Head Coach, marking a return to the House for the alumnus.

Dr Tamar Koplatadze, Associate Professor in Postsocialist Literature and Culture at Christ Church, has published a major new monograph with Oxford University Press examining postcolonial identity in the literatures of the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Jenalla Rhaine Waddington, a second-year student of French and Linguistics at Christ Church, has been awarded a £3,000 ‘NextGen’ grant from Youth Music UK to support the creation of her new concept album, Kuchalo.

A new book by Christ Church theologian Andrew Davison and Cambridge engineer Julian Allwood challenges dominant assumptions about how the climate crisis will be solved – and who is responsible for solving it.

Christ Church undergraduate Evie Duckworth has been awarded third prize in the Oxford–Intesa Sanpaolo Prize for Economics and Management, which recognises outstanding student writing on contemporary business challenges.

Groundbreaking findings from an interdisciplinary team of researchers led by Dr Tapabrata Rohan Chakraborty, Lecturer in Computer Science at Christ Church, have been published in the leading journal Nature Communications. The study demonstrates how artificial intelligence can improve the accuracy and usefulness of cancer predictions by generating synthetic molecular data from routine pathology images.

The King’s New Year Honours list for 2026 has been released, recognising and celebrating the extraordinary achievements and service of individuals across the UK. We are delighted to announce that four members of the Christ Church community have been honoured this year. 

Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas has conferred on Christ Church’s Emeritus Professor John Cartwright the title of Docteur Honoris Causa at a ceremony on 1 December 2025.

Dr Yu Mo, House Career Development Fellow at Christ Church and Research Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute (ECI), has led a new international study revealing how changes in tropical cyclone behaviour are reshaping risks to mangrove ecosystems worldwide. The research has been published in the leading journal Science Advances.

Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert, Senior Associate Research Fellow at Christ Church and Professor of Vaccinology at the University of Oxford’s Pandemic Sciences Institute, has played a central role in the launch of the world’s first Phase II clinical trial of a vaccine against the deadly Nipah virus. Professor Gilbert was recently elected Honorary Student (fellow) of Christ Church, recognising her remarkable contributions to global public health.

Christ Church is delighted to announce that it has received an extraordinary and historic gift: Lewis Carroll’s personal copy of the 1865 suppressed first edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The donation – reported today in The Times – brings to Oxford what has been described as the most significant surviving copy of the world-famous story.

Christ Church is proud to be a Higher Education Partner of IntoUniversity, a national charity dedicated to widening participation and transforming educational opportunities for young people facing disadvantage. This year has seen the charity – working closely with its partners – continue to make a profound difference both locally and nationally.