Two Selwyn students have been elected as captains of University sport teams for the next academic year. Frances Lee-Barber (left in the picture) will lead the Cambridge netball team. She is currently a fresher, and was part of the University team that beat Oxford in this year’s Varsity match. Charlotte Burrows (right) is in her second year, and she has been elected as captain of hockey. Cambridge are the defending champions in that sport too, having won this year’s encounter with Oxford 2-1. Charlotte says of her new role: “our team had a very successful season last year, getting promoted from both of our leagues and winning Varsity. It’s a huge honour to be voted captain. With a really talented squad, we are looking for back-to-back promotion and retaining the all-important Varsity trophy!”

This has been a particularly strong time for women’s sport in the college. Selwyn graduate student Hannah Evans was in the Cambridge crew for the first rowing of the women’s Boat Race on the Tideway this year; and undergraduate Katie Holmes was president of the women’s rugby club, leading her team to a 47-0 win over Oxford in the most recent Varsity match.

The College held a tea party on Wednesday 20 May to mark the 99th birthday of its former Master, Owen Chadwick. Professor Chadwick was Master from 1956 to 1983, and his distinguished career included being Regius Professor of Modern History and Vice-Chancellor of the University. He was appointed to the Order of Merit in 1983. His sporting prowess was considerable too: he is a former British Lion, and represented Cambridge three times in the Varsity match. He is pictured (bottom right) alongside Sir David Harrison, Master from 1994 to 2000; and standing is the current Master, Roger Mosey. Selwyn College congratulates Professor Chadwick on entering his centenary year.

 

First-year Selwyn student Lola Olufemi has been cast as Othello in a production of the Shakespeare play that will run from May 19-23 at the ADC theatre. Lola, who is reading English, says of her role:

“Othello is in a high pressure environment, in which most of her peers don’t look or sound like her and yet she challenges those boundaries. I’ve faced a lot of similar things as a student here and I’m really keen to see how audiences respond to the dynamic of having a black female be in such a powerful, central position on a Cambridge stage. It feels subversive. We've put a lot into this production and that'll be clear when audiences come and see it.”

You can read more about the production, and book tickets at https://www.adctheatre.com/whats-on/drama/othello.aspx

Former Selwyn students had mixed fortunes in the General Election on May 7^th. Two of our alumni were elected to the House of Commons. Graham Stuart (below) won for the
Conservatives in Beverley and Holderness, his third victory in that seat. Graham was chairman of the select committee on education in the last parliament, and he
hosted a reception at the Commons for the college’s boathouse appeal in the Spring of this year.

Newly-elected in Ilford North was Wes Streeting (below) for Labour. He is a former JCR president at Selwyn and went on to become president of the National Union of
Students. His performance was one of Labour’s best on a poor night for the party: Wes overturned a Conservative majority of 5000 to win by 589 votes.

But two alumni - both Liberal Democrats - lost their seats. Simon Hughes, one of the best known Lib Dems and justice minister in the last government, was beaten in
his Bermondsey seat after 32 years as an MP; and Roger Williams was defeated in Brecon and Radnorshire, which he had held since 2001.

The BBC diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall gave the Selwyn College Ramsay Murray lecture on Friday May 1^st about Vladimir Putin, Russia and the West. Ms Kendall is a former Moscow correspondent, and she has interviewed Putin and many other world leaders for the BBC. There was a capacity audience for the event, and much praise afterwards for the range and ambition of the lecture. It looks at the history of Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the conflicts in Georgia and Ukraine – and seeks to assess the future of Moscow’s relations with the west. You can watch it in full by clicking on this image:

The Selwyn College Choir will be touring in the Pacific North West this summer. They'll be performing in Seattle and Sequim in Washington state, and then crossing the border to Canada for appearances in Victoria and Vancouver. The dates can be found on the poster below. The College is planning events for Selwyn and Cambridge alumni around the Choir's performances, and there will be an additional reunion for Selwyn alumni in the San Francisco bay area on Tuesday 14 July. For more information, please contact the Development office on alumni-office@sel.cam.ac.uk - and there will be more details nearer the time on this website.

The Master of Selwyn, Roger Mosey, has been writing a weekly column for the New Statesman magazine about media coverage of
the general election campaign. They are now online:

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/04/paxman-and-other-traps-how-should-media-tackle-election

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/04/westminster-goes-local-interviews-outside-london-too-often-offer-politicians-soft

http://www.newstatesman.com/media/2015/04/playing-it-safe-election-coverage-has-failed-capture-depth-and-range-voters-feelings

http://www.newstatesman.com/2015/04/it-s-all-too-safe

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/05/broadcasters-must-be-more-robust-tackle-multiparty-britain

Selwyn College's 2015 Ramsay Murray lecture will be given by the award-winning BBC broadcaster Bridget Kendall. She will speak about President Putin and Russia, sharing her extensive experience of the country in recent decades.

 

 

 

 

Bridget Kendall was educated at Lady Margaret Hall and St Antony’s College, Oxford, and was a Harkness Fellow at Harvard. She is a former Moscow correspondent; and now, as BBC diplomatic correspondent, she returns to Russia frequently and was one of the main commentators on the Ukraine crisis which made global headlines in recent months.

 

 

The Ramsay Murray lecture is an annual event organised by Selwyn College following a bequest from the late Lt Col Ramsay Murray, a loyal alumnus of the College, who was resident at Selwyn during the 1930s. Since the series began in 1994 we have attracted distinguished speaker including Sir Michael Howard, Sir Keith Thomas, Roy Porter, Ian Clark, Lawrence Freedman, Onora O'Neill, Niall Ferguson, Ian Kershaw, David Cannadine, Jonathan Riley-Smith, Quentin Skinner, Ludmilla Jordanova, Richard Carwardine and Judith Herrin.

 

 

Ms Kendall's lecture will take place on Friday May 1st at 5.30pm in Room LG19, Faculty of Law, Sidgwick Site - which is just two minutes' walk from the College. There is a Facebook event page at https://www.facebook.com/events/1414049742246223/, and please note that seating will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. A video of the lecture will be available online after the event.

 

The College congratulates three of its alumni on recent prestigious appointments.

Dr Nicolas Bell, who matriculated at Selwyn in 1991, has been named as the new Librarian of Trinity
College Cambridge. He will take up the position on 1 October, succeeding Professor David
McKitterick. Dr Bell is currently Curator of Music Collections at the British Library.

The Reverend Canon Chris Chivers, who read theology and religious studies at Selwyn in the 1990s,
has been selected as Principal of Westcott House in Cambridge. Click on this link to read the
announcement: http://www.westcott.cam.ac.uk/chris-chivers-appointed-principal/

Dr Dmitri Levitin has been appointed a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford.
Dr Levitin took a BA in History (2007) and MPhil in Political Thought and Intellectual History
(2008) at Selwyn. You can read more about his work at

http://www.all-souls.ox.ac.uk/people.php?personid=2275

 

Selwyn is welcoming back students for the Easter term with its trees in blossom in a wonderful display across the College gardens. Our cover photograph shows the Prunus TaiHaku Cherry Trees outside Ann’s Court along the walk towards West Road, and the trees are at their best too outside the main entrance in Grange Road.

 

Exams lie ahead for many of of our students, but there will also be key College events in the coming weeks:

• 
  Friday May 1st sees Bridget Kendall, the BBC diplomatic correspondent, deliver the Ramsay Murray lecture about Vladimir Putin and the west. All are welcome, and details will follow soon.
  


• 
  On Saturday May 16th the College will be marking the life and career of Professor William Brock, who died last year at the age of 98.
  


• 
  Saturday June 6th is the Lyttelton dinner for our major benefactors.
  


• 
  Saturday June 20th marks the return of the Selwyn May Ball.
  


• 
  Friday June 26th sees the main degree ceremony and celebration for new graduates.
  


• 
  Friday July 3rd is our commemoration of benefactors at which we welcome back alumni and friends for a Chapel service and dinner.