Wolfson College, Oxford
Wolfson College | |
---|---|
Oxford | |
Scarf colours: navy, with two equally-spaced stripes of red edged with yellow | |
Location | Linton Road, Oxford |
Coordinates | 51°46′16″N 1°15′19″W / 51.770977°N 1.255263°W |
Motto | Humani nil alienum (Homo sum, humani nil alienum a me puto)[1][2] |
Established | 1965 |
Named for | Sir Isaac Wolfson |
Previous names | Iffley College |
Sister college | Darwin College, Cambridge |
President | Sir Tim Hitchens |
Undergraduates | none (graduate-only college) |
Postgraduates | 788 (2021)[3] |
Website | wolfson |
Boat club | Wolfson College Boat Club |
Map | |
Wolfson College (/ˈwʊlfsən/) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Located in north Oxford along the River Cherwell, Wolfson is an all-graduate college with around sixty governing body fellows, in addition to both research and junior research fellows. It caters to a wide range of subjects, from the humanities to the social and natural sciences. Like the majority of Oxford's newer colleges, it has been coeducational since its foundation in 1965.
The liberal philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin was the college's first president, and was instrumental not only in its founding, but establishing its tradition of academic excellence and egalitarianism. The college houses The Isaiah Berlin Literary Trust and hosts an annual Isaiah Berlin Lecture. From 2017, the president of the college has been Sir Tim Hitchens.[4]
As of 2021, the college had a financial endowment of £60.3 million.[5] The college is registered as a charity.[6]
History
Wolfson's first president Sir
The college began its existence with the name
But Berlin's work as the president of the college was far from over. Formally taking over the reins of the college in 1967, he envisioned Wolfson to be a centre of academic excellence but, unlike many other colleges at Oxford, also bound it to a strong egalitarian and democratic ethos.[10] In Berlin's words, the college would be 'new, untrammelled and unpyramided'.[10]
If Berlin was the inspiration and beacon for this most modern of academic institutions, its birth and early shape would not have happened without the tireless backroom work of Berlin's vice-president,
Buildings and grounds
The main building of the college, designed by Powell and Moya Architects and completed in 1974, is one of the most modern main buildings of all Oxford colleges. It has three quadrangles: the central quadrangle named the Berlin Quad after Isaiah Berlin, the Tree Quad built around established trees, and the River Quad into which the River Cherwell has been diverted to form a punt harbour. The main building and footbridge across the river were grade II listed in June 2011.[11]
The college has student accommodation in the main college building, in three child-friendly courtyards surrounded by family housing, and also has similar accommodation in a scattering of purpose-built blocks, including the
Library
The college library, which occupies both floors of one wing of the college's main building, is open to members of the college. The main library is on the first floor, approachable from the side of the dining hall and the lodge, and two other collections, called the Floersheimer Room and the Hornik Memorial Room are on the ground floor. A mezzanine floor in the main library has books as well as carrels for individual use by graduate students of the college. The library has an extensive collection of books and journals.[14]
Common room and hall
The college has one common room for fellows and graduate students. The common room has two floors: the upper common room, with an attached terrace overlooking the punting harbour, which has a bar and a coffee counter, and the lower common room, which has magazines and newspapers. The college's hall is one of the few in the university to have a common table. The 'Haldane Room', a hall adjacent to the dining hall proper, is where formal meals, especially the convocation lunch, are held.[15]
Gardens
The college owns grounds on both sides of the river, including two meadows on the opposite side, towards
Sports and punting harbour
The college has its own
Academic profile
Wolfson had approximately 800 graduate students, many of whom were
Wolfson is home to a number of research clusters:[20]
- Ancient World Research Cluster (AWRC)
- Wolfson College Digital Research Cluster
- The Oxford Centre for Life Writing (OCLW)
- Law in Societies
- South Asia Research Cluster (SARC)
- Earth Emergency Research Cluster
- Tibetan and Himalayan Studies Centre
- Quantum Foundations Research Cluster
- The Quantum Hub
It has also been home to the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, which has now moved to an independent location in Oxford.[21] The Foundation for Law, Justice and Society, which is affiliated with the college and the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, was based there between 2005 and 2021.[22]
Notable people associated with Wolfson College
Wolfson is associated with a number of prominent individuals. These include former students, Fellows of the college and past presidents including two Nobel Prize winners. As Wolfson is a graduate-only college, most students will have been associated with another college or institution, before coming to study at Wolfson College for a Masters or DPhil degree.[19]
Notable alumni
-
Richard Salisbury Ellis
In the sciences, alumni of the college include the human geneticist Dame
In law and public policy, alumni include Chief Medical Adviser to the UK Government Chris Whitty, former Minister of External Relations of Brazil and Supreme Court Justice Francisco Rezek, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Ahmad Khan. Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, the youngest serving Prime Minister of Iceland, studied at the College.
Presidents
Fellows
Notable current and former fellows of the college include:
Jiyuan Yu, a moral philosopher noted for his work on virtue ethics.
William Bradshaw, Baron Bradshaw, Member of the House of Lords.
Anthony Epstein, discoverer of the Epstein–Barr virus.
Denis Mack Smith, historian at Oxford.
Dorothy Hodgkin, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
See also
References
- ^ (A quote from the Roman playwright Terence: I am a human being and I consider nothing that concerns human beings alien to me)
- ^ The original wording is a little different: Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto. Ricord, Frederick W. (1885). The Self-Tormentor (Heautontimorumenos) from the Latin of Publius Terentius Afer with More English Songs from Foreign Tongues. New York: Charles Scribner's. p. 25. Retrieved 22 January 2018 – via Internet Archive..
- ^ "Student numbers | University of Oxford". www.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
- ^ "President=elect". Wolfson College, Oxford. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
- ^ a b "Wolfson College: Annual Report and Financial Statements, Year ended 31 July 2021" (PDF). UK: Charity Commission for England and Wales. p. 23. Retrieved 7 November 2022.
- ^ "Wolfson College in the University of Oxford – Charity number: 1141446". UK: Charity Commission for England and Wales. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
- ^ Hardy, Henry; Hiruta, Kei; Holmes, Jennifer, eds. (6 June 2009). Isaiah Berlin & Wolfson College. Wolfson College, Oxford.
- ^ Berlin, Isaiah (1972). "Notes on the Foundation of Wolfson College". Lycidas. 1.
- ^ Penney, John; Tomlin, Roger, eds. (2016). Wolfson College, Oxford: The First Fifty Years. Wolfson College, Oxford.
- ^ ISBN 0-7011-6325-9.
- ^ Historic England. "Wolfson College (1402277)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
- ^ Ffrench, Andrew (23 October 2014). "New Bishop of Oxford will live outside city as current £10m house deemed too expensive". Oxford Mail.
- ^ Lane, Thomas (19 August 2021). "Wolfson College, Oxford: first-class graduates in energy efficiency". Building. UK.
- ^ "Library". Wolfson College, Oxford. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
- ^ "Venues – Hall and Haldane Room". Wolfson College, Oxford. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
- ^ McDonald, Alison W. (1992). A history of ecology of North and South Meads. Wolfson College, Oxford.
- ^ "Gardens". Wolfson College, Oxford. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
- ^ "Punting and Canoeing at Wolfson". Wolfson College, Oxford. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
- ^ a b "Graduate Study". Wolfson College, Oxford. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
- ^ "Research Clusters". Wolfson College, Oxford. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
- ^ "Centre for Socio-Legal Studies". UK: Faculty of Law, University of Oxford. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
- ^ "Foundation for Law, Justice and Society: About Us". Fljs.org. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
Bibliography
- Hardy, Henry; Hiruta, Kei; Holmes, Jennifer, eds. (6 June 2009). Isaiah Berlin & Wolfson College. Wolfson College, Oxford.
- McDonald, Alison W. (1992). A history of ecology of North and South Meads. Wolfson College, Oxford.
- Penney, John; Tomlin, Roger, eds. (2016). Wolfson College, Oxford: The First Fifty Years. Wolfson College, Oxford.