St Hilda's College, Oxford
Encyclopedia
Colleges of the University of Oxford
The University of Oxford comprises 38 Colleges and 6 Permanent Private Halls of religious foundation. Colleges and PPHs are autonomous self-governing corporations within the university, and all teaching staff and students studying for a degree of the university must belong to one of the colleges...
of the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
The college was founded in 1893 as a hall for women, and remained an all-women's college until 2006.
The college is located in Cowley Place, and is the most easterly of all the university's colleges. It consists of six major buildings containing student accommodation and teaching areas: Hall, South, Milham Ford, Wolfson, Garden, and the Christina Barratt Building (opened in 2001). The Jacqueline Du Pré
Jacqueline du Pré
Jacqueline Mary du Pré OBE was a British cellist. She is particularly associated with Elgar's Cello Concerto in E Minor; her interpretation has been described as "definitive" and "legendary." Her career was cut short by multiple sclerosis, which forced her to stop performing at 28 and led to her...
Music Building is a concert venue named after the famous cellist who was an honorary fellow of the college. The college also owns a number of properties on Iffley Road
Iffley Road
Iffley Road is a major arterial road in Oxford, England. It leads from The Plain, near Magdalen Bridge, south-east towards the village of Iffley. While it becomes Henley Avenue at Iffley Turn, and then Rose Hill, many people will refer to the whole stretch from the ring road to The Plain as Iffley...
, and in the Cowley area.
The college is situated alongside the River Cherwell
River Cherwell
The River Cherwell is a river which flows through the Midlands of England. It is a major tributary of the River Thames.The general course of the River Cherwell is north to south and the 'straight-line' distance from its source to the Thames is about...
, with many college rooms overlooking the river itself. One benefit of this location is that the college has its own fleet of punts
Punt (boat)
A punt is a flat-bottomed boat with a square-cut bow, designed for use in small rivers or other shallow water. Punting refers to boating in a punt. The punter generally propels the punt by pushing against the river bed with a pole...
, which students of the college may hire for free in summer months. Unfortunately, this location has at times led to problems with flooding in Milham Ford building.
The current Principal is Sheila Forbes
Sheila Forbes
Sheila Forbes, CBE , is a British educator, consultant and manager. She became Principal of St Hilda%27s College%2C Oxford in August 2007....
, CBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, a graduate of the college. She took up the post in 2007.
As of 2006, the college had an estimated financial endowment
Financial endowment
A financial endowment is a transfer of money or property donated to an institution. The total value of an institution's investments is often referred to as the institution's endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust....
of £39 million.
The college is named after the important Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
Saint, Hilda of Whitby
Hilda of Whitby
Hilda of Whitby or Hild of Whitby was a Christian saint and the founding abbess of the monastery at Whitby, which was chosen as the venue for the Synod of Whitby...
.
History
Founded in 1893, St Hilda's College was originally an Oxford Hall for women. It was founded by Dorothea BealeDorothea Beale
Dorothea Beale LLD was a suffragist, educational reformer, author and Principal of the Cheltenham Ladies' College.Born in Bishopsgate, England, she was the founder of St Hilda's College, Oxford....
, who was also a headmistress at Cheltenham Ladies' College
Cheltenham Ladies' College
The Cheltenham Ladies' College is an independent boarding and day school for girls aged 11 to 18 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England.-History:The school was founded in 1853...
as a women's college, a status it retained until 2008. While the other Oxford colleges gradually becamme co-educational, no serious debate at St Hilda's occurred until 1997, according to a former vice-principal, and then the debate solely applied to the issue of staff appointments. After a vote on 7 June 2006 by the Governing Body, men and women can be admitted as fellows and students. The first male undergraduate and graduate students commenced their studies in October 2008.
The Jacqueline Du Pré Music Building
The Jacqueline Du Pré Music Building (JdP) is a part of St Hilda's College. Named after British cellist Jacqueline Du PréJacqueline du Pré
Jacqueline Mary du Pré OBE was a British cellist. She is particularly associated with Elgar's Cello Concerto in E Minor; her interpretation has been described as "definitive" and "legendary." Her career was cut short by multiple sclerosis, which forced her to stop performing at 28 and led to her...
, an honorary fellow of the College, the JdP was the first purpose-built concert hall to be built in Oxford since the Holywell Music Room
Holywell Music Room
The Holywell Music Room is the city of Oxford's chamber music hall, situated in Holywell Street in the city centre, attached to Wadham College. It is said to be the oldest, purpose built music room in Europe, and hence England's first concert hall....
in 1742. Built in 1995, it houses the Steinway
Steinway & Sons
Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway , is an American and German manufacturer of handmade pianos, founded 1853 in Manhattan in New York City by German immigrant Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg...
-equipped Edward Boyle Auditorium and a number of music practice rooms. In addition to frequent recitals presented by the St Hilda's Music Society, the JdP also hosts concerts by a number of world renowned performers. Musicians who have performered in the JdP in recent years include Steven Isserlis
Steven Isserlis
Steven Isserlis CBE is a British cellist. He is distinguished for his diverse repertoire, distinctive sound and total command of phrasing. He studied at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and was much influenced by the great iconoclast of Russian cello playing, Daniil Shafran...
, the Jerusalem Quartet, the Chilingirian Quartet and the Belcea Quartet
Belcea Quartet
The Belcea Quartet is a string quartet, formed in 1994, under the leadership of violinist Corina Belcea.-History:The quartet was formed while its members were studying at the Royal College of Music in London. Whilst there, they were coached by the Chilingirian Quartet...
.
Documentary
- St Hilda's students were the subject of the Channel 4Channel 4Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
documentary series College GirlsCollege GirlsCollege Girls is a Channel 4 documentary series, first transmitted in the UK from 8 September 2002. The documentary followed the lives of six students who studied at St Hilda's College, Oxford, the last remaining single-sex college at the University of Oxford, between 1998 and...
, broadcast in 2002.
Notable alumnae
- Zeinab BadawiZeinab BadawiZeinab Badawi is a Sudanese-British television and radio journalist. She was the first presenter of the ITV Morning News , and co-presented Channel 4 News with Jon Snow , before joining BBC News. Badawi is currently the presenter of World News Today broadcast on both BBC Four and BBC World News...
, BBC journalist - Susan BlackmoreSusan BlackmoreSusan Jane Blackmore is an English freelance writer, lecturer, and broadcaster on psychology and the paranormal, perhaps best known for her book The Meme Machine.-Career:...
parapsychologist, writer and broadcaster - Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, royalty
- D. K. BrosterD. K. BrosterDorothy Kathleen Broster , usually known as D.K. Broster was a British novelist and short-story writer, born in Garston, Liverpool at Devon Lodge , which lies in Grassendale Park on the banks of the River Mersey. Educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College and St...
, historical novelist - Mikita BrottmanMikita BrottmanMikita Brottman is a British scholar, psychoanalyst, author and cultural critic known for her psychological readings of the dark and pathological elements of contemporary culture...
, author, psychoanalyst - Susanna ClarkeSusanna ClarkeSusanna Mary Clarke is a British author best known for her debut novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell , a Hugo Award-winning alternate history. Clarke began Jonathan Strange in 1993 and worked on it during her spare time...
, author - Wendy CopeWendy CopeWendy Cope, OBE is an award-winning contemporary English poet. She read history at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She now lives in Ely with the poet Lachlan Mackinnon.-Biography:...
, poet - Miriam Defensor Santiago, PhilippinePhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
senator, Ramon Magsaysay AwardeeRamon Magsaysay AwardThe Ramon Magsaysay Award is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay's example of integrity in government, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society. The Ramon Magsaysay Award is often considered Asia's Nobel... - Barbara EverettBarbara EverettBarbara Everett is a British academic and literary critic.A graduate of St Hilda's College, Oxford, Professor Everett is a retired Fellow of Somerville College.-Bibliography:*Auden *Donne: A London Poet , ISBN 0-19-725685-6...
, academic - Helen Gardner, critic
- Adele GerasAdèle GerasAdèle Geras Adèle Geras Adèle Geras (born 1944, Jerusalem, is an English writer for young children, teens and adults. She has written more than 74 books, that have either been published or are in waiting...
, writer - Susan GreenfieldSusan GreenfieldSusan Adele Greenfield, Baroness Greenfield, CBE is a British scientist, writer, broadcaster, and member of the House of Lords. Greenfield, whose specialty is the physiology of the brain, has worked to research and bring attention to Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.Greenfield is...
, Baroness Greenfield, academic - Catherine HeathCatherine HeathCatherine Heath was a British novelist.Born Catherine Hirsch in Hendon, Middlesex, the daughter of Dutch immigrants, she was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford, where she studied English under Helen Gardner. In 1948, she married Denis Heath; they were divorced in 1980...
, novelist - Meg HillierMeg HillierMargaret Olivia Hillier is a British Labour Co-operative politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Hackney South and Shoreditch since 2005, and was a junior Minister in HM Government from 2007 to 2010...
, politician - Bettany HughesBettany HughesBettany Hughes is an English academic historian, author and broadcaster.Hughes' father is the actor Peter Hughes and her brother is the cricketer and journalist Simon Hughes...
, historian - Jenny JosephJenny Joseph-Life and career:She was born in Birmingham, and with a scholarship, studied English literature at St Hilda's College, Oxford .Her poems were first published when she was at university in the early 1950s...
, poet - Hermione LeeHermione LeeHermione Lee, CBE is President of Wolfson College, Oxford and was lately Goldsmiths' Professor of English Literature in the University of Oxford and Professorial Fellow of New College. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Society of Literature.-Biography:Hermione Lee grew up in...
, critic and biographer - Elizabeth LevettA. E. LevettAda Elizabeth Levett , known professionally as A. E. Levett, was an Oxford-educated native of Bodiam, Sussex, who became a pioneering woman economic historian specializing in medieval feudalism. Levett was Vice Principal of St...
, historian - Margaret MacMillanMargaret MacMillanMargaret Olwen MacMillan, OC is a historian and professor at the University of Oxford, where she is Warden of St. Antony's College. She is former provost of Trinity College and professor of history at the University of Toronto and previously, at Ryerson University...
, historian and Warden of St Antony's CollegeSt Antony's College, OxfordSt Antony's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England.St Antony's is the most international of the seven all-graduate colleges of the University of Oxford, specialising in international relations, economics, politics, and history of particular parts of the... - Val McDermidVal McDermidVal McDermid is a Scottish crime writer, best known for a series of suspense novels starring her most famous creation, Dr. Tony Hill.-Biography:...
, novelist - Rosalind MilesRosalind MilesRosalind Miles is an author born and raised in England and now living in Kent, England. She has written 23 works of fiction and non-fiction. As a child, Miles suffered from polio, and had to undergo several months of treatment. At high school Miles acquired a working knowledge of Latin and Greek,...
, writer - Kate MillettKate MillettKate Millett is an American lesbian feminist writer and activist. A seminal influence on second-wave feminism, Millet is best known for her 1970 book Sexual Politics.-Career:...
, feminist author - Elizabeth Neville, police officer
- Katherine ParkinsonKatherine ParkinsonLaura Katherine Parkinson is an English actress and comedian who is known for playing the part of Jen Barber in the Channel 4 comedy series The IT Crowd...
, actress - Barbara PymBarbara PymBarbara Mary Crampton Pym was an English novelist. In 1977 her career was revived when two prominent writers, Lord David Cecil and Philip Larkin, nominated her as the most underrated writer of the century...
, novelist - Betty RadiceBetty RadiceBetty Radice was joint editor of Penguin Classics and vice-president of the Classical Association.-Biography:...
, translator and editor - Gillian RoseGillian RoseGillian Rose was a British scholar who worked in the fields of philosophy and sociology. Notable facets of this social philosopher's work include criticism of neo-Kantianism and post-modernism, along with what has been described as "a forceful defense of Hegel's speculative thought."-Life and...
, philosopher - Jacqueline RoseJacqueline RoseJacqueline Rose is a British academic who is currently Professor of English at Queen Mary, University of London.-Life and work:...
, academic and writer - Sheila RowbothamSheila RowbothamSheila Rowbotham is a British socialist feminist theorist and writer.-Early life:Rowbotham was born in Leeds, the daughter of a salesman for an engineering company and an office clerk From an early age, she was deeply interested in history...
- Gillian ShephardGillian ShephardGillian Patricia Shephard, Baroness Shephard of Northwold, PC , née Watts, is an English Conservative politician; she was the Member of Parliament for South West Norfolk, and a former Cabinet Minister and is now Chairman of the Association of Conservative Peers.-Early life and career:The daughter...
, Baroness Shephard of Northwold, politician - Ann ThwaiteAnn ThwaiteAnn Thwaite has written five major biographies. "AA Milne: His Life" was the Whitbread Biography of the Year, 1990. "Edmund Gosse: A Literary Landscape" was described by John Carey as "magnificent - one of the finest literary biographies of our time"...
, biographer - Tsuda UmekoTsuda Umekowas an Japanese educator, feminist and pioneer in education for women in Meiji period Japan. Originally named , with mume or ume referring to the Japanese plum, she went by the name Ume Tsuda while studying in the United States before changing her name to Umeko in 1902.- Early life :Tsuda Umeko...
, educator - Cecil Woodham-SmithCecil Woodham-SmithCecil Blanche Woodham-Smith was a British historian and biographer. She wrote four popular history books, each dealing with a different aspect of the Victorian era.-Early life:...
, historian
- See also Alumni of St Hilda's College.
Academics/teachers
- Heather BellHeather BellDr Heather Bell was formerly the Director of International Strategy at the University of Oxford and was a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford.Dr Bell was brought up in Canada, and studied at Harvard University graduating summa cum laude in History and Science at the age of 20.She was a Commonwealth...
- Mary BennettMary BennettMary Letitia Somerville Bennett was a British academic, best known for her tenure as Principal of St Hilda's College, Oxford between 1965 and 1980....
- Helen Gardner
- Elspeth KennedyElspeth KennedyElspeth Mary Kennedy, MA, DPhil, FSA was a British academic and a prominent medievalist.-Early life and education:...
- Barbara LevickBarbara LevickBarbara M. Levick is a British historian, specializing in ancient history. She was educated at St Hugh's College, Oxford, and, since 1959, has been a Fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford...
- Beryl SmalleyBeryl SmalleyBeryl Smalley was a British historian, best known for her work, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages, originally published around 1940, but revised many times....
- Helen WaddellHelen WaddellHelen Jane Waddell was an Irish poet, translator and playwright.-Biography:She was born in Tokyo, the tenth and youngest child of Hugh Waddell, a Presbyterian minister and missionary who was lecturing in the Imperial University. She spent the first eleven years of her life in Japan before her...
- Kathy WilkesKathy WilkesKathleen Vaughan Wilkes was an English philosopher and academic who played an important part in rebuilding the education systems of former Communist countries after 1990. She established her reputation as an academic with her contributions to the philosophy of mind in two major works and many...
External links
- St Hilda's College (official website)
- Junior Common Room (undergraduates)
- Middle Common Room (graduates)
- The Jacqueline du Pré Music Building