Ak Student Junior Fellow of Christ Church, Oxford

Student Appointed Junior Fellow of Christ Church, Oxford

For Immediate Release
October 4 2004

EMILIA VICTRIX
Auckland Student Appointed Junior Fellow of Christ Church, Oxford University

New Zealand Rhodes Scholar (2001) from Auckland, Emily Baragwanath, has been appointed as a Junior Research Fellow of Christ Church, Oxford University.

Ms. Baragwanath, 27, who has been working on a Classics doctorate at Magdalen College for the past three years, commences her new position today, October 4, the start of the European academic New Year.

Ms. Baragwanath will continue her doctoral research on the narrative technique of the fifth-century Greek historian Herodotus under the supervision of Regius Professor of Greek Christopher Pelling, before turning her attention to a broader research project on mythology in the Greek historians.

She will also carry on her undergraduate teaching for several colleges.

‘This is an amazing opportunity for me,” says Ms. Baragwanath. “It will be exciting to work with such a tremendous group of classicists as those at Christ Church, and on a project I find so fascinating.”

Given her privileged new position as Junior Research Fellow, Ms. Baragwanath will be dining at the High Table in the 16th century “Harry Potter Hall” along with other senior members of the college.

The magnificent hall, where Oxford students still dine each night wearing their academic gowns, served as inspiration for filmmakers looking to re-create the Great Hall of Hogwarts of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books.

Ms. Baragwanath is a past student of The University of Auckland, Senior College, and Epsom Girls’ Grammar School.

About the Fellowship

The Christopher Tower Junior Research Fellowship in Greek Mythology is a three year tenure normally awarded to someone who is approaching the end of their doctoral research or who has begun post-doctoral study.

The Fellow’s proposed research may be into any aspect of ancient Greek mythology or in its reception (e.g. Literature, Ancient History, Archaeology, History of Art, Music, and Philosophy.)

About the College

Christ Church, the largest of the Oxford University colleges, owes much of its grandeur to its founder and former Magdalen member Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (who went on to become Master of Magdalen, and then chief advisor and chaplain to Henry VIII – who took over the Christ Church after Wolsey’s death in 1529).
About the Dining Hall

With its majestic hammer-beam ceiling and priceless collection of historic portraits, the dining hall is impressive in its own right, and there is plenty to see including a famous portrait of the college's royal founder, Henry VIII, and a stained-glass window etched with characters from Lewis Carroll's classic children's book, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland."

(A young math tutor named Charles Dodgson used that pen name to write the story in the 19th century. He invented it to entertain Alice Liddell and her siblings, the children of a Christ Church dean. The "rabbit hole," the Cheshire Cat's tree and the garden where Alice talked to flowers are all nearby, and visitors to the college can view these on a Harry Potter tour.)

ENDS

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