Reports
The Master
The Master
Tom Allen talks about community,
crowdfunding and changes
2017-18 proved to be another successful year in the
College, with over 350 freshers and 100 new postgrad-
uate students arriving at Grey. Special thanks go to
all the College staff for making Induction Week work
as well as it did. Thanks are also due to Ruairi Brogan,
who led the 2017 team of Freshers Reps, and to Emily
Thomas and Steve Tatlow for taking over the student
welfare team. Our postgrads Marcus Lancashire, Mat-
thew Kirk, Hannah Piercy, Abi Finch and Sarah Gray
deserve mention for finding time during their studies
to welcome the new postgrads. David Slade has done
an excellent job as our sabbatical JCR President this
year, as did Ben Firth as the FACSO (Finance and Com-
mercial Services Officer).
Congratulations are also due to Nabeel Aziz, Prin-
cess Banda, Pauline Eichaker, Freya Field, Roxanne Hall,
Glen Hay, Leo Harris, Madeline Horton, Lydia Morel,
Florence Ryan, Lucien Rhys, Charis Tay-Si-En, Leia Tilley
and Zoe Titmus who received the Durham Award. The
Award is given by the University to students in recog-
nition of the work in developing skills and experience
outside the taught curriculum.
Visiting fellows - Grey also supported the Universi-
ty's research by welcoming several visiting fellows to
Grey in Michaelmas. As reported last year, the Library
opened a visiting fellowship programme for scholars
intending to use the Sudan Archive and Collection. The
fellowship enables visiting scholars to stay in Durham
and enjoy extended periods of research in the Archive.
This year, Grey hosted Neval Milanlioglu, from Marma-
ra University, Turkey, who is researching the period of
Ottoman rule over Sudan. Abdel Karim Altahir, from
the University of Khartoum, has also joined Grey as a
Sudan Archive Visiting Fellow; his research concen-
trates on competition between the British and French
over Darfur during the colonial era.
From next year, Grey College will also be involved in
supporting scholars visiting Durham to do research
on the Abbas Hilmi II collection. Abbas Hilmi II was
deposed by the British in 1914, when Egypt was still
nominally a province of the Ottoman Empire. In 1980,
the family deposited the papers of Abbas Hilmi II with
Durham, and the collection still accrues material from
the family's holding trust, the Mohamed Ali Founda-
tion. Prince Abbas Hilmi, the grandson of Abbas Hilmi
II, and the other trustees of the Foundation are donat-
ing £114,000 to fund a 9-year fellowship programme
based at IMEIS (SGIA), with residencies at Grey College
for the Epiphany term each year. It is hoped that this
will also foster deeper understanding of an important
period of Egyptian history, and of a transformative era
in East-West relations.
Grey also welcomed Professor Joel Kaminsky and his
wife Jodi back to the College. Joel is the Morningstar
Professor of Jewish Studies and Professor of Religion
at Smith College, Massachusetts, where he specialises
in the similarities and differences in the ways that Jews
and Christians have interpreted the Hebrew Bible. At
Durham, he continued his work with colleagues in the
Theology department. Professor Boris Malomed, of Tel
Aviv University, was in Grey during his fellowship with
the Institute of Advanced Studies, where he contrib-
uted to its 2017/18 programme on 'Structure'. His
primary area of interest is soliton waves. Boris gave
a well-attended public lecture on "Multidimensional
Solitons" in Holgate House on February 1st.
Fountains Hall - It has been a long journey but the
work on Fountains Hall was finally completed and the
building was back to the College in Easter term, see
the article on page 10. The College is especially grate-
ful to the late Lionel Blue, Henry Dyson, Ann Rachlin,
Ian Kerr, Bill Best, the Grey College Trust and the Grey
Association for the financial support for the project.
New Scholarships - The College received generous
donations from our alumni, Robert Fairbairn and Wil-
liam Russell, to enable us to offer a set of scholarships
to incoming undergraduates from 2018. These will add
to our existing entry scholarships (the Gethin Scholar-
ship and the Wilson Scholarship). These scholarships
share a common theme in seeking to support students
whose financial situation might prevent them from
taking part in student life in the College and wider
University. These make an enormous difference to our
students and the support of our alumni and donors is
greatly appreciated.
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