Elections by Congregation: Council (Humanities and Social Sciences constituency) - TT 2024

Candidate Statement:

As Professor of Early Modern Literature and Culture at the English Faculty and Tutorial Fellow at Exeter, my research and teaching focus on sixteenth and seventeenth century England. However, my interests range across languages (European and non-European) and disciplines (from humanities computing to education). I have gained governance experience both within universities and the wider sector, through the AHRC, UKRI, Research England Council, REF panels, and the UK Committee for Research Integrity. As a female South-Asian scholar, I advocate for meaningful diversity and equality policies, while as an active researcher, I bring a keen awareness of the unintended consequences and bureaucracy that even well-intentioned policies can generate. The stakes, however, are getting higher. It would be something of a commonplace usually to note that Oxford faces multiple future challenges, but the truth is that very rarely have such challenges been compounded in quite the same way by developments outside our control. Ongoing issues around pay, pensions, and precarity have to be negotiated in a volatile landscape, marked by war, intolerance, and catastrophic dangers like climate change and uncontrolled implementation of AI. Within that landscape, the voice of the university – and of the arts and humanities within it – is crucial, yet subject to intensifying scrutiny. I am committed to ensuring that the Council, accountable to the Congregation, remains cognisant of its role in this environment, not simply as the university's governing body, but as the body through which Oxford maintains the vision, and practice, of education and research that defines it.

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Candidate Statement:

From being the president of student representatives in Belgium, to my graduate years in Berkeley, and then being a member of college and faculty committees in Cambridge and Oxford, I have always been involved in the governance of universities and dedicated to their fair and democratic working. I have never been afraid to ask tough questions, especially when I was on Council as Junior Proctor. In my departing oration, just before lockdown, I remarked: “The main challenge here is: does our University have the means of its ambitions while also being able to address its core needs? And therefore what should our core priorities really be? Indeed, in building possible future narratives, we should have the courage, flexibility and humility to change course if things do not go according to plan.” This continues to be true and as a member of the council chaired by Irene Tracey, I look forward to help elaborate strategies for the present and future of our University in what continues to be a challenging environment (e.g. investment in research and teaching, welfare, pensions, career progression, affordability to live, work and study in Oxford). I firmly believe in the importance of there being strong and well-informed voices on Council and for decisions to be made and communicated in a transparent way in order for all people to feel empowered in our vibrant and increasingly diverse University community.

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Candidate Statement:

It is an honour to stand for re-election to Council as one of the four members elected by the faculties in the Divisions of Humanities and Social Sciences.  In the last four years, I have enjoyed the opportunity to contribute to important debates, helping shape policy in many areas from the Finance White Paper to our agenda on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI).  As member of Council, I have always tried to bring the views from my academic colleagues to the table, while aiming to strengthen the university simultaneously.

The next four years will be both challenging and exciting.  The Pay & Conditions review creates a unique opportunity to change our reward culture, improve labour conditions and make us internationally competitive.  At the same time, the University sector is facing a complex financial outlook, and we will need to have difficult conversations about our priorities. I also look forward to supporting our EDI agenda and hope to build on my experience collaborating with partners in the global South to strengthen the University´s internationalization efforts.

I bring significant experience to the job.  In addition to member of Council and PRAC, I have been Director of the Latin American Centre, Head of the Oxford Department of International Development and member of various divisional boards.  I am convinced that social sciences have a key role to play at all levels of the university and, at the same time, that the four divisions should collaborate to make the University an even more exciting place.

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