St Edmund Hall Blog
The St Edmund Hall blog brings you the latest thought in academic research and interesting artefacts from our archive and library.
Please note that any opinions or views expressed by blog contributors are not shared or held by St Edmund Hall.
Filter Blog Posts
![Life of Nuns cover A book cover showing a group of nuns standing in front of a building, with the title The Life of Nuns: Love, Politics, and Religion in Medieval German Convents](/asset/Life-of-Nuns-cover-768x1154.jpg)
Voices from the past: The surprising stories told by medieval German nuns
20 Jun 2024
The newly published book by Hall Fellow Professor Henrike Lähnemann explores the life of medieval German nuns, told through their diaries, letters and artworks. It opens up for the first time the rich surviving heritage of…
![1. DMH_10_3_3_1R Letter from John Mill to Thomas Smith (Cumbria Record Office DMH_10_3_3_1r)](/asset/1.-DMH_10_3_3_1R-768x498.jpg)
“I have receiv’d by the hands of mr Fleming”: Thomas Smith, the Fleming Family and St Edmund Hall
22 May 2024
Librarian James Howarth continues the story of a recently discovered 17th-century letter sent by Principal John Mill to the Bishop of Carlisle. Here he turns his attention to its connection to the early career of one of the Hal…
![7. Frontage Library and Chapel frontage include false windows at north end](/asset/7.-Frontage-768x543.jpg)
“A Library is a thing that will universally please”: The donations of Thomas Smith, Bishop of Carlisle and the earliest image of the Old Library
28 Feb 2024
![522px-TheMeltingpot1 Cover of Theater Programme for Israel Zangwill's play](/asset/522px-TheMeltingpot1.jpg)
Melting Pots, Salad Bowls and Kaleidoscopes: Unpacking Metaphors for Multiculturalism
20 Feb 2024
![The team watch the sunset over the dunes The team watch the sunset over the dunes.](/asset/The-team-watch-the-sunset-over-the-dunes.jpg)
![Greenridge from SEH J T W Greenidge](/asset/Greenridge-from-SEH.jpg)
Officers and Gentlemen? An Aularian ‘actor’ & architect, Evelyn Waugh and the Bride of Frankenstein
22 Jan 2024
![display case Library display case](/asset/display-case-768x576.jpg)
Celebrating Marriage
1 Aug 2023
Staff members at Teddy Hall are celebrating multiple weddings in 2023! An Old Library Exhibition was created to mark the occasion.
![Illustration of Le Secretaire des dames Detail of frontispiece illustration of 'Le Secretaire des Dames', Paris, Desnos c.1772 (Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal)](/asset/Illustration-of-Le-Secretaire-des-dames.jpg)
A Soldier’s Bivouac, Incense for Marguerite, and Gambling Debts. Eighteenth-Century Fugitive Poetry and Everyday Note-Taking
16 Jun 2023
Eighteenth-century ‘poésie fugitive’ was produced, published, used, and reused in a wide variety of ways; a series of almanacs bound with a notebook shows its proximity to everyday life.
![Ruggero Sciutio blog Book Determinim and englithenment Determinisma nd englitenment by ruggero Scito](/asset/Ruggero-Sciutio-blog-Book-Determinim-and-englithenment.jpg)
Determinism and Enlightenment: the collaboration of Diderot and d’Holbach
24 May 2023
Ruggero Sciuto’s Determinism and Enlightenment: the collaboration of Diderot and d’Holbach is the April volume in the Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series.
![St Edward's Crown St Edward's Crown](/asset/St-Edwards-Crown-768x1023.jpg)
“Ye sight was very splendid & great”: Teddy Hall witnesses and celebrations of Coronations past
2 May 2023
As the Coronation of Charles III on 6 May 2023 approaches, Librarian James Howarth investigates connections between Aularians and the Coronations of the last 350 years.
![A picture of a utility-based crystalline silicon solar panel array (Credits - www.pixabay.com) A picture of a utility-based crystalline silicon solar panel array](/asset/A-picture-of-a-utility-based-crystalline-silicon-solar-panel-array-Credits-www.pixabay.com_-768x505.jpg)
The Inevitable Energy Transition
10 Mar 2023
Our current insatiable appetite for energy has had direct ramifications on geopolitical tensions and triggered current and future climate disasters. It is only a question of time until we move towards sustainable and renewable…
![The Evolution of the universe The evolution of the universe, if we could see it from the outside](/asset/The-Evolution-of-the-universe.jpg)
How to find holes in the universe
28 Feb 2023
We cannot study the shape of the universe by looking at it from the outside. Many other mathematical settings also show this lack of an outside view. Geometry and Topology allow us to get our head around shape from an entirely…
![View of the Aro Valley 1945 VIEW OF THE ARCO VALLEY IN THE TYROL, 1495 BY ALBRECHT DURER (1471-1528, ITALY)](/asset/View-of-the-Aro-Valley-1945-768x768.jpg)
Crossing the Alps in the Renaissance: German immigrants in northern Italy
21 Feb 2023
During times of war, religious tension, and political strife, people and goods still made their way across the Alps into northern Italy. Connections traversed geographical and social boundaries as people from all walks of life…
![1. Ledger book list List of books “Bought out of mr Churchill’s Study” (New Ledger Book, p.342)](/asset/1.-Ledger-book-list-768x1024.jpg)
‘Bought out of Mr Churchill’s study’: John Mill, the Old Library and the Churchill Family
14 Feb 2023
What a list of books in the Hall’s oldest record reveals about the construction of the Old Library collection, the beginnings of postgraduate study and a Principal’s attempts to ingratiate himself with an aristocr…
![1 International day of women and girls in science 2023](/asset/1-1-768x768.jpg)
Celebrating International Day of Women and Girls in Science through the Library
10 Feb 2023
This International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the Library is exploring our collections to celebrate some of the women who have led the way through the male-dominated field of climate science.
![where there is a will Image: Benefactors’ Book: initial letter for the entry recording John Rawlinson’s bequest to the Hall](/asset/where-there-is-a-will.jpg)
Where there’s a will….
28 Oct 2022
How a bequest by Principal Rawlinson in his will of 1631 still pays out today
![Nepal2small](/asset/Nepal2small.jpg)
Making and receiving impact in Nepal
28 Oct 2022
When I considered projects in my application for the Matt Greenwood Travel Scholarship, I worried I might not fully embrace Matt’s gifts of adventure, courage, and concern for others.
![KCH Poster Poem, Story & Scape in the Work of Kevin Crossley-Holland’](/asset/KCH-Poster-768x1086.jpg)
“He was my bridge to Oxford and beyond”: Kevin Crossley-Holland and Bruce Mitchell
24 Oct 2022
Aularian Kevin Crossley Holland is a poet, translator and re-teller of medieval poetry, romance, and folklore for all ages. However, his relationship with Old English got off to a rocky start until a sympathetic tutor and an ag…
![Habiti_d'huomeni_et_donne_venetiane_[...]Franco_Giacomo_btv1b8447141m_10 Habiti d'huomeni et donne venetiane, con la processione della Serma Signoria et altri particolari, cioè trionfi, feste et cerimonie publiche della nobilissima città di Venetia.](/asset/Habiti_dhuomeni_et_donne_venetiane_...Franco_Giacomo_btv1b8447141m_10-768x1237.jpg)
Papering over protest in sixteenth-century Venice
15 Jun 2022
Historians work on sources, but what can the absence of sources tell us?
![Snowdrops Snowdrops outside of the St Edmund Hall Library.](/asset/Snowdrops-768x768.jpg)
![rhys Rhys Thomas](/asset/rhys-768x783.jpg)
![pic4_habitalbe_planets_NASA_credit An artist's concept of how other habitable rocky planets in the universe might appear](/asset/pic4_habitalbe_planets_NASA_credit-768x614.jpg)
What has Earth’s Magnetic Field Ever Done for Us?
16 Feb 2022
Is a magnetic field an essential criterion on the planet habitability list?
![Introduction image for International Day of Women and Girls in Science Teddy Hall Library celebrates International Day of Women and Girls in Science](/asset/Introduction-image-768x768.jpg)
Celebrating International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2022
9 Feb 2022
Using the Library to celebrate and showcase St Edmund Hall’s own Women in Science.
![Rewiring the brain vosual](/asset/Rewiring-the-brain-vosual-768x432.jpg)
![What is the most popular Xmas song What is the most popular Christmas song of all time?](/asset/What-is-the-most-popular-Xmas-song.jpg)
![Alexandra Troubetzkoy Front Quad in the snow Alexandra Troubetzkoy (1910-1994) Front Quad in Snow (1966)](/asset/Alexandra-Troubetzkoy-Front-Quad-in-the-snow.jpg)
![Poll for a member](/asset/Poll-for-a-member-768x974.jpg)
![Dr Lee of Lambeth Dr Lee of Lambeth](/asset/Dr-Lee-of-Lambeth.jpg)
Teddy Hall’s self-proclaimed Bishop of Dorchester
13 Oct 2021
A recent arrival in the Hall Archives is a scrapbook on the life of Dr Frederick George Lee, Aularian and Victorian “character”. He was a clergyman, an antiquarian, a Jacobite and the founder of the Order for Corp…
![Munday and balloon Team in Northwest Kenya in April 2021](/asset/Munday-and-balloon-768x512.jpg)
Uncovering invisible rivers in Kenya
21 Jul 2021
Some of the largest rivers on Earth are in the sky. Around the world, great streams of water vapour flow a few hundred metres above the ground while remaining invisible to people living below. These rivers play a fundamental ro…
![Pay your tax now](/asset/Pay-your-tax-now.jpg)
Is it Unjust for Multinational Corporations to Pay Taxes to Corrupt Regimes?
22 Jun 2021
In this short blogpost, I consider the issue of tax and corruption in the international tax arena.