Support Staff

Damian Clements is the Somerville College accountant. He joined Somerville in January 2024 after working at All Souls College, Oxford, and supporting a comprehensive transformation of the 18^thCentury stately home Harewood House in Yorkshire.

Damian first trained as an accountant with Deloitte in Jersey after reading PPE at Trinity College, Oxford. He then worked for several years in TV and for the BBC before deciding to concentrate his energies on charities including London Zoo, the Royal Court Theatre, Leeds Culture Trust and the aforementioned Harewood House.

Despite going to Trinity, Damian has a strong Somerville connection; his mother and two close family friends read zoology here, as did his cousin and older sister. Now Damian is keen to help Somerville increase its financial management and love of Excel spreadsheets. Outside work, Damian listens to many hours of radio drama and audiobooks while going on long walks to pubs, normally with a play script in his pocket to read when he gets there

Dame Elan Closs Stephens (1966, English) is a Welsh educator and policy-maker for broadcasting and the arts.

She has served as a Governor of the British Film Institute, commissioner of the Electoral Commission for Wales, and is currently the BBC Board member for Wales. In January 2020, she was appointed Pro Chancellor of Aberystwyth University.

She was honoured with a CBE in 2001 for her services to broadcasting and to the Welsh Language, and made a Dame in 2019 for her services to the Welsh government and to broadcasting. She was elected an Honorary Fellow in 2020.

As Programme Director of the MTST, Claire is responsible for mentoring and supporting the Thatcher Scholars and for publicising and evaluating the Thatcher Scholarship Programme. Claire also devises, adapts and oversees the Development Programme, which is open to all students of Somerville.

Claire read Biochemistry at Somerville before gaining a PhD in Plant Molecular Biology from the University of Cambridge. During her Post-Doc in Cambridge, she was awarded a Media Fellowship, working with Tim Radford at The Guardian and subsequently as a freelance science writer. After deciding to hang up her lab coat in 2001, Claire pioneered a cross-disciplinary Master’s Programme in Bioscience Enterprise at Cambridge in partnership with MIT, aimed at bio-entrepreneurs and future leaders of the life science sector.

In 2005, Claire joined the Babraham Institute – a biomedical research organisation in Cambridge – where she was responsible for corporate communications, media liaison, public engagement and knowledge exchange and undertook PR for the campus, home to over 40 life science companies. She established a successful Science & Society Programme delivering novel science enrichment activities for schools, and summer research opportunities to inspire young people about science and STEM careers. During this time, Claire was a Graduate Tutor at Newnham College, Cambridge providing pastoral support and mentoring for a growing graduate community.

Claire is a trustee of STEM Team East, an educational charity that enriches science in schools, and has received awards for work with schools. She joined the Board of the biomedical charity Understanding Animals in Research in 2016 and is a member of the BioIndustry Associations’ Communications Advisory Committee. After joining the Centre for Personalised Medicine in Oxford during its start-up phase in 2013, Claire now offers consultancy in science communication and public engagement. She is a fellow of the Society of Biology, the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and in 2012 was selected as a fellow of the British-American Project – a transatlantic leadership network from a broad spectrum of occupations and backgrounds.

Becca plays a leading role in realising Somerville’s fundraising goals, with particular responsibility for major gifts and legacies.

She started adult life as a postgraduate researcher in the philosophy of education at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and then worked in the City as a lobbyist for the financial services industry. She went on to be Major Gifts Officer at Keble College, before leaving to have her children.

If you are thinking about making a major gift, or leaving a legacy, Becca would love to hear from you. You can contact her by email on rebecca.coker@some.ox.ac.uk or phone her at +44 (0) 7890 412404.

Becca is currently on maternity leave. In her absence, please contact katariina.kottonen@some.ox.ac.uk.

Stephanie Dalley is a British scholar of the Ancient Near East and Fellow of the Institute for Ancient and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES), where she taught Akkadian and Sumerian for almost three decades.

She is best known for her investigation into the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and her proposal that it was situated in Nineveh and constructed during the rule of Sennacherib. Her other achievements include her work on the Sealand Dynasty.

Ali helps with the running of the Academic Office. 

Will Dawes(ARAM, PGDip (RAM), BMus (Hons) is Director of Chapel Music of Somerville College, Oxford, Director of Music at the church of St Mary Magdalen, Oxford, and the founding Director of Frideswide Voices (Oxford’s first liturgical choir for 7-14 year-old girls).

He is a graduate of the RAM, where he studied Choral Conducting and Singing, and has directed numerous excellent choral societies and chamber choirs across the UK.

Will is active as a consort singer and is a member of the internationally acclaimed vocal ensemble Stile Antico.  The group performs all over the globe, including concerts in the Wigmore Hall and at the BBC Proms. He is a former Lay Clerk of Christ Church, Oxford, and has sung with Collegium Vocale Gent, The Eric Whitacre Singers, and Polyphony.

As a soloist, Will has sung works such as Carmina Burana (Orff), Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Mahler), and The Wound Dresser (Adams) as well as more canonic works by JS Bach and GF Handel. His one and only operatic role to date is that of Mr Gedge in Albert Herring.

For further information, including forthcoming performances, please visit Will’s personal website. 

Hi, I’m François (he/him) and I’m a second year music student. I sing with the Somerville choir and Acapella groups, but also enjoy fencing when I’m free from musical commitments. What I found most refreshing about Somerville in arrival, as I’m sure many others will have told you, is its tight-knit community and really welcoming atmosphere. I didn’t actually apply to Somerville directly, but I couldn’t be more pleased with where I ended up. As part of the welfare team I’m just one of the people you can talk to or message for any kind of support, however informal. I hope that all of you will find yourselves having a fantastic first year just as I did!

My research has two main threads: self-representation and social biases in (multisensory) perception and action; and adolescent wellbeing and mental health. I am currently working on new research at the intersection of these areas. Alongside self-representation, I have interests in anxiety and autistic cognition. I have extensive experience in patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) and co-production. I am passionate about public outreach and laying the groundwork for co-developing interventions and applications in wellbeing and mental health.

My research methodologies draw on techniques from cognitive, social, and developmental psychology, social neuroscience, and psychophysics (e.g., mental chronometry, surveys, and previously, EEG, tDCS), and involve both quantitative and qualitative research. I also use multisensory tasks (i.e. using audiovisual stimuli) to investigate social biases impacting both audition and vision.

At Somerville, I teach the undergraduate prelim course in Psychology (subjects including: developmental psychology, sensory processes and perception, social psychology, psychobiology, and cognitive psychology) and on the Psychology for Medicine course.

I completed my DPhil in Experimental Psychology at Oxford in 2022, and went on to join Somerville College as lecturer in Experimental Psychology, and Postdoctoral Research Fellow in adolescent mental health (University of Reading). Prior to my DPhil, I worked as a Research Assistant in stroke research at the Cognitive Neuropsychology Centre (CNC), and as a Laboratory Demonstrator in Neuroanatomy and Perception, at the Department of Experimental Psychology. I also have a background in music and sound production, and alongside my academic research have engineered and consulted on sound for departmental academic research projects, as well as co-developed evidence-based music-, art-, and video-based ‘wellbeing tools’ to support adolescent mental health.

My doctoral research is about assessing the impacts of climate change and local land-use land-cover changes on birds of eastern Indian Himalaya, a global biodiversity hotspot. My study site in Arunachal Pradesh is home to Idu-Mishmis, the indigenous people of Dibang Valley.

I completed my masters in Environment Science and Technology with the highest grades from Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Environment Education and Research, Pune (India) in 2017 where I studied the effects of urban noise on acoustic communication of Myna species for my dissertation. After my masters, I investigated the effects of land-use change on bird communities in extremely remote community forests and tropical forests in Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya, a state in Northeast India which lies in the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot. I then worked as a junior researcher for a year under the National Mission for Himalayan Studies scheme with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India, where I intensively documented the utilization and consumption of insects by tribes of three Northeast Indian states- Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.

Large-scale deforestation for pro-development projects, diversion of primary forests, hunting, climate change, unsustainable harvesting of forest resources etc. are expected to push many species to extinction, while triggering newer coping mechanisms in some. My research interest broadly revolves around understanding which birds adapt well to such events and which do not. Dibang Valley, in particular, is undergoing massive changes due to ongoing anthropogenic activities which are expected to have negative impacts on birds, most of which remain undiscovered or understudied. While in Dibang Valley, I also intend to document people-bird interactions, their stories and relevance of bird species in Idu-Mishmi culture.

Through an international platform and generous support provided by OICSD, I intend to contribute more to both scientific and social research in Northeast India, a region which remains largely unexplored even today.

Charlotte is a Junior Research Fellow at Somerville College and a Leverhulme Trust Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Faculty of Music.

Her research focuses on the transnational region of Karelia, which is partially in Finland and partially in Russia. Given the region’s tumultuous past and current events, issues of national, regional, and identity and belonging are complicated. Metal music artists on both sides of the border continuously negotiate questions of identity and belonging in their music through referrals to Karelian nature, significant historic events, and adaptation of folklore. The multiple languages in which lyrics are written – Karelian, Finnish, English, and Russian – give further expression to identity negotiations and how these are communicated with the outside world.

Charlotte finished her PhD at University College London (UCL) in 2022. Her thesis analysed the adaptation of Karelian Finnish folk poetry and the epic, the Kalevala, in metal music from Finland and connections to national identity in the lyrics. At UCL, she also worked as a postgraduate teaching assistant teaching various modules in sociology, history, and Finnish culture. She completed her master’s studies in Finnish language and culture at the University of Helsinki (2016) and her undergraduate studies in Finno-Ugric languages and cultures at the University of Groningen (2014).

She has co-organised conferences on multilingualism in metal music and the cultural, literary, and historic significance of cats. The latter conference was in conjunction with an exhibition organised by librarians of Senate House Library, London.