People

Will Dawes(ARAM, PGDip (RAM), BMus (Hons) has been Director of Chapel Music of Somerville College since 2017. He has also been Director of Music at the church of St Mary Magdalen, Oxford since 2011.

A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied Choral Conducting under the inspirational guidance of Paddy Russill, he has directed the BBC Singers, the Eric Whitacre Singers and worked as chorusmaster for the Netherlands Radio Choir. He was the founding Director of Music of Frideswide Voices, the first choir to offer 7-13 year old girls the opportunity to sing in regular liturgical events in Oxford College Chapels. The choir is now the girl’s choir of Christ Church Cathedral.

As well as being in demand as a conductor, he is also a professional baritone, and for 16 years, he was a member of Stile Antico, one of the foremost vocal ensembles on the planet. He has also sung with most of the top professional choirs in the UK including The Sixteen, The Cardinall’s Musick, Ora, Magnificat, Gabrieli Consort, Polyphony, and London Voices. His work has taken him across the globe, including to Auckland, Shenzhen, Delhi, New York, and Jerusalem.

He is always happy to hear from singers interested in applying for choral awards at Somerville or Oxford in general. As the coordinator of the intercollegiate organ awards scheme, he is also happy to offer advice about organ awards at Oxford.

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.

Zhao Dong is a final-year DPhil candidate in Economics at the University of Oxford. She previously earned an MPhil in Finance from the University of Cambridge (Judge Business School) and a BSc (Hons) in Economics from the University of Bath.

Her research sits at the intersection of applied microeconomics and economic history, using original archival data to study how political institutions shape long-run development. She applies quasi-experimental designs in Qing China to examine how external shocks—such as wars and invasions—shift elite selection toward kinship, with implications for bureaucratic capacity. Complementary projects reconstruct GDP per head from the Han through the Yuan and analyse royal-household demography to test Malthusian dynamics. A broader comparative strand examines institutional systems across China and Europe—contrasting feudal, bureaucratic, and aristocratic arrangements—and situates China alongside the Roman Empire and the medieval Arabic world. Together, these studies show how shocks shape institutions, which in turn shape economic outcomes.

Zhao teaches Quantitative Economics at Somerville College and has previously taught Introductory Economics and Core Macroeconomics at Brasenose College. She is committed to clear, data-driven teaching and to fostering genuine enthusiasm for economics among her students.

I’m College Lecturer at Somerville, as well as Departmental Lecturer in Computer Science. I’m teaching a range of courses, most of which about programming languages and theory.

My research revolves around dependent type theory, which is a very powerful logic that can be used both as a programming language and as a formal language for mathematics. I’m interested in understanding better the foundations of type theory and finding new applications for it.

I completed my DPhil in 2024 under the supervision of Samson Abramsky and Sam Staton. Before coming to Oxford, I studied Computer Science, Mathematics and Philosophy at RWTH Aachen, Imperial College London and LMU Munich.

Dale Dorsey is Professor of Moral Philosophy and Tutorial Fellow at Somerville.

He generally works on the intersection of morality, practical reason, and the good.  He also has substantial interests in the history of ethical thought, specifically with respect to the British Moralists, including Masham, Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Hume, and Mill.

He is currently pursuing a range of research projects, including a manuscript titled On Fellowship, another titled The Philosophy of Swine: Hedonism and Human Nature in the British Moralists, 1689-1861, and a general theory of metanormativity.

Gaurav is undertaking a DPhil research at the intersection of electric mobility and climate policy. His work looks at the political economy of transition to electric mobility in India. The research aim is to understand how various factors and entities related to the wider political economy of urban transport have led to the creation and shaping of various policies in respect of electric vehicles in India in the past 10 years.  

Gaurav is an urban and transport planner with over 8 years of experience of working on urban mobility issues in India in a variety of roles ranging from consulting to research and advocacy. Prior to starting his DPhil, he was leading the programme on sustainable mobility for Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi. He’s earlier also worked with Indian School of Business (ISB) and Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS). 

He holds an undergraduate degree in urban planning from School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi and an MSc in Transport Planning and Environment from Newcastle University, UK, for which he was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship. 

I work on historical Slavonic linguistics, especially Old Church Slavonic and the history of Russian.

I am a historical corpus linguist, and ever since I got my PhD I have been committed to building diachronic text corpora (treebanks) for Russian and Church Slavonic, within a wider initiative to build such resources for early attestations of the major Indo-European branches. My research centers on the history of verbal aspect and definiteness marking in East and South Slavic, and I also do contrastive work, especially on Old Church Slavonic and Greek. I also publish on methodological and computational topics related to my practical corpus building work.

I took my PhD in Russian Linguistics at the University of Oslo in 2007. I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Oslo from 2008 to 2013, and a Senior Researcher and briefly Associate Professor at UiT The Arctic University of Norway from 2013 to 2017, attached to several projects in the field of historical corpus linguistics. I joined Lady Margaret Hall as Fellow and Tutor in Russian and Linguistics in 2017. I also give tutorials to Somerville students.

I’m Elizabeth Edginton, the College Counsellor at Somerville. As a Somerville student, you can contact me to arrange a 45 minute, one-to-one session to discuss any emotional or mental health issues you might be having, in an impartial, confidential setting, where we can think together about what is happening and understand how best to move forward.

Sessions take place during Weeks 0-9 on Mondays, in person, or on Teams, in exceptional circumstances.

I’m a fully qualified and experienced psychotherapist specialising in working with young people, but am happy to see students of all ages. I have worked in the NHS and universities for over 10 years, both clinically and in research, and prior to that, was an academic. I started as the College Counsellor at Somerville in Michaelmas 2023 and also work at the central University Counselling Service.

Whether you’re a fresher adjusting to being at Oxford or a DPhil student working on your thesis, it can be helpful to have a space that is separate from the rest of Oxford life to talk through and think about any issues that you might be having. If you have questions or would like to arrange a session, please email me on college.counsellor@some.ox.ac.uk

If you feel that you are at risk, please ensure that you make an urgent GP appointment, see the College Nurse, call NHS 111, or in case of emergency, go to Accident and Emergency at the hospital or call 999. Please also see the crisis contact numbers at: Emergency contacts | University of Oxford

I am Somerville’s Lecturer in Biochemistry.

I am a virologist and crystallographer based at Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchotron. The aim of my research is to shed light on proteins interactions occurring between viruses and their host cells. Viruses use host cell resources to carry through their life cycle, but infection triggers host cell antiviral defense mechanisms that in turn drive viral adaptation. Thus it is crucial to understand not only the biology of the virus but also the biology of the host and the different cell pathways hijacked by the virus. This project will initially focus on unravelling the mechanism of viral membrane fusion.

Another research focus is the single-wavelength anomalous dispersion of S atoms (S-SAD), an elegant phasing method to determine crystal structures that does not require heavy-atom incorporation or selenomethionine derivatization. Nevertheless, this technique has been limited by the paucity of the signal at the usual X-ray wavelengths, requiring very accurate measurement of the anomalous differences. The I23 beam line at the Diamond light source has been designed to provide an optimized environment for difficult S-SAD experiments, by increasing the anomalous signal with minimal noise.

Mounir comes from a lovely small city on the east coast of the Mediterranean: Saida, Lebanon. Mounir received his Bachelor of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering – Design, Materials, and Manufacturing track along with a minor degree in Arabic and Near Eastern Languages from the American University of Beirut (AUB). His interest in language goes far to the study of classical texts in the early Arabic Grammar and Lexicography. 

Mounir has worked with the Insight Club AUB to construct a supportive community to university students by balancing between physical intellectual and spiritual needs. Mounir is interested in the field of solid mechanics and mechanics of composite materials has published in reputable journals and received faculty awards.

Mounir aims to apply his experience to Metal Organic Framework Materials (MOFs) in studying their mechanical properties and their composites in polymer matrices and different geometries. This includes exploring the time dependent properties of MOFs and composites at different length scales. In addition, the fracture of MOFs and their toughness is of interest for designing damage-tolerant structures for energy absorption applications.

Beyond engineering, Mounir is interested in walking and in reading classical and folk literature.

Katherine studies the efficacy of epigenetic inhibitors in exocrine and endocrine pancreatic cancers

Karin Erdmann is a German mathematician specializing in representation theory (especially modular representation theory) and homological algebra (especially Hochschild cohomology).

She is best known for her work in modular representation theory which has been cited over 1500 times according to the Mathematical Reviews. Her nephew Martin Erdmann is professor for experimental particle physics at the RWTH Aachen University.