Delighted to announce that Durham University will be supporting and funding the elements of our outreach and access programme based in the North East, and part of the wider OxNet family of hub schools, supported from the University of Oxford. The Ordered Universe OxNet North East Easter School, will be funded by Durham, where the activities are based for the next two years, allowing us to develop and diversify our programme. The one-night residential experience introduces the scheme students, and their teachers, to the university environment, and to two particular subjects areas of vital importance to the Ordered Universe project: medieval manuscript culture and physics. Students will spend a day with some of the wonderful manuscripts held in Durham and the variety of different ways we have to interpret them. This links to the Pigments Project, led from the departments of History and Chemistry, and the broader initiative housed in the Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (IMEMS) on The Scientific Study of Manuscripts, as well as the Priory Library Re-created Project. The other half of the school takes place with colleagues from the Institute of Particle Physics Phenomenology and the Institute of Computational Cosmology – the latter a key partner for Ordered Universe: it was Richard Bower of the ICC who modelled Grosseteste’s universe as described in the treatise On Light. And, of course, the students will get to read some of Grosseteste’s treatises themselves, as a way into the intriguing world of medieval thought, and its modern analogues and inspirations.
So, a huge thank you to Professor Alan Houston, Vice-Provost (Education) at Durham, and for the Durham and OxNet North East teams. This is in addition to support for the OxNet Skills Training Day which takes place at Ushaw College, County Durham, funded by Durham Univesity’s Centre for Catholic Studies.
New Ordered Universe Summer School: Funding has also been made available from Durham for a new venture, a one night summer school, to be held in Durham, for Year 10 students, organised through Southmoor Academy, and again with an emphasis of the cornucopia of subjects and skills university education develops, nurtures and builds upon. We will have more details soon!
