student and barrista
Sam Glendenning is hoping to study PPE or social policy at university in 2020. He previously studied veterinary medicine, and misses how little animals mentioned Brexit. An avid Labour supporter, he attended last year’s conference, but sadly forgot his fiddler’s cap and was rudely ejected after failing to greet a fellow attendee as comrade. Currently working as a barista at a Café Nero in Newcastle, he is hoping to find an exciting internship for next year. An opinionated vegan, he enjoys hiking, running and travel.
philosophy student, University of Sheffield
Katie is a second year philosophy student at the University of Sheffield with plans to complete a Masters there. Katie is a committee member of both the Philosophy Society and the Equality and Diversity Committee. She is excited to be interning at the Academy of Ideas before returning to university in September.
Event Coordinator
Molly has a background in architecture and design. She is coordinator of Oxford Arts Society and runs Chilworth Events, specialising in organising and hosting parties and ‘Question Time’ events.
editor in chief of Roar News; student, King’s College London
Will Nestor-Sherman is an undergraduate Comparative Literature student studying at King’s College London. He is currently the editor in chief of the university’s award winning student newspaper Roar News having previously trained as a journalist at Highbury College in Portsmouth. He is also the presenter and producer of KCL Radio’s flagship programme and podcast “The Civil Row”, a political panel show that aims to bridge the gap between students and people in positions of responsibility in the discussion of society’s big issues. He is currently interning at the Academy of Ideas.
director, Academy of Ideas
Claire Fox is the director of the Academy of Ideas, which she established to create a public space where ideas can be contested without constraint. She convenes the yearly Battle of Ideas festival and initiated the Debating Matters Competition for sixth-formers. She also co-founded a residential summer school, The Academy, with the aim to demonstrate ‘university as it should be’.
In May 2019, she was elected as an MEP for the North West England constituency of the UK in the European Parliament elections. In 2020, she was made a visiting professor in professional practice at the University of Buckingham. In September 2020, Claire became a member of the House of Lords as Baroness Fox of Buckley.
Claire is often invited to comment on developments in culture, education, media and free speech issues on TV and radio programmes in the UK such as the BBC’s Newsnight, Politics Live and Any Questions? as well as being a frequent guest on Times Radio, Talk TV and GB News. She has been a regular newspaper reviewer on Sky News and is a monthly columnist for MJ (Municipal Journal). She was the longest standing panelist on BBC Radio 4’s The Moral Maze for over 20 years until 2020. She is author of a book on free speech, recently republished as I STILL Find That Offensive! (Biteback, 2018), and No Strings Attached! Why arts funding should say no to instrumentalism (Arts&Business, 2007). She has written a variety of chapters and essays for a range of publications, most recently ‘Narcissism and Identity’ in From Self to Selfie: A Critique of Contemporary Forms of Alienation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
Follow Claire on X/Twitter: @Fox_Claire.
head of Learning and Participation, Pitt Rivers Museum
Andrew is manager of the Learning and Participation team and previously managed Education at the Pitt Rivers Museum for the past seventeen years. Over that time, he has worked with a huge range of audiences, from schools and families to universities and community groups. The joy of working in a museum is how people learn from physical objects, and the stories and creativity that this encourages. His background is in history and education, but the collections of the Pitt Rivers have changed that focus towards the creative arts. Andrew is an active artist interested in life drawing, street drawing and landscapes. He also has a strong commitment to his local community and is actively involved in community arts in East Oxford.
associate marketing manager, Oxford University Press
Kim Behrens is an associate marketing manager at Oxford University Press, where she works on the promotion of the Very Short Introduction series, among other titles. Kim started her publishing career in the journals department at Taylor & Francis and has been working with OUP for nearly five years.
Executive Director, Programme & Impact, New Writing North
Anna is Executive Director (Programmes and Impact) at New Writing North, the development agency for creative writing and reading in the North of England. As part of the Executive team Anna is responsible for initiating and developing programmes of work, delivery partnerships, and funding models which engage people in the agency’s work, especially those from under-represented communities. This includes talent development programmes, events and festivals and extensive community engagement programmes.
Besides working closely with writers and artists to realise their ambitions, Anna is interested in the role of arts and culture in supporting connected communities, combatting loneliness and in promoting wellbeing and literacy.
Anna is Chair of Newcastle Cultural Education Partnership – a group of school and cultural leaders who aim to provide every young person in the city with a rich and accessible cultural offer and is part of the Newcastle Cultural Compact, the group which produces the city’s cultural strategy and action plan. She is a Trustee of Open Clasp Theatre Company and Sunderland Empire Theatre Trust and is on the board of Directors and Advisory Group for Digital start up, The Living Archive.
senior press officer, Science Media Centre
Fiona has worked as a press officer at
the Science Media Centre for about six years; before that she did a PhD in science
in Edinburgh. The Science Media Centre
aims to increase the accuracy of media reporting of science, health and
environment stories by making sure journalists can get hold of top quality
scientists, and by encouraging scientists to engage with the media when their
area of expertise hits the headlines, especially on the messy and controversial
topics like statins, antidepressants, e-cigarettes, alcohol, GM, fracking, the
badger cull, and genome edited babies.
student, Oriel College, Oxford
Maya is a second-year undergraduate at Oriel College, Oxford, reading for a BA in History. She is President of the Oxford University History Society and ambassador to the digital-archives company Gale Cengage,
After the History Society
was criticised for inviting BBC Radio 4’s Jenni Murray, and protests at the
Oxford Union aimed to “no-platform” Steve Bannon and Marion Maréchal, Maya grew
disillusioned with the culture of censorship at Oxford and founded the
Oxford Society for Free Discourse.
With this active community
of students and academics, Maya has organised debates and demonstrations to
promote the values of free and respectful debate in an increasingly polarised
world. Prospective speakers for next term include Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of Index
on Censorship and Jacop Mchangama, executive director of the
Justitia think-tank.
As a result of her work
with OSFD, Maya has also become involved in the production of “Clear and
Present Danger”, a podcast on the history of free speech.
