Germund Dahlquist Prize goes to mathematician Professor Patrick Farrell
Speaker announced for Oriel College’s colonialism and its legacies lecture
5 March 2025
Gary Younge, former Guardian columnist and Orwell Prize recipient, has been announced as the speaker for the 2025 Rex Nettleford Lecture
Former Guardian columnist and Orwell Prize for Journalism recipient Gary Younge will be the speaker at the upcoming Rex Nettleford Lecture on Colonialism and its Legacies on 22 May 2025, Oriel College has announced. The title of Younge’s lecture is “The man who photobombed De Gaulle”.
Oriel College first held the annual lecture on the history and legacies of colonialism in 2022 as part of its work to inspire and nurture constructive public dialogue about the contested area. Rex Nettleford, the eponymous Jamaican scholar and social critic who served as vice-chancellor of the University of the West Indies, studied at Oriel in 1957.
Revisiting a photographed moment from near the end of the second world war “through the eyes of the colonised”, Younge will “explore a range of mythologies about who fought and what they were fighting for”. He will also “unpick what that tells us about Europe as a whole and how black people’s presence here is misunderstood today”.
The Provost of Oriel College and Chair of Historic England, Lord Mendoza CBE, said:
“We are delighted to announce that Gary Younge, a leading journalist, author and academic, will give our annual lecture on colonialism and its legacies. Gary has raised the public’s conscience and consciousness of key issues related to inequality, immigration, race and identity and we’re looking forward to hearing his perspective and insights.”
Dr Nicholas Gaskill, a Fellow of Oriel College and tutor in English, said:
“I am proud of my involvement in the Rex Nettleford Lecture and the accompanying essay prize for secondary school students. I think it’s important that, as a college, we do what we can to support conversations about the complicated legacies of colonialism in the UK and across the world.”
Younge’s lecture will be followed by a prize ceremony for the winners of the 2025 Rex Nettleford Essay Prize. For four years the competition has asked year 12 students at UK schools to submit essays on topics relating to colonialism and its legacies.
oriel.ox.ac.uk/events/rex-nettleford-lecture-on-colonialism-and-its-legacies-2025/