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A drinks reception with Dr Elizabeth Kiss, Warden of Rhodes House
Stonehage Fleming, London
Thursday 26 Sep 2019
6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
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Event description
Bishops has a long - in fact the longest of any school or country - relationship with the Rhodes Scholarships. In 1902, Cecil Rhodes requested that the School send two boys to Oxford to trial his idea of the scholarships and Frank Reid and William Yeoman were those two. Give or take the war years, Bishops have had a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford every year since (see our full roll HERE).
Dr Elizabeth Kiss (pronounced "quiche") is the Professorial Fellow and Warden of Rhodes House.
Before taking up the Wardenship in 2018, Elizabeth served for 12 years as president of Agnes Scott College, Georgia. During her tenure, Agnes Scott broke records for enrolment and retention and was named the second ‘Most Diversified College in America’ by Time and the country’s most successful liberal arts college for graduating low-income students by the US Department of Education. In December 2017, the Chronicle of Higher Education named Elizabeth Kiss on its 2017 list of the most influential people in US higher education.
From 1997 to 2006 Dr Kiss served as the founding director of Duke University’s Kenan Institute for Ethics, building a university-wide interdisciplinary centre focused on promoting moral reflection and commitment in personal, professional, organisational and civic life. Elizabeth has had a longstanding career in academia; she has taught at Randolph-Macon College (Virginia), Deep Springs College (California) and at Princeton University for eight years. Her academic focus has been on moral and political philosophy and she has published on moral education, human rights, ethnic conflict and nationalism, feminist theory, and transitional justice.
Elizabeth received her BA in philosophy, magna cum laude, from Davidson College in North Carolina, where she became Davidson’s first female Rhodes Scholar, going on to receive a BPhil (at Balliol) and DPhil in philosophy both at Oxford. She has held many leadership roles in local and national organisations, including the Climate Leadership Network, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and the Women’s College Coalition. She has always remained strongly connected with the Rhodes Community, having mentored Rhodes applicants for over 25 years and serving for 22 years on Rhodes selection committees, including six years as State Secretary in North Carolina.
Details
29 Oct 2019 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
The Rhodes Scholarship, presitigious as it is, has over recent years come under scrutiny for many reasons. In South Africa, Rhodes himself has been targeted as a colonialinist and a British imperialist who made bult his swealth on the exploitation of the local population towards whom he behaved cruelly and exploitatively. The #rhodesmustfall campaign both in SA and at Oxford (led by a Rhodes Scholar!) was vocal and influential.
Elizabeth Kiss, the newly-appointed Warden of Rhodes House in Oxford and herself a Rhodes Scholar will talk about the relevance, meaning and future of the scholarships in the 21st Century.
There is no charge for the attending the event.
The venue is Stonehage Fleming, 15 Suffolk Street SW1Y 4HG