Oxford Summer Courses

Dr. Claudia Bonfio is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the MRC – Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge where she studies the chemical origin of extant life. She gained her PhD in Biomolecular Sciences (subject: Biochemistry) in 2017 from the University of Trento (Italy), after publishing 6 papers in peer-reviewed journals. Claudia has experienced interdisciplinary research in international teams across Europe and US and has tutored high school students and undergraduates in General, Inorganic and Organic Chemistry for 4 years. A strong believer in science communication, she spends her spare time attending workshops and watching TED talks to improve her transferable skills.

Dr David Maskell was Fellow and Tutor in Modern Languages at Oriel College from 1979 to 2004. His main research and teaching interests were Renaissance studies, French classical drama and Francophone theatre from Africa and the Caribbean. As Emeritus Fellow of Oriel College from 2004 he has translated and adapted plays for performance by both students and professional actors. These include Greek tragedies, a French medieval mystery play, Shakespeare, French classical tragedies, and African and Caribbean Francophone theatre. His recent productions over the last two years include his dramatizations in English verse of Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’ from the Latin, and of Ariosto’s ‘Orlando Furioso’ from the Italian. His current research is on theatre and interculturalism from the Renaissance to the present day, with special reference to representations of religious and cultural diversity in the theatre.

Hila Levy is studying for her DPhil in Zoology at Oxford, researching the diseases and population genetics of several penguin species in Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic. Originally from Puerto Rico, Hila has lived, studied and worked on every continent. A strong believer in interdisciplinary teaching and research, she obtained a B.S. in Biology, Arabic, French and Spanish from the US Air Force Academy, followed by an MSt. in Historical Research and an MSc. in Biology from Oxford while on a Rhodes Scholarship. She subsequently worked in government service for several years, and obtained an additional M.S. in Environmental Planning and Management from Johns Hopkins University before returning to Oxford for her doctoral studies on a Clarendon Scholarship. Hila has taught with Oxford Summer Courses for two years, and also lectures and tutors Oxford undergraduates in Biological Sciences.

Amanda Holton was educated at Oxford University, and is currently a Visiting Fellow at the University of Southampton. She has many years’ experience teaching Old and Middle English and the English language at various UK universities. Her main research interests are in Chaucer, the medieval and early Renaissance love lyric, and poetics, with an emphasis on the intersection of form and meaning. She also has particular interests in the relationship between medieval and Renaissance poetry. Her publications include The Sources of Chaucer’s Poetics (Ashgate, 2008), and Tottel’s Miscellany (Penguin, 2011), edited with Tom MacFaul. She is currently working on a book on the role of rhyme in love lyric from 1300 to 1579.

Max Long is a graduate student at Cambridge University, where he is studying for an MPhil in Modern and Contemporary Literature. His interests lie in technology, the environment and the role of emotion in the process of artistic creation. His dissertation will explore the work of Anna Kavan and Patrick Hamilton, although next year he will begin a PhD in the early history of natural history filmmaking. Max’s work is strongly interdisciplinary; he graduated with a First Class in History from Oxford, and spent a year as a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University, before spending two months learning German at Middlebury College, Vermont, as a Kathryn Davis Peace Fellow. He has also cycled the Iron Curtain Trail in Germany, and tutored students at a Prison in New Jersey.