Green Templeton welcomes two Europaeum MA in History and Civilization students

Green Templeton was thrilled to welcome Mattea Chadwick and Buddy Janssen to college this term as part of the Europaeum MA in History and Civilization programme.

The Europaeum is an association of 16 leading universities in Europe including the University of Oxford, which founded the initiative in 1992 on the vision of Lord Weidenfeld. It brings together students and faculty working in humanities and social sciences, to encourage international collaboration and discussion.

The MA in History and Civilization allows students the opportunity to spend a term in Leiden University, Université Paris I Panthéon/Sorbonne and the University of Oxford, receiving specialist courses, lectures, seminars, and individual tutorials, before submitting a final research paper.

“The Europaeum presents itself as a university without walls which is perfect for me as I want to do something in international diplomacy,” said Buddy.

“Studying in Leiden, Paris and Oxford was perfect for my research as I needed the archives in The Hague, Paris and Kew. My topic is anti-communism in South East Asia in the 1920s and 30s, basically saying we can see this whole Cold War going on before the Cold War.”

Mattea is focusing on the socio-cultural histories of the medieval and early modern periods. “My MA thesis is about a Jewish father-son duo in twelfth-century southern France and how they understood and navigated the world around them,” she said.

“I was drawn to the Europaeum experience because of the unique opportunity to study at three top universities,” she added. “I hoped to grow as a scholar, meet colleagues in my field, and make friends this year. All of my hopes have been realised.”

During their time in Oxford, Mattea and Buddy attended lectures at the University and had their own Europaeum seminar series within the History Faculty.

“Studying in Oxford has been wonderful. The weekly Europaeum seminar featured speakers whose lectures were brilliant and often theoretically innovative,” said Mattea. “I also enjoyed going to seminars at various colleges and centres, particularly the seminars in Medieval Church and Culture, Medieval Social and Economic History, and the Late Antique and Byzantine seminar.”

“It’s been amazing,” agreed Buddy. “There is so much stuff you can do here, the organization is great and you have the seminar system which is amazing, so I’ve gone to a lot of seminars.”

There were nine Europaeum students in Oxford during Trinity term, including Mattea and Buddy, spread across five different colleges. Both Mattea and Buddy agreed their time at Green Templeton had been memorable.

“The Green Templeton experience has been positive since day one,” said Mattea. “Buddy and I were welcomed to college by Alison Franklin (Academic Registrar), James McBain (Academic Administrator), and Alison Stenton (Senior Tutor) with a lovely lunch and guided walk through the college.

“I found Green Templeton supportive and appreciated how quickly my social and academic queries were answered. I also appreciated the efforts of the student social committee to plan fun events.

“The college grounds are just gorgeous, and it is a really peaceful experience to sit in the gardens. It also never failed to impress when we took guests up to the top of the Radcliffe Observatory.

“My annex is very international and I really enjoyed meeting the people here.”

Buddy said: “Charming is the best word to describe Green Templeton. Our group is divided over five colleges and although I haven’t seen all of the other colleges, I think the staff are definitely the friendliest at Green Templeton! It’s very welcoming.”

Mattea added: “And we all agree that the Green Templeton lunches are definitely the best!”

While it may seem daunting to attend three different universities in three different countries across three different terms, Buddy pointed out the nine Europaeum students travel together so they always have the familiarity of each other in new places.

“We may study in a different city each term but we have a nice group that stays the same so we always have each other to rely on and you never start entirely from scratch each time,” he said. “You get to meet a lot of people and you have a lot of supervisors all over the place, so you get a lot of different views on various different subjects. It’s been an interesting experience.”

He added of Oxford: “What I like most is even when you overhear conversations in the street, people are mostly talking about ideas. The culture is very different here.”

As they prepare to leave Oxford and return to Leiden, both are now thinking of the future and what they will do next.

Mattea said: “I am applying to jobs in public history, starting in the autumn after a well-deserved summer break. I am passionate about museums and bringing history to life beyond the academy. As such, I am hoping to find a communications or educational position at a museum, library, or cultural centre.”

Buddy said: “I’m going to do an internship at the Dutch Embassy in Luxembourg next year and after that, I don’t know yet. I’ve been looking at what the options are of maybe coming back here to Oxford for a second Master’s degree in politics or maybe doing a PhD.”

Find out more about Europaeum here.