Benedict Cumberbatch And Emma Watson Appointed As Fellows Of Oxford College
Actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Emma Watson are among 11 newly appointed visiting fellows at Lady Margaret Hall colledge in Oxford, The Guardian reports. The star -studded list also includes Pet Shop Boys singer Neil Tennant, musician Mark Simpson and former children’s laureate Malorie Blackman.
The new appointments were announced on Friday by former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, who is now the college's principal. “They are people drawn from a variety of backgrounds, callings and professions and we want them to form a bridge between our own academic community and the worlds they inhabit and represent.” Rusbridger said.
The new positions are strictly part-time and are intended to 'add to the cultural life of the college', Rusbridger added. “At a minimum we’d like them to drop in occasionally at college, eat with us and meet informally with a variety of the LMH community.”
“We’d like them to do one thing a bit more structured. It could be a conversation or debate, a performance, a lecture or seminar, a form of outreach – or something we haven’t thought of. We can imagine fascinating interactions or collaborations between them.”
The new appointments were taken from a list of possible visiting fellows drawn up by the college’s governing body which was then narrowed down by a committee. “Some of the names we announce today did not go to university. One left school at 16. We think we can learn much from them – and we hope they treasure their time with us,” Rusbridger added.
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Cumberbatch graduated from the University of Manchester with a BA in Drama and went on to study for an MA in Classical Acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Watson graduated from Brown University with a bachelor's degree in English literature in 2014.