Location
The Oxford Symposium is held at St. Catherine’s College. Opened in 1962, St. Catz is Oxford’s only Modernist College. Danish architect Arne Jacobsen designed its core buildings and their fittings, which are considered modern masterpieces and are protected by a Grade I architectural listing. The College lies close to the city centre, only a 10-15 minute walk from the Bodleian Library
Accommodations and Meals
Check in time at the Porters Lodge is from 2pm on your day of arrival; registration for the Symposium is also there from 2pm on Friday the 5th. Check out time is the same place by 10am on your day of departure, don’t forget to drop the key back when you are dropping your bags off to the ‘Left luggage’.
All rooms are en-suite complete with towels & toiletries, full bed linen, basic tea & coffee making facilities, and a fan.
Meals served in the pavilion dining room include drinks are designed to educate and highlight the Symposium topic, as well as being enjoyable, sustaining, and fostering conviviality. There’s no dress-code: just wear what makes you feel comfortable. There’s a chance – by no means a requirement – to dress up a little for our Friday and Saturday dinners. The informality of communal dining tables allows symposiasts to sit wherever they choose, to make new friends and revisit old friendships. Other opportunities to exchange news and views present themselves during the morning and afternoon coffee breaks, pre-dinner drinks and post-dinner rest and relaxation in the bar-area.
Updates for 2024
We look forward to welcoming you to St Catherine’s College to explore Gardens, Flowers, and Fruits, our intoxicatingly lush theme for 2024. We have been working closely with our partners at St Catz to provide a magical weekend of thought-provoking discussions, superb and convivial meals, and generous opportunities to relax and connect with colleagues old and new, all in the OFS spirit.
For returning Symposiasts, this year’s meeting sites will be different from the ones you have previously experienced, as many of our usual spaces are undergoing essential renovations. We can confirm that all facilities will meet our needs as the College has met the challenge: new pavilions will take the place of the dining hall, lecture theatre, and seminar rooms, while the en-suite bedrooms remain unaffected and will be available for those choosing to stay at the College. All the new facilities are located on the St Catz grounds adjacent to the Hollywell Mill Stream, located behind a long dormitory building near our usual lecture theatre. These spaces are air-conditioned, have the same A-V standards as the traditional rooms, are fully accessible by ramps or steps, and have brilliant glass walls that will allow us to look out over St Catz’s riverside green, putting us ‘in the garden,’ especially for our meals. We can also enjoy strolling through the garden at leisure. And for the night owls, we will have a relocated bar space and open-air garden, so those sing-alongs, late night conversations, and proper libations will be available.
We have been assured that it is highly unlikely that any construction will take place on our weekend and interfere with our activities, but be prepared to see a construction site site around parts of the College, including near the Porter’s Lodge. Other parts of campus will have been commandeered with building materials, etc., and we will need to observe pathways to and from some of the buildings. So this year will be different and may require a little humour, tolerance, and flexibility, but we are thrilled with the solutions that our partners at St Catz have developed to ensure that our Symposium can proceed seamlessly and with joy.
We are happy to share that St Catz has generously held their pricing at last year’s level, which enables us to keep our ticket cost the same as last year’s.
Further information about the St Catz renovations and a map of the campus (most of our activities will be in the area near the Hollywell Mill Stream) is available on the College website: https://www.stcatz.ox.ac.uk/update-on-raac-at-st-catherines-college/ and
https://www.stcatz.ox.ac.uk/prospective-students/explore-catz/
