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Guest Speakers

In addition to the incredible faculty who teach seminars each summer, Oxford Academia programs feature guest speakers and experts who are leaders in their respective fields. Through a program-wide evening lecture series and workshops with individual seminars, students enjoy unparalleled access to inspirational thought leaders, entrepreneurs, authors, political leaders, and historians. Meet a few guest speakers for summer 2025—more will be added as summer approaches.

Adam Smith
  • Oxford Academia at Oxford
  • Professor & Historian

Adam Smith is the Edward Orsborn Professor of United States Politics & Political History, a Professorial Fellow at University College, and Director of the RAI. He was a student at Oxford, Sheffield, Cambridge, and Harvard, and for 17 years taught at University College London (UCL). Adam’s area of expertise is the political history of the United States in the 19th century. He regularly presents documentaries—mainly on BBC Radio 4—and writes for various magazines and websites. His latest book, The Stormy Present: Conservatism and the Problem of Slavery in Northern Politics, 1846-1865, won the Jefferson Davis Award and was a finalist for the Lincoln Prize. Previous books include No Party Now: Politics in the Civil War North. (You can read more about Adam’s publications here.) Adam takes a close interest in education policy, especially university admissions and school history teaching. He is former Honorary Secretary of the Royal Historical Society, which represents scholarly historians in the UK and in 2019 he joined the board of the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission, which awards scholarships to US students wishing to study in the UK. Adam was born in the Northeast of England and went to Durham Johnston Comprehensive School. He now lives in Oxford with his wife and three daughters.

Catherine Down
  • Oxford Academia at Paris
  • Food & Travel Writer

Catherine is a James Beard-nominated freelance food and travel writer who has written for The New York Times, Condé Nast Traveler, Eater, The Food Network, Travel & Luxury, TripAdvisor, and McSweeney’s, among others. Over the years, she has shepherded thousands of travelers to the best food in France through her work as a culinary tour guide. Before moving to Paris, she founded and edited Edible DC Magazine. Since earning her master’s in food culture and communication in Italy, she now writes, eats, and lives in Paris.

Dr. Olivia S. Rissland
  • Oxford Academia at Oxford
  • Associate Professor
University of Oxford, DPhil, Biology

Dr. Olivia S. Rissland has made discoveries that illuminate how genetic regulatory information is interpreted by the cell. She has discovered several molecular pathways that cells use to degrade gene products, which have profound implications for both development and diseases like cancer where these pathways are dysregulated. Dr. Rissland is an Associate Professor with Tenure at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She was awarded her DPhil from the University of Oxford, where her studies were funded by a Rhodes Scholarship, and she received postdoctoral training at the Whitehead Institute. She has been recognized with a grant from W. M. Keck Foundation and a prestigious CAREER award from the National Science Foundation as well as being an NIH-funded investigator.

Dr. Struan Murray
  • Oxford Academia at Oxford
  • Author & Lecturer
University of Oxford, DPhil, Genetics

Struan is Scottish and grew up in Edinburgh, the youngest of a large, rowdy family of redheads. He is the author of several best-selling young adult fantasy novels, he has a PhD in genetics, and is now a lecturer in biochemistry at the University of Oxford.

Peter Moore
  • Oxford Academia at Paris
  • Writer & Journalist

Peter is a writer, journalist, and lecturer. He teaches creative writing at the University of Oxford. He is the author of the history books Endeavour and The Weather Experiment, which were both Sunday Times Top Ten bestsellers. His latest book Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness: Britain and the American Dream was published in the summer of 2023 to wide acclaim.

Ziad Majed
  • Oxford Academia at Paris
  • Political Scientist
Sciences Po Paris, Ph.D., M.A., Political Science
American University of Beirut, M.A., Arabic Literature
American University of Beirut, B.A., Economics

Ziad Majed is the Elliott E. Burdette Professor at the American University of Paris. He teaches History, Politics and International Relations and writes on French, Lebanese, Syrian, and Arab affairs as well as on Middle Eastern political transitions and crises. After graduating in Economics from the American University of Beirut (Lebanon), he obtained a Master’s degree in Arabic Literature, then a DEA and a Ph.D. in Political science from Sciences Po Paris (France). Majed has been involved since 1994 in research work and reform campaigns related to political processes, Legal and civil society causes and women’s rights in Lebanon and other Arab countries. For the last 20 years, he has been regularly publishing articles and papers in Arabic (in Now Lebanon, Al-Quds al-Arabi, Al-Hayat, Aljazeera Center, the Journal of Palestine Studies, Daraj and Megaphone) and in French (in Orient Littéraire, Mediapart, Le Monde, Express, Libération, and AOC). He is a board member in Lebanese and French cultural institutes, a consultant for many international organizations, and a lecturer in festivals and annual conferences. His books include “Syrie, la révolution orpheline”, published in Arabic, French and – in an updated version – in German, “Dans la tête de Bachar Al-Assad” (with Subhi Hadidi and Farouk Mardam-Bey) in French, and “Iran and its four Arab fronts.”

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