Oxford Faculty

A lifetime theater professional—as an actor, writer, director, producer, and teacher—Lizzie is the founder and Artistic Director of Shake-Scene Shakespeare, currently the UK’s only cue-based teaching and performing company producing Shakespeare from cues only. Lizzie returned to academic study in her 50s and is researching a practice-led PhD (part time) at the Shakespeare Institute. Her experience as an actor, director, producer and book-holder for Shake-Scene, as well as her professional acting career, inform her research interests. Lizzie regularly runs workshops (in person and online) in the techniques required to make working from cued parts the vibrant acting experience it can be. Shake-Scene performed live cue-based productions from their creation in 2017 until the 2020 lockdown opened up the new medium of online theater. Twenty-nine full play performances later, as well as many performances of collected scenes, Shake-Scene are still performing regularly online, with an ever-growing international company, and recently returned to live performances with Much Ado About Nothing at the Trinity Theatre, Tunbridge Wells.

While at Cambridge, Vicky specialized in human geography and worked with refugees and asylum seekers in London and Calais. She went on to complete a Master of Science in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies at Oxford, furthering her interest in justice in the asylum system. After graduating, Vicky spent two years in the UK Government (Civil Service) in asylum and refugee policy and research, while also doing pro-bono research for the legal charity Just for Kids Law. In October 2021, Vicky started a PhD at Oxford, studying the criminalization of asylum seekers in the UK. She is Director of Screen Share UK, an organization that supports, informs and advocates against the digital exclusion of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK. Alongside her PhD, she runs events for the research group Border Criminologies, and is a participant in the Bonavero Institute’s Legal Aid Clinic, which involves paralegal work with a solicitor’s firm with clients at the prison HMP Huntercombe. In her spare time, Vicky learns intermediate Arabic and enjoys open water swimming.

Rob is a writer, teacher, and Los Angeles native, although travel keeps him away from Hollywood for months at a time. As an undergraduate art history major at UCLA, he was assistant arts editor for the Daily Bruin and worked kitchen prep in his dorm. While pursuing his master’s degree in film at USC, he worked as a phlebotomist, middle school English teacher, and realtor. He is currently shopping a TV pilot (Runway) and a feature-length script (No Kissing). If he hadn’t pursued a writing career, his second choice would have been to be a chef. He is a charter member of Slow Food and once had to move because his library of cookbooks had outgrown his apartment. Rob has taught numerous seminars at Putney’s international Pre-College programs, and at Pre-College at Amherst College, where he also served as director. He has worked with Putney for 22 years.

An architect from Serbia, Mihaela is an intellectual polymath with master’s degrees in cognitive science from the University of Vienna, neuroscience from King’s College London, and film aesthetics from Oxford. Until recently she was Director of Strategy and Development at the Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford, partnering with the Oxford Foundation for Theoretical Neuroscience and AI. Mihaela has taught on summer programs at Oxford since 2014.

After earning master’s degrees in Economics (in Serbia) and Cognitive Science (in Vienna), Luka came to Oxford where he earned a doctorate in Experimental Psychology. His research focuses on the interplay between passions and reason, and he has taught innovative courses at both the university and secondary school levels—including summer programs in Oxford—since 2014.

During his undergraduate, Gonzalo specialized in human rights through his academic activity and volunteering in a shantytown, accompanying victims of police harassment, abuse, and violence. As a lawyer, he worked for three years in the Chilean State in the Ministry of Women and Gender Equality, where he participated in the professional team responsible for decriminalizing pregnancy interruption. Then he did his LLM in LSE, where he got training in Social Sciences and Law and Society. In October 2020, Gonzalo began his PhD at Oxford Centre for Criminology, researching policing, police forces, and democratic theory. He is on the Board of a Primary School. In his spare time, he participates in literary discussion groups, cycles, and plays football (soccer).

After finishing his undergraduate studies in film at La Sorbonne in Paris, Emile worked as an instructor in various high schools in Paris leading political science workshops for teenagers. While getting his master’s from the École Normale Supérieure, he also got the chance to study at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Looking for new adventures, he moved to the West Coast to join the Department of Literatures, Cultures and Languages at Stanford University as a lecturer of French and French Cinema. He has since lectured at several institutions to share his passion for French culture, including the New York DOE and cultural venues. Presently, he is an educational advisor for an educational company based in New York. Additionally, he works as an interpreter for French TV shows and film festivals. Emile speaks French and some German.

Predrag is a distinguished clinician and researcher educated at the University of Belgrade, with advanced medical training at the University of London, the James Paget Hospital in Norfolk, and Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. He specializes in the clinical training of medical students at University of St. Andrews, where he has been a senior faculty member of the Medical School for more than 20 years, and has taught on summer programs for high school students since 2012. His main interests are in medical education and OSCE assessment. He is fluent in Serbian, Croatian and English.