News

Professor Bart van Es named St Catherine’s College Pro-Master

Professor Bart Van Es

St Catherine’s College is pleased to announce Professor Bart van Es as the College’s Pro-Master. Our current Master, Professor Kersti Börjars, previously announced her intention to retire after Trinity Term 2024.

Bart van Es is Professor of English Literature at Oxford and Fellow at St Catherine’s College. He teaches literature from the Renaissance to the mid-eighteenth century, including drama by Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

Outside of his academic work, he is an author, most recently of The Cut Out Girl, a work of creative non-fiction that depicts the life of a Jewish girl in hiding during World War II in The Netherlands, which won the 2018 Costa Book of the Year award.

Commenting on his appointment, Professor van Es says: “I’d like to thank Kersti for all the work she has done for St Catherine’s and to wish her a happy retirement.  She and her team have done a great job in getting the College through the first stage of the RAAC challenge and morale is impressively high.  It’s an honour to be taking over from her and in the coming months I hope to make the transition to our new permanent Head of House a smooth and successful one.”

Professor van Es will serve as Pro-Master until the College’s next Master is in post.