“International women's day is an important opportunity to acknowledge the challenges women continue to face and celebrate their achievements in spite of these.”. Dr Stephanie Archer, Robinson Fellow 

Today we celebrate our fantastic female Fellows and students including some of our founding Fellows:

Professor Morna Hooker, Life Fellow, Lady Margaret’s Professor of Divinity Emerita
Morna arrived in Cambridge in 1976 as the first female Lady Margaret's Professor, and was asked to join the future Robinson College Fellowship, and so became a member of the newest College while sitting in the University's oldest chair, which proved a good combination!  The first year (until the college officially existed, from 1977) was spent planning what they hoped the college would be – retaining the best Cambridge traditions, but abandoning any that might exclude people; building up a community that did things in a new way - not simply to be different, but to bring new ideas to an old institution. Morna was appointed as the first Deputy Warden, which was a deliberate move to ensure that women were seen to be playing a role in the new College.  Long since retired, Morna is delighted to feel very much part of the community as a Life Fellow.

Dr Mary Stewart, Life Fellow
Mary was first a Fellow of Newnham, and later taught in Munich University and KCL, joining Robinson in 1976 and later on the University German Dept as a Senior Lecturer. “Setting up a whole new College was enormously exciting as a project, and we were determined above all to be truly mixed at all levels, and welcoming to partners too”. Mary later served as Deputy Warden from 1998-2005, and is now a Life Fellow. 

Dr Judy Weiss, Fellow Emerita
Like Morna and Mary, Judy was a founding Fellow at Robinson. Judy was at home raising her two young children when she was asked to join the College.  
She became Director of Studies for English and specialises in medieval  English and Anglo-Norman literature. Despite belonging to the English Faculty, she has provided many translations of Ango-Norman poetry that entertained the nobility in the 12th and 13th centuries.

Professor Amy Erickson, Teaching Fellow
As Professor in the History Faculty, Amy teaches early modern history and on the history of women in the university. Her current research focuses on 18th-century entrepreneurs, and using business cards from the British Museum she has just published ‘Wealthy businesswomen, marriage and succession in eighteenth-century London’, Business History 66:1 (2024). 

Lauren Domfe – 3rd year Robinson Student and Champion Powerlifter.  Lauren has broken the highest ever female total record (total weight lifted) in both Cambridge and Oxford. “My time at Robinson College hasn’t been anything short of amazing. From meeting wonderful girls that’ll remain my sisters for life to being financially and morally supported by the college alongside my powerlifting journey. Being able to push myself to my full potential physically and competing on national and international grounds, whilst also being enriched academically is a privilege I will cherish in my memories always.”

Hope McGovern - 3rd year PhD student in Computer Science at Robinson.  Hope is supported by the Cambridge Trust and the Woolf Institute for Interfaith Relations, and her work uses artificial intelligence to analyze human literature.  “I’m especially interested in analyzing religious literature like the Bible. My academic experience at Cambridge has been colourful and exciting, from taking elementary Hebrew in the Divinity Faculty to co-chairing a group on Faith & AI at the Woolf Institute to giving a talk on “AI Innovation and the Limits of Humanity" at the Round Church in Cambridge alongside the distinguished Prof. Peter Robinson. Before my PhD, I was an MPhil student at Cambridge, a Fulbright Scholar in Vienna, and an undergraduate at Brown University in Engineering Physics. Apart from my studies, I’m an avid bookworm, cook, musician, and volleyball/squash enthusiast”.