Ali Rogers

Senior Tutor and Fellow 2013–
Senior Dean 2003–2008
Fellow by Special Election 2002–2012
Lecturer in Geography 1987–2002

Ali’s time with Keble falls into two parts; twenty-five years as a tutor in Human Geography followed by more than a decade as Senior Tutor. He was recruited to a college lectureship by Tim Burt in 1987 while completing his DPhil at Nuffield College (having previously been an undergraduate at St Catherine’s). Ali had carried out fieldwork in Los Angeles, researching the relations between communities, power, and space in an urban neighbourhood. Although he only held teaching positions at Oxford (with a variety of colleges and the School of Geography), Ali sustained an academic interest in issues of migration, multiculturalism, and urban life, while also writing more generally about the history and philosophy of Geography. The academic achievement of which he is most proud was the foundation of a new inter-disciplinary journal, Global Networks: a Journal of Transnational Affairs, of which he was the Editor-in-Chief from 2000 to 2022 and which is still going strong.

Ali tutored Keble undergraduates in Geography and also taught at St Catherine’s and Brasenose. This precarious employment became more stable when he was appointed as a Fellow by Special Election in 2002. Grateful for this opportunity, he soon agreed to serve as Senior Dean, a post he held for over five years. Being Dean taught Ali a lot about the College, its community, and its values.

When the post of Senior Tutor became vacant in 2012, Ali recognised it was an opportunity to do something different as well as contribute to the College. The appointment as full-time Senior Tutor (a role which includes being Tutor for Admissions and Tutor for Graduates) meant leaving behind the joys and tribulations of tutoring undergraduates. In compensation, he has become more engaged with the wider University, through various committees of Conference of Colleges, the Mathematics, Physical and Life Sciences Divisional Board, departmental reviews and, most recently, Oxford’s policies on graduates.