Teachers for our University Pathways and Gap Year programmes

Our academic teaching staff are experienced and highly skilled in teaching in an international environment. They specialise in a range of intellectually engaging subjects including Art, Business, Economics, English Literature, Film Studies, History, International Relations, Philosophy, Photography, Politics, Psychology, Sociology and many more. Some teachers are examiners in their specialist area. Also, many teach at the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University, as well as universities in London.

Our academic programmes benefit from small class sizes. This high staff-to-student ratio provides greater levels of support to develop academic literacies in essay writing, debating, critical thinking, researching and presenting. Many students comment that our programmes really prepare them for further study at university and beyond.

Our teaching approach extends beyond the classroom with engaging Study Visits; utilising some of the many academic resources that Oxford has to offer. One of the benefits of selecting us as your study destination.

The latest inspection report highlights our education quality ‘Teaching is excellent and results in high levels of student engagement and motivation to learn.’  – ISI PFE March 2019

Anna Castriota

Anna is Italian and came to Oxford in 1994 following her Italian doctoral degree in Philosophy (Summa Cum Laude) and her Research Fellowship at Pembroke College, Oxford. She immediately fell in love with Britain and Oxford and decided to settle here. In 2001, Anna took the decision to undertake a Masters in History of Fascism at Oxford Brookes University with a dissertation on post-fascism in Italy. In 2003, she began her adventure as Politics and Philosophy tutor at some tutorial colleges in Oxford. In 2006, she became member of the academic staff of St Clare’s, as a Politics instructor. Since then, her academic interests have focused mainly on the study of the far right and ideological radicalism as her several publications can testify. Since 2014, Anna has become involved in academic projects like the Radicalism Forum at the University of Northampton where she is concluding her second PhD (Politics) with a thesis on fascist mysticism and neo-fascist terrorism. Since 2014, Anna has been collaborating with the Riga Holocaust Studies Centre and the European Centre for Democracy as political analyst and researcher by monitoring the rise of ultra -nationalism, xenophobia and far-right in Europe. In 2015, Anna became secretary and member of the editorial board of the philosophical society British Personalist Forum on behalf of which in June 2016, she co-organised a conference on the theme of Persons and Personalism at York St John University.

David Chaplin

David Chaplin has been a member of the St Clare’s community for twenty years. He teaches Theory of Knowledge on the IB and Photography on our Pre-IB, summer school, and senior courses. He also developed our popular ’TOK tours’ of Oxford, which explore the rich intellectual heritage of the city. In 2015 he began working as a Personal Tutor, and also works in the library where he recently set up an educational e-video platform for staff and students. He was awarded his first degree by the University of Wales in the Humanities, gained his PGCE in Oxford, and has studied Art and Design. He also has a certificate in teaching basic literacy and numeracy to adults with learning difficulties, which was inspired by his work prior to St Clare’s in the mental health division of the NHS. His main interests are photography and hiking. He has exhibited photographs in Oxford and has taken many of the pictures on this website.

Edward Clarke

Edward Clarke has taught English literature and art history on the Liberal Arts Study Abroad program at St Clare’s since 2008. He also teaches English literature and creative writing at the Department for Continuing Education, Oxford University, as well as tutoring at various Oxford colleges. He has an MA (Oxon) in English Language and Literature and was awarded a PhD by Trinity College, Dublin, for his work on the American poet, Wallace Stevens, in relation to Shakespeare, Milton, and various Romantic poets. His critical books include The Later Affluence of W.B. Yeats and Wallace Stevens (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) and The Vagabond Spirit of Poetry (Iff Books, 2014). The Secret Mind of Art will be published by Angelico Press in 2023. Edward’s latest collection of poems is called Cherubims (Kelsay Books, 2022). A Book of Psalms was published by Paraclete Press in 2020. ‘Clarke’s Psalter’, the documentary he presented about writing these poems, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2018

Francesca Shakespeare

Francesca Shakespeare is a practising artist and Art teacher. She has worked part time for St Clare’s for nearly a decade and teaches on the Pre IB program, the senior courses and the summer schools. Francesca did a Fine Art and Italian degree at Exeter University, living and working in Italy before and during her course. Before moving to Oxford over twenty years ago, she ran a mural and decorative Art business in London with a studio in Notting Hill and commissions all around the country. She then started painting and teaching and exhibits both locally and further afield.

Francesca is an active member of the local art community. She co-ordinates Summertown Artweeks (part of the big Oxfordshire Art Festival) and is a founding committee member of Young Art Oxford, a county-wide children’s art competition that exhibits at The Ashmolean Museum. She also works regularly with the Ashmolean’s education department to create interactive artworks for the galleries.

As an illustrator, she has produced the decorative map of St Clare’s as well as ones of the River Thames and Cherwell. Francesca is married with three children in their twenties.
Website: www.francescashakespeare.com

Jadwiga Wanelik

Jadwiga studied Literature and French at Jagiellonian University in Kraków and at Sorbonne IV in Paris. In 1986 she was awarded a Master’s degree in Romance Philology from Jagiellonian University, which included a Polish equivalent of PGCE. Between 1986 and 1989 she taught French at the French Institute in Kraków, after which she moved to Oxford. During her first three years in England she worked for Oxfam as a part-time translator, translating monthly bulletins from English into French. Jadwiga has been working at St Clare’s since 1993, teaching both Polish and French. She has also been working as a residential warden, duty manager and library assistant.
Jadwiga loves literature, films, art and has a keen interest in Japanese literature and culture. She also very much enjoys her voluntary work for Mind, the mental health charity.

Jing Ping Fan

Jing is a teacher of Chinese who joined St Clare’s in 2003. She currently teaches Chinese A: Literature, Chinese B, Mandarin ab initio and Pre-IB World Literature. She is also a personal tutor and has worked as an IB examiner.
Trained as a teacher, Jing graduated from Central China Normal University with a BA in English Language and Literature, and she then did a postgraduate certificate in Comparative Literature in Wuhan, China. She also holds a PhD in Education and PGCE in Language Teaching from Goldsmith’s College, London. During her PGCE work placement, Jing spent one academic term at the prestigious Eton College, where she had an interesting and memorable experience. Before moving to the UK, she worked as a university lecturer, teaching English as well as Chinese to undergraduate students.
In her spare time, Jing enjoys yoga, swimming and playing the piano. She also enjoys travelling with her family, exploring exotic places and authentic foods.

Julia Gutierrez

Julia has been teaching EFL since 2001, working in schools in Uganda, Australia, China and Austria, as well as the UK. She currently teaches on the University Foundation Course and teacher training programmes at St Clare’s. At the beginning of her career, Julia worked as a volunteer in rural Uganda where she taught pupils from underprivileged backgrounds. She later went on to become Head of Foreign Teachers at the renowned Sun Yat Sen Memorial Middle School in China, where her responsibilities included designing and administering bespoke teacher training sessions. She gained her Trinity Diploma in 2006 and became a Trinity approved Teacher Trainer in 2012. Furthermore, she has held positions as EFL Programme Co-ordinator and Academic Manager at busy and prestigious schools. She has been an author and editor for the ELT Division of Oxford University Press since 2012. During this time, her work has included writing for their online testing system and the recent ‘Navigate’ course book, as well as preparing CEFR mapping documents for publications such as ‘New Headway’. Julia loves travelling to new countries to learn about their culture and language. She also has a keen appreciation of the beauty of nature and enjoys spending time outdoors.

Keith Ibsen

Keith Ibsen is currently the Programme coordinator of the University Foundation course and Director of Studies of the English language courses. He has been teaching since 1996 and taught in many schools and colleges in Spain and Japan before joining St Clare’s in 2014. He studied Modern Languages at the University of Westminster, which included a year studying in Mexico. As well as teaching he has worked as a restaurant manager, waiter, barman and lifeguard. Since returning to his hometown of Oxford and arriving at St Clare’s he has completed his DELTA certification. He is a keen traveller who has spent time in several countries over five continents. He is also interested in accents and languages, and as well as English he speaks Spanish and Japanese. In his spare time he plays too many board games, watches too many movies and drinks too much coffee.

Kay Alty

Kay Alty is a marketing professional with over 30 years’ corporate experience in Publishing, IT and Marketing Services. She has been teaching Marketing courses at the International College since 2008 and advocates the application of business theory to actual business case studies and creative assignments to encourage interactive learning.

From 1996 to 2015 Kay was founder and MD of Data Print & Mail Ltd, a marketing services agency specialising in consultancy; database management; telemarketing and desk research; event management and CRM. Prior to setting up in business Kay was Client Services Director at ABC Promotional Services and Special Projects Manager at Pergamon Press. In 1982 she graduated from L’École Supérieure de Commerce, Reims (linked then to Middlesex Polytechnic, now with Lancaster University) on completion of the 4 year Diplôme des Etudes Européennes de Management/BAEBA programme.

Kay is a volunteer with The Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock and New Yatt Riding for the Disabled Group.

Lucrezia Rizzelli

Lucrezia Rizzelli studied Psychological Sciences and Techniques at the University of Florence, specialising in social, organisational and work psychology. While studying for her Bacherlor’s, she also attended Aarhus Universitet in Denmark for half a year. After she graduated from her undergraduate programme, she received the award of “Best Psychology Student of the Year” from the University of Florence. In 2019, she earned her Master’s degree in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, where she joined Professor Saul Kassin’s false confession laboratory and conducted research on the linguistic style of false confessions. This study was then presented at the Innocence Network Forum in 2021 and published in the same year in the Wrongful Conviction Law Review with the title “The Language of Criminal Confessions: A Corpus Analysis of Confessions Presumed True vs. Proven False”. During her stay in the US, Lucrezia also volunteered at the Innocence Project and was an investigative intern at the New York City Department of Investigation.

She now teaches Sociology of Crime and Deviance at St. Clare, while pursuing a DPhil in Criminology from the University of Oxford. Her main research interests are: miscarriages of justice, capital punishment, criminal justice reform, and forensic psychology.

In her free time, Lucrezia enjoys reading fictions books and experimenting in the kitchen.

Magnus Moar

Magnus Moar is a graduate of Oxford and Sussex universities. After graduating from his Theology degree, he went on to complete an MA in Literature, Religion and Philosophy and a DPhil in Philosophy on the work of the Danish thinker Soren Kierkegaard. Magnus began teaching in 2001 and has been teaching Philosophy and Religion courses at the International College since 2007, working on all of the academic programmes. Beyond his work at St Clare͛s, Magnus also works for Oxford University͛s Department for Continuing Education teaching adult learners in Philosophy in Oxford and Reading. As a former departmental head at another college, Magnus has been involved in tutor recruitment and training. He has a published article in the volume ͚Despite Oneself: Subjectivity and Its Secret in Kierkegaard and Levinas͛ (Turnshare, London) and is no stranger to the conference circuit. Magnus is currently working on an interdisciplinary text that examines the philosophy of human nature in literature.

Paul Sinclair

Paul Sinclair is the Director of Studies for the Academic Programmes at the International College and enjoys both working with our university partners in the USA and advising students who apply to American Universities, a role he has fulfilled since 2007. He studied Medieval History at the University of St Andrews and also completed a year of study abroad at Queen’s University, Canada, and an MA in History at the University of Washington in Seattle before moving to Oxford to research thirteenth century England on a British Academic Scholarship at St John’s College, especially kingship, knighthood and the reign of King Henry III. Paul teaches Liberal Arts courses on history and art history and gives seminars on a range of medieval topics, J.R.R. Tolkien and Victorian medievalism; he is currently researching the utopian writings of William Morris. In his spare time, he likes to explore eighteenth century English landscape gardens and listen to 1960s American soul music – although rarely at the same time. 

Samuel Bond

Samuel Bond is currently completing his PhD in Psychology at Oxford Brookes University. Before his PhD, Samuel completed an MSc in Psychology at Oxford Brookes University and undergraduate degree in Philosophy at Sheffield University.

In his PhD, he is researching a mechanism shown to help us acquire new languages called statistical learning. Remarkably, even very young infants can use this statistical learning mechanism to determine where one word ends and another begins, segmenting the fluent speech they hear. Samuel studies statistical learning in adults. He does this by developing different artificial languages and playing these languages to participants series of experiments.

Samuel completes his PhD alongside his teaching commitments at St Clare’s. This teaching includes introductory psychology courses and a statistical literacy module. Samuel has experience teaching in a variety of settings over many years, including undergraduates and adults.

Sarah Stretton

Sarah has been a teacher for over 11 years, working in Spain, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. She currently teaches English, Academic subjects on the Undergraduate Programme and Teacher Training at the International College. Sarah has a History degree from the University of York, a Master’s from Oxford Brookes University and the DIPTESOL which she completed in Barcelona. 

Before her teaching career, Sarah worked in the heritage sector, specifically historic and rare libraries. She began her teaching career teaching young learners in Andalucía in Spain where she was a centre Very Young Learner specialist. She then moved on to teach university students in Tokyo, Japan. Following this, she spent several years teaching English to international students in schools in Sydney, Australia and Wellington, New Zealand. After 6 years living and working abroad, she returned to work and live in the UK and first worked for St Clare’s in 2016 on the Summer School Programme.  

Since then, she has taught on several summer school programmes, taught English for Life and Exams and a Gateway to Foundation course at the International College. In the last couple of years, Sarah has moved into teacher training and has taught several teacher development courses for St Clare’s, including online courses for teachers in Argentina and Mozambique. She also teaches Children’s Literature for the International College’s Undergraduate programme to American education students from Elon University. 

Outside of her work at St Clare’s, Sarah is a writer and won an international writing award in 2019 and has had several works of short fiction and poetry published. In her role as a writer, she also works as a Creative Writing tutor and mentor for local charity Fusion Art Oxford. Sarah is a very keen reader and regularly reviews books. She has organised a women’s book club in Oxford for the past four years. 

Victoria Staveley

Victoria Staveley works at St Clare’s in various capacities. In addition to teaching Theory of Knowledge, she is the Academic Office manager. She also teaches Liberal Arts courses in Renaissance Studies, European Crime Fiction, and Jane Austen. She studied English and French at Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada before coming to do postgraduate research at St. John’s College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada doctoral fellow.