Founder's Lecture 2026

The annual Founder's Lecture was created in 2005 as part of the 450th anniversary celebrations in College. The 2026 Founder's Lecture will be given by Professor Kate Nation, Maggie Snowling Fellow in Psychology.

Becoming a Reader

'Some people there are who, being grown, forget the horrible task of learning to read. It is perhaps the greatest single effort that the human undertakes, and he must do it as a child... [it is] the reduction of experience to a set of symbols'

So wrote the novelist John Steinbeck. This lecture will follow the child’s journey from novice to expert, as they learn to read. We will consider the cognitive and linguistic mechanisms that drive literacy and its development and by return, review how becoming literate shapes children’s thinking and feeling. In this National Year of Reading, we will reflect on what it means to be a reader, and why declines in reading need to be taken seriously.

The Founder's Lecture will take place at 5pm in the College Auditorium, and will be followed by a drinks reception in the Garden Quad Reception Room. 

Registrations will open soon. If you have any questions please email alumni@sjc.ox.ac.uk.