Oxford University Exploration Club

Dr Mark Anderson

Professional archaeologist Mark Anderson travelled to southern Africa to explore the remains of the stone walled capital of Marothodi. The city was fortuitously place on a concentration of vital resources which allowed it to grow into a centre of political power. Mark Anderson, who attained a Masters in Professional Archaeology here at Oxford, combined the evidence he excavated with the rich oral histories of the area to piece together the history of Marothody.
This is only one of the many historical areas explored by Mark Anderson in his distinguished archaeological career. He has toured the United States as a guest lecturer for the Archaeological Institute of America and he is a Member of the Institute for Archaeologists and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Exped catch-up drinks

A chance for current Expedition to check in on funding and planning progress with each other, and with the committee. Expeditions advisor Peter Coals will be on hand to answer questions. Also consider coming if you’re thinking about an Expedition for Summer 2012!

Dr Tom Kemp

Dr Kemp is a paleontologist and explorer, as a curator in the University Museum, he is interested in the collection and conservation of zoological and palaeontological specimens, and their use in research and teaching, and public exhibition.

His broad field is vertebrate palaeobiology, and he is particularly interested in the mammal-like reptiles and early mammals, and what can be inferred about the structural, functional and ecological aspects of the origin of mammals from their basal amniote ancestry. He also uses this case as a paradigm for thinking about major evolutionary transitions and the origin of new higher taxa in general: how long treks through morphospace, involving substantial changes in many characters over the geological time scale, can occur while the phenotype necessarily remains a highly complex, well-integrated entity.

Dr John Hemming

Dr John Hemming, is a Canadian explorer and author, expert on Incas and indigenous peoples of Amazonia. His first book, The Conquest of the Incas, was published in 1970; one reviewer believed that it was by a famous historian using a pseudonym, so high was the level of scholarship. (Hemming at the time was only an M . A . ; he later received a D . Litt doctorate from Oxford as well as honorary doctorates from the University of Warwick and the University of Stirling.

In 1975, John Hemming became Director and Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society, a post he held until 1996. The Society changed in every way during those 21 years: its membership more than doubled; finances went from deficits to a healthy surplus; lectures expanded from about 20 per year to involve 450 speakers. John Hemming is currently Chairman of the Amazon Charitable Trust, a trustee of The John Ellerman Foundation, Earthwatch, Lepra, The Hakluyt Society, The Gilchrist Educational Trust, The Rainforest Foundation, and The Global Diversity Foundation.

He is also on the advisory board of charity Cool Earth, one of the founders of Survival International and for 10 years served on the board of the British Council.

Robert Twigger

Robert Twigger is a British author and explorer who has been described as, ‘a 19th Century adventurer trapped in the body of a 21st Century writer’. He attended Oxford University and later spent a year training at Martial Arts with the Tokyo Riot Police. He has won numerous literary awards.

In 1997, whilst on an expedition in Northern Borneo, he discovered a line of menhirs crossing into Kalimantan. In 1998 He was part of the team that caught the world’s longest snake- documented in the Channel 4/National Geographic film and book Big Snake; later he was the leader of the expedition that was the first to cross Western Canada in a birchbark canoe since 1793. 

Most recently, in 2009-2010, he led an expedition that was the first to cross the 700 km Great Sand Sea of the Egyptian Sahara solely on foot. He has also written for newspapers and magazines such as The Daily Telegraph, Maxim and Esquire, and has published several poetry collections, including one in 2003, with Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing.

Robert has published Real Men Eat Puffer Fish (2008), a humorous but comprehensive guide to frequently overlooked but not exclusively masculine pastimes, and has given lectures on the topic of ‘Lifeshifting’, an approach which emphasises the need to centre one’s life around meaning-driven motivation. Drawing on experiences working with indigenous peoples from around the world, he has spoken on ‘work tribes’ and polymathy. He has also spoken on leadership. Some of these talks have been to companies such as Proctor and Gamble, Maersk Shipping, SAB Miller and Oracle computing.

He writes, “I’m not that interested in straight reporting, though it can lead to better things. Much more interested passing on some of the stuff I have found to be true and useful.”

Annual Dinner

Join us for our annual black tie dinner, guests this year include Warwick Cairns who spent time drilling wells on a Sioux reservation in South Dakota and travelling in Africa with the explorer Wilfred Thesiger - the subject of his third book -before settling on a career in advertising.