Author: Mette Ahlefeldt

We had a great Freshers Dinner at Chiche where OUSL committee members and representatives of our staunch mock interviewers joined us in welcoming four of our seven new students at Oxford.

We had the joy of meeting two freshers and two postgrad students: Maria, Rüzgar, Lisa and Jemima over a glass of wine (or water!) and a wealth of delicious platters of Lebanese food to share.

The conversation ranged from studies, Luxembourg, politics, and not least the importance of Oxford pubs!

We wish our new freshers and postgrads all the best luck and prosperity during their time in Oxford!

Our new students at Oxford!

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Thank you all for coming!!

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Invitation:

In line with our long-established tradition we are inviting our new freshers for an informal Dinner at Chiche! together with committee members, mock-interviewers and other who have helped with education and outreach.

This is an informal and congenial evening where we get to toast the new students and wish them all the best for their forthcoming studies. We also hope to foster a lasting bond so that we can stay in contact with the students and reconnect when/if they return to Luxembourg.

This year, the main organiser of the OUSL Freshers Dinner is our committee member for Outreach, Dan Schmit. Should you have any questions please contact Dan Schmit, and chair@oxford.lu.

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I am proud to say that we had a simply wonderful evening at Cercle Munster last night, 17 Sep. 2026! Co-hosted by Cercle Munster and OUSL, with Cercle Munster generously sponsoring the music, we were delighted to welcome 44 members and guests, young and old, for a superb performance by Duo Natalia. Natalia van der Mersch (violin) and Natalia Kovalzon (piano) kept us spellbound as we journeyed together through the romantic music of Dvořák, Franck, Kreisler and Wieniawski to the jazz-inspired Ravel, ending with the bravura encore of Khachaturian’s Sabre Dance.

The concert was followed by a lively cocktail and dinner in one of Cercle Munster‘s freshly redecorated banquet rooms. What a way to open the autumn season!

Many thanks to Duo Natalia, to Cercle Munster, and to everyone who joined us.

Below, a little picture cavalcade:

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Invitation:

You know them from their many concerts and recordings and we had a ten-minute taster of their art at the Tripartite Dinner last year at the Golf Club Grand-Ducal. I promised you then to broker a proper concert and this is now done!

So do join us (plus 1’s are welcome) on Saturday 12 September 2026:

Timing: Welcome: 16h45 | Concert: 17h | Cocktail: 18h15 | Dinner: 19h: 

Dress Code: Jacket & Tie

Sign-up: please register with chair@oxford.lu, with cc to reservation@munster.lu

Payment: €110/ticket. Once your space(s) has/have been confirmed you will be asked to settle the payment in favour of OUSL.

See this link for a glowing review from Duo Natalia’s concert in Vienna in Bösendorfer Salon, Wien

Once again, we were invited to join Cambridge for the annual Oxbridge Fish Dinner at Schueberfouer.

And once again, it was a convivial and cheerful crowd of Light and Dark Blues – around twenty in all. Thanks a lot to John Speed of Camsoc for continuing to arrange this festive, annual get-together.

See Camsoc’s invitation below:

Although we don’t tend to have Oxbridge Drinks over the Summer, John Speed is kindly arranging one in July – so do join us for some summer drinks at Atmos.

Venue: Atmos Bar. 32 Rue de la Poste, 2346 Ville-Haute Luxembourg

Date & Time: Thursday 30 July, 19h

Sign-up: This is necessary in order to book enough seats, so please write to John Speed on president@cambridgesociety.lu, with a cc to chair@oxford.lu.

We are delighted to offer you the opportunity to attend an upcoming talk and cocktail reception in Luxembourg with 2025 Nobel Laureate in Economics, Professor Joel Mokyr. This invitation-only event is being organized by the Luxembourg School of Business. Members of our society can express interest in attending. We will then facilitate an invitation. Kindly be reminded that should you receive an invitation, you are expected to fulfill the commitment of attending.

Date: Thursday, 09 July 2026

Time: 18:00 – 21:00

Location: Le Royal Hotel Luxembourg

Sign-up with Mette Ahlefeldt-Laurvig. no later than 18 June.

Cost: the event is free, but sign-up is obligatory

Professor Joel Mokyr is an economic historian and the Robert H. Strotz Professor of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University. His work is highly relevant to Luxembourg, as it champions the strength of public and private institutions, density of knowledge workers, and openness to the world as critical elements to economic growth. Luxembourg exemplifies many of the very dynamics Professor Mokyr has spent his career explaining. 

Nobel Prize Banquet Speech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wlzkpmgsck

The talk will be followed by a social cocktail reception, where attendees can reflect on the ideas shared and connect with other guests who will represent a wide array of public and private sector interests in the Benelux region. Confirmed guests include ambassadors, central bank governors, c-level executives and academic leaders.

We ended this busy half-year of OUSL events with a great talk by H. E. Hua Ning and dinner at the Golf Club Grand-Ducal. The large guest list included both OUSL members and friends from our sister societies.

This was the second part of our miniseries on Roman Britain. Whereas Oxford and INRA arranged the first talk and dinner with Professor Bowman speaking on the Vindolanda tablets, this event was arranged by Cambridge and INRA. We had a great talk by Professor Martin Millett: FBA, MAE Emeritus Laurence Professor of Classical Archaeology as we sat in the warm summer’s evening at the amazingly preserved Gallo-Roman Theatre in Dalheim. While the evening took onset in Dalheim we were soon engrossed in various archeological sites in Britain which Professor Millett, his team and colleagues had mapped, with magnetometers without any digging whatsoever! We heard about the exchange between Roman and English culture and left with a far more nuanced picture of the Roman invasion. Many of the seats of amphitheatre were filled and there was a lively Q & A after the talk.

Afterwards a good group of light and dark blues and archeologists had an excellent meal at ‘A Schmatten’. We are grateful to Cambridge for this lovely event which ended our Oxbridge miniseries on Roman Britain.

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See below for the invitation.

Venue: Gallo-Roman Theatre in Dalheim. 

Organisers: Camsoc & INRA.

Please contact president@cambridgesociety.lu for more information.