Who's who

Michael Banner has been Dean, Fellow and Director of Studies in Theology and Religious Studies at Trinity College since 2006. He was previously the Director of ESRC Genomics Forum and Professor of Ethics and Public Policy in Life Sciences in the School of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, University of Edinburgh, and from 1994 to 2004 F.D. Maurice Professor of Moral and Social Theology, King’s College, London. He was the Peden Visiting Scholar in the Department of Anthropology at Rice University in 2012, gave the 2013 Bampton Lectures in Oxford, and was the Charles Gore Lecturer at Westminster Abbey in 2019.

The Bampton Lectures were published in 2014 by Oxford University Press as The Ethics of Everyday Life: Moral Theology, Social Anthropology and the Imagination of the Human. The book was the basis for a symposium at a meeting of the American Academy of Anthropology of Religion in San Diego in the spring of 2015, the papers from which are now published in the Cambridge Journal of Anthropology (Vol. 33, No. 2, 2015, pp. 111–139). The book was also the subject for a conference organised by the McDonald Centre in the University of Oxford in May 2016, and for session at a conference at the University of Leuven, Belgium, in September 2016. The papers from the Oxford conference, with Michael Banner’s response, were published in 2019 by Georgetown University Press as Everyday Ethics: Moral Theology and the Practices of Ordinary Life, edited by Michael Lamb and Brian Williams.

His other publications include Christian Ethics and Contemporary Moral Problems (CUP, 1999), and Christian Ethics: A Brief History (Blackwells, 2009). Amongst his most recent papers, ‘Telling Lies, Telling Tales and Telling (and Doing) the Truth: Racism, Moral Repair and the Case for Reparations’, was published in January 2022, and The Cambridge Handbook for the Anthropology of Ethics (CUP, 2023), edited by James Laidlaw, includes his paper on the relationship between theology and social anthropology. He continues to contribute to the Visual Commentary on Scripture.

In 2016 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity by the University of Cambridge for his published works.

Amongst previous committee experience, he chaired a Committee of Enquiry for the Ministry of Agriculture from 1993 to 1995, the CJD Incidents Panel at the Department of Health, the Home Office’s Animal Procedures Committee from 1998 to 2006, and the Shell Panel on Animal Testing from 2002 to 2009. He also served as a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution for six years, was for nine years on the board of the Human Tissue Authority and chair of its Audit Committee, and served as a member of the Ministry of Defence’s Advisory Committee on Less Lethal Weapons from 2012 to 2021. He also did a term on the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.

He has an interest in matters to do with ethical investment and good business, and served for eight years on advisory boards for F&C Asset Management and Friend’s Life, in the City of London.

At Trinity College he has responsibility as Chair of Alumni Relations and Development for the College’s engagement with its alumni and for its development programme.

Michael is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day on the Today programme. Any recent contributions to Thought for the Day may be found through the link.

His current research focuses on migration, slavery and incarceration, and he has recently completed a book published in April 2024 by Oxford University Press entitled Britain’s Slavery Debt: Reparations Now!

Prof Banner’s curriculum vitae may be downloaded here.

Originally Trinity had a single Dean, who was responsible for both the Chapel and the conduct of members of College.  The job was divided in 1923, when the post of Dean of Chapel, a Fellow in Holy Orders, became separate from that of the Dean of College.  Confusingly, both are sometimes referred to as ‘Dean’.

Steven Grahl is Director of Music at Trinity College, Cambridge and Conductor of Schola Cantorum of Oxford. He is active as a conductor and keyboard player.

From 2018-2024, he was Organist (Director of Music) and Tutor in Music at Christ Church, Oxford, and an Associate Professor of Music at Oxford University. He was also Musical Director of Benson Choral Society. Steven served as Director of Music at Peterborough Cathedral from 2014 to 2018, where he was responsible for training the Cathedral Choir, and for the re-pitching of the Hill Organ, on which instrument he has recorded a solo CD. Peterborough Cathedral Choir’s recording of Cheryl Frances Hoad’s EvenYouSong, made under Steven’s direction, was released to critical acclaim in December 2017.

Read more about Steven at stevengrahl.com.

Anne read History at Trinity and worked in local government before returning to the College to study law. She practiced as a solicitor in Cambridgeshire before taking a career break to have her children, three of whom are now at university. She was ordained in 2019 and served her curacy in Cambridge.

She is happy to be contacted by any member of the College community about anything they face, whether faith related or not. She can signpost to other services and works closely with the rest of Trinity’s welfare team.

Before taking up chaplaincy roles in the university, first at Pembroke College and now here at Trinity, Sophie worked as Chaplain to the homeless community in Cambridge and as the Bishop’s Officer for Homelessness in the Diocese of Ely. On a day-to-day basis she was working in the streets and in hostels across the city with people who were multiply disadvantaged. As part of that ministry, she ran an addiction group and a women’s safe space. Before becoming a Church of England priest, Sophie worked in HR for Lloyds Bank, studied Theology at Churchill College here in Cambridge, and read Geography as an undergraduate at Durham University.

As chaplains, Anne and Sophie are here for everyone in the community, of all faiths and none. If you’d like to chat about hopes, possibilities, or problems, please do get in touch anytime and Sophie will be glad to meet with you.