Last Tuesday, we were fortunate to welcome former Calne student Megan Harley-Martin, who returned to lead an insightful revision skills workshop and share an engaging lecture on her current research. Megan completed an undergraduate degree in Philosophy and Theology at Oxford after having left Calne in 2021, and is currently doing a masters in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Oxford. 

The afternoon started with a revision workshop with Megan for LVI and UVI A Level Religious Studies students. Megan has her own tutoring business and passed on valuable advice to us concerning how to revise for not only our RS A Level, but also for our other subjects. She taught us about different learning styles, from visual to kinaesthetic, teaching us to identify our own specific learning style in order to cater our revision process and techniques to benefit us more when revising. Some revision techniques she taught us were colour-coded highlighting as well as acronyms and making word associations. It was very beneficial to hear from someone who has been through the same experience of having to revise for A Levels at Calne. 

In the evening, we had the pleasure of listening to Megan give a lecture about her current studies in her MA at Oxford. Her lecture was titled “What would we choose if we actually had a choice? – An exploration of Feminist Determinism.”  

Megan drew our attention to a simple choice we might make in daily life – choosing a piece of clothing to wear. She opened our eyes to how this choice was predetermined by a long string of other people and other factors and how it is not truly our own free choice. This represents how so many decisions we make in life are predetermined by others, and Megan emphasized how this is specifically the case for women. Hearing Megan speak was highly inspirational and eye-opening, making us think more about the choices that women make and how choices being predetermined affect ourselves in daily life. Megan’s passion about the topic was extremely infectious and truly encouraged us to see the world in a different perspective. 

Megan’s passion for activism and social work further shone through as she told us more about her work for the English Collective of Prostitutes and for the United Nations Development Programme in our Q&A session following the lecture. 

Having Megan back at Calne and hearing her speak and give us advice was highly valuable for us and we truly appreciate her taking time out of her busy schedule to come and speak to us. 

Ellie P and Zara C, LVI