CorpComms Magazine

Prospective professors of poetry at the University of Oxford are taking to Facebook to garner support for their candidacy, with graduates able to vote for their favourite candidate online for the first time.

Today is the deadline for nominations and already four of the seven candidates have harnessed the social networking site to win over the academic electorate. Previous voter turnout has been low, with just 500 graduates out of more than 200,000 eligible to vote casting a ballot, but this year looks set to be different.

The esteemed poet, Geoffrey Hill, would normally be anticipated to walk into the post. He has so far won 64 academic nominations, more than double the figure for any other applicant and his candidacy has been endorsed the former Poet Laureate, Sir Andrew Motion. But Facebook is telling a different story - rather as with our general election, new tools for engaging the electorate are bringing unexpected candidates into the frame.

Whilst the group 'Geoffrey Hill for Oxford Professor of Poetry 2010' has gleaned a healthy 192 members, it is being roundly routed by that of the performance poet and singer-songwriter, Steve Larkin, which gained 200 supporters in the first two days and now boasts a grand total of 263 members.

The post has received particular attention in this round of applications owing to last year's scandal when the recently elected professor, Ruth Padell, was accused of a mounting a smear campaign to oust her rival, Derek Walcott. A week into her tenure, it emerged that she had alerted journalists to allegations of sexual harassment against Walcott by former students at Harvard and Boston universities.

The result will be announced on 18 June.

share me: del.icio.us | digg | reddit | Tweet