The best conversations often happen over coffee.

A chance meeting can spark a new friendship, lead to unexpected ideas, or simply provide a pause in a busy week. Chat Café builds on that simple truth, creating time and space for the St Edmund’s community to come together informally and feel at home.

Launched by Dr Rafia Al-Lamki and Dr Zainab Salim, with the support of Director of Student Wellbeing Dr Nqobile Msomi, Chat Café grew out of a shared vision to nurture the connections that make College life richer. With an understanding that community flourishes when people meet as equals, across roles, cultures, and disciplines.

Chat Café is more than just coffee. It’s a welcoming space for conversations that don’t fit neatly into formal meetings or lectures. Staff, Students, and Fellows can meet one another, share perspectives, and discover common ground. These unplanned, unhurried interactions are often the ones that create lasting friendships and a genuine sense of belonging.

As Dr Nqobile Msomi explains,

St Edmund’s is a community with unique challenges. Many of our members don’t live onsite or work from offices in College, so we have to be more intentional about creating reasons to come together. The MPH CR is emerging as just such a space, and Chat Café is a wonderful way to make it a place where everyone feels seen, heard, and connected.

This Michaelmas Term 2025, Chat Café will take place in the MPH CR on the following Thursday at 4pm (during Term time):

• 16 October
• 30 October
• 13 November
• 27 November

Everyone is welcome. Come for the coffee, stay for the conversation.