Friday, March 7, 2025

Features

“All faiths and none?”: What college chapels can offer their students

The rustle of a scholar’s gown. Dappled evening light glowing behind a stained-glass saint. The crackling of a candle being lit. The college chapel can easily feel removed from...

You wouldn’t steal a Cherwell article: AI and copyright infringement

Hello, Cherwell reader! Think this is a good article? A TikToker probably thinks so...

Much ado about funding: Financing Oxford student theatre

Last term, I performed in my first show at Oxford University, and I couldn’t...

High pressure, few spots: What Careers Service data says about Oxford’s internship culture

"Planning ahead is sensible, important – even exciting. But it shouldn’t come at the expense of everything else."

“Not your best Judy”: The gay man’s misogyny

Fiónn McFadden discusses the problem of misogyny among gay men and how it relates to the stereotype of the "gay best friend".

A critique of the critique ‘industry plant’

Aarthee Pari discusses the meaning of the term 'industry plant' and its validity as a critique of musicians.

Flinching before a dead god

God is Dead, but lots of us miss him. We look for his shadow in astrological charts, turn that shadow into beams of light that...

“Now it’s just around the corner”: Impacts of the Russo-Ukrainian crisis in Romania

Jack Twyman interviews Florin Misiuc, a member of the Romanian diaspora, on the effects of the conflict in Ukraine as felt in Romania.

Voices from Ukraine

CW: War, violence, death Seeing everything going on in Ukraine at the moment, I was struck by the fact that one thing stayed constant, the...

A letter from Lviv, Ukraine

CW: Mentions of violence, trauma, death. This article was written on the 26th of February. As I am writing this, millions of people in Kyiv are...

Chiang Kai-shek must fall: An introduction to fallism in Taiwan

Charlie Croft discusses the legacy of Chiang Kai-shek and the dispute about whether his statues should be taken down in Taiwan.

What’s in a name? Buildings and the politics of nomenclature

Elena Rotzokou discusses the culture wars surrounding the naming (and renaming) of buildings in Oxford and beyond, and examines the meanings that these names carry.

The 2022 Midterms: An oversimplified guide to why Democrats are (probably) screwed

It is a truth universally acknowledged that an American politician in possession of a House or Senate seat must be perpetually engaged in campaigning....

The rise, fall, and ambiguous resurgence of Lin-Manuel Miranda

Even if you’ve never heard of Lin-Manuel Miranda, you’ve likely heard of at least one of his works: In the Heights, Bring it On:...

Hindi and Urdu: A language divided, or a shared history destroyed?

CW: Violence I was in Tesco last week, looking at the tomatoes. A man to my right commented on the ripeness of the peppers. I...

In the belly of Jordan Peterson: Ambivalence in question with the ersatz journalist

"There is no Culture War without its student soldiers. In some ways, the Jordan-Peterson-spectacle is funny; and we can laugh. But we cannot dismiss these people. Perhaps instead we might look a hunched Professor in the face and ask ourselves: what’s it all about?"

The British higher education system: rigid or rigorous?

‘I first realised I wanted to study History and only History when I was 7 and visited the Tower of London on a school...

Choked Up: Race and the climate justice movement

‘As a child it was always the small things I would notice, an ice cream van humming in the playground, parked cars outside the...

The Costa Rican performing arts academy proving why a creative education matters

"Since the Academy was founded, it has flourished, taking in students from the age of just 6 and delivering a range of classes in disciplines like acting, singing, dance and public speaking...When the pandemic began, Laura tells me how all their classes moved online, providing great solace to all the students of the Academy and allowing their creative education to continue."

On Misunderstanding Taylor Swift

"When she does reach pop music, she exerts an extreme amount of control and mastery over commonly used sonic structures. ‘Blank Space’ parodies both the narratives surrounding her and general pop structures. This is done by the marking out of the chorus and the excessive use of four chords that are commonly used throughout music. The basic structure of a song is tripartite: setup, build-up, and climax, often corresponding to the sections verse-chorus, verse-chorus, bridge-chorus.‘Shake It Off’, as basic as it may seem, is one of the most complex songs on the album ‘1989’. This is because each sub-setup, build-up, and climax have their own setup, build-up, and climax. We praise Homer for his ability to expand on his basic structural frameworks: to appreciate the artistry of the compositions, we should look at Taylor’s songs in the same way."

Staying in to ensure a safe night out

"Ultimately, clubs don’t seem to envision a world in which spiking does not happen, and despite their good intentions, this automatically places the onus on the individual to go out of their way to avoid being spiked, and go through the stress of reporting it when it does happen."

Cis-piscion and the difficulties of ‘identifying’ ancient transgender figures

"The Classical world remains one that was intensely interested in gender."

‘Fear of Kidnapping and Beating’: The ‘Triple Crisis’ of Female Refugee Care

"Silence is a hard stain to get out. Even when they reached their host countries, refugee women and asylum-seekers could not voice their trauma."

The Damaging Effects of Mild, Persistent Sexism and Why it’s so Hard to Talk About

"When the sexist behaviours are mild but occur over a long period of time, the effect can also be damaging and yet an intense angry reaction is easily dismissed."

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