Tuesday 27th January 2026

Features

Between halls and helplines: Oxford’s eating disorder culture

In a university where excellence is expected and discipline is praised, disordered eating can hide in plain sight. As concerns grow, how effectively is Oxford confronting the culture and systems that allow it to persist?

15-minutes of fame: the legacy of Oxford’s traffic policy protests

Oxford City Council approved their Local Plan to make Oxford a 15-minute city on 14th September 2022. In response, conspiracy theorists organised a mass protest. With some of the new traffic regulations now in place, it’s time for a deep dive into the conspiracist movement and its sunset legacy in Oxford. 

£17,000 on grass, redacted files, and 250,000 parcels: Cherwell’s 2025 FOI review

As the Cherwell Investigations team, we take our job very seriously. A big part...

Is the future of student protest set in stone? 

Niamh Lynch did not expect to attract international attention during Trinity term of her...

The Guardian of the Constitution: an institutional look at the jubilee

Imagine you were asked by a visitor from another country, or perhaps even another planet, to explain the unusual activity in the UK this...

How did we get here? Democrats, political power, and the fight for American abortion rights

On the 24th of June, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, decisions which for...

Northern Ireland’s three-way split

For the first time since the foundation of Northern Ireland, a nationalist/republican party with the expressed aim of a united Ireland is the largest...

Beyond the Etonians: Simon Kuper’s Chums in today’s Oxford

"If the structure of undergraduate life then had such adverse outcomes and is so worthy of condemnation – and the structure fundamentally hasn’t changed – what does that imply for Oxford now?"

‘Doomer politics’: The death spiral of Russian civil society

"The end of doomer politics will require the ideal scenario of regime change, and then that the West actually demonstrate to Russians that there is a workable alternative to the way their country is run."

A Month of Reconnection: Ramadan Practices in a Post-COVID World

"But more importantly, the cohesion of the Muslim community, the ummah, and the congregational aspect of worship has been threatened."

Raging against the dying of the light: what the DUP’s predicament tells us about the state of unionism in Northern Ireland

"But on 5th May 2022, when Northern Ireland goes to the polls to elect representatives to its legislature, the DUP is expected to have its long shadow over Northern Irish politics substantially shortened. Polls have consistently shown the party’s leader – Sir Jeffery Donaldson – as the most unpopular of the Northern Irish political leaders, and the party has been embattled by resurgent intra-community political rivals."

“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.

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...

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