Saturday, May 17, 2025

Features

Too young for bops, old enough for a first

There are 237 Oxford students aged 17 and below. In the past, some have dramatically crashed out in the public eye, but many others thrive.

Oxford’s influencers: Student life, filtered through the screen

Oxford has often seemed a mysterious place. An online generation is getting a new but still curated glimpse of life under the dreaming spires

Pagans and Presbyterians: Experiencing a sort of secular age

We've long heard that the world is becoming more secular. From Easter parades in Greece to pagan ceremonies in Kent, is that really true for Gen Z?

Twelve points to politics: Eurovision is more than it seems

Brits don't care as much as our continental cousins. Still, mixing glitter and geopolitics, Eurovision is more than a laughable song contest: it's a cultural flashpoint.

The limits of liberté: France’s ‘global security law’

At the end of November, returning to the UK on my way back from the first part of my year abroad, I passed through...

Clubs in crisis: the UK’s declining night time industry

"If not for a healthy dose of nostalgia to remedy bitter envy, remembering the cultural importance of clubbing will ensure the scene doesn’t collapse entirely."

Going Viral: Religion and the Pandemic

Pandemics are nothing new, but we now live in a technological age - a globalised world where people and information travel further and faster...

And They Call It Puppy Love: Pets in Lockdown

I was the kind of child that hankered after a fluffy four-legged friend – the hopeful child that exasperated parents would try to fob...

‘We Don’t Need No Education’: Assessing What Matters in Schools

"In this drive to ascribe value to students, we risk losing sight of what learning can and should be: an ongoing, unfolding and communal process."

Oxford’s Eyesores: Brutalism’s Place among the Dreaming Spires

For most, to think of Oxford is to think of its historic architecture, from the Anglo Saxon Tower of St. Michael and Christchurch’s twelfth century cathedral,...

Power of the People: Toppling Europe’s Last Dictatorship

How might a society, in the face of an uncompromising authority and lapdog police force, successfully overthrow a dictator with more than two decades of experience...

Wages Against Housework: “More smiles? More money.”

“More smiles? More money.” This was the rallying cry of women around the world in the 1970s. They were adamant that women everywhere should be paid...

“Cofiwch Dryweryn”: A Welsh History of Oppression

I am proud of how so many people in my town in rural West Wales have rallied around the Black Lives Matter protests. Fighting...

Defiance in the face of Danger: Human Rights Activism in Colombia

The inconvenience caused by having to navigate through the hanging faces as you walk from class to class, serves as a reminder of the mass disruption in the lives of the protesters themselves. Activism should not be easy and in Colombia this is a given.

Family, Football and Palestine: A Story of Solidarity

In the 1870s, Brother Walfrid, an Irish priest from County Sligo, emigrated to Scotland. It was there that in 1887, at a meeting at St Mary’s...

Classics for the 21st Century: The Importance of Reception Studies

For those who study Classics, the question that begins many conversations in your first year of an undergraduate degree, “What do you study?”, can...

Imperfect Nostalgia, Imagined Perfection

As a small child, it didn’t occur to me that the porcelain Mao Zedong bust in my grandparents’ living room was, to put it...

BP or not BP? Art Washing and the British Museum

“Like smoke blown to heaven on the wings of the wind, our country, our conquered country, perishes. Its palaces are overrun by the fierce flames and...

Cults: Blind Faith?

In popular media, cults are often the object of morbid curiosity, in the same category as serial killers, celebrity breakdowns, and the scandalous exploits of polygamous...

Permanent Private Halls: the good, the bad and the ugly

Marnie Ashbridge demystifies the rumours about life in a PPH and highlights the financial challenges that they are facing without the status of an Oxford college.

My Father, a Zine and the KGB

“It’s the KGB! Open up." It was a crisp March morning in Leningrad, 1988. The KGB had unlocked the door to Tim Gadaski’s communal flat and silently...

Andrà Tutto Bene: Coronavirus and the Italian Spirit

When I think of Italy, I think of the rolling green hills of Tuscany where my family once lived; of vibrant locals, distinctive gelaterias, and of...

Progressive or Repressive? The Legalisation of Marijuana in Lebanon

On 21st April, Lebanon became the first Arab country to legalise cannabis farming for medical use. The bill was first introduced in July 2018...

A continent divided: How COVID-19 will change the face of South America

A quickly mounting death toll, hospitals on the verge of collapse, industrial-scale burials in cardboard coffins, relatives unable to bid farewell to their loved...

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