Wednesday 25th June 2025

Features

‘A constant negative spiral’: Students on Britain’s economic future

Four Oxford students sat down to share how they feel about the state of the UK. From pensions to the NHS and Brexit, their answers were frank, frustrated, and sometimes surprisingly hopeful about how Britain could change direction.

Drinking the political compass

Oxford’s political societies cultivated generations of MPs and PMs. In an era of rising populism, a tour of their drinking events finds a drifting elite with few ideas.

The BNOC list 2025

It's finally here... the most famous names from this Oxford year

A strikingly egalitarian meal at Rhodes House 

At Oxford’s third annual Langar, the Sikh Society transforms the halls of Rhodes House into a space of shared community and reflection.

The parallel pandemic: how should we address the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories?

"The physical impact of the virus is hugely concerning. But the threat from the parallel pandemic of misinformation – which is jeopardising our collective capability to agree on basic facts – should not be underestimated."

Vaccine Politics: global inequality during the COVID-19 pandemic

"The vaccine and the coronavirus, inextricably interlinked, have become channels through which national political interests can be realised, a new, shiny tool in the arsenal and war-chests of governments to wield power and gain political capital."

Ava Max’s ‘Crazy Ex’: smashing or bolstering hetero-normative stereotypes surrounding women and mental illness?

"The persona that Max cultivates in these three videos is so overdone that it could be a cynical deconstruction of the ‘crazy’ stereotype, rather than a reinforcement of it. However, could the effect ultimately just be a reproduction of old misogynist tropes, changing nothing and possibly even fuelling the faithful old fire of patriarchy?"

Oxford’s overlooked inhabitants: Brexit and the East Timorese

"When the first Timorese began arriving in the UK in the early 1990s, they were essentially asylum seekers and yet, since they were on paper no different to a French, German, Swedish or Greek person moving to the UK, over the past thirty years they have received far less support than people fleeing violence from other countries."

Hallucinogenic healing

"Some scientists argue that the use of psychedelics can drastically cut medical costs by generating a shift in psychiatry from the current palliative approach towards a curative one. "

What was Pepe doing at the Capitol?

"The Style Guide for the Daily Stormer (a neo-nazi alt-right blog) that was leaked a few years ago offers a painful insight into how the alt-right intentionally blurs humour and hate speech online."

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...

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