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Headlines

Rival protests over Iran war at Carfax

News Mercedes Haas, Archie Johnston, and Stanley Smith -
An altercation broke out between rival protesters at Carfax Tower on Tuesday evening over military escalation in Iran. A protest against US-Israel attacks on Iran was organised jointly by the Oxford branches of Stop the War (OSTW) and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (OCND), and was supported by Oxford Students Palestine Solidarity (OSPS), a group representing students at schools and universities across Oxford. Anti-war activists set up a small stall by 5.30pm, soon joined by other protesters. Speaking to Cherwell,...

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Features

Who Owns Net Zero? Climate Action in a Collegiate University

Anish Vedantham -
Oxford University’s sustainability ambitions are increasingly visible. At the central level, strategic commitments articulate ambitious targets, governance mechanisms, and investment frameworks. In built form, newly completed University buildings such as the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities and the Life and Mind Building are presented as low-carbon exemplars of Passivhaus design and biodiversity integration.

Bridging the gap? Oxford’s fight against wealth inequality

Leo Jones -
The life of a student is rarely one of luxury. Pot Noodles for dinner, Vinted bids in place of new clothes, and the widely-prized Tesco Clubcard have become small but vital saving graces as the cost of living in the UK continues to soar.

Remembering Jaipal Singh Munda, an Adivasi pioneer

Sofia Mollona -
Hemant Soren, the Chief Minister of Jharkhand, visited St John’s College on 23rd January to pay tribute to his ancestor, Jaipal Singh Munda, who graduated from the University of Oxford in 1926.

Between halls and helplines: Oxford’s eating disorder culture

Leo Jones -
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

Eden Smith -
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

Gaspard Rouffin -
As the Cherwell Investigations team, we take our job very seriously. A big part of what we do is Freedom of Information (FOI) requests – which allow us to ask for information on any topic (yes, any!) from public authorities, for example the University and colleges. Cherwell handles a lot...

Profiles

Larry Sanders on Trump, climate change, and moral conviction

Isaac Gavaghan -
Sitting in his kitchen in East Oxford, Larry Sanders, local Oxford politician and brother of Bernie Sanders, speaks with honesty and conviction.

Anna Olliff-Cooper on being a 76-year-old student, her three-month prognosis, and defying time

Selina Chen -
When Anna Olliff-Cooper applied to Oxford, she had just been diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer.

Ruth Chang: ‘If we keep going down this road, we are definitely going to get AI misalignment’

Peter Chen -
How do we make hard choices? Not the choices which are hard for us to make – because the right choice is psychologically difficult – not choices between options which we have incomplete information about, or choices that are incomparable. No. Hard choices are decisions between options neither of which is better, nor are they equally good.

In Conversation with Tom McTague

Hassan Akram and Hattie Simpson -
Tom McTague is among the few mainstream British journalists who see politics through the lens of history and world affairs rather than just the Westminster lobby.

Culture

The Hollywood blockbuster and what it says about us

Lydia Armstrong -
Why do ‘dad films’, once popular and even good, not seem to have the relevance they used to?

Confronting the future of art: ‘Responding to AI’ at Christ Church

Emma Heagney -
‘Responding to AI’ an exhibition curated by Aniq Shamshi and Alice King, confronted the question of how artists perceive artificial intelligence directly.

Lighthouse Productions on ‘Things I Know To Be True’

Abigail Lakeland -
Fresh from the success of their debut production, Lighthouse Productions are set to deliver their second show: Andrew Bovell’s Things I Know to Be True (2016).

A masterclass in devising: ‘Noether’

Jessica Phillips -
This original play tells the story of the mathematician Emmy Noether and her struggles with the misogyny of her male peers against the backdrop of the rising Nazi state.

Life

Gen Z and Oxford: Nihilism inside the bubble

Natalie Conboy -
We all know that Oxford can feel like a bubble. Every day brings new challenges and new deadlines, to the extent that a week can pass in an instant and there is just no time to peek outside of the blinkered existence of tutorials and the occasional pub trip. But this tunnel vision can become restrictive, and even self-perpetuating.

The (family) stories hiding in plain sight

Amy Lawson -
Like many people, I used to zone out when my parents started talking about family history.

A body of one’s own: Medical mystery in the modern age

Beatrix Arnold -
Recently, I found myself marooned in that most demoralising of places, the NHS waiting list. I was soon falling down the rabbit hole of catastrophisation, after succumbing to the inevitable temptation of googling my symptoms (it wasn’t looking good).

Loaf actually? A guide to Oxford’s sourdough

Skye-Jane Ingram -
Sourdough is a simple pleasure. A perfect loaf should have a chewy, light, tangy, and springy crumb. On cold days it’s a reliable and simple comfort – the kind that makes Hilary term feel a little less bleak.

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