Friday, January 24, 2025

Headlines

OA4P occupies the Radcliffe Camera, protesters arrested

News Cherwell News -
Oxford Action for Palestine (OA4P) have established an occupation of the Radcliffe Camera Library, after disbanding it in July of this year.

Comment

Features

What Gisèle Pelicot can teach us about student consent workshops 

Victoria McKinley-Smith -
"Consent is not just a rule dictated in an isolated workshop."

Smoke and mirrors: Oxford’s changing smoking culture

Jack Leader -
Behind a constant veil of thick tobacco smoke, students relax and chat in a night of music and dancing far from Oxford’s usually formal settings. This might sound like a club smoking area, but...

Intoxtigation 2024: Merton drinks least, Christ Church most, and two thirds tipsy around tutors

Laurence Cooke and Victoria McKinley-Smith -
In an Oxford first, the Cherwell Features team gathered data from 1,250 students on all things drinking.

From classrooms to code: Education in Britain’s misinformation fight

Ujval Sidhu-Brar -
Media literacy has its champions, including Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, who has indicated that the ongoing school curriculum review will emphasise critical thinking skills relevant to media consumption.

UK unis’ global reputations are at risk

Emily Henson -
"Oxford University retains a near-unparalleled prestige for students around the world - so why have international applications nearly halved?"

A whistle-stop tour of Oxford’s women’s societies

Sophie Lyne -
What can all these women’s societies be fighting for? To find out, I spoke to eight of their presidents. 

Profiles

Student spotlight: Alec Tiffou on monasteries, Lou Reed’s Berlin, and the process of play-writing

Faye Chang -
Alec Tiffou is a student playwright for Matchbox Productions. His past two plays, Daddy Longlegs and Moth, have ran sold-out shows at the Michael Pilch Studio. Cherwell: Where does your writing process start? Where do you generally get inspiration for your plays? Alec: I think it’s difficult to say it comes...

Mark Goldring, Asylum Welcome and ex-Oxfam CEO: ‘In Oxford, our solidarity was stronger than the extreme right’

Sara Rourke -
Mark Goldring is the outgoing CEO of Asylum Welcome, a local organisation in Oxford that assists asylum seekers, refugees and vulnerable migrants. He had been the CEO of Oxfam GB until 2018.  I turned Mark’s mind back to the unsettling civil unrest of the summer, when, fuelled by misinformation and...

Tom Egerton: “There’s no point judging a prime minister or a government fairly if you’re not going to look at what wicket they’re playing...

Hassan Akram -
Tom Egerton has worked with Sir Anthony Seldon on The Conservative Effect 2010-24: 14 Wasted Years?, The Impossible Office? The History of the British Prime Minister and Johnson at 10: The Inside Story. He is also the founder and editor of ‘The Political Inquiry’, a Substack providing independent political...

Shashi Tharoor, UN diplomat, novelist, politician, and historian, speaks to Cherwell about his work and career

Hassan Akram -
Dr Shashi Tharoor is an Indian politician, writer, and former diplomat. He has written twenty-six books spanning history, politics, biography, religion, literary criticism, fiction, and more. He was a UN diplomat for twenty-nine years from 1978 and ran as Secretary-General in 2006. As a Congress Party MP in India...

Culture

Cherwell Film Editors Must-See Pictures of 2024

Cherwell Film -
Cherwell’s Film Section Editors decided to get together and review their favourite releases of 2024. Ranging from animation to drama, these are the Editors’ picks for the must-see pictures of the past year. If you haven’t watched these yet, there are no longer excuses! Review: Pablo Berger’s Robot Dreams (Dan...

Has the modern movie musical lost its magic?

Ciara Beale -
As I begin writing, my parents have just walked through the door having finally experienced the cultural phenomenon that is Wicked (2024). My mother is singing something resembling ‘Defying Gravity’. My father, on the other hand, is complaining that the final scene interrupted an otherwise pleasant nap. Whatever your...

Back to the Future: Are 2010 Throwbacks the Soundtrack of 2025?

Gabriella Ofo -
The early 2010’s occupy a curious space in cultural memory, neither distant enough to be considered history, nor recent enough to feel like the present. Yet, this period is enjoying an unexpected renaissance. Chart-topping hits from artists like Miley Cyrus, Bruno Mars, Rihanna and Maroon 5 are re-entering the...

From the Chrysler to the Weston: 100 years of Art Deco

Florence Wolter -
Florence Wolter explores the impact left by Art Deco on Oxford and European Culture. A century on, should we be looking forward, not back?

Life

Kissing my husband? Groundbreaking.

Chloe Smith -
My boyfriend and I are married!! For over two years now, wow - what a journey. At 20, some could say it’s a bit premature.  But when it’s a college marriage, it’s a bit less serious. It is a situation only possible at Oxbridge, where my boyfriend is both my...

My Parents, Oxford, and Me

Angharad Thorp -
My parents studied at Oxford, which meant I knew Oxford before I knew myself.  The university found a way to fill each nook and cranny of my life before it even felt like my own. A hand-drawn map of Jesus College was hung in our downstairs bathroom; my eyes were...

Inauguration Day: ‘No one can claim complicity from across the ocean’. 

Sydney Walter -
First, a proclamation: I voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 US election. Second, a geological fact: I am from Seattle, Washington. Washington is the only state that got bluer in the 2024 election. My mom and dad are there, living in this blue bubble, running their business, walking...

Oxford cured my perfectionism

Stella Clark -
So the Oxford workload, rather than triggering a stress response, has instead desensitised me to the fear of academic failure. Exposure therapy, I suppose. It’s very freeing.

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