Tuesday 29th July 2025
Blog Page 308

University renames philosophy professorship following a £2.8 million donation

Thomas Coyle
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University renames philosophy professorship following a £2.8 million donation

Oxford University have renamed a prestigious philosophy professorship following a £2.8 million donation from the Sekyra Foundation.

The professorship, originally titled The White’s Chair of Moral Philosophy, is now known as The Sekyra and White’s Professorship of Moral Philosophy. The donors, the Sekyra Foundation, revealed in a statement that they made the gift to “uncover deeper levels of reality” by utilising philosophy.

The professorship is the oldest university chair in philosophy at Oxford, having been first endowed in 1621. Originally named after Thomas White, Canon of Christ Church, those who hold the role lead the study of moral philosophy at the University from an attached fellowship at Corpus Christi College. The support from the Foundation will ensure the long-term viability of the professorship, as there has been no stable source of funding for the role prior to the Sekyra Organisation’s support.

The chairman and founder of the organisation, Luděk Sekyra, is a member of the governing board at Harris Manchester College. In a statement, he described the “challenges” of “how to live a good life, what constitutes moral progress, and what our responsibility is toward future generations” as having spurred him to make the donation.

The current holder of the Professorship, Professor Jeff McMahan, expressed delight towards the donation. In a statement, he praised the actions taken to make the professorship “secure for the future”. McMahan specialises in the moral questions at the forefront of public consciousness: exploring the topics of war, abortion, and humanity’s treatment of animals.

Previous holders of the professorship have considered climate change, drug abuse, gambling, and the censorship of film. They continue to conduct philosophical debate to this day, and have been described by Professor Chris Timpson, Chair of the Philosophy Faculty Board, as having “stoked revolutions in our philosophical and moral understanding”.

The Sekyra Organisation have a long history of supporting the study of philosophy, both at Oxford and in their home region of Prague. The organisation also supports a travel bursary for Oxford students to visit Prague and study there. They also support the study of philosophy worldwide: cooperating with Harvard University, the Athens Democracy Forum, and various Czech libraries, research organisations, and human rights prizes. The organisation seeks to advance the development of critical and philosophical thought internationally, in particular by promoting intergenerational dialogue to do so.

Image: papannon via pixabay.com

Six Oxford academics awarded Philip Leverhulme Prizes

Oliver Hall
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Six Oxford academics awarded Philip Leverhulme Prizes

Six early-career academics from Oxford University have been awarded £100 000 each in prize money from the Leverhulme Trust after being named amongst the recipients of the 2021 Philip Leverhulme Prizes.

Now in its twentieth year, the annual Philip Leverhulme prize seeks to “recognise and celebrate the achievement of exceptional researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future careers are exceptionally promising.”  

This year, the prize pot was at its biggest yet, with a total of £30 million handed out by the charity to thirty winners.  Among them were six Oxford academics, the largest number awarded to any singular university.  

The Oxford winners were spread amongst three categories; Humanities; Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences (MPLS); and Social Sciences.  They were Teresa Bejan, Jayne Birkby, Janina Dill, Giuseppe Pezzini, Erin Saupe, and Kathryn Stevens.

Researchers Birkby and Saupe both took away awards from the MPLS category, with the head of that division, Prof. Sam Howinson, saying “This is a well-deserved recognition to both Prof Birkby and Prof Saupe of the leading role they are playing in their exciting research areas.”  Birkby said she was “thrilled” to win the prize and that she will use the money to further her research of rocky planets.  Her colleague Erin Saupe said that the funding will enable her to continue “examining how phytoplankton respond to future climate change”.

Elsewhere, Bejan and Dill were selected as victors in the Social Sciences division.  Dill remarked that she was “honoured and thrilled” and will put the money towards her study of the moral psychology of war.  Meanwhile, Teresa Bejan is currently editing the two-volume Clarendon edition of John Locke’s Letters on Toleration and said she was “immensely grateful”.

Stevens and Pezzini were recognised in the Humanities division. Pezzini focusses his work on Latin language and literature and Stevens is about to start work on a new intellectual history of Greek history. He said he is “very grateful to the Leverhulme Trust, and to colleagues in Oxford and elsewhere for their collaboration and support.”  Chair of the Board of the Faculty of Classics, Prof. Neil McLynn, reflected, “Kathryn’s work on the role of intellectuals in the Hellenistic kingdoms, … and Giuseppe’s engagement with the comedies of Terence, … illustrate powerfully the quality and diversity of research being undertaken in the Classics faculty.”

The Director of the Leverhulme Trusts, Anna Vignoles, said that “This round was more competitive than ever” and that the winners were a “stunningly talented group of academics”.

Image credit: Tim Alex on Unsplash

Pitch: 1, Parliament: 0

Isobel Lewis
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Pitch: 1, Parliament: 0

CW: Racial abuse

Last summer, the ever-rapacious tabloids pounced on the story of a high-profile married man of fifteen years caught having an affair with a woman he employed. Throw in a trip to a brothel and you’ve got a scandal worthy even of a noughties Wayne Rooney. But this ‘celebrity’ doesn’t hail from the football pitches. Unfortunately for those of us who have the groping and slobbering image of that kiss forever seared into our memories, there is no mistaking this miniature sensation: Matt Hancock’s affair with Gina Colangelo. 

At the time, our Secretary of State for Health and Social Care was solemnly telling us to stay well away from each other at all costs (in the moments when he could bring himself to come up for air). Commendable multi-tasking aside, it does beg the question of why the tabloids seem to be having more luck honing in on the dubious actions of some of the nation’s leaders rather than those of their erstwhile best customers: footballers.

If we scan the headlines from the past few months relating to footballers, we could be forgiven for wondering if we have side-stepped into a parallel universe. Take, for instance, the Romanian football team’s scheme to promote the adoption of stray dogs by bringing puppies onto the pitch. Ten years ago, ‘puppies’ was slang for breasts and this seemed the only kind that footballers were interested in stroking. Last I knew, footballers used their celebrity to pick up girls and get away with drink-driving, not to engage in serious campaigns for animal welfare. 

There are similar dichotomies closer to home. Back in 2012, John Terry was stripped of his captaincy for racially abusing another player, Anton Ferdinand. This came only three years after rumours of Terry’s affair with Manchester City player Wayne Bridge’s wife Vanessa Peroncel. Skip forward a decade or so and you find Harry Kane wearing a rainbow captain’s armband in support of the LGBTQ+ community and leading a team which took the knee at the start of each Euros match to campaign against racism.

So when did the world turn on its head to produce this new generation of socially responsible footballers? When else but 2020. Dropped as we were into the middle of the sort of crisis which felt like a prelude to The Walking Dead, we needed a competent, serious, and empathetic leader to convince us they could guide us out of it before we would need to panic-buy crossbows as well as toilet roll.

Enter, erm… Boris Johnson? Predictably, people began to lose faith in the government. An Observer poll in April 2020 reported that only 49% of people had confidence in the government’s ability to cope with the situation as it continued to develop and that 57% disapproved of how they had handled the pandemic thus far. We needed someone whose motivations and abilities we could trust. But who would have thought that this would come in the form of a footballer? 

In March 2020, Marcus Rashford launched his ‘meal a day’ campaign to ensure children living below the poverty line would still be entitled to the free meal they would normally receive at school during lockdown. By June of that year, aged only 22, he had raised £20 million for his cause. At the same age, Boris Johnson had barely grown out of his Bullingdon Club days of burning £50 notes in front of Oxford’s homeless. And that’s the difference: Rashford understands how tough life can be for people, while Boris seems to think it’s a bit like classical music — he’s sure it’s all worthy of attention and so on, but just pretends to be interested in it so he doesn’t look bad in front of his dinner party guests. As Marcus Rashford said, “I believe that if the government had the information that I have, and they spoke to the people that I have spoken to, from all different areas of the country, they would want to review it and change it themselves.”

The Prime Minister can’t help that he was born in wildly different circumstances to most of the people he governs, but he could stoop to find out what they actually want and need as individuals. Johnson’s rhetoric of ‘putting his arms around the people of this entire country throughout the pandemic’ simply does not cut it. While he’s sitting around thinking of the best metaphor to make him sound a bit more like Winston Churchill, children are going hungry. Are we even surprised? Boris Johnson’s carefully curated image of himself as a bit of a clown says it all: if he thought this would make him more popular as a politician, it shows how little he thinks of the general public. We don’t want a hirsute caricature of a children’s entertainer in charge of us all, we want someone who can get the job done. Can you imagine Marcus Rashford entering the 2012 Olympics by dangling like a lumpen scarecrow from a zipwire? No, he takes us too seriously to do that and it makes a refreshing change.

The contrast lives on, showing how much we still need this alternative arena for the discussion of our society’s most pressing issues. At the start of October, the £20 cut to Universal Credit came into effect at the same time as Marcus Rashford collected his honorary degree from the University of Manchester for his battle to reduce child poverty, and he described the experience as ‘bittersweet’. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps stated that the cut was necessary because ‘If you want to carry on with that uplift you need to find £6bn from somewhere’. The £830 million pounds dished out in PPE contracts which ‘never materialised’ might have been a good start. Not to mention the £252 million contract awarded to Ayanda Capital for PPE, apparently because CEO Tim Horlicks had links to the Department for International Trade. This contract was later scrapped over safety concerns, and a lawsuit opened against the government by the companies whose contract proposals had been rejected. Shapps should maybe check the lining of his party leadership’s friends’ pockets for the £6 billion pounds he needs to prevent people from having to choose between food and heating their homes. It would have the added benefit of saving some people from the equally agonising choice between Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.  

In the meantime, football is stepping up to fill the void created by Parliament and provide us with a centre for serious discussions on social and economic equality. Is this as unlikely as it first sounds? On the one hand, decidedly yes. The ‘playboy’ reputation of 90s and 2000s footballers and its history of violent and narrow-minded hooliganism among those who supported it could preclude the possibility of football serving any kind of moral purpose. The sickening racism following the Euros final could have been the nail in the coffin for the sport becoming socially responsible.

However, footballers and teams are undeniably becoming better role models for their fans. Manchester United’s ‘See Red’ campaign to encourage fans to report or challenge hate crime is another example of teams and players using their standing to promote change. The high financial stakes and popular following of football mean it has the potential to be really successful in driving social and even political change. And perhaps this is fitting rather than surprising after all. Football has been where the working class have congregated and clashed for decades, to the point where it has almost come to symbolise them. If the people are going to take charge of the social and economic inequality which has dictated life in this country for so long, where better for this to happen than in their own epicentre for the dispute between red and blue?

Constructing sustainable futures

Mia Clement
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Constructing sustainable futures

Green design has many related names and concepts associated with it besides sustainable development. When I think of green design plants, solar panels and grass roofs come to mind. But green design branches out further than that. Some people place the emphasis on ecology and have adopted terms like eco-design, eco-friendly architecture, and even arcology to represent green design ideas. Eco-tourism is a 21st-century trend, even if eco house designs might appear to some extent a bit non-traditional, there has been a boost in green design approval and building work as we look to adapt and work with nature rather than against it.

Green architecture, or green design, is the approach to building that minimizes the harmful effects of construction projects on human health and the environment. The “green” architect or designer attempts to integrate nature by choosing eco-friendly building materials and construction practices – this is key in the decarbonisation of society and promotion of sustainability as we mitigate climate change.

Some buildings or architects take their cue from the environmental movement, most famously inspired by Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’ and the narrative of direct human influence on our surroundings—earth-friendly architecture, ecological architecture, natural architecture, and even organic architecture all of which keep nature in the centre of project management and construction. Biomimicry is used by architects who use nature as a guide to green design. For example, the Expo 2000 Venezuelan Pavilion has petal-like additions to the main body of the building that adjust to control the temperature inside the building. 

Climate change – new ground for green buildings

“Buildings account for nearly 40% of all greenhouse gas emissions”, according to Architecture 2030. Add in other infrastructure and everyday activities, such as transportation, that are associated with buildings, and that number grows drastically. By building green, we can reduce the impact our buildings have on contributing to climate change while also building resilience into our homes and as a result our communities. LEED v4.1 standards and certification acknowledges the extensive impact buildings can have on the environment and gives special consideration to climate change with its focus on reducing carbon within production processes.

High-performing green buildings with low carbon intensity, particularly LEED-certified buildings, provide the means to reduce the climate impacts of buildings and their inhabitants, acting as a stepping point or blueprint for other projects. A 2014 UC Berkeley study found that by building to within LEED standards, facilities “contributed 50% fewer GHGs than conventionally constructed buildings due to water consumption, 48% fewer GHGs due to solid waste and 5% fewer GHGs due to transportation”. LEED then rewards carbon emission decisions about building location, with credits that encourage compact developments and connection with transit and amenity networks, helping to lower greenhouse gases associated with transportation and building infrastructure.

When a building consumes less water, the energy—and greenhouse gases—otherwise required to treat said water from the source to the building are avoided or reduced. Additionally, less transport of materials to and from the building cuts associated fuel consumption. These strategies significantly reduce the carbon footprint of buildings and occupants beyond what energy efficiency alone can do. Providing inhabitant feedback with systems like Arc, which “showcases a building’s environmental efforts and performance, can drive further reductions”. Green buildings can be part of the vital part of the solution in combating climate change and technological advancement.

Looking to the future – building a better future

Green buildings create healthier spaces for people, use less resources and save more money. These projects are helping to raise the quality of life itself in populations spanning every corner of the planet and create lasting, measurable change in our communities. 

Sustainable architecture is at the front and centre of new green building and renovation projects around the world. It has the potential to significantly benefit both the humans who occupy urban spaces and the surrounding environment.

Sustainable architecture represents a pivotal opportunity to revolutionize zero carbon building by standardizing highly energy-efficient structures, renewable energy, and even carbon offsetting, where required. But it also supports housing, employment, and various other benefits.

Energy efficiency – sparks fly

Sustainable design and construction will typically include some combination of renewable energy sources, energy-efficient lighting and heating, good use of natural light, waste reduction, water efficiency, and effective insulation. Construction and design will also typically include a full lifecycle assessment to ensure the building retains optimal sustainability for as long as possible, not just during construction itself.

Green economic growth – go green or go home

In addition to its potential as a mitigator of climate change, the industry also represents an opportunity to support green economic growth through employment opportunities and create more sustainable and high-quality housing. Both of which are in high demand and low supply, particularly in the U.S. and the U.K.

The buildings and construction sector currently provides up to “10 percent of national employment in the U.S. and up to 15 percent of GDP” found from statista database, more than finance, transportation, utilities, and public administration. The construction industry also provides housing, mobility, water, and sanitary infrastructures. According to UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme focusing on national, international and individual changes in carbon consumption), it also “represents the physical context for social interactions as well as economic development at the micro-level.”

Urban Heating – raise the roof

Innovative architectural design and sustainable construction projects can actively reduce urban heating (which increases energy costs, pollution, and heat-related illnesses), and even produce additional renewable energy via wind and solar technology. Person-centred design can also help improve public health by emphasizing the wellbeing of those inside and around buildings, for example, by maximizing the amount of daylight that penetrates interiors.

Green in Oxford

The Sustainability page on the University of Oxford highlights key features for a variety of buildings in Oxford.

These include:

  • Ground source heat pump systems (Earth Sciences, Blavatnik School of Government, Beecroft, Said Business School and Andrew Wiles buildings).
  • Thermal labyrinth (Big Data Institute).
  • Combined heat and power (CHP) engines (NDM, Kennedy, Beecroft, Castle Mill phase 2, Summertown House and OMPI buildings).
  • Green roof (Andrew Wiles, Earth Sciences and Blavatnik School of Government buildings).
  • Solar panel installations (over 2,000 panels across the estate). 

Oxford is a centre of innovation, research and now the improvement of buildings in sustainability through the University Sustainability Strategy through the adaptation of current buildings and the green construction of new ones.

This is a prime opportunity for Oxford to learn from past mistakes in the building industry, and not only reducing carbon emissions by reaching net-zero, but working towards the future of carbon negativity – taking CO2 out of the atmosphere and adding nothing to it. The future of Oxford city and University looks green in its buildings.

Image Credit: Blaine O’Neill / CC BY-NC 3.0

The discovery of a true Welsh dragon

Ben Igielman
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The discovery of a true Welsh dragon

Although many people may see dinosaurs as exotic monsters from far off countries, it may surprise you to know that there is actually a diverse and extensive set of dinosaurs known from the island we call home. 

A new species of meat-eating dinosaur from the UK, which researchers say existed more than 200 million years ago, is among the most recent discoveries by scientists based at the Natural History Museum. Other discoveries include a new Ankylosaur (armoured dinosaur) from Morocco, marking the first of its kind in Africa, and two new Spinosaurids (large, fish-eating dinosaurs) from the Isle of White. However, it is the smallest of the new discoveries that has made the largest impact.

Pendraig milnerae, the newest of these discoveries from Pant-y-ffynnon in Wales, is the oldest known meat-eating dinosaur from the UK. The fossil specimen is known from just a pelvis, some vertebrae and some bones of the hindlimbs. However, scientists are confident that it belonged not just to the theropods (typically predatory, meat-eating dinosaurs), but to a small group of theropod dinosaurs called Coelophysoids. 

I spoke to Dr. Susannah Maidment, part of the team that described the new dinosaur, about how scientists could tell the identity of the specimen despite the fact it was missing so much detail. Dr. Maidment is a distinguished member of the Natural History Museum and a passionate advocate for women in science. She said: “Theropods have very characteristic structures of their hip bones, limb bones and vertebrae. Luckily, the specimen preserves the hips, upper hind limb and some vertebrae, so we were able to identify not only that it was a theropod, but that it was a coelophysoid.” The fossils tell us that it would have been a gracile, two-legged predator that was about two metres long, much akin to more familiar dinosaurs such as Velociraptor.

Pendraig is significant as it helps us to understand what life was like in Wales during a period of time known as the Triassic period. At this time, the geological record tells us that the area around South Wales consisted of a shallow sea, and many small islands. Wales would have been more similar to somewhere today like the Caribbean or South Pacific, rather than the overcast grey country we are used to. Just like in limestone today, caves (known as fissures) frequently formed, and these caves acted as a trap for many of the animals, including Pendraig. 

Pendraig helps us to understand how these island communities would have lived. It is quite remarkable that, deep in the ancient past, the UK would have been a tropical paradise filled with dinosaurs. I wanted to know more about what we could learn about this lost world from the discovery of Pendraig.

I asked Dr. Maidment about what more we could learn about ancient Wales from the discovery of Pendraig: “By studying the animals that lived on the islands, we are able to build up a picture of what the climate and environment was like at the time. Pendraig is one piece of that jigsaw puzzle. So far, it is the largest meat eating animal that we know about from the fissures (even though it was only a couple of meters long!) and it was probably the apex predator on the islands. Its discovery helps us to understand the food webs and ecological interactions that occurred at the time.”

I was also curious to learn a little more about why scientists decided to name the dinosaur Pendraig milnerae. As it turns out, the name of this new dinosaur also holds significance. Pendraig translates as ‘Chief Dragon’ from Welsh. Used in a figurative sense, it means ‘Chief Warrior’. Milnerae is chosen in honour of the late Dr. Angela Milner. Dr. Maidment said “Angela was for many years the Natural History Museum’s dinosaur expert. She worked on a whole diversity of reptiles, but is perhaps best-known for her work on theropods, particularly the spinosaurid Baryonyx. Angela was one of the first women to hold a senior administrative roll in the Department of Palaeontology (as it was then) at the NHM – she was Deputy Keeper at a time when women didn’t routinely occupy these sorts of roles. She was a fantastic role model and mentor to me and some of the other authors on the paper. Angela died in August after a short illness, so we wanted to remember her by naming the dinosaur after her.”

It seems only right that this remarkable scientist, Dr. Angela Milner, is honoured in the name of this new discovery. Although it may not be as big as Tyrannosaurus rex, or as dramatically armoured as Triceratops, this little dinosaur marks a big step in unravelling the story of Britain millions and millions of years ago.  

Image Credit: James Robbins / CC BY 4.0

The Murder of David Amess must change the way we look at politics

Oliver Hall
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The Murder of David Amess must change the way we look at politics

CW: Violence and murder

On the afternoon of October 15th, Leigh-on-Sea was shaken by the tragic stabbing and murder of Sir David Amess. Widely regarded as one of Westminster’s most admired and dedicated MPs, the outpouring of grief from across the political spectrum was profound. The ramifications of this tragedy stretch far beyond the borders of Amess’ Essex constituency, and after the second murder of a British MP in five years, now is the moment to reflect on how and why the rise of populism and the subsequent polarisation of politics has changed the way we treat our public servants.

Jo Cox’s murder in Leeds in June 2016 shocked the nation. For the first time since the 1990s, when Ian Gow was killed by the IRA, a sitting British MP was brutally murdered for doing their job. There were 26 years between those two tragic incidents, and now British politics is left facing the second deadly attack in five years. But what steps can we possibly take to ensure that this violence ends?

There was a lot of talk across news networks and in newspapers on the following day about increased security, changes to the way in which MPs do their jobs, and upping spending on personal protection in the name of preserving democracy. In reality, the problem is far larger and harder to solve. In the last ten years, the rise of populism has seen politics become more divided, more aggressive, and ultimately more violent than ever before.

It is important to remember that this is not simply a UK problem. Donald Trump’s election in 2016 marked a turning point in American and global politics alike. The success of populism helped by a rise in the use and exploitation of social media for political gain. The Capitol riots earlier this year serve as yet another reminder of how dramatically things have changed in such a short space of time: just a few years ago the idea of the US President defying the democratic process and calling on his supporters to “take the country back” by marching on the symbolic home of American free speech would have been impossible to comprehend.

That climate of hatred, created in the build-up to the 2016 presidential elections in the United States, has spread far and wide and it is perhaps only now that here in the UK we are seeing the true ramifications of how things have altered in our sphere. The Brexit referendum and Trump’s victorious campaign have been compared many times: both used social media to give a platform to lies and exaggerations, both captured the minds of a section of society that had been ignored and underinvested in for far too long, but most importantly, both fuelled division and hatred. The goalposts moved for what was acceptable in British politics in 2016, and they haven’t moved back. Huge numbers of MPs today have been forced to install panic alarms and security cameras in their homes and offices in an effort to protect staff, family, and friends. These days you will struggle to find a democratically elected official who doesn’t regularly receive online hate and even death threats.  

The question of how to reverse the situation is a very difficult one to answer. Suggestions in recent days have often focussed on the removal of anonymity on social media. Problems exist here too: on a basic level there are plenty of platforms, such as Facebook, where anonymity doesn’t exist, and people are still happy to spout abuse and hatred. Radicalisation is almost impossible to stop in person, never mind online. Beyond that, the ability to remain anonymous is also key to allowing whistle-blowers and healthy critics to come forward and voice their political opinions without fear of consequences. What the country needs is a change in tone at the very top of politics, a change from the rhetoric of hate and division and a shift back towards healthy debate.

So, what next? Where do we go from here? It is all too easy for lawmakers to sit down in interviews and call for more stringent regulation of social media and put money aside for investment in personal protection. The truth is that the change we need is far more profound. We must return to a discourse of respect and understanding. British politics is characterised by the passionate and vocal defence of our personal beliefs, something very different to the violence and division often inspired by the leaders and politicians of today. The line has been crossed – now we must go back before it’s too late.

Image Credits: Richard Townshend / CC BY 3.0

Varsity Trip sold out at high speed, and resold at high prices

Meg Lintern
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Varsity Trip sold out at high speed, and resold at high prices

At 8am on Thursday, thousands of students across Oxford and Cambridge were waiting in an online queue to buy tickets for the Varsity Trip 2021. The tickets sold out in 30 minutes, a record time, sparking celebration among the Varsity team but disappointment among those left empty-handed. 

The trip usually takes over 3000 Oxbridge students to the Alps, and 400 extra places were added this year to accommodate increased demand. However, with over 5000 people logging on to buy a ticket, many missed the chance to secure a spot on the trip. 

After two consecutive trip postponements due to COVID, the buying frenzy has been attributed to a backlog of demand. The trip’s 99th instalment, which will be heading to Val Thorens in December, offers a week including  activities ranging from mountain yoga to silent discos at a base price of £399. 

While many hopefuls were still waiting in the queue, the Varsity Trip Instagram page released a panic-inducing post: 

Screenshot of Varsity Trip Instagram. In capital letters is written: TICKETS. SOLD. OUT. The background picture is of a person skiing in a jumpsuit.

Those who couldn’t secure an official ticket quickly turned to unofficial alternatives. Ticketbridge (Cambridge University’s ticket page) was soon crowded with posts, with tickets being resold at eye-watering sums of £1000 and desperate appeals by third years looking to get on the trip before graduating. Some Facebook users pleaded to trade tickets for “eternal love and success”, and others used Squid Game memes to convey their devastation. 

The Varsity Trip team does not condone the resale of tickets at a markup for personal gain: for those who want to pull out of the trip, there is an option to claim a full refund on the ticket price until October 28th. These tickets will be allocated to those on the waiting list.  

Some students have pointed to the randomised queueing system for contributing to the confusion. Whether a student had logged onto the system an hour before booking opened or in the preceding 30 seconds, there was no bearing on where they would place in the queue. One disenchanted booker said, “as soon as I saw I was 5,139th in the queue, I knew it was all over”. Others have reported feeling “shafted” by the system. 

In a flurry of post-sale angst, a series of comments appeared on Facebook criticising the booking system. Some users advocated limiting Oxbridge students to a single trip over the course of their degree, whilst others were in favour of prioritising 3rd years for early ticket purchases. Although the tickets have always been allocated at random to give everyone an equal chance of securing a place, for those who were suffering from the aftereffects of the previous night’s launch parties, losing out on a ticket added insult to injury. 

With the reputation of the trip still on the rise, and with the group generally filling up entire resorts, it seems that the Varsity Trip will continue to face problems with demand in years to come. However, the trip’s organisers hope to increase the number of spaces available on the trip in 2022 to give students a better chance of experiencing the event.

Image credit: Alain Wong

Oxford research: changes to history teaching to address diversity

Isaac Ettinghausen
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Oxford research: changes to history teaching to address diversity

87% of England’s secondary schools have made changes to their history curriculum to address diversity, according to a survey by the universities of Oxford and Reading.

The report – which surveyed 316 teachers from a variety of different English schools – states that “the most important reasons cited for making changes to the curriculum were a sense of social justice, to better represent the nature of history and the stimulus of recent events.”

While subjects such as the triangular trade have been featured in history classrooms for years, several respondents to the survey pointed out their choice to reframe these narratives to provide a more diverse education. 

In Key Stage 3, schools have given equal weight to narratives of resistance by enslaved people as well as abolitionism in England, and have widened the geographic scope of study to the Caribbean as well as the American South. 90% of those surveyed reported teaching in such dimensions.

Dr Katharine Burn, one of the report’s authors and Fellow of St Cross College, said that one of the “most encouraging findings is the evidence that schools are now paying attention to the history of migration to and from Britain and to the diverse experiences of those who settled here.”

73% of the schools that responded to the survey reported some teaching of migration. This was most commonly focused on post-war migration, such as the history of the ‘Windrush Generation’, but a significant proportion of respondents also reported teaching on 17th century Black British experiences.

While the report shows promising signs in the teaching of Key Stage 3 history, Burn said that “if we want to achieve more genuinely inclusive approaches to history teaching, then reform of GCSEs is the most urgent priority”. 

Most schools surveyed did not teach what the report terms ‘diverse units’; 54 of 92 schools teaching AQA GCSE history did not select any of these units. 

The survey overwhelmingly suggests that the GCSE syllabus is ill-suited to teaching a more diverse history. 71% of respondents disagreed with the claim that their exam board made it possible to include the study of the history of Black and Asian British people. This figure was even higher for the history of LGBTQ people (87%) and disabled people (88%). 

The report also points to a disparity in terms of subject uptake: only 65% of schools report a close match between the ethnic profile of their cohort and of those taking A-level history, although only one respondent attributed the lack of take-up among BAME students to the curriculum. 

Despite the apparent concern over the syllabus, only 32% of teachers indicated that they were ‘contemplating or had set in motion some changes…in order to improve the diversity of the curriculum that they offered’

The report also suggests a lack of diversity in teaching staff, with 96% of the report’s respondents identifying as white. The authors “acknowledge that representation of the views of those from a Black or Asian British background or from other minority groups is limited’. 

Earlier this month, education secretary Nadhim Zahari acknowledged that “there aren’t enough black headteachers…schools and their leadership teams should reflect their communities and their pupils and I’m absolutely determined to see improvements”.

Image credit: It’s No Game/CC BY 2.0 via flickr.com

On PTSD and Trauma: An Interview with Dr Hannah Murray

Debora Krut
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On PTSD and Trauma: An Interview with Dr Hannah Murray

I recently went to The Oxford Centre for Anxiety Disorders and Trauma to chat with Dr Hannah Murray, a PTSD clinician. Dr Murray is part of a department that evaluates and develops new treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder through conducting trials, writing research papers, and training therapists. I am sort of starstruck because I’ve done a good few late-night research sessions to try and understand my own response to the trauma of a brain tumour. Meeting one of the people from the field that I’ve read a lot about feels like meeting a rockstar after spending ages listening to their music.

Dr Murray and I have a lot to chat about before I even begin getting to the questions. Like me, she has studied at Oxford – Teddy Hall. She was involved in her JCR. Dr Murray also has very personal experience with cancer – she is currently going through treatment for stage IV cancer. There is always an ease that comes with speaking to fellow cancer patients, no matter what stage of the journey either of you are on.

“PTSD is a psychological disorder that can develop after really serious traumatic events. And that includes really anything where your life was under threat, such as sexual assault, a serious illness, or terrorist attacks.” Dr Murray describes the “clusters of symptoms” that make up the criteria for PTSD – “avoiding things that are reminders of what happened, negative cognitions (changes to the way you see the world), hyperarousal (your body reacting as if you’re still under threat) and re-experiencing memories. I could ask you about a memory from your childhood and you could bring it back to mind, but you wouldn’t necessarily be reexperiencing it. PTSD memories are kind of like it’s happening again.”

Reexperiencing memories – it feels like an HD film, except you’re slap bang in the middle of it. That’s a big one for me, and all my senses help my brain out to really bring those memories back. Smelling the shampoo I used when I could wash my hair again for the first time after surgery. Tasting ginger, which I ate almost every day to stave off the nausea. And don’t get me started on the scent of medical-grade hand sanitiser.

PTSD is only diagnosed at least a month after a trauma because a lot of these symptoms are totally normal if you’ve just had a terrible thing happen to you. For most people the symptoms decrease, says Dr Murray. I breathe a sigh of relief. Trauma can trigger “all kinds of things” such as increased anxiety and depression. “If someone seems changed in the way that they’re able to live their life after a traumatic event, it’s worth encouraging them to talk to somebody.” That statement fills me with gratitude to my friends who encouraged me to seek support.

“It has a lot to do with the memory system in the brain and the limbic system and to do with the way that memories are processed and stored in the brain. The hippocampus processes and stores experiences in the cortex of the brain – that’s the normal autobiographical memory system, which is why those memories are fairly under control.” When you’re in a highly traumatic situation your brain is in “an evolved threat response mode” to help you deal with the reality of the situation by released chemicals that “fire up your fight or flight response”. It is thought that this can “interfere with the way those memories are laid down”. That’s how triggers can happen. When I smell that shampoo, I’m not recalling a memory, it’s my body recognising that threat. Thanks, brain.

We speak about how the smallest pains or weird feelings in your body can trigger spirals of health anxiety. I guess it adds a bit of spice to life, wondering if I need to call my neurosurgeon because my eyelid twitched. We also touch on scanxiety. It’s a word in the cancer community to describe the intense fear around scan days – I have an MRI every four months and then about ten days of waiting. Dr Murray describes her scan days as a “total roll of the dice”. I wonder if Dr Murray’s work has helped her, in some way, to deal with going through cancer. Not only does the knowledge help her in a way, as she tells me it helps her to process her feelings and the experience. But she also gets a lot of “satisfaction from her work”. Dr Murray is a very intelligent, hardworking woman, and her philosophy towards cancer stayed with me long after the interview.

“I don’t want to live the rest of my life, however long that may be, worrying about dying or being miserable, quite frankly. It seems like an enormous waste of my time.”

VegSoc ‘Two Day A Week Campaign’ to reduce meat-consumption at all colleges

Charlotte Keys
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VegSoc ‘Two Day A Week Campaign’ to reduce meat-consumption at all colleges

Oxford Vegan and Vegetarian Society (VegSoc) are launching a new ‘Two Day A Week Campaign’. This would involve Oxford all colleges serving two hall meals a week completely meatfree. 

The Two Day A Week Campaign manager, Calum Isaacs said to Cherwell: “Many college halls have introduced one meatless day a week with great success. We think this should be increased by one extra day to further reduce meat consumption around the university, so that all colleges can reduce their carbon footprints”. Many colleges across the University have set a commitment to reach net-zero carbon, the University itself committing to a target of 2035; VegSoc believes this will be more accessible and realistic with adoption of the Two Day a Week Campaign.”

VegSoc believes that the power behind this campaign will come from Oxford students. The first measures for putting the motion in place will come “democratically through all JCRs in the next month”. The Campaign hopes that they will be successful in pushing “two veggie days a week in every college hall by the end of the academic year” and will work with colleges and their catering management to sort out the steps to put the change into effect after students have shown their support. 

Wadham College Student Union voted in 2014 in support of Meat-Free Mondays with the attitude to improve student health and to help the planet. As of 2019, the college voted in another meat-free day. A vegetarian student at Wadham reported “mixed responses”, with some students having “decided to opt out of these dinners” due to a lack of “sufficient choice” following the decision.  

There has been much attention in recent years to the negative environmental impact that the production of animal produce, namely the beef and dairy industries, have on the planet. Isaacs argues that meat consumption “incentivises livestock farming that produces animals that release methane, which has a much stronger greenhouse gas effect than even CO2. It also motivates carbon-producing deforestation through inefficient land use”. These meat and dairy industries alone contribute to 50% of total emissions and 67% of deforestation. VegSoc believes that spreading a vegetarian diet across the university for two days a week will “add up to a significant reduction” on the University’s carbon footprint. 

Aside from environmental reasons, the benefits of a vegetarian diet have been proven to reduce the risks of colon cancer which red and processed meats have been found to contribute to. 

Hertford student, Kirsten Fletcher, supports the campaign. She said to Cherwell, “considering the ethical and environmental implications of the way we eat should be an effort made by everyone, not just passionate environmentalists and animal lovers”. 

“In reality, plant-based food is very simple to incorporate into student life, and the campaign is a great way to introduce people to vegetarian food and challenge preconceptions that eating plant-based meals is a dramatic or difficult change”.VegSoc calls for “anyone who thinks that they agree with this to get involved” and students can do so by following their social media and can join the campaign by signing up to be a college rep using the link on their Facebook.

Image credit: Oxford VegSoc

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