Blog Page 517

Oxford University ranked best university in the world for 5th consecutive year

Amelia Wood
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Oxford University ranked best university in the world for 5th consecutive year

Oxford University has been ranked the best university of the world by Times Higher Education (THE) for the fifth year in a row. The university is the first institution to have done so under THE’s current methodology. Stanford University and Harvard University finished 2nd and 3rd respectively. Cambridge University, the only other British university to make the top 10, finished in ­6th place, down from 3rd last year.

29 UK institutions made the top 200, the second highest of any country after the US. China doubled its presence in the top 100 from three to six and became home to the first Asian university to ever enter the top 20.

Phil Baty, Chief Knowledge Officer at the Times Higher Education, praised Oxford’s unprecedented performance, pointing to the University’s international outlook as a particular area of distinction.

He said: “The Times Higher Education World University Rankings deploy a comprehensive and balanced range of 13 separate performance indicators to cover world-class research universities’ core missions, across teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

“Under the current decade-old methodology, no university has ever topped the THE World University Rankings for five consecutive annual editions.

“So this year’s rankings results are a testament not only to Oxford’s enduring reputation among leading scholars globally, but also to its ability to continually innovate, publishing cutting edge research with the highest global impact across a wide range of disciplines and providing a uniquely stimulating teaching environment.

“Oxford excels across all of our indicators, but its international outlook scores in particular stand out against world top-ten peers in the US. That commitment to international collaboration and partnership, should be cherished and protected.”

Professor Louise Richardson, Oxford University’s Vice-Chancellor, said: ‘‘We are delighted to have consolidated our position at the top of the THE World University Rankings this year. The international standing of British Higher Education is a testament to generations of investment in education as well as to our extraordinarily talented staff and students. The COVID-19 pandemic, which has posed such a threat to higher education around the world, has also demonstrated the critical role universities play in addressing global challenges.”

Oxford University’s ranking comes in a year of headlines for the university, with the Jenner Institute at the forefront of the search for a COVID-19 vaccine.

Taking the old over the new: The importance of re-watching

Skye Fitzegerald McShane
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Taking the old over the new: The importance of re-watching

I think it’s safe to say most of us have been watching more films and television than usual recently. Deciding what to put on, however, can often take up more (frustrating) time than actually watching it, part of the perils of having too much choice and not much else to do but scroll.

I offer a deceptively simple solution: watch something you’ve already seen. Some will groan or raise a bored eyebrow faced with this repetitiveness, whilst others might find a comforting escapism in going back to an old favourite. The nostalgia it can bring can be reason enough to re-watch something: the familiarity and safety of something already loved should not be sneered at, especially in times such as these where those two qualities are hard to find.

But re-watching is important beyond nostalgia: another look can reveal things about a show or film that change everything you think about it, or at least add some interesting nuance. Sometimes it’s almost a necessary practise, when a first look at something perhaps revered as vital viewing just leaves you confused. A re-watch can be a powerful tool in understanding and appreciating things to their full capacity, and should not be disregarded too easily in favour of constant newness.

Take my experience with 70’s gangster epic The Godfather, one of my favourite films. The first time I watched it I certainly enjoyed it, with all the dramatic lighting and intense Al Pacino stares. But if I’m honest a lot of its intricate mafia business was lost on me, and the times where I’ve forced friends to try it for the first time since have necessitated several breaks for explanations about what’s actually happening, whose name is what, and which person in a dark suit we’re meant to be rooting for. It’s quite a lot to take in first time around. But when watching it again, I could take a metaphorical step back from the plot to focus on the spiderweb of details within, and it is these details which have made the film endlessly compelling.

During that second watch, and every time I’ve seen it since, I have found more and more to relish. I love to focus on each figure in the iconic first scene wedding and the set-up of their stories to come, and to track the subtle changes in how Michael, the principal character, interacts with his world as he morphs into someone almost unrecognisable by the films end. I can sit back and appreciate the power of the soundtrack, the editing, the direction, without simultaneously trying to connect the dots within the main story.

The more familiar I am with the story the freer I feel to interrogate it as well, casting a critical eye on the agency and power (or lack thereof) of the film’s women. Similar stories can be told about so many other excellent films and TV shows I’ve gone back to: on a second watch you can find deeper and deeper personal intrigue as well as a tighter grasp on the plot. There’s no imperative to over-analyse every little action, just a chance to take them all in.

 It’s like the difference between working on a puzzle with or without knowing what it should look like when complete. Finally understanding how everything fits together at the end is exciting in its own way, but there’s also something compelling in being able to interrogate exactly why each piece fits together the way it does. The high stakes tension of not knowing how things will end is gone, leaving space to observe exactly how and why these endings happen.

Parasite, for a more contemporary favourite, is an excellent film for this kind of treatment. The true power of all the choices made by both the characters and the film makers can only fully be appreciated once you know what they are building up to, and, even then, interpreting each walk up or down the stairs, each camera pan demands much theorizing as to its meaning. I wanted to watch it again as soon I stepped out of the cinema, and Bong Joon-Ho has crammed so many subtleties in that film I think I could do so endlessly.

Saying this, not everything deserves multiple re-watches, and not everything needs multiple re-watches to be seen as brilliant. However, I’ll strongly defend the point that one mark of a truly great piece of television or film is its ability to stand up to being re-watched. Something you can come back to again and again knowing there is more to see, to interpret, to explore. Something that can still hold you once you know all the set ups, all the jokes, all the twists and turns. Something that also holds up outside of its original context and is not flooded with things once seen as ‘entertaining’ or ‘funny’ which are in fact simply lazy, offensive, discriminatory or generally (and rightfully) no longer tolerated. Films and TV shows that can’t stand up to the scrutiny that comes from a re-examination don’t need repeating, but those that do deserve celebrating.

For some people the allure of the new will always take precedence over going back to something they’ve seen before. But I think there is something particularly special in the re-watching experience, whether it’s the simple pleasure of nostalgia or the allowance of time and space for deeper appreciation of something great. For these reasons I stand decidedly by the importance of a re-watch. At the very least it’s one solution to the question of what to put on next.

Surrealism on film: Fellini and ‘Juliet of the Spirits’

David Alexander
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Surrealism on film: Fellini and ‘Juliet of the Spirits’

Everyone’s going a bit crazy these days.

I, for one, am happy to admit that the last few months have been quite bizarre, and I’ve certainly been over-thinking, daydreaming and fantasising more than I usually do. And when we want to over-think, to daydream, to fantasise, the limitations of reality make it quite an unsuitable territory in which to plant our mental playground.

Enter: surrealism.

We normally think of surrealism in terms of art. Dada, Dalí and so on; bizarre juxtapositions and ambiguous non-sequiturs. No story to speak of (it’s hard to become emotionally invested in a melting clock-face), and a breezily playful disdain for fixity of meaning. 

I think much of the best work surrealism ever produced was on film, though. And I think the person who did it best was Federico Fellini.

His films always have a touch of the fantastical about them. As screenwriter, he manged to inject a subtle romance into Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City and Paisan, otherwise pillars of sombre neorealism, and this seed germinated as he directed his own films. La Strada (1954) is a good early example, stuffed as it is with the kind of over-sized eccentrics and magical elegance Dickens would be proud of.

1960’s La Dolce Vita was maybe the hinge – Fellini’s last gasp of real-life air before his plunge into unreality. Even it has a lot of theatricality though: people like Anita Ekberg’s Sylvia, her long dress famously flowing through the Trevi Fountain, just don’t exist in real life.

But then came 8 ½ (1964).  In the opening scene, while the audience was still muttering and the lights had only just dimmed, Fellini went full-on Dada. It’s a rush-hour scene, with a thousand lifeless commuters trapped in their cars – our protagonist scrambles to get out of his, and then floats, transcendently, into the Italian cloud, until a rope wraps itself around his leg and yanks him back to earth. “Confused?”, Fellini seems to ask us. “You should be. Now, look at this…”

8 ½, about a director struggling to dream up a film, is very much a film about a director’s dreams. And it’s great, and I love it, but I’m not a director and neither are most people. So, the more relatable film, in my opinion, came next.

1966’s Juliet of the Spirits is maybe Fellini’s masterpiece. It’s about a housewife who is facing an extremely difficult ‘real’ life. She’s stuck in a kind of awkward limbo with little but shallow bourgeois diversions to entertain her, while her husband is quietly, but noticeably, having an affair that she can never quite pin him down on. As her unhappiness grows and patience wears out, she visits various local eccentrics who trigger or deepen intense flights of mental fantasy, which draw on memories and stories about her family. 

One of these takes place at a fantastical carnival, with horses and soldiers and a bi-plane that takes off with her grandfather and a dancer. One dream happens in a crumbling religious school, run by the hooded monks of which nightmares are made. The ending, without spoiling too much, scraps the idea that the surreal should be detached from the ‘real world’ at all.

All these sequences flow in and out of the central narrative, riding on the steady stream of Nino Rota’s score, which skips through jazz and music-hall snippets, lilting pipers and blaring circus fanfares. Its playful syntheses distil the energy of the controlled chaos taking place on screen. I think it might be the best film score ever composed. It’s certainly the most fun.

Giulietta Masina’s performance in the central role helps control the film a lot. She has an effortlessly deadpan expression for much of it, contrasting (in a very surrealist way) with the craziness around her.

But I also think she brings agency. Roger Ebert thought Fellini simply used Masina (his real-life wife) as a conduit through which to explore his own fantasies, but I disagree. It’s true she meets neighbours whose sexual flamboyance might have excited Fellini at his lustiest. But they’re only one part of her adventure.

Besides, in the end it’s only Juliet herself that can reconcile the rowdy memories and dreams inside her head. And she does, I think, though it’s left just slightly ambiguous. Any ending more straightforward would be disappointing.

It’s such an entertaining film, and it looks fantastic. The music matches the action so well that I was reminded of Fantasia, and, like that Disney classic, there’s something almost primally satisfying about its synchronisation.

Juliet of the Spirits is also relevant to a world stuck for months with its own thoughts. It’s about those times when our minds run away with us; when we dream about what could happen in the future, or what did happen in the past. It also suggests, tentatively, and with rare glimpses of seriousness, that all these things can be reconciled. Or at least, that it’s a lot of fun to try.

It’s streaming on a service called MUBI at the moment, though I don’t know how long it will stay there for. I had no idea about this until recently, but it turns out that students can subscribe to MUBI for free!

So, if you have a spare two hours and fancy stepping inside a head that isn’t yours for a change, give Juliet of the Spirits a watch. Isn’t that, after all, why watch movies in the first place?

Image via Flickr

‘Measure in Love’ – Preview

Daniya Jawwad
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‘Measure in Love’ – Preview

In the last few months, many aspects of our lives have had to change and adapt to fit into what we call ‘the new normal’. Theatre is no stranger to this and truth be told, I was quite sceptical as to how musical theatre could function well on an online platform. However, having watched the preview of Raise Your Voice Theatre Collective’s ‘Measure in Love’, I may just be proven wrong. 

Featuring the amazing cast of St Catz Drama Society’s RENT production, ‘Measure in Love’ is the first ever virtual musical event organised by the Raise Your Voice Theatre Collective. As per its description, the collective aims to support various causes through online concerts and for ‘Measure in Love’, they will be fundraising for Color of Change and UK Black Pride. The former fights for racial justice in the US while the latter celebrates diversity in the LGBTQ+ community in the UK — both of which are wonderful causes that require our immediate attention and support. Alex Waldman, the director, shared that the collective ‘aims to provide a space, virtually, and hopefully in person following the conclusion of this pandemic, for more members of the Oxford community to share their artistic passions in support of charitable organizations that leave a lasting positive impact on society’. 

The performance itself features a variety of songs, ranging from popular musical hits to lesser known gems, and is as follows:

‘You Will be Found’ (Dear Evan Hansen)

‘Agony’ (Into the Woods)

‘Get Down’ (Six)

‘You Learn’ (Jagged Little Pill)

‘For Good’ (Wicked)

‘It’s De Lovely’ (Anything Goes)

‘No One is Alone’ (Into the Woods)

‘Seasons of Love’ (RENT)

When asked about the chosen repertoire, Alex explained that while there is no central theme, they wanted to perform a variety of songs (including group numbers, duets and solos) to ‘ignite multiple facets of human emotion’. The 11 minute preview of ‘Measure in Love’ gives us a taste of what is to come, with moving performances of ‘You Will be Found’ from Dear Evan Hansen and ‘Seasons of Love’ from RENT. Filmed from the comfort of each cast member’s home, both musical numbers were a delight to listen to, despite the unconventional medium. ‘You Will be Found’, according to Alex, highlights the importance of belonging and of a supporting community while ‘Seasons of Love’ is very dear to both the cast and crew as RENT brought them together in the first place. 

If you weren’t able to see their talent in March (and even if you were fortunate enough),  ‘Measure in Love’ will take place on September 5th (8pm BST) and they are already accepting donations – see this page for more details.

In depth: Poland’s war on women

Weronika Galka
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In depth: Poland’s war on women

TW: discussion of domestic violence, mention of sexual assault, mention of child abuse

On the July 27th 2020, the Polish Minister of Justice, Zbigniew Ziobro, formally introduced a petition calling for Poland to withdraw from the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (the Istanbul Convention), earning the scorn of human rights activists and high-ranking politicians (such as the Secretary General of the Council of Europe) alike. The announcement of the planned withdrawal from the Convention came on the heels of an April wave of protests caused by the Sejm debating further restrictions to the access to pregnancy termination, and its coverage was quickly eclipsed by the mass arrests of LGBTQ+ activists for hanging rainbow flags on monuments and participating in protests which followed a week later.

However, the possibility of withdrawal from the Convention should be seen as an especially heavy blow to human rights protection in Poland, and due attention paid to the proposal. The Istanbul Convention, adopted in 2011 and ratified by Poland in 2015, is the first legally binding European instrument on violence against women (EIGE 2017, p.63), introduced the first legislative definition of ‘violence against women’ and remains a comprehensive legal document. Crucially, it both addresses the wider matrix of gender-dependent imbalances of power entrenched in traditional gender role, and understands violence against women as a symptom of those deeply-rooted inequalities (FRA 2017, p.12). This wider, polycentric focus is mirrored in e.g. Articles 12 and 14 of the Convention, requiring government action to enforce education on gender equality and non-stereotyped gender roles, as well as ensuring that religion (amongst others) cannot be used as a justification for violence against women.

It is those ‘educational’ articles that Law and Justice took issue with. Reading the press releases from the Ministries and listening to the coverage of politicians’ opinions, one would be excused to think that the Convention focuses on legal regulation of gender roles, rather than gender-based violence. The Vice-minister of Justice, Mr Romanowski, accused the Convention of being ‘genderist babble‘ and ‘using women for ideological warfare’ while ‘forcing [parents] to promote gender ideology and demoralise kids’. Mr Woś, the Minister of Environment, similarly claimed that the Convention ‘introduces 54 genders in place of “male” and “female”’ and ‘forces parents to educate their children on the LGBT agenda’. Finally, the Prime Minister of Poland, Mr Morawiecki, doubted whether the Convention’s focus on debunking stereotypes on gender roles is compliant with the Polish Constitution. The conversation around the withdrawal from the Convention often left a distinct impression that the real women suffering from violence are somewhat less deserving of attention and protection than the (seemingly incredibly fragile) traditional gender roles.

The Government justified its move to withdraw by arguing that the standards of domestic Polish law is ‘entirely compliant’ with and even ‘surpassing’ the Convention and that its protection of women against violence is constantly improving, and hence withdrawal will not affect Polish women – who ‘remain the government’s first priority. However, the available statistics on violence against women cast doubt on both parts of this statement. Poland has one of the lowest scores in the EIGE’s Gender Equality Index (55.2, with 67.4 as the EU average),  and every year around 100,000 reports of domestic violence are made. Although the data compiled by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) in 2014 suggests that 19% of women in Poland have experienced sexual or physical violence (14% less than the EU27 average), the levels of disclosed violence are positively tied with the Gender Equality Index, which, combined with one of the lowest levels of trust in the police in EU, makes it likely that the real levels of violence are significantly higher. 33% of Polish women do not know any organisations helping victims of violence (compared to 3% in Norway). That the violence is underreported is also suggested by the statistic that in nearly 80% of reported cases, the victims suffered health consequences – i.e. only examples of the most serious instances of violence are reported. The Convention’s educational measures are specifically aimed at raising the public awareness of what behaviours short of infliction of bodily harm constitute violence – if women do not recognise that what happens to them is not ‘normal’, and violence is not openly addressed in the society, it will continue to occur mostly unchecked. In a country in which 6% of the population (the highest result in EU27) thinks that violence against women is ‘acceptable in certain situations’, 28% thinks that violence against women is often provoked by the victim and 21% thinks that domestic violence is a private matter to be handled within the family, low levels of reported violence alone cannot be used as an indicator of the victims’ safety improving.

Moreover, Mr. Ziobro is not entirely correct in saying that the Polish law is coterminous with or surpasses the Convention. Although important changes concerning the victims’ pre-trial protection from abusers have come into force recently, at least two major gaps remain: Polish criminal law fails to replicate Convention’s focus on consent in crimes of sexual violence (Art.36(2)) and does not criminalise economic violence (Art.3(b)). Furthermore, both Polish legal NGOs and the EIGE highlight that in many other aspects, the Convention, although ratified, is dead law due to under-implementation. A 2016 report by the Centre for Women’s Rights shows that both the police and the legal system fail to adequately help the women who suffer from violence or wish to exercise their legal rights against their abusers – with women who do not conform to the stereotypes of a ‘true victim’ or ‘a good wife’ being denied access to justice or treated as ‘having asked for it.’ Outside of the law enforcement systems, NGOs do not have the resources to answer all remaining needs of the victims. Joanna Piotrowska, the leader of Feminoteka, highlights the severe inequality in the availability of resources, which are almost non-existent outside of large towns, as a particular problem, with the withdrawal of MoJ funding for women’s rights NGOs further impacting their capacity to help. The legal protections often become non-existent if the woman in question does not conform to the traditional gender roles, e.g. by virtue of being a member of the LGBTQ+ community – with the state’s response crossing from not improving things to actively carrying out violent acts against women, such as the reported instances of sexual assault of women arrested during recent protests in support of LGBTQ+ rights.

Law and Justice’s attacks on the Convention are part of a larger campaign against gender equality, women’s and sexual minority rights, which has been noted by EIGE to have had numerous negative effects on institutional, legal and policy frameworks aimed at combating gender-based violence. While the sense in attacking a made-up concept might escape the luckier readers, manufacturing of crises in which a made-up concept (‘gender ideology’, ‘illegal migrants’) loosely based on an existing, vulnerable group is pitted against the well-being of the nation (e.g. its cultural sensibilities) in order to distract from the real crises and party in-fighting will be familiar to many.

By introducing the spectre of a foreign-made Convention which will ‘introduce 54 genders’ and ‘is a tool of neo-Marxist Kulturkampf aimed at demolishing [Poland’s] Christian values’, the Government causes a moral panic amongst those who for any reason (prejudice – but also lack of access to adequate education or a strong sense of religious identity) take such claims seriously, and an outpouring of outrage from those who do not. Meanwhile, Covid-19 infections are on the rise, the country is standing on the precipice of a severe economic crisis and Catholic Church-connected paedophilia scandals continue to emerge. The political pragmatism guiding the whole affair became even more visible when, in response to Ziobro’s withdrawal petition and following national protests and an international outcry, Morawiecki sent the Convention to the (according to the Venice Commission, Law and Justice-controlled) Constitutional Tribunal for review of its compliance with the constitution, placing a possible withdrawal on the back-burner for as long as needed.

Those who say that the possible withdrawal from the Convention is not aimed at legalising violence against women are thus correct, in a twisted way. The withdrawal is aimed at protecting the fictional ‘true Polish women’ from the non-existent scarecrow of ‘gender ideology’, with possible resultant impacts on the levels of violence against women being an afterthought to hailing a victory in the fight against non-standard gender roles. The underenforcement of the Convention prevented it from having much positive impact on Polish women’s situation; the first likely effect of its possible disappearance from the legal system would be a symbolic approval and reinforcement of traditional, violence-inducing gender roles.

However, in the long term, it might open the door for a further and more substantive roll-back of enforceable women’s rights – that such concerns are not baseless is evident from the fact that a draft bill calling for the first instances of violent domestic abuse to not be recorded has already been introduced once (in 2019) by the Minister for Family, Work and Social Affairs, Elżbieta Rafalska. Any international answer to the recent developments in Poland must thus be intersectional in that it addresses not only the attacks on the Convention alone, but on the longer campaign to restrict the human rights of vulnerable Polish groups as a whole. Otherwise, Polish women suffering from violence and domestic abuse will continue to suffer in silence– but as long as they conform to the government-approved gender roles, their safety from ideological spectres is ensured.

Pandemic Perspectives: Greece

William Sutton
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Pandemic Perspectives: Greece

There was an eerie feeling around college towards the end of Hilary. Nothing had changed yet: pubs and nightclubs were still open and the geography department was confident that the overseas field trip in the first week of Trinity would go ahead. Yet rumours were trickling in that we wouldn’t return next term.
With this backdrop, on the Saturday of 8th week, I was in Gloucester Green, talking to the owner of one of the Greek food stands about how different it was in Greece. With 190 cases at the time, Greece had announced the closure of all restaurants and shopping malls. As for Gloucester Green, they had heard no news of any changes.

That evening, my flight to Greece was full of Greek people, returning home like me, many wearing respirator masks. Clearly, they were taking it more seriously than those at Oxford. A few of those I spoke to were horrified that the British government was taking the idea of herd immunity seriously at the time.
Within a day of returning, non-essential shops were ordered shut, and within a week, there was a full lockdown. ID and a ‘exit approval form’ was required to leave the house or an SMS had to be sent to the authorities with one’s address and reason for exit, which had to be either essential or for exercise.

Remarkably, the lockdown was very effective. A cursory look at the Athens traffic would show that in Greece, the law is not always followed or enforced, but this was not the case for the lockdown, which was enforced proactively by the police who conducted regular checks, with a 150 euro fine for violation. With shops, schools and offices shut, Athens was a changed city. City squares and commercial districts were empty, pavements which would have been filled with tables from cafes remained bare, and the Acropolis looked over an Athens devoid of tourists. In residential areas, helped by the fact that exercise could be taken with up to one member outside of the household provided social distancing was maintained, life returned to the streets. In the evening, the streets were filled with families and pairs of socially-distanced friends of all ages on walks, armed with takeaway coffees. Novice cyclists clumsily manoeuvred their way around them, while the rare car had to contend with moving at a snail’s pace, as the streets were reclaimed by the pedestrians.


On 14th April, around the time the UK was at its peak in terms of COVID-19 cases, Greece recorded 25 new infections, with its response receiving international attention soon after. Subsequently, with the number of daily new infections exceeding 30 on only three days in the last two weeks of April, the lockdown was eased on 4th May, with restrictions of movement lifted and shops reopened. At that stage, Greece had recorded a total of 2,632 cases and 146 deaths, figures which were topped on a daily basis in the UK.

Yet in a country which has often lacked political leadership, many Greeks would have been excused for thinking that Greece would trace a path more similar to Italy. However, the response led by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, was in stark contrast to many other European nations. Acutely aware that Greece’s capacity of 650 ICU beds would be overwhelmed if the disease were allowed to spread, his response was swift, effective, transparent and proportionate. There was no beating about the bush – the lockdown came less than 24 hours after a warm weekend which saw many flock to the beach with everything else closed. Although at times, it felt as if the laws were changing by the day, changes were clearly communicated through daily televised coronavirus briefings.

As Greece emerged from lockdown, fears of a rise in cases were dispelled. Throughout May, daily new cases exceeded 21 only once, with half of the days in single figures. On 25th May, restaurants and cafes reopened, albeit with reduced capacity, as Greece geared up for normality, and more importantly, for the tourist season which the Greek economy is heavily reliant upon.

So what led to Gkikas Magiorkinis, a professor of infectious disease at Athens University, declaring that Greece had “formally” entered the second wave of COVID-19 on 10th August, and the country recording 254 new infections four days later? From mid-March, Greece had strict entry requirements, with all arrivals tested and having to quarantine for 14 days. Without the fear of imported cases, Greece had been able to safely reopen the economy, and to resume social life. Greeks were enjoying meals and drinks out with family and friends without social distancing. By July many people I spoke to had become used to a new normal: with masks but without a tangible threat of Covid-19.

From the end of July, Greece saw a steady rise in cases, primarily in the two largest cities of Athens and Thessaloniki, but also on many islands which had previously been COVID-free. Initially, this could be attributed to the loosening of border restrictions in July to allow tourists in, but most transmissions are now domestic. Complacent may not be the right word, but many Greeks had become used to the largely Covid-free society of June and July, when socialising had returned to the pre-pandemic normal. As many travelled to the islands and to ancestral villages for the summer, the Greek government was, and continues to be, reluctant to implement social-distancing measures.

To combat the recent increase in the infection rate, localised measures have been implemented, for example, requiring bars to close by midnight and a ban on gatherings of more than nine people. Whether these will have an impact is yet to be seen. Crucially, there don’t appear to be any regulations mandating social distancing between members of different households. It remains to be seen whether Greece has squandered its early success in dealing with the pandemic. There is the suspicion that Greece is simply holding out until the end of the tourist season, when stricter measures would be implemented. But with cases rising throughout Europe, Greece faces an uncertain future. Having not had a first wave in the manner of other western and southern European nations, it may be in for a reckoning.
As I prepare to return to Britain, I hope otherwise.

Artwork by Francesca Nava

CherWell News – August

Cherwell News
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CherWell News – August

Photographic history celebrates 40 years of women at Mansfield

Mansfield College is celebrating women at the college with a photographic history. The collection charts the history of women from the first mixed-gender cohort in 1979 to photos of current students. “We’d wanted to celebrate with a big event, but instead, we had to find a digital solution,” the college explained to Cherwell.

“The collection of images aims to recreate the kind of conversations people have at alumni reunions, where they share memories and anecdotes. There’s been such an enthusiasm and warmth to the project from current students and alumni alike, and it’s helped us to feel connected as a community while we’re away from campus.”

Oxford student sets up virtual internships to help Pakistan

A social enterprise founded by Oxford students is helping Pakistani schools and companies conduct online internships. The Dil Internship Project aims to reverse Pakistan’s brain drain by giving students the opportunity to work in schools for disabled students, top universities, and other companies.

The scheme’s founder, Mustafaen Kamal, told Cherwell: “It’s great that we’ve been able to help build the IT infrastructure necessary to conduct our internships online. Helping a company like Karachi Downs Syndrome Programme do virtual internships was always going to be a challenge, but to help them conduct the vital work that they do we had to ensure that the right talent was able to reach them virtually.”

The organisation is also fundraising to help distribute food to families in rural Pakistan, whose livelihoods have been threatened by COVID-19. It has raised over $12,000 for the Paani Project’s emergency Coronavirus fundraiser.

Northern Society’s ‘Mind The Gap Mondays’ social media campaign

The Oxford Northern Society has this past month been running its ‘MIND-THE-GAP-MONDAYS’ series aimed at detailing the regional disparities between the North and South of the UK. The society aims to improve access for Northern based communities  to the university. Their latest social media campaign has highlighted the regional differences in the recent A-level results, inequalities in the arts and the economic differences between the North and South.

Local teenager bakes for care home

Fourteen year old Layli has been baking cakes and biscuits for Chawley Grove, an Oxford care home, over lockdown. Layli told Cherwell: “I thought after working hard for others they would like a nice treat.” The care home told Cherwell: “The residents and staff at Chawley Grove were so grateful for Layli’s bakes… Acts of kindness like Layli’s have meant the world to us all – she’s a credit to her family and to the local community.”

Target Oxbridge expands its reach

Target Oxbridge, a programme helping UK students of Black heritage gain places at Oxford and Cambridge, has announced it will double the number of students it supports every year. Since 2012, Target Oxbridge has supported more than 200 students of Black African and Caribbean heritage to gain offers from Oxbridge.

Support comes through mentoring, university visits, and admissions advice. The programme helped 71 students secure offers this year. The programme is run by diversity recruitment specialist, Rare, in collaboration with the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. It is delivered to UK-based students in Year 12 through funding from the universities, as well as corporate sponsors Clifford Chance, Latham & Watkins, and Linklaters.  

Oxford students win Rising Stars Awards

Four Oxford students have been named in the UK’s Top Ten Black Students. In first place was MBA student Dr Diana Wangari, who co-founded Checkups Medical Centres, a network of health centres in Kenya which offer consultation and diagnostics. She said: “Being nominated as one of Rare Rising Stars UK was an honour and I felt humbled to be among other top black students in the UK.” Dr Wangari is also a founding member of the Lens Africa Fund, which supports female-led businesses.

Dr Toluwalase Awoyemi, a DPhil student researching women’s and reproductive health, ranked second. He said to Cherwell: “As recently witnessed, educational inequality is real and has lasting effects. This award, I hope, will help shine more light on this area. In addition, I hope it will give me a platform to help facilitate better collaboration between Oxford and Africa.” Oxford students Roy Seffa-Atakora and Ruth Nyakerario were also named in the top ten.

‘No return to rough sleeping’ says Oxford City Council

Oxford City Council states that “there need be no return to the streets for former rough sleepers” who had been housed in hotels and student blocks during lockdown. 124 rooms of interim housing have been secured for the next year. The council notes that there have been no confirmed cases of the virus among homeless people in Oxford.

203 people have been housed in hotel and student rooms over the past 4 months. 76 people have stayed in Canterbury House, 42 in the YHA, and there are 6 further rooms available from University College for people with coronavirus symptoms.

Councillor Mike Rowley said: “The lockdown period gave us a unique opportunity to engage with people in emergency accommodation. For many of them, the certainty of a safe bed gave the bit of stability they needed to start having conversations about leaving the streets behind for good. We’ve already helped 67 people to move on into more sustainable housing, and this is something we want to keep doing.”

George Street pedestrianised for restaurants

George Street has been partly pedestrianised to enable outdoor dining for businesses, as the city contemplates implementing further bus gates to reduce car access to the city. The road closure, between New Inn Hall Street and Cornmarket Street, provides space for outdoor tables and chairs for around 11 hospitality businesses between 10am and 9pm. There is also a two-way cycle lane.

Literature festivals of the future

Megan Whitlock
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Literature festivals of the future

Book festivals depend on exchange: whether that be an exchange of ideas, an exchange of recommendations, or a transactional exchange between bookseller and consumer. The problem is that, whilst many have been (re)discovering the comfort of a good book during this pandemic, COVID-19 threatened to bring these acts of exchange to a halt. Cancelled events such as the Hay Festival were left in a precarious position, as the not-for-profit foundation derives 70% of its income from book and ticket sales. However, in adapting their models to an online format, book festivals are taking a long overdue step towards making the literary landscape more accessible to the masses.

As a total newcomer to these sorts of events, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I signed up for the digital Hay Festival, but I was quickly overwhelmed by the range of interesting talks, research and readings available at my fingertips. For those on the outside looking in, literary and intellectual communities can often feel remote, hidden behind a veil of elitism that is all too common when discussing the arts. To have free access to so many exciting resources from the comfort of my own home was a pleasant surprise to say the least.

While nothing can match the feeling (or the valuable industry revenue) of being able to browse through bookshops in person, what the online spaces lost in physical trade was atoned by the achievement of a wider audience reach than ever before. The simple process of registering for a talk, receiving a link, and then interacting with thousands of other attendees from across the globe through a live chatroom meant that the enthusiastic communities which book festivals unite somehow appeared more connected than ever. Not only do the recorded talks solve so many accessibility problems, but the ability to watch them for up to 24 hours after the event had passed (and even longer for a subscription fee) facilitated easy and flexible attendance around other commitments. As idyllic as it sounds to vanish for a few days to the literary haven of Hay-on-Wye, for many, financial and geographic constraints curtail the prospect of reaching the so-called ‘Woodstock of the mind’.

By eliminating the challenges of locations and time zones, the speakers and talks were diverse and far-reaching in a way that is unique to online global connectivity. There was something surprisingly comforting about drifting to sleep with Toby Jones, wine in hand, reciting the poetry of Wordsworth. I also felt the thrill of gaining exclusive insights on global issues, like White House tensions, as they unfolded. The unusual intimacy of bringing these speakers into the home provided a golden opportunity to share interests with loved ones, especially with those who you might never have had the chance or cause to discuss such topics with before. If you had told me in March that I’d be spending my Trinity watching book festival talks with my dad, it definitely would have come as a surprise. However, in this Groundhog Day world where things were starting to feel incredibly isolating, it was a blessing to be connected to thousands of people across the globe, as well as having a new topic of discussion to broach with my family every night.

Online book festivals are more accessible, can develop an even more diverse literary community, and have the potential to gain a much wider reach. For the many authors that rely on these festivals to platform and sell their books, this must surely be good news. It is therefore unsurprising that, looking forward to a post-Covid world, many leading festivals have already explored the possibility of online/in-person hybrid events. Nevertheless, there is still something irreplaceable about the personal touch of getting a physical book copy signed, and the jury is out on whether a wider reach necessarily translates to more sales, particularly when there are no visible book copies in sight. The success of online literary festivals depends entirely on which type of exchange you are looking for. In the case of the independent booksellers, who have only just recently seen growth in trade after a 20-year decline, the optional donations offered by online festivals may be too little, too late. After all, you cannot fuel a career based on the exchange of ideas and conversation alone.

Either way, it is undeniable that the pandemic has forced a necessary conversation in the literary industry about its own future, from examining the centralisation of the publishing world to acknowledging the importance of independent booksellers in a world where Amazon appears to be subsuming everything in its path. At a time when we are forced to be increasingly socially distant, it has never been more important to make literary communities more inclusive. Opening up discussions and making the thought-provoking ideas and research shared at book festivals available to all seems as good a place as any to start.

Blind student wins payout from Oxford Union

David Tritsch
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Blind student wins payout from Oxford Union

A blind Ghanaian student who was refused entry to the Oxford Union’s debating chamber in Michaelmas 2019 has reached an out-of-court settlement with the society. The Sunday Times reported that on Friday, the Union agreed to pay Ebenezer Azamati a settlement of several thousand pounds. The Union has also agreed to an independent inquiry into its operations and will publicly consult on adopting its recommendations.

Mr. Azamati, who was represented by John Halford of Bindmans solicitors, pursued a claim for alleged assault, race and disability discrimination. Speaking to the Sunday Times, he said: “When it happened I felt powerless. I had no means of fighting the union.”

“I am a poor boy on a scholarship. But I gathered the courage to do so because I felt if I did not say anything no action would be taken. Regardless of how difficult or tedious it was going to be, it was necessary.”

In October 2019, Mr. Azamati arrived early at a Union debate and reserved an accessible seat near the entrance by placing a book on it before leaving for dinner. When he returned, he was refused entry, manhandled out of the building and had his Union card confiscated. A Union panel found Mr. Azamati guilty of violating Union rules against “violent conduct” and revoked his membership for two terms. Following an appeal and after a video of the incident sparked international outrage, his membership was reinstated.

The incident led to Union members starting impeachment procedures against Brendan McGrath, Union President at the time, who subsequently resigned. In a statement issued through Bindmans, Mr. Azamati he said: “Mr. McGrath and the Union have yet to acknowledge that I have done nothing wrong, which is upsetting. I would like the union to state now, clearly and straightforwardly, that I am not at fault in any way for the way I was treated.” The Union has now apologised unreservedly to the student.

Following McGrath’s resignation, the Union implemented new standing orders for the training of staff and committee members. However, it failed to complete diversity and equality training, and committee training in Hilary term was not attended by the full committee, Cherwell reported in May.

Mr. Azamati will continue his studies but said he would not attend any more Union debates. “Because you have an accident in a car does not mean you will never drive a car again. But you will be cautious,” he said.

Current President of the Oxford Union, Beatrice Barr, told Cherwell: “We are pleased to have reached an agreement that reflects our desire to improve the way in which we approach issues of access and equality. We look forward to the results of the review we have determined to undertake, which will include views from throughout the Oxford community. We are excited to welcome our members, old and new, to an improved and more welcoming society this Michaelmas.”

Jesus College’s high rents shut down Burger King on Cornmarket

David Tritsch
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Jesus College’s high rents shut down Burger King on Cornmarket

Burger King will shut down its store on Cornmarket Street, the Oxford Mail reported on Wednesday. A property agent for the fast food chain said Jesus College, the landlord, had refused to extend the short lease on the building.

AG&G Director Richard Negus said the property surveyors had “tried to negotiate” with Jesus, but that the college would not compromise on the rent charged. The company “wanted to reach an agreement to secure the lease and make provision to keep it open as and when coronavirus finished, but couldn’t get an agreement… so it has been put on the market.”

The failed rent negotiations have prompted criticism from trade and business associations. Graham Jones, a spokesperson for the trade association OX said that Jesus College “looks like it’s trying to kill the business and has other uses lined up”.

Jones added that if landowners want business in Oxford to flourish, they would have to accept lower rent income based on lower rent income for a while.

The Oxford Mail has published an editorial comment, arguing that “the college, as a charitable institution, is duty bound to maximise its revenues. That however, can not come at the cost of the city’s vitality.” Colleges and churches “may appear quaint and old fashioned, but beyond their ivy-clad quads and calm cloisters, they are hugely wealthy landowners and, in some cases, ruthless landlords.”

Burger King’s Cornmarket Street branch is not the first business in Oxford’s restaurant industry to remain closed after being forced to shut following the lockdown in March. Earlier this month, the Bicycle Shed Pub in Summertown announced it would remain closed due to being unable to sustain business in the current climate.

Jesus College has been contacted for comment.

Image Credit to Grue/ Wikimedia Commons

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