Saturday 26th July 2025
Blog Page 775

Rhodes scholarship expanded worldwide

Daniel Hall
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Rhodes scholarship expanded worldwide

The Rhodes Scholarship will be made available to candidates from anywhere in the world, the Rhodes Trust has announced.

Rhodes Scholarships are currently only available to applicants from a list of more than 60 specified countries.

Recognised as one of the oldest and most prestigious international graduate awards, the majority of scholarships are reserved for residents of just three countries: the US, South Africa, and Canada.

From April 2018, for the first time in the history of the 115-year-old programme, applicants from the rest of the world will be able to apply for the scholarship.

The first two successful Global Rhodes Scholars will arrive in Oxford in October 2019.

In a statement, the Rhodes Trust said: “Opening up the Scholarship programme to powerful minds from all around the world demonstrates the Rhodes Trust’s commitment to be a truly global organisation that re ects the world’s diversity.

“[The expansion] marks a historic moment for the Rhodes Trust, and further strengthens the reach of the Scholarship around the world.”

The expansion of the programme will be seen as a move to modernise the Rhodes Trust, and move it away from the controversial legacy of its founder, the imperialist Cecil Rhodes.

The CEO of the Rhodes Trust, Charles Conn, emphasised the increasing global diversity of the scheme, while also recognising that the programme would mean that for the first time in its history, the Rhodes Scholarship would be available to students from the UK.

Conn said: “As an organisation based in Oxford, we are very excited to be able to now offer the opportunity to British students to join the Rhodes community for the first time since the Scholarship programme was launched in 1903. Students from regions such as Latin America and elsewhere who did not previously have access to a route to a Rhodes Scholarship can now also join our international network.”

The University reacted positively to the introduction of the new scholarships.

A spokesperson told Cherwell: “The Rhodes Scholarships have been important to the University of Oxford since they started in 1903. They have led to many international postgraduate students being able to study here, and we are delighted that the new Global Scholarships allow for their reach to be even greater in terms of where Scholars can come from around the world.”

Previous notable holders of the historic award include the former US President Bill Clinton, current Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, and feminist author Naomi Wolf.

#Ending the Silence review – ‘there is nothing quite like it’

Joel Stanley
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#Ending the Silence review – ‘there is nothing quite like it’

#EndingTheSilence is a tripartite production that builds on the previous work performed by Unlock the Chains Collective. The first part of this performance, #BlackLivesMatter premiered in March 2017 in the Pegasus Theatre. Capitalising on its success, the collective have built on it, developing two following parts, called “Walking on Eggshells” and “Rise Up”.

For Unlock the Chains Collective, theatre and performance is a fundamentally holistic and immersive experience that doesn’t begin merely when the curtain rises. Walking into the Old Fire Station a little before the performance, I was greeted by a drumming set performed by Natty Mark-Samuels, Francis Boua, and Batwen Tavaziva, which wonderfully hinted towards the rhythm and the energy yet to come in the second part of the performance. In much the same way, the music played in the intervals was always thematically in-keeping with the antecedent content, and the attention to detail in providing African and Caribbean food during the breaks again made the world constructed by the Collective inescapable for the duration of the performance. In this way, the company blurs the lines between reality and performance, enabling the audience to relate parts of their experiences in some way to the performance. Based only on the ingenuity of the entire theatrical experience, #EndingTheSilence is unmissable – there is nothing quite like it.

The mimicking of idiosyncrasies of race relations is a particular strength of the first part of the performance. To pull apart the ideologies of those indifferent on the subject of race, and of armchair activists, to demonstrate logical inconsistencies of political ideas, and then to follow this with a proposed alternative, a solution, is what one might expect of an essay rather than an energetic and engaging performance. The Collective’s ability to deliver all this with passion and directed energy through a combination of spoken word, dance, and song mixed seamlessly together creates a show that is evidently brimming with talent. Amantha Edmead’s superb dramatic skill fused poignancy with humour – often beginning a presentation of a character with a look at traits which appear comedic before smoothly developing these in such a way that they became the precise traits I ultimately ended up thoughtfully reflecting upon later.

Euton Daley’s writing and direction confronts the audience with a range of black experiences, ranging from the emotionally charged opening spoken word poem depicting a man caught up in the middle of violence stuck holding a gun in a complete sense of terrified inertia, to an empowered and optimistic exploration of what it means to ‘hope’ performed by Griot Chinyere at the close of the show. This is abley accompanied by Bawren Tavaziva’s fluid and often understated yet effective choreography, performed primarily by the incredibly gifted Luke Crook and Nicola Moses with support from the entire cast.

Whilst the energy of the performance was continually appropriate and welcomed by the audience, given some of the themes the Collective dealt with, notably those such as protest and slavery, a fine line was trodden between outraged passion and a slightly pugnacious ‘shock-factor’ attitude which may have detracted from the performance. An extended sequence where a slave is led out of a cage and then beaten was certainly arresting and poignant, yet was not sufficiently and explicitly developed as the show progressed, and thus began to feel retrospectively out of place. In a similar vein, whilst the use of projection onto the back wall of the stage was an incredibly useful device, giving the audience crucial information than enabled us to ground the performance and understand the structure internal to each part, the projection of Klu Klux Klansmen at one point seemed to me unwarranted and one of the very few times the Collective included something to inspire visceral shock rather than deliver a message.

This is not to say that message was lacking – it was pervasive. Ehi Obhiozele’s stand-out spoken word performance on black identity, autonomy, and self-determination in the third part of the show was as arresting as it was genuine. Obhiozele’s naturalism and dextertiy in imitating various modes of speech and attitudes lended his performance the air of a spontaneous discussion with both the audience and the collective, who looked on, interjected at times, and provided a the perfect atmosphere for this performance.

Spontaneity is what Daley’s writing and direction capitalises on. Despite being politically charged and possibly uncomfortable viewing at moments, it wonderfully avoids didacticism. The members of the collective appear to derive their own conclusions throughout the performance, as does the audience. The multiple vignettes into the emotional turmoil of black men provided by Stephen Macaulay are often relatable and always appear instinctive. This spontaneity is enabled in part by Nomi Everall’s inventive set-design, with four large hashtag signs over the course of the performance acting as a cage, a ship, and even a post-modern version of the cross, a symbol of redemption and of the future. The possible configurations of the hashtags, just like the possible conclusions of the Collective, are infinite. Hashtags, and by extension words, may trap us and imprison us, yet they may liberate us and become instrumental in constructing a better future.

During one of the two intervals that took place during this performance, I by chance overheard another audience member discussing how rare it is to see a truly collaborate and collective effort in theatre, with directors of collectives often refusing to engage with the ideas of other members of the group. #EndingTheSilence is a wonderful and welcome exception to this rule: talent is pervasive, but most importantly, individual character shines through. It is precisely this relinquishing of uniformity, and a consequent acceptance of variation and independent identity within the black community that rendered the performance captivating and inspiring, and what fundamentally delivered such an impactful message.

Down with my Demons review – ‘tensions rise as secrets spill’

Hannah Patient
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Down with my Demons review – ‘tensions rise as secrets spill’

Down With My Demons is centred around five alcoholics in the dead-end South Carolina town of West Sicuta. Despite the fact that they are all attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, it soon becomes apparent that everyone knows everyone else’s past. When a storm sees them trapped in the building, tensions rise as secrets spill and the characters come closer to learning what happened on a fateful fishing trip ten years ago.

The theatrical experience was immersive from the off. Upon entering the BT, every audience member was handed a ‘service sheet’ with a list of ‘today’s hymns’, which also doubled up as a programme. They were then ushered into their seats by Pastor Matthew Talbot (Benjamin Ashton), who bustled around the altar anxiously until the play began. The set was cleverly designed, with seating on three sides of the studio making the audience an extended part of the circle of alcoholics. With the gentle breeze from the air-con, the strains of ‘Here I am, Lord’ and the fluttering of the American flag in the background, I felt as if I really could have been in a Baptist church in South Carolina. During the thunderstorm scene, as the studio was plunged into pitch darkness, being lost in the dark along with the characters and hearing only their panicked voices led a real sense of immediacy to the performance.

The standard of acting was excellent, and I was particularly impressed by Arthur Wotton and Benjamin Ashton’s ability to get under the skin of ostensibly unlikeable characters (an intolerant white fisherman and a self-righteous pastor) and make them sympathetic and believable. The varying dynamics between the characters were consistently well-observed. Even the way they sat in their chairs revealed something about their personalities: Jael (Anushka Shah), the respectable pillar of the community, was composed and upright, while Delilah (Serena Pennant), a downtrodden single mother, slumped in her seat and showed a distinct lack of enthusiasm for the pastor’s suggestions.

The cast generally sustained convincing, albeit geographically disparate, southern American accents (they ranged from yokel to Southern belle to Texan cowboy). In some places the script was rather predictable; characters took it in turns to deliver monologues about their deepest secrets as the lighting shifted from warm to cold, and (surprise surprise) Samson and Delilah were sleeping together. Though I think we were supposed to see things from the perspective of Vincent (Robbie Fraser), the half-Mexican teacher who had always felt like an outsider in the community, I began to find his continual preaching and refusal to get along with the other characters annoying. However, I think this was rather the fault of the script than the actor.

Overall, the play was engaging throughout, and certainly explored some interesting themes, with the low reliance on technology lending it an almost timeless quality. Thanks to the unusually intimate staging and in-depth characterisation, I felt as if I had almost become a part of this close-knit American community, so different from our own, for a small time. It was an enjoyable – if not exactly uplifting – break from the Oxford bubble.

In Conversation with the Team Behind #Ending the Silence

John Livesey
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In Conversation with the Team Behind #Ending the Silence

The old Oxford Carnival used to snake up Cowley Road and find itself in the center of town. This is something I’m told mid-way through my conversation with two of the creative voices behind #Ending The Silence, director, performer and writer Euton Daley and actress Amantha Edmead. It’s funny to think of the floats and steel-pans following the exact route I took to meet the pair, past the Magdalen roundabout and down the Highstreet. As we discuss, it so often feels like there are two Oxfords, symbolized in the divide between the dreaming spires of the 38 colleges and the long stretches of East Oxford into Hillingdon. In its time, the Carnival was something which bridged the two, bringing different groups of people together in a celebration of afro-Caribbean culture.

Hearing about #Ending the Silence, it seems to approximate a carnival in itself. In both its form and content, it is focused on a composite, hybridized form of storytelling. The performance is divided into three individual 30 minute sections. The first investigates the tradition of black protest, the second the experiences of race in the everyday and the third is a look to the future of Afro-Caribbean culture in Britain, and the world. In each of these vignettes, a variety of different mediums is drawn on. As Daley tells me, the show employs ‘song, dance, and visual aspects’ and Edmead adds that ‘poetry becomes the musical score’. According to Daley, ‘the western concept of theatre is very much about putting things in categories and boxes… a piece that’s physical theatre, a piece that’s dance, a piece that’s something else’.

However, #Ending the Silence fights against that. In fact, so drastically defiant is it towards conventional forms that the show will be preceded by drumming in the foyer of the Old Firesation and then proceeded by a DJ set. The production seeps out of any boundaries one might wish to put it in, transcending labels and ensuring that its themes spin on and on beyond the confines of the auditorium

For Daley, the show also represents something personal. He talks about the dreams his parents once had of returning home after moving to England 50 years ago. Coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush, Daley’s vision forms part of a far wider discussion about what it means to be a member of the black diaspora: an experience that stretches across generations and is informed by the clash of different cultures and heritages. He also speaks about his passion for performance poetry which, during his tenure as artistic director of the Pegasus Theatre, he never found time to explore properly. This show fulfils a private promise to bring the spoken-word to the stage as part of a full theatrical spectacle.  First performed as a twenty minute piece as part of an evening showcase of work, his initial idea has expanded in length and size, with double the cast and a far longer running time. It certainly looks set to impress and provoke.

Neither Daley or Edmead shy away from the political aspects of the work either. Asked about representation within theatre they argue that even the slow improvements in diversity among professional companies mask wider structural issues. After all, where are the black writers and directors? ‘The stories are still the same’, Daley tells me, ‘the form is still the same’. What we have now is ‘just black people doing Shakespeare’.

The argument he makes is that we need new work that authentically addresses the reality of race, something this show does in bucket loads. According to Edmead, ‘Theatre gives you a space to show many different perspectives’ and so it certainly doesn’t make sense that it is not used more often to challenge the consensus and shift the debate. Perhaps part of the trouble is that ‘people drumming and doing spoken word is seen as lesser’. When the western norms of performance are so institutionalized, it becomes even harder to rewrite the narrative.

With the recent establishment of BAME drama in Oxford and a number of shows specifically designed to highlighted minority voices and stories, it seems there may be new things happening in student drama itself. When I tell the pair about this, Edmead offers a piece of advice and vote of confidence she was once given by Daley himself: ‘Just do it! Just get on and just do it!’. This play offers an exciting new space which involves its audience in a questioning of the status quo of society, storytelling and theatrical form. I left the Firestation invigorated by my discussions with these two creatives and hope that, should anyone miss out on what is going to be an incredible show, there will be many more like it to come.

The vintage sound of The Vaccines

Susannah Goldsbrough
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The vintage sound of The Vaccines

“It’s hard for rock music at the moment” muses Justin Young, front man of The Vaccines. “It’s always been on the front foot culturally. But hip-hop is the exciting form of music right now. Where that leaves bands that are making rock music today, I don’t know. Will we be heralded as…as…”

“The Armageddon?”, chips in Freddie Cowan, lead guitarist, and the darker, quieter, unjustifiably chiselled foil to Young’s floppy-haired, high-energy eloquence. His line may have been a comic throwaway, but it captured a wider theme running through the pair’s conversation at the Union earlier this week. Weeks away from the launch of their fourth album, the west London based indie rock group are now some years beyond the first unsteady flush of fame, the thrill of a euphoric review in Clash and sellout shows at North London pubs.

They’re far from done with music making, but their thoughts seem to be turning towards what they’ll leave behind, to legacy, and the state of rock seems to be weighing on their minds. For an indie-rock band, the pair seem fairly uninspired by the genre at the moment. “Rock follows too many of its own rules”, says Young, “it’s like jazz 50 years ago, in that it operates within quite stringent four walls.” Cowan agrees. “If you’re a four-man band you’re still operating in the wake of The Beatles and The Stones, and you will be until someone can reinvent rock in a way that breaks new ground.”

Speaking to me a few days later, Young makes no attempt to present his music as the radical edge of pop. “I probably wouldn’t start a band that sounded like The Vaccines today, but it’s the path we’re on now. When a song comes on the radio, I kind of love the idea that people will go ‘Oh, this is The Vaccines’.”

I wonder what it’s like to have a self-conscious public image of being old fashioned, in an industry so often fuelled by a desire to transgress and to make change. Young is unconvinced that all artists are genuine innovators. “If you look at glam rock, on the one hand it was very much on the front foot and original, but equally everyone was doing exactly the same thing. It was all a result of the obsession with space age, and dressing like David Bowie. “First and foremost when it comes to art or entertainment, you have to feel fulfilled and to do what makes you happy. You’ll find solace in a certain world or genre, and you’ll make songs you like for people like you. For us, playing rock ‘n roll comes naturally.”

Anachronistic is not the only image problem the band has faced over the years. When they first found fame, they received a certain amount of ridicule from the press for their so-called privileged backgrounds – an old broadsheet article surfaced detailing the four-bedroom South Kensington apartment Cowan’s mother had apparently gifted him as ‘a party flat’. I ask Young if he’s with the implications that his background excludes him from being a true indie rocker, but he doesn’t seem to be in any kind of identity crisis. “Art has always been a pursuit of the privileged, particularly rock ‘n roll. Some of the most hedonistic characters from rock and roll folklore came from privilege, most recently The Strokes. It’s funny that we’re considered posh and privileged but they were considered glamorous because they were New Yorkers.”

The band’s preoccupation with the image they will leave on the eyes and ears of the world probably owes something to their awareness that rock bands don’t have an unlimited shelf life. Young is brutally honest about the toll live performances can take. “It’s really hard when you have an adrenaline shot on a daily basis and then you’re starved of it. I think that’s why so many people in bands end up in an early grave and turn to such unhealthy habits, because there really is nothing quite like it.

“I come back from tour and I’m like, what the fuck do I do now? We haven’t really been performing solidly for 18 months now, and I’m still finding it hard to just sit at home on a week night and accept that that’s what people do. They turn on the TV and make some food and just relax. And I’m still working that one out.” Cowan agrees. “It’s an unbelievable transition to go from playing to the dressing room where your tour manager is just fiddling with the printer.”

It’s hardly surprising that they struggle to adjust to ordinary life – big festival gigs can draw crowds of 30 thousand. Young describes his own desire to put musicians on a pedestal, to view his favourite pop stars as higher beings “beamed from space”. You can spot the effects of fame in the pair’s casual comparisons to their idols, in how easily they move from themselves to Radiohead or The Stones in the same sentence, but neither Young nor Cowan is your typical spoilt pop star. “When you play to a crowd of 30 thousand people, you’ve got to assume 20 thousand have been dragged along by their friends. Not everyone worships at the Church of The Vaccines…”

The time for sitting on the sofa and pretending to be normal won’t last much longer for The Vaccines, soon off on tour with their new album, Combat Sports. Press releases frame it as a return to their original sound, after the experimentation of their last album, English Graffiti. With heavy guitar riffs, bitter-sweet lyrical turns and what Young calls “the primal, urgent, energetic sound”, we’re certainly back in the world of anthems like ‘Post Break-Up Sex’ (still my go-to break up song). My favourite track of the new album, ‘Your Love is My Favourite Band’, takes a witty, self-referential approach to the musical cliché of ‘the love song’. Young likes to tell people that he’s only interested in writing about love and sex, so I wonder how he keeps two themes with light years of cultural baggage fresh. “Love is impossible to describe in words, so I find it funny that we spend so much our time trying to do so.” But that impossibility is the point, as Young says, “it’s just very hard to define so I think people will always continue to try.”

The sound may be a return to the band’s early years, but some fundamental things have changed. With the departure of drummer Pete Robinson, the band has absorbed two new members in recent months, in the form of Tim Lanham and Yoann Intonti. Such a major personnel shake-up could easily have heralded the end of the group’s successes, but in fact they seem re-energised by the changes. Which is not to say it hasn’t been a difficult few months. “It was a real shock when Pete first said he wanted to leave” Young tells me. “We talked about continuing as a three piece but it really felt like we’d lost something. Like we were an animal that had lost a leg. But we sat down and we were sure we wanted to keep doing it and to make another record.”

Lanham and Intoni had already toured with The Vaccines, but in becoming full members they brought something new. “All of a sudden, 40 per cent of the band were over the moon to be there and bringing fresh energy into every room we walked into. We had a fresh perspective, which stops you making the same record over and over again. It’s funny but I wonder if we’d be sat here talking now if that hadn’t happened.”

I wonder how his positivity about the future of the band, its new members and old sounds, sits alongside the toughness of the lifestyle he makes no attempt to hide. How much longer can they really keep doing this? Young is optimistic. “I don’t think the lifestyle is sustainable – sleep is one of the most important things for a long life and you don’t get any of that when you’re in the band – but we still massively enjoy making music. It’s a very strange life, but as we get older I think we’re refining it. We’re getting better at keeping ourselves alive.”

That’s a pretty sombre sentiment from a guy who’ll spend the next few months hearing thousand-strong audiences singing his lyrics back to him. But as we’ve established, it’s a tough time to be in rock ‘n roll, especially when the adrenaline recedes and you’re back to sitting on the sofa on a week night, wondering how to be ordinary.

Hedda review – ‘stubbornly disturbing and nuanced’

Izzy Troth
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Hedda review – ‘stubbornly disturbing and nuanced’

Peripeteia’s Production of Hedda, Lucy Kirkwood’s adaptation of Ibsen’s classic, makes the rigid academic structures of Oxford the prison for the ultimate portrayal woman constrained. Cosy Richard Curtis terrain becomes dystopian, reduced to a draughty, claustrophobic flat. Oxford, too, is reduced to ‘such a small town’. India Opzoomer as Hedda seems as much a product of her surroundings as Ibsen’s, if not more so. The city of her childhood, Oxford, is the site of Hedda’s worshipful relationship with her father; rather than General Gabler, here he is the Dean of New College, his in influence a spectre over Hedda’s relationship with George.

Hedda’s experience here is the force which shapes her. Such a focus – no doubt the references have an added pathos in their delivery from Oxford students in the Oxford Playhouse – depict a more Freudian Hedda than in Ibsen’s original. George (a brilliantly irritating figure played by Finlay Stroud) will never be the academic equal of Hedda’s father, and it is little wonder that her relationship with Eli, (a standout performance from Derek Mitchell) is so toxic. The latter’s cold, black polo-necked aloofness would risk being a cliché of an intellectual, were it not for the highly moving scenes between him and Hedda recalling their lazy evenings in Christ Church Meadows.

However, Hayes’ production is so stubbornly disturbing and nuanced that any attempt to flippantly ‘explain’ Hedda, whether from a purely feminist, sociological, or psychological perspective seems ultimately reductive. As in Ibsen, this Hedda is a frustrated, highly unlikeable woman. Opzoomer’s swallowing of the USB is perhaps her finest moment, an act committed simply to have the ‘power to mould a human being’: Eli (Derek Mitchell). This is the only aspiration that Hedda claims to have. The USB holds Eli’s sense of self-worth, his ‘child’ – no wonder Hedda is jealous of such an all-consuming project. This production underlines how a vague longing for purpose drives Hedda’s behaviour. The staging of the scene is haunting; Hedda collapses to the ground, choking on the metal, swilling her mouth with alcohol.

Refreshingly, Opzoomer makes Hedda a figure with whom the audience may inwardly laugh; the comic value of her babysitting of George, this fragile ‘erudite creature’, is something she fully exploits. Her acerbic, self-aware commentary also provokes the glaring question that this adaptation raises. As Hayes underlines, in this ‘modern’ society, why doesn’t Hedda “just leave her husband and get a job?” However, it is perhaps the disinterest of Kirkwood’s Hedda in taking advantage of the opportunities that years of feminist progress have made available to her that make this adaptation such a timely one in the Playhouse’s ‘A Vote of Her Own’ programme. The audience must reflect upon a society in which a woman as intelligent as Hedda considers being not the Prime Minister, but his wife, as a role that would give her “something important to do”. No doubt this aspiration is for the best, since Hedda would make a terrifying despotic Prime Minister, but what has conditioned her to believe that this is the case? Hedda is certainly jealous of the artistic fullment that the reformed Eli is on the cusp of attaining, but there is nothing to prevent her from writing her own novel? Is it the dismissive response of Toby (Marcus Knight-Adams), who mocks her artistic ambition?

It may be that Hedda is so used to fulfilling a female role – through a mix of monologues and confessions, we see her as an adoring daughter, a patient girlfriend who dutifully “talked and talked and talked” to save George from discomfort, a patronised wife who begrudgingly offers her sister-in-law tea that, even in the twenty first century, her sense of self is determined by how she feels she is perceived in a patriarchal lens.

Contrary to what Kirkwood’s title suggests, this production underlines how Hedda is never allowed to simply be Hedda. The same may be said of Thea (Georgie Murphy), who depressingly declares how desperate she was to have been ‘used’ by Eli. Hedda enjoys the only power she knows, that of the domestic sphere. She relishes Toby’s irtations, severs the relationship of Thea and Eli, delights in extracting an admission from Eli that Thea is ‘stupid’.

Hedda’s manipulation of her milieu, yet subsequent self-destruction, and the innate sense she can do nothing to improve her situation, creates the tragic impression of a woman who, for all her privilege, believes that she is powerless. Had she lived, she would have continued believing this for as long as she perceived herself through a pre-determined social role. Whilst the challenges faced by Ibsen’s original Hedda were far simpler to define, Peripeteia Productions’ interpretation underlines how the character is anything but irrelevant.

Oxford helped ‘drive through’ controversial pension reforms

Greg Ritchie
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Oxford helped ‘drive through’ controversial pension reforms

Oxford colleges played a major role in pushing through the changes to academics’ pensions which have provoked nationwide strikes, according to the University and College Union (UCU).

Analysis of leaked Universities UK (UUK) documents revealed the extent of Oxford University’s desire for reform of the pension scheme.

They show that each Oxbridge college was counted as an individual institution in a survey used to set the policy, potentially giving them disproportionate influence in comparison to other British universities.

The University Superannuation Scheme (USS) – the pension fund at the centre of the dispute – said in its response to a UUK employer consultation that “a significant minority (42%) of survey respondents wanted less risk to be taken – including some of the very largest employers.”

They did not mention that a third of this figure were Oxbridge colleges, some of the very smallest employers.

It is estimated that about 16 colleges were counted in the survey, on top of individual votes by Oxford and Cambridge universities themselves.

A philosophy professor at the London School of Economics, Michael Otsuka, who first raised the issue of Oxbridge’s “inflated” weight in the survey, said the pension changes were “based on a misleading UUK prospectus regarding the level of opposition among employers to investment risk”.

He added: “It should be a special concern for USS members beyond Oxford and Cambridge if these two institutions exercised such disproportionate influence.”

UCU General Secretary, Sally Hunt, said: “It can’t be right that, in a scheme where risk is supposed to be shared between institutions, Oxbridge employers seem to have had a far greater say in the future of the pension scheme than others.

“Vice chancellors at other USS universities should surely question how two universities have been able to manipulate Universities UK’s hardline position in this way.”

She called on vice chancellors at other universities to voice their concerns, rather “than letting the views expressed by a minority of institutions be used to drive through these damaging changes.”

Queen’s College politics lecturer and Labour City Councillor, Dan Iley-Williamson, told Cherwell: “It seems as though Oxford and Cambridge universities have played a shameful role in driving forward the pension cuts, imperilling the pensions of lecturers across the
country and violating all norms of peer solidarity.

“Behind these moves is the creeping marketisation of higher education, which pits universities against one another, dragging us all down. Radical change can’t come soon enough.”

President of Oxford’s UCU branch, Garrick Taylor, told Cherwell: “The colleges aren’t that poor and the University certainly isn’t, so you’re getting into the situation where the richest institutions in the county are pushing for the end of the defined benefit scheme.

“The people who are most able to afford the scheme are pushing for its closure, which is morally unjust.

“A lot of this has been done by management and hasn’t gone through Congregation. It’s been done in our name but it’s not what the majority of our members want, and I’m pretty
sure it’s not what the majority of academic and academic-related employees at Oxford want.”

Cherwell understands that some senior academics have taken matters into their own hands by proposing a debate at congregation – Oxford’s policy-setting body made up of all permanent academic staff.

A fellow in politics at St Edmund’s Hall, Karma Nabulsi, said: “Colleagues here were completely appalled to learn of Oxford’s role in dismantling the pensions system for academics across the country – we should have been consulted.

“We have submitted two resolutions instructing the university to immediately reverse the position Oxford took on pensions risk, and signatures are still flooding in.

“We aim to vote on reversing this at the next congregation before term ends. We understand that Cambridge are doing the same.”

Oxford University Registrar, Ewan McKendrick, sent an email out to all staff on Thursday afternoon, which acknowledged “the anger and sense of betrayal that is felt by many of our colleagues”.

However, he insisted “that Oxford, either on its own or with Cambridge, did not exert disproportionate influence on the process to date.

“As part of a pension scheme with more than 300 member institutions we have a limited ability to influence discussion and outcomes.”

A UUK spokesperson told Cherwell: “Oxbridge colleges didn’t distort the risk position. They are entitled to their view as an employer in the scheme.”

Self-publishing can counter literary elitism

Meha Razdan
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Self-publishing can counter literary elitism

Self-publishing is not a new phenomenon in the literary world; authors ranging from Marcel Proust to Beatrix Potter self-published books that are now integral parts of the popular and academic canons. But the increasingly widespread availability of self-publishing platforms means that this is quickly becoming a normalised route to publication.

As with any rising trend, self-publishing can prove a contentious issue. Some argue that simplifying the publishing process invites a greater breadth of writers, thereby diversifying the voices of the literary community, which might otherwise be more homogenous because of an inherent elitism in the publishing process. Others would argue that streamlining the route to publication is a shortcut that permits and excuses substandard literature in a way that the rigorous traditional publication process does not. However, the benefits of selfpublishing and the sheer volume of new writers it attracts shouldn’t be underestimated. Programs such as National Novel Writing Month, or “NaNoWriMo” – an annual online event in which participants are challenged to write a 50,000 novel over the course of November, and successful participants receive free copies of their novel as self-published through Amazon – inspire thousands of people to write every month, and turn the process of producing a novel into a community based event.

And some of the books produced through NaNoWriMo have enjoyed popular success, including Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants, and Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus. But the event has its critics – it places too much emphasis on quantity over quality, and encourages people to bypass the editorial process. Above all, it seems to promote the idea that a novel can actually be written over the course of a single month. “Everyone knows it’s impossible to write a good book in a month,” says novelist and vlogger John Green, who does admit that the main goal of NaNoWriMo is actually to produce a first draft and get into the discipline of writing productively every day. But the promise of publication as a reward for those who hit the word count at the end of the month can make the event seem like a race, where once 50,000 words have been written, the novel is complete. Of course one can’t discuss selfpublishing without wandering into the realms of fanfiction.

Another phenomenon popularised by the internet, the ease with which fanfiction can be both posted and accessed creates a vast quarry of an entire subgenre of work that seems to exist outside the mainstream literary sphere. That is until publishers notice viral internet works and decide to publish them in the traditional way. Sarah J Maas’ Throne of Glass series begun life as a story the author posted on fictionpress.com, Christopher Paolini self-published Eragon before it was picked up by Knopf, and, most infamously, E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy gained popularity as erotic Twilight fanfiction. The series drew criticism on many fronts – it encouraged plagiarism and spread toxic ideas about relationships. But most of all, it was bad. It’s been consistently ridiculed for its poor writing: as Salman Rushdie put it, “I’ve never read anything so badly written that got published.” But the onslaught of criticism doesn’t change the fact that it became the fastest-selling paperback of all time. With over 125 million copies sold worldwide, it has smashed records set by traditionally published books, and whilst that certainly doesn’t prove that Fifty Shades has more literary merit than most of the books it’s outsold, it does prove a point.

The freedom and ease of selfpublishing works with the “viral” culture of the internet, it allows people to share and access the kinds of new content that might be overlooked by traditional publishing houses. It’s not that these publishers should start publishing every manuscript thrown their way in an effort to stay ahead of trends – there will always be something to be said about the “seal of quality” offered by a traditionally published work, and it is their right, and responsibility, to be discerning. But as self-publishing becomes increasingly popularised, it would serve publishers well to notice the voices that gain popularity, and acknowledge that the works worth recognising are sometimes the ones that may never before have been allowed to see themselves in print.

Regent’s introduces fund for trans students

Isabel Morris
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Regent’s introduces fund for trans students

Regent’s Park College JCR has passed a motion to “reimburse transgender students for the purchase of items such as binders, packers & packing underwear, bras, breast inserts, and gaffes.”

The proposers of the motion, Ciara Samuels and Cody Fuller, said the trans binder fund would work to improve the welfare of trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming members of the JCR.

Samuels, Regent’s JCR president, told Cherwell: “I decided to propose this motion to support our trans and/or gender non-conforming and non-binary students to make them feel more comfortable.

“We had money in our budget and I think the best thing that we can do with that is to help support our students.

“There is definitely demand from our JCR for a fund of this kind, so it seemed like a great use of money.

“At Prescom, I brought up this idea and collated motions from a couple of different colleges in order to make sure that our motion was in line with other colleges and presented in the best way.”

The motion passed, with only one vote against.

Fuller, a member of Regent’s JCR Social Equalities Committee as well as the committee for the SU’S LGBTQ+ Campaign, said: “Colleges are strongly encouraged by Oxford SU’s LGBTQ+ Campaign and by the LGBTQ+ Society to introduce gender expression funds in order to reimburse students for dysphoria alleviating items and clothing.

Fuller said: “There was an increasing demand for such a scheme within our college.

“I have been reassured greatly by the positive response JCR members of Regent’s Park College have had to my suggestions over the past few weeks and I am hoping that the introduction of this reimbursement scheme will be the first step in a new wave of reforms in college that will promise improved welfare for trans and/or non-binary and gender non-conforming students here.

“This is an essential measure in order to help trans students feel comfortable and supported by the JCR, and it is also of paramount importance in the context of Re- gent’s Park College’s commitment to inclusion, acceptance and a strong emphasis on welfare.

“I am positive that this re-imbursement scheme will help students in college acquire and finance these greatly needed items as well as have the confidence that they have the full support of our undergraduate community.”

The binder fund will help trans people acquire certain garments that are specially designed to change one’s gender expression and presentation, and help alleviate gender dysphoria.

Besides the fact that these garments are “specialised and often expensive,” other factors, such as anxiety or circumstances at home, may further prevent a trans person from buying them.

Exeter College and St John’s College JCR already have similar funds, while Wadham College students can be reimbursed for such items by their trans officer.

Alex Jacobs, Regent’s LGBTQ+ officer, said: “I think the gender expression fund will have a really positive impact on trans students at Regent’s Park, and demonstrate our JCR’s inclusive atmosphere.

“Coming on the back of the college’s recent abolishment of the annual rainbow flag referendum, making the decision to fly the flag permanent, the passing of this motion shows that Regent’s is making an active effort to be more inclusive of LGBTQ+ students.

“Cody Fuller’s determination and effort in setting up the fund is admirable, and I think the fund will be of great benefit to trans students and Regent’s community as a whole.”

Matthew Jones, the college’s incoming LGBTQ+ officer, said: “The fact that the JCR has passed the motion is an exceptional move in the right direction towards equality between everyone. It shows, most movingly to me, how everyone cares about LGBTQ+ welfare regardless of their involvement in the LGBTQ+ community.”

Night Out: Emporium, the best of the worst

Priya Vempali
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Night Out: Emporium, the best of the worst

As the weeks of Hilary plodded on, I became increasingly desperate in my attempts to avoid responsibilities and the crushing existential dread of Oxford life.

Park End Wednesday? Sure. PT Thursday? Why not. Wine Café on a Friday afternoon? Sounds good to me. However, my avoidant behaviour had never taken me to such lows as it did in fifth week when, having exhausted every half-decent club in the city and dragged my friends out on a three-day bender, I decided to venture into the underworld of Oxford’s nightlife – Emporium.

Bracing myself for what I already knew would be an awful night, I liquored up and switched my usual black bodysuit for a ‘jeans and a nice top’, in line with the lacklustre dress code of the venue. I hadn’t been to the club since Freshers’ Week, despite the incessant promotion from our college’s club night rep, and yet memories of an overcrowded bar area and bizarre concentric dance floors still haunted my nightmares.

VK in hand, I made my way to the queue where, surprisingly, I didn’t have to wait that long before I was let in. The ease of my entrance was unexpected, and raised my hopes that perhaps it wouldn’t be as awful a night as I’d anticipated.

Once I got inside, however, my expectations plummeted back to their subterranean origins. The bar was being swarmed by desperate rowing boys, eager to make the most of their one night out all term by getting absolutely smashed on vodka cranberries and chatting up the (clearly uninterested) girls next to them. I took a deep breath, said a prayer, and dived head first into the pseudo-mosh pit, desperate to make my way to the front of the queue. By the time I had my double G&T in hand, I was also covered in various other nondescript liquids and the sweat of several over- friendly strangers.

Back to the dance floor, then, and this was where I began to really let go. The music was crap, but not in a particularly shocking way – more in a ‘the DJ is clearly as fucked as we are and still thinks that Despacito is relevant’ kind of way. Regardless, my boozed-up self was able to gain some enjoyment out of the painfully mediocre playlist, and if I closed my eyes, I could almost pretend I was in Bridge.

Overall, it definitely surpassed my expectations of what the night would be like, but only because they had been abysmally low in the first place. Moral of the story, kids: aim low, and you’ll never be disappointed.

 

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