Oxford's oldest student newspaper

Independent since 1920

Headlines

OUCA members accused of defacing campaign sign in garden of local official

Three members of the Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA) were accused of putting a Conservative leaflet over a campaign sign in the garden of Cllr Ruth Smith, Councillor on West Oxfordshire District Council, during a campaigning expedition to Witney on Saturday 27 April. Smith, who is also Leader of Witney Town Council, 15 miles west of Oxford, posted an account of the events to Facebook and X on Monday.  As part of an expedition to deliver leaflets organised by West Oxfordshire Conservatives last weekend, three members...

Comment

AD: Tour guides needed | footprint tours

Features

Sharron Davies, the Oxford Literary Festival, and the place for transgender athletes in professional sport.

The bell chimed for 2 o’clock on Thursday the 21st of March and the doors closed for the Oxford Literary Festival’s most controversial talk: ‘Sharron Davies, Unfair Play: The Battle for Women’s Sport.’ I...

WaterTok, Stanley cups and the half-empty glass of consumerism

We all need to drink more water. A 1998 New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center survey of 3003 Americans found that 75% of those interviewed were ‘chronically dehydrated’ — a condition apparently characterised by fatigue,...

Philosophy and Technology: Science’s moral afflictions

On March 28th in a dingy Manhattan courtroom, unrepentant crypto-mogul Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison. This landmark sentence came after an appeal by his lawyers against Bankman-Fried’s conviction in November...
00:05:08

Oliver Twist, a Sceptical 9th Grader, and an Orthodox Monastery: The Making of a New Generation in Northern Kosovo

Eager hands reach toward the ceiling as children at the Ismail Qemali school in Mitrovica, northern Kosovo, desperately try to attract the attention of an author who has come to talk to the pupils about her new book. They want to know more about the central character - a...

Tristram Hunt: the Politics of Repatriation

If you came here for a vicious takedown or a strident defence of Tristram Hunt’s position on “colonialism and collecting”, you might be slightly disappointed. Now, it’s clear that  the important conversation over decolonisation has continued to ring out across this university’s faculty and student body – reverberating strongly...

How To Grieve a Stolen Diary

Elizabeth Bishop’s poem ‘One Art’ is beautiful because of its hypocrisy. The speaker exalts loss - of places, names, houses, their mother’s watch - with an odd joviality. You’re sure, reading it for the first time, that there must be something disingenuous going on here. The act of writing...

Profiles

“Everywhere we go, we ask: ‘What are the dominant narratives about the city? And what are they hiding?”

I’ve walked past the Clarendon Building on Broad Street many times – but I’d never thought to ask what it had been used for in the past. While today it innocuously houses the Bodleian Library admissions department, in the 19th century, its basement was used as holding cells for...

“If you want to understand the mess we’re in today, you need to know some history.”

Eugene Rogan, a historian of the Middle East and fellow of St. Anthony’s College is a tutor I feel slightly in awe of: charismatic and cheerful, fluent in several languages, always on the move to his next appointment, and for one of our classes, 3500 miles away in Cairo...

Culture

Cherwell Introducing: Phoebe Blue

Joining me this week is the radiant Phoebe Blue, a 2nd year classicist at Balliol, singer-songwriter, and bassist. Meeting me on a blustery Saturday afternoon outside the Ashmolean, Phoebe told me all about her neo-soul sound, her first busking experience at age nine, and the importance of songwriting as...

Artificial insights: Decoding diversity and redefining art history with AI

In the age of AI-enhanced art, the possibilities for creativity and cultural exchange are limitless—and inclusive.

Life

How to be a vegan – and an Oxford student

I have a disturbing secret to admit, which might cause people to think I’m crazy, and Katie Hopkins to think I’m smelly: I’m vegan. I have been vegan for over four years, and I can honestly say I have never found it difficult. Choosing a path of compassion and non-violence...

The ultimate guide to May Morning

Dating back over five hundred years, May Day celebrations (traditionally) present an opportunity to herald in the arrival of spring. Whilst the tradition is now used as a clever marketing tool by nightclubs to get you dancing to even more cheesy ABBA tunes than usual, the historic element still...