Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
From freshers’ week to Christmas dinner, Michaelmas is usually a term filled with fun and festivity. This year, it’ll look slightly different. Students are returning to Oxford’s halls for the first time since March – though not to Exam Schools or the Four Candles but to online lectures, staircase bubbles, and outdoor boozing at a […]
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In the storm that is coronavirus the promise of a vaccine is the life-raft we’re clinging to. As the worldwide death toll rises to more than 700,000 the urgency behind the need for a vaccine skyrockets. The UK government has already ordered 100 million doses of the Oxford University vaccine and in the United States, […]
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Image Description: A horoscope wheel chart with the zodiac sign of Sagittarius selected, with the night sky and stars as a background. Although I don’t believe in horoscopes, as an Aries I was shocked and upset by the recently announced change to the zodiac that would make me a… Pisces? There was obviously something fishy […]
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Global crises change the way we think about work. That might be an oversimplification, but by and large, it stands up to interrogation. The classic example is Europe and America following the Second World War. Women entered the workplace en masse for the first time, mechanisation and technological production accelerated – fuelling the so-called Green […]
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Image description: A person with a packing box on their head. Looking up ‘What to take to university’ on Google can be pretty overwhelming. From lists of only 15 items that seem to assume that university accommodation is a hotel, to articles implying that you should bring the entirety of IKEA, it all seems very […]
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Way back in early March, I woke up to a letter from College advising everyone to wash our hands to avoid the spread of a new disease that had started to circulate around China and, although in small numbers, the UK. Being young and all too preoccupied with essays and bops, I paid scant attention […]
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Image Description: Six red game pieces are stood opposite one brown game piece (set against a neutral blue background). When it comes to racism, we’re living in a moment in which many people have had a ‘wakeup call’. Since the deplorable murder of George Floyd at the hands of American police officers, my social media […]
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Image description: A figurine of Lady Justice. The Court of Appeal’s ruling last week offers hope for Shamima Begum. The so-called ‘Jihadi Bride’ left the UK aged fifteen to join Daesh. She was found, four years later in a refugee camp. She explained to The Times that, after giving birth to two children and watching […]
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Image description: A picture of Jenny on a blue background. CN: Transition and transphobia. I first met Jenny Scoones on a cold Tuesday night in November. She borrowed a cigarette so that she could sing me a more accurate rendition of Lana del Ray’s Video Games as we stood in a crowd of Skittles attendees, […]
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Image description: the monument of Hagia Sophia, Istanbul The place of monuments, especially commemorative statutes, has become a highly charged debate recently. Their uses and place in our understanding of ourselves and history has come under scrutiny and rightly so. Monuments traditionally offer an idea of stability by providing an immortalised snapshot of history. This […]
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Image description: Two figures walking in opposite directions while wearing face masks. With the advent of the novel coronavirus came the advent of the mask. To some of us, this painfully unfashionable garment has become something of a necessary evil. To sport one is to do what is right, denying so would be folly. This […]
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An inability to forgive oneself is something many of us struggle with. We routinely identify mistakes or bad choices that we have made in the past and can become overwhelmed with regret, anger, and disappointment. Though the origins of these feelings can be complex, diverse, and multi-faceted, I believe the ways in which we understand […]
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Image description: A traditional Oxford formal It’s 7pm and the tables are set. Candles are lit, wine corks are flying, and the bells call for supper. As you look around you can see a gaggle of sub-fusc wearing students. Some you recognise, others you are interested in meeting. You really do care about their research, […]
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Image Description: A minimalist aesthetic – a succulent and pink candle to the left and money scattered to the right. “Minimalism is a tool to rid yourself of life’s excess in favour of focusing on what’s important—so you can find happiness, fulfilment, and freedom,” say ‘The Minimalists’, Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus. It is […]
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Aged 17, I sat through a morning’s worth of application talks in the medical school lecture theatre, having been driven down to Oxford on a total whim for the last September open day. Undeniably terrified, but quietly fizzing with excitement, I diligently wrote down every plummy word that fell out of the presenting tutors’ mouths. […]
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Image description: A woman in a dark room, with her hands over her face. TW: Domestic abuse and mentions of intimate partner violence “Start with the cage and everything changes.” These are the words of Evan Stark, a forensic social worker and leading voice on coercive control. Despite recent changes to the law, our view of […]
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Image Description: figure doing a yoga pose (involving a handstand) against a colourful backdrop I am a Yoga with Adriene fanatic. Most days begin with rolling out my yoga mat and doing 30 minutes of stretching, deep breathing and being vaguely annoyed that my heels don’t touch the mat in downward-facing dog. I have, however, […]
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Image description: A girl standing with different contraceptive methods. In the middle of a pandemic, with many of us stuck inside our homes for most of the day, it might seem a little counterintuitive to consider how much sex our generation is having. All that aside, it will probably not come as a surprise that […]
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Image Description: Cracked rose-tinted glasses “Rose-colored glasses are never made in bifocals. Nobody wants to read the small print in dreams.” — Ruth Crowley (writing under her pen name: Ann Landers) To think a thought of longing, For days to dream upon, To hope for times gone once before, Yet know these times are gone. […]
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