Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
“So, which coffee shop do you want to work in?” the presenter of Shark Tales asked an inebriated linguist, outside Park End on a cold February night which would have made Rasputin himself freeze stiff. For those too young to remember, Shark Tales was a video series Cherwell used to do, which involved someone dressed […]
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As an English student, I got the chance to live the exotic European life over the past year, more specifically in France and Portugal. Despite unexpectedly bagging myself a long-distance British boyfriend while in Paris, I got a chance to dabble in le Tinder français beforehand. And in Portugal, my amigo número um João has […]
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It is a truth universally acknowledged, that an Oxford student nearing graduation must be in want of three things: a First, a Blue, or a spouse. It’s easy to scoff at this unofficial Oxford doctrine but the search for a meaningful life does not always need to involve curing cancer or becoming a top barrister. […]
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Image description: Marlene Dietrich in Seven Sinners (1940) “Fashion is merely a form of ugliness so absolutely unbearable that we have to alter it every six months!” – so wrote Oscar Wilde in a newspaper article in 1885, one of many reflections on the subject of clothing during his prolific career. It is commonly held […]
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Image description: London Pride 2017 After the Supreme Court’s ruling in favour of same-sex marriage, 26 million Facebook users added rainbow stripes to their profile pictures to show support and allyship. After the Pulse shooting in Orlando, GLAAD released a similar filter of a rainbow flag and the words ‘We Are Orlando’. As much as […]
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1989 was one hell of a year. In international politics, the Berlin Wall fell after 28 years, one of a series of events that would see the end of the Soviet Union, while Brie Larson, of Captain Marvel fame, was born. Here in Oxford, in Hilary Term, something else was born, the Oxford Doctor Who […]
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Image description: The Volga Embankment, Yaroslavl Four years ago, I sat looking through some testimonials in Oxford Modern Languages leaflets at an open day, in awe of the list of amazing places students had been on their years abroad. With law internships in Berlin, banking placements in Zürich, and events management in various châteaux in […]
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The St. Hilda’s college bar; home of the fabled Rhino, Thursday Night Live, our BOPs, and our hearts. The bar is nestled at the bottom of Hall Building and also serves as our Junior Common Room and Buttery. The space is large, and although in the ‘basement’ of the building, does not share the same […]
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Being gay at Oxford for me is a very polarised experience; my college is one of the most accepting places I’ve ever been to, and I’ve never felt so comfortable anywhere about my identity before, but the institution at large still suffers with an amount of internalised homophobia I naively thought was extinct. Being a […]
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Image Description: Bird lady painting. The beauty of gender is that it is a mirror. Its tragedy is that we are so seldom able to pass through it. When we do, we are cut adrift, existing beyond the perfect paper fold of a handprint butterfly in a wonderland where nothing seems quite real. Where there […]
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The St. Hilda’s college bar; home of the fabled Rhino, Thursday Night Live, our BOPs, and our hearts. The bar is nestled at the bottom of Hall Building and also serves as our Junior Common Room and Buttery. The space is large, and although in in the ‘basement’ of the building, does not share the […]
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It was the kind of day that we all dream of, but never seems to come. That elusive, sunny Oxford afternoon when students, like the rays of the sun, beam in all-too-momentary freedom from the dark, grey cloud cover of essays and deadlines. Revelling in that glorious British sunshine, I finished my tea, switched off […]
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There is nothing that twenty-somethings love more than a good trend. The latest and greatest topic making its way through the media is climate change, and it’s about time that eco-consciousness left the realm of hipsterdom and into the mainstream. Caring about the planet is for humans, not just hippies. It doesn’t matter what I […]
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Image Description: Marsha P. Johnson, her boyfriend, Joseph Ratanski, and Sylvia Rivera in parade, 1973 The Oxford Student recently interviewed Henna Khanom, one of the co-chairs for the Oxford SU LGBTQ+ Campaign. For any people who don’t know them, they are the political and activist arm of the university’s queer community. Henna is also a member […]
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Image description: May Day celebrations in Wheatley, Oxford We’ve all been there. The Cheese Floor still ringing in your ears as you trudge down a High Street which would not look out of place in Shaun of the Dead, with the promise of hearing better music at the end of it. The ever-disapproving sun rising […]
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Image Description: Mostar Bridge, Bosnia and Herzegovina Travel, without any doubt, is my greatest pleasure. I usually travel alone, and for the purpose of leaving my comfort zone. At the border crossing between Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro, I puff out my chest a little and sit up straight. I keep a stony face. The […]
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Despite its many benefits, life in Oxford can be a constant challenge. In my experience, the key to survival is stamina. Though short, its terms resemble a marathon more than a sprint. Academic life isn’t just difficult; it’s monotonous. The constant deadlines seem to erode any sense of accomplishment: completing one piece of work is […]
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Image description: Several people on mobile phones. The recent call for age restrictions on likes and streaks on Facebook and Snapchat is long overdue, but does not go far enough. Restrictions should not discriminate; people of all ages should be protected from the psychological damage caused by likes, streaks and other online ‘reward’ mechanisms used by […]
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Image Description: Gay couple with a child Throughout childhood, images of the typical ‘nuclear family’ pervaded my everyday life. At school, the odd sex education lesson involved fondling an overripe banana with a lube-loaded condom. Any discussion of family planning focused upon the cementation of heteronormative values. Whilst the education system seemingly lacked perspective, I […]
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