The Oxford Student - Week 5 Trinity 2025

O XFORD S TUDENT

and transparency under Viktor Orbán

The encampment at Magdalen. Credit: Aamna Shehzad

Oxford Against Genocide sets up encampment at Magdalen

The evening of 16th May saw a few students setting up tents in the lawn outside Magdalen College, Oxford. A person shouted chants from a megaphone. Soon after, a crowd gathered at Magdalen’s main gates on High Street and started chanting “Free Free Palestine”.

Protestors unfurled a banner reading “Oxford Against Genocide”, the name of the group that has claimed responsibility for the encampment at Magdalen.

According to their Instagram account @oxfordagainstgen0c1de –– which was created in May and uploaded its first post around 7pm on the 16th –– the group is a “new collective in Oxford” dedicated to “Palestinian liberation”. This new group

is separate from Oxford Action For Palestine, which has so far been the primary group pushing Oxford to divest from its investments on the issue of Palestine.

They launched an encampment to take action and pressure the university to meet demands such as disclosing and divesting university wide assets, ceasing banking with Barclays, and ending the gentrification of Oxford amongst others.

In a recent post, Oxford Against Genocide disclosed that the set up an encampment at Magdalen because “many of the companies Magdalen rents to have ties in Israel” such as Larry Ellison and his newly founded Ellison Institute of Technology.

Ellison founded Oracle, a computer technology company

that provides software applications. Oxford Against Genocide said that Oracle “supplies technology directly to the Israeli military” and that Ellison has “personally donated tens of millions” to the military.

The Oxford Student reached out to Oxford Against Genocide for comment on why Oxford Against Genocide felt the urgency to set up an encampment. A representative replied that Israel has been “decimating” the Gaza strip for three months and that they are making demands of Oxford because it is “kind of the arch-colonial institution where if you, you know, turn your head, you’re going to walk into someone who is inevitably going to end up in a position of power. And they’re inheritors of a legacy of colonialism as well”.

Continued on page 3

war for drugs: Exploring antimicrobial resistance

Encore for Madgalen Street Cinema

Nearly two years after its closure in June 2023,

The Oxford Cinema and Café – one of the oldest cinemas in Oxford – has reopened under new management.

The Oxford Cinema and Café on Magdalen Street comprises two screening rooms and a foyer café. The Grade II listed building has been “Oxford’s home for film” since 1924, when it showed the silent film

The Four Horsemen starring Rudolph Valentino.

Odeon Cinemas, who owned the Oxford Cinema and Cafe

in 2023, had to close it down months before its 100th anniversary due to lack of profit post COVID-19.

Alejandro Whyatt Miranda, whose family has owned and renovated cinemas across the UK since the early 1900s, took over the site in March 2025 after a successful licensing application to Oxford City Council in February. The new owner chose to honour the building’s long history in its new name, as it originally opened as “The Oxford”.

The Oxford Student

Continued on page 4

Eurovision: The OxStu’s highlights

Lumières, caméras, action: Eurovision is back. This year’s grand final is being held in Basel, Switzerland, after Nemo ’s win last year with “The Code”. Moment of silence for the Milkshake Man, and all the other songs which didn’t qualify for the grand final.

According to Eurovisionworld.com, the three countries that went in with the best odds were, in order: Sweden (41%),

Austria (20%), and France (14%). In some ways Sweden is to Croatia last year what Austria is to Switzerland last year: Sweden and Croatia both went into the contest with the best odds, and an anthemic song that got the crowd on their feet. Austria and Switzerland went in as runner-ups with beautifully sung ballads. Ultimately last year it was Switzerland that beat their Croatian competition.

Continued on page 21

Switzerland’s interval act. Credit: Eurovision Gallery

Aamna Shehzad

Isobel Wanstall

OxStu Culture

We’ve made it to week 5 – which, in Oxford time, feels simultaneously like a blink and a lifetime. I’m sure everyone is feeling the week 5 blues — I know I definitely am, but maybe the only thing keeping me going is the realisation of just how short Oxford terms are and how we need to make the most of it, enjoy it while it lasts, etc etc. We’re more than halfway through, and yet all I feel is a simultaneous relief that it’s all going to be over soon and sadness at the seemingly endless summer that stretches before us. This week, we delve into the opening of a new cinema on Magdalen Street, Charlie

Welcome to another edition of the OxStu. If you’re still here, congratulations. You’ve made it to fifth week, halfway through Trinity, halfway to the Long Vac. Every term

Editorial Team

Editorial Board

Yashas Ramakrishnan and Yunzhang Liang (Editors-in-Chief)

Ivett Berenyi and Ekam Hothi (Associate Editors)

Ananya Parakh and Tod Manners (Directors of Strategy)

News and Investigations

Aamna Shehzad and Canqi Li (Heads of News)

Caitlin Clarke, Chaewon Kang, Christine Savino, Fenja Tramsen, Iona Mandal, Maya Prakash, Will Lawrence (Section Editors)

Comment

Harry Aldridge (Deputy Editor)

Kirk’s controversial appearance at the Union, and the setting up of encampments next to Magdalen College. Our writers discuss (the lack of) sovereignty and transparency within Hungary’s ruling party, matcha – everyone’s favourite bougie beverage, Eurovision 2025, and the future of the NHS.

I say it often, but I’ll say it again: I believe everyone has a story to tell. Whether it’s global or personal, academic or absurd, it’s your voice that matters. And there’s no better place to find it than in student journalism.

So if the blues are creeping in, I invite you to write through them. Or read through them. Or simply know you’re not alone in them. For me, I’m going to be relying on hot tea, warm sheets, and long walks to get me through. Remember to take care of yourself and (as my Asian mum will say) drink lots of water.

Yunzhang Liang Christ Church

spent at this university goes quicker than the last.

The weather seems well acquainted with the fact that fifth week means fifth week blues. But what better way to combat this pathetic fallacy than by doing something not pathetic and picking up a copy of Oxford University’s best newspaper.

A lot has happened since our last issue. It’s been a busy couple of weeks for the Union. Right-wing activist Charlie Kirk came to speak, sharing his views on conser-

Arun Lewis, Chaehyeon Moon, Ellie Apostolidi, Iona Davies, Isheta Ahmed, Yassin Hachi (Section Editors)

Profile

Mariyah Saddique (Deputy Editor)

Cora Partridge, Iona Davies, Isobel Wanstall, Maya Prakash, Meira Lee, Sofia Mollona (Section Editors)

Features

Isobel Wanstall (Deputy Editor)

Chaewon Kang, Esme Thomson, Isheta Ahmed, Lola Forbes, Maya Prakash, Meira Lee, Nicole Wong, Sofia Mollona (Section Editors)

Culture

Fifth Week. That peculiar stretch of term when the days blur into deadlines, sleep becomes optional, and even the Magdalen deer start to look a little stressed. We’re deep in the fog of Fifth Week Blues, and yes, it’s real, and no, you do not have to power through it solo.

As the pressure creeps up in hushed libraries and over-posted Google Forms, it’s worth remembering that you are not just your degree. Oxford can make us feel like our whole selves are caught up in the next paper, the next essay, the next email from our tutors. But we’re also made up of late-night JCR chats, inside jokes that shouldn’t be funny, the people we write for, and the things we dare to say when we don’t have to submit it for a grade.

Wishing everyone a pleasant mid-term, with sunny skies and a great picnic ahead.

If you’re among the unfortunate few taking your exams, you’re in the public eye as you sprint across Rad Cam in full sub-fusc to get your celebratory pint; if not, you might find yourself learning to row just in time for Summer VIIIs. We mark this season not by weather, but by library closing times. Somewhere within this chaos, there remains time. Time for our friends, for our hobbies, our passions, our picnics (ours is coming up soon; if you haven’t signed up, this is your gentle nudge), and for the crossword I finally managed to sneak into this issue. But above all, for ourselves.

vatism, Trump, and abortion. He was interviewed by Union President Anita Okunde, who herself faced a motion of no confidence from the Standing Committee.

In other less explosive news, a live grenade at least 65 years old was found in a canal near Westgate shopping centre. But don’t panic. If your preferred method of procrastinating prelims/finals revision involved a trip to Westgate’s Curzon, you’ll be pleased to know one of the city’s oldest cinemas on Magdalen Street

Christina Scote (Deputy Editor)

Esme Thomson, Hannah Stewart, Iona Mandal, Jack Wharton, Meira Lee, Nicole Wong, Sam FieldGibson, Sophie Harrison (Section Editors)

OxYou

Will Lawrence (Deputy Editor)

Arun Lewis, Louise Guy (Section Editors)

Identity Hannah Stewart (Deputy Editor) Iona Mandal, Iona Davies, Isheta Ahmed (Section Editors)

Sport

Tod Manners (Deputy Editor)

has reopened after two years as the Oxford Cinema and Café.

If you do have prelims or finals, best of luck. Before long, it’ll be red carnations and commemoration balls. Until then, why not procrastinate some more by signing up to the OxStu’s newsletter, or having a go at the puzzle at the back of this issue.

Hothi New College

Science

Yuhan Wang (Deputy Editor)

Nicholas Gan, Nicola Kalita, Omer Mihovic (Section Editors)

Creative

Youran Luo (Creative Director)

Bethan Wallace, Kate Bansmer, Tess Cottin (Photographers) Luke Gillespie (Puzzles)

Yashas Ramakrishnan Balliol College

Ekam

A formal milestone in Reuben College

On 15th May, Reuben College GCR proudly co-hosted the first-ever Latin American formal dinner at the University of Oxford. The evening, filled with music, warmth, and joy, marked a meaningful step forward in celebrating the presence and identity of Latin American students in our university community.

With Latin American and Caribbean students making up less than 1% of Oxford’s student body, this event was not just a formality but a moment of recognition. For LatinX students, coming to Oxford means being far from home, sometimes over 15 hours and a thousand pounds away from family, familiar food, and the everyday rhythms of their culture. That distance can feel heavy, but it also deepens the value of community and pride in self.

The Latin American formal was a night to embrace this spirit — to dress up, gather, and celebrate everything that makes our community, although small, thriving, growing and resilient. It was also a reminder of the importance of visibility and representation in spaces like Oxford. Creating room for Latin American stories, traditions, and voices

make the university a more inclusive and inspiring place for all.

“ With Latin American and Caribbean students making up less than 1% of Oxford’s student body, this event was not just a formality but a moment of recognition.

This is only the beginning.

With initiatives like the Oxford Latin American Business Summit, which will be held next June 6th at Said Business School, and more cultural events on the horizon with the Oxford Latin American Society, the foundation is being laid for a more substantial, more connected Latin American presence in the years to come.

The Oxford Latin American Society invites everyone — students, staff, and allies — to celebrate, value the strength

The encampment at Magdalen

Continued from page 1

The representative said that organizing for Palestine is a matter of organization and united front, and Palestine action groups from Portsmouth, Imperial College London, SOAS, UAL, Glasgow, etc. had helped them with setting up the encampment.

labour. They added that while the organization is not asking for an institutional restructuring of Oxford to decolonize, they are asking Oxford to undertake its social housing obligations that the university is legally required to do.

of shared heritage, and help grow a community that continues to flourish at Oxford.

“In a place so far from home, this dinner was more than a celebration; it was a moment of emotional reconnection, identity, and collective belonging,” said Camila Alegria, MBA at Green Templeton College in conversation with The Oxford Student.

“ “The food, lovingly prepared and shared, instantly brought me back home…”

Alegria added: “The food, lovingly prepared and shared, instantly brought me back home; the way it was laid out reminded me of our long Sunday lunches with family: full of laughter, flavors, and connection.”

For Mauricio Ibañez, MPP at St. Antony’s college, the traditional Peruvian Dance that concluded the dinner was the highlight of the night.

“The Latin American formal dinner was a nice... Read the full article online at www.oxfordstudent.com

Oxford Against Genocide also took issue with Magdalen’s endowments, particularly the Oxford Science Park, which accounts for half of Magdalen’s endowments and “has become Magdalen’s most lucrative real estate”. They argue that the Oxford Science Park is contributing to the gentrification of Oxford by expanding the Park for “venture-backed startups in an area of high housing need” and worsening Oxford’s housing crisis.

Regarding this demand, the representative for Oxford Against Genocide said that Oxford is the “biggest financial institution in this city” and has the power to “strong arm the council to not pay and contribute to social housing”. Additionally, they argued that this creates a problem where Oxford relies on low paid and migrant workers but unwilling to contribute to social housing that facilitate that

When asked about the pushback they have encountered, the representative said that they were served eviction notices a few hours after they set up encampments. The representative said that the notices are not legally binding but they are “expecting for there to be an interim possession order to be issued next week”.

The representative emphasized the importance of “putting Palestine on the map” in Oxford not only by having it in the curriculum, but “something you actually choose to take part in”. They said that they want to engage with the topic in an active way and create a space for students to feel empowered in.

On 17th May at 10pm, Oxford Against Genocide moved its encampment to the Angel & Greyhound Meadow. Magdalen College has been approached for comment.

Read the full article online at www.oxfordstudent.com

William Lawrence, Fenja Tramsen, Caitlin Clarke, Iona Mandal, Maya Prakash, Abhipsa Panda

Group photograph of members attending the LatinX Formal at Reuben. Credit: Valery Sales Flores

The encampment at Magdalen. Credit: Toni Mihai

Valery Salas Flores

19-year-old finds live grenade in canal near Westgate

On 15th May, Jayden

Challis – a 19-year-old from Yarnton – discovered a pineapple grenade in a canal on Paradise Street, near the Westgate shopping centre. Emergency services were called and a bomb squad arrived to safely dispose of the weapon.

Jayden said that he discovered it while magnet fishing, and immediately contacted the authorities upon realising what he had found.

“When the bomb squad arrived they found it was live so they wrapped it up in a red box to take it away to detonate it”

The grenade was of a type first introduced in 1918 to U.S. armed forces, and was widely used in the Second World War. These grenades were used in many conflicts, although not by British forces.

Production ended in the 1950s, meaning that the grenade found was at least 65 years old. The grenade was covered in dirt from its time in the canal.

Thames Valley Police confirmed that the grenade was safely denoted by ordinance specialists.

According to a spokesperson, officers “attended the scene and found an object that appeared to be a grenade”. Afterwards, a cordon was put in place.

“Explosive Ordinance Disposal… disposed of the item at a safe location.”

A student from St Catherine’s College told The Oxford Student that he was “not too fussed” and that he was not concerned about the prospects of similar ordinance discoveries in other Oxford waterways.

Encore for Magdalen Street Cinema: The Oxford Cinema and Café

Continued from page 1

…reached out to Manager David for comment, who said that the cinema’s opening week was “brilliant” and that the community has been “fantastically supportive” despite the obvious struggles in taking over and renovating an old building. David remains positive about the blend of old and new:

“There are large areas of the cinema that we can’t do anything with, which is both good and bad. It means that we have these beautiful art deco designs in the foyer and the screen, but it also means there are areas of the building that I might like to modify but unfortunately can’t.”

The uniqueness of the site is something he is eager to take full advantage of: “It is one of the oldest cinemas in Oxford, it has a great history behind it. [Screen 1] is the only screen in

Oxford with both balcony and stalls, with 650 seats in total.”

“

“Cinema is the core of our business, along with the café, but we will be doing lots to supplement that with live performances, live streaming of events, Q&As, open mic nights and quizzes.”

David also has ambitions for the cinema beyond movie screenings and sweet treats:

“Cinema is the core of our business, along with the café, but we will be doing lots to supplement that with live performances, live streaming of events, Q&As, open mic nights and quizzes.”

The plan is for the building to become a real community-led space, so the management is offering up their wall space free of charge for local artists to display their work. The café also stocks locally-roasted Missing Bean coffee. “I’d really love for this to become a cultural hub in the centre of Oxford,” said David.

Community investment in the cinema is key to keeping the building running, but David stresses the give-and-take necessary to make his dream a reality: “The most important thing for us is that we are deliberately positioning ourselves as the cheapest cinema in Oxford. [Student] tickets are

£4.99, and they will remain that way for the foreseeable future. I think it’s particularly important for people to know that a percentage of every ticket sale will go back into renovating the building.”

The business is reliant on patrons using and enjoying the space, so in turn the building can continue to be renovated and improved for the future.

Vlad, a DPhil student and patron, was happy to see the cinema reopened. “The grand cinema room is probably the coolest in Oxford, complete with a balcony that has comfier seats.” He attended the 28 Days Later event, which was “a great way to engage the community”, and sincerely hopes there is more to come.

Tickets can be bought from The Oxford Cinema and Café’s website or app.

Private School teacher suspended for sharing racist image on Whatsapp

Ateacher has been suspended from an Oxford private school for sharing a manipulated image of a black Adolf Hitler, accompanied with a fill-in text box which suggests a dilemma between Hitler’s name and an offensive racial slur.

The image was posted via Whatsapp late at night and an anonymous parent told The Oxford Student that it is “circulating” around the children of the school. The parent also said that the post “was traumatic, especially for Black students”.

Any image or post made online can fall under the Public Order Act (1986), which criminalises the use of “threatening, abusive, or insulting words or behavior that is likely to incite violence or cause alarm”.

St Edward’s School, commonly known as Teddies,

told the BBC that they had suspended the staff member involved, pending a full investigation.

“ An anonymous parent told The Oxford Student that...the post “was traumatic, especially for Black students”

According to the parent, “this is not the first time this teacher has demonstrated racially inappropriate behaviour, and previous concerns appear to have gone unaddressed by the school administration.”

Parents are also calling for the “immediate and perma-

nent” removal of the staff member from the school as well as a “transparent investigation” into the culture at St Edward’s, especially surrounding racism.

Under the Equality Act (2010), schools have a statutory duty to protect their students from discrimination and harassment on the grounds of race, as well as foster a healthy environment between students of all racial backgrounds.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, students exposed to racism have higher rates of suicide, substance abuse, and poor mental health.

A spokesperson said that the school would refrain from further comment until the internal investigation had finished.

A student from St. Catherine’s College told The Oxford Student that “it is concerning

that someone who is teaching teenagers is sharing content that is extremely offensive to the diverse student body”.

“ Schools have a statutory duty to protect their students from discrimination and harassment on the grounds of race

A student from Balliol College remarked to The Oxford Student that they were not surprised by the teacher’s behaviour given “the culture private schools foster”.

Will Lawrence

Motaz Azaiza on Gaza at the Oxford Union

Motaz Azaiza, an award-winning Palestinian photojournalist who became globally known for documenting life under siege in Gaza, spoke at the Oxford Union on Sunday, 18th May.

Azaiza’s photos and videos have shed light on the hardships Gazans have endured during years of hostility by the Israeli government and military, and since the onset of the war in October 2023. His photo of a girl trapped beneath the rubble of her destroyed home became emblematic of the human cost of the conflict and was named one of Time’s Top 10 Photos of 2023.

The Union greeted Azaiza with a long, standing ovation. “I am Motaz, now 26. When the war started, I was 24,” he began. Over the course of an hour, Azaiza reflected on the personal toll of his work and the heavy responsibility he now feels as a representative of Gaza for many around the world.

Within the first months of

the war, Azaiza lost 25 members of his family. He recalled watching the destruction of his aunt’s house live on the news. When he arrived at the scene, he was told that many of his family members had been killed and others were still trapped beneath the rubble. He spent hours digging to rescue his cousin. Once he managed to pull him out and rushed him to the hospital, his cousin was pronounced dead. Throughout the evening, Motaz also reflected on the role of capitalism, the public’s desensitization to suffering, and media spectacle in the war. He spoke about the pressure to monetize his platform, stating firmly: “I cannot monetize Gaza.” He shared that he had turned down offers from companies looking to use his photo, criticising those who profit from the suffering of others. “People of Gaza are not superheroes,” he said. “They have dignity. They don’t want to post photos begging for help.”

In response to a question

about Western media coverage, Azaiza was critical of early reporting. “The first days were very pro-occupation,” he said. While he acknowledged a slow shift in tone by some channels, “many channels still don’t want to even say ‘Palestine’.”

When asked what a stable ceasefire would mean to him, he replied simply: “A free Palestine.” However, when discussing negotiations currently underway in Doha, he said that a ceasefire deal “most likely won’t be a free Palestine. It will just be the stopping of the killing.”

He ended his speech with a reflection on the burden of hope. “We feel betrayed. This is why I don’t go to protests. They have a lot of hope – I don’t.” He warned against the disconnect between global perceptions of resilience and the lived reality in Gaza. “If you see this as hope, you’re seeing it the wrong way.”

After the event, The Oxford Student spoke with attendees. “I think it’s great that the

Union hosted Motaz,” said one audience member, who also asked Azaiza a question during the Q&A session after the speech about whether he is hopeful about the situation in Gaza. “There has been a lot of solidarity in Oxford, especially with the Council, as there have been lots of votes to boycott Israeli products.”

They continued: “I thought that the talk was quite ground-

In coin we trust

The Bull Pen

By the Capitox Editorial Team

Perched along the Potomac, the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia is no ordinary golf course: it has long been a gathering place hand-picked by President Trump for his inner circle. This understanding, however, would not have prepared anyone for the announcement on the 24th of April this year: the top 220 holders of $TRUMP coin were to receive an exclusive invitation to dine with President Trump at his Virginia golf club. Almost immediately, the news sent the token’s price soaring by more than 50%, bringing its total market value to $2.7 billion. Almost a month later, the dinner took place last Thursday. Heading up the list of invitees was crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun. Sun, the top $TRUMP holder, bought $4.5 million

$TRUMP after the dinner contest, bringing his stake to more than $18 million. For context, this is the same crypto tycoon who bid $6.2 million for a banana duct-taped to a wall, then ate it. Similarly, 43 hours after the debut of $TRUMP, the $MELANIA token too came into being. The hasty and opaque rollout of $TRUMP and $MELANIA, along with their skyhigh valuations, raised immediate red flags, but flags they remained, for, in law, there is little they fell afoul. Adding to the unease, Paul S. Atkins, the present Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), appears to have little incentive to investigate President Trump, for it was Trump who nominated him into office and it is Trump who can show him the door, a threat that Trump has

not been afraid to brandish.

The practice of allowing the incumbent POTUS to nominate the Chairman of the SEC is a long-standing one that has been largely thought to be unproblematic. After all, federal regulations, not least the Stock Act, strictly control what government officials, including the President, can do to enrich themselves via the financial markets. It is clear today, however, that such regulations were written for a different world, one in which only traditional financial products featured; yet, it would be illusory to expect forthcoming legislation: Trump had, after all, run on the promise of tempering oversight of the crypto industry and there is no indication that he intends to turn back on his word.

So, the rich are getting richer

ing, to hear his firsthand experiences in a very raw and honest way, so my question was about hope, and he was very honest about that – he brought it back to reality that the suffering has increased so much that there isn’t a lot of hope.” They continued that “it’s our duty as people…

Read the full article online at

in ways more spurious than ever. But why does this matter to us?

Firstly, as speculative assets like $TRUMP and $MELANIA balloon into multi-billion dollar markets overnight, the line between meme and rational mechanism begins to blur. What happens when fortunes are built not on productivity, but on virality? When liquidity is driven by celebrity, not solvency? With no lender of last resort, no circuit breakers, and minimal regulatory oversight, the crypto economy is on shaky footing: the same volatility that makes crypto alluring is what makes it dangerous. And as more traditional institutions quietly add exposure through ETFs, derivative products…

Read the full article online at www.oxfordstudent.com

Motaz Azaia. Credit: FeaturingDallas

Fenja Tramsen and Iona Mandal

Sheldonian Series on truth

Credit: Cyrus Mower

On 13th May, the last speaker event of the inaugural Sheldonian Series for the 2024-2025 academic year took place. After exploring democracy and life, the Sheldonian Series explored the concept of truth.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Irene Tracey hosted the event and Richard Ovenden – Oxford’s Head of Gardens, Libraries, & Museums – moderated the event. The event also included a panel discussion featuring Oxford’s Reuters Institute Director Mitali Mukherjee, Times journalist and former Spectator editor Fraser Nelson, and New York University Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis Kimberley Johnson.

Topics for discussion included the future of journalism, whether we currently live in a post-truth world...

Read the full article online at www.oxfordstudent.com

Oxford Union hosts Charlie Kirk

Charlie Kirk, an American conservative media personality and founder of Turning Point USA, spoke at the Oxford Union on 20th May.

Turning Point USA – a nonprofit advocacy group for conservatism in high schools and universities – is one of the fastest-growing youth organizations in the U.S., with over 250,000 student members. Kirk has gained internet popularity through his visits to college campuses, where he often posts clips of his heated exchanges with students. As President of Students for Trump, Kirk mobilized youth turnout for Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and now hosts a political podcast called The Charlie Kirk Show.

Union President Anita Okunde interviewed Kirk. She began by asking him about his views on birthright citizenship, enshrined in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Con-

stitution and currently being challenged by the Trump administration. Kirk expressed opposition to birthright citizenship, stating: “Currently in America, you can fly from Beijing, China, nine months pregnant, land in San Francisco, go to a hospital and your baby is a full US citizen.” He stated that the Supreme Court “has not yet…adjudicated whether or not illegal immigrants or non-Americans [can get] their children…birthright citizenship.” As birthright citizenship is a constitutional right for all children born on American soil, revoking it would require a two-thirds majority in both chambers of the US Congress, and ratification by three-quarters of all state legislatures.

Okunde then inquired about the Trump administration’s “embrace of white South Africans” and their asylum claims on the basis of racial discrimination. Kirk cited videos of “miles of white South African farmers that have been brutally murdered in their home, basically because of what is

called land reparations”. Official police data shows 12 people were killed on farms between October and December 2024. Kirk continued, stating that South Africa’s government is endorsing the “worst and most venomous form of hatred”. Okunde asked whether, as an example, Nigerian Christians facing persecution would be eligible for asylum. Kirk responded: “It’s a case by case basis...we’re a very generous country. We’re willing to look at all the cases associated”.

Okunde then asked Kirk about his views on abortion. Kirk stated that he believes abortion should be banned in all cases except those threatening the life of the mother – including sexual assault and rape. “I have two ultrasounds. One of the ultrasound is a baby that is conceived in rape. The other one is a loving marriage. Do we know which ones? They’re both human beings,” Kirk said. “What is the moral difference between the baby and the woman?”

he added. When asked about the effects of abortion bans on birth rates, he said: “In the UK and America, we wouldn’t need as many third-world immigrants if we didn’t kill our babies.”

“ Turning Point USA – a nonprofit advocacy group for conservatism in high schools and universities – is one of the fastest-growing youth organisations

When asked about his views on the men’s rights movement, he said “Men in the West, we as men are here to be protectors and defenders and providers. We should

treat women with total dignity and respect.” To audience applause, he added that “if you want to dignify women, don’t have a bunch of hookup sex on Tinder and every app you get your hands on.”

The audience further applauded when he said, “We have a lot of sex in this society and not enough love in this society.” He discussed his views on the “infantilization” of men in the West and the need for young men to face challenges, decrying the “hyperfixation” on feminism in schools.

Kirk then discussed his views on DEI, which he said stood for “Didn’t Earn It”, and reiterated his support for freedom of speech, which he termed a “birthright” given to the U.S. by the U.K.. He also discussed his views on tariffs, arguing against American dependency on Chinese manufacturing and stating: “CCP is the greatest threat to many different things on the planet.”

Read the full article online at www.oxfordstudent.com

Maya Prakash

OU votes Labour failed working class

On Thursday 15th May, the Oxford Union debated whether the UK Labour Party has failed the working class, voting 88-25 in favour of the motion.

Zahra Saeed from Balliol College opened the case for the proposition, arguing that the Labour Party has “failed to offer an aspirational programme to help those worse off”, directly harming the prospects of the working class.

She went on to criticise the extent of Labour’s welfare reforms, questioning their effectiveness when there are still “250,000 people in relative poverty, including 50,000 children”.

Saeed also described the “economic damage” caused by Labour’s neglect for working people and the party’s “wasted potential”, condemning this as “unforgivable”. She further stated that Labour is

“losing votes left, right and centre [to Reform]”, since people do not feel that hard work is valued within the party.

Harry Aldridge from New College opened the case for the opposition, arguing that Labour has historically represented the aspirations, struggles, and sacrifices of the working class. He asked a more fundamental question: “What does it mean to fail the working class?”, asserting that it wasn’t Labour who “mismanaged and underfunded the NHS” but the Conservative Party. He argued that it was the Conservatives who broke Britain, whilst Labour has been tasked with amending their errors.

Aldridge particularly emphasised how Labour will always be a “driving force behind landmark policies”, citing the NHS as an example of revolutionising healthcare from an upper-class luxury into a universal human right.

Whilst Aldridge acknowl-

edged that Labour’s journey has not been perfect, he reaffirmed that “we must not confuse imperfection with failure” as this “ignores a century of progress”, throughout which Labour established a national minimum wage and paid paternity leave, thereby remaining the “champions and defenders of the working class”.

Returning to the proposition, Delyth Jewell, Deputy Leader of Plaid Cymru, argued that Labour has failed the working class by “turning their backs on every principle they

once held dear” and “ditching the values upon which their movement was founded”.

She then attributed Labour’s failures to a “cynical…semantic shift” of the party, which has grown to centre work, rather than workers, “as if a person’s value is not intrinsic, but transactional”.

In speaking from a Welsh perspective, Jewell reinforced how Labour has failed Welsh working class communities, as miners have been…

Read the full article online at www.oxfordstudent.com

OU votes that Trump has gone too far

On Tuesday 20th May, the Oxford Union debated the motion “Trump has gone too far”, voting in favour 210-92. The debate followed U.S. right-wing populist political activist Charlie Kirk’s controversial speech at the Union earlier on Tuesday, where he claimed that “there is something sick and awful about chopping off a 14-year-old’s breasts” to express his stance on transgender rights and said that he and his supporters “aim to abolish abortion the

same way we abolished slavery in the 1860s”. The speech occurred in parallel with a small-scale Oxford Stand Up to Racism (OSUTR) protest outside of the Union. Kirk was not only contested by OSUTR, he is also a controversial figure among Oxford students. Memes making fun of Kirk were spread across the Union’s bathroom as a way for students to express their condemnation of him.

Discussing whether Trump has stepped over the boundaries expected of a U.S. president, the debate covered top-

ics ranging from economic and immigration policies to the penal system and press freedom.

Speakers for the proposition involve second-year undergraduate student in History and Politics at St. John’s College Anya Trofimova, DPhil student in Criminology at Christ Church Serene Singh, and DPhil student in U.S. Presidential History at St. Anne’s College Laura Smith.

Opposition speakers include first-year undergraduate student in PPE Vishnu Vadlamani, third-year undergraduate student in Theology at Regent’s Park College Daniel Ogoloma, as well as Charlie Kirk.

Union Librarian Anya Trofimova opened the case for proposition by criticising the Trump administration’s slashing of global aid, alleged disregard for constitutional checks & balances, and deportation policies that undermined due process – on which she rejected Turning Point USA’s Char-

Five Oxford academics elected as Academy of Medical Sciences Fellows

Five Oxford academics have been elected to be new Academy of Medical Sciences Fellows in acknowledgment of their achievements in health and biomedical science research, pioneering research findings, and transforming theoretical concepts into applications benefitting wider society. These academics belong to the 54 newly elected Fellows who are going to be inducted into the Academy at a ceremony taking place on 9th July this year. President of the Academy Professor Andrew Morris said: “Each new Fellow brings unique expertise and perspective to addressing the most significant health challenges facing society.”

lie Kirk – whom she openly criticised.

“Trump single-handedly has set the history profession back by proving the great man theory of history right as the single most destructive individual of the 21st century.”

With fiscal data and macroeconomic welfare metrics, she warned that under Trump, Americans were “thousands of dollars poorer” and institutions like Congress had been undermined to near dysfunction. As a concluding note, she argued that a future Trump presidency would mean the “abolition of democracy” and urged the House to vote in favor of the motion. Following Anya’s speech, Union president Anita Okunde called a warning against referring to Union Members by name during speeches.

“We were informed of our floor speeches only a day ago,” Trofimova said…

Read the full article online at www.oxfordstudent.com

As the British Heart Foundation’s Chair of Cardiovascular Medicine, Professor Antoniades is also Director of the Acute Multidisciplinary Imaging and Interventional Centre (AMIIC) at the Radcliffe Department of Medicine, Deputy Head of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, and Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine. As part of his research, Professor Antoniades explores the mechanisms by which substances like fats and cholesterol build up in the arteries, as well as new therapeutic methods tackling heart muscle and blood vessel function.

As Professor of Vaccinology and Translational Medicine at the Department of Paediatrics and the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery, Professor Simon Draper studies the development of blood-stage malaria vaccines.

Read the full article at www.oxfordstudent.com

President Donald J. Trump. Credit: Michael Vadon

Jeremy Corbyn, former leader of Labour. Credit: Sophie Brown

Iona Mandal & Aamna Shehzad

Canqi Li & Abhipsa Panda

OBALCLIM ATESUM

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Leaders of tomorrow: Where do students fit into the climate discussion?

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comment@oxfordstudent.com | Deputy Editor: Harry Aldridge

The Writing on the Wall

Reform UK, Nigel Farage’s far-right, anti-immigrant, populist party, overwhelmingly won the local elections held on May 1st. As Oxford caught up on lost sleep, tens of thousands across the country went to the polls and cast their vote for Reform, handing them 677 council seats - almost double those won by the Liberal Democrats (370), who came second.

But perhaps more important than who won is who lost. The Conservatives saw their share of council seats slashed by more than two-thirds (from 993 to 317), and Labour won just 99 councilors for a dismal fourth place in this set of elections (remarkable given they are the ruling party). In their first electoral test since the 2024 General Election, Keir Starmer’s party suffered a resounding defeat, despite still holding the most councils overall since many were not up for election.

For so long, Britain seemed to be holding out against the trend observed in continental Europe of far-right parties gaining ground. Yet, in just a year, Reform has ballooned into local power across the country. How did this happen, and who is to blame?

The Tories lost 674 council seats in this election, whilst

Reform won 677. Of course, Reform won seats from other parties too, but one thing is abundantly clear: Kemi Badenoch’s party saw a great number of their councilors flip from navy to light blue. Disenfranchisement from the tradi-

“ Reform has ballooned into local power across the country.

tional Conservatives seems to be driving this move towards Reform from voters already on the right. This seems a compelling explanation, given that 14 years of Tory failure still weigh heavy on Britain’s political consciousness. However, this did not happen last July. Then, voters punished the Conservatives by coalescing around the obvious alternative, Labour. Starmer enjoyed a landslide victory, winning 412 seats, the best result since Tony Blair’s 2001 campaign. The fact that this did not happen again a year later indicates that voters have now rejected Keir Starmer’s government, and herein lies the real reason for Reform’s success.

Firstly, Labour’s shift to the right has moved the ‘Overton window’ in that direction. This is a concept in political theory which refers to the range of ideas which are deemed ac-

ceptable in society at a given time. By abandoning the left (especially so soon after Corbyn’s leadership), the Labour Party has normalised rightwing ideas. This is perhaps best exemplified by Labour taking the position that trans women are not women after the recent Supreme Court ruling – a definitive break with their previous stance, or by Keir Starmer’s recent troubling comments on immigration. It must be noted that this is also the Conservative’s fault. During their time in power, anti-immigrant rhetoric and a continued disregard for refugee rights have made Nigel Farage’s calls for mass deportation and Britain leaving the European Convention on Human Rights sound normal.

Secondly, the Labour Government has pursued policies that have hurt the working class. After promising to be different from the Tories, Starmer slashed benefits for the most vulnerable in our society. One example was his refusal to lift the two-child benefit cap, which prevents families from claiming Universal Credit for more than two children. Scrapping this Conservative-era policy would lift 250,000 children out of poverty overnight. Another decision that may have cost Starmer in these elections was the move to means-test the winter fuel allowance, limiting it to those receiving pension credit – the very poorest

pensioners. According to the Independent, his policy will remove benefits “from around 10 million pensioners, driving 50,000 more into relative poverty next year”. This is in a country where 9.6 million households (a third of the total) cannot afford to properly heat their homes.

I could go on, but the point is clear: voters hate austerity, and for good reason. It hurts the most vulnerable. This is not the place for detailed economic arguments, but politically, this decision has been costly. It pushes voters

“ The Labour Government has pursued policies that have hurt the working class.

towards Reform because they seem to be the only alternative. Labour and the Conservatives feel like two sides of the same coin, and the Greens and Liberal Democrats do not have the charismatic leadership of a figure like Nigel Farage, or any headline-grabbing rhetoric. As we have seen across Europe (and indeed the United States), voters support parties like Reform not necessarily out of ardent enthusiasm for their ideas, but because they are the only force seen as outside the establish-

ment. That is not to say that concerns over immigration should not be taken seriously, but the left needs to propose new solutions to make it clear that there is a practical alternative to the hatred of Reform. The crushing of the Labour Party’s left has splintered its votes, but the actions of the government have done even more damage to any leftwing support. I have already detailed their economic policy above, but the situation in Gaza is perhaps the largest single issue for many on the left, and Labour’s apathy towards Israel’s actions has pushed many away from the party. My diagnosis is therefore simple: if the Labour Party wants to win in 2029, they need to abandon their move to the right and adopt a genuinely left-wing platform. This may seem counterintuitive – Corbyn’s efforts to do so ultimately failed, but he won more votes than Starmer. With voters already beginning to reapproach the Conservatives, and with the imminent threat of Reform, Labour can only win the next general election by returning to the left. However, Keir Starmer has said he will continue to pursue the current program. The situation in this country is starting to look a lot like the US, and we all know how support for Israel, anti-immigrant rhetoric, and austerity disguised as ‘fiscal responsibility’ worked out for the Democrats.

Section Editors: Anisha Mohammed, Arun Lewis, Chaehyeon Moon, Devika Manish Kumar, Ellie Apostolidi, Iona Davies, Isheta Ahmed, Yassin Hachi

Reform UK Leader, Nigel Farage, addressing a rally. Credit: Owain Davies, Wikimedia Commons.

Gui Lopes is a contributor for TheOxfordStudent.

Homelessness And why you should care

Sharing food with someone experiencing homelessness. Credit: JComp, FreePik

Homelessness in Oxfordshire is a visible and distressing issue for students here, often evoking a sense of futile sympathy. However, this sympathy has its limits, as many students do not understand the prevalence of homelessness in Oxford and the visceral turmoil it creates for those severely affected.

As part of a system-wide approach to prevent rough sleeping and improve housing, Oxford City Council has implemented measures to combat the rising issues of homelessness, which has increased significantly in the past five years. Several services and initiatives, such as Oxfordshire Homeless Alliance, affiliated with Oxford City Council, have resulted in the development of long-standing transformative schemes that drive change in Oxford - schemes with which students, as part of the wider community, should be engaged with.

The Housing, Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2023-2028 is the long-term vision of the council to provide more affordable housing,

improve rehousing response times, and lower the carbon impact of new homes. The council is working towards these goals through tangible steps, such as the ‘housing led’ approach, which aims to immediately house rough sleepers, followed by wraparound support to secure permanent tenancies. The Oxford Homeless Alliance, launched in April 2022 and commissioned jointly by Oxford’s

climate and amid a housing crisis sweeping the UK is burdensome. According to the Office of National Statistics, whilst earnings have doubled since 1997, affordability of housing in the UK has worsened with house pricing more than quadrupling over time. The Gatehouse Oxford, a charitable organisation supporting the homeless community since 1988, has spoken to The Oxford Student: “With thousands of tourists visiting and two universities hosting thousands of students, the city is small and space is limited which puts strain upon resources and pushes the cost of living up making it one of the most expensive cities to live in in the UK”.

and affordable housing. Homelessness is not confined to city centres; it also manifests in hidden camps, sofa-surfers, temporary hostel accommodation and other precarious sleeping arrangements. All forms of homelessness and poverty have substantial physical and mental consequences. Individuals sleeping rough are 17 times more likely to be victims of crime and exploitation than the average person, with an average age of death of 45 for men and 43 for womencompared to 76 and 81 in the general population. Welfare cuts, frozen benefits, exploitative private renting practices, and hostile landlord scenarios harm families facing the threat of eviction. New analysis of government data by Crisis Skylight revealed a 73% increase in the number of households with physical and mental needs seeking homelessness support from their councils between 2018 and 2024.

The Gatehouse further told The Oxford Student: “Just think of the queues outside Oxford estate agents each year when a new term is coming round”, emphasising the intense competition between Oxford students for accommodation. “imagine if you have mental ill health, you are unemployed or you have just been through a difficult time and need to compete to find a place to live with the brightest students in the country… if it isn’t easy for university students to do it then it will be many times harder for someone facing disadvantage”. Whilst individual colleges aim at increasing student accommodation, lifting the pressure

Oxford serves to illustrate the unfairness of housing constraints on those who cannot access adequate healthcare and wider support.

If austerity-driven cuts to social support services are not damaging enough, homeless women face uniquely degrading circumstances. The Gatehouse Oxford says that the most pertinent issue concerning homeless women is their safety and dignity in “accessing services” such as “showers, feminine hygiene and clothing”. They continued to stress that women face an increased risk of victimisation of sexual and domestic assault, which can both cause and result from homelessness. Rough sleeping is an isolating experience for all, but for women with caring responsibilities, it often means losing contact with relatives due to homelessness, further pushing them into vulnerable spaces. Even if rough sleeping is avoided, single mothers, for instance, may move from hostel to hostel, facing welfare reform, heightened housing precarity, and social stigma from those around them.

six councils, is a £3.8 million housing-led project aimed at reducing homelessness and rough sleeping across Oxford.

“ Many students do not understand the prevalence of homelessness in Oxfordshire. “ Oxford’s colleges are also culpable for harming housing.

The introduction of a 200% council tax premium charge on second homes in February 2025, is another ensuring that those who can afford a second home pay double the standard amount.

Despite these ambitions, councils are overstretched, and meeting these priorities during the current financial

Beyond what councils can achieve, Oxford’s colleges are also culpable for harming housing availability and gentrifying areas of high housing need. The recent encampment highlighted claims made by ‘Oxford Against Genocide’ that half of Magdalen college’s endowment is in ownership of the Oxford Science Park- an office and bio-tech hub planning to build a number of luxury office spaces. Campaigners argue that they should instead be repurposed to create community spaces

on housing for those who need it most, it is not enough to make a significant dent in homelessness figures. Considering the impact of individual college endowments, the accommodation crisis in

Charities, such as The Gatehouse Oxford and Homeless Oxfordshire, provide women-only spaces, where showers and clothing stores are available without the presence of men. Opportunities are also offered, not only to increase employment opportunities, but to raise the dignity and morale of women who may have experienced devastating circumstances. For example, workshops, creative art sessions, and training programmes, like the Aspire’s Women’s Project, proactively shape women’s lives for a brighter future.

Local initiatives, assisted by the council through Positive Activity Grants, provide a safe sanctuary for those who are destitute and foster overall community growth. The duty of Oxford students, as future leaders, lies in showing practical empathy for the plight of our neighbours, that includes rough-sleepers and asylum seekers. Demonstrating enthusiasm for the many resourceful schemes already in place is the least a student can do.

Isheta Ahmed is a Comment Section Editor.

Sovereignty and Transparency under Viktor Orbán

What does it mean to be sovereign and transparent in twenty-first century Hungary? While it may seem unnecessary to raise an issue of semiotics, Fidesz (the ruling party)’s recent interpretation of these concepts has been controversial.

Near midnight on 13 May, Fidesz MP János Halász proposed a bill titled “On the Transparency of Public Affairs” (“a közélet átláthatóságáról”). Details of the bill are discussed below because first of all I would like to comment on the agency overseeing its operations and the penalties it imposes: the Sovereignty Protection Office (SPO).

Previously, Transparency International Hungary (TIH) has considered the operations and provisions of the SPO unconstitutional and “incompatible with the Fundamental Law” of Hungary. Sovereignty has long been a central pillar of Fidesz’s political agenda. As

expressed in a letter from the SPO to TIH, the Office seeks to “investigate organisations that use foreign funding [to] conduct activities aimed at influencing the will of voters or [that] support such activities.”

Right away, interpreters of this communication may notice a fallacy in expressing anxiety about influence. All political communication inevitably sways voters in one way or another: each party has its own agenda, which they communicate and maintain through public appearances. Voters are informed by these acts. It is the specific anxiety about foreign influence I would like to interrogate in the first half of this article.

Even for a country as isolated and unique (in terms of culture and language) as Hungary, the idea of complete self-containment is fallacious. Benedict Anderson’s seminal work of Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism

imagined unity plays a key role in shaping the political narrative. As demonstrated in Orbán’s March 15th commemoration speech this year, a sense of freedom is deeply instilled into the cultural identity of the Hungarian spirit. Drawing on uprisings and revolts in the years 18489 and 1956, Orbán has framed contemporary issues- particularly the perceived threat of “LGBTQ-propaganda”- as comparable to the Habsburg and Soviet occupations. The misrepresentation here is deliberate. The supposed threat is not a coordinated effort to undermine Hungary but simply the existence of people whose identities are not crafted according to Fidesz’s value system.

majority under the banners of nationhood and sovereignty, they erase the genuine diversity within Hungary.

Independent press, media and civil organisations have long been targets of discrimination on account of disrupting Hungary’s sovereignty and its (perceived) unity. Now, the proposed Transparency Bill may actually annihilate some of these organisations.

(1983) may not be particularly well-known at home, but my exposure to his writing has provided some guidance in navigating the question of Hungary’s supposed sovereignty.

As a brief overview, his thesis is based on the nation as an imagined, limited, sovereign community. He describes the nation as imagined because citizens “will never know most of their fellow-members or meet them […] yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion”. In Hungary this idea is further reinforced by the so-called national consultations (nemzeti konzultáció), which claim to unite citizens around shared positions on several issues, including LGBTQ+ rights, the Russia-Ukraine War and government subsidies. While results of national consultations can be dubious or skewed, they have still been cited to justify the Transparency Bill. Anderson’s notion of an

Lastly, Anderson writes that nations are imagined as communities of “deep, horizontal comradeship…regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each”. This last point is particularly poignant considering the efforts of Fidesz to bring Hungarian citizens together against not only foreign enemies, but also against other citizens who do not align with Fidesz’s vision of a traditional, Christian social order. The glaring paradox is the inherently exclusionary nature of Fidesz’s supposed national unity, requiring strict alignment and compliance. If Fidesz continues to underrepresent and discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community, people of colour, and women in Hungary, they only reinforce the point that the innate, essential Hungarian-ness they wish to instil is an artificial construct- an imposed external force rather than something inherent or universal. Our communities are increasingly fragmented and polarised against each other; discourse about national sovereignty clings to invented external threats; and Fidesz desire to keep Hungary as limited and as self-contained as possible is ultimately an illusion. I am not arguing that the Hungarian nation itself is a fiction: we are, to an extent, connected by language, customs, and folklore. However, once Fidesz starts oppressing minority groups to uplift a

Taking the Transparency Bill step-by-step we are confronted with its stated aims, rationale and justification. The proposal asserts that “the campaigns of the oppositional allegiance parties have been funded from millions of dollars illegally received from abroad”. The original term in the proposal, “dollámilliók” (dollar-millions) is a political buzzword to alienate the West and is not supported by independent investigations. Speaking of illegal funding and corruption, they may want to resolve the Matolcsy-case first- this sentence alone reveals the illusion Fidesz harbours about opposition politics at home. Since the emergence of Péter Magyar and the TISZA party, the opposition has never been so fragmented – it is not a unified allegiance.

Another key rationale of the proposal is the parliamentary responsibility to “to ensure that citizens and persons, institutions and organisations participating in matters of state and society may make decisions free of foreign influence”. Influence is the essential sticking point in their discourse: they are clearly anxious about foreign bodies interfering with Hungarian voters and political parties. Yet they fail to recognise that measuring influence it is not only precarious, but far from transparent in any case. Furthermore, it is striking that a Fidesz MP should speak about the dangers of external influence when their own propaganda dominates mass media, spreading misinformation about the LGBTQ+ community, opposition politicians, and their associates.

Read the full article online at www.oxfordstudent.com

Hungarian Flag. Credit: Usman Nadeem, Vecteezy.

Ivett Berenyi is an Associate Editor at TheOxfordStudent.

“

Profiles

of the week

“

Rachel Dedman on art and identity

Meira Lee talks to Rachel Dedman on her work as a curator

It is a Thursday afternoon, and the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum is buzzing with activity. I’m here to interview curator, writer and art historian Rachel Dedman, who greets me in the Blavatnik Hall. Pinned to her grey cardigan is a badge that reads ‘Free Palestine’. Rachel has been the Jameel Curator of Contemporary Art from the Middle East at the V&A since 2019, curating the triennial Jameel Prize and running a research residency programme for artists and designers. Beyond the V&A, she has curated exhibitions on Palestinian embroidery, the modernist art world of 1960s Lebanon, and sci-fi in contemporary Arab art, often exploring the ways in which artists think about home and identity.

As an undergraduate studying the history of art at St John’s College, Oxford, Rachel was drawn to art historical context beyond the Western canon, particularly in the Global South. Her focus on the Middle East continued to evolve after her studies, when she spent seven years living and working as an independent curator in Lebanon.

“ What art can do is speak to you on an emotional, visceral level.

“I’m really interested in art that has some bearing in the world; in art that engages with the political. An encounter with an artwork can

enable a greater human understanding of a place or a context. For me, that’s where the power and potential of contemporary art lies.”

I ask her why she thinks art is so powerful in expressing concerns about politics and identity. “What art can do, is speak to you on an emotional and visceral level,” she responds. “I think of an exhibition as a form of immersive storytelling. You have an opportunity to craft a physical, three-dimensional encounter for somebody that brings them into contact with artistic voices, human voices, from places they may know nothing about, or may hold preconceptions of. It’s an opportunity to offer up a different perspective on what people may have heard in the media.”

“ Textiles and dress can unfold lived histories of place.

Museums, with their wide reach, can “offer visitors a different kind of representation to that which they may get in the media”. Rachel believes that museums “have a responsibility to engage with their own colonial histories”, and to “[make] space for young artists who represent or reflect communities who have not historically been present or visible in the museum.” In her capacity as a contemporary curator, this is exactly what she strives to do. Rachel is also interested in

textiles, fashion and fabric. “Textiles and dress can unfold lived histories of place,” she says. In 2013, she was commissioned by the Palestinian Museum to curate At the Seams: A Political History of Palestinian Embroidery in Beirut. Since then, tatreez has come to hold a deep personal significance for her. She recounts the way it all began:

“At the time, when the Palestinian Museum was still in formation, they were asking questions like, ‘What does it mean to be a museum in Palestine, when Palestinians live in diaspora and exile all over the world? When the restrictions of movement for Palestinians, even within Palestine, are so great that many people will never be able to visit?’”.

The museum decided to stage transnational exhibitions that

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Deputy Editor: Mariyah Saddique

Section Editors: Meira Lee, Sofia Mollona, Cora Patridge, Iona

Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery, 2023, Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge. Credit: Jo Underhill

could speak to different Palestinian communities in the region and beyond. Because Rachel had the privilege of mobility to travel to both Lebanon and Palestine, she was able to conduct research for the project. She cites Widad Kawar - with whom she worked closely, and from whose collection she borrowed for the exhibition - and Shelagh Weir as key scholars in the field. “But there was not much literature that went beyond the historical heyday of tatreez, or beyond the Nakba of 1948. That’s really where my own research has contributed something newer to the field: in looking at the

politicisation of tatreez after 1948, its role in resistance, as well as the commodification of tatreez and its shift into a global marketplace.”

Whilst Rachel met museum professionals and private collectors, she also visited refugee camps and villages, speaking with women who continue to embroider today. “It felt vital from the start that we didn’t just think of tatreez as a historical tradition confined to the past, but rather as something that is living, breathing, active, and that is still evolving today. For me, tatreez is fashion.”

Among the most striking dresses presented in her ex-

hibitions are the ‘Intifada dresses’, created during the First Intifada which began in 1987. During this period, it was illegal to fly the Palestinian flag or display its colours in public, so women began to embroider symbols of resistance onto their garments. As Rachel writes in her book, Stitching the Intifada, embroidery is a laborious, time-intensive craft. These dresses embody the notion of sumud (steadfastness), reflecting the idea that ‘resistance in Palestine is a process, not an event’.

“What is different today is that we’ve been witnessing a genocide livestreamed to

us from our phones. The impunity with which the Israeli government has carried out genocide is only made more extraordinary by the fact that it is so well-documented.”

Today, Rachel believes that tatreez expresses a broader notion of resistance – resistance in its assertion of identity, in its continuation of heritage, in its reminder of the creativity and the joy of Palestinian people. She describes the proliferation of tatreez circles and stitching socials these days. “There’s something lovely about these stitching socials in that they convene people – whether they are Palestinians of dias-

pora wanting to connect to their own heritage, or people who just feel horrified and don’t know where to express that grief. In learning somebody else’s craft, you make the gap between yourself and the woman in Gaza that bit smaller.”

“Not only does tatreez have its own important, complex meaning as a craft, there is also something about the very medium of exploring a history of place through clothing, in that you can unfold a more human story. You don’t just learn something; you also feel something.”

Read the full article online at www.oxfordstudent.com

Inside Oxford University Morris

Sofia Mollona talks to Morris dancers about dance and Mayday!

Every Wednesday, Oxford University Morris meet and dance by The Swan and Castle, followed by The Jolly Farmers. I had the privilege to speak to Dave and Andrew, two experienced Morris dancers, about the one of Oxfords most special traditions. Before we sat down to talk, I arrived early enough to watch their final dance, open to all members of the public. People of all ages delighted in joining in.

I opened the discussion by asking how they both first took up Morris dancing.

Dave started in the early 70s in London. He lived in Harrow and Wealdstone and a local folk club there called ‘The Herga’ had started a Morris side. At this point, “there was a big resurgence in interest in folk music generally, and lots of Morris sides got started around that time.” When he moved to Oxford, he joined the University side because he’d studied here. Dave not only dances, but is one of OUM’s musicians too- “I taught myself to play when I was at The Herga, because we needed a musician at times. It’s just an interesting thing to do, so I taught myself.”

Andrew started while studying at university here. “I came

up in ‘76 and it took me until autumn ‘78 to find the Morris.” Back then, he explained, they were practising at what used to be called Paradise House on Paradise Street. “I got into it because I’d heard the music at home in Suffolk, and liked the music, and I always liked dancing. So the two went together.”

“ You can be anywhere and people’s faces light up.

I was intrigued to know what the special part was about dancing with Morris. Dave clearly said, “it’s joyous” and Andrew claimed “you can have the camaraderie as you would have in a sports team or any sort of team, that’s one thing. The other thing is that we’ve got a single occupational language; we have an arcane vocabulary which we all use. I’d also like to pick up on Dave’s point- Morris at its best is also street theatre. Abroad as well as Britain, you can be anywhere, and people’s faces will light up.”

I was impressed to find out that Oxford University Morris has travelled far abroad.

They’ve been around the US, Japan, Uganda, Kenya, Upper Volga and Kaliningrad in Russia, and multiple tours in Central Europe during the Communist eras there.“If people haven’t seen it, their fascinated. We both went on a tour of Sutton Bridge which is near King’s Lynn. People there hadn’t seen Morris, so they were fascinated by it” according to Dave.

Dave also enlightened me as to how Morris dancing is an evolving art and its popularity over time also evolves. “It went through this resurgence in the 70s and became really popular. And then the interest sort of died down again. It goes in cycles.”

Andrew admitted, “it’s in a strange mismatch with folk music, isn’t it? Because folk music is quite strong, and there’s a lot of young musicians and singers in folk music. And you have got some sides which are very successful at recruiting young people, but you’ve got other sides which can’t get people across the age gap.”

I asked about the big May Day and how long it took to prepare for such an anticipated morning. Surprisingly, “not long and a long time”, according to Dave. “The Jack in the Green lives in my back garden,

so I have to make sure he’s fit for purpose, and then I bring him in on May Eve to University Parks, and we dress him there. We must ensure that he isn’t falling apart. We used to keep him in the back of the Science area, but one year he got thrown away and we had to build a new one. Luckily, we discovered that early in the year, so we had time. In terms of dancing, we’re practising all through the winter anyway. “

“ You can have the camaraderie as you have in a sports team.

As well as this, there’s also the Sword and Cake tradition to take care of, which means checking that the baker is available to make the cake, collecting it, and having someone responsible for it on the day. Luckily, this is relatively easy as the same family has been baking the cake for over 30 years now. Similarly, organising who is going to be inside the Jack in the Green is not too difficult as the same person has done it for over 20 years now. They do need to obtain permission from the University to cut foliage to

dress the Jack though. Moreover, in the 1970’s OUM used to write and seek permission to dance from people such as the University Proctors, the Police, the Town Council, and St John’s College (as we dance on their land in front of the college), but this has been dropped over the years as May Morning has become bigger. Finally, preparations for May Morning involve agreeing which sides OUM are going to invite and making sure the invitations get out.

Picking up the dances is based on individual skills and aptitude, and developing these skills can take anywhere from a few weeks to many years. On top of this, there are various roles within the Morris side which organise how it all works. Andrew, noted that “Oxford University side has its own style. I mean, I’ve danced with the modern Kirtlington dancers, and the way they dance the tradition is really reasonably different from how the University side dances it.” Read the full article online at www.oxfordstudent.com

SU Student Advice

Mayday, May Day

A clubbing catastrophe

Maybe May Day just isn’t my cup of tea. To be fair, I also hate tea, so there’s a double effect to that metaphor. Last year, I unceremoniously dipped from pres and slipped into bed with a tray of chips, eyeliner smudged and an outfit wasted, the only evidence of my excursion being a two second video clip that will haunt me for the rest of my days. This year I’ve returned seasoned and ready with an alcohol tolerance that could challenge a Birmingham Wetherspoons regular. Silly fresher no more, yet I was still absolutely terrified. Club? For five hours? Bridge, for five hours? Bridge? Five? My mind panicked with possibility. And then there was the walk, which from Keble to Magdalen is tedious enough sober. I pack for the Botanical Gardens like I’m never coming back. Don’t worry Es, I told myself as I rubbed on blush. It can’t be that bad. I survived pres, and anticipation bubbled as we skipped down to Bridge, barely deterred by the hordes of people that surrounded me. I mourn Atik like a Victorian widow, but I don’t miss that queue. Take a moment

of appreciation for the Bridge security: that line moves like a river. Our massive group quietly splintered, and thus arose our first problem.

Bridge has a slight visibility issue. As in, good luck finding anyone on the way back from toilets. You best hope they can feel their phone buzzing. Half the night was spent finding people rather than actually dancing. Annoying, but being left alone in a club

“ Women of Oxford, I have a bone to pick with you.

can be daunting. Bridge also has a toilet issue. The line spilled out: I waited longer to wee than to get into the club. And that’s when I stumbled upon the first big issue of the night. There was a head poking out from under a stall in plain sight. People were literally treading on this girl’s hair.

Four Jägerbombs in quick succession down (I got very lucky with round placements), I genuinely considered I was just seeing things. No way are they just ignoring an uncon-

stumbled to Magdalen bridge, overpriced sausage roll in hand, somehow standing in the only spot they were letting pedestrians through. The angelic choir was occasionally interrupted by a gruff complaint of an unlucky commuter, arguing when a bike wheel lightly grazed a jumper, and the sniffling and giggles of the group next to me. If you are one of the people who stood by me on May Day, you’re very lucky there was a police officer behind me. I stumbled to bed, somehow made it to a two-hour class, and passed out again.

without being hounded with compliments and offers of extra lip gloss.

In my first year, I went on strike from clubbing because I was sick and tired of carrying my friends home. On one occasion, a friend from home visited and I begged my group, “please, please don’t get too drunk.” Four hours later, I held my head in my hands as they slumped giggling in a booth, God knows who’s vomit splattered on my new dress (sale rack, but that doesn’t cushion the hurt). I’ve spent

“

scious girl.

Women of Oxford, I have a bone to pick with you. Is unconsciousness an acceptable state? Now, I have a penchant for looking after very drunk people. I’ve been scratched, ignored, shouted at, vomited on and spent countless nights holding hair over a toilet. I sat, barely conscious myself, and promised myself I wouldn’t ruin my night. I paid 20 pounds for this ticket. I’m not spending another night holding hair. I got up and left. Two minutes later I returned, wracked with guilt, and began the thankless task of waking her up. Thankfully, there was plenty of staff that could help her by themselves, obviously prepared for a larger volume of unconscious patrons. No one else in that bathroom helped. Just watched, gormless, as I desperately pounded on the bathroom door. Eventually, she woke up, dazed but fine, and she was escorted out of my sight.

As I wandered back to the dance floor, I couldn’t easily escape a feeling of utter guilt. And believe me, I know guilt: I’m a Catholic. I feel guilty about breathing. The rest of the night was uneventful (thank Jesus Mary and Joseph). Barely awake, we

May Day kind of sucks. It’s a certified Oxford torture device. But I came away from it only thinking about the complete indifference of the girls huddled into that wet, sweaty toilet in Bridge. Maybe some of you are reading this, perhaps unaware you were one of the girls that stood and watched as I hysterically banged at the door. Perhaps you’re even one of the girls who shrugged when I pointed at the head sticking out of the cubicle. If you are, I want you to consider an age-old question: what if that were you? How would you feel if girls that post about female solidarity and talk pop feminism like it’s radical just shrugged? I ask you to consider the balance. You get to enjoy a few more hours being shoulderbarged like you’re in a penalty box instead of a dancefloor, get a tray of chips and go to sleep soundly or sacrifice one night out to get someone home safe. As FKA Twigs asks “where are the thinkers?” I ask where are the girl’s girls?. What is a bod card’s effect on empathy? Even my home turf

Credit: Pixabay

is more friendly; you’re lucky if you make it out of the toilets

What is a bod card’s effect on empathy?

countless nights slumped against the wall, nothing but a college puffer for a blanket, making sure my friends don’t turn over or throw up again. Closing my eyes while someone throws up in the sink as I haphazardly try and grasp all their hair out the way. Having to stop and gag myself (I can’t help it). Holding my closest friends in their most vulnerable moments. When you look after someone, you take responsibility. Anxiety clouds my judgement: what if they throw up in their sleep? They look okay, but what if they fall in the Isis on the way back? What if they bang their head? Maybe it’s selfishness rather than selflessness that governs my care. That oldie-goldie feeling of “I’m going to get in trouble if I don’t.” But I didn’t see any Bridge staff members scolding onlookers. They muttered a quick thanks, and then escorted the girl out of my sight before I could stumble to my feet. I get biscuits for thanks, maybe even a free drink or two. I’m the one everyone’s eyes turn to when we hear “I feel sick.” But there I am, hair bobble in one hand, toilet roll in the other.

I’m the Florence Nightingale of nightclub toilets. I need some more nurses.

Deputy Editor: Isobel Wanstall

Section Editors: Chaewon Kang, Esme Thomson, Isheta Ad, Lola Forbes, Meira Lee, Nicole Wong, Sofia Mollona | Columnist: Isobel Wanstall

Credit: Pixabay

Esme Thomson

The Flat White Fight Club: Oxford’s underground café wars

Rule one: never talk about your café. Deyaanjali Deb discusses the secretive struggles of finding the perfect coffee-serving study spot.

Let’s be honest: studying in Oxford is only partially about the libraries. The real academic hustle happens in cafés — those overpriced, overpopulated urban sanctuaries where students pretend to read Beowulf in the original Old English, while scrolling through Vinted and furtively checking if the barista thinks they look clever (they don’t).

But finding the one – the café

that has plush seats, good WiFi and plug sockets – seems more unrealistic than getting a seat in the Rad Cam despite queuing outside from 8:50am during Trinity term.

You know the type: not too loud, not too dead, with just the right level of sombre, self-pitying melancholy. And once you find it, you do not share it. You guard it like your degree depends on it. (Newsflash: it does.)

Credit: @rowan.on.the.moon on Instagram

Odes

Because as soon as you so much as mention the name to anyone, it’s game over. The next day? Overrun by rowers in gilets. Third-years posting latte art on their Instagram story to add to their aesthetic highlights when they should be revising for finals.

Congratulations!

You’ve triggered the café version of the British housing crisis.

Supply low, demand unhinged, and everyone pretending their Pret subscription

At Oxford University, there is always something to be working on. Perfecting that problem sheet for that tutor who thinks ‘constructive feedback’ equals exasperated sighs. Powering through piles of reading for that Shakespeare essay due tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. Scheduling that mental breakdown you’ve been meaning to have, because let’s face it: if it’s not in the calendar, it’s not happening.

Sacrifices are a given when you’re (literally) running on Oxford time: but sooner than later you reluctantly realise

isn’t cannibalising their maintenance loans. Gatekeeping your café is no longer an act of spite. It’s a kindness to the world.

“ Because in Oxford, the true test of academic survival isn’t just finals: it’s finding a seat at your favourite café.

Take Common Ground, for example. Once the home of sundress-wearing, septum-pierced baddies annotating The Second Sex, it’s now become an off-lead dog park for North Oxford’s most opinionated Labradors. Someone very close to me (but who I shall very graciously not name and shame), a resident café connoisseur and self-proclaimed “NOT a latte kind of guy”, puts it aptly: “Common Ground used to be where hot

that assignments should and often do take utmost priority. Otherwise, you risk the accusation of ‘gambling your future away’ for the brief thrill of a walk unburdened by purpose. Much has been made of our antiquated eight-week terms and the too-much-work crammed into them — making a panic-powered sprint out of a marathon. What I miss most about returning to Oxford is something simple, silent, sadly taken for granted: my afternoons off. This time last year I was lord of my own time, having rusticated. Splendid summer afternoons — you know, the

people went and flirted with the baristas. It was all nose rings and meaningful eye contact. Now it’s just middle-aged dog-walkers coming in with their own dogs barking out of their sandals.”

This shift is traumatic. There’s something harrowing about watching your safe haven inevitably become infested with freshers discovering cappuccinos and communism at the same time.

Credit: Pixabay

too many people you once matched with on Hinge but never messaged. Where is your café sanctum?

Worse still is the creeping gentrification of indie cafés by posh students in Y2K jumpers asking if the oat milk is locally sourced (from where, the oat farm off Cowley Road?).

And don’t get me started on Jericho. The cafés there aren’t even cafés — they’re conceptual spaces. I guarantee you that another one will open next week, serving only “seasonally reflective brews” and vibes.

Meanwhile, you, poor, humble scholar, are left bouncing between cafés like an over-caffeinated Goldilocks — too loud, too crowded,

kind you can sometimes catch out of the corner of your eye if you’re nimble enough to nab a library seat by a window here from a wide-eyed fresher that’s about to learn that life isn’t fair — could consist of being sprawled out in the garden with a novel, chapters punctuated by chasing my dog in the sunshine; watching whatever cosy classic film came on TV with a dad-made cup of tea — the best kind of brew — or a nap. The world asked nothing of me except my existence. The Oxford in me finds it important to add that I did have a job. But then I’d find it all the more important to sneak away

Probably full, to be honest. The quest continues. And if after all that dogged tenacity, you do happen to stumble upon that sacred, socket-rich, sunlight-drenched oasis? Keep it secret. Keep it safe. And most certainly do not reveal it as a virtue-signalling comment on an Oxfess post asking for café recommendations.

Because in Oxford, the true test of academic survival isn’t just finals: it’s finding a seat at your favourite café.

down the hill to visit my similarly-skiving twin for a laidback exchange: I’d bring the tomatoes and a movie, she’d cook. We’d chatter about everything under the sun and nothing at all over a jug of Pimms before Time cruelly splashed us with cold, biting reality once again.

People say ignorance is bliss. I’d argue indolence is. Not laziness, but indolence — in the Keatsian sense: the simple pleasure of having nothing better to do. Of course I did have “better things to do”... Read the full article online at www.oxfordstudent.com.

Isobel Wanstall is a second year Italian and Linguistcs student at Balliol College who just misses her afternoons off.

Matcha Mania:

What’s everyone so obsessed with?

Meira Lee wonders why matcha has become the latest trend, analysing its origins in tea ceremony.

If you’ve been café-hopping around Oxford recently, you might have noticed a certain beverage popping up on every menu — the matcha latte. It’s not just lattes; businesses have started coming up with all sorts of matcha-infused concoctions, from Pret’s ‘Mindful Matcha Bowl’, to Black Sheep Coffee’s dubious lavender matcha lemonade. As is the case with most trends, this one seems to have been driven by the internet, too. Its popularity on Tiktok is not surprising, seeing as it fits right in with the clean girl aesthetic and has a vibrant green colour that, when combined with strawberry syrup, creates a beverage that evokes the movie poster for Wicked Just last week, I saw an instagram reel with the caption “if

u dont have a matcha drawer in ur fridge, what are you even doing?” posted by Brita (yes, the water filter company).

Something about that powdery green substance seems to have the whole world in a chokehold — but what’s so special about it?

ther by a stone mill or a machine. High-quality matcha should have a soft and airy texture, and a subtle initial bitterness that gives way to a balanced, pleasant aftertaste. The taste of matcha, like wine or coffee, will vary depending on the farmer’s technique, among other factors.

“ Whether you’re whisking it with a chasen, or you’re sipping it through a straw on High Street, what matters most is that you’re enjoying it.

matcha has become yet another tool in the ever-growing arsenal of lifestyle influencers. I’ve definitely seen more than just a few vanilla protein matcha latte recipes floating around on the internet. Don’t get me wrong: matcha does contain ingredients linked to several health benefits. It is high in antioxidants, which, according to some studies, may help lower blood pressure and LDL (‘bad’) cholesterol levels. However, since matcha is often prepared with hot water, and antioxidants are sensitive to heat, this antioxidant effect might be reduced. In any case, the health benefits of matcha probably don’t matter if you’re getting a Matcha & Strawberry Doughnut from Crosstown (which I’ve done before… and don’t particularly recommend).

For those of you who don’t know, matcha is a powder of green tea made from shadegrown tea leaves. It has a long history, originating in China in its earliest forms before being introduced to Japan, where it continued to spread. Today, it is mainly cultivated in regions like Uji and Nishio in Japan. The tea plants take five to eight years to grow, after which they are shaded from sunlight for four to eight weeks; one of the most critical parts of matcha production. It is during this process that the umami flavours in matcha are developed, thanks to the increased production of certain amino acids by the tea plants in response to the lack of sunlight. After being harvested, the tea leaves are processed and ground into powder, ei-

Before the rise of strawberry shortcake matcha beverages, matcha was primarily prepared and savoured as part of the Japanese tea ceremony (chado, or chanoyu). The development of Japanese tea culture and its aesthetics is deeply intertwined with the evolution of matcha — a process that has been ongoing for at least 900 years. Traditionally, matcha is prepared by placing the powder in a tea bowl (chawan), pouring hot water over it, and using a bamboo whisk (chasen) to mix it in a zigzag motion. (The steps of the Japanese tea ceremony are far more intricate than I can describe here; I highly encourage you to look into it!) Underlying the Japanese tea ceremony are the four values of harmony (wa), respect (kei), purity (sei) and tranquility (jaku), which were introduced by Murata Juko, one of the early developers of the tea tradition in the 15th century. No matter the form in which it is consumed in today, matcha is, because of its history, inseparable from these principles. Perhaps it is this association with values like harmony and purity that has turned matcha into the darling of the wellness industry. Joining the ranks of Pilates and protein powder,

The current wave of new matcha products might not be the most healthy or the most traditional, but who says they have to be? There is, of course, much to be discussed regarding the impacts of online trends, the problems with

the wellness industry, and the commodification of cultural practices. For now, I will just say that there is space for the enjoyment of matcha in both its traditional and modern forms. The central role of matcha in Japanese tea culture is profound, and certainly something to be appreciated and preserved. But as a chronic matcha latte enjoyer, I know the simple joy that it can bring, especially when consumed between a lecture and a tute. Whether you’re whisking it with a chasen, or you’re sipping it through a straw on High Street, what matters most is that you’re enjoying it.

A matcha latte with foam art. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Matcha layout with chasen. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Credit: Pixabay

Culture

culture@oxfordstudent.com | Deputy Editor: Christina Scote

Section

Oxford Fashion Gala: Metamorphosis

Oxford’s Fashion Gala was held in the Town Hall this year, celebrating the rather Kafkaesque theme “metamorphosis”. As part of the charity fashion show, Oxford student models showcased creative costumes offering various interpretations of the transformative theme in the venue’s flamboyant Main Hall.

Despite experiencing an hourlong delay, the audience was able to observe the demonstration of striking costumes, some of which depicted jellyfish, a group of koi fish, colourful sea creatures, a concoction of flowers, a mushroom, and wings, with Love Corn snacks, prosecco, and – for those who did not feel like indulging in alcohol – sparkling pressé.

To add to its spectacular atmosphere, the event also fea-

Jack Wharton is a Theology and Religion student at LMH.

Oxford Wine Company sent him some bottles for review.

tured a vintage clothing sale by What Alice Wore and live performances by Nightschool, The Booksellers, and Rough Edge Brass Band, which recited jazzy arrangements of “Toxic”, “Rasputin”, “Industry Baby”, and other classic pop tracks, turning the runway into a energetic dance floor.

Reflecting on the highlights

“

For Clarke, a number of ideas come to her mind when she thinks of the word “metamorphosis”.

of the night, president of the gala and second-year English student at Trinity College Iggy Clarke told The Oxford Student she was impressed by the

Library Edition No. 1 Touraine Chenonceaux 2022£18.75

Aquestion that I’m commonly asked is that of what, with a gun to my head, I would say is my favourite wine.

Truth be told, it would take a situation as extreme as that to get me to even consider giving an answer. I find it difficult to trace my love of wine back to just one very special bottle; surely it is also the experience surrounding the wine that makes it worth raving about? No, I’m afraid you’ll have to tell my mother that I love her and find me a nice pine box, because I refuse to give only one answer.

That being said, on the question of my favourite wine region, I’d have a little more to say, and the Loire Valley would certainly form part of

quality of the outfits’ designs and the music performances. “I have thoroughly enjoyed every part of the event and every talent I have seen,” she said.

Regarding her favourite outfits on the runway, Clarke noted: “The sparkly dresses were definitely a head-turner, and I have also got a soft spot for the gorgeous floral dress designed by my friend Saskia from the University of St Andrews.” She went on to acknowledge other designers who contributed to the show, including Imogen, Amber, Lily, Azezia, Sophia, Olivia, Ouissal, Youran, Mirana and Axel.

For Clarke, a number of ideas come to her mind when she thinks of the word “metamorphosis”. “The idea that comes to my mind is the butterfly’s life cycle, but having done a Latin A-level, I always think of Ovid at the same time,” she remarked, adding: “The theme is very versatile – it represents such a wide variety of ideas,

my answer. A huge, expansive region in the west of France, the Loire is responsible for gorgeous, complex still wines spanning the spectrum of dry (sec) to intensely sweet (moelleux), alongside some of France’s best value sparkling wines. While many of the region’s most famous exports are made from the Chenin Blanc grape, this bottle is instead 100% Sauvignon Blanc. As a grape, it is not unfair to say that Sauvignon Blanc gets a bit of a bad rap, especially when considering the mass-produced antipodean stuff that litters pub menus nationwide. The French variety is, however, quite a different beast. French Sauvignon Blanc is varied, but many of the most prized bottles come from the Loire Valley, particularly the area of Pouilly-Fumé just east of the tiny commune of Chenonceaux where this particular wine was made.

including its literal interpretation in nature, as well as Kafka’s more abstract concept, a mental progression, or a progression of time.”

For show attendees first-year History undergraduate student at Worcester College Anaiya Patel and first-year Law and Spanish Law undergraduate student at University College Dara Adu, a highlight of the event besides the outfits was seeing the designers walk out with their models on the run-

With an aromatic grape variety such as this, the natural qualities of the grape are what you want to express: oak barrels and other winemaking techniques take a backseat to let the fruit shine, as it does here. Immediately, there’s a hefty herbaceous aroma on the nose, with some strong notes of lemon and grapefruit to back it up. Chuck in a few lovely hits of gooseberry and pear, and the result is a wonderfully punchy bouquet. On the palate the fruity notes continue, but the acidity takes centre stage here, as is to be expected with any Sauvignon Blanc.

This wine is, for me, a perfect mixture of thought-provoking and easy-drinking. For those a little hesitant to dip their toes into the world of wine, this could prove a great starting point, albeit not at the most accessible price point. That being said, if you’re in

way towards the end of the show. “It was such a wholesome moment,” they noted. Patel added: “I also really enjoyed the entertainment in the middle of the show – it was a great way to break up the sponsor-led and main runway sessions besides providing entertainment for the event.”

About to drop by the show’s afterparty at Park End, Patel and Adu concluded: “We’re gonna be here next year.”

the market for a wine that is both interesting and incredibly tasty, coming from a town with a château that it seems denigrating to only label as “stunning”, then this is one for you.

Sahil Grover on the catwalk. Image credit: Herbert Low

Canqi Li and Dalia Berkani attended the Oxford Fashion Gala in the Town Hall.

Editors: Esme Thomson, Hannah Stewart, Iona Mandal, Meira Lee, Nicole Wong Columnist: Jack Wharton

The Final Salomé

Esme Thomson reviews the theatrical tribute to Oscar Wilde

When I first sat down in the T.S Eliot Theatre, I wasn’t expecting much. The staging; a scattering of mid-century furniture, draped with a sheer white cloth that reminded me of Home Baragin’s Halloween section that barely obscured Merton College’s logo. I skimmed through a wordy programme (essay and a show!), finding the list of historical inaccuracies particularly hilarious. Before the lights had even dimmed, I felt passion dripping from every word.

The Final Salomé hits a variety of notes; comedic, sharp and witty, particularly in its first act. However, the undercurrent of tragedy and dread is too thick to ignore. These sharp injections of wit in a play dominated by regret pays good tribute to Oscar Wilde’s literary legacy; af-

ter all, the play is about Wilde’s afterlife.

The fate of Salomé hangs precariously in the air, accused of promoting ‘the Cult of the Clitiros’ (aka lesbainsim) to a weary WW1-era Britain. The play follows More Adey, the partner of a forgotten figure in Wilde’s life as he recalls traumatic memories from Robbie’s life within the cold confines of a mental hospital.

The play’s writing varies in quality. There’s an occasional stab at brilliance, most ardently in Robbie’s quips, a good grasp of comedy and a consistently strong script. However, the writing sometimes dipped into overly anachronistic, dipping into the comedic in times it wasn’t appropriate. The play is relatively easy to follow- a great feat when characters are constantly reflecting, reacting and

repeating themselves. However, there were some moments where More’s presence as a narrator and Douglas’ snappy comments muddled what was memory and what wasn’t as characters interacted beyond their states. This distinction could’ve been made clearer for the sake of coherency, but these moments were few.

Some of the later scenes drag on and repeat themselves. One frantic scene where Robbie is desperately trying to salvage Wilde’s literary estate crosses languages a few too many times (nothing wrong with a sprinkle, but a few whole minutes in French was unfollowable) and drags on for too long. Most disappointingly, Ross’ and Douglas’ final confrontation stands out at first, but then falters into a cycle of repetitions, making what could’ve been a real mo-

ment of catharsis into a drag. The set, though unassuming at first, is used brilliantly. In perhaps the best technical moment of the play. Ross, urged to defend Salomé, decides to repeat a lecture he once gave in Liverpool. A spotlight shines on him as he, in reserved passion, talks to us. Then, with a shout, we are thrown from Liverpool into a courthouse interroga-

tion. The set, though simple, is used practically and effectively. The play consists of many envelopes, letters and books, which are used to great effect- to be scattered, read and ripped. The prop usage is a strength of this production- the passing on of the cane and carnations stand out.

Read the full article online at www.oxfordstudent.com

Image credit: Carfax Productions

Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning

Isobel Wanstall reviews the eighth and final installment in the series.

Following directly on from the events of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Impossible Mission Force agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team – including old faces (Ving Rhames as Luther and Simon Pegg as fan-favourite Benji) as well as new (Haley Atwell, Greg Tarzan Davis and Guardians of the Galaxy’s Pom Klementieff) – must chase the villainous Gabriel (Esia Morales) to stop the parasitic all-powerful AI known as The Entity, avoiding agents from all sides of the world.

I find that the Mission: Impossible films work best when anything that can go wrong, does, and my God does this seemingly straightforward mission go wrong. Advertised as “the most impossible

mission yet”, the amount of luck (or the kind of convenience only found in movies) required to pull this plot off is almost too unbelievable. However, suspension of disbelief is aided by the fact that the film never takes itself too seriously: while the stakes are higher than ever before with the world’s nuclear weapons compromised by AI and there being no one to trust, The Final Reckoning’s self-importance is offset by the steady sense of humour we’ve come to expect from writer-director Christopher McQuarrie’s entries into the franchise. A unique aspect of The Final Reckoning is of course the fact that it is a direct sequel to 2023’s Dead Reckoning. While the M:I movies had a loose continuity previously – nota-

bly in the sporadic inclusion of Ethan’s wife Julia after the third instalment – this is the first to introduce a strict continuity with prior films. In this regard, I think The Final Reckoning suffers from a bit of what I call ‘Spectre-itis’ (referring to Sam Mendes’ 2015 James Bond effort) as this retroactive imposition of an interconnected plot onto the whole franchise was clearly not planned and does not play out effectively. This is not entirely a negative: the re-addition of Rolf Saxon’s William Donloe from the very first film is handled brilliantly. On the other hand, at the beginning of the film the pace is breakneck due to the cut-backs and references to iconic moments from the entire franchise which makes you suspect the

creatives behind it are insecure: why can’t the film stand on its own two feet? But once it settles, The Final Reckoning is a suspenseful spectacle. The nearly three-hour runtime can’t quite zip by like 2018’s Fallout (packing two and a half hours into a 90-minute feeling), but it is certainly immersive enough to help you forget. (Though on that note,

maybe don’t repeatedly invoke the undisputed most epic movie of all time when you’re making a long, clearly not-asbrilliant movie. That will earn a scoff from me.) In my opinion though, you don’t need to have watched all fifteen hours of previous movies to enjoy this one.

Read the full article online at www.oxfordstudent.com

What’s On?

Oxford coffee concerts. Rachel Roberts (viola) and Sophia Rahman (piano) perform as part of a series of chamber music concerts. Sunday 1st June, Holywell Music Room.

ART, Grinning Spoon Productions. Written by Yasmina Reza. 3rd-7th June, Burton Taylor Studio

Blood Wedding, Fullmoon Theatre. By Federico Garcia Lorca. 4th-7th June, Oxford Playhouse.

CRUSH, Writeoff Productions. By Hannah Eggleton. 5th-7th June, North Wall Arts Centre.

Acting course w/ Oxford People’s Theatre. Part III in the series offered by OUDS. Saturday 7th June, 10:30am, Long room, New College

Poetry reading w/ Ilya Kaminsky and Katie Farris. Run by Oxford Poetry Society. Tuesday 10th June, English Fac.

Young artists recital. Multi-award winning musical artists Jayden Lamcellari (cello) and Milda Daunoraite (piano) perform a programme of Schumann, Beethoven and Brahms.. Thursday 12th June, St Edward's School Olivier Hall.

Showstoppers: a musical theatre showcase. Crosskeys Productions. 13th and 14th June, St Peter’s Chapel.

The Return (2024): A Review

Richard Kuehl reviews Umberto Pasolini's film adaptation of The Odyssey.

It is undeniable that the film industry is currently in a state of soul searching. The decline of the superhero franchises and the transformative effect that streaming services are having on the traditional movie going experience have left many creatives in the business with the lingering feeling of being somewhat lost. In such trying times, it is not uncommon for people to revisit ageold stories that have stood the test of time.

This is certainly the case with classical antiquity, which is currently living through a mild renaissance in Hollywood. Only last year did Ridley Scott’s highly anticipated, if somewhat lackluster, sequel to his 2000 historic epic Gladiator manage to rake in approximately 460 million dollars at the box office, making it one of the highest grossing R-rated films of all time. Scott however is not the only filmmaker interested in

reviving the old “swords and sandals” genre. Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey is currently in production and there have been many rumors about a possible Cleopatra film from Canadian director Denis Villeneuve.

This then brings us to Uberto Pasolini, nephew of famed Italian director Luchino Visconti. An established filmmaker in his own right, the academy award nominee has now attempted to put his own spin on Homer’s epic. His film, The Return, stars Ralph Fiennes as a traumatised Odysseus and Juliette Binoche as his grieving wife Penelope. It centers around Odysseus’s return to his kingdom, the Greek island of Ithaca, after a 20 year absence. A shell shocked war veteran, filled with grief about losing his companions and leading the better part of Ithaca’s male population to their deaths, he is reluctant to reassume his role as king. Meanwhile, his wife Penelope, desperately clinging to the hope of her husband’s return, is obliged to ward off the un-

wanted and increasingly menacing advances of the various suitors who terrorize the island, spreading fear and chaos amongst its inhabitants. When watching films based on stories that have been told countless times before, one question always arises: Does this one bring anything new to the table? I would argue yes. Rather than focusing on the mythological elements of the Odyssey, Pasolini turns Homer’s work into a drama about a family having to deal with the traumatic effects of loss, rejection and abandon-

ment. Of particular note here are the performances of Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche as Odysseus and Penelope. Their third collaboration after Wuthering Heights (1992) and the Oscar-winning The English Patient (1996), their dynamic is what keeps the film engaging throughout its 116 minute runtime. Fiennes especially shines with a calm and brooding quality, being given the opportunity to use his expressive face and piercing blue eyes to convey all the unexpressed inner turmoil of his protagonist.

How to hate to be a hater

Esme Thomson is a Culture Section Editor at The Oxford Student.

“ I love the way it feels to be a hater” is the most iconic line of Infinity Song’s single, ‘Hater’s Anthem’. This recent uptake in hater culture is all-consuming. Now, I have indulged in a bit of hatred myself (Lime bikes, St John’s, all my Brookes ex-talking-stages).

But these are all words, spoken and forgotten by the next tutorial, never settling in the minds of my peers. Writing hate is more methodical, purposeful. I have, and will never, understand the people who take time out of their days to comment negatively. What kind of person codes comments so they don’t get

flagged, messages insults via DM, dedicates their account to hating on strangers? Big news – the haters are amongst us. Such a culture can be seen in the recent Chappell Roan controversy – if Chappell doesn’t want to be preaching politics all the time, this must mean Chappell hates gay people! Did you know her uncle’s a lawmaker? Did you know she’s Midwestern, and she secretly supports Trump? Her name’s Kaleigh you guys! Genius analysis there, now let’s find another woman to crucify. Recently, my rage flared up as I read an unnecessarily scathing review from an unnamed rival paper. I recently wrote my first review, and it took me about five hours and

a bit of crying to write some -

“ I recently wrote my first review, and it took me about five hours and a bit of crying to write something slightly critical.

thing slightly critical. Am I a pussy? Yes. But I have an understanding many of my fellow student journalists seem to lack. Realism. I’m not on the front page of The Guardian , I’m writing about white linens, for Christ’s sake. I’m

no better a writer than the people I review! I might sound like your mother, but perhaps you need a talking-to. To reviewers, to anyone writing about anyone or anything, remember that there are people affected by your words. Just because you don’t have to face them doesn’t mean you have any right to write with cruelty and indifference. We’re university students. No one will find your artificial pretentiousness and smug remarks life-changing, but that person you’ve ripped apart for the sake of a scoff? I guess there’s “something so sweet about thinkin' that I'm better”...

The Return theatrical release poster

Eurovision: The OxStu’s Highlights

The Culture team stayed up till 2 o'clock in the morning to watch Eurovision. They gave their thoughts to The Oxford Student.

Lumières, caméras, action: Eurovision is back. This year’s grand final is being held in Basel, Switzerland, after Nemo ’s win last year with “The Code”. Moment of silence for the Milkshake Man, and all the other songs which didn’t qualify for the grand final.

According to Eurovisionworld.com, the three countries that went in with the best odds were, in order: Sweden (41%), Austria (20%), and France (14%). In some ways Sweden is to Croatia last year what Austria is to Switzerland last year: Sweden and Croatia both went into the contest with the best odds, and an anthemic song that got the crowd on their feet. Austria and Switzerland went in as runner-ups with beautifully sung ballads. Ultimately last year it was Switzerland that beat their Croatian competition: despite the initial advantage, will Sweden lose to Austria in the same way?

Luxembourg – Laura Thorn – La Poupée Monte Le Son

Laura Thorn is hardly given time to breathe in this loving homage to Luxembourg’s winning entry from 1965: “Poupée de cire, poupée de son”. The

rious ‘death slot’ and get their first win since 1983?

Estonia – Tommy Cash –Espresso Macchiato

Promising as his entry may seem at first, their parody of Italian stereotype fell short. Instead of some poignancy we got a refrain that sounds like a collage of captions on a stereotypical white millennial woman’s Instagram page. The performance is not striking, though Tommy Cash’s changes in tone enhance it somewhat. The song stirred some sentiments in Italy, but overall, the song is not that deep – unfortunately not deeply funny or entertaining either. No stresso but no impresso.

United Kingdom – Remember Monday – What the Hell Just Happened?

All-female country-pop trio Remember Monday pulled off a basic performance of “What the Hell Just Happened?”. Reminiscent of Katy Perry and Kesha in the early 2010s, the bubblegum pop-sounding track celebrates how the trio support each other during tough times. Singing among gigantic candles, the girls showed off their

music-box feel, until its chorus where the towering soprano vocals arc and thrill, running over the notes with an unassailable grandeur that earned Austria the title of second-favourite to win, and rightfully so.

Germany

– Abor and Tynna – Baller

Tynna has intense cool girl energy. In a sparkly two-piece dress and leather boots that wouldn’t be amiss in Park End, she struts around the stage with louche verve. This entry is a fan favourite for some but doesn’t do it for others, and I think that’s probably because of the music: the song just doesn’t have that wow factor. It’s a danceable and catchy chorus and that’s kind of it. Still, it’s fun.

Sweden – KAJ – Bara Bada Bastu

This went in as favourite to win. How to explain it? This little comedy rave-up number starts off with hot dog sausages being roasted over a fire, and from there, it’s a cabin-in-the-woods freakout. Three men with odd talents coming together to sing about their love for saunas. The anthemic chorus is 2025’s answer to 2024’s Baby Lasagna’s Rim Tim Tagi Dim: infectious, feel-good, stomping (and quite stupid, in the most unashamed way). Check out the way he mouths “sau-na”.

France – Louane –maman

Mon dieu, another très soulful ballad from France. It’s probably going to do well in the final placements, but not come top –just like most of France’s other entries for the past few years. As nice as it is, I think it’s a step down from Slimane last year. That might feel a bit harsh, given that it’s dedicated to Louane’s late mother, but that’s only be-

cause Slimane was one-of-akind. It’s still a jewelled song for mothers everywhere: your children love you, and that’s all we need to love it back.

The placements

And that’s a wrap on the performances. After much musing, we conclude our top five are: Sweden, Austria, Albania, Luxembourg, Switzerland. And our nil point candidates are… Poland, the UK, Denmark. Ah, sorry. Just didn’t cut the mustard in the same way.

Throughout the jury vote, Austria and Switzerland are in the lead. Shockingly, Sweden (who received 40% odds) is still low down, albeit on the left hand side. Maybe it’s not such a surprise after all: their song doesn't take itself seriously and will probably play better with the public than with juries. The final twelve points are awarded from Switzerland to Italy, and the jury vote closes.

The rankings now – Austria

with 258 points, Switzerland with 214, France with 180. It’s worth noting that for the past two years, the country that won the jury vote has won the contest.

Now onto the audience points. There have been some big winners here: Albania majorly jumped up. Israel as well: after the public vote they’re on top. Austria needs to get 100 to beat Israel: that means Israel really might win it. We the UK, on the other hand, won 0 audience points for the second year in a row. Following the 0 points awarded to Switzerland, it is between Israel and Austria. With the final 178 points awarded to JJ, Austria won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2025.

Okay, that’s a wrap, folks. Austria has snagged their third win with absolutely haunting vocals, and we think it’s deserved. Now we wonder how many Oxford egos JJ has damaged winning Eurovision at the ripe age of 24.

JJ holding the trophy. Image credit: Eurovision Gallery

Tynna on stage. Image credit: Eurovision Gallery

Laura Thorn on stage. Image credit: Eurovision Gallery, edited

Identity

Image

credit: Rawpixel

Does your Degree Define your Identity?

Isheta Ahmed on the reductive hopelessness of degree stereotypes and their baseless characterisations

If you’re a STEM student, you may get away with wearing a tracksuit every day. If you’re a PPEist, you may be perceived as the worst (or best) person someone knows; either way, you’re known for your articulate tongue. If you have a ‘Mickey Mouse’ degree, you might feel the need to defend your academic excellence, or to just let it go (you will never escape the jealousy). Our degrees, chosen from the ripe ages of 16-19 or earlier, are qualifications we receive after completing our exams, but to what extent do they form academic appendages of our identity?

In a recent, and perhaps unfortunate, trending ‘Q&A - slash - debate' between Cambridge students and a certain whimsical American debater, I picked up on the

identity@oxfordstudent.com | Deputy Editor: Hannah Stewart

Section Editors: Isheta Ahmed, Iona Mandal, Iona Davies

his works demonstrate the importance of individual degrees on a cross-cultural and global scale.

criticism (and confusion) of studying the ‘Lesbian North African literature’ Module within a degree, or degree within a module, it’s sufficient to say that this joke contributes to a wider ridicule of degrees that are no longer seen as important. If your degree is not seen as ‘useful’, the way medicine, maths or law degrees conventionally are, then you risk being worthless in the job market.

Of course, law, medicine or engineering degrees are serviceable, they help change society through innovation and improve the conditions of the people within a nation. But is there one singular route to making change and contributing to society? The purpose of a degree today, to live and work for the sake of others, is bound by career advancement. Academia did not always serve the purpose of generating wealth, investing in start-ups, or feeling purposeful. Academia was an illustration of the human mind, of knowledge exchange on the vastest scale. Becoming qualified in that field so that you may become an expert to teach others is a fundamental aspect of

a degree, no doubt about that. A degree should not be ornamental, it does have core functional attributes. But there is something to say of learning for the sake of learning, to teach and inspire others. Without interdisciplinary research between philosophy and science, we wouldn’t have The Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine by Ibn Sina (commonly known in the West as Avicenna). Ibn Sina’s extensive corpus of works varied from astronomy, physics and psychology to Islamic theology, poetry and logic. It is evident in his theories of natural sciences how his philosophy combined different academic pursuits, of what we now deem between useful and useless. As a language student, his contri -

“ But is there one singular route to making change and contributing to society? “ A degree should not be ornamental; it has core functional attributes

butions to Indian and Persian mathematical systems and impact on the Western world of medicine through pervasive translations of

As someone who encounters literature from the MENA region quite often in my degree, I can say such an education has developed not only an interest in cultures and histories foreign to me, but also a connection to the people I potentially want to live and work with in the future. Not to mention, without a detailed engagement with a discipline like literature, further maturation in education and learning simply cannot happen. Creativity cannot bloom in sterile, hostile environments, nor will human curiosity in literature and opinions ever cease.

The greatest creative, linguistic and artistic minds did not develop from picking between a limited set of ‘useful’ degrees.

A Shakes-Queerian Twelfth Night

Ivett Berenyi on why Le Gateau Chocolat is THE Feste of the century

The Globe published a blog post in February 2023, titled “Celebrating queerness on our stages”, where they outlined their aim of making Shakespeare accessible to all and discovering his works “in all contexts” to ensure “the Bard remains popular and relevant for the next 400 years to come.” Among others, they have included a shot of Le Gateau Chocolat as Feste in Twelfth Night.

Emma Rice made a perfect decision casting Le Gateau Chocolat for the role of Feste. The drag queen appeared as the clown character of Twelfth Night on the Globe stage in 2017. I watched the 2018 Royal Shakespeare Company version (directed by Christopher Luscombe) as well, and although Beruce Kahn did not fall short of my expectations, Le Gateau Chocolat’s performance at the Globe changed the way I approach the play for further study.

As expected, not all critics agree with me. While Quentin Lett’s review for the Daily Mail described Chocolat as ‘pure magic’ and the Globe as ‘wonderfully refreshing’, further reviews are by no means homogeneous.

In his review for The Guardian, Michael Billington found that “Le Gateau Chocolat […] diminishes the impact of Shakespeare’s exquisite final song about the wind and the rain by singing it at the start.” He also finds the additions of modern dialogue and references as “intrusive” and instead appreciates parts of the production where “Shakespeare is allowed to work uninterrupted.” Elsewhere, Chiara Giovanni describes the production as a ‘lazy attempt to invoke a queer aesthetic’ in her piece for the Ertegun. In particular, she criticises the commodification of queer culture “without the intense questioning of gender and

sexual norms.”

Rice’s decision to cast a drag queen, I argue, does a great deal to foster the popularity and relevance of Twelfth Night. The value and intrigue of his performance outweigh a simple commercialised aspect. When the play is viewed with a technical perspective on Feste (not only as a character but also as a dramatic device), Rice’s production is anything but ‘lazy’, and even the intrusions make sense. Indeed, there is something about this Feste that is strangely almost conservative, at least of Shakespeare’s potential methodology.

What is a clown?

“ Rice's production is anything but lazy, and even the intrusions make sense “ I firmly believe Shakespeare would have cast a drag queen in the 21st century

The figure of the clown, court jester, fool is perhaps the most flexible character category on the early modern English stage. They were allowed to improvise (oftentimes at the demise of the Master of Revels), come up with speeches on their own and respond to suggestions or shouts of the audience from below once the play was over. Intrusions on the modern stage, therefore, reflect early modern theatre practices. The fool was bright, vivid, witty, quick, and infinitely entertaining. They had, what we could call today charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent––sound familiar?

Fools check the boxes of: a) unconventional, more ostentatious clothing, b) quick wit and humour, and c) subversion of court hierarchies and normalised so -

cial structures - as often the ‘fool’ is the wisest on stage). All these elements converge in Twelfth Night.

Aside from characterisation, the casting of Le Gateau Chocolat recalls the early modern performance history of the drama. We have multiple pieces of evidence to suggest Shakespeare has written Feste’s character with actor Robert Armin in mind. He needed someone who could, first and foremost, entertain the crowd through music and singing; secondly, one who could dress up and double. Even though we would never know, I firmly believe Shakespeare would have cast a drag queen in the twenty-first century.

Singing was Armin’s trademark, including ventriloquism. These skills of his are utilised in a key tragicomic scene where Malvolio, the otherwise ridiculous, uptight, and laughable servant, is falsely imprisoned in a dark room and tortured by Feste, who doubles as himself and as ‘Sir Topaz’ (Sister Topaz in Rice’s production).

Feste uses humour to alienate Malvolio, he purposefully pays no attention to his struggle. This interaction

as Feste in light of the terms above, we arrive at an unexpected perspective: Rice’s casting is almost conservative. It feels like she had a similar thought process to Shakespeare; her tools just happen to be very different. There is still something in essence that connects Le Gateau Chocolat to Robert Armin.

brings us closer to Malvolio and further from Feste, since his self-amusement breeds distance between him and the audience.

Singing and dance performances are trademarks of drag queens. By nature of their craft, they have to master doubling as well. Considering Le Gateau Chocolat

Let us return briefly to Michael Billington on Rice’s production: “When Shakespeare is allowed to work uninterrupted, the production has its points.” As we have seen, the unfixed, uncertain, almost liable nature of clown characters already defies the ‘uninterrupted Shakespeare.’ Tiffany Stern traces references in Hamlet (1623 Folio text) which explicitly instruct clowns not to speak more than their lines allotted, while the Quarto I text of Hamlet allows for catchphrases comic characters bring to the stage. Interruption is embedded, and it is naïve to assume that everything that Shakespeare wanted or imagined materialised on stage, or indeed that only his vision was embodied.

Queer representation

Notions of interruption, disruption, even distraction bring me onto my last point:

queer representation in contemporary productions and adaptations of Shakespeare. Melissa E. Sanchez defines ‘queer theory’ as a field of study concerned with ‘the multitude of incoherencies and contradictions that destabilize the distinction between the normal and the perverse’. She adds, helpfully, that queerness need not be restricted to sexuality or sexual orientation but may also interrogate “the racial, ethnic, national, economic and legal categories […] nothing to do with sex”. A “queer lens”, so to say, finds something extraordinary in the normal and normality in the oddities, not necessarily restricted to identity labels. Stephen Guy-Bray outlines queer theory in very specifically literary terms. His definition is worth quoting at length: “Queer representation lingers over the process of representation and often fails to lead to anything. It may slow down or even frustrate entirely the aim that it is ostensibly intended to have”. In other words, queer representation is more interested in self-referential, self-reflective discussion: Le Gateau Chocolat’s sequined gold dress, is queer in the sense that it gets us thinking about the “appropriate” attire of

Image credit: Polyarts

clowns or entertainers, it does not necessarily add to the narrative. Guy-Bray reaffirms this distinction in his argument that “nonqueer representation” and analysis is centred around “narrative movement or characterization” while queer representation is drawn to everything “extra and excessive.” Therefore, Feste as a drag queen goes beyond commerce: he challenges the boundaries of normative and excessive and explores meanings of

“ We interrupt Shakespeare's play texts like early modern theatre did

queerness on stage. Feste may not seem like a “traditional” or “Shakespearean” casting choice––whatever these may entail––and ad-libs may disrupt the

iambic pentametre. But as we have seen, these kinds of disruptions were relatively conventional in Renaissance England. Granted, they did not quote Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive”, but they used popular sixteenth-century songs, ballads, and cultural references which affected the early modern audience like the Gaynor reference affects us. Tools may differ, but techniques remain traditional. We interrupt Shakespeare’s play texts like early modern

theatre did. Excess and carnival deserve a whole separate piece, but sticking with Feste, his mere presence, the subversive nature of his craft, calls our attention to his queerness. Then, when we inspect how his character functions within the parametres of the play and the transhistorical context of theatre from Shakespeare to present day, a drag queen is not all that unusual, odd, or queer. Armin was queer, “extra and excessive” in his

own way, it is only how we conceive, present, enact and stage queerness has changed.

Queer is here, just as it was with Shakespeare as well.

Why I substituted academic validation with student journalism

Hannah Stewart is the Deputy Editor for the Identity Section.

One of my biggest regrets about my time at Oxford is not starting to write for the Student Papers earlier. Not only is it a substantial outlet for the sheer amount of ‘whatever-it-is’ that was bouncing around inside my head for a week, but the vehicle through which I reclaimed writing in such an academically rigorous environment.

Crawling tooth and nail out of a little grey town that they forgot to close down, my niche humanities degree became my foot in the door, allowing me to become an observer of the more interesting aspects of Oxford life. But that’s the issue with a niche degree. You join a course composed of peers and professors who really are quite into it, and you’re just not. After a gru

elling effort to get into Oxford, having this dawn on you, 1st year and 1st term, is a bit of an ‘Oh Shit’ moment. With the tutorial standing as one of the most characteristic aspects of the ‘Oxford Experience’, it’s a shame that these classes

were reduced to an ordeal in which keeping an eye on the clock became my greatest learned skill. Academic validation was something that I gave up on, and while by no means a bad stu -

dent, I’d probably describe my sustained dedication to my degree as an ‘unfulfilled limp’ from my freshers week to the current day. It always felt like a bit of an inevitability, becoming just another brick in the wall, a formerly excellent student who now can’t decide whether or not to cry or vomit from the nervousness inspired by a tutorial. And all because you can’t sit in a room and articulate ‘the structuro-functionalist significance of Monkey Tennis’ (or something like that) in an essay. Can I be blamed for being more interested in Oxford’s multifaceted arts scene, or the sleazefilled world of Oxford’s drinking culture? That being said, I’m not diminishing niche degrees, my degree or my coursemates in writing this; I’m just airing my grievances.

“ I needed something to quiet the defeaning screech of impostor syndrome “ Academic validation was something that I gave up on

While it’s probably not as bad as I think it is, or I’m currently painting it out to be, I needed something to quiet the deafening screech of impostor syndrome. For me, student journalism became the silencer for that screech. I like having something that verifies that I'm not actually stupid, a physical and verifiable representation that I can do

something. In comparison to the utterly loathsome affair that is putting gruelling amounts of reading and toil into an essay that gets pawned off in the next tutorial as just alright, student journalism has provided the positive response for me that has enabled me to

into a piece and have it be received well. And, as I had received seemingly very little, overwhelmingly fulfilling feedback from my degree work, the positive feedback became addictive.

speak and write with confidence after a year at university. It’s incredibly rewarding to finally put hours of love, care, and research

I’ve not been sent here by some anti-intellectualist overlord to convince you to abandon your degree. And I probably should have prefaced this article with some Seussian remark about how I would, could and should do my degree even if I don’t like it. However, I would implore you to try student journalism, even just once. Rant about something. Gush about your favourite film. Find your voice.

Sackler Library, Wikimedia Commons

Image Credit: Pxhere

science@oxfordstudent.com | Deputy Editor: Yuhan Wang

Section Editors:

The future of the NHS

Nicola Kalita reflects on the NHS expert panel at Trinity College

On 14th May, Trinity College hosted a panel discussion on the future of the NHS. Among the panelists were Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, former Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Professor Kamila Hawthorne, Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), and Dr Helen Salisbury, Oxford-based GP and British Medical Journal columnist. Discussion was moderated by Professor Christopher Butler, Clinical Director of the University of Oxford Primary Care Clinical Trials Unit.

The panel opened by ad-

dressing the major challenges facing the NHS: lack of funding, organisation, and workforce, as well as the political will to sustain the system.

Hawthorne noted that paradoxically, while there is a lack of GPs, many trained GPs remain unemployed. The aim is to move healthcare to the community-level, but exactly how this will happen remains unclear. Van-Tam also noted the difficulties in having open, honest conversations about the NHS due to the political basis of its establishment.

Discussion turned to the 2024 Darzi Report, which de-

scribed the NHS as “broken”. While acknowledging the system’s faults, Hawthorne disagreed that it is beyond repair. As a working GP, she said “it’s definitely struggling, but I’m still seeing patients. They’re still getting referred if they need it. They’re still getting better. They still come back to see me. We still offer some continuity of care, not as much as we’d like”.

The Darzi Report advocates for shifting care to the community, followed by reducing pressure on hospitals and addressing illnesses early in disease progression. Butler pointed out that “something is stopping us from making these shifts into the sectors of care that are necessary to fulfil the mission of the report”. He elaborated that while primary healthcare is a fundamental aspect of the NHS, it does not appear to be working, even if the proportion of money going into healthcare seems to be the same, if not increasing. First wishing to address this “hopelessness” many feel,

The War for Drugs

Salisbury mentioned that in living memory, the healthcare system has worked. Current government announcements describe three key shifts: from secondary care to community care, from sickness to prevention, and from analog to digital. These sound reasonable, but Hawthorne made it clear some ambiguity remains around the implementation of these plans. “At the moment, the ten year health plan is being written behind closed doors… as Chair of the RCGP, I’m very interested in what’s going on behind that brick wall”, Hawthorne commented.

The government also appears keen to bring back the “family doctor”, aiming to provide a more holistic, integrated approach to treating patients.

“I hope not the 20th century family doctor that I was when I first qualified as a GP,” Hawthorne added, “I think what we should be looking at is a 21st century family doctor”.

On the topic of medical education, the first few years of the medical Oxford curricu-

lum is heavily focused on the basic sciences, even though early patient contact is highly encouraged. As an Oxford student 40 years ago, Hawthorne stated she didn’t see a patient until fourth year. “I was too young, really, to know what I was missing, but I clearly felt I needed to get my hands on people”, and joined Nightline, getting a chance to see “life in raw”. Butler questioned whether medical school sets students to predominantly become biomedical scientists, in a sense contradicting national priorities. Salisbury, who works on developing the current Oxford undergraduate course, noted progress in early clinical exposure in years 1, 2 and 3, and concluded that both hands-on experience and theory were vital. “Oxford produces excellent doctors who are good clinicians because they know the science and the medicine, and are good communicators...

Read the full article online at www.oxfordstudent.com

Omer Miković and Yuhan Wang explore antimicrobial resistance

Imagine this situation: while preparing a meal in your kitchen, you cut yourself with a knife. Your finger may get slightly red, even swell, and you decide to take some antibiotics and wait it out. Days pass, and the pain and swelling still persist. At this point, you’re worried and go to the ER, not because you ignored it and didn’t treat it, but because bacteria ignored your treatment. This is life with antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Antibiotics have been saving lives since penicillin first became widely used to treat many diseases, but today, AMR claims 1.2 million lives annually, and in 2050, it

could exceed 10 million.

Bacteria, like all living organisms, evolve and adapt. They typically have a high mutation rate, which can be further elevated under stressors such as antibiotics, which threaten their survival. While most mutations are either neutral or even deleterious, some can confer advantages, helping the bacterium become more resistant to these stressors. The misuse of antibiotics (taking them against a physician’s advice or giving antibiotic cocktails to animals as a way of preventing infections) enhances this problem by introducing more evolutionary stress. This trend started with

MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), but AMR has since extended to what scientists call the ESKAPEE bacterium strains (including E. Coli and pneumonia bacterium) and gonorrhea.

When bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, common infections such as bacterial pneumonia become deadly again. It was with antibiotics that humanity brought some of the deadliest diseases, like the black death (controlling it at an acceptable level whenever there is an outbreak), to its knees. Without antibiotics, humanity goes back to the era where we are powerless

against the most basic infections. The impacts of AMR extend beyond curing diseases. In surgery, antibiotics are often administered to prevent

infection during the procedure. A high incidence of AMR means losing access to these potentially life saving procedures.

Doctors note. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Nicola Kalita, Nicholas Gan, Omer Miković

Antibiotics which could potentially be obsolete due to antimicrbial resistance. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The solution appears to be obvious - make more antibiotics. Researchers are working hard to develop new small molecule drugs in order to keep up with the arms race against nature. However, development of new antibiotics often presents many challenges in terms of profitability. New antibiotics are typically reserved for ‘agents of last resort’ or relatively short treatments. The revenue that could be made from a novel antibiotic remains low. Furthermore, bacteria usually gain resistance against these new antibiotics rapidly. The main problem with small molecule drugs is that humans would always be trying to play catch up with nature. Evolution is actively working against us.

Therefore, scientists have begun turning to more biological methods to address AMR which hopefully are able to evolve quickly enough to catch up with bacteria. This includes developing vaccines, bacteriophage therapy, CRISPR and many more exciting fields. You could read more about this in the online edition where we go into much more detail.

Other than being an active, ongoing war against nature, AMR is very much a societal problem. As mentioned above, developing new antibiotics is not profitable. This lack of profitability discourages inverment into antibiotic research. Moreover, regulatory hurdles and the need for rigorous clinical trials add to

the expense and delay bringing new drugs to market. Even with all of these issues, the rise of skepticism towards science makes roll out very difficult. Despite this, there are experts looking into solving this, not just as a scientific problem, but as a societal issue. To help make developments of antibiotics and other drugs which would not churn as high of a profit, proposals have been made to change drug pricing to a subscription model where governments pay drug companies a fixed fee regularly in exchange for access to drugs. This could incentivise innovation into areas which are less than profitable. Regardless, there is agreement in the wider scientific community that the profit-driven model for

drug development in its current form does not work, and there has been interest in a nonprofit development model as a solution for AMR.

Many countries have pledged to enact policies which would target AMR. During the 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) High-Level meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance, world leaders have approved a political declaration “committing to...reducing the estimated 4.95 million human deaths associated with bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR) annually by 10% by 2030.” The UK government in 2019 has released a 20 year vision in terms of policy to tackle AMR. The efficacy of these policy actions would have to be evaluated down the

road.

So what can I, a single person, do? Don’t demand antibiotics for viral infections. Complete your entire course of antibiotics. Buy meat raised without unnecessary antibiotics. Support public health initiatives and vote with AMR awareness in mind.

Antibiotics changed history, but bacteria are stubborn and relentless foes. With science, co-operation, loads of finances and effective policy action, we can outsmart the bugs. A new era in the human versus microbe fight is happening as we speak. The question is: Will this be a triumph or a tragedy? Read

For the pursuit of knowledege

Yuhan Wang talks to the Oxford PLANCKS team

Christopher never expected to have his trip to Barcelona bookended by flight cancellations. He seems to be having extremely poor luck, having just collected his new passport (after his previous passport got stolen in Geneva) two days prior. Fortunately, the bad luck did not carry over to the event that he is attending in Barcelona. He and his team managed to clinch 5th in PLANCKS, the international theoretical physics competition for undergraduate and masters’ students.

The team, named POSTLIMS, consisted of Peter Djemal, Christopher Ong (Oriel Col-

lege, 2nd year), Kiefer Lim (LMH, 2nd year) and Sidharth Chambocheri Veetil (Oriel College, 3rd year). PLANCKS is an international physics competition organised by the International Association of Physics Students (IAPS). The competition is named after the German physicist Max Planck and stands (rather hilariously) for the Physics League Across Numerous Countries for KickAss Students. The event lasted four days from 1st May 2025 to 5th May 2025 and combined an intense physics competition with many social and scientific activities. The team managed to obtain fifth place amongst 46 participating

teams from 29 countries. Their journey started off in February this year, where they attended the United Kingdom and Ireland preliminary in Swansea. “We would meet occasionally to blaze through past papers, complaining the whole time,” said Peter, recalling the times when they were preparing for the competition. They managed to obtain 1st runners up, slightly behind the 1st place team, Diet Coke Annhilators, from Cambridge University. This qualified the team at that time, composing of Peter, Christopher, Kiefer and Luo Zeyuan (Keble College, 2nd year), for the international competition. Unfortunately, due to visa matters, Zeyuan had to drop out. Replacing him was the 2 times PLANCKS winner Sidharth. After receiving the good news that they have qualified for the competition, they knew that the journey was just beginning. When asked how he prepared for the competition, Sidharth mentioned, “In general, with preparation for these things, I try and expose myself to different types of hard problems.” However, most of the team were seasoned veterans of Olympiad physics. “I mainly relied on my past Olympiad skills from years ago and knowledge

from my current course,” said Christopher. After all, to quote Sidharth, the most important factor in being good at physics is not necessarily grinding exam papers, but rather to “have a good physics and problem-solving base”. Despite their preparation, the competition itself was, as expected, still very challenging.

“The exam was more brutal than expected; time flew by compared to the preliminaries,” said Peter. However, regardless, the team still did extremely well, achieving an overall fifth.

It was a joy for the whole team to meet other like-minded individuals doing physics, making new friends and catching up with old friends in the same field. Kiefer mentioned that he enjoyed talking to a lot of people, even “meeting someone from the Finnish team in real life for the first time, someone I’ve met online back in 2021 but didn’t realise was in Barcelona too.” Christopher got to catch up with some of his old mates back in Singapore whom he used to do Olympiads with. They were also surprised to find out that one of their tutors, a PhD student named Christian, was also there leading the Austrian team, where they got to spend “a long dinner together

eating yogurt and complaining about the food.”

The primary motivation for this group of friends when participating in PLANCKS was never the merit nor the prestige, but the joy of solving a problem or knowing more about the world around them, from the big problems to everyday phenomena. When asked about what motivates them, Kiefer replied that he enjoyed “the problem-solving aspect, when you try to understand how a system works by applying the laws of physics we’ve learned and arguing about what should happen.”

For others, like Peter, it is applying this knowledge to explaining some obvious truths like “describing the production of oil from the Earth, which was really interesting.” For Olympiads like PLANCKS, competitors are often exposed to fresh and novel physics, where, quoting Christopher, they “usually have no idea what’s going on, but just by mucking about doing random stuff, can sometimes land at the right result – and that feels great.” Although, for Christopher, it is also great having a “sponsored holiday” to Barcelona.

Oxford PLANCKS team POSTLIMS (front) photographed with the winning team from Cambridge (back). Credit: Chris Ong

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The OxYou

What really happens in JCR Committee meetings?

Secretary: The first issue on the agenda is how we are going to explain to the Censors what happened at the Cambridge Exchange. A large amount of valuable cutlery appears to have gone missing from High Secretary: The first issue on the agenda is how we are going to explain to the Censors what happened at the Cambridge Exchange. A large amount of valuable cutlery appears to have gone missing from High Table.

Vice President: Couldn’t we avoid explaining at all? Explanations are troublesome; ignorance is bliss.

Entz Rep: The Cambridge students stole the cutlery: what more explanation is needed?

Secretary: Then how do we account for the fact that some of it was found in a Peck set?

Vice President: Whose Peck set?

Secretary: Yours, as a matter of fact. Naturally, I am sure there is a perfectly innocent explanation.

Vice President (coughs awkwardly): Shall we adjourn this matter till the next meeting? The President has a more serious problem to raise in connection with the exchange.

President: I must put to the Committee the question of whether we should pay

£40 to the fresher who refereed the women’s football match.

Sports Rep: Of course not! He didn’t do a very good job anyway.

President: I’m afraid that is immaterial. The truth of the matter is, I may have promised that we would pay him.

Sports Rep: Well, what made you do a silly thing like that?

President (plaintively): I was in an extremely difficult negotiating position. We had no referee, the match was about to start, and nobody else volunteered to do it, except this one fresher who insisted that his price was £40. The arguments open to me were very limited.

Secretary: As a PPEist, I would have thought you could have got out of it. You’ll never make a successful politician if you find yourself enmeshed in obligations towards freshers!

Treasurer: Due to the President’s incompetence in this matter...

President (interrupting): Don’t put that in the minutes!

Secretary (gravely): It is my solemn duty as the secretary of this committee to record everything in the minutes accurately, including your incompetence.

We, the Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Pro-Vice-Chancellors, Novice-Vice-Chancellors, Shit-Vice-Chancellors, Council, Congregation, Dean, Masters, Proctors, Presidents, God-Emperors and Holy Fathers/Mothers/Others of the University of Oxford and its Constituent colleges, collectively known as Wonderfully Evil corp, as WE like to call ourselves, have concerns. Since the promulgation of that notoriously liberal institution, the Internet, far too many students have concerns extending beyond the River Cherwell. Whilst WE could tolerate insignificancies like BAME, women’s or LGBTQ rights, where WE could fob them off with a nothing-donation to some bleeding-heart charity, a library renaming and putting out a regular Twitter post for Pride month, things have gotten out of control

Back in the good old days of the Oxford University Police force, WE could simply smack up mouthy students with truncheons if the first suspension didn’t teach them. Whilst WE made a mistake after the St Scholastica’s Day riots, forcing students into college-owned

accommodation to stop them raping, murdering and robbing their way around Oxford, WE never expected students would actually care about the outside world. WE thought a deeply enmeshed drinking culture, radically unserious degrees like PPE, colleges scattered around Oxford like LEGO on a floor, and lack of any real student culture would serve you well. Various dependencies and addictions were meant to leave students so catatonic WE could pour £15 billion into the Migrant-Muncher 3000 and bring back measles without too much complaint. Apparently, some uppity, abstemious bastards have recovered their sanity enough to object to this.

This hurts our feelings, especially poor old Willy’s. Did WE mention he went to a state school? Please ignore what he proceeded to do with an Oxford education in government. He’s just a silly little guy. He loves the Crankstart Ball. Here he can walk amongst you povo’s and feel at one with the working class, without ever having to trouble Pfion or my £2.5 million, 10 bedroom pad in Wales.

Read the full article online at www.oxfordstudent.com

Arun Lewis

Deputy Editor: Will J. L. Lawrence | Section Editors: Louise Guy, Arun Lewis

Protestors outside the Union. Credit: Yunzhang Liang

“Lazarus” College. Credit: Will J. L. Lawrence

Louise Guy

Mouthguards and Murder: The Secret Curriculum of Girls’ Hockey

Tell me, Jones, in the incident at the all-girls school in the shower after hockey practice…

So begins one of Daniel Cleaver’s more salacious interjections in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, a film which, like many British institutions, masks social truth beneath layers of camp and sexual innuendo. It is intended as a joke. However, like many jokes made by smug men in crumpled shirts, it lands rather too close to home.

Because if you attended a girls’ school in Britain, you already know what Cleaver refers to. Not some scandalous locker-room tryst (though those rumours certainly did the rounds), but rather the almost mythological institution that is schoolgirl hockey, a brutal, bizarre tradition that masquerades as sport and reveals far more about the cultural education of girls than any double-period of RS. At girls’ schools, hockey is less an athletic pursuit and more a state-sanctioned theatre of sublimated emotion. The pitch is where rage gets expressed, alliances are

forged, vendettas are quietly prosecuted, and someone always forgets their gum shield to their peril.

The ritual unfolds thus: 15-year-old girls, kitted out in kilts and mouthguards, wielding weapons thinly disguised as sticks, are released onto a frostbitten astroturf and urged to tackle each other. Hard. There is no elegance here. This is not fencing. This is barely even PE. This is war with shin

“ Boys are told to play rugby and learn camaraderie. Girls, meanwhile, are handed sticks and taught precision violence.

pads.

The sanctioned aggression of girls’ hockey is oddly unique in the British educational system. Boys are told to play rugby and learn camaraderie. Girls, meanwhile, are handed sticks and taught precision vi-

olence. It is not that we were allowed to be angry; we were expected to channel all our anger into clean interceptions and short corners. Tackle her; do not talk about it. Shoulder barge now; weep later, quietly, in the loos by the art block. Why was this encouraged? Female aggression, neatly packaged in a school sports kit, becomes digestible. It looks like character-building. It looks like resilience. However, those of us who lived it know better. Hockey was not about resilience. It was about rage and, often, something subtler and far more confusing: desire.

Because let us be honest, you cannot spend years in hormonally charged proximity, crashing into each other on frozen pitches, sharing communal showers, reading The Bell Jar and Orlando, and pretending you did not feel something. Not to mix up our metaphors, but did we bat for the other side? Perhaps not always consciously. However, the thought hovered between shoves and smirks, in the glances exchanged while stretching hamstrings, in the way someone lingered overly long by

the lockers. Who fouled you harder than necessary? Who smiled like she knew something you did not? It was all part of the same choreography: the eroticism of sport hidden inside the performance of discipline.

Robin Stevens understood this. Her Murder Most Unladylike series features a girls’ school murder committed, with chilling poetry, via a hockey stick. No surprise. It

“ You were being trained in social choreography: hitting without flinching, bruising without breaking, and screaming inside while smiling at full time.

is the most obvious of weapons. You learn, quite quickly, that a stick swung just so can exact exquisite revenge on an ex-best friend, a prefect who

snubbed you, the girl who kissed your ex during summer camp. We knew what we were doing. Moreover, we knew the staff would not ask questions.

To be clear, this was not a sports programme. This was the emotional curriculum. You were not being taught fitness. You were being trained in social choreography: hitting without flinching, bruising without breaking, and screaming inside while smiling at full time. No wonder women leave girls’ schools both traumatised and terrifyingly well-adjusted.

It is often said that British women are emotionally repressed. Perhaps. Alternatively, perhaps we were just taught that the safest place to express intense sexual, social, or emotional feelings was under floodlights in sub-zero temperatures while wielding blunt instruments. Passion was permitted, but only if it looked like sport. Intimacy was allowed, but only in the context of team huddles and changing-room injuries.

So yes, Daniel Cleaver was being vile. However, he captured something strange and strangely true in that throwaway remark. There were several incidents, but they did not happen after hockey practice. They were hockey practice. The real question is not whether we tackled each other too hard. The real question is why we insisted on turning a simple game into a contact sport.

School-girl hockey in Yorkshire

Ava Doherty

The F1 Rivalries of the Modern Age

Ava Doherty: In Rivalry, As in Debating, the Point Is Not to Win— But to Be Seen Winning

Know you not, I am as constant as the northern star.

— Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 1

Of course, Caesar was stabbed to death shortly after saying that, which tells you everything you need to know about rivalry.

Formula 1 in 2025 feels less like a sporting contest and more like a black-tie debate conducted at 200mph by young men who all sincerely believe that they are the protagonists. The cars are fast, yes. The strategies are clever. However, this is a game of status beneath the carbon fibre and corporate bluster, a contest of thinly veiled disdain waged with slightly too much eye contact.

Consider Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. One is a reigning champion with the air of a Dutch Caesar, and the other is a sort of boyish Brutus, smiling through gritted teeth, waiting for his moment. Theirs is not a simple sport-

ing rivalry. It is an intellectual arm-wrestle conducted through tyre strategy and coded team radio.

Were they at the Oxford Union, Verstappen would speak rarely but devastatingly. His arguments would be brutal, and his silences louder. Norris, by contrast, would have mastered the art of the pre-rebuttal smile, that particular grin that says, “You are wrong, and I will prove it in about 45 seconds. Do sit down.”

The parallels are too delicious to ignore. F1, like the Union, is full of men who remember everything, every overtake, every quote, every moment they were not called on in Q&A. It is not so much competition as it is a feud in formalwear. Think Gove and Johnson, but with fewer footnotes and marginally more overtaking.

Moreover, if you are looking for the spiritual ancestor of Lando’s 2025 campaign, do not look to Senna or Schum-

acher; look to Sir Geoffrey Howe, the mild-mannered barrister whose resignation speech quietly eviscerated Margaret Thatcher. It was not shouted. It was not angry. It was calm, dry, and fatal.

“It’s rather like sending your opening batsman to the crease, only for them to find... their bat has been broken by the team captain.”

Thatcher never recovered. That is rivalry in its purest English form: the slow, smiling knife.

The whole grid could be transplanted wholesale into the Gladstone Room. Charles Leclerc is the tragic idealist, brilliant and poetic, but consistently undone by poor timing and worse machinery. George Russell arrives fully prepared with notes, arguments, and a subtle desperation to be taken seriously. Oscar Piastri, the one who says almost nothing, is quietly winning.

And then there is Alonso, of course. The former president

still insists on making speeches from the floor to remind everyone he used to run things. He will crash into you if necessary, but he will quote Marcus Aurelius.

What unites them all is a shared belief that rivalry matters. Not for points or championships but for legacy: that fragile thing that lives not in stats but in the tone of voice when your name is mentioned. Rivalry, after all, is simply reputation with a sparring partner.

This is why F1 rivalries are so British in temperament. No public breakdowns, no honest admissions of envy. Just the usual channels: a clipped radio message, a dig in a press conference, an unusually aggressive out-lap in Q2. If there is a fight, it will be civilised and exquisitely awkward.

The Americans, bless them, always try to make sense of it. They ask who is “in the right.” However, that misses the point entirely. Rivalry is not about being right. It is about

being remembered as right. It is not fact-based. It is vibebased jurisprudence. Thus, as Verstappen frowns slightly this year and Norris smiles slightly more, the old dance continues: the push and pull of ego, the cold war of personality, and the occasional on-track stab in the Forum. Because in F1, as in the Union, and possibly in Rome, no one wins for long. However, everyone remembers the betrayal.

Moreover, when the knives finally come out, whether in the paddock, the pit lane, or via a two-tenths gap in Sector Three, expect no fireworks, no blood on the floor. Just a dry nod, a clipped tone, and the unshakable sensation that Et tu, Lando? It is only a matter of time.

Is this the end for Primož Roglič?

Roglic at this year’s Giro d’Italia

Tod Manners

Iremember watching, as a wide-eyed and cycling-obsessed twelve-year-old, Primoz Roglic blast onto the road racing scene, soaring away from two-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador to become the first Slo-

venian to claim a stage of the Tour. Since then, he has rarely been far from sharp end of professional cycling, claiming four Vuelta d’Espagna titles, one Giro d’Italia, and coming tantalisingly close to a Tour of his own. But on Stage 15 of this year’s Giro, that seemed to disappear up the road - as did many of his rivals.

Eventually he rolled in a minute and half down on his main competitors. The margin left much to be desired. But it was who those competitors were that made him look a beaten man. Forget his expected rival Juan Ayuso. Alongside him was 21-yearold Isaac del Toro, the Yates brothers, an absolutely ancient Nairo Quintana, and a whole raft of other opponents that Roglic would have been expected to beat without a second thought. Yet there he was, watching the race disappear off up the mountainside. There were good explanations for this - not least an unpleasant crash on the gravel in stage 9. And he claimed the Vuelta just last season. But as

a peloton of distinctly second tier riders simply left him out on the mountainside, it was hard to shake the feeling of a career sliding suddenly towards its end.

Roglic is now 35 years old - the same age Alberto Contador was when he was left facing the horrors of a new generation as Roglic ripped clear of him on the slopes of the Galibier back in 2017. He hasn’t finished the Tour since 2020. He seems unable to stay consistently fit and racingpartly due to a litany of crashes. If this were the last time we saw him at the very sharp end of cycling, it would be hard to be shocked in hindsight.

Roglic will return for the Tour, and may yet have some

surprises left in him. It seems unlikely that he’ll let go of his dream of winning the Tour for as long as there’s any fight left in his legs. His team point out the extent of his injuries and crashes, and while they have been such an ever-present in his career that there can almost be no distinction between the man and the crashes at times, they are real - indeed, another one on stage 16 forced him to abandon the Giro entirly. In short, he’s not done yet.

Certainly, there’s no doubt he’ll remain a cut above many in the pro peloton for a while to come. But we may well just have watched as Roglic began on the long, twisting descent towards retirement.

Why Do We Keep Watching Eights?

Tod Manners on Eights Week, College rowing, the brilliance of bumps racing - and Pimm’s

What is it about Summer Eights that captures the Oxford student imagination? Capture it it certainly does. No other college sporting event draws even close to the attendance that the final day of Eights does. Students pack into boathouses, along the banks, even occasionally onto houseboats, to watch as a parade of crews come thundering down the river, competing in a sport in which most have never taken part. You may even be reading this paper while waiting for a race to start. But why? What is it that gets people out to watch Eights, in a way they won’t for pretty much anything else? Part of this, the rower in me

wants to argue, is the nature of bumps racing. Most rowing racing is often a rather dry affair - the fastest crew in a race is, generally, the fastest off the start, fastest through the middle, and fastest at the finish. Less of the twists and turns that make up exciting sporting drama, and more of a relentless grinding of the enemy into dust. I’ve certainly spent my time on both sides of the divide, and it makes for little excitement. While winning is certainly satisfying, and cathartic, it is rarely exhilarating. And if that’s how it feels from the boat, it can hardly be any more thrilling on the bank. Bumps, however, is different. The racing allows for seri-

ous dogfights throughout the event. The headstart means that even the most hopeless of underdogs can dream of an upset, hoping against hope to hold off the ravenous pack behind them. Meanwhile the many, many divisions mean that regardless of ability, crews have something to fight for, whether that be headship, or promotion from Division 6. On the sporting side, a bumps race is a desperate, nerve-shaking struggle against your opponent, regardless of whether chasing a bump or trying to escape one. Even the best of crews have fallen short when trying to attain the headship. One weak stroke, one crab, one lapse in

Geo-Cryptic Crossword

by Yashas Ramakrishnan

concentration, and the enemy will be upon you. Bumps is rowing racing at its brilliant best.

But if the joy is in the sport, then why does bumps continue to attract so many people who have never rowed? Therein, I would argue, lies the second ingredient of the bumps cocktail. Bumps remains the spitting image of Oxford life. It is not for nothing that so many College boat clubs pop up drinks stalls equipped with the traditional large jugs of Pimm’s. Swanning about on the banks of the Isis, cheering loudly for your college, and day-drinking: what could be more integrally part of the Oxford experience? The rowing

itself, too, has its place in this picture. In spite of our routine defeats in the Boat Race in recent years, rowing remains more strongly associated with Oxford than perhaps any other sport - in fact, it is the originator of university level Oxford sports teams. Regardless, you don’t really need to watch: even for those not concentrating, it is still entertaining to hoot and holler as the boats go by, drink in hand. To put it simply, we keep watching Eights because it is the best of rowing and the best of Oxford life, or at least the part most likely to end up on Instagram. Either that, or we all just really like Pimm’s. Take your pick.

Across:

6. Oxford nightclub is smaller than a city (10)

7. The House has a presence in Maori lands (12)

10. Vaulters like Lisek see the limits of their stick (6)

11. Mexican rattle causes vehicular pandemonium (7)

16. Crack open a cold one with your mates from China (8)

17. You won’t find pastrami at this sandwich shop (5)

18. Enjoy a refreshing cola before Poseidon’s fury (7)

19. It takes two to make an Oceanic palindrome (5)

Down:

1. Hagrid calls the first Christians Chryslers, or Dodges (7)

2. Parakeets of red and blue come here to gamble (5)

3. Eastwood film and empty shroud of Piedmont (6)

4. Miss Turner must hurry up to get her silver (9)

5. Icily verdant capital may be harbouring WMDs (4)

8. 1975: Deep breaths, and we’re out of here (6)

9. Villainous nine-headed creature moved to India, Hercules affirms (9)

12. Divided across the Adriatic beach (5)

13. Hector Hugh Munro lives among the snakes (8)

14. South American ostriches mow the desert lawns (6)

15. Young nation’s capital home to Semitic sheep (4)

16. Across the strait, the oranges have more zest (7)